Frank, but then she hadn’t expected anything less. “I didn’t come back because of Rob, not that I owe you any explanations.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s the truth.”
He stared at her so long she wondered if he thought to find a missing person in her eyes. “No, it’s not.”
“We can play ‘he says, she says’ all morning but I’ve got a VAT inspection to deal with, a dog having surgery and a sister in hospital, so I’d appreciate it if we left the playground.”
Grudgingly, Ben nodded. “How is she? I hope everything’s okay. Ash is a very nice woman.”
And she, of course, wasn’t. “She’ll be fine.”
Ben smiled, and Anjuli’s heart clenched. The expression softened the harshness in him, making him seem the young man who used to call her “greedy guts”, and had been delighted she would be his sister. Rob wasn’t the only person she’d hurt, leaving that way, she thought sadly, but maybe in time Ben would forgive her.
“One more question before I leave,” he said, his voice deceptively pleasant. “What were you doing in France?”
Anjuli’s mouth dropped open and she felt like a rabbit faced with a fox. Why would Ben dig into her life, unless...Her jaw clenched angrily. “Did Rob ask you to investigate me?”
Ben slid his eyes to the castle. “I did some sleuthing when you came back to Heaverlock. Rob doesn’t know and that’s the way it’s going to stay, unless you’re itching to cause trouble between us.”
So much for hoping Ben didn’t hate her. She deserved it, but it hurt all the same. “You can despise me all you want and I don’t blame you. What I did to Rob was awful but it doesn’t give you the right to violate my privacy. I’m not a criminal.”
“I don’t want him getting hurt again.”
Neither do I. “No matter what you think, I don’t want a relationship with Rob. If he were standing in front of me I’d say it to him myself, for the millionth time.”
“Really,” Ben said slowly. “Rob’s been offered a huge project in America. His trip overseas is to discuss it further. What would you say to that?”
Well, she would say it was bloody ironic. Rob wanted to live abroad and she never wanted to leave Heaverlock. Go figure. Their stars were just as misaligned as they’d always been in spite of how they lit up the night sky. “I would tell him to go for it.”
Silently, Ben gazed across the moor, his profile so much like Rob’s she needed to turn her gaze to the sky. The day’s changing palette, light grey over the castle and stormy pewter over the moors, made her feel bereft. Alone. No, that was the memory of Rob’s kiss.
Useless to deny she wanted him to kiss her again, deeply and passionately. Seeing him the past two months, albeit in short instances, had done nothing to stem her yearning. She liked and respected him as much as she always had. The arrogant proposal in his car had stemmed from her own cruel actions. His fairness and integrity hadn’t changed. It shone in his personal and business dealings, his kindness in the treatment of others.
Was he really considering a move to the U.S.? She didn’t want to care whether Rob lived in Scotland or America, whether he was successful or fulfilled, but oh, she wanted him to be. She wanted him to be happy, to have everything he deserved and more.
“I want Rob to forget me,” Anjuli said.
Ben’s look seemed to see straight through her. “You don’t love him?”
She wanted to lie, was desperate to say “no”, and found that she couldn’t. She could no more lie to Ben about her feelings than she could to herself.
The sound of a diesel engine drew their attention to the bridge. A mud-splattered jeep bounced over the potholes on its way to the house. Damien was early.
“There’s an excellent, compelling reason why Rob and I can’t be together.”
Ben glanced at the jeep. “And that is?”
“None of your business, Officer Douglas.”
* * *
Damien perused Anjuli’s pale, drawn face. “You look beautiful.”
She led the way to the sitting room. “Kissing that stone again, Irishman?”
“I’d rather kiss you.” He caught her around the waist, eyes full of mischief. “Damsels in distress should always be kissed better. That happens to be my speciality.”
Anjuli’s pert rejoinder was cut off by another kiss, this one more demanding. Uh-oh, their lip to lip at the ceilidh had unleashed the lion and she was the gazelle. No, the rhino.
Damien broke away, half amused, half frustrated at her laughter. “I am definitely losing my touch.”