you?” Even he cringed at his condescending tone. Defensiveness didn’t sit well on him.
But on her... The way she stiffened her spine put other attributes on display. Tate tried not to notice.
“Are you kidding me?” she demanded. “You obviously haven’t tried driving a tiny car over that bridge in fifty-mile-an-hour wind gusts. Have you?”
Tate felt himself automatically shut down. No, he hadn’t driven in this kind of weather...not for many, many years. And he never would. Certainly not over the narrow bridge that connected the island to the mainland.
“I made a lot of effort to get here. It’s at least common courtesy to let me try to do the job.”
Tate clenched his jaw, frustration tightening his tone. “If you stay, you won’t find courtesy to be one of my strong points.”
This time she didn’t respond, but adopted a stance that mimicked his own. In that moment, Tate recognized her.
Oh, he’d never met her before, but he’d described her type over and over in his work. She was the embodiment of the heroines he wrote about in his horror stories. Women with grit, determination and smarts who made it out alive when lesser mortals rarely survived.
That tingling awareness he’d been doing his best to ignore multiplied. All the more reason to get her out of here.
A flash of white lit the room as lightning suddenly streaked across the night sky. Tate saw her jaw clench and shoulders straighten as she braced herself. Admirable. It was a little clue that told him a lot about her. Heck, the fact that she’d made it here in the first place in this weather signified a strength and determination some people never displayed in their lifetime.
The flash was followed closely by a hard clap of thunder. The storm was picking up again. But it was just starting for Tate.
Somehow he knew giving in on this point meant he would lose this battle...and lose the war. But she was right. As a long roll of thunder shook the house, he knew he couldn’t send her back out in this weather. His own feelings about her presence aside, he refused to make an impulsive decision that cost someone their life.
Again.
“Let me show you to a room, then.”
At least he had let her stay instead of forcing her back out into the weather.
The consolation was mild as her overactive brain was assaulted with emotions. First the drive and the storm, then the dark house, and now being led up this magnificent staircase by a tall, brooding man carrying an old-fashioned lantern. If she wanted atmosphere, she’d received it in abundance.
Actually, more than she’d hoped for.
She shivered, though she couldn’t tell if it was because of her still-damp shirt or the continued uncertainty of this entire situation.
Tate led her only a short way down the hall before pausing beside a closed door. As with the ones she’d seen downstairs, there were intricate carvings, swirls and maybe leaves and vines that gave the wood dimension. Even in the gloom it was gorgeous. “This will be your room for the night.”
So, he still wouldn’t concede that she was right?
“Where’s yours?” she asked, only to clamp her lips together in regret.
In the light of the lantern she watched one thick, dark brow rise. “I’m in a suite at the end of the hall,” he answered simply.
Right.
The darkened room beyond slowly came to life as Tate lit candles from a fireplace match. Willow stared in awe as the historical setting came to life. A large silver candelabrum on the dresser provided most of the light, with smaller candlesticks dotted around the room. As Tate’s big body moved through the shadows, fear and fascination mingled inside of her.
A four-poster bed with drapes and some kind of fabric topper dominated the space, the white fabric with navy filigree pattern lending to the old-fashioned feel of the room. Add in the tall man with shoulder-length disheveled hair and she had the makings of a regular Wuthering Heights on her hands. The thought sent another shiver over her.
As he turned to look at her, she became all too conscious of her body’s reaction. She’d love to blame it on the cold, but she feared the tightening of her nipples had more to do with the man standing before her than the temperature. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest.
Let him make of that what he wanted.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. Even in the shadows, there was no mistaking the intricate designs on the furniture and fabrics.
His gruff command grated on her nerves. “Don’t get too attached. We will discuss this situation in the morning.”
“Really? We’re still not over that, are we?” She wasn’t sure what gave her the gumption to say it, but as she stood there shivering with cold, she was over his attitude.
He raised those dark brows again. “I may require more patience than you possess.”
There was almost a literary quality to his pronunciation that sharpened the edge of his words.
Maybe he was right, but... “I have more patience than you could imagine. After all, I teach history to eighteen-year-old freshmen who think being at college gives them the freedom to do whatever they want.”
Her response seemed to surprise him, lightening his expression a little. “The fearlessness to enter a dark house, the patience of a saint... Is there anything else Murdoch didn’t tell me about you?”
I’m attracted to tall, dark and mysterious men? “Um...a classroom of eighty of those monsters has made me efficient, organized and slightly entertaining?”
“Do you really call them monsters?”
This time she didn’t hold back a cheeky grin. “To their faces—with the utmost of affection, I assure you.”
“Then I can only imagine what you’d call me.”
Before she could come up with a clever response, he was at the door. “Good night,” he said as he left the room, closing the door behind him.
At least he didn’t lock me in.
Willow half grinned, half whimpered at the thought. Her sisters would take away her modern-woman card if they knew she’d been seriously attracted to the dark brooding man in the darkened house on the isolated island. Somehow she’d been cast in her very own Gothic mystery with a leading man who would fit right in with Hollywood’s most gorgeous heartthrobs.
But she had a feeling he saw her more as a nuisance than a leading lady. She’d do well to remember that.
Despite wanting to get out of her damp clothes and shoes, Willow took a moment to slowly turn around in the middle of the room. This place was incredible. The furniture she’d seen in the other rooms had been antique, too, but this was an incredibly high-quality
