Was that where he’d gone to now? She refused to think he might have gone there with beautiful Tamisia, even though the sting of his abandonment still burned in her breast.
That wounded part of her wanted to reject the idea that she had any stake on him. Zael had lived a long life before he came swaggering into hers. She couldn’t expect him to pretend he hadn’t, or that the people he’d met along the way didn’t still mean something to him.
They did mean something to him. She saw that today. For some reason, she had been deluding herself into thinking Zael was as alone and isolated as she was—that they had that in common somehow. Today she saw that despite all of his wandering, he had a home.
Here, with the colony.
She’d never had anything like that. She didn’t know how to be part of a community, a culture, a family. She had never quite fit—not anywhere. She’d never felt she belonged, not to anyplace or anyone.
Except when she was lying in Zael’s arms.
“This view has never looked better.”
The sound of his deep voice startled her. She spun around to find him strolling down onto the sand, his white linen tunic riffling in the breeze, his eyes as bright and brilliant as the water she’d been admiring a moment ago.
“I trust Neriah got you settled with everything you need.”
Everything I need except you, she thought, her pulse quickening at the sight of him.
She nodded. “I’ll be fine. You didn’t need to check on me.”
His brow furrowed as he approached. “I’m sorry for leaving you the way I did. I was concerned Tamisia might use her jealousy against the alliance if I left her standing there ignored.”
“Of course, I understand. We have to do what’s best for the alliance. After all, that’s the only reason you brought me here.”
“Is that really what you believe?” He reached out, brushing the backs of his fingers against her shoulder.
She deliberately side-stepped a pace, dodging his touch. “Careful. What if someone sees? Remember our arrangement.”
He glanced around at the palm trees and flowering bushes that hemmed the cottage in from three sides. “It’s all right. No one’s here to see us.”
Which was apparently the only reason he felt comfortable showing up.
“Did you and Sia have a nice talk?” Her spite was petulant and childish, but she couldn’t rein back the hurt.
Zael’s frown gave way to surprise, then an aggravating smirk. “You’re jealous.”
She had to bite her tongue to keep from confirming or denying it.
“You think I want her?” Zael moved closer. “You think I could ever want her when I have you?”
Sunlight haloed him, glinting off his copper-shot, golden waves. His handsome face always took her breath away, but especially now, with his sculpted lips curved in a sensual smile and those oceanic blue eyes darkening as his gaze penetrated hers.
He radiated a magnetic heat that permeated straight to her core, making her pulse hammer and her sex clench with desire. He smelled amazing, too, as exotic and lush as the island that surrounded them. The citrusy, clean scent of him was as intoxicating as the breeze rolling off the frothing surf at her back.
“My beautiful, headstrong Brynne,” he said, cupping her face in his palm. “Do you honestly think there is any other woman I want to be with more than you—here on this island or anywhere else?”She tried to hold on to her anger, but it was difficult with Zael filling her vision, dominating her senses. His hand slid around to the back of her neck, warm and strong against her skin.
“Since you don’t seem to know that, let me tell you. There isn’t.”
“Was there ever?” she whispered, needing to know. “I mean, with Tamisia.”
“No. Not with her. We’ve been together a few times, but it was never something that would’ve lasted.”
He shook his head, but there was a hauntedness in his gaze. A flicker of shame she struggled to understand.
“Not with Tamisia,” Brynne guessed. “But there was someone once. From the colony?”
“No. She was human.”
Brynne swallowed at the unexpected admission. But then maybe it wasn’t so unexpected. “Dylan’s mother?”
“I should’ve told you about her before,” he murmured. “You deserved to know what happened. Why I have a daughter I never knew existed until only a few weeks ago.”
She recalled the few details he had given her about the woman. “You told me you met her while she was on holiday in Greece.”
He nodded. “Mykonos.”
“You also told me she was married. Unhappily, you said.”
“Yes, she was.”
Brynne tried to guess at the cause of his guilt. “Did she go back to her husband?”
“She did.”
His wooden tone conveyed more depth of emotion than if he’d shouted the words. He had loved this woman, and he had lost her. “I’m sorry.”
He expelled a sharp breath. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I don’t deserve it. I’m the one who pushed her back to him. Because of my cowardice.”
Brynne touched his rigid jaw. Although it hurt to see that he’d once loved this woman a great deal, it pained her even more to see the torment in his eyes.
She had given him numerous opportunities to explain what had happened, especially on those times when she’d suggested he was an irresponsible libertine with a possible slew of fatherless daughters around the world.
And yet, he’d preferred that she believe that, rather than share the truth about the woman who’d borne his child.
Brynne drew him down onto the sand with her. They sat together for a long moment, just looking at the waves in silence.
“What was her name?” She prompted him gently, giving him somewhere to start again.
“Sharon.” He stared out at the water. “She was a sweet girl, the most open-hearted woman I’d ever met. Once we ran into each other on that beach in Mykonos, I pursued her relentlessly. Finally, she gave in. It wasn’t until we slept together—when I had the chance to lay my hands on her mortal skin—that I realized she was very ill.”
Brynne glanced at him, confused. “What was wrong with her?”
“Cancer. It was everywhere, small enough to escape detection for many years, yet already terminal. There was no mistaking it.”