Seeing his brother take Annie Kincaid’s hand, right in front of Enid’s distressed eyes, Daniel decided something had to be done.
He’d been a fool to think a warning would be enough. ‘Don’t mess with my family,’ he’d said, and meant it. But women like Annie Kincaid didn’t heed warnings. They used their sexuality to get what they wanted out of life.
She was here with Mark, and yet after only the slightest hesitation she’d responded to that kiss of punishment on the stairs. If he’d carried on, instead of putting her away, he could have taken her back to her bedroom, stripped off the tantalising wisps that were supposed to pass as clothing, stripped her down to her luscious, willing flesh and taken her, possessed her.
And she would have revelled in it.
Disturbed by the way his thoughts were beginning to affect his body, he fell in step beside Enid and began to talk horses, which was her other passion, his mind only half on the conversation.
The poor kid had been in and out of the house since her early teens, had become like one of the family. Mark was a fool if he couldn’t see that Enid was worth a thousand Annie Kincaids—cheap baggages with their big and beautiful eyes on the main chance brought nothing but trouble and grief. He wouldn’t want his brother hurt in that particular fire.
Normally he would have said that Mark was old enough, smart enough, to look out for himself. But instinct told him that once Annie Kincaid got a man in her clutches she would twist him around her pretty fingers until he bled. Then toss the besotted wretch aside if a better prospect appeared on the horizon.
He’d seen it happen with Rupert Glover. He was not going to stand around and wait for it to happen to Mark.
It was going to be up to him to do something about it.
The opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with Enid came far more easily than Annie could have hoped for.
After taking Mark on one side—hustling him out of sight after a strained afternoon tea on the terrace—she’d pointed out that getting physical hadn’t been part of their agreement—she didn’t like touching, not even something relatively innocuous like holding hands, if she wasn’t serious and committed.
Mark thought she was mad, and she could have slapped him for the scornful derision on his face. Slapped herself, too, because who the heck did she think she was kidding?
The arrogant, bloody-minded Daniel Faber only had to touch her to make her want to do whatever he wanted her to do.
And the only thing she was serious about as far as he was concerned was the fierce and futile wish that they had never met. And committed? As if!
She and Mark had sat grumbling at each other on a bench behind a potting shed at the far end of the garden for much longer than either had realised.
‘Good Lord!’ Mark shot to his feet. ‘We’re meant to be changing for this evening’s bash.’ He grabbed her hand and tugged her upright, then dropped it. ‘Forgot. Look but don’t touch! Though I presume I’ll be allowed to dance with you later tonight? It would look a bit odd if we didn’t.’
‘Dance?’ She had to trot to keep up with his headlong pace. ‘Isn’t that a bit over the top for a family birthday party?’
‘You don’t know Ma’s parties! She’s a gregarious creature and is best friend to everyone in a ten-mile radius! And they’re all invited to celebrate her birthday. Hence the buffet. And the early start so those with young families can join the fun. After they go—around nine—it all begins to swing. At least we’ll have tomorrow to recover!’
Annie had already made up her mind to head back to London tomorrow. She’d phone for a taxi to ferry her to the nearest train station and Mark would be the last to know. She’d invent some pressing and urgent reason for not staying on, so as not to give offence to the Redways.
She really couldn’t endure another day pinned down beneath the insufferable censure of Daniel Faber’s smouldering eyes, she thought, hurrying along the corridor to her room, meeting Enid as she emerged from the bathroom opposite her doorway.
‘Oh.’ Enid did her best to smile, but Annie saw the lovely face go pale, heard her voice wobble as she said, ‘We all thought you and Mark had got lost. You were missing for so long.’
‘Just talking,’ Annie said breezily, knowing the other girl didn’t believe it, knowing that the other members of the family wouldn’t, either.
‘Oh.’ Again the wobbly attempt at a smile. ‘I’m sharing your bathroom. I hope you don’t mind. Staying overnight. Molly’s parties go on and on.’
This was the golden opportunity, and Annie meant to make full use of it. ‘It’s time we talked,’ she said soothingly. ‘My room, or yours?’
Hours later, Annie wondered if anyone would miss her if she slipped away from the increasingly noisy party and went to bed.
After her talk with Enid, when she’d seen comprehension and complicity suddenly gleam in the beautiful blue eyes, she had felt strangely elated, divorced from it all. Let them sort themselves out.
Mark had had no right to ask for her involvement, and she’d had no right to agree. But, one way or another, she’d be out of here tomorrow.
And the advice she’d given seemed to be working. Enid, bewitching in soft jade-green silk, had been dancing with the hunky son of one of the local farmers ever since the first tape had been slipped into the deck. She ignored Mark completely, giving every impression that she was having the time of her life.
‘Excuse me, Annie.’ As the tempo of the music changed into slow and smoochy, Mark released her from his half-hearted clasp and strode across the floor to claim the woman who was no longer showing the slightest interest in him and far too much in a younger, better-looking guy.
Annie inched towards the open double doors that led to the comparatively quiet hallway. She’d dressed as down as she could, given the stuff she’d brought with her, teaming a float white cotton skirt with a sleeveless black top which had a modest neckline—well, reasonably modest, she amended as she slipped over the parquet of the hall, heading for the staircase.
Mission accomplished, as far as Enid was concerned, and only a few more hours to go before she could make her excuses and leave. Thankfully, Daniel hadn’t asked her to dance. Being held close to that hard, sexy body, knowing that for some reason or other he held her in contempt, would have been purgatory.
He’d been watching her, though. Leaning against an open windowframe at one end of the buffet. His brooding eyes had never left her. It had given her the shakes.
Although the night was warm, she shivered. She wouldn’t be able to relax until she was back in her own small home where she could hole up and forget her second encounter with Daniel Faber. It had had a traumatic effect on her. Which was crazy.
‘Annie—I want a word with you.’ An inescapable hand clamped around her arm. The touch burnt her skin. She didn’t have to turn to know who it was.
Air rushed out of her lungs, making her heart pound, and she had to fight to breathe it
