style="font-size:15px;"> She had been brought to this village as an orphan—delivered into the care of her great-aunt—a formidable spinster who had had little idea how to cope with a grieving child. Cathy had missed her parents badly—she’d fretted and cried at nights. And her great-aunt, though well-intentioned, had been unusually strict with her, extolling the virtues of clean living, early nights and plenty of book learning.
But Cathy had proved to be something of a disappointment. Not a particularly academic child, she had achieved little in the way of qualifications except for a commendation for cooking and a special mention of the contribution she’d made to the school garden.
When her great-aunt had become ill, Cathy had been happy to nurse the old lady—wanting in some small way to repay the woman’s kindness to her. And after her death Cathy had experienced that same terrible tearing sense of being alone as when her parents had died.
The job as chambermaid at Rupert’s hotel had never been meant to be anything other than a temporary post while she decided what she really wanted to do with her life. It had provided an undemanding refuge from the cruel knocks of life. But the days had drifted into months, then years—until she had met Peter, a trainee clergyman. Friendship had turned into dating and a slow-burning romance. Peter had provided sanctuary, and gentleness—and when he had asked her to marry him, Cathy had said yes, seeing a simple and happy future spread out before her, with a straightforward man who loved her.
Or so he’d said. He had taken a job up north and the plan had been that she would join him at the end of the year. And then yesterday, the letter had arrived. The one which had destroyed all her hopes and dreams and made a mockery of all she stood for. The one which said: I’m sorry, Cathy—but I’ve met somebody else and she’s going to have a baby…
She was so lost in her troubled thoughts that at first she didn’t notice that anybody had walked into Reception. Not until a faint movement alerted her to the presence of someone moving towards the desk. A man. Cathy sat up straight, automatically pinning a professional smile of welcome to her lips.
And froze.
It was one of those rare moments which chanced along once in a lifetime if you were lucky. The sensation of being sucked in by a gaze so mesmerising that you felt as if you were being devoured by it.
Dazed, she stared up into the most startling pair of eyes she had ever seen. Eyes as golden as a late-afternoon sun—all richness and lustre—but underpinned by a cold and metallic gleam.
Unseen beneath the reception desk, Cathy’s fingers bunched themselves into two little fists. She was unable to stop herself from staring at the rest of his face—at arrogant, haughty features which looked as if they had been carved from some rare and gleaming piece of metal. At lips which were curved and full—the corners mocking and sensual. But they were hard, obdurate lips, too, she realised as an instinctive shiver iced her skin.
His hair was dark and ruffled, and his olive skin was faintly flushed, glowing with health and vitality as if he’d been engaged in some kind of violent exercise. Tall and broad-shouldered, his physique was powerful yet lean—a fact which was emphasised by the T-shirt he wore, which clung lovingly to every hard sinew. The muscular torso tapered down into narrow hips and the longest legs she had ever seen. Legs which were encased in mud-spattered denim so faded and old that it seemed to caress his flesh like a second skin. Cathy swallowed. Her heart was racing and her throat had constricted, as if someone were pressing their fingers against it.
‘I’m…I’m afraid you can’t come in here looking like that, sir,’ she said, forcing the words out.
Xaviero studied her—though without quite the same awestruck intensity with which she had been studying him. He had noticed the way her pupils had darkened and the way her lips had parted with unconscious longing. But he was used to having that effect on women—even when he’d just come from a long, hard session of riding, as now. Her stuttering response was not unusual either—though it usually happened when he was on official duty, when people were so caught up with the occasion and the protocol which surrounded him that they couldn’t think straight.
The most important thing was that she hadn’t recognised him—of that he was certain. After a lifetime of being subjected to idolatry and fawning he was an expert in anonymity and in people pretending not to recognise him.
His eyes flicked over her in brief assessment, registering that she was tiny and fair. And that she possessed the most magnificent pair of breasts he had seen in a long while—their thrusting pertness noticeable despite the unflattering white overall she wore. Too big, surely—for such a petite frame? His eyes narrowed in expert appraisal. And yet completely natural, by the look of them.
‘Looking like what?’ he questioned softly.
Cathy’s mouth dried. Even his voice was drop-dead gorgeous. Rich, like dark sweet molasses and with a strange and captivating lilt to it. An accent she’d never heard before and one she couldn’t place at all. But who cared when somehow he managed to turn each syllable into a poem?
Oh, for heaven’s sake, she thought. Pull yourself together. Just because you’ve been dumped by your fiancé, there’s no need to behave like some old spinster—eyeing up the kind of man who wouldn’t look twice at you.
And yet she could do nothing to prevent the powerful thundering of her heart. ‘Looking like…like…’ Like what? He looked like danger, that was what. With the faintly disreputable look of a womaniser who had probably left his motorbike outside—and she knew Rupert’s opinion about bikers staying in the hotel. So get rid of him. Direct him to the B&B down in the village. And do it quickly, before you make even more of a fool of yourself.
‘I’m afraid that all our guests must be properly attired in smart-casual clothing,’ she said quickly, echoing one of Rupert’s stuffy directives and embarrassingly aware of the mocking twist of the man’s lips. ‘It’s…it’s one of the rules.’
Xaviero almost laughed aloud at the pompous restriction—but why knock something which had the power to amuse him? ‘One of the rules?’ he repeated mockingly. ‘A very old-fashioned rule, I must say.’
Cathy risked moving her hands from beneath the desk and she held her palms up in a silent gesture of helplessness. She totally agreed with him—but what could she do? Rupert was still mired in the past. He wanted formality and ostentatious symbols of wealth—he certainly didn’t want people walking into his hotel wearing mud-spattered clothing. Yet Cathy thought of the dwindling guest numbers and thought that her boss could do with all the help he could get.
‘I’m very sorry,’ she repeated softly. ‘But there’s nothing I can do. Our policy is very strict.’
‘Is it now?’ he murmured as he stared down into a pair of wide aquamarine eyes. ‘And you don’t make any…exceptions?’
How could he make such a simple query sound as if…as if…? Her mouth drying like sand, Cathy shook her head, trying to quell the haywire nature of her thoughts, thinking that most people would be happy to make an exception for him. ‘I’m afraid we don’t. Not…not even for guests.’
As she shrugged her shoulders apologetically the movement drew his attention to the sway of her magnificent breasts and, unexpectedly, Xaviero felt the sharp stirring of lust at his groin. For there was no sweeter temptation than a woman who responded to him as a man, rather than as a prince.
Placing one lazy denimed elbow on the counter which separated
