Free JUST ONE MORE NIGHT by Fiona Brand

the window wide. Jumping to her feet, she grabbed at the latch and jammed it closed.
    A corresponding bang informed her that Nick had closed the other window. As she double-checked the latch, Nick loomed behind her, reflected in the glass.
    “Don’t you ever listen?” The low, impatient timbre of his voice cut through the heavy drumming on the roof. His hands closed around her arms, burning through the thin, damp cotton of her cardigan. “You need to sit down.”
    Obediently, Elena sat on an ancient chair. Nick crouched in front of her, but even so he loomed large, his shoulders broad, his bronzed skin gleaming through the transparent dampness of his shirt. The piercing lightness of his eyes pinned her. “Hold still while I get the other lens out for you.”
    Elena inhaled, her nostrils filling with his heat and scent. Her stomach clenched on the now-familiar jolt of sensual tension. “I don’t need help. All I need is a few minutes in the bathroom—”
    Cupping her jaw with one large hand, he peered into her eyes. “And some drops.”
    Nick was close enough that she could study the translucence of his irises, the intriguing scar on his nose to her heart’s content. “How would you know?” But she was suddenly close enough to see.
    “I’ve worn contacts for years. Hold still.”
    As Nick bent close, his breath mingled with hers. She swallowed and tried not to remember the softness and heat of the kiss they’d shared on the steps of the church.
    With a deft movement he secured the second contact on the tip of his forefinger.
    Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small container of eyedrops and a tiny lens case. Setting the drops on the top of a nearby trunk he placed the lens gently in the case and snapped it closed.
    Before he could bulldoze her into letting him put the drops in, Elena picked up the small plastic bottle and inserted a droplet of the cooling solution in each eye. The relief was instant. Blinking, she waited for her vision to clear.
    Nick pressed the folded handkerchief she had given him earlier in the day into her hand. “It’s almost clean.”
    “Thank you.” Elena dabbed in the corners and beneath both eyes, then, feeling self-conscious, peeled out of the damp cardigan. “What else have you got in those pockets?”
    “Don’t ask.”
    Acutely aware that if Nick had another item in his pockets, it was probably a condom, Elena peered into a dusty mirror propped against the wall.
    For a disorienting moment she was surprised by the way she looked, the tousled hair and exotic curve of her cheekbones, the pale lushness of her mouth.
    She had definitely made outward changes, but inside she wasn’t nearly as confident as that image would suggest.
    Although according to Giorgio, that would change once she resurrected her sex life.
    The thought that she could resume her sex life, here, now, if she wanted, made her heart pound and put her even more on edge.
    * * *
    An hour later, they emptied the final trunk. “That’s it.” Relief filled Elena as she closed the lid. “If the ring isn’t here, then Katherine didn’t receive it. I’ve already been through everything else.”
    “You searched all of the desks and bureaus downstairs?”
    Elena wiped her hands off on a cloth. “Every cupboard and drawer.”
    Absently, she picked up a photo album, which she’d decided to take downstairs.
    Picking up the cloth, she wiped the cover of the album. Glancing at the first page of photos, her interest was piqued. Unusually, many of the photos were of the Messena family.
    She was aware of Nick’s gaze fixing on the album. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind disparate pieces of information fused into a conclusion she should have arrived at a long time ago. Nick had taken a special interest in any photo album he had come across.
    As she tucked the album under her arm and bent to retrieve her damp cardigan, a small bundle of letters dropped out from between the pages. Bending, she picked them up.