Page 9 of Twin Flames
‘May I call you?’ He sounded vulnerable.
Cara’s breath caught in her throat and before she could stop herself, her tongue betrayed reason, ‘Yes, absolutely. I’d love that.’
George leaned in to kiss her on the cheek for the second time in a few hours. The closeness of him and the touch of his lips on her skin sparked a primal yearning in her, which she hadn’t experienced in years. She didn’t want to say goodbye and suspected he didn’t either, but maybe she was imagining it. He would need to get back to work. He would need to get back to his wife and daughter.
He slipped his business card into her hand, and she saw the Seville office address in thick gold lettering. She pulled out of the car park after a final wave and smile in his direction.
Cara felt as though she’d boarded a runaway train and was hanging on to the sides in a desperate attempt to stay standing.
CHAPTER 3
York, present day
It had been ten years since Cara attended a hen party when the girls organised a surprise Tarot reading. When the others were hesitant, Cara volunteered to go first.
Several minutes in, Sylvia, the psychic, said, ‘I see a deep bond of intense love followed by great turmoil. You share a karmic connection with a man who is yet to appear in your life. You have known him before.’
The psychic continued with her unsettling revelations as she reshuffled the card deck and instructed Cara to tell her when to stop.
‘You’d have been burned at the stake just a few hundred years ago, my love,’ she said as she looked into Cara’s almond-shaped eyes.
‘You have a rare time-related gift. It may be some years before it reveals itself.’
Cara had been relieved the girls were preoccupied, chatting and drinking. No one else heard the bizarre reading.
An icy chill crawled over Cara’s skin at the memory. Were the predictions coming true? Were the visions something to do with what the psychic had called the time-related gift?
She had wanted to ask questions, but the reading was supposed to be light entertainment, and at the end, the others had gathered around. Cara was too self-conscious to continue and hurriedly thanked Sylvia before someone else took her place.
She had considered booking an appointment to find out more but later dismissed it as a load of nonsense.
That was before George. Everything had flipped on its head since that day in the bookshop.
Soon after the psychic reading, ten years ago, James had come into her life, and turmoil had followed an intense love affair. Now she marvelled how she had once believed him to be the great love of her life. Anyway, that chapter of her life was over. Cara vowed she wouldn’t go through any more heartache. She had been crushed when James had turned up at her cottage one day and ended it. Just like that. He said they were too young to be tied down. That was six years ago.
James moved to Australia and the last she heard, he had married. The memory of the rejection still carried a slight sting, but her feelings had dimmed to the point where she couldn’t recall loving him. Hearing about his marriage meant nothing to her. It was like hearing news of a stranger.
A couple of years later, when Cara met Daniel, she began to cautiously embrace a personal life. Prior to meeting Daniel, she buried herself in work and had only been on a few stilted dates, mostly to shut her friends up but also to stop herself from becoming a social outcast.
She decided she would never again risk falling in love. The price was too high. Being out of control in the love department was off-limits for Cara.
And now the red warning flag flapped violently in the wind. She had crossed into the danger zone, and despite her best intentions, she knew she was already in too deep with George to turn back. What was she going to do?
Daniel adored her. Her feelings had taken some time to thaw. She had put her heart on ice after James. It would never be romantic love with Daniel, but she enjoyed his company. The arrangement matched her needs, and he had fitted the bill perfectly. It sounded cold and business-like, but Cara had no intention of lowering her defences again.
The age gap was big: twenty years. But it worked in his favour because his maturity made her feel safe. Daniel had already lived a full life, and he didn’t need much from her. All he asked for was some of her attention, which until meeting George, had been easy enough to give.
Cara was grateful that Daniel was a dedicated professional who didn’t interfere with her day to day activities. She wouldn’t have been able to get along with him if he got in the way of her busy career.
They each had their own offices and homes, and secretly Cara still wondered why they must marry at all, but Daniel was traditional, and ultimately, he wanted her as his wife. When she agreed to the engagement, it had seemed a small concession for the price of a secure and settled life.
As an adopted child, she had painful memories of her early years. Cara valued Daniel’s solid dependability. There were no surprises. So far with Daniel, she had received exactly what she had signed up for. And she appreciated that. Her work was the love of her life. She didn’t need anything more. The relationship had served them well; they both got nearly everything they wanted.
She sensed, given the opportunity, Daniel would have liked them to have a more intimate relationship, but he seemed toaccept she wasn't attracted to him in that way. She was grateful he didn’t press or probe.
Their relationship was functional rather than passionate. There was no chemistry between them, but there was mutual respect and friendship. This was his concession, and he made it without complaint.
When they were about to get engaged, he had asked whether she was certain that what they shared would be enough for her. She was a woman in her prime; he expressed concern that her needs would grow. He worried she would change her mind about wanting children.
