Tally stared after Cash as the Mercedes sped away, her whole body trembling with desire and frustration. When he disappeared from view, she let herself in and threw her keys on the hall table.

“Em,” she yelled down the hallway. “Are you here?”

When nothing but silence greeted her, she muttered, “Guess not,” and stomped into the kitchen. The more time that passed, the more pissed off she became. She should have demanded Cash come back and explain himself, or run after him, or something. Anything. Instead, she’d let him put his hands all over her and then leg it without following through.

And she’d so badly wanted him to follow through.

She spotted a note on the kitchen table, reminding her Em was staying at her brother’s that night. Damn, she’d forgotten. She could have done with chatting to Em about what had happened. From the time she and Cash had first slept together in Paris right up until when they broke up, sex had been the one thing that made her feel secure about his feelings. Yet now he didn’t seem to want to take that final step. They’d spent all evening together, but apart from outside just then, he’d barely touched her.

Tally yanked open the fridge and poured herself a glass of wine. She wandered into the living room and flicked on the TV, but after channel surfing with nothing catching her attention, she switched it off.

Noticing she’d already finished the first glass of wine, she poured herself an ill-advised second and headed off to bed.

* * *

Tally woke the next morning still in the clothes she’d worn the day before. She must have fallen asleep without getting changed for bed. She rolled onto her side, groaning as her eyes fell on the empty wine glass on her bedside table. Cursing her decision to drink that second glass, she slowly sat up, her stomach churning and queasy.

She switched on her phone and spotted two texts from Cash:

I’m sorry I left the way I did. I want to respect your wishes, but I’m only a man after all. I love you, C. xxx

I’ll pick you up at ten. I’ve got a surprise for you. xxx

She glanced at the clock. Nine forty-five. Shit!

She raced into the bathroom and managed to shower and dress in record time. She dragged a brush through her hair––she’d have preferred to wash it––added minimal makeup, and was in the middle of putting on her shoes when a knock at the door interrupted her. She finished fastening the buckle, her heart thumping out of her chest as she stepped over to the door. She wasn’t sure whether anticipation or all the rushing around had made her out of breath.

She opened the door and got her answer when she felt her pulse jolt.

He’d dressed casually but still pulled off a style that would rival most models. Her gaze raked over his chest, the flat, hard muscle visible through the navy-blue T-shirt, which he’d matched with a pair of boot-cut jeans that clung to his defined thigh muscles. Even with a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead, his eyes were still visible—soft grey, sparkling with mischievous thought.

He curved his hands around her waist and leaned down to kiss her. “Morning, sweetness,” he said, his lips still tantalisingly close to hers. “Did you get my text last night?”

“No, not until this morning. I fell asleep.”

“I’m sorry with the way I dashed off, but…” He left the sentence hanging, and she was about to question him when he gave her a boyish grin. “So… ready for your surprise?”

Deciding now wasn’t the right time for a heavy discussion about sex—or the lack of it— she smiled back at him. “I am.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

“No Isaac?” she said as they walked across the street to where he’d parked the car.

“Not today.” Cash unlocked the doors. “You’ll have to make do with me.”

Tally rolled her eyes as she climbed in. “Bummer.”

Cash laughed as he filtered the car into the flow of vehicles. The light traffic was unusual for a workday. As they headed out of the city, the traffic became even sparser. They’d been driving for about thirty minutes when Cash pulled up outside a large country-style house and cut the engine.

“I recognise this place,” she said, peering out of the window. “This is where you brought me that first day.”

“I did,” Cash said, his eyes shining as they met hers. “How times have changed.”

They got out of the car, and as he walked around to her side, he knitted their fingers together. The door was already unlocked, and Cash pushed it open.

“We’re here,” he shouted down the hallway. Resting his hands on her hips, he steered her in front of him towards the kitchen. When she spotted her surprise, she squealed.

“Rupe,” she said, throwing herself into his outstretched arms.

“Hello, my darling girl,” Rupe said, briefly hugging her before holding her at arm’s length. “What the fuck has happened to you? It’s like cuddling a skeleton.”

She scowled. “You sound as bad as him,” she said, jerking her head backwards.

“Well, as much as it pains me to admit it, he’s right. For God’s sake, we need to get a few pies down you.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “When did you get back?”

“This morning. Clearly, I need to be around to make sure he doesn’t fuck it up again.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Cash said, giving Rupe a playful punch on the arm.

“So this is your house?” Tally said to Rupe as she shot a glance over to where Cash had kissed her. He caught her eye and cheekily winked, and her stomach tightened as she remembered how he’d made her feel when he’d touched her the first time.

“Yep. Come on, I’ll give you the guided tour.”

Rupe looped an arm over her shoulder and led her out of the kitchen. The house was huge and traditional in style. It didn’t have the homeyness of Cash’s place in Northern Ireland. Cash’s house was enormous but still managed to be cosy. Rupe’s had the stiff feel of old-money English aristocracy.

“Did you rent this place out to film Downton Abbey?” she said with a grin.

Rupe laughed. “I should have. I’d have made a fortune.”

