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Sebastian smiled.

“He’s a great dad – really patient. He fucking loves those kids of his. But we still take the boards out and catch some waves when I’m there.”

“Uh-
huh, and how many meals have you made him late for, just catching ‘one more wave’?”

He smiled knowingly.

“Too many for Amy’s taste! But he goes out when Mitch visits, too, so she can’t blame me for that.”

“Oh, I don
’t know: it sounds as if she’d think of a way. I think I’d like her: a woman immune to the Hunter charm.”

Sebastian laughed. “She
’s immune alright. But yeah, she’d like you. I’ll introduce you when we’re stateside.”

“In case you
’d forgotten, I live about 3,000 miles and ten states from San Diego.”

“Yeah, well, in case
you’d
forgotten, they’ve invented airplanes.”

“Touché,
Chief Hunter.”

He smirked at me
, and raised his glass of water in a toast.

“What happened to that friend of Mitch
’s – Bill – the one who was at that wretched ‘fun’ day Donna dragged me to at the beach?”

“Why are you asking about him?”

Sebastian frowned at me and I rolled my eyes. Surely he wasn’t
still
jealous because Bill had flirted with me once?

“Just wondering: he was
in your surfing crowd, wasn’t he?”

“Oh, right
,” he said, rather huffily. “He got married again a few years back, I think. He got sent to Quantico. Mitch keeps up with him – Christmas cards – something like that.”

Thank God Bill
’s story had a happy ending; I didn’t think I could take any more bad news today.

“It felt good having you on the bike with me today, Caro,”
said Sebastian, thoughtfully, as if he was testing the water before adding something more.

“Hmm,” I said, the sound filled with skepticism.

He laughed. “Well, I’ve had an idea about that…”

“Oh, another of your ideas? That sounds dangerous.”

He grinned at me, a gleam of mischief in his eye.

“You know how we always talked
about traveling through Italy? I just thought, while we’re both here, why don’t we?”

I frowned at him, not sure I understood what he was
suggesting.

“Why don
’t we what?”

“See Italy. We could take the motorcycle and go see all those places we talked about: Milano, Verona, Capezzano Inferiore – see if your dad
’s relatives still live there.”

Oh, he
’d definitely found my weak spot.

“Don
’t you have work to do?” I replied, avoiding answering the question. “How come you’ve got all this time off?”

“I
’m on leave,” he said, quietly. “I’ll be shipping back out to Afghan – in about three weeks.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling the blood drain from my face. “I didn
’t realize… I thought you were stationed in Geneva.”

He shrugged.

“I was, but they need interpreters, and they’re getting antsy about using locals. Too many green-on-blue attacks.” He brushed the thought away. “So, what do you think?”

I shook my head.

“I can’t, you know I can’t. My papers could come through any moment and I’ll be on my way out there myself. Besides,” I said, trying to lighten the moment, “three weeks with you – that’s definitely a dangerous mission.”

“Don
’t you trust me?” he said, trying and failing to look wounded.

“No, not particularly.”

He grinned at me, completely unabashed.

“Oh, don
’t say that. I’ll be good. Scout’s honor.”

“You were never a boy scout.”

“True,” he said with a smirk. “What if I promise I’ll behave myself: separate bedrooms and everything?”

“No way, Hunter. I
’ve heard about your
reputation
, remember? Besides, I don’t know how soon I’ll get a flight to Leatherneck. I don’t want to risk losing my slot.”

“It won
’t happen for at least two weeks.”

I narrowed my eyes at his tone.

“You sound very sure of that.”

He just grinned at me.

And then
realization dawned.

“What did you do, Hunter?”

His grin got wider.

“Let
’s just say I know people in the right places.”

I couldn
’t believe his arrogance.

“Are you telling me you
’ve blocked my application?”

My voice started rising
, and he had the grace to look almost contrite.

“It
’s not blocked, Caro, not entirely. I… just threw a few well-aimed monkey wrenches in the works. It’ll take at least a week to sort out – probably two.”

