Free HER ONE AND ONLY VALENTINE - by Trish Wylie

wasn't what she had expected him to say. 'Of course I liked you. What a stupid thing to say. I wouldn't have—'
    'Yes.' He nodded slowly. 'That's what I thought.'
    With his body close again, Rhiannon was aware of a faint scent of coffee on his breath. And it occurred to her that he always had a scent of something that hinted at taste— cinnamon, peppermint, coffee. As if he were subliminally inviting her to sample those flavours.
    She took a steadying breath. This was not going to happen to her all over again.
    Kane took a breath, his gaze fixed on hers, his voice still deep, low and intimate. 'And if you liked me enough to get intimate with me that often, then you mustn't have thought I was all that bad a guy.'
    She laughed sarcastically in response. 'O-oh, I see where you're going with this.'
    When she stepped sideways to get past him, he blocked her again. 'Well, if you didn't think I was all that bad, then why did you think I'd have ignored your letter? That I'd have let you have my baby on your own? I don't understand that part.'
    Rhiannon glanced nervously over her shoulder, making quite sure that Lizzie wasn't within earshot, but dropping her voice to a stage whisper when she looked back at him anyway. 'I was eighteen. I was eighteen and I was pregnant and you were the bloody Invisible Man! When you didn't answer I was too busy trying to hold myself together to try and understand why such a great guy had turned into such an ass overnight!'
    'So you only hated me later, then?' He had the gall to quirk an eyebrow at her.
    'Damn you!'
    Having spat the words at him, she made the first move and grabbed hold of his wrist, dragging him behind her as she headed down the second flight of stairs.
    A hint of amusement sounded in his voice. 'Nice to see that motherhood has mellowed you over the years...'
    Feeling vaguely safer on the landing above the last flight, she released his wrist, glancing upwards again before she looked into his sparkling eyes.
    'What do you want me to say, Kane?' She swung an arm out to her side while continuing in a slightly louder stage whisper than before. 'Do you want me to say that, despite everything I thought at the time, I was wrong? Then fine!'
    The admission of guilt widened his eyes a little.
    Rhiannon continued, her eyes filling up with the frustrated tears she had held at bay since she'd been forced to watch him with Lizzie. 'I've watched her with you and she's crazy about you. And you're equally as enamoured with her! And if you honestly think that I can love her as completely as I do and not feel guilty about her not having had that sooner—'
    She paused to control her voice, which had begun to crack on the words, looking past him while she fought back the tears, only briefly glancing into his astonished face before she gulped out, 'Then you have no better idea of the kind of person I   am than I do of the kind of person you are.'
    'Rhiannon—'
    The softer tone to his voice tore the last shred of control that she had left, so that when she looked up at him again she could barely see his face for the wash of tears in her eyes.
    And she hated that he was seeing that! So her voice broke on the admission while she pointed an accusatory finger at his feet.
    'I would never have denied her her father because I know what it's like to have a father reject his child! So you're right, okay? And I was wrong. You win.'
    Scanned by Coral
CHAPTER SIX
    Rhiannon disappeared upstairs before Kane had time to react properly, which left him standing on the landing between flights. If nothing else she was right about one thing; he didn't know her any better than she knew him.
    His gaze rose while he frowned, pondering whether or not to go after her, to ask all the questions she had left him silently asking. But somehow he didn't think she would appreciate it if he did, because, even without any actual confirmation of his gut feeling, he just knew that to push her again at this point would be too much.
    No