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Horror coursed through Kate that a mother could be so cruel. She put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh that poor, poor child.’
Tiarnan looked grim. ‘And yet Rosie still goes back. Still wants to see Stella even though she’s been so unutterably cruel.’
Kate shook her head. She could feel Rosie’s pain acutely. In some ways it was similar to what she’d endured with her own mother for years.
Tiarnan looked bleak again. ‘I haven’t even told Sorcha yet because I don’t want to rake up her own painful memories.’
Kate knew what Tiarnan was referring to. When Sorcha and Tiarnan’s father had died, Sorcha had found out that she’d actually been born to the mistress of her father—his secretary. She’d died in childbirth, and Tiarnan’s Spanish mother had taken Sorcha in as her own. But they’d never really got on, and finding out the truth had sent Sorcha into dark turmoil which could have resulted in a tragedy but thankfully hadn’t. Unfortunately Sorcha and Tiarnan’s mother had had an even more estranged relationship ever since.
Tiarnan’s voice cut through Kate’s memories. ‘Rosie is punishing me for this …’
Kate looked at him and answered instinctively. ‘Because she can. She knows deep down that you love her, so she’s lashing out at you when she really wants to lash out at her mother, for rejecting her. She just wants her mother to love her … that’s all.’
Tiarnan’s mouth thinned. ‘I hope you’re right. I could cope with anything if I knew that for sure. It’s been a tough year.’
Looking into Kate’s eyes, Tiarnan had a sudden sense of being out of control. He’d only ever revealed the truth of his marriage to one or two people, and that had been out of pure necessity. His own sister didn’t even know about Rosie. And yet here he was, blithely spilling his secrets to a woman whose presence in his life was solely down to the desire he felt for her.
As if to drive away his disturbing thoughts, and an unwelcome feeling of vulnerability, he reached over and with effortless strength pulled Kate from her seat.
She landed on his lap, off balance, her hands against his chest. Breathless, she said, ‘Tiarnan, stop—we can’t … not here. What if Rosie—?’
‘Rosie could sleep through a bomb going off.’ He quirked a sad smile. ‘I used to think that she got that from me …’
An unbidden wave of tenderness and compassion came over Kate, taking her by surprise. ‘Well maybe she did in another way. Biological ties can be highly overrated, you know.’
A dark brow arched. ‘You sound like you speak from experience. Anything you’d like to share? What skeletons are in your closet, Kate?’
She shook her head and ignored the dart of pain that struck her. Her skeletons were dull and boring. She thought of her stressed-out, harassed father and her vacuous, narcissistic mother. Kate hadn’t seen her flighty mother, currently on rich husband number four, for nearly a year—and that wasn’t unusual. She didn’t want to allow that old familiar pain to rise now. It would make her think of her yearning to create a solid, loving family base. She couldn’t think of that here and now, feeling so raw after what Tiarnan had just shared.
Kate became very aware of being cradled in Tiarnan’s lap. And very aware of a shockingly hard piece of his anatomy. When he tugged on her hair to pull her face closer she was powerless to resist. She felt as if a layer of skin had been stripped away, leaving her even more vulnerable to him. She touched her open mouth to his, breaths intermingling and weaving together. Their tongue-tips met, retreated. Breathing and heart-rates increased. Kate could feel his other hand drag her body even closer, and in an instant the kiss had changed from tentative and exploratory to full-on passion, mouths fused, tongues dancing an erotic dance.
After long, heady seconds Kate could feel the whirlpool of pleasure threatening to suck her down. Tiarnan pulled back, his chest still hard against hers. She made a sound of frustration when he broke away. She felt flushed, dizzy, breathless.
Smoky blue eyes glittered up into hers. ‘You’re probably right. Now is not the time …’
Sanity returned, and Kate pushed herself away from his chest with trembling hands. ‘No, it’s not.’
She stood up unsteadily and wobbled back to her own seat, snapping her belt shut across her lap, as if it might afford her some protection from the man she would have allowed to make love to her sitting right there in the seat if not for the fact that he’d stopped. In that moment she knew she had to protect herself—had to make Tiarnan see that this affair was on her terms and had limits.
