After her initial shriek, Grace instinctively held her breath and found that she didn't have anything to fear as Adrian immediately pulled her up until her head broke over the surface. She sputtered and took a deep breath, turning to see his grinning face next to her. She slapped water his way. God it was cold!

He chuckled and lazily swam away. Grace swam to the rock ledge and pulled herself up with a bit more difficulty then he had shown earlier. Her teeth chattered like jelly beans in a candy tray.

"It's only fair." He purred from the water. "You shouldn't play games unless you knew the rules."

"Oh shut up." Grace muttered through clenched teeth. She ran back to the fire and wrapped her arms around herself.

"You should take off those wet things." He told her innocently.

Feeling as if she was freezing to death, she glowered. How could he be so cruel to her when he knew how she was suffering over his brother?

"Maybe I will." She said airily. Grasping the soaked edge of her shirt, she began to pull it away from her wet skin.

"Very smart doctor." She gasped as somehow he was suddenly next to her, nonchalantly stripping off his khaki shorts. Dressed only in his black boxers, Adrian wrung out his clothes and laid them flat on a rock by the fire.

Grace was frozen in indecision. Sighing, he walked over and pulled off her shirt swiftly before wringing that out as well. She choked and crossed her arms over her meager chest encased in its sensible gray cotton bra.

"You should also take off the jeans." Adrian laid out her shirt next to his on the rock. Grace rubbed her arms and admittedly realized that she would warm up faster without the sodden cloth against her skin.

She looked at him and saw that he seemed completely comfortable in his boxers and a great deal warmer then her. She bit her lip. They were both adults and she hardly had the kind of body to drive men to madness.

"Turn around." She ordered stiffly. With a grin, he obeyed. She stood up and pulled off her jeans as quickly as possible. The freezing wet material pulled away with difficulty. She tried to wring it but her hands were so cold she couldn't feel anything.

"Let me help." Adrian took the jeans from her and wrung it easily. Grace quickly returned to her rock and hunkered close to the fire. Her body could immediately feel the heat and she sighed in relief.

Sitting back down across from her, Adrian leaned back and closed his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" He asked quietly.

Forgetting about her almost naked body, Grace looked up. She knew he wasn't talking about the cold.

"Not too bad." She said and nodded.

He stood up and added more wood to the fire. Then he sat down next to her.

Adrian smelled like some fresh lingering soap and pleasant warmth. Grace found his scent to be quite nice. She breathed it in and closed her eyes briefly.

"You should forget about him." He suggested in a low voice.

Grace opened her eyes and turned to look at him. "I've tried."

He returned her look with head tilted.

"That bad, huh?"

Grace nodded. "That's the whole reason I came here. To get over him."

"Sounds like a good plan."
"It's not working." She sighed.

"Tell me." He commanded quietly. "Tell me about how you fell in love with my worthless brother."

"He's not worthless." Grace defended Duval sternly.

Adrian gave her a tight smile. "Matter of opinion, but that's neither here or now." His voice softened at the passionate look in her eyes. "Don't defend him to me, Just tell me how you fell in love with him."

"Why?" She asked. Grace honestly did not know why Adrian was being so kind to her. Even if they were friends, they had only met less then three days ago. Admittedly her experience was limited but she still knew that it took time to build up to the kind of trust and understanding that represented true friendship. Even with Duval, it had taken months before she had become comfortable enough to truly be herself around him. But it was so easy with Adrian. Not that she was exactly comfortable around him, it was more like she felt she could confide in him anything—even her worst thoughts—and he wouldn't blink an eye but just accept her as she was.

"Why do you want to know?"

For the first time he looked a bit uncomfortable. Then he gave a brief laugh that yet still managed to convey a world of cynicism and weariness that Grace couldn't begin to comprehend.

Finally he said in a voice with absolutely no inflection.

"Tell me about love because as far as I know, nobody past the age of ten believes in it anymore."

"Oooo-kaaay." Grace couldn't stop her mouth from twitching at Adrian's rather dramatic answer.

He glared at her. In a tight voice he reminded her, "And why do you believe in love, you little virgin? After all these years of it being unrequited, do you still believe in it?"

Grace's moment of amusement died swiftly.

She turned so that he was faced only with her profile.

"I have to believe in it." She said so softly that Adrian had to strain to hear her.

He leaned closer until she was forced to stare into his wolf eyes. "Why?" He breathed.

She didn't turn away. "Isn't it an oxymoron of sorts? Love must exist—because why else am I suffering like this? But I also sometimes wonder if love exists because it's never included me." Her voice was quiet but sure.

"All lines from a movie." Adrian dismissed in a voice ripe with sarcasm. "It means nothing."

Grace tilted her head and gave him measured look that he returned. It was one duelist challenging another. With a short nod she said, "Fine. Let me tell you about how real love is."

"Yeah?" He said and crossed his arms. "Enlighten me."

She crossed her own arms.

"Let me tell you about the summer after Elizabeth and Duval got married."

"What does that have to do with answering my question?"

Her smile bitter, she told him. "Oh, it will answer your question. And if not, then that's your problem."

