is garbage.’ Grimacing with distaste, she closed the paper and turned back to stir the fragrant-smelling stock in the pan.
‘Know that for sure, do you, sweetheart?’
To her alarm, Steven came up behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder. His touch made Liadan shudder as though a bug had just crawled down her bare skin and she swung round and pushed her hands roughly against his chest to make him go away. ‘I told you before, if you ever lay your hands on me again I’ll call the police!’
‘Think your threats can scare me, little Miss Goody Two Shoes? Just who the hell do you think you’re saving yourself for—the Lord of the Manor? He might bed you, sweetheart, but don’t expect any more than that. You’ve seen what he did to that actress. When he marries it won’t be to the likes of you or her. It’ll be to some posh tart that went to the right school whose daddy is loaded. You could do worse than be nice to me, Liadan. A lot worse.’
His mouth was twisting cruelly, and the macabre grin made her blood run cold. Trembling with emotion, Liadan shook her head. ‘If you want to delude yourself, fine! Enjoy your little daydream while it lasts, because if you so much as come within ten feet of me again I’ll go straight to your father and tell him exactly what you’ve been doing.’
‘No, you won’t.’
‘Yes, I w—’
‘What’s going on here?’ Adrian stepped inside the room with a face like a thundercloud. Liadan’s heart almost stopped. Grabbing up the paper from the table, she quickly folded it and shoved it into Steven’s hands. The last thing Adrian needed to see today was that vile slander.
‘Nothing.’ She smiled, her blue eyes silently signalling Steven to keep quiet. With another self-satisfied grimace, the younger man touched the paper to his head as though doffing his cap and sauntered past Adrian as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
‘Just a minute.’
‘Yes, Mr Jacobs?’
‘I don’t want you coming in here bothering Liadan when she’s working. Is that understood?’ Although Adrian’s smooth, even voice belied it, Liadan could hear the rage that simmered beneath the calm surface when he addressed the younger man.
‘Yes, Mr Jacobs.’
‘And you’d better take that stupid smirk off your face right now before I take it off for you!’
‘Is that a threat?’
‘If you want to keep your job you’d better not even think about getting cute with me. Do I make myself clear, Mr Ferrers?’
Clearly struggling to keep a lid on his temper, Steven nodded his head derisively before stalking from the room looking as if he was going to kick the nearest thing that came into contact with his boot.
Letting go of the breath she’d been holding, Liadan pressed her hand to her chest, her fingers closing over a tiny pearl button on the roll-neck collar of her soft wool sweater.
‘You should know better than to encourage him.’ Arms akimbo, Adrian studied her as if she was a great disappointment to him. Indignation and hurt welled in Liadan’s chest at his careless assumption about her association with the younger man. Did he really think she’d be interested in a low-life like Steven Ferrers?
‘I didn’t! I mean I don’t! He just wanted to—’
‘I’m not interested in what he wanted from you, Liadan. Things would run a lot more smoothly round here if the people I employed just got on with their jobs and kept the organisation of their social lives for their days off!’
As he strode out of the room Liadan took a moment to absorb the outrageous admonition before haring off after him and catching up to him in the corridor. Unable to think past the fury that was threatening to burst out of her like a hot spring, she caught his arm to make him stop and face her.
Adrian stared down at the pale, slender fingers curved round his bicep, and couldn’t deny the fierce stab of heat that went straight from his arm to his groin. For a moment it made him almost dizzy—weak with longing. With her blue eyes flashing and her chest heaving, right now Liadan Willow was the woman of his dreams, the epitome of all his fantasies rolled into one gorgeous, sexy package…
‘Just a minute! You can’t just walk in, say something as insulting as that and then walk out again!’
‘You don’t think I have a right to admonish you if you waste your time making social arrangements with Steven Ferrers when I’m paying you both to work for me?’
Suddenly aware of exactly where her hand was resting, Liadan snatched it back, her pale face awash with burning heat. All she could think of was one thing now she had felt the throb of that steely bicep beneath her fingers…sex. Adrian Jacobs was sex on legs and just lately it had been slow, sweet torture to even be in the same room as him. Never in all her twenty-seven years had Liadan experienced such wanton longing for a man.
‘I don’t even like the man! Why do you think I would even dream of seeing him after work?’
‘It’s not such a stretch of the imagination, is it? He’s not bad-looking, I suppose, and he certainly has a reputation for being a bit of a magnet for some of the local girls, so I’m told.’ Adrian shrugged and glanced away. When he next rested his dark brown eyes on Liadan, one corner of his usually stern mouth had disconcertingly lifted in a little half-smile. ‘Maybe you’re lonely? You’re a young, healthy woman, Liadan—barring head wounds caused by an aversion to running over rabbits. I’m sure you have the normal desires of any young female. You don’t have to be ashamed of them.’
Barely able to speak over the dryness in her mouth, Liadan frowned. ‘I’m not ashamed. I’m just not interested in Steven Ferrers and I don’t want you believing that I am.’
‘Good.’ His voice arrestingly low, Adrian brushed back a curl from her forehead and seemed to be examining the gauze pad that was still taped there. His touch immediately sent tiny electrical currents of shock pulsing throughout Liadan’s body. She felt shivery with heat, weak with fervent, helpless longing, as if her insides were slowly but inexorably melting.
‘I like this sweater,’ he said beguilingly, his hand moving away from her forehead and resting instead on the front of her mulberry-coloured jumper.
‘Do you?’ Mesmerised by his hot glance, Liadan hardly dared breathe.
‘It shows off your shape to perfection.’
She sensed his fingers move inevitably downwards until they stroked across the burgeoning nub of her nipple, peaked inside her pretty lace bra. Her womb contracted deeply in shock, and a violent wave of scalding desire throbbed through her body leaving her momentarily dazed.
‘Adrian, I—’
He withdrew his hand, but his glance still burned. Liadan could feel the prickling sensation on her breast where he had touched her, the primitive aching need between her legs…
‘Keep away from Steven Ferrers. Take it from me, he’s trouble. If he bothers you in any way I want you to tell me right away. Understand?’
All she could do was nod. Right now she was hardly capable of speech.
‘Oh,
