A Thorn In Paradise

‘Not a hundred per cent impressed,’ he drawled lazily, sitting back in the chair to give her the full benefit of his attention. ‘I had forgotten that you British were the masters of understatement.’

‘We British? Aren’t you forgetting that you’re at least half British? Surely not; you made such a point of reminding me of that fact last night.’

There was a brief silence, then he unexpectedly smiled, and that smile filled his face with such devastatingly sexy charm that she felt her cheeks go pink in sudden confusion. She almost found herself preferring the angry insults to this.

‘Where’s Edna?’ she asked quickly, not caring to dwell on the impact he was making on her.

‘Gone to the village. My father may be unimpressed with my arrival, but Edna thinks it’s the return of the prodigal son. She’s gone to stock up on all my favourite foods. God knows how she remembered them. She must have the memory of an elephant.’

So, she thought sourly, the formidable Edna has turned pussycat. He probably had that reaction from every woman he came into contact with.

‘And where’s my father?’ he asked, lowering his eyes in almost precisely the same manner that Benjamin had a short while ago.

‘In his bedroom.’

‘Hiding?’

It was so near the mark that she was taken aback. ‘Trying to get over the shock of realising that you’re here,’ she said tartly. ‘I don’t think he wants to see you, at least not at the moment.’ Maybe you could try again in a few years’ time, she thought, when I’m well and truly out of here.

‘Well, he’s going to see me whether he likes it or not,’ Antonio said coolly, ‘and without you playing the little mediator. No doubt running between the two of us would give you no end of pleasure, but I intend to see him and that’s that.’

‘I can’t think of anything worse than running between the two of you,’ Corinna said tightly, already beginning to feel rattled. ‘He’s your father, you sort your troubles out yourself.’

‘And I won’t have you trying to influence him either.’

She slammed her cup down on the table and looked at him angrily. ‘I have no intention of trying to influence your father!’ she informed him.

‘So you haven’t told him what we discussed last night?’

‘No,’ she said in a more controlled voice, ‘I haven’t told him what you discussed last night. I don’t recall having discussed anything with you.’

‘And you haven’t run to him with any derogatory descriptions of me?’

Corinna opened her mouth and closed it.

‘Trying to find an appropriate lie to that one?’ he asked her, looking at her coldly.

‘He asked me what my impression was of you, and I told him the truth.’

‘Which was…?’

‘That you struck me as being arrogant and objectionable.’

She expected him to hit the roof with that one, but he didn’t, and she shifted uneasily in the chair.

‘I can’t think of too many women who have called me that before,’ he said softly, staring at her, and she thought to herself, No, I don’t suppose you have, I suppose they’ve all been too busy trying to get you to give them one of those lazy, charming smiles of yours. Well, not me, buster.

‘No?’ she asked politely. ‘They must be very short-sighted, then.’

‘Or maybe you’re the one with the misguided judgement. You are, after all, in a minority. Of course, you could be an expert on men. Is that it?’

‘I forgot one more adjective,’ she said, ignoring his question, and he raised his eyebrows in a question. ‘Egotistical.’

‘Now might I be permitted to subject you to the same character assassination as you’ve just subjected me to?’ he asked, and she reddened, not saying anything.

Her coffee had gone cold and she refilled her cup, not liking this turn in the conversation one bit. She didn’t want to get involved in any word games with this man. In fact, she would have liked to be able to ignore his presence completely.

‘Do I have a choice?’ she asked. ‘I gather you’ll force your opinions on me whether I like them or not. You did last night.’

‘Well,’ he said, folding his arms and looking at her from under his thick, black lashes, ‘you’re a relatively plain little creature, but I wouldn’t describe you as background material. No, quite fiery in fact, and with lots of that so-called honesty which some English people think is a virtue when in fact it’s only a mark of rudeness.’

‘A mark of rudeness…!’ she spluttered, furious.

‘That’s right,’ he agreed silkily. ‘Have you cultivated that in an attempt to win my father over? I remember him as being brilliant and temperamental, a man who wouldn’t be able to abide any coy simpering around him. Did you think that the quickest and surest way to win him over was to meet fire with fire?’

‘I don’t have to stay here and listen to this.’ She stood up, trembling, and turned to go.

‘Wait!’

‘Don’t order me about! You might get away with that where you come from and with the sort of women you mix with, but not me!’

