Colin, present day

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He had stared into CeCe’s eyes on the plane, hating that they were filled with unshed tears. That he had been the cause of her hurt.

“Except you didn’t fight for me, Colin,” she’d said.

He hadn’t gotten a chance to respond because Cecilia had jumped out of her seat and bolted for the bathroom. By the time she’d come out, ten minutes later, the flight attendants were serving breakfast and she’d had plenty of time to erect her walls of privacy against him.

Namely those earbuds.

But also by striking up a conversation with the woman in front of them, who’d dropped a book that CeCe had returned.

Then, by the time the women had finished chatting and the breakfast plates were cleared, the plane was descending.

And Colin was trapped beside her, unable to break the silence.

Well, unable wasn’t the correct word.

He could just start talking. The trouble was he didn’t even know where to begin. The past was a series of landmines between them and he’d always thought that he was the one most wronged, that CeCe had returned to Scotland the second time to punish him for his idiotic immaturity of their first summer together, that she’d seduced him and purposely broken his heart because he’d hurt her in the past. Now he was wondering if it was possible that he’d gotten it all wrong.

His mother, hell, even his sister had confirmed that Cecilia had run off with his best friend—former best friend, that was.

But he was beginning to understand that his family could sometimes manipulate him.

It was both fortunate and not, that he’d witnessed the manipulation firsthand when they had sabotaged his buyout of Jordan O’Keith’s technology firm the previous year. They’d cost him millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of his and his employees’ time because they “couldn’t stomach being associated with an American.”

It was only by pure dumb luck that he’d run into Heather O’Keith, Jordan’s half-sister and the woman who’d ended up buying out InDTech, now named RoboTech, at a conference and had been able to explain himself.

He’d apologized, knowing there was no going back and that the millions were lost for eternity.

But Heather had surprised him by offering to hear his ideas for a mutually beneficial working relationship . . . if he had any. Which he hadn’t, of course. Not at that time, anyway. He’d been stuck on the missed opportunity and disappointed he wasn’t working with technology that would truly make the world a better place.

So he’d told her he would put something together and contact her with an agreement she couldn’t refuse.

What a fanciful thought. She’d rebuffed his first three offers, until finally he’d struck the right cord and they’d begun brainstorming on unmanned aircraft technology and how it could be implemented in the third world.

War zones. Natural disasters. How could they get food, water, and medical supplies in when the conditions were too dangerous for personnel?

They didn’t have all the answers yet, but now his biomedical robotic company was going to be working closely with RoboTech for the next five years on developing such technology.

He was finally getting close to something that wasn’t just money, that wasn’t solely based on shareholders and profit and loss statements.

Colin was finally doing something worthwhile.

It had taken him long enough.

Still, Heather’s initial refusals on his projects had changed him in a way he hadn’t expected. Typically, if someone didn’t want to work with him, he said fuck off and went and completed the project on his own. And when it was complete, he then made it his life’s duty to make them regret the rejection.

So there were not many people who didn’t work with him.

Until Heather.

“You going to go cry to mama?” she’d interrupted as they’d spoken over the phone, scorn in her every syllable when he’d begun to threaten along his usual tact. “Not used to being subpar? Going to run off and pout like a little boy who doesn’t want to try harder to make it better?”

He’d been so infuriated that his words had stoppered up in his throat.

“RoboTech is the best,” she’d gone on. “And we never stop trying to get better. Until you’re ready to be all in with that, I’m sorry, but both you and your projects are useless to me.”

And then she’d hung up.

He’d sat there, stunned, surprised, infuriated. But she’d been right.

He had been a spoiled brat in his business dealings, throwing his temper around when he didn’t get his way.

He’d been a twenty-eight-year-old man throwing a bloody tantrum.

Pathetic.

Colin was more thankful for Heather than she would ever know. She’d propelled him into a change for the better, and he was finally, finally a man who could hold his head high.

Pride was a fickle beast, and he’d always gripped his tightly—whether he’d been right or wrong or somewhere in between. But Heather had helped him see differently, and so he was truly on a healthier path now.

His businesses functioned better, he wasn’t chained to a desk all day, every day, and he was finally finding a way out of the dark tunnel that had been his life after his father’s death.

And what was the first thing he’d seen after emerging from the opposite end?

Cecilia.

More beautiful than ever, but with shadows in her eyes and hurt coloring every word.

What had he done to her?

What had his family done?

They’d witnessed her running off with Ewan Campbell. He’d seen the proof in pictures.

But what if he’d been wrong?

What if he’d stopped searching for Cecilia too soon? What if—?

Fuck.

He was filled to the brim with “what ifs” and not any of them made a difference. Because she was here. Now. And he wasn’t going to let her go.