"Fair enough."

Grace had just turned twenty-two and despite protests that she should stay in Minnesota and take extra classes in the summer, Elizabeth had insisted she go to the Castle with them.
"It's the most beautiful place on earth." Elizabeth's eyes had been glowing with happiness and excitement. Usually sensitive to the slightest mood changes of her younger sister, today, she was floating so high above the ground that she didn't notice how pale or silent Grace had become in the last three months. With Duval's whirlwind style of sweeping her off her feet, falling in love and getting married to the man of her dreams, Elizabeth couldn't help but be a bit selfish in her joy. For once she wasn't worrying and planning and taking care of her younger sister but simply enjoying being the one who was taken care of.

"I don't want to go." Grace insisted with a firm smile. "I need to take these summer classes. It would mean that I finish much faster and that would be great since I'm kind of sick of all this studying and homework." Her attempt at humor had fallen flat but Elizabeth had merely laughed and refused to hear any more about Grace not going to the Castle.

Before she knew it, Grace was packed an on her way to Castle La Mer where they would be meeting Duval's parents and relatives for the first time. Elizabeth had never looked more beautiful as they got off the plane that afternoon. Her skin glowing with a light golden tan and her hair the color of windblown wheat; she caught the eyes of everyone as she practically danced off the plane and into Duval's waiting arms.

The woman next to Grace had whispered enviously, "Damn I'd be happy too if I were coming home into the arms of man like that." Grace had silently agreed. Instead, she had slowly walked up behind Elizabeth to give the newlyweds a chance to greet each other. Duval had caught glimpse of her and his face had lit with happiness. Although her heart had jumped around in her chest, Grace had only smiled back lightly and stood a ways back from them.

The drive to La Mer had been an agony for Grace. She had sat in the back seat and stared out the windows while suffering a series of stressful thoughts. Sometimes she would imagine that she was the one up in front with her head lying on Duval's broad shoulders. Sometimes she would be sternly berating herself for having such forbidden thoughts. And sometimes she would be terribly angry at Elizabeth because she should have known—she should have seen that Grace was in love with Duval.

But finally she had managed to fall asleep, lulled by the scenery and smoothly driven car. Night had fallen by the time they arrived at the Castle. Her first sight of the magnificent home had been from the warmth of Duval's arm as he had carried her from the car. Still half-asleep and thinking that she was dreaming, she had merely murmured his name and snuggling her face against his hard chest, had fallen back asleep.

The next day had been filled with too many names and faces to remember as she was introduced to Duval's glamorous parents and his relatives from around the US and England. Duval's father, Jerald had been a tall, slightly thinner version of his son. But whereas his father's eyes were a dark blue, Duval had inherited his mother's intense gold eyes. The beautiful older lady had intimidated Grace at first but then for whatever reason, Amela Roussiard had taken a liking to Grace and had spent the rest of the day hovering over her like a protective mother hen over her chick.

That was also the day that Duval's little twelve year-old cousin had almost drowned. Luckily Grace had been walking along the beach at the time and watching the waves rather then participating in the vigorous volleyball game going on at the time. Duval had also been taking a breather and watching his wife play with an indulgent smile upon his lips. When Grace had noticed Abby first struggling in the water, she hadn't thought about anything but getting out into the water as quickly as possible.

The others hadn't noticed anything particular about her running since there were people running all around, but somehow Duval's gaze had found her lithely sprinting form and he knew her well enough to sense that something was wrong.

Duval had been the one to actually swim out into the water and pull an unconscious Abby back. But it was timid Grace who had suddenly taken charge then and saved Abby's life by forcing air into her water-logged lungs.

Although the congratulations and admiration of Duval's relatives had helped her through that moment, Grace hadn't been able to stop shivering that night after everyone had left. Being so close to death always frightened her and even when she won the fight, in the aftermath she had come to realize how fragile life really was.

Deciding that she couldn't sleep, Grace had gotten up later on that night and pulled on a pair of shorts and tee-shirt to go for a walk. Finding her way to the Roussiard's immense kitchen, her plans had changed from a walk into finding food.

The kitchen was dark when she walked in so she hadn't noticed the broad male form tiredly slumped in one of the chairs at the dining table. Feeling her way to the refrigerator, she opened it and searched the contents with her eyes for something that would appeal so late at night. Finally she settled on a peanut-butter sandwich—along with a tub of chocolate rocky road ice-cream.

With her arms securely held around her precious finds, Grace had sat down at the table with a happy sigh, spoon held ready to indulge.

Then she had almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Duval say her name with weary laughter in his voice.

"Grace? Would you care to share some of that?"

Pressing a hand to her harshly beating chest, Grace snapped without thinking, "What the hell were you doing sitting in the dark, goddammit!"

For a moment, the silence rang with her words.

"Well." Duval had said contemplatively. "That was pretty damn good swearing."

"I'm sorry." Grace had never been so mortified.

"I'll forgive you for some of that ice-cream."

"Here." She had shoved it at him and stood up to leave.

