скачать книгу бесплатно
‘Those things people used to read in print form, but now mostly download online.’
‘I believe they still print books, Mr James,’ she said, a glimmer of anger burning low in her stomach. ‘But, yes, I like to read.’
‘I’m being facetious, Red.’ He smiled easily. ‘I prefer non-fiction to fiction. You?’
Carly would prefer to be anywhere but having to look into his handsome face. ‘Both are good,’ she said warily, wondering where he was going with this.
‘Personally I’m too straightforward for fiction. I don’t like things that are made-up.’
‘Well, it depends on the author’s imagination,’ Carly said, pushing a strand of hair that had come loose from her bun back behind her ear.
‘Do you have a good one?’ He ran the tip of his index finger along the long stem of his wineglass.
‘Miss Evans?’
Carly blinked. ‘Book?’
‘Imagination?’
‘I... I like to think so, but I’m not an author. I couldn’t wri—’
‘Helen Garner is an author I admire.’
‘Who?’
‘I wouldn’t expect you to know who she is. She’s Australian. Very literary. I lived in Australia for a while when I was young. Did you know that?’
‘No.’ Carly glanced at the door wishing the Baron would hurry up and return. ‘Look, Mr James—’
‘Call me Dare.’
Carly let out a breath. ‘This is all very fascinating but—’
‘My mother discovered Ms Garner’s work first, but then I happened to study her at university.’
‘University?’ Her voice sounded shaky and she cleared it.
‘Keep up, Red.’ His smile was so phony she wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled out a deck of tarot cards and started reading her fortune. ‘A university is an institution one attends when they’re looking to better themselves.’
‘I know what a university is, Mr James,’ she said from between her teeth. ‘I’m just struggling to follow the conversation.’
‘Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. You have other great qualities that are far more important, but you know that, don’t you?’ His eyes held hers. ‘Are you sure you won’t have another drink? Benson’s pulled out all stops with the wine.’
As she realised that he had only been amusing himself at her expense Carly’s slowly simmering anger just met its point of ignition. ‘I’m trying to be pleasant here,’ she bit out.
Dare rose from his seat, wine bottle in hand. ‘Believe me, Red, so am I.’
Like hell. She glared at him. ‘Call me that name again and you won’t like the consequences.’
Many children had tried while she’d been growing up and they’d got the wrong end of her temper every time.
‘Is that a threat?’ he mocked.
Carly took a deep breath and told herself not to let him get to her. Then she didn’t care. ‘I don’t like what you’ve been implying,’ she said, facing him squarely. ‘Why not come right to the point if you’re so straightforward?’
He rounded the table and prowled towards her. Carly had to fight every bone in her body not to get up and run.
‘You picked up on that, huh?’
‘On your veiled animosity?’ She gave him a superior smile of her own. ‘Even a small child would have found it hard to miss.’
‘But then children are so perceptive. Do you want children, Red?’
He reached out and brushed the loose strand of her hair back behind her ear. Carly gasped, twisting in her seat to look up at him. ‘You don’t care if I want children or not,’ she said, distracted by the way her skin tingled where his fingers had grazed it.
‘Not really,’ he agreed affably, leaning on the back of her chair. ‘But if they’re on your agenda you might want to consider Benson’s age. He won’t exactly be pitching a football with the youngster in the backyard. Not that the backyard isn’t big enough. You made sure of that first, didn’t you?’
Carly would speak but she wasn’t sure she could pry her teeth apart to get words out.
If she wasn’t mistaken this Neolithic fool had just accused her of being his grandfather’s mistress. She wasn’t sure what she thought was worse. The fact that he believed her to have been intimate with a man nearly three times her age, or that he thought her a gold-digger.
Incensed beyond all reason, Carly tried to shove her chair back but found she couldn’t because he had effectively caged her by bracing his arms on either side of her chair, his palms flat on the tabletop.
‘Temper, temper, Red.’ His warm breath feathered across her ear. ‘What will Benson think if he comes back and finds you all riled up?’
‘Hopefully he’ll kick you out!’ She knew she’d said the wrong thing by the way his muscles bunched in his arms. Her earlier analogy with that tree came to mind and she swallowed heavily. But instead of breaking her in half he leaned closer.
