The Platinum Collection: A Diamond Deal. Susan Stephens

he snapped, resenting her intrusion into his hidden world, she guessed.

      ‘I do know, as it happens. I have a brother, Tyr, remember? I only have to think back to remember Tyr rampaging around the house, yelling at everyone when he was young because he had no other outlet for his feelings.’

      ‘So that’s how you learned to shout,’ Roman said, slowly coming out of his black mood.

      In that moment, things changed between them. An understanding grew that hadn’t been there before. ‘My personality has nothing to do with my brother, Tyr—though, like most sisters, I blame him for lots of things, but not that.’

      ‘So you just grew this way?’ Roman suggested, a smile curving his lips.

      ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said, acting menacing.

      ‘I think you do know, Eva.’

      This was too much—too much emotion—too much understanding of what made her tick. She chose not to meet Roman’s penetrating stare, and stared out to sea instead, to where the heat-bleached horizon met the intense blue-green of deep water.

      Perhaps if Tyr had stayed home rather than answering the wanderlust that had always plagued him, things might have turned out differently, but like Roman she couldn’t turn the clock back. She didn’t want to. Things were as they were, and she was as she was, and for once in her life, sitting here next to Roman, that didn’t seem such a very bad thing.