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Scarlett’s eyes narrowed as they accustomed themselves to the dimmer light, and she blinked as she saw a man’s figure standing at one end of the terrace. He was staring at her.
She felt her heart pound in shock as she registered the immense height of him, the formidable breadth of his shoulders. She shook her head in horror, as if expecting him just to disappear. But he did not disappear. Instead he began to walk towards her with a confident and cat-like stealth.
Scarlett blanched as the man grew closer. Her eyes took in the beautifully sculpted planes and angles of his face, the harsh slash of his mouth and the proud line of his jaw.
He was taller than anyone else at the party, and his shoulders would have put deep despair into the heart of any rugby scrum. His hair was black, as black as Scarlett’s, and his eyes, which she knew so well were blue, also looked black tonight. And his heart, she thought bitterly. He has a black heart too. The beautiful mouth was curved and twisted into its customary derisory smile as his eyes met Scarlett’s—and never left them.
For a second she shook her head a little, as if she had manufactured the image of Liam Rouse. For surely this could not be Liam—this man whose formal black jacket would have knocked spots off everyone else’s in the room? Surely not Liam—in a silk shirt as white as a soap-powder commercial, with a black bow-tie knotted around his elegant neck? Liam’s long legs would surely never have allowed themselves to be encased in the beautifully cut black trousers. Liam wore jeans. Nothing but jeans.
She stared up at him as he towered over her, momentarily shocked into disbelieving speechlessness. She saw his eyes glittering, like some living metal, and she had to reach out to grasp the balustrade which ran round the terrace.
Her heart pounded with unwilling excitement, and her mouth dried. It simply wasn’t fair, she thought desperately. He shouldn’t, shouldn’t still have this effect on her. Not after all this time. ‘Liam!’ she gasped as the vision of the man she had not seen for almost ten years swam in front of her eyes. And then she found herself saying inanely, ‘Is it really you?’
He gave a small, cynical smile. ‘Judge for yourself,’ came the deeply drawled reply, and totally without warning he pulled her into his arms and bent his head to kiss her.
At first she was so shocked by what was happening that she simply stood motionless in his arms, while his mouth claimed hers with arrogant possession.
And Liam’s kisses were like no others...
Oh, no! she thought helplessly, but nonetheless swayed against him as his mouth drove down on hers, her body quivering with shock as she realised just how blatantly he was kissing her. For his kiss was as deep and as insistent and intimate as if he were lying naked on top of her and actually making love to her.
He pulled her closer, then even closer... And to her absolute horror Scarlett found herself responding to him, her body starting to tingle and melt into the hard, muscle-packed frame which she had once known so intimately.
He knew so well what pleased her, she thought helplessly. She felt him lick a tiny circle around the inside of her mouth, and as she felt her breasts swelling and hardening in response she realised just what was happening to her. She wrenched herself out of his embrace, and he gave a low, mocking laugh.
‘Well?’ he said arrogantly. ‘Was that real enough for you? Or do I kiss like a ghost?’
She fought to get her breath back. ‘You kiss like the devil that you are!’ she fired back. ‘Now, get off our land, before I have you thrown off!’
‘Oh, Scarlett,’ he said mockingly. ‘No wifely concern? No, ‘‘Darling, where have you been all these long years?’’’
Scarlett stared into the face of the stranger who was as familiar to her as breathing—the man who had broken her heart into a million tiny pieces. ‘I don’t care where you’ve been,’ she retorted angrily. ‘You walked off and left me ten years ago without a word. Well, that was fine. But you’re history, Liam. And now I’m going inside to call the police to get you off our property—unless you’d like to go now, and quietly?’
He gave a short, completely humourless laugh and reached out to catch her wrist in an uncompromising hold. ‘Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong,’ he contradicted her, his voice as hard and as unmalleable as steel. ‘I’m not going anywhere—not until I’ve got what I came for.’
She heard the unswerving determination in the deep voice, and a deep foreboding chilled her. Liam at twenty had been pretty formidable. Liam ten years on was something else!