“What do you do with all this space?” she said as Rupe opened a door to yet another living room.

“To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I was in this room.”

Tally tilted her head to one side. “Then why do you live here?”

“I don’t really. I just use it as my London base. I prefer to spend time on the boat.”

“You’ve got more money than sense,” she said.

Rupe nudged her shoulder playfully. “Wouldn’t be hard, darling. I don’t have a lot of sense.”

She laughed as he led her back to the kitchen. “Shall I make us something to eat?” she said, relieved when Cash and Rupe agreed instantly. After the queasy start to the day, she didn’t fancy trying out her stomach’s resilience on one of their creations.

They sat down to eat at the kitchen table. Cash and Rupe were bantering like brothers who pretended they despised the other. Enormously contented, Tally watched them score points off each other and smiled at the one-upmanship. God, she’d missed this.

“When are you going back on the circuit?” Rupe said out of the blue. She’d been dying to ask that same question but hadn’t yet plucked up the courage.

Cash’s gaze locked on hers. “That’s up to Natalia.”

Her jaw slackened. “Me? Why me?”

“Because I want to make sure we’re okay before my career takes over my life again.”

Her skin prickled, the sensation reaching her fingertips. If she’d ever questioned his love, that single statement smashed those doubts into a million pieces. As Tally scrabbled around for an appropriate response, considering they weren’t alone, Rupe must have read the situation because he got to his feet and said, “I’ll leave you to it,” before disappearing into the hallway.

Tally gave Cash an embarrassed grin. “Poor Rupe, being chased out of his own kitchen.”

Cash pushed his chair back but remained seated. He patted his leg. “Come here.”

She stood up and straddled his thighs, lowering herself into his lap.

“Kiss me,” he murmured.

She curved her hands around his face, his scruff tickling her palms. She lowered her mouth to his, but as she tried to increase the intensity, she felt him holding back. She broke off their kiss. “Cash, don’t you want me anymore?”

His hand stilled from where he’d been rubbing her back, and a frown flickered across his face. “Are you crazy? Of course I do.”

“Then why did you leave the way you did last night?” She winced at the desperation in her voice. “And why are you holding back now?”

He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Baby, you said you wanted to take it slow.”

Her fingertips teased his hair. “But not physically. I want you, Cash. I need you. If you want to make sure we’re okay, that’s the way to do it.”

His right thumb skated over her bottom lip, and she parted her mouth in anticipation. He leaned in and kissed her, his tongue slowly twirling with hers. Her insides twisted, and she moved closer. He grew hard, and she rocked against him. When he groaned into her mouth, warmth spread throughout her chest.

She broke their kiss and gazed into his eyes. The depth of feeling he showed humbled her. And then she knew. She held his fragile heart as tightly as he held hers. They were bound together by love. Both would be easily destroyed should that love be torn away.

Cash tipped her off his lap and clasped her hand. As he headed towards the stairs, Tally tugged him back.

“Where are we going?”

He glanced down at her. “I’m going to show you how okay we are.”

Despite the thrill of desire that swept through her body, she hesitated. “We’re at Rupe’s.”

“So?”

“We can’t.”

“Sure we can.” He held onto her hand and took off upstairs.

When they reached the top floor, which she hadn’t explored with Rupe earlier, Cash pushed open a door that led into a bedroom decorated in Edwardian style. The inside was fresh and light, a complete contrast to the dark interior of the rest of the house.

“I’m here so often Rupe finally gave me my own room,” Cash said by way of explanation. “Although when I had it redecorated, he moaned like a bitch because it didn’t go with the rest of the house.” He shrugged. “Shouldn’t have told me it was my bloody room.”

Tally chuckled, but as Cash snaked his arms around her waist, kicking the door closed with his foot, she stopped laughing. His face grew serious, and as his gaze slowly grazed her body, she shuddered in anticipation.

She half expected him to lunge at her, but instead, he feathered his hands up and down her sides before burying them in her hair. He pulled a lock over her shoulder and twisted it around his finger before letting go of the curl he’d created and moving on to the next one. His eyes never left hers. Her breath hitched when his knuckles skimmed her cheek, the touch tender and soft.

“I almost lost you,” he whispered.

His mouth cut off her intended reply. His kiss began in a slow, almost exploratory way as his lips moved over hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hitched her legs over his hips, his answering groan exactly the response she was looking for. His hands curved around her backside, holding her in place as his tongue surged into her mouth. As she rubbed herself against his erection, he tore his mouth from hers, his lips fastening onto her neck instead.

“I thought I wasn’t good enough, ace,” she said. “That you’d changed your mind about us getting back together.”

His lips stilled, and he eased her legs to the floor. As he tilted his head backwards, his grey eyes were stormy, and he quivered with… anger? Annoyance? Irritation?

“Jesus,” he muttered, sweeping a hand down the back of his head. “I fucking hate myself right now.”