‘I wanted to kiss you today, Red.’ She jumped as something gently brushed the side of her face. His nose? ‘Out there on that hot, dusty road.’
Carly struggled to swallow. ‘No,’ she said automatically.
‘Oh, yes.’
Carly jerked sideways as he inhaled her scent but that only pressed her up against the solid mass of his opposite shoulder, giving him access to the line of her neck. He was so close she felt enveloped by his heady, male warmth. ‘And you wanted to kiss me too.’
‘No!’ she denied, pulling herself together. ‘You’re a bigger fool than I first thought if you believe that.’ She gave a short, sharp laugh to reinforce her words.
He sniffed behind her ear. ‘You smell sweet.’
Every part of Carly froze except her pulse, which was racing. Was he about to kiss her? If he was...if he was she would...stop breathing.
‘I’m right is what I am,’ he murmured. ‘I think you’d like me to do it even now with the old man in the next room. Should we give him a show?’
Before she could pick up the water jug and dump its contents over his insolent head the door to the dining room swung open. Dare slowly straightened, picked up the wine bottle, and poured her wine as if that were all he’d been doing all along.
Hot colour swept over Carly’s face and she forced a smile to her lips.
‘So sorry for the interruption,’ Benson said, resuming his seat. ‘That was Beckett.’
‘How is he?’ Carly asked, her voice pitched just a little too high. Really she couldn’t care less about Beckett, but he was a safer topic than the man slowly making his way back to his seat as if nothing had just happened between them.
And nothing had, she reminded herself. He was taunting her, that was all, because he was a rude, callous individual with no manners whatsoever. What she wouldn’t give to wipe that superior smile off his face and tell him she’d rather kiss a snake. Only he was a snake, she thought venomously. It was unfair of him to include her in his bad feelings for his grandfather. Making assumptions about her out of hand.
If she had wanted to bring him down a peg or two earlier, she wanted to even more now. Especially as he sat slouched back in his chair, gazing at her as if he were the king of the world. Well, he wasn’t king of her world, and, oh, how she’d like to wipe that crooked grin from his face. He was enjoying her discomfort, damn him.
But to correct his nefarious assumptions would be to disclose her real reason for being here and she’d assured the Baron that she’d keep his secret for as long as he wanted to. And although she felt sure that Benson would be horrified at the conclusions his grandson had drawn she wasn’t going to bring them up now.
And perhaps it would be better to let the arrogant Dare James labour under his misapprehensions about her.
Let him hang himself with them. The embarrassment he would no doubt feel at being so wrong about her—and his grandfather—would keep a smile on her face for days.
Yes. She let out a slow breath. She was going to enjoy watching this arrogant stranger squirm when he found out that, not only was she not a greedy little gold-digger, but that she was probably more qualified than he was.
University... She raised her wineglass in the air and gave him a small toast. She knew all about university and before she was finished with him he would know that she was a woman to look out for. A woman who was not going to be cowed by a man like him ever again.
And as for wanting to kiss him? She couldn’t think of anything more revolting than having his smug mouth on hers.
She brought her glass to her lips, pleased with how steady and cool she felt, how detached. But then his gaze dropped to her mouth and her equilibrium wavered, all but disintegrating when the tip of his tongue came out to touch his bottom lip as if he was thinking about how she would taste.
It was a brief, subtle move but it set every one of her nerves on edge.
She had to force the cool liquid down past the lump in her throat without choking but she did it, and was pleased with herself until she realised that he was deliberately trying to put her off stride again. And it had worked. She now felt as if she were burning up from the inside out.
Damn him.
The man was beyond evil. He was a demon. The devil himself.
Fortunately the Baron chose that moment to break into their silent stand-off with a comment about the meal, which Carly had completely forgotten about.
She pushed the last of it around her plate as if her appetite hadn’t fled, but then she noticed how pale Benson looked and could have kicked herself.
Concerned, she forgot all about his obnoxious grandson and clasped Benson’s wrist. He gave her a wan smile, knowing that she was surreptitiously taking his pulse. One forty over eighty, at a guess. Not critical, but definitely too high for a man in his condition.
She gave him a warning squeeze. ‘I think you should call it a night,’ she advised softly. And she definitely wanted to. Anything to get away from the pointed glare of the man opposite her.
