Dreaming Of... Australia. Annie West

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СКАЧАТЬ he pointed out. ‘Airborne works of art. And good for obesity.’

      ‘I know. I heard the sales pitch too.’ Though she’d never met a man less likely to have issues with obesity now or in the future than Sam. Or more comfortable with his inner nine-year-old. In truth, his passion for life and his willingness to let himself be open in front of her was dangerously appealing. He wasn’t endlessly talking himself up, like Wayne, or angling to get anything from her, or making himself look good. He was just being Sam.

      And she liked Sam. She really, really did. Just exactly as he was.

      More fool her.

      She forced a smile to her lips. ‘Given you came up trumps for Melissa, I can hardly begrudge you a kite.’ He’d bought his wife the most heartbreakingly beautiful mirror, its artisan-made frame inlaid with luminous crystals and with intricately wrought iron vinework twisting through and around the whole piece. ‘Symbolic of both of us,’ he’d said when he chose it. ‘Melissa’s brilliance and my love of nature.’

      Her heart had swollen with pain then—for the poetry in his words, for the sweet uncertain fear he felt about choosing the wrong gift for the woman he was sharing his life with, and for the truth his words revealed about their relationship. Now and again he’d say something that made her think that maybe things weren’t all roses at home, but those simple words spoke volumes about his real feelings for his wife. Her heart weighed heavy in her chest.

      ‘Sam, can I—?’ Her own judgement stilled her tongue.

      ‘What? Go ahead.’

      She frowned at him and thought hard for the moments that ticked by, wondering if she should back out. ‘I want to ask you something, but I don’t want to offend.’

      ‘I’m having too good a day to take offence.’ He slid one big hand on his heart. ‘Ask away.’

      ‘It’s about Melissa.’

      The hand faltered as he lowered it.

      ‘Is everything okay with you two?’

      His whole body stiffened up. ‘Why do you ask?’

      ‘You’re so passionate in your defence of her, so considerate in meeting her needs, so proud and loyal when you speak about her …’

      ‘But?’

      She took a deep breath. ‘But … your body language and what you’re not saying tells a different story.’

      His nostrils flared. ‘What I’m not saying about her tells you more than what I am saying?’

      ‘This is what I do for a living, Sam.’

      ‘Are we in the interview now?’

      She sucked back her instinctive reaction to the harshness of his voice. ‘See—that’s very telling to me. That you get so worked up on this particular subject.’

      His cheek pulsed high in his jaw. ‘Mel and I are fine.’

      ‘Just fine? Not great? Not wildly, crazy in love?’ Although she knew the answer to that. If he were he wouldn’t have had such a hard time buying her a gift. And he sure as heck wouldn’t be sitting here with her.

      His simmering eyes told her he was trying very hard not to be rude. ‘All marriages go through their rough patches.’

      She took a breath, trusted her instinct. ‘How long has this patch been?’

      He dropped his eyes to the table, and when he lifted them they were predatory. ‘I think we should talk about that kiss now.’

      It was her turn to stiffen. ‘Don’t change the subject.’

      ‘Don’t avoid the subject. Why won’t you talk about the kiss?’

      She leaned forward. ‘Why is it so hard for you to talk about your wife?’

      He met her in the middle of the table. ‘Same reason it’s so hard for you to acknowledge kissing me. It’s personal.’ He blinked and his voice softened. ‘And terrifying.’

      She sat back.

      Terrifying. Sam Gregory—the man who seemed to be afraid of nothing—was frightened for his marriage. Everything he’d not quite said these past days, every ‘fine’ instead of ‘great’ came into crashing focus.

      This changed everything.

      And nothing.

      The tightly reined emotion in his eyes said that he was raw and hurting and vulnerable to suggestion;

      this was not the time to be careless with the knowledge she’d unexpectedly found herself holding. But she could lead by example and have some courage.

      ‘I kissed you before I knew you were married,’ she said.

      His eyes flared, as if he hadn’t truly expected her ever to return to the taboo subject. Maybe he’d thrown it out there as a distraction, but she grabbed it with both hands.

      Fair’s fair.

      ‘I’m not someone who would ever knowingly …’ Her father’s wandering eye had wrecked her family. But she couldn’t tell Sam that. That wasn’t the sort of thing you revealed over a casual lunch. Even her friend Danielle didn’t know the full story about her past. ‘I wouldn’t have done it if I’d realised.’

      Talking about the kiss was somehow self-fulfilling, drawing her eyes to his lips unconsciously and reminding her of how they’d felt so warm and surprised against hers. Her mouth watered with the memory.

      She forced her eyes upward only to collide with ones so intense and earnest they stole her breath.

      ‘You remember it. I was beginning to wonder.’

      ‘Of course I remember it. How many men in vehicle wrecks do you imagine I’ve kissed?’

      ‘Not as many as me.’

      ‘Wh—?’

      ‘Mouth-to-mouth,’ he said with a straight face, but couldn’t hold it. His smile undid all the tension of the past five minutes.

      Her relief bubbled over. He was making this easier for her. How was it possible she was laughing again so soon after the awkwardness of just a moment ago?

      Because this was Sam. ‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘That’s what I was doing that night.’

      He laughed. ‘Yeah, let’s go with that. Really good mouth-to-mouth.’

      And just like that the awkwardness was back. At least for her. Sam didn’t seem the slightest bit affected. His eyes strayed to the large parcel that contained the mirror, and he took shelter in a new subject. ‘I just hope Mel likes it as much as you and I did,’ he said.

      Wow—how much had changed that talking about his wife was safer territory between them? ‘She will. She’d СКАЧАТЬ