set fire to everything her aunts had worked so hard for and from what she’d gathered, he’d wanted them to be here to watch.
But why? Who would do something like that? An evil son of a bitch, obviously, but that didn’t answer the why. What does Parker get out of destroying their dreams?
At least Fiona and Rena were safe. They must be, she decided, given how angry Parker had been about not seeing them. Sheena clung to that thought as Fleance drove back onto the motorway.
My aunts are safe, and I have him. My mate.
Her leg still hurt, but it was fine.
Her sheep was still uncharacteristically quiet.
Sheen squeezed her eyes shut. It’s fine.
Fleance drove as though the devil was on their heels. Which was closer to true than Sheena was comfortable with. She wanted to know more about who Parker was and why he had attacked her aunts, but Fleance didn’t say anything until they were in the city.
She didn’t remember much of Rotorua itself from the last time she’d traveled there: only a handful of impressions, like photos in an album. The smell. The way steam rose up from the earth and the lake. The Tudor-style Rotorua Museum, like something imported straight from England. And, outside of the city itself, the thermal wonderland of Whakarewarewa, with its geysers, brightly colored silica pools, and bubbling mud.
And the pit she’d fallen into. That wasn’t so much like a photo memory, as it was a memory backed up on the reg by the actual photo of it her mum had kept.
Some things had changed. The museum was closed—surrounded by temporary fencing to keep people away from the façade, an earthquake-proofing safeguard she’d seen in almost every town she’d been through on her way to Auckland. So much of the country’s infrastructure had been built without regard for the fact they were bang on a massive fault line.
The hotels were all running full steam, though. Literally. Some had steam hissing from water features in the forecourt, or from the private spas that dug into hot-water bores on the property.
After cruising the streets cursing at No Vacancy signs, Fleance pulled up outside a lakefront hotel. His eyebrows pulled together. “Will this work?” he asked.
“Will it work?” Apart from staying with relatives, Sheena had been planning on bunking at hostels, here and overseas. Hotels hadn’t featured in her plans. Hotels with lakefront views and an on-site spa? Not even on the horizon.
She slapped her pockets, remembering too late that they weren’t her pockets. “Shit. My wallet—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Fleance’s smile was barely there, but his eyes were warm. “Letting my credit card take a beating is the least I can do. I’m more worried about them letting us in.”
Sheena stared at him. “What? Why?”
A few minutes later, they were standing in a warm hotel room. Sheena wriggled her toes happily in the thick carpet. Fleance was still shaking his head.
“I still can’t believe they let us past the front door,” he muttered as he shut the door behind them. “The way you’re dressed—not that you’re not—you’re—I mean, you look like—not that I think you are…”
The intensity that had blazed from him after the fight had faded, leaving him looking as weary and off-footed as Sheena felt. Something inside her softened. Maybe she should have felt worried, that something as simple as New Zealand’s lack of concern for proper dress had thrown him, but instead it made her feel more confident. Finally, something where she was the expert.
He trailed off, his expression stricken. Sheena held his eyes until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“I look like I’m what? Dressed in clothing ten sizes too big for me, with no shoes?” she said, laughter bubbling up. “They must be used to it. Everyone who visits here comes for either the hot pools or outdoor adventure. I bet I’m far from the first person to come in looking like they walked backwards through a hedge.”
“That’s not what I was talking about.” Fleance moved closer to her. Somehow, here inside this room instead of out in the wilderness, the contrast between their heights seemed much greater. His voice roughened. “I meant it was obvious you were wearing my clothes.”
Sheena felt split between two selves. On the one hand they were meant to be together. The roughness in his voice, the way his pupils blew out dark and wanting when he looked at her—it was all normal stuff. Right? They were mates. Of course he found her sexy. Hopefully as