Summer Temptation. Natalie Anderson

up at them and give thanks I made it through another day.’

      ‘It really doesn’t sound like fun.’

      ‘It wasn’t so bad, Ruben. At least I had him to myself for a bit, whereas Mum was always on the phone or something.’

      Poor Ellie. Well, the least he could give her was his undivided, utterly focused attention—tonight.

      He bit back the laughter at her repeat, repeat, repeat of his name. In the dark, lying sideways across the bed together, they looked at the stars. Somehow the conversation drifted. She joked her way through her assortment of odd jobs in the movie industry, then the focus turned to him—with her prompting he talked through the long, slow battle that had been the chateau. Ironic to think it had started with him begging any kind of work he could to get funds to develop it. He’d worked like a dog. Then all of a sudden success had snowballed. The acquisitions in recent years had him running faster than a hamster on speed—more hours than ever before. A week or so from one business to the next—he was driven to personally ensure each was on track. She listened in the dark, asked questions about the early years and commented, constantly beginning each utterance with his name.

      And then she turned the clock back a year or so more and asked about his father—about the cancer. That dark period in his life when he’d lost his father and a few months later his mother had left.

      Ruben rolled away but she wrapped her soft body around his and didn’t let go.

      ‘It’s not something I can talk about,’ he muttered beneath his breath.

      She heard him. Softly whispered his name as she embraced him, refusing to let him shut off from her completely.

      But he never ever discussed those days—had never admitted to anyone the heartbreak of nursing his terminally ill parent when his mother had been too tired and distraught to cope any more. He’d never unloaded the desolate loss, the helplessness, the hopelessness.

      The kind of pain he never wanted to endure again. That unbearable loneliness.

      ‘Ruben.’ She whispered his name softly. Her voice, like her body, a caress—soothing and so very, very sweet. Somehow it was as if she understood and absorbed that deep, private hurt. And for the first time in his adult life Ruben relaxed into a loving embrace. She held him and he let her—until the melancholy moment suddenly passed and he could stand her quiet comfort no longer. It was something else he wanted from her, only that one thing—right?

      ‘What are—? Oh!’ Breathless, she forgot to say his name at the beginning of a sentence.

      ‘Yeah.’ He chuckled as she squealed again.

      ‘What are you doing?’ She managed to finish the sentence that time. Still sans his name.

      ‘Turning the lantern back on.’ He moved away quickly to do it.

      ‘Why?’

      He grabbed her by the legs and hauled her towards him. ‘Because by the time I’ve done with you, you won’t remember your own name, let alone mine.’ It was that mindless pleasure he wanted. That beautiful, intense ecstasy.

      Her star-filled eyes gleamed. ‘Sounds fantastic.’