Page 18 of Settling the Score

She took a sip, letting the flavour ride little pleasure waves down to her belly. She was being a coward, she acknowledged. After all, having come this far, why not dance with the man? What was the possible harm in something so perfectly innocuous?

‘I thought you hated dancing, anyway,’ she said, having another quick sip of her drink.

‘You’re the one who said we’ve changed.’

‘Are you trying to tell me now you love it?’

His grin pulled at the fabric of her gut. ‘I wouldn’t go that far. I tolerate it, for the right companion.’

‘Companion? Have you also been reading Jane Austen in your spare time?’

He arched a brow. ‘Is this whole week going to involve you giving me a hard time?’

‘Don’t act like you don’t secretly love it,’ she said with a wink.

He laughed then, the sound raw and husky and so damned addictive. ‘Jeez, Mastrangelo. I’ve missed you.’

It wasentirely, absolutelythe wrong thing to say. Utterly disastrous. Because it reminded her of just how he’d left her in the lurch, and how long ago that had been, how long it had been since she’d heard from him, how he’d been perfectly happy to walk out of her life when he was her only,onlyfriend in the whole wide world. The only person who knew and understood what her life was like. How much he clearlyhadn’tmissed her, or he would have come back for her. She blinked quickly, turning away from him on the pretence of putting her coffee cup on a nearby table.

When she turned to face him, she smiled, though it felt stretched and forced. ‘Sure, okay. Let’s dance.’

They didn’t touch as they walked towards the dance floor, but when they stepped onto it, Paige gave Sienna a subtle thumbs up behind Olly’s back, and Bella winked at her encouragingly. Sienna drew in a deep breath, turning to face Aiden, expecting him to assume an old-fashioned pose, with one hand on her hip and the other clutching her hand. Instead, he latched both hands behind her back, drawing her close to him, leaving her to put her hands up and wrap them around his neck. Bringing their bodies close. So close she could feel his chest, his strong legs, his taut stomach. All of him. So close she could smell his musky fragrance – a different cologne to what he’d worn back then, but somehow so perfectly him. So close that when she looked up, she could make out each and every piece of stubble, and the silvery scar that ran down his cheek, from when he was sixteen and a puck had cut across his face when he’d been walking off the rink.

She remembered tracing the line with her finger – back then it had been an angry red and purple, but time had faded the wound. Like it was supposed to do with all wounds, she remembered. Only it didn’t always work like that, because time had passed and being here with Aiden, his rejection was every bit as cutting to Sienna as it had been back then. Worse, because she’d been through so much, like the baby they’d made and lost, and her father’s legal troubles, and her disastrous rebound relationship with Cory. All without him at her side. All because he’d left her.

She tilted her chin, determinedly focusing on a point to the left of his shoulder.

‘So, your friend Bella. What’s she like?’ he asked, conversationally.

‘Why?’

‘She’s my partner for the wedding.’

‘Ah.’

‘She seems… nice,’ he responded after a beat.

Sienna’s smile was genuine. ‘She’s great.’

‘How do you know her?’

‘Same way I know Astrid.’

‘The airport?’

She felt something like guilt tighten in her gut but she ignored it. ‘Yep.’

‘Seriously?’

‘We were snowed in.’

‘And Paige?’

‘Yep.’

He let out a low whistle. ‘How long were you delayed for?’

She laughed softly. ‘Long enough. Or maybe it didn’t matter,’ she said, after a beat. ‘I think we knew within minutes that we were like soulmates.’