8 Magnificent Millionaires

‘Now listen to me,’ he said firmly, tenderly pushing away a curling tendril of spun red-gold away from her brow. ‘I want you to go into the kitchen and wait for me there. I don’t want you to do anything but sit and wait for me, is that clear?’

Suddenly too weary to argue, Liadan nodded mutely.

‘As soon as I’ve dealt with him—’ he jerked his head disparagingly in Steven’s direction ‘—I’ll come and join you. Now go along and don’t worry.’

‘You won’t hurt him?’ She bit her lip, her blue eyes looked enormous in her small, oval face.

‘I may be as mad as hell but I know the risks, Liadan. I’m going to phone George on his mobile and get him over here, then I’ll take things from there.’

‘Okay…if you’re sure?’

With one reluctant glance back at Steven Ferrers slumped pitifully against the wall, Liadan walked with relief back to the kitchen.

Half an hour had never seemed so long. As she sat at the kitchen table nursing the deliberately sweet cup of tea she’d forced herself to make Liadan flinched at every sound she wasn’t sure of, fearing the worst when she heard nothing and straining her ears for any sign of Adrian returning. When she heard a door finally slam somewhere in the house, she started to get to her feet, anxious to know who was leaving, terrified in case Adrian had decided to go for the police after all and had left Steven sitting on the floor in the hall. But when Adrian himself came through the door, shucked his jacket off those reassuringly broad shoulders of his and stood regarding her with deep concern in his eyes, Liadan had never known such sweet and blessed relief.

‘What’s happened? Did George come? Is he taking Steven to the hospital?’

‘George came. He’s taking Steven home to let him sleep off his drunken stupor. We both took another look at his head wound and it’s nothing to worry about. It certainly doesn’t warrant a hospital visit and, even if it did, I’m sure Steven would rather avoid any kind of authorities right now in the light of what he did.’

‘And how is George?’

‘How do you think?’ Shaking his head, Adrian came over to Liadan, studying her gravely as she sat in the ladder-backed kitchen chair, her hands cupped round her drink. ‘He’s appalled, ashamed, furious and ready to do his son some serious damage. His only fear is that whatever he says or does won’t sink in. Steven’s been in trouble with the police before, Liadan. Petty thieving, a couple of pub brawls…nothing too serious up until now.’ Leaning back against the table, Adrian put out his hand and tipped up her chin. Her face was drained of colour apart from the red mark on her cheek and she looked as if she’d been crying again.

He blamed himself completely for what had happened. He had hired Steven Ferrers knowing he had a criminal record, even if he had done it as a favour to George. George, who wouldn’t even help himself to a glass of water unless it was offered first. Now Liadan had been hurt for the second time in a few days. Could anyone blame Adrian for believing that he and this house were some sort of jinx for the woman?

‘I should get you some brandy for shock.’ Reluctantly he withdrew his hand, inwardly fighting against an almost insurmountable need to keep on touching her and never stop.

‘I made some sweet tea. It does the same thing, I heard.’

‘How did he get in?’ His logical mind demanding he know all the answers and tie up any loose or suspicious ends, Adrian was still having trouble quelling the tumult of emotion that was crowding his chest. Truth to tell, if he couldn’t tear Steven Ferrers limb from limb, he wanted to break something instead…do anything that would divert the maelstrom of anger that was almost suffocating him.

‘He knocked on the door. Before I realised he had been drinking, he just pushed back the door and came inside.’

Replacing her cup back in its saucer, Liadan pushed her fingers agitatedly through her hair, dislodging her tortoiseshell clasp completely. Her hair cascaded down over her shoulders, making her small, oval face appear disconcertingly like a child’s.

‘What did he say?’

‘What did he say?’ Liadan repeated through numbed lips. With great reluctance she forced herself to remember. She didn’t really want to talk about what had happened at all. All she really wanted to do was forget the whole horrible incident had ever occurred. But staring up into Adrian’s hard, implacable face, she knew he wasn’t going to let her do that. If this had happened in his house in another day and age, no doubt he would have challenged the other man to a duel in defence of Liadan’s honour. The thought almost made her smile, but just as quickly she wanted to cry. Adrian’s only concern for her was that she had been hurt. It would be foolish indeed to delude herself he would come to her rescue for any reason other than what decency dictated. She was his employee and, naturally, like any other employer with integrity, he wanted to assure himself that everything possible was done to alleviate her distress.

