now. So...Cara Donohue. “Your sister is Cara Donohue?”
Maura’s features lit up. “You’ve seen her films then?”
“I have. She’s wonderful.” And she’d had no idea that Hollywood’s favorite young actress was related to the King family.
“She is that,” Maura said proudly. “It was the film Jefferson shot here on the farm that gave her the big break. She’d done some soaps in London, but after this small film here, Jefferson signed her to do—”
“O’Malley’s Bride,” Dina finished for her.
“The very one.” Maura practically beamed with pride. “She was nominated for best actress for the role. She didn’t win, of course, but the nomination itself was a wonder.”
This whole trip was a wonder, Dina told herself. Maura was kind and friendly, Jefferson was warm and funny, and Connor...she looked at him, and as if he felt her watching him, he caught her gaze and gave her the smile that made her knees weak and her insides nearly purr.
“Oh, yes,” Maura whispered, giving her a little elbow nudge. “There’s plenty there to be managed, Dina. Up to you, of course, but a King, as I said, is more than worth the trouble.”
* * *
Whatever the two women had been talking about earlier had put Dina in an odd mood. Though she’d been patient with the triplets as always, it was as if her body was there, but her mind somewhere else. Back at the castle, with the babies asleep, Connor joined Dina at the open window in the living room. A cold wind rushed inside, but she made no move to shut it. Her long black hair lifted and twisted in that breeze and flew about her face in a dark halo. Her hands gripped the windowsill and her face was turned into the wind, the night.
“Are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” she said softly.
He took her arm and pulled her around to face him. Studying her eyes, he tried to read what she was thinking, feeling, but though those chocolate depths called to him as always, he couldn’t make out what she was hiding from him. The only way to find out was to dig beneath the surface.
Exactly what he’d been aching to do for too long.
He’d never known this kind of overpowering desire. Usually when he wanted a woman, he had her. But for too long all he’d been able to do was ache for Dina. Most of the women he’d come across in his life had leapt at the chance to climb into his bed. The problem had always been getting them to leave again.
Naturally, Dina was different. And he liked that. In fact, everything about her appealed to him. Her gentleness with the babies, her willingness to stand up to him for what she believed was right—the fact that she didn’t want anything from him except what he owed the babies. She had even been insulted at the thought of him buying her off. She was damned fascinating in every way and he hadn’t expected that. Con wasn’t interested in feeling anything other than the desire that pounded inside him. He wasn’t interested in depth. Wasn’t looking for forever. What he wanted was her.
“You’re thinking,” he said, in a quiet, teasing tone. “That can’t be good for me.”
Reluctantly, she smiled. “Might not be good for me, either,” she admitted. “Look, Connor, I think we have to figure out what we’re doing here. I can’t continue to stay at your house with the trips indefinitely. I have a life and a business to run. I can’t just walk away from that.”
“Who’s stopping you from running your business from my house?”
“That only solves one issue,” she said, clearly frustrated. “I can’t stay with you, Connor, just because you think it’s more convenient.”
“You’ll be with me, Dina,” he said, “because you won’t lose the triplets and I’m not giving them up.”
“So where does that leave us, exactly?” She shook her hair back from her face and looked up into his eyes. “Neither one of us is willing to give in, so we just live with a stalemate?”
He couldn’t give her an answer because he didn’t have one. On this trip, it had felt almost as if they were a family. He’d allowed the castle manager, Sean, to assume Con and Dina were married—he’d considered it expedient earlier, but maybe the truth was that he hadn’t minded the assumption as much as he would have expected.
And that realization was staggering, so he put it aside to look at later. Maybe. Right now there was only one thing he was interested in and he was done waiting.
“Why worry about any of this tonight, Dina?”
“We have to—”
“Right now, all we have to do is this.” He cupped her face in his palms, bent his head and touched his mouth to hers. Soft, gentle, barely a brush of lips to lips before he pulled back and looked down into her eyes.
“I want you, Dina,” he said, his voice as quiet as his kiss. “I have from the first moment I saw you.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Me, too.”
He smiled and bent his forehead to hers. The knots inside him loosened and his body went hard and ready in a heartbeat. “Then what’re we waiting for?”
Taking her hand, Connor grabbed the baby monitor from a nearby table before stalking to his bedroom while Dina hurried to keep up. Once inside, he closed the door, set the monitor down and drew Dina into the circle of his arms. He indulged himself with a long, deep kiss, savoring the taste of her, the feel of her, the sweet surrender she offered to the fires burning between them.
Moonlight slanted through the windows and lay across her face and hair like molten silver. She shimmered with beauty that had haunted him from the first. His mouth went dry as he pulled back to fill his gaze with her.
The room was dark but for that pale wash of moonlight. A four-poster spindle bed took up most of the space but there were tables, chairs and a blue tiled hearth that lay dark and cold.
“This is probably a mistake,” she said and Connor’s heart stopped for a second.
“That mean you want to stop?” He’d stop if she’d changed her mind, but he was pretty sure it would kill him.
“No,” she said with a small shake of her head.
“Thank God.” They’d waited long enough. Too long. This tension between them had been building since that first day when she’d faced him down in her tiny kitchen. They’d been headed here, to this moment, ever since. Con knew she was right—this probably was a mistake—they still had so much to work out between them, sex would only complicate things. But he’d figure that out later. Right now, they’d waited long enough.
He backed her up to the bed, lifting the hem of her sweater to help her tug it off. Connor couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. He wanted to feel her skin beneath his hands. Wanted to touch and explore every tempting curve he’d been dreaming about for days.
Her
