Redemption (Red Dragon Book 1) by H.J. Bradley

Earth could he look at?
    “Are you not hungry Valto?” asked Beth, drawing his attention to her. “You’ve hardly touched anything.”
    He glanced down at his plate then, taking in the half eaten sandwich that he had tried but nothing else had been touched. That wasn’t like him, he had always had a healthy appetite and when Cat had first made her interest clear he had liked his food a little bit too much. Many that looked upon him now would never believe that he had once been quite chubby, and that he had been void of interest until at the sweet age of thirteen when he had somehow attracted this beautiful woman.
    “I’m feeling quite tired actually.” He picked up his cheese sandwich and took another bite. “I think I might go for a short walk and enjoy the fresh air after tea.”
    “I’ll join you,” said Cat, and he looked back over at her. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in Tenby and it’ll be nice to have an evening stroll.”
    A blind man wouldn’t have been able to miss the sideways glance and smirk that Beth shared with her husband, and Cat rolled her eyes at him in response to it. That made him chuckle, and she was soon smiling along with him, her foot nudging gently against his shin in a move that was filled with shared amusement and mirth.
    “Go on then.” Robert made a shooing motion with his hand. “Before it gets too late.”
     
     

Chapter Nine.
     
    As with most small towns in Southern Wales, Tenby was filled with quaint streets with rows of houses along them of varying ages and states. However it had always been the tiny lanes, covered in fallen leaves and shaded by overgrown hedges and trees, which had attracted Cat from the very first. As one got further and further from the seaside and towards the rolling hills and farmland beyond Trefloyne Lane, the rambling paths became more intimate and abandoned.
    It had been a very long time since she had traversed these paths with Valto at her side, and she had to admit that she had missed his quiet strength and company.
    “Now you’re the one lost in thought.” Valto’s voice jarred her from her thoughts, and she looked over at where he was strolling beside her with a smile on his face. “Hopefully nothing bad?”
    She shook her head, reaching for his hand and taking in his shocked expression as she did so. “Just thinking that I’ve missed being here with you like this.” His grey eyes softened then, and the next thing she knew she had been tugged towards him so that he could tuck her under his arm and press a kiss to her temple.
    “What I did was unacceptable,” he said, lips feather light against her skin. “And I’m so grateful that I’ve got a second chance at being next to you.”
    “Valto …” She didn’t know how to finish her sentence, after all she had already told him that her ability to love was destroyed in the hope that he would never pry for the truth beneath that hurt.
    “No please let me say this.” He came to a stop beneath a huge oak tree whose branches were growing over the lane, and Cat had to stop along with him. “I should have tracked you down after Kai’s engagement party and tried to fix things then, but Johann had caught me by surprise.”
    She ran her fingers through her hair and ducked out from beneath his arm so as to stand on her own in the middle of the lane.
    “You shouldn’t have believed what people were saying in the first place,” she said. “We were together for seven years and you chose to believe Heikki without even talking to me first.” The hurt was like a raw nerve, like the pain that she had felt when she had stood there and endured his ranting all those years ago. Her whole world had crashed down around her then, all of her hope and dreams with this man by her side splintering into a million pieces. She had changed then, changed into a woman who enjoyed the bottle a bit too much and who had purposely gone out and seduced a man twice her age.
    “I know.” He looked sad