A Golden Cornish Summer by Phillipa Ashley

Author:Phillipa Ashley [Ashley, Phillipa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-04-25T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

‘I didn’t hear you!’

Her cry, half apology, half accusation, sprang from her horror at being caught in this most intimate of spaces.

Even if Luke had said that everyone should feel welcome, he could never have expected to find someone in one of the bedrooms, gawping at his personal possessions. She was no one special now, just another guest at the barbecue.

Another fear seized her. Had he seen her staring at the photo? Or would he assume she’d only been looking at the canvas?

‘I was – the picture caught my eye. The one with the big fish,’ she babbled, as he stepped out of the shadow of the doorway into a shaft of sunlight.

It was a big room but, somehow, he filled it with his presence. An image of him stretched out on the bed struck her. She was still mortified, but the fierce kick of desire shocked her even more.

Her pulse spiked as he walked over to the canvas.

The shock on his face had eased into puzzlement and then a nod. ‘Oh, yes, the giant trevally.’

‘Is it?’ It could have been a giant goldfish for all she cared.

‘You like the picture?’ he said.

‘Yes.’ She looked again at his figure, dwarfed by the fish. ‘I mean … it looks scary.’

‘It’s harmless actually, but pretty impressive up close.’

‘I’ll take your word for it. Luke, I’m so sorry. This is your house. I should never have come into your room.’

‘Actually, it’s not my room. I sleep in the mezzanine bedroom and I don’t mind you wandering around. After all, it was where you grew up.’ He turned his intense gaze on her. Emma felt she was melting under it. ‘Though if you’d wanted a tour,’ he added with an unexpected kindness that spoke deep to her heart. ‘You only had to ask.’

She was painfully aware of the warmth of his body, the sweet tang of woodsmoke and the thrill of sharing this intimate space with him while the others were outside, unaware. She hadn’t been so close to him for so long and the temptation was almost overwhelming. In a heartbeat, she could reach up, touch him, kiss him.

‘Funny to think it started here, isn’t it?’ he said, his words resonating in her chest.

Emma’s throat was dry. He must be feeling the emotions too, memories good and the bad. ‘Yes … it is. It’s like it all happened to someone else. Two other people.’

Her eye was drawn to the photo of the two of them again. Should she ask why he’d kept it? Should she even let on she’d seen it?

His brow furrowed. ‘Are you sure you’re OK? Coming back here today, I mean?’

The urge to blurt out the truth – ‘Not really’ and ‘I’m so conflicted and confused’ – was powerful. She wanted to shout out that she was torn between being angry with him and wanting to bury the past. That she was fighting the urge to either scream at him or kiss him.

‘I’m … it’s been a challenge. There

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