They stared at each other and she felt a heated, unwelcome awareness of his masculinity. When he stood up, she had to force herself not to move, to remain where she was when every confused instinct was telling her to run. He walked across to her, not taking his eyes off her face, and she glared at him with resentment. Plain, was she? Scheming, was she? She wished that the ground would open and swallow him up. She would stand and watch him disappearing with a smile.

‘The sort of women I mix with?’

‘You heard me! From what you said they fall at your feet, but don’t expect the same sort of reaction from me!’

He looked at her speculatively, as if digesting that remark, and she wished that she hadn’t said anything. There was no reason why she had to defend herself to this man and it irked her that she was continually being forced into a position of self-defence.

‘No?’ he said, watching her mouth, then flicking his eyes along her body, then back to her face. ‘The financial reward not tempting enough?’ Her face darkened and he laughed with acid amusement. ‘Or maybe the little mouse with the fiery temper prefers to scurry into a corner and observe life from the sidelines?’

He was deliberately antagonising her. It was obvious. But the desire to wipe that cool assessing sneer off his dark face was so strong that she had to clench her fists tightly to overcome it.

‘Is there anything else you want or can I leave?’

‘Which is my father’s bedroom?’

She began telling him but he interrupted her and said, ‘Take me there. I think the time for confrontation has arrived.’

She nodded and spun round, walking briskly into the hall, then up the staircase to the right wing of the house, tensely aware of his presence behind her. Was he nervous? she wondered. He didn’t appear nervous. In fact, he gave the impression of someone who didn’t have a nervous bone in his body, but he could just be a good actor. She tried to imagine him having butterflies in his stomach and failed.

They had reached Benjamin’s bedroom and she knocked on the door, pushing it open and stepping in.

She wasn’t looking at Antonio, so she didn’t see his reaction, but Benjamin’s face mirrored his shock. She had a strange feeling of being superfluous and made to move away, but Benjamin bellowed at her, ‘Where do you think you’re going? I told you that I didn’t want to see him!’

Antonio’s mouth hardened but he didn’t say anything. He walked into the room, round to the side of the bed, and stood there looking down at his father, his face unreadable. It didn’t look as though it had the makings of a touching emotional reunion and Corinna reluctantly entered the room as well, shutting the door behind her.

‘You’re not wanted here,’ Benjamin said breathlessly, beckoning to her to come over, which she did, and then clasping her hand tightly, all of which she could see his son noting, jotting down, no doubt, in that computer mind of his to be recalled and used against her at a later date.

‘My heart,’ Benjamin said, ‘my blood-pressure. I can’t take this. The shock will kill me.’ He lay back looking faint and Antonio shot her a doubtful look.

‘I did write to tell you that I’d be coming,’ he said, reverting his eyes to Benjamin who had his eyes closed and was breathing heavily.

‘Perhaps you’d better leave,’ Corinna interjected worriedly, reaching next to the bed for her bag which contained her instruments. If Benjamin’s blood-pressure was up, then Antonio would have to leave whether he liked it or not.

He ignored her. ‘Didn’t you receive my letter?’

‘I preferred to think that it had been a mistake.’ He opened his blue eyes and peered at his son with defensive hostility on his face. Side by side, she could see the resemblance between them, which had not been so noticeable before. Their features weren’t identical by any means, and Antonio, with his deeply bronzed skin, looked distinctly foreign, but there was a similarity of expression stamped on both their faces, the same strong, stubborn look in their eyes. Two forceful personalities, she thought, destined to clash.

‘I never make mistakes,’ Antonio said, glancing at her, and she returned his look with equanimity.

‘Well, you made a mistake coming over here,’ Benjamin said. ‘You haven’t set foot in this house for years and that’s suited me just fine. As far as I am concerned, I haven’t got a son.’

That brought a dark flush to Antonio’s cheeks, but whether it stemmed from anger or discomfort, Corinna couldn’t say.

‘We both know the reasons that I left here in the first place,’ he answered tautly. ‘Not,’ he continued harshly, ‘that I want to have our dirty linen aired in front of your nurse.’

‘Why not?’ Benjamin threw at him, ‘she’s more a part of my life than you are.’

‘A dangerous situation, wouldn’t you say?’ Antonio said grimly. ‘She’s a nurse, she’s not indispensable.’

‘Will the two of you stop talking as if I weren’t here!’ Corinna burst out. She faced Benjamin and said quietly, ‘Your son’s right, I shouldn’t be here. The two of you should talk your differences out without a third party present.’

