‘How could I possibly have known who you were? You told me you were a widower!’ she hissed back. ‘That you had lost your wife and child!’

‘No, I never said I was a widower. I told you there’d been an accident and that I lost them! But I was the one in the accident – and when I woke up, they had moved on.’

She stared at him. ‘Well, you didn’t exactly make that clear, did you!’

‘Because I didn’t want to get into it with you!’

‘No, you just wanted to get into my pants!’ she hissed furiously.

He blinked but didn’t deny it. ‘What happened to me now defines me. It’s all people see when they see me. I didn’t want that, just for once.’

‘Yeah? Well, it worked, because I didn’t know. I had no idea! Do you really think I would have slept with my boss’s ex-husband if I’d had the faintest clue?’

‘Well, what the hell am I supposed to think, when I find you standing here with my son?’

‘Oh, I don’t know, probably the same as I thought watching you walk towards me just now! It’s just a peachy situation for us both!’

His eyes narrowed, the two of them back to the scratchy antagonism of their first meeting. ‘. . . And I’m her husband, by the way, not her ex. We’re not divorced.’

She arched an eyebrow. ‘Yet.’

‘That won’t be happening. Hanna still loves me.’

‘She loves Max.’ She saw the words strike him and she could see, then, how hard it must have been for Hanna to tell him the truth. His expression changed, hardening, and she saw all their former passion and playfulness of that Midsommar night curdle and sour. ‘And besides, what was the other night with me, if you’re still so in love with Hanna?’

He glowered at her. ‘Opportunity? Lust? Relief? Take your pick.’ Her mouth opened in outrage, but he stopped her. ‘And don’t say it wasn’t the same for you too. You’re still in love with your fiancé, and you didn’t want any more from me than I wanted from you. We were consenting adults, both lonely and drunk on Midsommar’s night. That was it.’

His words might be true, but they were still like body blows, leaving her breathless. Her world had just turned inside out in the space of five minutes.

He frowned again, as though just her presence, the mere sight of her, upset him. ‘Why are you even here? I told my wife, he’s a ten-year-old boy. He doesn’t need a nanny.’

‘Maybe not, but he needs a chaperone. Someone to protect him.’

‘From what?’ he scoffed. ‘He’s got me.’

Bell looked back at him evenly. ‘It’s you he needs protecting from.’

It was her words that drew blood this time. He visibly paled, looking wounded by the suggestion. ‘I would never hurt him.’

‘Maybe not intentionally,’ she agreed. ‘But given you thought threatening a court case was the right way to go about getting to see him, I’d say your judgement’s off.’