“No.” She cupped his face, her thumbs caressing his cheeks. “This is my issue, ace. Mine. Not yours. I…” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

He exhaled on a shudder, and he shook his head slowly. Her hands fell to her sides. Why hadn’t she kept her bloody mouth shut? If she had, they’d still be kissing. Instead, she’d ruined what would undoubtedly have been mind-blowing make-up sex by voicing hang-ups that Cash had done nothing but reassure her about. What the hell is wrong with me? Sometimes, she swung along the spectrum from certainty to doubt so fast it made her head spin.

“Come with me,” he said, ignoring her confused look and leading her to the far side of the enormous bedroom. He pushed open an already-ajar door and stepped into a dressing room. He drew her in front of a period-design full-length cheval mirror mounted on a rectangular base. He reached around her and tilted the mirror backwards until they were both visible. His hands briefly rested on her shoulders before moving to deftly unfasten every button on her shirt. As his fingers brushed her skin, she trembled, and her lips parted. He tossed her shirt to one side and then fell to his knees and peeled off her jeans. Her underwear quickly followed until she was fully naked. She bit down on her lip, the pain momentarily distracting her from wanting to wrap her arms around herself.

He clasped her shoulders. “Why can’t you see how beautiful you are?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Cash sighed softly, blowing warm air onto the back of her neck. “There have been times I thought we made progress, then something happens and you start up again with thinking you’re not good enough for me. I blame myself fully for the latest relapse in your confidence.”

As she opened her mouth to speak, he pressed his forefinger to her lips and fixed his gaze on hers in the mirror.

“I love you so much, more than I ever thought myself capable of loving anyone. I’m barely half a person without you in my life. I want you to stop with the self-loathing, because when you attack yourself, you attack me and the depth of my feelings for you.”

Tally forced air into lungs that seemed to have collapsed. Her eyes fell closed, but they snapped open again when Cash tugged hard on one of her nipples. Their gazes collided in the mirror, and his smile came slow and sexy.

“Eyes open. I’m going to show you what I see when I make love to you.”

Her core involuntarily tightened, and she squeezed her thighs together. A moan tumbled from her lips as Cash cupped her breasts and twisted her nipples between his thumb and forefinger. A rush of liquid heat pooled between her legs, and her head rocked onto his shoulder as she arched her back, desperate for more.

“Eyes on the mirror, Natalia,” he demanded.

She lifted her head and met his gaze once more. He’d shucked his clothes, although she didn’t know when, and his muscles rippled beneath his skin. His erection was hard against her backside, and she shimmied against him.

“Witch,” he whispered with a chuckle.

His hand slid south, moving slowly over her ribcage, her stomach. He pressed his thumb hard on her clit as he slipped his middle finger inside her. Every nerve in her body sparked to life, and she clenched around him. A hiss left his lips as his eyes trailed over her body, scorching her, branding her with his gaze. Slipping a second finger inside her, he kept up a relentless rhythm, and the eroticism of watching his fingers disappearing and reappearing brought her to the cusp of orgasm. She moaned softly.

“Keep your eyes open, baby,” he said. “I want you to see what you look like when you come.”

Embarrassment swamped her, but she fought the urge to close her eyes. He repetitively circled his thumb against her clit before pressing down hard, and like a volcano erupting, she climaxed, her muscles rippling against his fingers.

“Oh, God,” she murmured as an intense warmth raced down her legs. She curled her toes, and her knees trembled. A faint sheen of sweat broke out on her brow as he increased the pressure, making sure he drew every ounce of pleasure from her. As her breathing slowed, she met his smile with one of her own.

“Admit it,” Cash whispered in her ear. “That was hot.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks, but when she nodded in agreement, the look of pride and pleasure on his face swept away her embarrassment. He circled her waist and pressed his thumbs into the small of her back.

“Lean forward, and hold onto the mirror. Don’t worry about it falling. It weighs a ton.”

His fingers gripped her hips, and he lifted her backside in the air and, in one thrust, pushed himself inside. The aftershocks of her orgasm were still pulsing through her body, and Cash groaned, his teeth lightly grazing her shoulder as he drilled into her. Their eyes met in the mirror. Cash clenched his jaw tight. A steady pulse beat in his cheek, and a faint tinge of red bled into his skin with the effort of controlling himself.

Tally tightened her grip on the mirror and pushed backwards as he thrust forward. The noise he made thrilled her. She loved how much she could turn him on. During these moments, all her worries and fears melted away, and she could allow the person beneath to shine. She clenched her core hard, and when he responded by almost painfully digging his fingers into her hips, she knew he was close.

“Let go,” she said.

A long, drawn-out groan spilled from his lips as he climaxed. He buried his face in her neck, his lips searingly hot against her skin. Tally released her grip on the mirror and reached around to caress his hips before dropping her hands to his arse. She squeezed.

He laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest as he pulled out of her. He eased her around to face him. His hands curved around her waist, and he grazed her lips with a brief kiss. “Are we okay?”

She nodded. “We’re okay. Now, promise me you’re playing Monte Carlo.”

Cash nuzzled her neck. “I’m wherever you are, sweetness.”

“Oh, good. I’ve always wanted to go to Monaco.”