Page 53 of Betrayal

“No more than my usual paranoia.”Except that wasn’t quite true.Hunter had been ready to walk away last night.To end their relationship before it began, even though he was as attracted as she was.Why?Did it matter?“How are you and my niece feeling?I forgot to ask?”

“We’re dandy.See you tonight.Niall and Lucy are coming too.”

“Wow!”Anna whistled.“I haven’t been able to coax Niall out of his cave for weeks.Will you be bugging the place for future fiction fodder?”

“As a creative, you know everything in life is fodder for creativity.”

“Right.I’ll let you know when Hunter accepts.”

She was a kilometre from home when her phone rang.“Hi.”She pressed a hand to her stomach.Damn nerves.This was a logical next step.

“Hi, yourself.”Hunter sounded relaxed.

“Did you win?”

“Not only did the team win, Gareth scored the winning goal.Better than Christmas.”

“That’s great.”Two more stops then she was home.“How do you feel about a change of plans tonight?”

“Your place rather than mine?”From him, the words were beautiful and lightyears from the touch-and-go moment outside her apartment block last night.He didn’t assume she was cancelling him.

“Dinner with my sister and her husband.At their place.Liam’s brother’s coming and bringing a friend.Informal.”Her nerves were pinging like released elastic bands.“Very informal.”She strained to read his silence.

“Is this like meeting the parents?”

“We don’t have to.”A stupid thing to say when she wanted Kate to meet him.And Liam, and Liam’s twin, Niall.

“You’d like to?”Whatever reservations he was feeling, he was considering her wishes, and the crack in her defensive shell opened further.He was a honey.

“Yes.But it doesn’t have to be tonight.”

“Tonight’s fine.Do you want to meet me there, or will I pick you up?”He wasn’t making assumptions.

“They’re inner-west.I can walk, but we can meet beforehand.Calllie’s bar, Newtown, six-forty-five.”She heard herself babbling.“I can background you about them.”

“Have you backgrounded them?”

“They’re literate, media-savvy grown-ups.As soon as I mentioned your name, my sister and her husband would have done their own research.”No point in pretending otherwise.“We’re close.”

“I’ll wear my flak jacket.”

“Cute.”She pressed the buzzer for her stop.“I’ll brief you at the bar.”

“I share, you share.”He paused.“That’s what tonight’s about, isn’t it?”

“That’s how we move forward.Have I told you lately that I like you, Hunter?”Because he’d just been brutally honest about where they’d landed.

“The feeling might just be mutual.”

* * *

The best sex Hunterhad ever known one night, dinner with the “literate, media-savvy” family the next, and Hunter hadn’t uttered the slightest protest.He was even looking forward to seeing Anna in a different context because, like a diamond viewed at different angles in bright light, she revealed a different facet of her character each time.

I’m going crazy.

He’d seen her tousled and sweaty and begging in his arms, seen her as a self-aware siren at a party she hadn’t wanted to attend, seen her as a professional advertising executive, a keen questioner on the intricacies of childcare centre construction, and at all times she displayed an integrity that left him in awe.He’d like to see her get down and dirty on a soccer field sideline, because while she’d be ferocious in support of her child, she’d also insist on fair play at all times.Kids understood fair play.

Her enthusiasm was irresistible.

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