"Grace, stop." She heard more then saw him move as he stood up and walked over. Grasping her arm with one hand and scooping up the tub of ice-cream with the other, he walked them outside and gently forced her to sit down on one of the marble stone benches. Grace had been very aware of his arm hand so near her bare thigh as he sank down next to her. Her mind had immediately swum with thoughts that were extremely wrong.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her quietly.

"I'm fine."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"Then why are you trembling?" His voice was skeptical. Grace shrugged.

"I'm cold."

"Here." He took off his sweatshirt and handed it to her. She wrapped it around herself and gave him a wan smile. Grace couldn't tell him that she was shaking due to his nearness. And then it occurred to her. It was well past midnight. What had Duval been doing down in the kitchen alone at such a time? Shouldn't he be up in bed—with Elizabeth? Her thoughts scattered at the touch of his hand on her arm.

"Thank you for today. Abby is alive because of you."

She shook her head. "You were the one who swam out at high tide to save her."

"It would have been too late already." He stated seriously. "If you weren't there..."

"I'm sure somebody else would have known how to do CPR."

"But I wouldn't have trusted anybody else to have succeeded."

"Please don't talk about it anymore." Grace finally pleaded.

He changed gears abruptly. "Can I have the spoon?"

Grace stared down stupidly at the small spoon still clutched in her right hand. Moonlight glinted off the silvery metal. "Sure." She gave it to him. She wasn't in the mood to eat ice-cream any longer. Her appetite had long fled.

"Here." She found a huge scoop of the rocky road ice-cream in front of her face.

"I'm not hungry."

He sighed and pulled the spoon away. Setting it aside he leaned back and stared up at the skies. "When are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Grace knew she sounded like a robot with her short rigid responses but it was the best she could do. Ever since Duval had married Elizabeth, all the easiness had gone out of her friendship with him. A wall had sprung up between them and though Duval may not know the reason for it, Grace knew full well that it was the only way to keep her feelings from spilling over and ruining the lives of the two people she most cared for in the world. She sighed deeply.

"Such a heartfelt sigh." He suddenly teased. "Is there a guy you're mooning over? Are you in love?"

"No!" She was mortified to find that her voice wavered.

Eyes sparkling like dark amber in the moonlight, Duval had turned to look into her pale face with so much affection that Grace had to turn away.

Duval spoke, his voice lowered and solemn. "You could tell me anything, you know. You are closer to me then anybody, Grace. You are like the better half of my soul. Do you think that's odd?"

Throat tight with disbelief at what she was hearing, pain warred with hope. Grace whispered. "No."

His lashes lowered as he gave her a look that she couldn't decipher. "Grace... I..." Inexplicably nervous, Grace babbled to fill in the sudden silence.

"Were you scared today?"

She could feel him give a silent sigh. He gripped her hand briefly and released it.

"Yeah, today scared the hell out of me, Grace. I'm a wimp, right?"

"Uh-huh." She agreed. He laughed, startling her into giggling along with him. But things grew serious again too soon.

"Abby almost died today...and I...it reminded me..." He took a deep breath, his jaw clenched hard before relaxing again. His hand found hers and held tightly. "Yeah, I was scared. Sometimes I don't know how you can do it. Be a doctor. You have to face situations like these everyday."

Grace lowered her chin to her propped up knees and nodded.

"Do you ever think about that day? In the ER?"

She knew exactly what he was talking about. "Yes." Of course she remembered that day. The first day they had met. It was the day that had changed her life forever.

"Grace, can I tell you something?" His voice was hushed, quiet.

"Of course."

"I'm kind of glad that you aren't in love with some worthless boy who probably doesn't even deserve you." Duval sighed. "I know it's selfish of me but I'm kind of used to having you all to myself."

She didn't know what to say to that. Her heart felt like it was breaking at the irony of his words.

"Grace?"

Lifting her head, she stared into those eyes of shattered gold and wished with all her heart that she had the right to be in his arms right now. But it was wrong. He was her sister's husband.

He shook his head and gave a small smile. "Forget what I just said. I don't know why I told you that."

She slipped from his arms and made it into a joke. "Because I'm the better half of you?"

"You saw me at my lowest that day in the ER. I wouldn't have blamed you if you had slapped me for the way I acted."

"Death is hard on everyone." Grace shook her head. "It's hard for me too."

"How did we two ever become friends?" Duval said after a while. "We're so opposite in almost everything."

"Yeah." Grace was afraid to stay any longer. Being with him in the dark was giving the moment an intimacy that grew with every second. "I'd better go." She took the ice-cream with half a thought of eating it up in her room, but instead left it on the kitchen table, still half in a daze at the events that had just transpired.

"Goodnight Grace." His reply had floated on the air behind her as she left.

Feeling even more restless then before, Grace had woken up at the break of dawn the next day. Nobody else was up yet. Grabbing a cup of orange juice from the kitchen and clearing up the melted ice-cream mess on the table, she had walked out onto the beach to watch the sun rise.

To her surprise, she had found Duval sleeping on the same bench where she had left him the night before.

Not knowing what to say or do, she had stood there until he cracked one eye open and frowned up at her with a funny morning squint that had her smiling.