Unbelievable!

Now I was really angry.

“This is my
work
, Sebastian,” I said, the fury in my voice more than obvious. “This is how I get
paid
. How dare you interfere like this! You’re unbelievable.”

He scowled at me.

“You can’t butt into my life like this!” I half yelled at him. “I’m not the insipid little woman I was ten years ago!”

“You were never that,” he said, his expression burning.

Oh, how well I remembered that look.

“You
’d better damn well get that monkey wrench out, Hunter! I mean it.”

He sighed, looking disappointed.

“I can’t, Caro, it’s out of my hands now. But I promise it’s temporary. I just… after all this time… I wanted us to be able to spend more than a few hours together.” He stared at his hands. “I don’t know when I’ll see you again,” he mumbled. “I’ve already waited ten years.”

His admission was so astonishing and he
looked so miserable, that my anger began to ebb. I was still annoyed, furious at his interference in fact, but I couldn’t hold the same level of rage when he looked like that and, more importantly, once he’d explained his reason for doing it – that he still had feelings for me. But what the true nature of those feelings really was, I remained deeply unsure.

“Will you at least think about it?” he said, softly.

I nodded, still too angry to speak.

I let
Sebastian finish up the fondue, my appetite having vanished. He kept throwing me guilty glances, but it didn’t stop him polishing both his plate and mine.

We spent the afternoon wandering through the town, stopping to look in shops and gazing up at the stormy face of Mont Blanc.

I was still irritated beyond tolerance with his high-handed behavior, but there was nothing I could do about it; besides I was used to waiting, and I’d waited in a lot worse places.

“I wouldn
’t mind coming back here in the winter,” said Sebastian, apparently oblivious to my irritation, “try out the snowboarding.”

“That
’s something else I’ve never done,” I muttered, trying to imagine hurtling down the steep, icy face of the lowering mountain on a piece of wood not much bigger than a skateboard.

“I
’ll teach you,” said Sebastian confidently.

“Oh, something you can teach me, Mr
. Hunter?”

He raised an eyebrow and grinned at me.

I glanced at my watch. “I think we should be heading back now. I can’t get a signal on my phone here. My editor might have been trying to contact me.”

I threw him a challenging
glance. Sebastian didn’t look happy, but he didn’t argue either.

We walked back to his motorcycle and
I pulled on my very lovely, and very expensive new gloves.

Sebastian took the autoroute back to Geneva and we arrived in slightly under an hour. I didn
’t like to ask what speed we’d been traveling at: one that exceeded the limit, I suspected.

I climbed off the bike
, and handed him back my helmet. He stowed it in one of the empty saddlebags and stared down at me.

“I really enjoyed today, Sebastian.
Most of it, anyway. Thank you.”

“You
’re welcome, Caro.”

We stood gazing at each other.
Without knowing why, I felt awkward, the tension rolling in waves between us.

“
Okay, well, thanks again,” I murmured, turning to go.

“Can I see you tomorrow, Caro?”
he said, his voice filled with intense longing. “Will you think about the Italy idea?”

I stared at him,
certain the anguish was etched on my face.

His eyes darkened as he continued to stare at me.

“I want to kiss you, Caro. Very badly.”

The breath caught in my throat as he took a step towards me. I knew I wanted that, too.
Very badly
.

I raised my hand to his cheek and he sighed softly as he leaned into it, closing his eyes. I ran my
fingers down his neck, feeling the warmth of his skin.

He took another step towards me
, and rested his hands on my waist. I pulled his head towards me and felt his lips on mine. So soft, so sensuous. I could feel his breath stroke my face, then his lips parted and his tongue swept into my mouth.

My God, the feelings that burned through me, scorching away every sorrow, every moment of re
gret. Instead, I remembered how his hands had learned every curve and hollow of my body, how our love had melded us into one, how his body had fit inside mine.