‘Um…he said that I was an ice princess. That I thought myself too good for him.’

‘He’d come on to you before?’

Feeling almost overwhelmingly tired, Liadan shrugged. ‘Being the kind of man he seems to be, I suppose he couldn’t help himself when I’m the nearest female for miles around.’

It was hard for Adrian to believe she could be so self-deprecating. Didn’t she have any idea just how beautiful she was? How much any red-blooded heterosexual male would look at her and fantasise about making her his?

Seeing the telling muscle flinch in his jaw, Liadan thought it best to keep quiet about just how much Steven Ferrers had frightened her—and not just today when his threats had finally tipped over into actual physical violence. The sting of that slap suddenly stealing into the edges of her consciousness, she couldn’t help but shudder. If that vase hadn’t been so close to hand, if she hadn’t had the chance to bring it down upon his head and steal the opportunity to escape…The possibility didn’t bear thinking about. An overwhelming urge to be at home in her little cottage, to light the fire and sit by it with Izzy on her lap, to be safe and warm again, swept through her with such force that her body prepared itself immediately for flight. Unable to conceal her longing for home, she looked straight at Adrian and told him exactly what was on her mind.

‘I need to go back home for a while. Do you understand? I need to be by myself and try to make myself feel better. Is that okay with you?’

Understanding her need and yet dreading being alone in the house without her, Adrian nodded reluctantly. The evidence of her presence—both physical and intangible—was all around, impressing itself upon him and the house almost indelibly, like invisible golden cobwebs that he couldn’t brush away. Without her both he and the house would be stark, empty shells.

‘Whether it’s okay or not with me, I know it’s what you need to do. Go and pack some things, then. I’ll come and carry your bag to the car for you when you’re ready. I’m not letting you drive yourself. I’ll take you.’ To Liadan’s surprise, he was gone from the room before she even had the chance to rise up out of her chair.

‘Come on then, Izzy. Come and finish this lovely salmon left over from my dinner…even though you’re getting impossibly fat!’ Admiring the gusto with which her beloved pet was tucking into her unexpected treat, Liadan lifted her gaze to glance round her warm, snug kitchen with something akin to contentment. After two days of being back home, with her own things around her—not least Izzy and the old Victorian piano she had haggled for at a local auction—her spirits had definitely started to heal. The only sting in the tail was the fact that Adrian wasn’t with her.

She missed him. Missed him with a slow, burning ache in her chest that felt as if it would never heal. When he had dropped her off at the cottage two days ago he had declined to come in. Instead he’d left her bag on the porch step and backed away as though he couldn’t escape quickly enough. His face had appeared coldly distant once again, even when he’d insisted on her assurance before he left that she would be all right on her own and didn’t need him to call someone to come and be with her. Then he had climbed into his Jeep, gunned the engine, and sped off down the small country lane as if he had a posse of trigger-happy mercenaries on his tail.

Returning to her living room and settling herself in the cosy nook before the fire, Liadan picked up the book she had been half-heartedly trying to read, telling herself that tomorrow she would go back to the house and resume work. That was, if Adrian hadn’t decided in the interim that it was more trouble than it was worth keeping her on. Even now in her absence he could be interviewing other prospective candidates for her job. The thought made her heart stall. If she didn’t work for him any more, what excuse would she have to ever see him again? He was a high-profile, well-known author and she was…Well. She was twenty-seven years old, possibly without a job and alone again. She eased the sudden aching cramp in her throat with a harsh breath.