"Grace? What are you doing here?"

"You're sleeping on a stone bench." Shaking her head, Grace sat down next to him as he slowly sat up. Groaning, he stretched, muscles bunching and relaxing smoothly. "Why are you sleeping out here?" She asked innocently.

Duval shot her a gloomy look. His eyes were cat bright but there were shadows underneath.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Grace had raised one eyebrow. As the dark sky began to grow pale and lighten with the first rays of sunlight, she also begun to realize something. It didn't matter that she loved Duval. She would never have him. The best thing to do would to just go on smiling and pretend that everything was fine.

And she would keep it secret. What was done was done. The past couldn't be changed. With that, the shields had slammed down shut and Grace was able to interact naturally with Duval again.

Even if she had redeemed herself in the end, it hadn't taken away the edge of her misery. So she had gone exploring the mysterious maze with its magical fountain that the Roussiard's gardener had told her about. In her mind she had some half-baked notion that if she could just find the fountain, she would find the answers to her problems. But the only answer that she had found was that she never wanted to remain young and stupid. She just wanted life to hurry up and move on the way it was supposed to.

"But it never did." Adrian concluded.

"What?" Grace's eyes lost their dreamy haze as she focused back on him rather then the past.

"Life never moved on for you. For you, it stopped right there, at that moment." He gave a derisive shake of his head. "The only way you might have moved on was to forget about my brother."

"If you love someone, you don't ever forget about them." Grace denied with a frown. But she amended in a softer voice. "But I did try."

"Honorable of you."

"No." Grace didn't bother getting angry. "It wasn't honorable of me. You see, if Duval had given me the slightest—hint that he could have felt the same way about me—I might have done something horrible."

Adrian quirked his lip. "Something horrible? Like wanting to steal your sister's husband?"

Now Grace did get mad.

"Don't put it that way."

"I can put it any way I like. Actually, Grace, the whole thing sounds to me like a bad case of puppy love. Plus—I think he was playing you. I mean, come on, 'you're the better half of me'?" He snorted.

"How dare you!"

He laughed at her. "Face the truth Grace."

"I did!" She shouted. "And the truth is that he never wanted me! He never will. And I had accepted that. At least until he wrote to me and told me that he was getting married again."

"And you realized this was your last chance to win him?"

His voice was so filled with mockery that it made Grace even angrier. She stood up and would have left if he hadn't wrapped one large hand around her ankle, effectively holding her to her spot.

"No." Grace said between clenched teeth. "I realized that if I ever did want to move on with life, I needed closure. I need to see him one last time and say goodbye." Tugging her foot was to no avail. His hand didn't budge an inch.

Seeming to be seriously considering her words, he finally looked up at her. His pale eyes glowed like the reflection of a winter sky on gleaming ice while his other hand rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I want to help you."

Grace shook her head. "I don't need your help."

"Ah, but I think you do. You are a babe in the woods. A know-nothing novice who is attempting to compete against a goddess."

"I'm not trying to compete, remember? I'm trying to move on. And now that I've seen the 'goddess' he's going to marry, I think I've all the closure I need. I'm leaving tomorrow."

He shot her a cool glance.

"So you're running away."

She didn't bother denying it, just gave a small shrug.

"You're not a coward Grace, don't act like one."

"How do you know? You've only just met me a couple of days ago. Three days to be exact. For all you know, I could be the biggest coward on the face of this planet."

"I know you better then you think and I know that you are not a coward."

Letting go of her ankle, he stood up and grabbed her by both shoulders so that she was forced to look up at him.

"Tell me something, Grace. Do you really want to forget about him? To move on?" He asked in a low voice. "It's what you say but is it really what you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think the real reason you came here was to try to get him to fall in love with you."

"Wrong. You are so full of it." She grated and pulled away. But he shook his head and gave her a savage smile that showed a lot of white teeth yet no humor. The dark locks of hair were still wet, plastering to his skull and giving him the appearance of some classical Roman statue.

"You want him to love you back, don't you?" He repeated softly.

Grace glared at him. Her fingers suddenly itched to fist up and sock him a good one. But she answered him truthfully, recklessly; there was nothing to lose now.

"No—yes—but—"

He was relentless. "No 'buts' about it Grace. If you want something, you have to be a hundred percent sure."

"The answer is no then. I'm not going to be the other woman who ruins a relationship." She said flatly. It was only the truth.

He laughed.

"So righteous and so noble." He gave a derisive snort. "And so stupid. You've been noble your whole life and what has it gotten you? Happiness...or misery? Maybe it's time to change the game plan."

"No thanks Mr. Devil, I choose to keep my soul today." Grace was sarcastic so that he couldn't see how shaken she was by how truthful his words rang.

"Fine. I just wanted to make sure." He released her and turned away. Picking up the shirt and shorts he had so casually stripped out of earlier, he pulled them back on though it was still damp. Grace quickly followed suit and grabbed her clothes. They were dry enough to wear.

She asked as she got dressed. "What did you mean by that?"

He looked at her but from that distance she couldn't read the expression in his eyes.

