me at least once every few days.’
‘Perhaps,’ he said. He didn’t want to waste time talking about his mother. Not when Shelley’s shawl was slipping off her shoulders again. This time he reached over and took it right off, sliding his hands down her bare arms. She trembled—from the cold in the garage or his touch?
‘One more thing,’ he said.
‘About the car?’ she asked, eyes wide.
‘About this,’ he said. He kissed her, hard and hungry and demanding—making sure she went to that party branded by his kisses. With a throaty little murmur of surprise and pleasure, she opened to him and met his tongue with hers, tasting, exploring, pressing her body to his—until want for her ignited through him in a flare of need. He broke away from her mouth, pressing hot kisses down her throat, tasting her, breathing in her sweet, arousing scent, sliding his hands to cup the enticing side swell of her breasts.
She moaned and wrenched herself away from him. ‘Declan. No. Stop. If...if it was anything other than Lynne’s party I wouldn’t go, I’d stay here and we—’
‘Don’t say it,’ he groaned. ‘Go. Just go.’
She stared at him for a long moment, her breasts rising and falling as she struggled to control her breath. ‘I wish... No. I have to go.’ She planted a quick kiss on his mouth and went to step back but he snaked out his arm to tug her back and kiss her again. Only then did he wrest back control of his willpower and release her.
‘Whatever time you get home, let me know,’ he said, fighting to regain his breath in great, tearing gasps.
‘Even if it’s three in the morning?’ Her lipstick was smeared from his kisses, the pupils of her eyes so dilated he could scarcely see the colour, a pink beard rash around her chin. Good. Those other guys at the party would know she’d been thoroughly kissed and be warned off his woman.
His woman. When had he allowed himself to think of her as that?
‘I’ll be awake and waiting for you,’ he said.
She slid behind the wheel of his car, as if she drove a high-performance sports vehicle every day, her dress sliding tantalisingly high up on her thighs. She laughed in exhilaration as the car started with a low, throaty roar.
‘I am so going to enjoy this,’ she called out to him.
He watched as she drove his favourite car, which no one else but he had ever driven, out of the garage and into the night, then he slammed his fist on the wall of the garage. He wanted to be with her. But here he was, surrounded by expensive cars in the garage of his multimillion-dollar mansion but cold and alone.
Only then came the full realisation of the prison he had created for himself.
* * *
Declan knew the second he got back in the house, his mother would grill him. She did not disappoint.
‘Who is Shelley Fairhill and where did you find her?’ she demanded, getting up from the sofa in the formal living room that was only used on her visits.
Declan shrugged. ‘She found me,’ he said. ‘She knocked on the door and asked could she help me with the garden.’
‘And you didn’t glower and send her on the way?’
‘Yes, I did,’ he said, tight-lipped. ‘But she persevered.’ He added glowering to the list of words people used to describe him. Forbidding was still his favourite.
‘I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall for that encounter. Did she—?’
‘Long story.’
‘And one I’m unlikely to hear the details of,’ said his shrewd mother. ‘She’s beautiful, Declan. And obviously very talented at what she does.’
He nodded. What he felt about Shelley was his own business—he did not want to discuss it with anyone, certainly not his mother.
‘Have you even noticed how beautiful Shelley is?’ She put up her hand. ‘Don’t answer that. I saw the way you were looking at her—and the way she was looking at you.’
‘What do you mean, the way she was looking at me?’
His mother laughed. ‘I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. I haven’t seen you smile so much for...for a long time.’
‘You’re imagining things,’ he said stiffly.
‘No, I’m not,’ she said. ‘I didn’t get to be where I am without being able to read people. By the way, why was her car parked in your driveway?’
Reluctantly he replied. ‘Because she’s living in the apartment.’
‘Oh,’ said his mother with raised eyebrows.
‘Nothing like that,’ he said too hastily. ‘She just needed somewhere to stay.’
His mother sighed. ‘I believe you. But for your sake I wish it were otherwise. She’s lovely, Declan—warm, open and she has kind eyes. I had a really good feeling about her.’
Declan gritted his teeth. ‘She’s all that and more,’ he said. ‘But what is it to you?’
His mother stilled. ‘Despite what you think, I’m desperately concerned about you. Lisa was the best thing that ever happened to you, to the family. But she’s gone, Declan. You’re young. You can’t let yourself just shrivel up and die inside because we lost Lisa. She would never have wanted you to lock yourself away like this.’
Declan gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached. ‘You know I—’
‘You blame yourself. But it wasn’t your fault. Lisa died of a sudden embolism. Nothing could have predicted it or prevented it. And baby Alice? That precious little girl was just born too soon. You mustn’t let the tragedy of their loss cut you off from happiness in your future.’
Declan shifted from foot to foot. ‘It’s not like that.’ He had convinced Lisa to get pregnant when she’d wanted to wait and she’d died in childbirth. His fault.
‘Isn’t it?’ His mother persevered, much as she must do in court. ‘I know I didn’t love you enough when you were that fiercely intelligent, questioning little boy who had his own agenda from the word go. I didn’t know how to be a mother. I’m doing my best to make up for it. You need love more now than you did when you were that little boy.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t want to talk about this.’
‘But you must,’ she said. ‘Don’t close yourself off from the possibility of love. I saw how you looked at Shelley. I saw how she looked at you. You deserve love, no matter what you might think.’
Her voice caught in a tremor and he realised how difficult it was for his mother to be talking to him like this. He also saw how sincere she was.
‘I’ll take that on board,’ he said, relenting.
‘Whatever you might have thought in the
