All that time later? A lone butterfly fluttered in her stomach. ‘How did you hear about that?’
‘I’m still in touch with some people in London.’
But not Oliver? ‘You know he’s gone to Canada.’
He nodded.
So he probably also knew Oliver hadn’t gone to Canada alone. What else did he know?
Suddenly cold, Victoria didn’t want to find out. She didn’t want to think what some of her old acquaintances might have said about how it all fell apart.
‘How do you know Aurelie?’ She turned back to stare out of the windscreen, folding her arms across her tummy.
There was a pause. ‘I’m one of her ex-boyfriends.’ Victoria clenched her fingers into fists, glad they were hidden under her arms. She kept her eyes firmly on the window. So he had wanted Aurelie. He’d had Aurelie. Then she remembered the expression that had briefly flared in his eyes when she’d interrupted him hugging Aurelie. Was he hurt because his former love was marrying someone else?
Victoria released the breath she’d held too long. ‘You’re still friends?’
‘We’re close.’ He inclined his head and briefly glanced at her. ‘Is that hard to believe?’
Frankly yes. What woman could be ‘just friends’ with Liam Wilson? He was too intensely attractive.
And what surprised her more was that he chose to remain in touch with Aurelie. He’d been the burning bridges type a few years ago.
‘Is she the one who got away?’ She tried to joke but it sounded flat to her. ‘Do you still hold a torch?’
‘I care very much about Aurelie, but—’
‘You care about yourself more?’ She couldn’t help interrupting rudely—she regretted asking anything now. She didn’t want to know.
He chuckled. ‘What is it about me that threatens you so much?’
‘Nothing. You don’t. I’m not bothered by you.’ Lord, could she sound any more flustered?
She tilted her head back and hoped the breeze would cool her cheeks.
‘No? I bothered you once. I made you want something you thought you shouldn’t.’ His smile was still there but all sense of joking was dead.
‘As arrogant as ever, I see.’ And a game player. He’d considered her sport. He’d done it because he couldn’t help himself—consumed by that driving need to win. Even over his best friend. Oliver had told her about the new sailor who’d come into the team—that he was driven like no one else.
He was driven to win in everything.
But even though she knew that to be the truth, her heart puckered. Surely it hadn’t entirely been a game? That attraction had been intensely fierce. Surely there was no way it had only been her feeling it for real?
And the night they’d first met, Liam hadn’t known she was Oliver’s girlfriend. Not until that heated look and those soft, searing words had already been exchanged.
‘You’d be disappointed if I wasn’t.’
She rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help those urges again. ‘So you and Aurelie?’
The wry smile on his lips told her he was amused by her curiosity. She lifted her chin and ploughed on anyway. Because, damn it, they’d shared something. They weren’t mere acquaintances. A moment of connection had forged a thread between them. Incredibly, she almost felt a right to know. He’d once interfered in her personal life—didn’t that give her certain leeway in return? ‘How long were you together?’
‘On and off, almost three years.’
She snapped her mouth shut, almost as shocked as when she’d first seen him walk into that room at the chateau. He’d been with Aurelie longer than she’d been married to Oliver? He must have loved her.
Liam chuckled. ‘I’ve surprised you.’
‘Yes.’ She drew a breath and nodded. ‘You have. But in a good way.’
‘Why good?’
‘You committed that long.’
‘You didn’t think I could commit?’ His brows shot high, an odd note sounding in his voice.
‘It doesn’t fit with your image.’
There was a pause. ‘What’s my image?’
Victoria swivelled in her seat again to look directly at him, determined to play it up and ease them back into that slightly wary, almost joking mood. ‘Untamable. Challenging. Arrogant.’
There were so many more adjectives she could add to his definition. But she wasn’t going to feed his ego any more.
‘And that makes me seem like I wouldn’t commit?’
‘Well, you’re such a flirt,’ she said bluntly.
He laughed and his hands tightened on the wheel. ‘Only with you.’
‘Yeah, right.’ That was a prime example of his flirt talk just there. And it totally wasn’t true. He’d had them all eating out of his hand all those years ago. She’d seen how the other girls there had watched him. They’d looked at him the same way Victoria had covertly looked at him. With dazzled hunger.
She couldn’t believe he’d been with Aurelie three years. What had happened to break them up? Why was she marrying someone else? Victoria thought she already knew. Liam wasn’t the marrying kind. Not even to a total dream-girl like Aurelie. He’d never be pinned down by any woman—not for life. No doubt there were too many other challenges—races, trophies, women.
‘Are you in a new relationship now?’ That curiosity got her once more.
‘No,’ he answered with a soft drawl. ‘I have commitment issues.’
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. Even though she knew it was the truest thing he’d said all day.
‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Are you with someone new?’
She shook her head. ‘I have commitment issues too.’
Now his laughter rolled.
‘Well, you can’t blame me for being wary now.’ She smiled wryly.
He stopped laughing immediately. ‘No.’ He turned his attention to the road ahead. ‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out.’
‘I thought you were all ‘I told you so’?’
He shook his head. ‘He was an idiot.’ There was a silence. ‘We were all idiots.’
Victoria shrank in her seat. She’d been the biggest idiot. She’d been unable to stand up for herself and say what she’d really wanted. And in some ways, what she’d really wanted had been neither of them. She’d needed freedom and independence and she’d been too afraid to reach for it. But she had it now and she wasn’t giving it up.
‘The calligraphy’s going well for you?’ He changed the subject.
‘Yes,’ she said proudly. It mightn’t be world famous but it was doing okay.
‘It’s an interesting way to make a living. Doing the purely decorative.’
‘It’s nice to make things beautiful for people. Life shouldn’t just be functional,’ she declared, knowing he was deliberately provoking her and responding regardless. ‘Anyway, it’s no less meaningless than sailing from point A to point B as fast as possible. You’re hardly securing world peace with that career.’ She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear with an affected gesture. ‘At least what I do makes a difference to a few people—it