"Nothing." He said softly.

"You annoy me." She shook her head. Her clothing still felt uncomfortably damp. She stood closer to the fire.

"I'm only trying to help you." His voice was innocent. Grace waved an angry hand at him and turned so that her backside got its turn to warm up against the fire.

"That's what you keep saying but you're not trying to help me with anything."

"I'm just saying...if you really don't want to steal him away from his beautiful fiancée, and you're really sure you want to get over him...then I have a suggestion."

"Can we stop talking about this?"

"Use me."

"What?" She swung her head around, a confused look on her face. He smiled and stretched slowly. Her eyes followed the sinuous lines of his movements and lingered a tad on the exposed bronzed flesh of his washboard abs. She jerked her head way and felt her face heat again. Here she was ogling him again. It had to stop.

"Best way to get over an old lover is to get under a new one." Adrian's voice was so bland he might have been talking about stocks and bonds.

"Excuse me?" She shook her head. "I hope you didn't mean that the way it sounded."

"I did." He laughed and moved closer. She skittered away, hands held up.

"Stop!" Frowning she crossed her arms. "I'm not interested."

"I think you are."

"Trust me, I'm not." Feeling a bit self-righteous, she tilted her chin. "You couldn't interest me if you were the last man alive.

"Oh you really don't want to go there."

Adrian had the smile of a man who knew just how attractive he really was to women. And he knew that she was lying.

"Fine. Can we stop talking about it?"

"Sure." With another luxurious stretch that she determinedly ignored, Adrian sauntered away.

Grace had to get in the last word. "Listen, I don't want to win Duval. And what I meant by telling you that story is that love is about sacrifice. It's about putting the one you love above yourself!"

"Sorry, don't get it." He shrugged.

"You are an idiot." She said in sheer exasperation and walked out of the cave with her head held high.

Adrian watched her leave. An unconsciously gentle look slowly replaced the mocking one. It was a look that would have surprised the people who knew him and were accustomed to not expect more then at best a disinterested smile or an icy glare from steely eyes. Actually, he probably would have surprised himself if there had been a mirror around. Adrian Roussiard flirted with and seduced women and enjoyed it immensely because it led to eventual sex—but he had never truly laughed and felt as light-hearted as he did when he was with Grace. Simply because he was with her.

As much as he hated to admit that he had anything in common with his brother, Adrian could understand why Duval had been so drawn to the seemingly ordinary young woman so many years ago. Except...she wasn't ordinary at all. And she had been right, damn it. Love was about sacrificing yourself for someone else. Only—he'd already sacrificed everything that was worthwhile in him sixteen years ago and had nothing left to give.

His smile dying, he turned away and dove back into the pool to submerge both his body and his tumultuous thoughts in the cold dark depths.

The next day, Grace called to see if she could change her plan ticket departure date. The travel agent told her that the next available flight out was not for another week and a half—same as her original flight. Grace decided that if she was to be stuck in La Mer then at least she didn't have to suffer being in the house when Vivian was draped all over Duval every time she happened to see them. She was asking the butler if he could ask Beth to take her back into town when Adrian walked in and offered to drive her.

She had simply crossed her arms but he hadn't been daunted in the slightest. And if she was being truthful with herself, she would have to admit that a part of the reason she had accepted his offer was the flash of annoyance in Duval's eyes when he had walked into the foyer and saw them together.

He had stood in the doorway and watched them until they were out of sight.

"So it's the jealousy track now?"

Grace spun around and stared straight ahead in her seat. "What are you talking about?"
"Are you trying to make him jealous?"
"NO!"

Adrian had shrugged. "I told you that I could help with that."
"No thanks. I told you I don't need your help. And I'm not trying to make him jealous."

"If you say so." Adrian smiled. "But I'm glad you're not leaving yet."

"I couldn't change my departure date to anything earlier then another week and a half."

"It's a sign."

"Of what?"

"That you're not meant to leave yet." His dimples softened the dangerous lines of his face and made him far too attractive for her peace of mind. As they drove along the picturesque highway, he pointed out landmarks and gave her a bit of the history of Wales.

Grace forgot that she was annoyed at him. Other then a few quick glances in her direction with subtle laughter brimming in his eyes, Adrian acted like the perfect friendly companion that she had remembered from their first car ride together down from the airport. His wicked smiles and dry humor were hard to resist.

"So where do you want to go?" He asked her as he parked the car.

"I'm not sure." She craned her neck and looked around. "Where are we?"

"That's the ocean right there. We're at the public beaches. They've got some nice shops around here if I remember correctly."

"This is fine."

He shot her a look. "Do you want some company?"

She thought about it and was surprised to find that she did want him to stay.

The first stop was a small café that served homemade ice-cream. It was perfect for the seasonably warm day. Grace got two scoops of rum cherry and Adrian got three scoops of chocolate which had been a close second choice for her.

Contently eating the ice-cream, they walked along the nearly deserted walkway. It was still early yet and the few people around were the locals who were enjoying the rare solitude as much as they were.

"So what's your story?" She asked him once they had started walking.

