do that!’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I just can’t!’
His eyes narrowed on her, with a glint of wicked humour. ‘Is this your pride speaking, or something else? Don’t tell me you’ve been secretly attracted to me all this time?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ she snapped. ‘No one was more surprised than I when I reacted the way I did when you kissed me.’
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Ryan said dryly. ‘I was pretty surprised myself. Okay, so it’s a matter of pride. In that case I won’t ask for a separate room, but I think I will sleep on the floor. I don’t trust myself to keep my hands off you if we share a bed. Hell on earth, woman, stop looking at me like that!’
‘How am I looking at you?’ she asked, trying to sound innocent but feeling anything but. She didn’t want him to sleep on the floor. And she certainly didn’t want him to keep his hands to himself.
‘Don’t try to play games with me, Laura. I’m way out of your league in the games department. Erica called me a libertine.’
‘I don’t believe you’re a libertine at all,’ she said, feeling angry with Erica for saying such a nasty thing. ‘A libertine doesn’t care about people’s feelings. You obviously care about mine to warn me off you. A libertine would just take what he wanted without a second thought.’
‘Would he now?’
For a split second, his eyes grew so cold that a shiver ran down Laura’s spine. But then he whirled away from her and strode over to the edge of the creek. She stared after him, not knowing what to say or do. So she just stood there and waited. Eventually, the sun dipped down behind the hills and the air turned suddenly cool, at which point he turned and walked back towards her.
‘Let’s get back,’ he said, and grabbed her hand once more.
But there was nothing warm or affectionate in his grip. She could feel anger in his fingers, but wasn’t sure who he was more angry with, her or himself.
‘I promise I won’t look at you like that any more,’ she said during their hurried walk up the hill.
‘Good,’ he snapped. ‘And I promise I won’t bloody well kiss you any more!’
‘HE’S absolutely gorgeous, Laura,’ was the first thing Gran said. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am for you.’
They were in the old servants’ quarters, Jane propped up in bed and Laura sitting in an armchair not far from her. Cynthia had certainly done the room up nicely, Laura conceded privately, with everything Jane could wish for. The walls had been painted a rich cream colour. There was a brand-new flat-screen television sitting on a high chest-of-drawers opposite the foot of the bed and the old wooden floorboards had been freshly polished and varnished.
‘He’s a very special person,’ Laura said, trying to ignore her disappointment over Ryan’s decision not to take advantage of her obvious desire for him. It was perverse of her, she knew, but she almost wished that he would. She could not believe how much she wanted him to make love to her for real. It was cruel, the intensity of her yearning for him.
‘I hope you don’t think I’m being rude asking you this,’ her gran said. ‘But have you been to bed with him yet?’
Laura’s hands tightened over the ends of the armrests.
For a moment, she wasn’t sure what to say. But then decided to go with the truth.
‘No, Gran,’ she said. ‘I haven’t.’
‘Wise girl,’ her grandmother said. ‘Playing hard to get is the way to land a man of the world like your Ryan. Though I doubt he’s as tough as he looks.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I suspect that underneath his macho façade your Ryan is quite a sensitive fellow. Reading between the lines, I wouldn’t think his childhood was a bed of roses. It must have been hard on him, not having a father, then having his mother die when he was still just a child. Damaged children can sometimes find it hard to trust, and to expect happiness. In that regard you two have something in common.’
‘I’m not damaged, Gran,’ she said defensively.
‘Aren’t you, dear? I would have thought that any girl as attractive as you who reaches your age still single has to be somewhat damaged, for one reason or another.’
‘Gran, that’s old-fashioned thinking! Girls don’t have to get married today to be happy.’
‘That’s tommy rot. Every girl wants commitment. And children. You do want children, don’t you, Laura?’
‘Of course I do, in due time. Now, Gran, please don’t start dropping hints about marriage and children at dinner tonight. Men like Ryan like to run their own race. He’ll get round to proposing when he’s good and ready.’
‘He’s nearly forty, Laura. What’s he been waiting for all these years?’
‘For the right girl to come along, I suppose,’ Laura said, but not very convincingly.
‘He won’t get a better girl than you.’
Laura’s heart turned over at the compliment. Her gran had always loved her, no matter how she’d acted. Laura knew she’d been a difficult teenager after the shock and grief of her parents’ tragic deaths. Not to mention having to live in a house where she wasn’t exactly wanted. Without her gran’s love she would have been even more wretched than she was. How on earth was she going to survive without her? Yet she would have to. And soon. There was a grey pallor to her grandmother’s skin which frightened Laura.
A weary sigh escaped her grandmother’s lips. ‘I would dearly love to see you married before I go to meet my maker.’
‘You will, Gran,’ Laura said, blinking back tears. ‘You will.’
‘You’ll have to be quick, my darling girl. I don’t have much longer on this earth.’
‘Nonsense. You’ll live till you’re a hundred!’
Her grandmother smiled a wry, knowing smile. ‘I’ll be content with eighty. Which gives you just over a month to get Mr Perfect to propose. Now, I think I should have a little nap before dinner, dear. I get very tired these days. You go make yourself beautiful for that man of yours—not that you don’t already look beautiful. Being in love agrees with you.’
Laura tried not to look guilty. She longed to tell her gran that it wasn’t love making her cheeks flush and her eyes sparkle but good old lust. Not that there was anything good about it. Or old, for that matter. This was an entirely new experience for Laura, which perhaps was why she didn’t know how to handle it. If she’d been one of those girls who’d had loads of lovers she might not be so confused, or so lacking in confidence where sex was concerned. A more experienced woman would use sharing a bedroom tonight to seduce
