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Enough that her mother bit back the retort which was on her lips

For several long ainst each other It took everything she had, but Fliss refused to back down Not this time

‘You will regret this’

‘No’ Fliss shook her head ‘The only thing I regret is not doing this sooner’

Perhaps then she wouldn’t have lost someone as special as Ash from her life

Ash had no idea where he was heading He’d been driving in circles for the last two hours without seeing anything He’d left Fliss’s house intent on driving back ho Anything to get his mind off Fliss But his heart had knohat his head hadn’t yet been ready to accept

However hard he tried, he couldn’t shake her froed face, or her defeated stance Everything about her marked her as a different person to the Major he’d been instantly attracted to The woman he’d fallen in love with It killed hi herself to be pulled down as she had tonight, but he couldn’t have stayed He’d tried to help her see the truth but she hadn’t wanted to listen

Pressing his foot on the accelerator, Ash tried to ignore the voice in the back of his head But, however fast he drove, he wasn’t going to outrun it

The control he’d kept tonight, not for himself but for Fliss, told him how far he had come in less than a month And that was down to her If he loved her the way he claimed to, should

n’t he be prepared to fight for her? Shouldn’t he try for longer than one evening, to help her to fight for herself?

And he did love her He loved her intelligence, her focus, her dry sense of humour, her hidden sense of adventure, as much as he loved her lips, her body, the way she always broke apart in his arms

Checking the road around hih his systeal, U-turn he had just executed in the last turning lane of the dual carriageway

By the tiot back to her house it was bathed in darkness

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ASH SPOTTED FLISS the instant she stepped out of the car with the General Ash stopped dead on the field where he was supposed to be war The inter-battalion rugby match was the last place he’d expected to see her, and he couldn’t help wondering if she was sending hie