"About what?"

"Duval and you. Why do you two fight like that?"

"We hate each other." He said shortly. His good mood vanished.

"You don't hate each other." Grace raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you're angry but—."

His eyes gleamed. A small smile graced his mouth as he reached out to gently caress the soft curve of her jaw. "I don't have any of your honorable and truly uplifting feelings of love, but I do experience dark nasty hate without feeling the need to dress it up in nicer colors." His hand trailed along her jawbone and fell back down.

Grace felt a slight fluttering in her stomach at the casual touch. She was surprised and blamed it on the rich ice cream. She cleared her throat.

"So tell me about the fight you two have with each other then." Grace decided to be just as blunt. "Duval wouldn't tell me and you skip around it. You already know my secrets. Tell me yours. Why did you leave for so long? And why did you come back?"

"No deal."

His words were lofty but she sensed the tension building up in him. Whatever had happened between Duval and Adrian had been hard on both men. The doctor in her wanted to heal him. As a person, she wanted to help him. Maybe even give him back some of the comfort he had offered her earlier.

She waited and studied his features. He studied her in return for a few seconds then seemed to come to a conclusion. They stopped at some stairs and took them down to the public beach. Adrian sighed and crossed his arms.

"Why do you want to know? It's in the past. Gone. Done with. Forget about it."

"If it was only that easy." Grace gave a small smile. "Then I would have forgotten about Duval years ago."

"I really don't want to talk about it Grace." He made his way across the nearly empty beach so quickly that she had to almost run to keep up.

"Did you steal his girlfriend?" She called out.

He turned and she could see that he had almost smiled. He shook his head.

"Did he steal your girlfriend?"

His mouth twitched. "I don't think so."

"I probably can't guess it, so just tell me." Grace stared at him, unsure why it was suddenly so important to know. "I promise to keep it a secret. You should know better then most that I'm really good at keeping secrets."

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

He exhaled deeply and shook his head. "It's not a pretty story Grace." His voice was a bit hoarse. "And I don't want to tell you."

She simply waited.

He crossed his arms and gave her a dark look before shrugging.

"Has Duval not told you anything?"

"We haven't exactly spoken for a couple of years now."

He sighed. "I was sixteen years old when I left Wales to the relief of all who lived here." Adrian had no expression on his face. But there was a shadow underlining his words that made Grace forget about her problems and remember with shame that the world kept revolving and other people suffered too, not only her.

"Why did you leave?" She asked carefully.

His eyes met hers. "I was accused of murder. Of killing a man."

Adrian had the brief and bitter satisfaction of seeing her eyes widen. But then she narrowed them and shook her head.

She told him in annoyance. "Stop judging me with those eyes. You don't know what I'm thinking." Grace didn't know what he had expected. For her to gasp and run away?

He looked surprised for a single beat but his features quickly closed again.

He challenged her. "Why? Don't you think I was guilty?"

"You said 'accused'." She said softly. "But were you guilty?"

Flexing his jaw, he tilted his head back to survey the sky. Finally he shook his head. "Does it matter?"

She stared at him steadily. "Yes."

He looked down then away again. "Then yes. I was guilty."

"Don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Just tell me the truth."

"I did tell you the truth. I killed a man." He gave her a thin smile so unlike any she had seen from him that for a second, Grace could almost believe him capable of murder. But she thought about his word choice.

"You murdered a man?" She repeated carefully.

"What's with you Grace? I killed a man and you want to know the details?" He stepped close until he was looming threateningly above her. Grace tilted her head back. The carefree stranger she had first met at the airport was gone. In his place was a man who was disturbingly similar to Duval in temperament. As sore as a wounded animal when questioned about something he didn't like.

"You needled me until I told you very private things about myself. And I didn't complain. Now just tell me. Did you murder this man?" She persisted stubbornly.

He stared at her for what seemed like hours.

When he finally answered, she wasn't even sure if she just wasn't hearing things.

"What?"

Adrian took a step back from her. Stuffing both hands in his cargo pockets, he stared out into the ocean. His brows were lowered until he seemed to be glaring at something he particularly hated.

"I said. No. I did not murder the man." He enunciated through clenched teeth.

Then he closed his eyes. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

Grace drew close to him. "What happened?" He glanced down at her and his eyes never resembled a wolf's fierce gaze more then it did at that moment.

"I was sixteen."

He repeated; his voice was so soft it was almost painful. Grace casually took his hand and held it, giving him back a little of the comfort he had shown her in the caves. He focused on their hands.
"Tell me." Grace commanded quietly.

"There was a man. He—he was well-respected. The headmaster at my school. I, on the other hand, was generally considered to be a punk kid. A troublemaker." He sighed. "God, it's seems so long ago that I was ever that stupid and young."

"I can relate." Grace said quietly.

"That was me. Dumber than a rock. Didn't know what—he—what he wanted when he asked me to see him in his office. Wasn't even aware that such things could happen."

Grace pulled him towards her. She gave his closed face the same kind of scrutiny she would have given one of her patients. "What did he try to do, Adrian?"