In a minute she would wake up from this nightmare, but until she did she might as well enter into this crazy conversation. ‘What the hell are you talking about? What have you come for?’ But her voice wavered just a little as she asked the question.
His eyes fastened with deliberate intent on the crimson gleam of her quivering mouth, and she saw his eyes briefly darken. ‘Why, you, of course, Scarlett. Didn’t you realise? I’ve come for you.’
‘Are you mad?’ she whispered.
His mouth was a hard, unremitting slash in the moonlight. ‘Are you going to come with me quietly?’
‘I’m not coming anywhere with you!’
He gave her a look of quietly controlled rage. ‘Oh, I think so, Scarlett. A word with my wife. In private.’
‘You are mad!’ she responded in disbelief. ‘I’m getting married to someone else! The divorce papers are through!’
He shook his head. ‘On the contrary. You’ve jumped the gun a little, my dear. The divorce papers are not complete. Admittedly, the decree nisi is through—but the absolute isn’t due for another five weeks.’ He gave a cold and cynical smile. ‘So legally, at least, you are still my wife, and I have a proposition to put to you. Now, are you coming quietly or not?’ he repeated.
The craziness of the last few minutes crystallised into one incredible and jarring fact.
Liam was back!
She found her voice again. ‘Coming? With you? You must be kidding! The last person on earth I’d ever go with is you—you no-good, low-down, rotten—!’
Again, he gave that cool, faintly cynical smile.
‘Oh, Scarlett,’ he said, shaking his head at her as he caught her wrist in a vice-like grip. ‘I should have known that you’d be awkward.’
‘Let go of me!’ she ordered. ‘Or I’ll scream the place down.’
‘Oh, dear,’ he murmured, almost conversationally. ‘I was hoping that we might be able to do this in a civilised manner. But then, I’d forgotten that legendary temper of yours.’
She tried to struggle, but it was no good. Even using her one free hand to flail at that impossibly hard chest was useless, and he bent down to scoop her underneath her knees and toss her over his shoulder, her head dangling down his back and his hand clasped possessively over the bare flesh of the backs of her thighs which lay above the line of her stocking-tops. He stroked one thigh with a long, lazy finger.
‘Mmm!’ he murmured, in a voice soft with sexual promise. ‘Nice!’
And then something unbelievable happened.
For one fleeting and betraying moment a spark of dormant humour bubbled up from deep within her, and somehow that ability of his to make her smile was in its own way far more damaging than his ability to wring a physical response from her. He was certainly the most unconventional man she’d ever met in her life! And she was back in his arms! But she quelled the betraying spark immediately as she remembered just what he’d done.
Liam had left her at the lowest point in her life, and for that she would never forgive him. ‘I hate you,’ she muttered into his back as he walked towards the drive.
‘And the feeling,’ he said, in a strangely bitter voice, ‘is entirely mutual.’
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_45e33d4b-05d0-5e3a-b055-e978a1f7de1d)
‘PUT me down!’ Scarlett shrieked into the cold white night, but Liam completely ignored her and carried on calmly walking through the snow towards a low black car which was parked at the end of the driveway.
Surely someone would see them go? And think it odd that this towering dark man was carrying the hostess over his shoulder through the snow. Where the hell was Henry, or her stepfather? ‘Put me down, or I’ll scream!’
‘Scream and I’ll have to kiss you quiet!’ he threatened savagely.
And, because she didn’t trust herself to risk that, Scarlett hastily closed the mouth which she had opened to give him the full benefit of her loudest, most ear-piercing shriek, right next to his ear.
He reached the car and pulled open the driver’s door, only to lift her over onto the passenger seat and snap her seatbelt shut. Then, with an agility remarkable for such a tall man, he slid his long legs into the seat next to her, belted himself in and started up the powerful engine, which gave a low, throaty roar as the car shot off.
She pulled at the lock, but it wouldn’t budge.