Dare watched the intimate little tableau play out before his eyes. The woman had no shame. No shame whatsoever, and his increasingly bad mood had nothing to do with the fact that he would like those slender fingers wrapped around a certain part of his anatomy, and where he was imagining was a long way from his wrist.
He didn’t know what had possessed him to taunt her the way that he had, but it had very nearly backfired when he’d got a whiff of her light scent.
He breathed in deeply. He was pretty sure it was only shampoo he had smelt, shampoo and woman, and his recall was so strong she might as well have been sitting right beside him. Or in his lap.
A muscle jumped in his jaw and he realised he was clenching his teeth hard enough to break them. It pained him greatly that his body hardened in anticipation every time he looked at her. And when she spoke; that lilting English accent...he’d lived on and off in the country for about a year and never noticed what a turn-on it was.
At times she sounded exactly like a reprimanding English schoolmarm and at others as if she’d just climbed out of bed after being satisfied over and over. Add in that firecracker temper and haughty attitude and it was all he could do not to haul her across the table and find out if all that fire and ice translated to passion between the sheets. Or, on the table, rather, given their location.
Dare wondered what his grandfather would think if he told him it would take little more than the crook of his finger to have his mistress in his own bed.
The thought made him sick. He wasn’t here for that. And he certainly wasn’t here to compete with the old man. Let him make a fool of himself over a woman if that was his wont. Dare never had before and he never would.
Especially not over a woman like this. One with such a low moral compass. Which was probably why it bothered him so much that he found her so attractive. He just didn’t understand it. He’d been exposed to a limitless amount of beautiful women since he’d reached puberty and even more since he’d made it rich. Women more beautiful than Carly Evans, and yet all evening he’d struggled to take his eyes off her.
Bottom line, he despised her for what she was and he despised himself for wanting her regardless.
‘Goodnight, Mr James.’
‘It’s Dare,’ he reminded her, holding out his hand even though he knew it would be a mistake to touch her again. He couldn’t help himself it seemed, his legendary self-control a distant memory in her presence.
She hesitated, glancing at his hand, and he nearly smiled for real when good manners—of which, yes, his had been in short supply that evening—determined that she must.
Immediately he raised it to his lips. ‘Sleep well.’ Or not, his eyes said.
Hers widened as if she read him loud and clear before giving him a dismissive little smile.
‘I’ll see you later,’ she murmured to Benson. ‘Don’t be too long.’
Eager little thing, Dare thought, his fist clenched beneath the tablecloth.
He watched her leave the room, the chandelier above the table lovingly catching the highlights in her hair, before he turned his gaze on the old man.
Benson raised a brow in question and Dare saw just how tired he looked. Whatever news he had just received on the phone it hadn’t been good. Not that he felt sorry for the old fool. He’d made his bed years ago and he could lie in it.
‘I’m glad you came a day earlier,’ Benson said, and Dare was quite sure he wasn’t glad at all. ‘It has given us a chance to air some grievances.’
Dare hadn’t even scratched the surface. ‘I won’t have my mother hurt.’
‘I get that. And I want you to know it’s not my intention to hurt her again.’
Dare didn’t say anything, just waited for him to continue.
When his grandfather sighed heavily Dare almost felt sorry for him. Almost. ‘Your mother is coming for lunch tomorrow. I take it that you’re staying.’
‘Will the lovely redhead be there?’
His grandfather frowned at his disparaging reference to his mistress. ‘Carly is a very nice young woman, Dare, she—’
‘Spare me your platitudes. I’m sure she’s wonderful.’
‘She is. And...yes, she’ll be at lunch tomorrow. Is that a problem?’
‘Not for me.’
Benson nodded. ‘Then I hope you will also accept my hospitality and stay the night.’
‘I hadn’t planned to.’ What he’d planned was to find a hotel room and get some distance from the claustrophobic element of this enormous place, check the Dow Jones, catch up on work, but... His eyes drifted unconsciously to the door Carly Evans had just disappeared through. Practically it made more sense to be on site.
‘I’ll stay,’ he said gruffly.
‘Good.’ Benson stood up. ‘Then, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, and, Dare...’ the old man stopped beside his chair ‘... I understand your concerns. I made grievous mistakes thirty-three years ago. Mistakes I want to rectify.’