She took a deep breath and looked at him, forcing herself not to notice the way his flushed cheeks, tousled hair, the almost feral glitter in his eyes that connected to something deep inside her with visceral intensity.
‘Tiarnan, look—’
‘That sounds ominous.’
Kate cursed him. ‘We need to talk about … this.’ She cast a quick look back to the closed cabin door, even though there was no way anyone could hear their softly spoken words. ‘This has to end when we return home.’
His eyes flashed. Kate knew he probably wasn’t used to his lovers dictating terms. Well, tough. This was the only way she knew would be able to get through this. This would be her great indulgence. She knew better than anybody after those revelations that Tiarnan was not the marrying or settling down kind. Once these ten days were over she would be getting on with the rest of her life. No matter how hard. She had to. She couldn’t contemplate another moment of this lingering pain.
She forged on. ‘I mean it, Tiarnan. I don’t want to add to Rosie’s woes by causing her more turmoil.’
Tiarnan’s whole body bristled at that. ‘Neither do I, Kate. I wouldn’t have asked you here in a heartbeat if I thought it might result in upsetting Rosie. She wants you here too, and she won’t see anything to upset her. If she’d expressed the slightest doubt about you coming I wouldn’t have asked you.’
Kate immediately felt chagrined. ‘Of course not. I know you wouldn’t do anything—But I’d just be afraid of her seeing … something.’ How could she not, Kate wailed inwardly, when all she had to do was look at Tiarnan and feel herself going up in flames …
Tiarnan finally looked away, after a long, intense moment, and seemed to spot something out of Kate’s window. He came out of his seat to lean over her. Kate squirmed backwards, terrified he’d feel the peaking of her nipples against his arm, the evidence of how easily he could turn her on.
He pointed at something. ‘Look—there it is.’
Kate looked down and, sure enough, an idyllic-looking island of forested green rose out of the unbelievably azure water around it. Mountain-tops and peaks were visible through the clouds.
Just then the cabin door opened, and Kate felt Tiarnan tense. Acting on pure instinct, she took his hand for a moment and squeezed it before he stood up to greet Rosie. He flashed her an enigmatic look. Immediately she felt silly, exposed. Who did she think she was? His wife?
‘I was just showing Kate Martinique. We’ll be landing soon.’
Tiarnan was barely aware of Rosie ignoring him as she came and sat on Kate’s lap, pointing things out to her through the window. He sat down and could still feel the press of Kate’s fingers around his. A show of support. He’d never had that—never had that sensation of someone sharing his experience. It made him feel—He didn’t want to think about how it made him feel. Or how it felt to see Rosie sitting on Kate’s lap with such trusting ease, their two heads close together.
Kate’s assertion that she wouldn’t want Rosie to be hurt had made all sorts of hackles rise. He was the one responsible for his daughter’s well-being and security, and he had the uncustomary sensation of having allowed himself and her to be put in a vulnerable position. With an effort, he let himself tune into Rosie’s chatter to Kate about Mama Lucille and Papa Joe, and her best friend Zoe.
Still feeling exposed, and studiously avoiding looking anywhere near Tiarnan, Kate hugged Rosie’s skinny frame close until she had to take her own seat. Kate hated that her heart ached so much for Rosie and Tiarnan’s distress. She shouldn’t be allowing them to get too close. But as the plane touched down in a bright tropical paradise, all she could feel was a bittersweet joy so intense that she had to shield her face with her hair, terrified that Tiarnan or Rosie might see it.
With the time difference, it was afternoon when they arrived. The sun beat down, and it must have rained shortly before as the ground was steaming. The air was heavy and humid, warming right through to Kate’s bones and already making sweat gather at the small of her back and between her breasts.
A smiling young local man met them off the plane, with a small open-top Jeep, and Tiarnan drove it now on a narrow road along the coast. They were heading south, and Kate was happy just to take in the scenery and listen to Rosie chatting non-stop about everything and anything. It was good to see her so animated.
Before too long they came into a charming fishing village, Anse D’Arlet with a white church dominating the seafront and a long wooden promenade that stretched out over the water, where colourful boats bobbed up and down. Shops were strewn along the main street. Some of the buildings were crumbling and had a faded grandeur that just added to the appeal of this slow, peaceful-looking place.
