âLet me go!â she demanded. âI donât need you to get me out of here.â And she continued to kick and writhe until she connected solidly with his shin.
It was enough. The girl was slender, but she had a kick like a mule, and he rolled over, pinning her to the ground.
âBe still,â he warned, abandoning reassurance, making it an order. Heâd have to let go to slap her, and while the temptation was almost overwhelmingâhe was still feeling that kickâhe chose the only other alternative left open to him and kissed her.
It was brutal, but effective, cutting off the stream of invective, cutting off her breath, and, taken by surprise, she went rigid beneath him. And then, just as swiftly, she was clinging to him, her mouth hot and eager as she pressed against him, desperate for the warmth of a human body. For comfort in the darkness. A no-holds-barred kiss. Pure, honest, raw need that tapped into something deep inside him.
As suddenly as it had begun it was over. Miranda slumped back against the cracked and now sloping floor of the temple.
âDonât! Donât ever do that again!â
âI could just as easily have slapped you,â he said.
In truth they were both breathing rather more heavily, and her verbal rejection was certainly not being followed up by her body. Or his. Being this close to a woman who was no more than curves that fitted his body like a glove, soft skin, a scent in the darkness, was doing something to his head.
Liz Fielding was born with itchy feet. She made it to Zambia before her twenty-first birthday and, gathering her own special hero and a couple of children on the way, lived in Botswana, Kenya and Bahrainâwith pauses for sightseeing pretty much everywhere in between. She finally came to a full stop in a tiny Welsh village cradled by misty hills, and these days mostly leaves her pen to do the travelling. When sheâs not sorting out the lives and loves of her characters, she potters in the garden, reads her favourite authors and spends a lot of time wondering âWhat ifâ¦?â For news of upcoming booksâand to sign up for her occasional newsletterâvisit Lizâs website at www.lizfielding.com
Recent books by the same author:
THE SHEIKHâS UNSUITABLE BRIDE
THE BRIDEâS BABY
Dear Reader
One of the joys of writing is the moment when you recognise that a character youâve created to fill a supporting role in one book has taken on an importance, a presence, that makes her a natural heroine.
It happened when I wrote A Wife on Paper and Matty Lang wheeled herself onto the page, a heroine so wonderful that she won herself a RITA® Award for The Marriage Miracle.
Last year, when Miranda Grenville, difficult, flawed, fragile, played her part in Reunited: Marriage in a Million, I knew that she had a story to tell. A secret so terrible that she had never shared it with anyone, not even her brother.
Her story begins when, desperate to escape an overabundance of happy-ever-afters, she takes the first holiday destination sheâs offered and flies to the new resort island of Cordillera. It rapidly turns into a nightmare, but sparring with Matt Jagoâa man who gives as good as he getsâcertainly livens things up and they swiftly learn to trust and respect the otherâs strengths. Then, in their darkest moment, they spill out secrets never before shared with anyone; learn to leave the past behind them and reach for a new beginning.
But can the fierce intensity of their brief relationship survive in the real world? Will this whirlwind romance become a lifetime of love?
Iâll leave you to find out.
With love
Liz
CHAPTER ONE
MIRANDA GRENVILLE stood through the double baptism, holding each baby in turn as she made the promises, heard the vicar name namesâ¦
Minette Daisyâ¦
Jude Michaelâ¦
Stood with each glowing motherâfirst her sister-in-law, Belle, and then Belleâs sister, Daisyâsmiling as everyone took photographs. Even took some herself.
It was, without doubt, the most joyous occasion and her smile never faltered despite the turmoil of feelings that, inside, were tearing her apart.
Keeping her emotions hidden had been a hard-learned lesson, far more difficult than anything that came out of books; books were easy. But when, finally, the pain had become so great that hiding it had become essential for survival she had found the strength from somewhere.
It hadnât always been like that.
There had been a time when she had let everything show, let her emotional need hang out for all the world to see. It had been a slow and painful lessonâone sheâd learned from watching Ivo, her brother. Sheâd thought he was immune, but the power of a love that was beyond her comprehension, the joy of fatherhood, had shattered the ice cage that once held her brother a fellow prisoner in emotional stasis. Now she was isolated, bound and shackled by the one secret she had never shared with a living soulânot even with Ivo.
And so she smiled for him on this joyous day. Not that he was fooled. He knew her too well for that. Recognised her smile for the brittle thing that it was, sensing a fragility beneath the controlled veneer.