when she had been madly infatuated with him, when she used to follow him with her eyes every time she saw him, she had still never been submissive enough to listen to what he had to say without responding.
He moved across to the door to stand by her, looking down at her with a calculating little gleam in his eyes.
‘Busy right now?’ he asked, and she stared into his blue eyes, surprised and taken aback by his sudden digression.
‘Quite busy, yes,’ she said warily. ‘Why?’
He shrugged. ‘Merely being polite. After all, we’ve hardly exchanged pleasantries since I got here.’
‘I don’t remember a time when that bothered you particularly,’ Christina commented matter-of-factly.
He raised one brow, but she knew that he really couldn’t care less what she thought of him. He liked her well enough; time, after all, did bring a certain unsought familiarity into any relationship. But as far as he was concerned she existed on his periphery. His sister’s friend. The plain little girl who had grown into a quite ordinary-looking young woman. He had never looked twice at her and he never would, and so he had nothing to prove with her. He didn’t even have to pretend to care what she thought about him.
‘What interesting jobs have you got lined up? Fiona keeps me well informed about your fascinating line of work.’
‘Does she?’ Christina asked politely, thinking that he sounded anything but fascinated.
‘What was your last project? Photographing a member of royalty for a magazine cover?’
Christina nodded and wondered where this line of questioning was leading.
‘Must be very convenient, freelancing,’ he murmured, looking at her sideways. ‘I sometimes wish I had that sort of luxury.’
‘What? And give up the stress of the concrete jungle?’ she asked sarcastically. ‘I don’t believe that for one minute, Adam.’
He laughed softly. ‘No, perhaps you’re right,’ he murmured. ‘Still, you work to your own timetable, don’t you?’
‘Not really.’
He ignored that. ‘Which is particularly convenient right at this moment, because I want you to come with me to Scotland to fetch my sister.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘YOU want what?’ Christina stared at him as though he had gone completely mad and he stared back at her with an insufferable look of patience on his face.
‘I want you to come with me to Scotland,’ he repeated, very slowly, ‘to fetch my sister. You’ve already agreed that she was crazy to have just vanished with that fool of a boy. Who knows where it will lead? And if she makes the mistake of marrying him, it’ll be over my dead body. So naturally I have to prevent that from happening at all costs.’
‘Oh, naturally,’ Christina spluttered angrily. ‘You go right ahead and do what you feel you have to do, but please don’t include me in your plans.’
She opened the front door and a cold blast of air wafted in.
Her flat did not lead directly out to the street, but rather on to a small landing shared by her neighbour’s adjacent flat. Even so, it was cold outside.
He pushed the door shut and leant against it, his arms folded.
‘You have to come, Tina, you’re her friend. Supposedly.’
She gave him a long, withering look. She hoped it spoke volumes, because she didn’t trust her vocabulary to cover precisely what she wanted to say on the subject, which was a good deal.
‘Don’t you dare use that sort of blackmail on me,’ she said emphatically. ‘You might be able to get your way with most people, over most things, but not with me and definitely not on this matter!’
There, she thought, take that.
But instead of moving out of her way, instead of acknowledging defeat, he continued to look at her, his face grim. He wasn’t playing any games when it came to this. She could see that. Ever since his parents had died, he had taken care of his sister zealously. Despite her age, he considered her his responsibility, probably until she settled down and married someone in whom he could safely entrust her well-being.
As far as he was concerned, Fiona was in danger of committing the biggest mistake of her short life and he was not going to stand around without doing something about it.
Christina could follow that line of thought, even though she wasn’t quite sure whether she agreed with it or not.
However, as far as she was concerned, coercing her into some kind of confrontation with his sister was out of the question.
She was not about to start taking sides with anyone, because she would have hated it if she had been in Fiona’s situation. Hardly likely, she acknowledged honestly, since highly unsuitable men weren’t attracted to her in the slightest, but that was not the point.
‘I’m not leaving here until you agree to accompany me,’ he said blandly enough, although his face was hard and determined. ‘You know my sister as well as I do. She’ll have a fit if I show up on the doorstep, playing big brother. But if she sees you, she might feel more inclined to listen to sense.’
‘Alternatively, she might just slam the door in both our faces and tell us to mind our own damn business!’
‘It’s a risk we’ll have to take.’
‘Correction; it’s a risk you’ll have to take.’
She glared at him and he reached out and gripped her by her arm, pulling her towards him so that their faces were only inches apart.
‘Now you listen to me,’ he said with razor sharpness. ‘You’re coming with me whether you like it or not. You can just get down from that “you’re entitled to do what you like in life” platform. This is Fiona and we’re not talking about some casual little fling here. She’s been seeing this boy for quite a while and she seems serious about him.’
‘It might be mutual,’ Christina interjected feebly, but she was on weak ground here, she knew that.
‘We both know that that’s not the case. God knows why my sister can’t see the obvious, but that’s irrelevant. The fact is, I don’t want her doing anything she’d live to regret.’ He took a deep breath and looked at her coldly. His fingers were still biting into her arm, and Christina gave a little tug, which he ignored. ‘Have I told you that he was throwing out feelers as to how much money she stands to acquire on her twenty-fifth birthday?’
Christina gasped, appalled. ‘No! Surely not!’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘Did you mention that to Fiona?’
He gave a short, cynical laugh. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. That would have had the opposite effect.’ He released her abruptly and she massaged her numb arm, trying to get the blood circulation back into action.
