Persuading Spring: A Sexy New Zealand Romance (The Four Seasons Book 4) by Serenity Woods Page A

and I was determined not to disappoint him. I
worked hard through school and then at university. I wanted him to be proud of
me.”
    “He sounded it,” Aaron said, smiling.
    “Oh he is—I know that. We’re very close,
and I wouldn’t give that up for anything. But it also made me… I don’t know,
timid, I suppose, unless I’m just like that naturally. I didn’t date anyone at
high school, nor at university, not until right at the end, when I met Mal. He
was young, good looking, smart, funny…”
    “I hate him already.”
    She chuckled. “He played rugby—half my year
level idolized him. I didn’t think I stood a chance with a guy like him, but to
be fair he was patient and gentle with me. He wasn’t all bad. I had stars in my
eyes for years. I suppose he knew that I loved him more than he did me, and
that allowed him to string me along.”
    “And now? Do you still love him?” She’d
asked him the same question, and he wondered, when her hurt and humiliation
died down, whether she would go back for more.
    “No.” Her tone was flat, emotionless. “I
can’t imagine any excuse he could come up with that would justify what he did
to me. If he loved me, he would never have abandoned me like that. It was a
horrible thing to do to someone. I wouldn’t have done it to my worst enemy, let
alone the person I professed to love. He had plenty of time to tell me he was
having second thoughts. I don’t believe that everything was fine right up until
this morning, and suddenly he changed his mind. I don’t think he had any
intention of going through with it, and that in itself is enough to make me
despise him.”
    Aaron didn’t particularly want to stand up
for the guy, and he knew her brother thought keeping Mal’s words secret would
help her get over him, but he couldn’t bear to see the hurt in her eyes. He
leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “It’s possible he didn’t think it
through and just panicked this morning, and that he didn’t mean to hurt you.
You said he wasn’t all bad, and it certainly sounds as if he’s always had
feelings for you. Apparently when he saw Hitch, he said he was sorry, and that
he still loves you and still wants to marry you.”
    Her eyes met his, thoughtful, puzzled. “Did
Hitch tell you not to tell me what he said?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “I suppose he thought it might make you
inclined to forgive Mal, and it sounds as if he wants to murder the guy—I’m
sure the last thing he wants is for you to get back with him.”
    “So why are you telling me?”
    “It’s not my place to withhold information
from you. I think you should know all the facts before you make a decision.”
    She sucked her bottom lip. He couldn’t help
but drop his gaze to it. As he watched, she moistened her lips with the tip of
her tongue, a tiny, innocent gesture that nevertheless sent his pulse pounding.
He raised his gaze back to hers, his heart missing a beat to see her eyes fixed
on his.
    They looked at each other for a long
moment, and Aaron’s head spun. Something shifted inside him, making him catch
his breath, the world slanting as if someone had tipped the camera and skewed
the shot. He almost gripped the edge of the table so he didn’t fall off his
chair. She felt it too—he saw it in the flare of her eyes, the parting of her
lips. It took all the willpower he possessed not to lean across the table and
press his lips to hers.
    He reined himself in sharply. For fuck’s
sake, Reed . He had to get things in perspective. He didn’t believe in Fate.
It had been pure coincidence that he’d been the one walking past her on the
quay at that exact moment. Their meeting wasn’t written in the stars—she wasn’t
his soul mate or anything else remotely romantic like that. What he was feeling
at the moment was a connection born out of a false intimacy, the kind that grew
when actors worked together on a movie set. The last time he’d acted on
impulse, he’d set off a sequence of