When the echo of the doorknocker rudely broke into her thoughts, she jerked her head round in alarm, knocking her book off her lap and watching it land on the floor with a spine-jingling thud. As it was nearly ten o’clock in the evening, she told herself she had good reason to be alarmed. What if Steven Ferrers had somehow found out where she lived? What if he wanted to punish her for what she had done in her own defence? Clutching the white towelling robe that she had donned straight after her bath tightly round her, she padded barefoot across the carpet to the white-panelled door, then peeped cautiously out through the spy-hole. Her startled gaze settled on the face that had been occupying most of her thoughts from morning through till night—albeit looking as stern as she’d ever seen him and soaked through to the skin from the pounding rain—and Liadan’s fingers shook uncontrollably as she turned the key and lifted the latch.

‘Adrian! What are you doing here?’

She couldn’t believe she was shaking so. Trembling because his sudden, unexpected presence was almost too much to bear…

‘Are you going to invite me in or do I have to stand here getting even wetter?’ There was no answering smile, no teasing lift of a dark brow, just a scowl that would put the fear of God into a grizzly bear. Feeling strangely light-headed, Liadan stood back to let him enter.

‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll get you a towel.’

She was back in an instant, pressing a large pink towel into his hands, then anxiously standing back while he unzipped his dark green waterproof, shook it off and hung it on the hook at the back of the door where Liadan’s bright orange scarf presently hung.

‘It’s a foul night out there.’ Roughly drying his sodden hair, he combed his fingers through it almost impatiently, then threw the towel on the arm of the nearest chair.

‘You didn’t come by car?’

‘I decided I needed the walk.’

That explained why the sound of the doorknocker had taken her so much by surprise. Moving automatically across to the fire, he held out his hands to the flickering flames, his expression suggesting he was lost for a moment in the pictures he seemed to find there. The room was alive with his presence, the air crackling with electricity. The plain fact of the matter was that he would be impossible to ignore, no matter where he was. His strong, muscular physique was both reassuring and awesome at the same time, and right now Liadan was more awed than reassured. Studying him for a long moment without speaking, secretly appraising every fascinating inch of him as though her gaze had been starved of his presence for too long, she couldn’t help but release a sigh.

‘How are you?’

He turned to examine her, his dark gaze more probing than the most powerful microscope, seemingly stripping her of every secret she ever had, his relentless study making everything inside her drown in heat. Automatically touching her fingers to her cheek, Liadan withdrew them again just as quickly, in case he thought she was looking for sympathy.

‘I’m fine. Luckily I don’t bruise easily.’

Scanning the flush that brought a revealing rose pink to her cheeks, Adrian was not so easily placated. Yesterday and today he’d suffered agonies of doubt and fear wondering how she was—whether after this appalling incident she would want to come back to his house at all. Finally, unable to stand the tension of not knowing any longer and disparagingly dismissing the phone as a less-than-adequate method of communication, he’d donned his waterproof, stepped out into the rain and headed to her cottage to confront her. For a man working to an impossible deadline, he reminded himself, it was crazy behaviour.

‘Can I get you a drink or something? I’ve got some brandy if you want something a bit stronger than tea or coffee. You must be cold after being out in the rain.’

Ignoring her question, Adrian asked what he was most desperate to learn. ‘When are you intending coming back to work?’

To his relief, her blue eyes didn’t slide away in avoidance of the question. ‘Tomorrow, actually. I was thinking of coming back in the morning, if that’s all right with you?’

‘Of course it’s all right with me! Why wouldn’t it be?’

‘I thought you might have decided to hire somebody else in my absence. I wouldn’t have blamed you. I know your work is very important and you need somebody reliable to—’

‘Do you honestly think for one moment that I would go behind your back and hire someone else when the reason you’ve come back home is because you were assaulted by someone who worked for me?’

Clearly exasperated, Adrian dragged his fingers irritably through his damp hair, his expression almost feral. Liadan couldn’t take her eyes off him at the realisation that, despite needing a reliable housekeeper to take care of the house while he worked, he wouldn’t even consider employing someone else in her absence. Even if it meant that things were difficult for him.

‘You seem so angry, and I don’t understand why.’

‘I’m not angry with you, Liadan, even though it might seem that way. I’m merely furious with myself for hiring Steven Ferrers in the first place. For that appalling error of judgement I can’t forgive myself.’

