only knew what Gordon Coulter would do with a headline like that.
‘I’ve learned over the years how to be very discreet. I swear to you that nobody will suspect a thing.’
‘Will Thierry be discreet too?’ she asked, unable to hide the scorn threading her voice as she recalled his threat to make trouble for her.
‘You leave Thierry to me.’
With pleasure.
Dylan pushed his shoulders back, a steely light gleaming in his eyes, and she had to swallow. The golden charmer had gone—had been replaced by someone bigger, harder...and far more intimidating. Beneath his laughing, charismatic allure, she sensed that Dylan had a warrior’s heart.
His nostrils flared. ‘I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch you.’
She couldn’t have said why, but she believed him—implicitly. Her heart started to thud too hard, too fast. ‘Dylan, surely you’d be better off concocting this kind of scheme with one of Carla’s friends? They’d—’
‘She doesn’t have any. Not close. Not any more.’
Why ever not?
His face turned to stone, but his eyes flashed fire. ‘Two years ago Carla’s boyfriend ran off with her best friend.’
Mia closed her eyes.
‘Carla went into a deep depression and pushed all her friends away. She’s never been the sort of person to have a lot of close friends—a large social circle, perhaps, but only one or two people she’d consider close—and...’
‘And it was all a mess after such a betrayal,’ she finished for him, reading it in his face and wanting to spare him the necessity of having to say it out loud. ‘Loyalties were divided and some fences never mended.’
He nodded.
She leapt up, needing to work off the agitation coursing through her. ‘Dylan, I...’
‘What?’
She swung back to him. ‘I don’t know how we can pull off something like that—pretending to date—convincingly.’
She sat again, feeling like a goose for striding around and revealing her agitation. When she glanced across at him the expression in his eyes made her stomach flip-flop. In one smooth motion he slid across until they were almost touching. He smelt fresh and clean, like sun-warmed cotton sheets, and her every sense went on high alert.
He touched the backs of his fingers to her cheek and she sucked in a breath, shocked at her need to lean into the contact. Oh, this was madness!
‘Dylan, I—’
His thumb pressed against her mouth, halting her words. Then he traced the line of her bottom lip and a pulse thumped to life inside her. She couldn’t stop her lip from softening beneath his touch, or her mouth from parting ever so slightly so she could draw the scent of him into her lungs.
‘I don’t think you realise how lovely you are.’
Somewhere nearby a peacock honked. Something splashed in the lily pond. But all Mia could focus on was the man in front of her, staring down at her as if...as if she were a cream bun he’d like to devour...slowly and deliciously.
It shocked her to realise that in that moment she wanted nothing more than to be a cream bun.
Dangerous.
The word whispered through her. Some part of her mind registered it, but she was utterly incapable of moving away and breaking the spell Dylan had woven around them.
‘Sweet and lovely Mia.’
The low, warm promise in his voice made her breath catch.
‘I think we’re going to have exactly the opposite problem. I think if we’re not careful we could be in danger of being too convincing...we could be in danger of convincing ourselves that a lie should become the truth.’
A fire fanned through her. Yesterday, when he’d flirted with her, hadn’t it just been out of habit? Had he meant it? He found her attractive?
‘Dylan...’ His name whispered from her. She didn’t mean it to.
His eyes darkened at whatever he saw in her face. ‘I dreamed of you last night.’
Dangerous.
The word whispered through her again.
But it didn’t feel dangerous. It felt right to be whispering secrets to each other.
His thumb swept along the fullness of her bottom lip again, pulling against it to explore the damp moistness inside, sensitising it almost beyond bearing. Unable to help herself, she flicked out her tongue to taste him.
‘Mia...’ He groaned out her name as if it came from some deep, hidden place.
His head moved towards her, his lips aiming to replace his thumb, and her soul suddenly soared.
Dangerous.
Dangerous and glorious. This man had mesmerised her from the moment she’d first laid eyes on him and—
Mesmerised...?
Dangerous!
With a half-sob Mia fisted her hands in his shirt, but didn’t have the strength to push him away. She dropped her chin, ensuring that his kiss landed on her brow instead of her lips.
She felt rather than heard him sigh.
After three hard beats of her heart she let him go. In another two he slid back along the bench away from her.
‘As I said, I don’t think being convincing will be a problem. However much you might deny it, something burns between us—something that could be so much more than a spark if we’d let it.’
It would be foolish to deny it now.
‘Why do you have a no-dating rule?’ he asked.
His words pulled her back. With an effort, she found her voice. ‘It keeps me out of trouble.’
He remained silent, as if waiting for more, but Mia refused to add anything else.
‘Maybe one day you’ll share your reasoning with me, but until then I fully mean to respect your rules, Mia.’
He did? She finally glanced up at him.
The faintest of smiles touched his lips. ‘And, unlike you, I’m more than happy to share my reasons. One—’ he held up a finger ‘—if I don’t respect your no-dating rule I suspect I have no hope of winning your co-operation where Carla’s concerned.’
Self-interest? At least that was honest.
He held up a second finger. ‘And, two, it seems to me you already have enough people in your life who don’t respect your wishes. I don’t
