his angry glares if it made him feel more comfortable.
As if reading her mind, Hal piped up, ‘It’s warmer than this climbing a glacier! I can’t say I’m exactly bowled over by this expedition, Kit.’
‘It’s not an expedition. It’s meant to be a pleasurable stroll. I know it’s cold, but at least we’re out in the fresh air. There’s a charming little café at the other side of the park and we’ll head over there soon. But first I think we should take a little exercise, don’t you?’
His broad shoulders tensed as he turned round to observe her. His chiselled profile was far from amused.
‘That’s not very funny and I don’t appreciate the joke.’
‘I’m not mocking you, Hal.’ Swallowing hard, Kit frowned in apology. ‘I just want you to know that even though you can’t get around like you normally do right now you can still have fun.’
‘This is your idea of fun?’
‘Anything can be fun if you have the right attitude. How about this, for instance? Make sure you’re holding on.’
Taking a deep breath, she firmed her gloved hands round the wheelchair’s handles and started to run at full pelt down the path. Fortunately the park was sparsely populated that morning, the path was wide, and the only person they passed was an elderly man walking his terrier. As the trees, lake and the benches on the path flew by she couldn’t help laughing out loud. Inside, she was suddenly filled with the kind of joy she very rarely if ever felt. The discovery that it was immensely liberating going against the conformity of what people expected made her want to do it more often.
At first it seemed as though her madcap idea had stunned Hal into silence, but as she continued to push him at speed down the path, he shouted up to her, ‘You are one crazy woman, Kit Blessington. Do you know that?’
‘Are you having fun now?’ she shouted back.
‘Hell, yes! Can’t you go any faster?’
Kit kept her promise and after making their way across to the other side of the park, out of breath and with her cheeks healthily pink, she took Hal to the café she’d mentioned for coffee and cake. The table they selected had a wonderful view of the sparkling lake—at last the sun had started to shine, making the blue-green water shimmer like diamonds. Gratefully curling her hands round her hot mug of coffee, and observing the heightened colour in the sculpted planes of Hal’s handsome face as well, she knew a delicious sense of well-being that she wished she could bottle.
‘Feeling a bit warmer now?’ She smiled.
‘I feel strangely like I’ve run a marathon.’ The corner of his lips quirked beguilingly. ‘Well...maybe a half marathon. You were right—that was fun.’
‘Good. I had fun too. What’s the fruitcake like?’
Hal was already shaking his head and returning the slice of cake he’d just taken a bite out of to his plate. ‘Nowhere near the standard of yours. Six out of ten, I’d say.’
‘And mine is...?’
‘You’re a bad girl, fishing for compliments like that.’
His voice lowered to a smoky cadence that heated Kit’s blood and made the tips of her breasts prickle hotly inside her bra.
‘But I’ll still tell you. You’re definitely a ten. I can’t fault you, it seems.’
‘We’re talking about my cake...aren’t we?’
‘Are we?’ Leaning across the table, Hal reached for her hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed it. ‘The truth is you make me giddy. The line between reality and fantasy always seems to be blurred when I look at you, Kit.’
He meant every word. Her presence in his life was growing more and more essential to his well-being—and not just because she had appeared in his life exactly when he needed her. As he gazed into her bewitching summer-blue eyes his heart gently pounded inside his chest. He’d climbed mountains and navigated raging rivers in his search for thrills and excitement. He had taken recording artists to the pinnacle of their careers because he’d believed in them when no one else had, where no one would take the risk of backing an unknown. But nothing he’d done or achieved in his life could beat what he felt when he was next to this woman...no wonder she made him giddy!
Kit’s face flushed even pinker at his comment.
‘It’s probably the fresh air and the unexpected speed at which I pushed you in the chair that’s made you giddy,’ she quipped, as if determined not to believe his declaration had been generated by any other reason than that.
There was one other younger couple in the café with them, and when Hal reached for Kit’s hand and kissed it he noticed over her shoulder that the girl was sending him a pleased smile of acknowledgement—as if he’d suddenly been granted entry into an elite and prestigious club. It was a good feeling. Suddenly he didn’t mind if people looked at him and Kit and imagined they were a bona-fide couple. In fact he hoped that they did. His sister Sam would be over the moon that he was even open to the idea.
‘Will you tell me more about the married man you had a liaison with?’ he asked, suddenly needing to know.
‘All right...’
Even though the question had clearly discomfited her, Hal was pleased that Kit wasn’t going to shy away from answering it.
‘I told you it was my twenty-first birthday and my friends had taken me to a club? Well, there was a restaurant upstairs, where we had a meal, and he was one of the waiters there. Anyway, he was very attentive to all of us, but for some reason he was extra-attentive to me. Towards the end of the evening, when he’d finished his shift, he came to find me. I’m afraid I’d had a little too much to drink in a bid to cheer myself up, because turning twenty-one and not having anyone who mattered in my life except my mum had made me feel rather low, and when he offered to take me home I let him.’
She glanced away for a moment, as if cautious about revealing too much and perhaps being judged for it.
‘Anyway, he helped me into the house, where I had a room upstairs. He—he started kissing me. I should have made him stop, but I was drunk and hardly knew what I was doing. I stupidly told him that I needed to lie down and he led me over to the bed.’ Ruefully shaking her head, Kit grimaced. ‘To cut a long story short, he had sex with me, and afterwards...just before he left...he told me he was married. He took great pleasure in telling me, I remember. That’s it...end of story. In truth, I had a lucky escape.’
‘And you didn’t report him to the police?’
‘Why? He just took what he thought was on offer. The whole fiasco was my fault. I did everything I shouldn’t have. I’d had too much to drink and I let a stranger take me home. The only sensible thing I managed to do that night was to insist he wore protection. Luckily he’d brought some with him. It obviously wasn’t the first time he’d taken advantage of a woman who really ought to have known better.’
Kit’s blue-eyed glance was unwaveringly direct.
‘You’re probably wondering why I acted so stupidly. The truth is I let my guard down that night because I was flattered by his attention. Sometimes we all want to be liked and admired, don’t we? That’s all that sorry episode was about—a very human need to be noticed by someone.’
‘But you let him take your virginity, Kit. That’s the saddest part of the story. I wish you could have given it to someone who saw it as the most precious gift a woman can give to a man.’ It grieved Hal more than he could possibly say that she hadn’t.
‘So do I.’ She fell silent for a moment. ‘Anyway, now I’ve shared my story, will you tell me about your mother, Hal?’
As painful as the topic was, if he wanted things to progress further with Kit then Hal knew he couldn’t avoid speaking about it any longer. Suddenly it was imperative that she grew to trust