‘You already blame yourself for far too much, Adrian.’ Her hands itched to reach out and comfort him and her body ached to hold him, but Liadan forced herself to stand her ground even though to be so near and yet so far was pure torment…

‘What do you mean?’ His dark gaze bemused, he stared at her.

She realised with horror that she’d been about to blurt out what she’d read in his newspaper about Nicole’s death. About the fact that he believed he should have died instead, that her death was somehow his fault. Instinctively knowing that that would have been just about the worst move she could make, because he wasn’t a man who would willingly admit to vulnerability in any way, Liadan furiously back-pedalled.

‘I only meant that it wasn’t your fault that Steven did what he did. We’re all responsible for our own actions, aren’t we?’

Hovering in the narrow doorway of the kitchen, Liadan smoothed her hands nervously down the front of her robe, unwittingly dislodging the material covering her chest. Adrian stared, dry-mouthed. The sensual globe of one perfect breast was almost revealed in its entirety. As heat careened straight into his groin and ignited desire almost too violent to be tamped, he nearly forgot his own name. With her long red-gold hair curling prettily over her shoulders and clearly wearing nothing but that virginal white robe, she was like one of the sirens from Greek mythology. Only it wasn’t just her soft, sweet voice that was luring him. Everything about Liadan aroused his excitement, from the way she moved her slender yet curvaceous body, to her naturally compassionate and loving nature.

Her loveliness enticed him to a temptation so great that it was impossible for him to think about anything else other than getting her naked as soon as he could and showing her in no uncertain terms just what she did to him. If he was honest, wasn’t it desire that had driven him out in the foulest of weathers to seek her? He’d needed to see her. He desperately needed to be in the same room as her and breathe the same air…

‘Come here.’

‘Why?’ Following his burning glance, Liadan gasped when she saw what he was looking at. Covering herself immediately, she silently cursed her lack of finesse. Damn! She should have thought about throwing on some clothes before answering the door. Now Adrian was making her unravel simply by looking at her, the carnal longing in his eyes brazen and unmistakable. What could he do to her already-quivering body if he touched her as if he meant it? Just as every inch of her was aching for him to do?

‘If you don’t come over here, Liadan…I’ll just have to come over there.’

She knew he was serious. Knew it in every tingling fibre of her being. Just as she knew she was too weak to deny him…didn’t want to deny him because she’d been craving his attention this way for too long…

‘What is it?’ Moving to stand in front of him on legs that felt as though she stood on the deck of a ship in a storm, she dared to meet the naked invitation in his disturbing dark eyes.

‘You can ask me that when I’m so consumed by my longing for you that I can’t think about anything else?’

There was a sharp intake of breath. Whether it was his or hers, Liadan couldn’t have said for sure. But when he curled his fingers round the edges of her robe and with one sure, firm tug exposed her breasts to his hungry, rapacious glance, the long, shuddering sigh that followed was definitely her own.

‘I want to touch you. I want to touch you everywhere,’ he growled. Then, lowering his mouth to one exposed breast, he took her deep inside his scalding heat and suckled her hard. Liadan’s slender hips bucked against him and in the next breath she was anchoring her fingers in his thick, dark hair, moaning his name and letting him push the rest of her robe from her shoulders so that she stood naked in his arms. Her craving to touch him was as passionate and rapacious as his. Desire was like a molten, flowing river pulsing unstoppably through her veins, carrying her relentlessly along with no help for it but to submit completely to its power.

Hands shaking, she helped him remove his black wool sweater, frustrated at fingers and thumbs that wouldn’t work quickly enough. Then, unadulterated pleasure rolling through her at the sight of his wonderful masculine chest, she looked her fill. He had biceps of steel and abdominal muscles of iron and Liadan ran her fingers across his flat, male nipples and would have bent her head to kiss him there had he not swept her high into his arms and carried her to the armchair. With a secret little smile playing maddeningly around his irresistibly sexy mouth, he positioned her in his lap so that he had full access to her breasts and her mouth. Then, capturing her lips in a hard, hot kiss, he unzipped his jeans, sheathed himself with the protection he’d produced from his back pocket and thrust deeply inside her.