‘I have nothing to talk out,’ Benjamin said stubbornly. He looked at his son, one hand clenched. ‘I didn’t invite you here. I don’t know why you’ve come and I don’t want to know. Just seeing you is going to set my blood-pressure soaring.’

‘It’s fine,’ Corinna said. She had taken it unobtrusively a short while ago and was surprised to find that it had been stable.

‘For the moment,’ Benjamin growled, ‘but not if I have to be subjected to this sort of scene for much longer.’

Antonio gave an impatient click of his tongue. ‘Look, I’ve been away a long time,’ he muttered, glancing across to where Corinna was standing. ‘I grant you that all this should have been cleared up a long time ago.’

His face was tight, and she could tell straight away that he was not a man who felt comfortable making concessions of any description.

‘Should have been, but wasn’t,’ Benjamin said, refusing to bend. ‘Now if you don’t mind leaving, I feel very tired. Close the door behind you.’

Antonio shook his head and spun round on his heel, slamming the door behind him.

‘Well?’ Benjamin muttered to Corinna. ‘Don’t just stand there pretending that you have nothing to say. And for God’s sake stop fussing around these damned bedclothes! What are you thinking? You might as well tell me instead of wearing that tight-lipped expression.’

Corinna hesitated, then said, ‘You could have handled that a bit better.’

‘A bit better? A bit better! So he’s got to you, has he? That’s the way the ground lies, is it?’

‘Don’t be foolish. Nobody’s got to me. I just think that you could have accepted his apology.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it might have been the start of some kind of truce between you.’

‘It’s a truce I could do without.’

She shrugged and Benjamin’s eyebrows met in a frown. ‘He’s not wanted and don’t try and be saintly. Didn’t it strike you that he doesn’t approve of you? Dispensable, he called you, I believe.’

She lowered her eyes. ‘It doesn’t bother me.’

‘Well, it bothers me. I don’t want to hear what he’s got to say, and if part of the reason that he’s found his way here is because he’s got to know about you and thinks you might have designs on my bank balance, then he’s wasted his time.’

Corinna looked at him, startled. She had known that Benjamin was shrewd, but his astuteness amazed her.

‘So I’m right, am I?’

‘How did you guess?’

‘I suppose that fool Angus has written to him about you,’ he said, continuing when he saw her bewildered expression. ‘He’s been trying to get us together for years. Keeps in touch with Antonio, you see. Throws me titbits about his life every now and again to whet my appetite, no doubt, as if I’m interested.’ He gave a shout of laughter. ‘Well, I’m not about to forgive and forget as easily as that!’

‘You’re a stubborn old man,’ she said with resigned affection. ‘You know what they say about pride.’

‘And you know what I say about you philosophising,’ he retorted. ‘Now could you go and fuss somewhere else?’

‘You’re not coming down?’

‘Not at the moment.’

‘And what about food?’

‘Get that witch Edna to bring it to me. It’s time she worked for her keep.’ He closed his eyes, his way of dismissing her, and she let herself out of the room quietly.

As she looked up she saw Antonio waiting for her, lounging against the wall at the top of the stairs, and she did her best to walk past him, but he wasn’t about to let her. He reached out and held her and for some reason which she could only put down to dislike, her body began doing strange things. Her skin tingled where his fingers were curled round her forearm and she found that she was breathing quickly, as if she had just run a marathon.

‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ he said grimly.

‘Take your hand off me.’

That had the opposite effect of making him grip her tighter.

‘I watched you,’ he said, ‘the way my father responds to you.’

‘How interesting. Now do you mind?’

‘I don’t know how you’ve done it but you’ve managed to become a necessary part of his life. I won’t let you take him for a ride.’

Her eyes flashed angrily as she contemplated that statement. ‘You’re not in a position to put your foot down on anything, Mr Antonio Silver. Not that there’s anything to put your foot down about, anyway! And not that it’s any of my business, but all this sudden rush of concern for your father, how do I know that it’s not because you feel your inheritance being compromised? Is that why you flew over here at a rate of knots the minute you heard about me?’

His mouth thinned. ‘You’re right, it’s none of your business, but I’ll set your little mind at rest anyway. I don’t need my father’s estates. I have enough money of my own to buy my own estates.’

‘Oh.’

‘Satisfied?’ he sneered. ‘Or would you like to see a few of my bank balances?’

‘You can’t blame me for thinking…’ she muttered, and he jerked her towards him.

