Free Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan Page A

me.”
    “All you had to do was read my letters, Abbey. You didn’t even do me that courtesy.”
    She turned her head to look at him, suddenly furious. It welled up, a hot fountain of rage, and she allowed it to boil over. She leapt up, detesting the image of a woman kneeling at his feet. “ Courtesy ? Do you think I owe you courtesy? You let them drag me off and treat me like an animal . You knew what they were doing to me. Do you want to know how many times they hit me? How many hours I was interrogated? Slapped? Spit on? Do you want the ugly little details? Or do you already have them?” She stared down into his face. His handsome, chiseled face that never gave anything away. She wanted to slap him so she twisted her fingers together and fought for control. “You betrayed me. You betrayed everything we were together. Damn you for that.”
    At the sound of footsteps running down the hall, Abigail turned toward the door and waved her hand. Locks clicked in place.
    “Abbey!” Hannah’s voice cried out. “Are you all right?”
    “Stay out,” Abigail ordered. “I’m perfectly fine.”
    “You’re not all right,” Joley insisted. “We can all feel you.”
    “I’m handling it,” Abigail said. “Please, just go back to bed. I need to do this.”
    There was a small silence. “If that’s what you want, Abbey,” Hannah said.
    “It’s what I need,” she said and turned to look down at Aleksandr.
    He lifted his hand to touch her. He knew it was a mistake when he did it, but he couldn’t resist. Her eyes held too much sorrow, too many shadows, and it tugged on his heartstrings. The moonlight spilled across her face, bathing her face and hair in silver and she looked a temptation, a red-haired vision he couldn’t get out of his mind. His hand slid into the mass of silky hair; his thumb caressed her soft skin as he framed her face. “I dream about you every night.”
    “I have nightmares about you.” Why couldn’t she pull away? Any other man would be writhing on the floor. Why did he make her so weak? Why did she crave him like some terrible drug? She hadn’t been a weak woman until he came into her life. “You nearly destroyed me. Do you really think I want anything to do with you?”
    “Did it occur to you it nearly destroyed me as well? I love you, Abbey. You’re my heart and soul. Did you ever, even once , wonder why, wonder what was happening?”
    “Of course I did. I loved you.” She deliberately used the past tense. That got his attention. His eyes glittered at her, a warning, but she was beyond caring. “I didn’t want to believe you would betray me and leave me when I needed you the most, but you did. I didn’t want to hear an explanation. Either I was important to you or I wasn’t. Obviously I wasn’t, so I moved on. That’s life, Aleksandr.”
    “What is going on between you and your policeman friend, Harrington?” Aleksandr kept his voice mild, but his gut was churning. Abigail was a stubborn woman. If she made up her mind not to give him a chance, it would be nearly impossible to change her decision. His one hope was that she was at last arguing with him. Abigail walked away from confrontations. She once had confided that her temper terrified her and she refused to allow herself to be placed in any position where she would want to retaliate.
    She was also very loyal. He had learned that the hard way. In the days of interrogation, she’d refused to betray him, remaining stubbornly silent no matter what was threatened or done to her. He rubbed his hand over his face, chasing away the nightmares of watching the tapes. She had been so alone. So frightened. And she hadn’t known he was working frantically behind the scenes to get her free, to have her deported. She hadn’t known that things had gone so drastically wrong.
    “You stay away from Jonas Harrington.”
    There was fierce protection in her voice. And affection. He flinched from that realization. “What is he to