Redemption (Red Dragon Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I wasn’t aware that you had been hurt.”
    She knew her voice had a tone of hurt to it, and his expression turned confused. “I didn't think that you would care.”
    “Of course I would care.” She looked down at her book, unable to look at him any longer. “I would probably have been on the next plane to Baghdad.”
    There was the sound of him getting out of the water, and she couldn't help herself from taking a peak at him. Wearing nothing but a pair of red boardshorts, he was like something off of a calendar, and she couldn't help her breath catching in her throat. He crouched beside her, the sunlight glistening off of the damp tanned skin of his broad shoulders.
    “You would have come to see me?” He rested his hand on her bare knee. The sensation of an electric shock went through her at the feeling of his touch, and she saw it reflected on his face.
    Her eyes were focused on the hand on her knee. “I know that you wouldn't have seen me, probably would have sent me away, but despite everything I would have wanted to be there.”
    “Cat?” His hand moved from her knee to cup her cheek. “Do you still love me?”
    Her emotions when it came to him were complicated. Certainly she loved him, possibly with all her heart and soul, after all if she didn't love him she would have taken one of the many men that had attempted to court her over the many years up on their offer. She couldn't trust him though, couldn't trust him not to rip her heart out of her chest and stomp all over it again, before going and dating some little Scottish tramp. At the thought of Eilidh she pulled her face away from his hand, the woman who he was hanging off of not nine days after he had broken off their engagement.
    “I'm not giving you the chance to hurt me again,” she said. “My heart is my own. I won't be giving it away again.”
    “Oh Cat.” His fingers brushed against the jut of her jaw. “What do I have to do to prove myself to you?”
    She shook her head. “There's nothing you can do.”
    With that he gave a deep sigh, before standing up and walking over to where his towel was hanging over another sun lounge. “I think you need to think about whether you really want me here or not.”
    He disappeared then into the gardens, leaving her staring at her book blankly as she thought over his last words. Certainly she could have easily chosen someone else to be her husband, Nicko had been her next choice and at least if she had gone on that path they both would have known where they stood. There wouldn't be any love, but there would be plenty of laughs and she would have an incredibly good looking, experienced lover in her bed. Nicko wasn't Valto though, and she knew that ultimately that fact would drive a wedge in any potential marriage.
    ***
    It was the next morning that she finally came to a decision on what she was going to do about Valto. Extending the hand of friendship after so long wasn't going to be easy, especially since she was still all but brimming with bitterness. However they were to be married, and they had been friends once, they could at least be civil.
    “Are you still leaving for your sister's wedding this afternoon?” They were seated together at the breakfast table in the conservatory at the back of the castle.
    He looked up from his scrambled eggs, clearly surprised that she had broken the silence between them. “That was the plan, if that's still alright.”
    “Of course it is,” she said. “Just because we're engaged doesn't mean you don't get to have a life. I wouldn't stop you going to Kai's wedding.”
    “I know.” He smiled at her. “Sorry for sounding paranoid.”
    She shook her head. It was understandable why he would think something like that, she was after all going to be Queen, which meant that she would outrank him by quite a bit even though he was going to be Prince Consort. That didn't mean she was going to boss him around.
    “Here.” She pushed a folded up piece of paper towards