‘This is it—our local village.’
Kate looked at Tiarnan briefly. Even he already looked more relaxed.
Rosie was standing up behind his seat, pointing a finger, and she said excitedly, ‘That’s Zoe’s house—there, Katie, look! Tiarnan, please can I get out and go see her now?’
Kate could see Tiarnan’s jaw clench, and she felt his pain at Rosie’s insistent use of Tiarnan. He looked for a moment as if he was going to say no, but then he slowed the Jeep at the bottom of a small drive and Rosie jumped out. Another small girl appeared, and the two started squealing and running towards each other. Tiarnan waved at the woman who had appeared in the doorway of the house, and Kate guessed it must be the little girl’s mother.
He turned then and shook his head at Kate. ‘See? We’ll be lucky to get her back for dinner, but she’ll want to see Mama Lucille …’
Tiarnan kept driving southwards out of the small town, and after a couple of minutes turned right towards the sea into an open set of gates that were wildly overgrown with frangipani and exotic flowers. They emerged from under a dense canopy of foliage into a small forecourt in front of an idyllic white-painted villa.
It was old colonial French-style, and had a wooden deck wrapped around it and what looked like a long balcony above, with an intricately carved railing. Shutters were painted bright blue, and everything looked pristine and lovingly cared for. A shape appeared in the open front door, and Kate saw a huge, buxom woman with the biggest, whitest smile she’d ever seen in her life.
Tiarnan had stopped the Jeep, and as he helped her out he smiled and said, ‘May I present the inimitable Mama Lucille …?’
The woman came to the top of the steps and put her hands on ample hips. She looked from left to right. ‘Where is my baby girl?’
Tiarnan took the steps two at a time and gave her a huge hug before standing back, ‘Where do you think? She had to stop and see her partner in crime—your granddaughter Zoe. No doubt they’re already driving Anne-Marie crazy.’
Mama Lucille shook her head and laughed a big belly laugh, and as Kate came shyly up the steps behind Tiarnan she could see that this woman truly was some sort of universal earth mother. She looked ageless.
Mama Lucille set Tiarnan aside and put her hands on her hips again. ‘And who is this vision?’ She glanced at Tiarnan with a wicked gleam in her dark eyes. ‘Is she an angel come to save us all?’
Before Tiarnan could answer, Kate stepped forward and smiled. ‘No angel, I’m afraid—just Kate. I’m an old friend of Tiarnan and Sorcha’s.’
Kate’s innate humility struck Tiarnan forcibly. She was one of the most famous models in the world, but she had absolutely no evidence of an ego to reflect that; no expectation that people should know her. The realisation unsettled him for a moment, and he had to concede that Kate was surprising him—exactly as she’d done in San Francisco, when he’d imagined things going differently. He was somewhat belatedly aware that he didn’t really know her that well at all, and with that awareness came a tingling sense of anticipation.
Kate was holding out her hand, but Mama Lucille waved it away and dragged Kate into her massive bosom. ‘Any friend of theirs is a friend of mine.’ She pulled back then and held Kate away from her slightly, looked her up and down critically. ‘Are you a model, the same as that sister of his?’
Kate nodded.
‘Hmph. Thought so. Too skinny—just like that other one—but I’d say she’s bigger now, after the baby!’ Mama Lucille guffawed again and pinched Kate’s cheek. ‘Don’t you worry, angel. A few days of my cooking and we’ll put some fat on those hips …’
Kate had to laugh as she imagined her agent’s horrorstruck face if she arrived back a few pounds heavier, and with that came the familiar yearning to just let go and stop being so aware of things like her weight.
Before she knew it, Mama Lucille had disappeared in a flurry of movement, with a promise of some dinner in a couple of hours. A young girl with a shy pretty smile appeared and took their bags into the house.
Tiarnan took Kate by the hand. She would have pulled away, but he held her with easy strength, looking at her with an assessing gaze that made her toes curl.
‘Come on, I’ll give you the tour.’
