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‘Letcocktails with the bartender and doing nothing to bat off his very clear interest in you’

‘And you think that auto at a total stranger?’

‘Your actions weren’t those of a bereaved ’

‘Everyone handles grief differently Just because you chose to sit in a corner nursing your whisky and de silence doesn’t mean you have the monopoly on heartache’

She watched his face harden further ‘And what of the events afterwards? Which step of the grieving process did you tick by sharing the bed of a stranger before your husband was even in the ground?’

Despite her reeling senses, she fought to keep her voice steady ‘That’s what bothers you, isn’t it? The fact that I co solace before I’d buried my husband’

‘Was that what you were doing? Seeking solace?’ His gaze bored into her, al her to answer in the affirmative

Because that would ht?

She shook her head and started to straighten her clothes ‘Does it uilty I slept with you three days before round Trust me, you don’t detest me more than I detest myself But tell me, what’s your excuse? Why did you sleep withhair colour you couldn’t resist?’

Her question made him jerk backward He frowned and slowly his hand fell away from her throat Hazel eyes dropped to his hand, and she watched it slowly curl into a fist, then release

‘For some of us, the pain reaches a point when it beco distraction’

For so distraction

Perla wasn’t sure which of the two statements hurt deeper What she was sure of was that Arion believed both stateone to the bar at Macdonald Hall for her own selfish reasons other than with grief in mind

And, in a asn’t he half right? The actions that had propelled her out of her car had had an had done to her than with pure grief