He gave her a shadow of his cocky grin. But it was tired.

"Ah—little doctor—you don't want to know."

"I do." Grace felt an angry pressure rising inside of her. As a doctor she had seen the effects of abused children too often to not recognize it now.

"Tell me." She repeated steadily.

He eyed her for a moment, than abruptly began speaking. "I went to his office because he told me that he would write me a letter of recommendation for college. I should've known better. Who would want to help me? I was the trouble maker."

His mouth grew tight. "That twisted bastard tried to—well—he just kept telling me how pretty I was. How he could help me get into the college I wanted only if I would—well, hell, I don't really want to rake that shit over again in the presence of a kid like you—but you get the idea. What he wanted—I didn't agree of course. Not that it mattered. He tried—." Adrian clenched her hand. "But he didn't succeed. I was big for my age. Roussiard genes."

Grace swallowed dryly. "He tried to rape you?"

"Yes." The admission was ragged. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. Anger and shock pooled unpleasantly in her stomach. "And you killed him."

"No."

"Then—."

"Like I said, I was a stupid kid. I got away that time. But he told me that if I ever told anybody what happened, he would ruin my life. Ruin my brother's life and his chances of going to Oxford Law. I believed him. I didn't tell anybody."

Adrian remembered the feeling of shame. Of helplessness. Then Grace gripped his hand so tightly he flinched. "Ow."

She didn't let go. Her own lips pinched, she told him, "Tell me everything that

happened and stop stalling Adrian." The flood of violent anger in her made her voice harsh. Surprised at the explosive feelings, she tried to calm herself. But it was difficult, made more so by the sight of the powerful man in front of her staring out into the ocean as if he saw only nightmares. She squeezed his hands again.
Fighting an internal struggle with himself, Adrian came to a decision. He had bottled everything that happened that summer and put it away. For good, he had believed. Now a nosy little doctor with more heart then brains was telling him to let it all out. If he didn't, life would probably go on as usual.

And if he did, he had a feeling his whole life was going to change.

Well it couldn't get worse.

He caught her gaze and held it, daring her to listen to the truth. His heart thumped uncomfortably. As an adult, he had long ago come to terms with the dark realities of life and had toughened himself enough to handle whatever came his way. But as a child...he hadn't been ready. Not at all.

"A few weeks later, he cornered me at after school. I had detention. He told the teacher watching me that he would take over for a while. I was left alone with him." Adrian felt a savage kind of satisfaction unburdening his soul. It was like squeezing the poison out of a deadly wound. Painful, but satisfying.

"He locked the door. I knew that he was going to do. He told me if I wanted to keep from ruining my family's life, I would just keep quiet. The hell of it was, that for a minute, I almost did. There was nothing more important to me then my family. I knew the bastard would do what he threatened and ruin my brother's life if I didn't cooperate."

Adrian scrubbed his face roughly.

"But I guess I wasn't noble enough. When he touched me—I fought him. He got mad. Really mad. Told me he was going to kill me—he hit me pretty hard. And he grabbed me again. He touched me—and I lost it. I started hitting him. He fought back too. I took a few blows to the head. I just kept on hitting him. I don't know what happened next. I think I blacked out. The next thing I knew, there was someone shouting and pounding on the door."

"What happened to the man?"
"He was lying on the ground. There was blood all over the place. And on me.

I didn't know he was dead until later when they told me."

"You didn't murder him." Grace fought back the urge to vomit. Instead she stared at him firmly and repeated, "Adrian, You didn't murder him."

"But I might as well have." Adrian muttered. "I felt no regret. I felt nothing, nothing but relief—and satisfaction that the bastard was dead. That he wouldn't be able to—to try again."

"We can't control our feelings." She breathed deeply, relief mingled with simmering anger rolled through her. "And if feeling glad makes you guilty then I'm guilty too because I don't think I regret him being dead either. You were proven innocent right?"

"No." He said roughly. "I wasn't proven innocent. But my brilliant lawyer-to-be of a brother got his friends at Oxford to plead my case and they got me off with no more then six months of community service. Because I was underage. And other lawyer loopholes. It didn't matter. For all intents and purposes, in everyone's eyes I was guilty and they were glad to see the back of me as six months later, I was sent on an extended overseas vacation funded by my horrified parents."

"Why weren't you proven innocent? In these kinds of cases, you would—.""

"I didn't tell anyone what had really happened in there, Grace." Adrian closed his eyes in a mixture of remembered pain and a wry anger that came with the wisdom of seeing things in hindsight. "Until you, I kept quiet about what really happened in that classroom. Maybe I should have told Duval—but I thought, better for everyone to think I was a murderer—then some sort of victim."

Grace shook him lightly. "So due to your overblown sense of macho-ness, you allowed everyone to think you were a murderer?"

"God. I didn't want Duval to know—I knew the ass would've blamed himself or some shit like that. He's got a head like stone when he's set on something." He gave her a look of mild irony. "You should know that."

"Yes." Grace agreed. "Tell me the rest."

