Christy tugged on the dress and was instantly transported back to the last time she’d worn it. The darkness, the swirl of lights, the pulsing heat and Seb Sullivan, leaning on the bar with the casual confidence of someone completely at ease with who he was.

What had happened to that man? He’d gone, replaced by someone she barely knew, and it seemed that she was responsible, albeit unwittingly. Ultimately, he was going to have to sort his thoughts and feelings by himself, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do her part to help.

She glanced in the mirror at her bare arms and then out of the window at the snow that had softly layered the ground.

Was it worth risking pneumonia to save her relationship?

Yes, it was.

She could wear a wrap of course, but that would ruin the effect. No, she’d crank the heating up and hope the system could handle it.

She selected different earrings, let her hair fall loose over her shoulders, slid on shoes with heels that made you rethink everything you thought you knew about walking and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Before she walked into the kitchen, she remembered there was one final thing on her list for the perfect evening. The first thing Seb had done when they’d moved in was set up a sound system throughout the cottage, and she pulled out her phone and selected some soft jazz.

The muted, sultry tones of the saxophone floated through the air, warming the atmosphere. In that moment, with the soft fairy lights twinkling from the low beams, the cottage seemed as romantic as it had when she’d first seen it. The ambience reminded her of that small coffee shop they’d discovered tucked away in a cobbled side street in London.

She felt a moment of satisfaction. She’d done everything she could to make the evening perfect.

Seb had his back to her, staring into the fridge. “I could have sworn we had a jar of olives in here. Did we finish them?” He turned, and his expression changed.

She wasn’t sure what she’d expected his response to be, but she wasn’t disappointed.

Even in the dim light, she saw something shift in his gaze, as if she’d reawakened a part of him that had been dormant for years. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time. Or maybe he was remembering that first time, because that was what she was doing.

The look they shared took her right back to that night they’d met in the glamorous, upmarket bar where Alix had taken her to cheer her up after yet another romantic disappointment. Seb had been standing next to her at the bar, laughing with a male friend. Alix must have seen her staring, because she’d muttered Not your type in Christy’s ear a split second before he turned and Christy decided that if that was the case, then she’d got her type wrong.

“Hi, I’m Seb.” His smile had been a deadly combination of warmth and wickedness. She’d felt electrifying tingles and a delicious sense of connection. And as she’d stared into his amused blue gaze, she’d known he felt it, too.