‘We’re doing fifty, and that door is safety-primed not to open while the car is in motion, so you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride.’
This could not be happening to her. In a minute she would be back at the party, in Henry’s safe and undemanding arms.
‘Stop this car at once!’
‘No.’
‘Where are you taking me?’
‘You’ll see,’ came the implacable reply.
She knew that determined set of his mouth from old—knew that it signalled the inexorable side of his nature. And she sat back in a daze against the soft leather of the seat before her senses began to return, and with them her temper.
‘This is kidnap, you do realise that?’
‘Is it? A court might see it differently—a husband making a last-minute stab at reconciliation...’
Quite without warning her heart gave a sudden lurch as she remembered the nights she’d spent sobbing into her pillow, not really believing that he had walked out on her for good. Oh, the black, heartless devil! ‘But Liam,’ she said coldly, ‘you seem to have missed the whole point of the party which you gatecrashed. I’m going to be married in five weeks’ time. To Henry.’
‘Are you?’ he queried silkily.
‘Yes, I am!’ But Scarlett found herself shivering at his deep, dark voice—hating herself for the little frisson of awareness which traced sensuous fingers up the entire length of her spine. Just what was it about this particular man which sent her senses into overdrive? ‘Where are you taking me?’ she demanded again, hearing her own tame question with appalled disbelief. Why wasn’t she screaming the place down?
Because it wouldn’t do her any good; she knew that. He was too strong to resist. And not just physically either.
He didn’t answer, just gave her a brief sideways glance—in time to see the tremble that convulsed her upper body. ‘You’re cold,’ he remarked, and put out a strong brown hand to turn the heating up.
‘Of course I’m cold!’ she returned. ‘It’s the middle of winter, it’s snowing, and I’m wearing very thin clothes.’
‘And very little underwear, from what I saw,’ he grated. ‘You never used to wear such sexy little bits of nonsense when you were married to me! But then I don’t really remember you wearing much underwear at all. The problem we had, as I recall, was keeping it on.’
Scarlett’s mouth fell wide open as she turned to look at him in disbelieving shock. ‘What was that you said?’
‘You heard.’
‘You were spying on me!’ she realised in horror. ‘As I was standing in front of the window I knew that someone was out there, watching me. It was you!’
‘Who did you think it would be?’ he mocked. ‘Was the floor show for dear Henry? Hoping to inspire a little passion in him, were you, Scarlett? Let’s hope for your sake that he makes love more accurately than he kisses.’
‘Why, you—!’ Her hand went up automatically.
‘Don’t even think of it,’ his cold voice rang out. ‘I’m driving, remember?’
‘You couldn’t stop me if I wanted to!’ she taunted.
‘Couldn’t I?’ he said quietly. ‘I could stop this car right now and quieten you down very effectively, Scarlett—and I’m sure you don’t need to ask me how.’
Her hand fell to her lap, her cheeks flushed pink in the darkness. This was madness! Sheer madness. Liam was kidnapping her, for God’s sake, and she was just sitting back in her seat like a lemon and letting him!
‘You just can’t do this to me!’ she protested.
‘I just did.’
‘Haven’t you got any consideration for other people? My stepfather will be worried sick about me.’
‘He’ll survive,’ he said coldly.
‘He’ll call the police,’ she said, equally coldly.
‘I don’t doubt it.’
‘And you’ll be arrested. Slung into jail.’ She heard her voice rising sharply. ‘Though it probably won’t be the first time, will it, Liam?’
She saw the merest glimmer of amusement hover around a mouth that was far too delectable for its own good. ‘You think I’ve done time?’ he queried, almost casually.
‘Nothing would surprise me about you!’ she said, with feeling.
‘Well, that’s good, Scarlett,’ he drawled. ‘Never underestimate your opponent—that’s the first ground rule for battle.’
She felt sadness mixed with fury. They were battling now; they had battled then. Their whole brief relationship had been a war, punctuated with wild flurries of peace in the form of their ecstatic lovemaking. She hunted around for the coup de grâce to wound him. ‘Well, I’d like to know where you got the money to pay for this fancy car,’ she said insultingly.
