Tuesday, July 27. 1:13 a.m. Southgate, Wellington, New Zealand.

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Pleading exhaustion, Ana had taken Alyssa into her bedroom for the night. It had taken months of sleep-deprived nights to get Alyssa used to sleeping in her big girl’s bed in her own room, but tonight Ana couldn’t bear her baby being out of sight.

“Sleep wif you, Mummy?” Alyssa had said as she snuggled into her arms in the center of her bed.

“Yes, baby. You sleep with Mummy tonight.”

She had listened to the soft voices of Daniel and Nadia moving around in the house. The scrape of the linen cupboard opening and closing and the squeak of the couch unfolding into a double bed in the family room across from her bedroom.

She rolled over, restless.

Tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow I have to make it clear to both of them that…that what? Daniel’s clear blue eyes and dimpled smile swam into her mind.

That there’s nothing going on here.

She fell asleep repeating the same phrase, but not believing it.

An aftershock ripped her from dreams and sent her jolting awake, the mattress swaying under her.

“It’s all right. Mummy’s here.” Her hand instinctively reached out but found only rumpled bed sheets and cool air.

“Alyssa?” she whispered, not wanting to frighten her with the adrenaline spiking through her bloodstream.

She flicked on the small flashlight she’d placed under her pillow. A quick check showed an empty bed and a slightly ajar bedroom door. Ana slid out of bed and hurried into the hallway.

The soft rumble of Daniel’s voice and a higher-pitched giggle came from the family room. She approached on tiptoe, noticing the door was also open, spilling pale battery-powered light in an arc toward her feet. Peeping around the corner, and feeling a little like a spy in her own home, she spotted them. Alyssa had clambered up on Daniel’s makeshift bed and was comfortably perched beside him.

“Lyssa sleep wif Danny,” her daughter demanded, one imperious pudgy finger poking Daniel’s ribs.

Ana bit back a grin. No one but his sister, and now her copycat daughter, could get away with calling Daniel Danny.

“What about your mummy? She’ll be lonely.”

Alyssa sighed, long and loud, snuggling down to rest her head on Daniel’s shoulder. His hand faltered mid-raise then drifted up to stroke Alyssa’s hair. The cords that kept her heart tied down in her chest so she wouldn’t be tempted to give it away loosened. Something about seeing her daughter and the man she was falling in love with…

Whoa, wait a minute.

She’d already decided love was not part of this equation. Daniel plus kids plus her did not equal the happily-ever-after family the wishful thinking part of her heart craved. While she couldn’t deny Daniel was a good man—even a heroic man—so were Neil and her father in their own ways. Both of them she’d trusted. Both of them had shown her that even heroes have feet of clay.

So how could she allow herself to fall in love with him? How could she ever trust Daniel not to break her heart in the future?

Alyssa suddenly sat bolt upright, gleefully patting Daniel’s cheek. “Danny can sleep wif Mummy ’n’ me.”

Ana’s flashlight slipped from her fingers and hit the floor with a crack—spilling its battery guts. Two pairs of eyes swung in her direction. She cleared her throat, hoping the dim lighting would disguise the heat staining her cheeks.

“There you are, baby. Time to go back to our room now and let Daniel go to sleep.”

Though generally a placid little girl, Alyssa was still a normal toddler. Her lower lip trembled and her little hands balled into fists, signs of an imminent tantrum. “No. Lyssa stay wif Danny.”

“Alyssa…” Even to her own ears, she sounded like she was pleading, not threatening action.

Sensing weakness, Alyssa abruptly changed tack and smiled beguilingly. “Mummy sleep here, too?”

Daniel obligingly shuffled over toward the opposite edge of the fold-out mattress, leaving Alyssa in the center.

Her baby had the killer instincts of a Great White.

The little girl wriggled down and reached her arms out. “Please, Mummy? I sleepy now.”

Ana sighed and took a few slow steps forward. She had neither the energy nor the inclination to deal with a toddler’s nuclear meltdown tonight.

“Don’t forget to turn off the light, Counselor,” Daniel said solemnly, his eyes glittering with barely repressed humor.

Tomorrow. She switched the lantern off and slid next to Alyssa, keeping her feet tucked up and well away from Daniel’s. Tomorrow I’ll somehow sort this mess out.

Tuesday, July 27. 8:29 a.m. Southgate, Wellington, New Zealand.

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Daniel had opened his eyes that morning to find both Ana and Alyssa gone. It didn’t surprise him, though he wondered if Ana was under the illusion that Nadia wouldn’t find out where she’d slept last night. Alyssa, mini chatterbox as she was, would no doubt enchant everyone with her nighttime escapades at breakfast.

Though enchant was clearly the wrong word, if the irritated gleam in Ana’s eyes later that morning was any indication. He also hadn’t missed her cool shutdown of Alyssa’s plans to spend that night with ‘Danny’ again.

“Daniel will be going back to his own home very soon, and Mummy’s going to get Theo today. I think you’d rather sleep in Theo’s room tonight, wouldn’t you?”

Put him neatly in his place, hadn’t she? Trying to cut him off cold.

The Ice Lawyer treatment might’ve worked in the courtroom, but he wasn’t buying it. Heat shimmered in her gaze every time their eyes accidently met. Her protective armor was rapidly disintegrating, and she knew it.

They left for her dad’s house after breakfast. The walk would take roughly two hours on a good day, she informed them as they hitched daypacks on their shoulders and started down the hill. After the earthquake, it was all guesswork.

He knew Ana would’ve rather gone with anyone other than him. Only the fact that Adam and Jimmy looked like the pair of them couldn’t hold down a sheet of newspaper in a strong wind had prevented Ana from putting up much of an argument about him tagging along.

Nice to know she trusted him in some ways.

What sucked was it appeared to be in a bodyguard-type capacity. Ana didn’t argue about him coming with her, but she damn well would’ve gone alone if he hadn’t volunteered. If she trusted him with her body and not just in protecting it—because he remembered how she’d clung to him when they were joined together so intimately—why couldn’t she trust him with her heart also?

People greeted her affectionately as they walked, and she stopped to hug a hunched-over old man she called Mr. Green. Gone was the disheveled, wild-eyed woman who had alternately wept in his arms and then made frantic love to him. Her messy curls were tamed into a single braid and she’d doused herself in some expensive fragrance that made him want to sneeze. The simple white shirt had been replaced with a top that looked like it cost more than he’d make in a day’s work on the farm.

She didn’t look like his Ana anymore.

He wanted to crush her in his arms and kiss her senseless. He wanted her hands on him, to feel her heart pounding in synchronization with his. He wanted to see her clothes wrinkled and her hair blowing haphazardly in the breeze. He wanted her laughter and he wanted more glimpses into the parts of herself she kept so closely guarded.

He wanted the woman he’d fallen in love with back.

Ana kept up her brutal pace, attempting to walk two steps ahead of him so she wouldn’t have to keep up the pretense of making conversation. He snorted out a quiet but heartfelt grunt of determination.

If she thought he’d roll over and play dead instead of fighting for her, the beautiful counselor had severely underestimated her opponent.