Kate felt dizzy by the time Tiarnan was leading her upstairs. The house was completely charming. All dark polished wooden floorboards, white walls and beautiful old furniture. White muslin curtains fluttered in the breezes that flowed through open sash windows, with latticed shutters wide open. She’d seen a butterfly dart in one window and out through the next with a flash of bright iridescence. It was truly a home. Kate could imagine the doors always open, people coming and going all day, and yet it had a tranquil air that beguiled and seduced …
‘Do Mama Lucille and Papa Joe live here too?’ Kate asked as she followed Tiarnan up the stairs and tried not to look at his bottom. He glanced back and she coloured guiltily.
‘No. Even though I’ve been trying to get them to move in for years. They’re on the other side of the property. There’s a back entrance, down by the private beach, and they live in the old gate lodge. Mama Lucille says she prefers it because there’s not enough room for her family to come and stay, and it’s the only way she and Papa Joe get peace and quiet to themselves.’
Clearly, from the warmth in his voice, Tiarnan was as crazy as Rosie was about this place and the people. It made Kate’s heart do a funny jump in her chest. And what also made her heart feel funny was that the same impression she’d had on the plane: she’d never seen this more relaxed side of Tiarnan before. There’d always been something slightly aloof about him, distant and distinguished. Formidable. And here all that was being stripped away. Distance—keep your distance, she repeated like a mantra in her head, futile as she knew it was.
She got to the top of the stairs to see a wide open corridor, doorways on each side, and a huge window seat at the end with what she could imagine must be a spectacular view over the garden. Tiarnan was leaning nonchalantly against a door that led into a bedroom.
‘This is your room.’
Kate looked at him warily as she passed him and went in. Her bag had already been deposited inside. The same lovingly polished floorboards were echoed in the antique furniture. Old black and white photographs hung on the walls. A huge four-poster bed was in the centre of the room, its muslin drapes pulled back. A small door led to a white-tiled bathroom with a huge stand-alone bath and shower in the corner. It screamed understated luxury. A pair of open veranda doors led out to the second level wooden balcony, along which trailed vine-like flowers of colours so vibrant it almost hurt to look at them. And beyond that lay the unmistakable clear blue waters of the Caribbean. This truly was paradise.
She turned at the open door and looked back at Tiarnan, her heart thumping heavily. ‘It’s beautiful. Really.’
He walked towards her with all the grace and danger of a dark panther, and Kate could feel her eyes grow bigger as he came closer. Her loose linen trousers and shirt suddenly felt constricting, but he just took her hand and led her outside and to the left, where she could see an identical set of open doors. He stopped at the entrance and Kate could see another room, a little bigger and obviously decorated along much more masculine lines. His room.
He didn’t even have to say it. The understanding was heavy between them. Within this stunning house and these two rooms they were as effectively cut off and private as they wanted to be. He let go of her hand and looked down at her. Kate felt unbearably hot right then, and it had nothing to do with being in the tropics.
He gestured with his head back to her room. ‘That used to be Rosie’s room when she was smaller, so I could hear if she woke during the night, but she hasn’t slept there for a few years. Her room is on the other side of the villa. This balcony isn’t accessible except by these two rooms.’ He took her hand and raised it to 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 as one of her older granddaughters. Kate got up instinctively to help, but Mama Lucille ordered her to, ‘Sit! Let us serve you now.’
Kate watched as more plates arrived, with what looked like an impressive array of fish and roasted vegetables and rice and potatoes and salad. Her eyes were wide, watching as Tiarnan poured white wine into glasses so cold they still had mist on them.
‘I’ve never seen so much food in my life.’
He took her plate and proceeded to heap it high with the succulent food, saying drily, ‘Don’t tell me you’re one of these women who prefer to push a lettuce leaf around your plate and watch it wither and die rather than eat it?’
‘No,’ Kate said quickly, taking the plate he handed her. ‘I couldn’t think of anything worse. My problem has never been lack of appetite, it’s stopping myself eating.’ She grimaced for a second. ‘Unfortunately, unlike your sister and presumably you too, I can’t eat everything around me and stay the same size. All I eat has to come off again.’
Tiarnan fought down the urge to let his eyes rove over her curves. She was right. Where Sorcha was lean and athletic, Kate had a more natural voluptuousness, a sexy lushness. He picked up his glass and waited for Kate to do the same.