For a moment Liadan truly thought she saw stars. In her wildest, most uninhibited dreams she’d never dreamt a man’s possession could be like this…so hot, so untamed and so unbelievably, exquisitely perfect. As Adrian’s hands guided her hips down upon him in deeply rhythmic, sensuous motion she was suddenly ferociously glad that she hadn’t slept with Michael.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ he told her with a heated, possessive glance. ‘A golden girl. So…hot and…tight…’ As much as he prided himself on making sure his lover had just as good a time as he did, Adrian knew without a shadow of a doubt it wouldn’t be long before this lovely, fascinating girl took him over the edge. Her body was sinfully beautiful. She surprised him with a wanton sensuality that he could hardly have believed, her long hair flowing over her lovely satiny breasts as she bent her head once more to receive his kiss, and Adrian knew he wouldn’t easily be able to give her up when the time came. The thought made him thrust even more deeply inside her as if staking a claim for all eternity and Liadan cried out as Adrian felt the hot, rhythmic contractions of her muscles holding him fast. Then he was quickly following her, groaning out loud with the ecstasy of it as his body succumbed to wave after wave of the most turbulent, erotic pleasure known to man.

CHAPTER TEN

‘ARE you sure you wouldn’t like a hot drink?’

Liadan was wrapped up once again in her soft towelling robe, and her glance was nervous as she watched Adrian reaching for his waterproof at the back of the door. Although she hadn’t really expected him to stay the night, she still couldn’t help feeling hurt that he was leaving so abruptly after their passionate union. But she wasn’t insensitive to the fact that there had been a definite cooling in his manner towards her since he had got dressed, and now she was going through the torments of hell wondering why.

‘I need to get back. I have to work.’

Scraping his fingers through his hair, he managed a smile of sorts: a smile that barely reached the suddenly frigid depths of his unsettling brown eyes. Liadan’s hand fluttered nervously to her throat.

‘Adrian, I hope you don’t—’

‘It’s not you, Liadan. I don’t want to hurt you but if you were expecting something more…’ He shrugged his wide shoulders and grimaced. ‘To be brutal, sex is all I can offer you. I just can’t give you anything more meaningful than that. You’re a lovely girl and some day you’ll no doubt meet the right man who’ll fulfil all your expectations of love and romance…but that’s not me, sweetheart. That’s not me.’

As he turned and opened the door the wind rushed in with a vengeance, bringing with it a spray of ice-cold rain that made Liadan shiver violently beneath her inadequate robe. But it wasn’t just the freezing rain that made her blood run cold. It was the bleak, haunted look in Adrian’s eyes that was taking him even further away from her than physical distance ever could.

‘They’re beautiful, George, thank you.’

Liadan dropped her gaze to the abundant bunch of daffodils George had just presented her with. Her heart went out to the older man. As he stood in the front hall, his cap in his hand, his embarrassment was plain to see, and clearly painfully acute. Liadan had already planned on visiting him this morning to put his anxieties at rest, to assure him that she didn’t blame him in any way for what his son had done. But she hadn’t yet had the opportunity, because Adrian had had a long list of things for her to do on her return.

He obviously thought that if he kept her as busy as possible she wouldn’t have time to brood on whether she’d made the right decision to come back or not. He was wrong.

Although they’d shared the ultimate intimacy, he’d made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t to expect much else, and, although Liadan was heartsick about such a decision, she couldn’t bring herself to leave. Not when she now knew with all certainty that she loved him more than she could ever imagine loving anyone else on this earth…They had a deep connection—even if Adrian was too blind to see it. She didn’t buy that ‘all he could offer her was sex’ baloney. He was merely hiding behind that harsh assertion to prevent himself from ever being emotionally hurt again. Liadan knew that as surely as she knew her own name.

So, even now when Adrian was already laying down new ground rules as to how he expected their relationship to continue, Liadan was determined to stay put and weather the storm. Did he regret making love to her last night? The mere idea scared her senseless. If only there were some way of getting through to him, of proving to him that she would never let him down or break his heart…

She tried to convince herself that what really mattered, practically speaking, was that she still had a job and would be able to meet her mortgage payments. But she knew she’d be willing to live in a tent if it meant that she could be with the man that she loved for ever.