He shrugged. "The teacher who was supposed to be watching me was the one pounding on the door. She finally unlocked the door and found me standing there over his pummeled corpse. Someone called the cops and next thing I knew, I was being dragged off to jail."

"Didn't your friends stand by you?"

"My own brother didn't stand by me." His tone was hard. "I begged him to believe in me, to trust me, but that I couldn't tell him what had happened. He gave me such a look—like I was a piece of scum he didn't want anything to do with. The Roussiard name was disgraced. I'm sure he worked harder then hell in the past couple of years to rebuild back up to its former glory."

Grace said calmly. "But you were innocent."

Adrian gripped her hand so tightly it hurt.

"No." He whispered in a low, rough voice. "I—I don't know. I can't remember exactly what happened in there after I blacked out. I'm not sure I want to remember, Grace. Damn it, I was a stupid boy."

"If you killed him, it was in self defense." She told him fiercely. "You were innocent Adrian. You're not a murderer."

"Grace, the truth is if I ask myself whether or not I was capable of killing him in cold blood—I would say yes. I could have done it. I hated him that much."

"You're not a murderer. You have to tell the truth about what actually happened in there."

He gave her a small smile. "How do can you know that? And why do you care? I believe it was you who had stated so firmly yesterday that we've only known each other for a few days."

"That's true." She allowed. "But I can sense that you're not a bad man."

"I'm not?"
"Stop trying to provoke me!" She cried.

The small smile disappeared. "I'm sorry. Don't get involved in this, Grace. You're right. I need to clear my name and that is why I decided to come back to my lovely childhood home. Distasteful and ugly as it's going to be for the people here, they have to know the truth. But I'll do it alone. You've got your own problems, remember?"

I can't believe Duval didn't stand by you. That he thought you could be capable of murder." Grace spoke to herself. "There must have been a reason for it. He's the most reasonable man I know."

"Oh, believe it." Adrian said shortly. He let go of her hand. "And in regards to what we were talking about earlier. The reason I asked you if you really wanted to get over Duval...well, it's because I think that Duval has feelings for you."

"You're trying to change the subject."

"Yes."

"Duval sees me as only a friend."
"He's acting damn possessive for a friend"

"I don't think so." Grace said, flustered. She shook her head. "But forget about me. The important thing for you right now is to talk to Duval. Mend things between you two. Even if you don't want my help, he can help you."

"I definitely do not want his help."

Grace nodded. "Well, then, I guess it's up to me to help. I'll stand by you. What else have I got to do for the remainder of my time here? Mope around and watch Duval and Vivian? And I've got to try to face the fact that he'll never love me back and that it's past due time to move on."

His eyes filled with dry humor. It was briefly there then gone again. "It takes courage to face your demons, Grace. Can you do it?" He touched her cheek gently. "Because I don't know if I can."

Grace didn't know what to say. It was a valid question. Could she face her own demons? Just the thought of them made her quickly shake her head in attempt to keep them buried deep where she couldn't see them.

"No?"

But maybe I can, Grace suddenly argued to herself as she stared up at his intent face. It was difficult to believe that this powerful vital man could have been anyone's idea of a victim. She supposed that she should be appalled or shocked that he might have killed a man. But perhaps she had a capacity of violence that she wasn't even aware of because she only felt glad. Predators like the one who had tried to abuse Adrian shouldn't be allowed to live and hurt other innocents. Even if the man hadn't succeeded in the physical act of rape, the results of his attempt had terribly scarred this man and changed the course of his life.

She stunned herself by reaching out to him and wrapping her arms tightly around his lean waist. Hugging him tightly with her head barely reaching his shoulders, she tried to comfort him the best she knew.

As if he knew how out of character and difficult it was for her to do what she had just done, Adrian gently and slowly put his own arms around her. He gave a deep and sigh as he held her carefully.

Grace hadn't realized that the act of comforting someone could bring comfort to herself. The warmth of his body against hers felt so incredibly good. So did the strong bands that were his arms. She felt secure and safe. It was the oddest feeling. The only time she had felt so completely at home had been in Duval's arms those few times he hugged her.

The thought confused her and made her begin to pull away. He didn't resist.

"So. Do you feel better after unburdening your soul to me?" She asked lightly. They began walking back to the car.

"That wasn't my soul."

"No?"
It was my heart, came the unexpected thought as Adrian glanced down into her quiet storm colored eyes.

"But thank you for listening." Was all he said.

There was less tension in him now. The lines around his mouth had relaxed and the hard gleam in his eyes had faded. Grace was glad.

Unexpectedly, he tucked her arm under his as they walked. She looked up at him and silently admired the handsome lines of his profile. It was a moment before she realized that she hadn't thought to compare him to Duval at all. For the past ten years, every man she'd met had been mentally compared to Duval and found lacking. But it was impossible to compare Adrian with anyone she had ever met.

Both were complicated men...but it was Adrian who had been the one to open himself up to her. She had always thought that she of all people knew Duval best. But she was beginning to realize that perhaps she had never known him at all. That even though she had been his friend, he had kept her at arm's length just like everyone else.

The thought made her mentally and physically weary as Adrian drove her back to the Castle.