She saw his knuckles tighten for an instant on the steering wheel, but there was nothing but sardonic amusement in his voice as he spoke. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Scarlett, but your patronising Lady Bountiful act fails to impress me.’
‘It used to, though,’ she said bitterly. ‘I thought that my classy accent turned you on. I thought you liked hob-nobbing with the gentry—almost as much as I liked slumming it with you.’
The lie sounded convincing—even to her. Let him believe that her passion for him had been the youthful experimentation of a naïve young girl, which had quickly faded. Never let him know that he had been the love of her life, the man with whom she had constantly found herself comparing other men. And hadn’t the other men always come up lacking? Wasn’t that why she’d agreed to an eminently ‘suitable’ marriage to Henry—because she’d given up looking for love?
‘Slumming, huh?’ The deep voice was clinical, detached... The old Liam would have exploded with anger at the jibe, stopped whatever he was doing and taken her into his arms with a ruthless passion which would have had her denying anything he’d wanted her to deny.
But this Liam—this stranger in the suit—he merely reached out and pushed a cassette into the tape deck, and music filled the car.
Scarlett could have screamed as the violently passionate strains of the love-scene from Carmen pierced the air with frighteningly sweet sensuality. But short of actually putting her fingers in her ears, there wasn’t a lot she could do to blot the sound out. Instead, she stared fixedly ahead at the empty road. When had he learnt to like opera? she wondered with a sudden bitterness.
She realised with a sudden shock that she had never seen him drive before either. During their lamentably brief and ill-fated marriage they had been desperately short of money—and Liam had stubbornly refused to accept any hand-outs from her stepfather. Which was why they’d lived in the small, dingy flat over the café, where the smell of cabbage had drifted upwards and seemed to permeate even their clothes and their skin. And where Scarlett would play at being a housewife while Liam went out to his labouring job each morning.
She had to think clearly. Liam was back, but there was a limit to how far even he would go. What was he planning? And why, for goodness’ sake, was she just accepting this dramatic seizure, as though it was inevitable? As though, with him around, she had no conscious will of her own?
Drawing her shoulders back, she sat up straight in her seat and forced herself to take note of landmarks as the snow-clothed countryside flashed by. Her heart started hammering as she recognised the village as they drove quietly through it and circumnavigated the iced-over village pond.
The road out of it was narrow, winding. She closed her eyes quickly, not daring to open them again, although she knew exactly what she would see if she did. To her left she would see a dramatic line of horse-chestnuts, like scarecrows of the gods, waving their bare black arms against the heavy, snow-laden sky.
How could he have done? she wondered with helpless bitterness. To have brought her here...
‘Afraid to look, Scarlett?’ mocked the deep voice beside her, and she fluttered open her eyelids in defiance, still not believing it to be true. Her heart was sinking, yet at the same time it started to hammer with some shameful excitement as the car drew up in front of the small cottage.
As he turned the engine off she released her seatbelt and turned on him, her long nails instinctively forming cat-like talons which attempted to scrabble at his face. But he fended them off as a tiger would swat a butterfly, his big, strong hands closing decisively over hers.
There was a cold, cruel smile on his face as he watched her lips part automatically as their skin made contact. ‘Fight me all you like, Scarlett—but why don’t we get horizontal first?’ he said insultingly. But before she could retaliate he had unbuckled his seatbelt, stepped out of the car, had walked around to her side and was doing the same for her.
‘Take me home at once!’ she said flatly. ‘If you do that, and leave me alone, I’ll let the whole matter drop.’
‘Not even a little bit curious, Scarlett, to know what your dear husband has been doing for all these years?’
‘Not in the least.’ Her eyes deliberately swept down every inch of the superbly cut and outrageously expensive suit. ‘Something underhand, I shouldn’t doubt—judging from the money you’re obviously throwing around.’
