his mouth, kissing it briefly, his eyes searing down into hers. ‘All you have to do is let me know …’
Kate gulped. ‘Tiarnan, I …’ She stopped. She couldn’t fight the inevitable—couldn’t not own up to her own desire. So finally she just said weakly, ‘OK.’
Sudden trepidation assailed her. He must be assuming that she’d had plenty of practice in the last ten years, and while she hadn’t been celibate, she hadn’t exactly been swinging from the rafters either. He certainly wouldn’t be getting the sophisticated seduction he was no doubt used to and expecting!
He let her hand go and stepped back. ‘Why don’t you rest up and settle in? Mama Lucille will be serving dinner in a couple of hours …’
He stood there, silhouetted by the sun, looking taller and leaner and darker than she could ever remember him being, and Kate felt almost paralysed by the strength of her desire. When she finally could, she just nodded, and turned and fled.
CHAPTER SIX
THAT evening Kate looked blankly at her clothes laid out on the bed. Luckily she’d been able to go shopping in Madrid to pick up some more things. Tiarnan had offered to buy them for her, but her withering look at that suggestion had made him throw his hands up and step back saying, ‘Fine—I’ve just never known a woman to turn down a chance of a free shopping trip.’
Kate’s hackles had risen—and a sense of having made a monumental error. ‘Well, I’m not every other woman out there, and I can afford to dress myself—thank you all the same.’
Her mind returned to the present, but with a lingering aftertaste of the jealousy she’d felt when he’d alluded to dressing other women. She forced it from her mind. She was well aware that she was going to be the latest in a long line of Tiarnan Quinn’s conquests. He was nothing if not discreet about his lovers, and Kate knew that was to protect Rosie—but, coming from the world she came from, she was well aware of the gossip that told of the countless beauties he’d bedded over the years, all of whom had been left with extravagantly generous gifts. Kate vowed there and then that she would not be the same. No trinket, no matter how expensive, would be lavished on her at the end of this. Even the thought of it made her burn with humiliation.
She finally focused on the clothes in front of her again. What did one wear to dinner with the man who’d stolen your heart for what felt like all your life? Kate felt the colour drain from her face and she pressed a hand to her chest, feeling suddenly constricted. He hadn’t stolen her heart. He hadn’t. How could he have? She’d had a teenage crush that had culminated in the single most shattering moment of her life. That was all. She hadn’t spent enough time with him to fall in love with him. That night had ripped away any rose-tinted views she might have had of love. And she certainly hadn’t come close since.
She couldn’t love someone like Tiarnan. He was too hard, too forceful. Too obviously driven to succeed—like her father. She’d always pictured herself with someone kind, gentle … unassuming.
This was just going to be a brief interlude. A completion of something that she had started a long time ago. She was doing this so that she could move on with her life and banish Tiarnan Quinn from all the corners of her mind in which he still lingered. She wasn’t in love with him, she was in lust. That was all.
The constriction in her chest eased, Kate breathed deep. And finally managed to choose something to wear.
When she came downstairs and approached the door leading out to the wooden terrace at the back of the house a short while later, she could hear Tiarnan’s deep rumble of a voice and Mama Lucille’s infectious belly laugh. Kate felt unaccountably self-conscious all over again, and resisted the urge to smooth sweaty palms on the dress she’d chosen. It was plain and simple, as only the best designer clothes could be. She’d picked out something that helped her to feel covered up—a deep royal blue silk maxi-dress. She knew how lucky she was that because of her profession she’d never lacked for beautiful clothes, and she was glad of the armour now—as if she could somehow project an image that Tiarnan would be familiar with: an elegant and nonchalant lover.
But when she took a deep breath and walked out Tiarnan looked up. His eyes locked onto hers, and she immediately felt undressed, despite the ankle-length dress, and regretted pulling her hair back into a low ponytail, wishing she had it loose, to cover her face. The silk seemed to cling and caress her body with indecent eagerness. All nonchalance fled and the churning turmoil was back with a vengeance as every step brought her closer and closer to that glittering blue gaze that swept up and down her body, leaving what felt like a trail of fire in its wake.
For a second, as Kate walked towards him, Tiarnan’s brain went completely blank and every coherent thought was replaced with heat. She was a vision in blue silk that seemed to waft around her body and yet cling to every curve with a lover’s touch. He looked down, and his chest tightened with an indefinable emotion when he saw that her feet were bare. The heat in his brain intensified, and only Mama Lucille pointedly clearing her throat stopped him from turning into a drooling speechless idiot. Some of the most beautiful women in the world had appeared similarly dressed before him, for his pleasure, yet they had never had this paralysing effect on him. He managed to stand just as Kate got to the table, her delicate scent reaching his nostrils as he pulled out her chair and she sat down with a warm smile directed at Mama Lucille.
Her colour was high and she was avoiding his eye, making Tiarnan feel unaccountably flustered. He ignored Mama Lucille’s explicit look, which seemed to bore a hole in his head, and thankfully she bustled off with her young assistant in tow.
Kate struggled to get her heartbeat and her breathing under control. The dress which had felt so appropriate now felt like the most inappropriate thing she could have chosen. When she felt sufficiently calm she flicked a glance to Tiarnan. He was staring at her with hooded eyes. Against her volition, her eyes dropped, taking in the snowy-white shirt, open at the neck, and the dark trousers. His hair was damp, as if he’d showered not long ago, and Kate could feel heat climbing upwards over her chest. She grabbed her napkin and clung onto it, twisting it under the table.
‘Where’s Rosie?’
Tiarnan’s eyes didn’t move from hers. ‘She came back here earlier with Zoe, for dinner with Mama Lucille. Zoe’s mother, Anne-Marie, collected them just before you came down. She’s spending the night at their place. It’s something of a tradition. She’ll be back in the morning.’
Kate looked down for a moment. They were alone all night? Her heart was thudding heavily, unevenly. Right then she wished for Rosie’s comforting presence, even with the tension between father and daughter. ‘She’s having fun, then …’
Tiarnan nodded. ‘Yes. She’s surrounded by people who love her like their own, and it’s important for her to have that while she’s determined to reject me.’
Kate looked at him, unable not to, touched deeply by his concern that Rosie feel loved even while she was determined not to accept love from him. In her experience parents either ignored their children or resented them. And yet he was doing his utmost to make sure Rosie was secure.
‘You’re a good father, Tiarnan.’ She cursed herself for sounding so husky and trite. And cursed herself again when she could feel that armour she’d put up around herself crumble ever so slightly. In an instant he had smashed aside her assertion that he was a man like her father—too career-orientated to care about his daughter.
To her relief Mama Lucille returned with a steaming bowl, followed by Eloise, the girl who’d helped with the luggage and who Mama Lucille now introduced