‘Keep your thoughts to yourself in the future,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘You’re a nurse, have you forgotten? You’re not here to speculate on things that don’t concern you, you’re here for my father’s health, though I’m surprised you haven’t driven him into the grave with that tongue of yours.’

That hurt. ‘That’s unfair,’ she whispered, looking down, and there was silence. ‘Your father and I get along well together.’

‘Too well.’

‘I resent your assumptions. If what you’re aiming at is to force me from this house, then you’re wasting your time. I like it here, I like your father, and that has nothing to do with the size of his bank balance! Your cynicism might help you in that concrete jungle you live in, but it’s out of place here!’

‘Is it?’ He gave that some thought, and she looked at his downturned eyes, the dark sweep of his lashes, a little uneasily.

‘All right. We’ll have it your way. Maybe I misjudged you.’ His voice was soft and smooth. ‘I must admit that when I came over here I didn’t expect to find someone like you.’

The question was too tempting to resist. ‘What did you expect to find?’

‘Someone,’ he drawled lazily, ‘a bit sexier. A bit more—filled out, so to speak. And definitely a brunette. My father has only ever been attracted to dark-haired women, did you know that? That’s a little titbit for your scrap-book, isn’t it?’

There was something dangerously hypnotic about his deep voice and steel-grey eyes.

‘How do you know that?’ she asked calmly, blinking away the desire to be mesmerised.

‘A confidence exchanged a long time ago. A passing remark that’s stuck in my head over the years.’

So, the thought struck her, there must have been warmth there at one point. What had gone wrong? She would never ask either of them and she had a feeling that the information would never be forthcoming.

He was looking at her with intense concentration and she began to feel even more uncomfortable.

‘What are your plans now?’ she asked, trying to get the subject on to more neutral ground.

‘You already know what my plans are. I have work to do here, apart from everything else.’

I hope it keeps you out of the house, she thought, viewing a succession of fraught encounters with something approaching panic.

‘Fine,’ she said, ‘now could you let me go? You seem to enjoy taking the caveman approach with me, but I’d really prefer you to keep your hands to yourself.’

‘If you say so.’ He let go of her, then said before she could walk away, ‘But first——’ he reached behind her and unpinned her hair in one easy movement and it cascaded down to her waist, long, straight and like spun silk ‘—I’ve been intrigued to see whether you’re as icy and untouchable-looking with your hair loose.’

Vivid colour flowed into her face. She could feel her heart beating like a drum inside her chest and for once she couldn’t think of a thing to say. Without a word, she began walking away.

‘Wouldn’t like to know what I think?’ she heard him ask from behind her, and there was amused laughter in his voice.

Damn him! Was his opinion of her so low that he felt he could do and say anything he pleased to her? The back of her neck was still prickling from where his fingers had brushed against it and, whether she admitted it or not, her blood was racing with a terrible, forbidden excitement.

CHAPTER THREE

BENJAMIN didn’t emerge from his room until the following morning, by which time he had harnessed some of his raging temper, at least as far as Corinna could make out. She laid out his clothes on his bed, and he emerged from his bedroom half an hour later with a few additions to what she had set out. A blue silk cravat and the comfortable loafers which he normally used around the house had been discarded in favour of a pair of tan shoes which looked far too smart for everyday use.

Corinna eyed him with some amusement and he scowled at her.

‘Something the matter?’ he barked, allowing her to take his arm as they walked down the staircase.

‘You look very dapper,’ she said seriously. ‘Are you going somewhere?’

‘Can’t a man look halfway smart in his own house?’ Benjamin barked, ‘without being subjected to wisecracks?’

‘I wasn’t being funny!’

‘Well, it sounded that way to me,’ he muttered grumpily, and she grinned. ‘Where is he, anyway?’

‘Oh, have you dressed to impress?’

‘I have not!’ he denied with a little too much vigour. ‘Why would I do that? I don’t even want him under my roof!’

‘Well, I don’t know where he is.’ They had reached the kitchen and Corinna began laying out his breakfast. Kippers, toast, coffee, juice, while Benjamin took his place at the table and eyed her speculatively.

‘You seem to have improved your image a bit as well,’ he commented slyly, ‘now that we’re on the subject.’

Corinna didn’t look at him but she felt her face redden. All right, so she had decided to wear a little make-up and a deep pink blouse with a matching skirt instead of the usual invisible colours she favoured, but that didn’t mean anything at all. It certainly didn’t mean that she was trying to create any sort of impression on Antonio Silver, because she wasn’t. She hadn’t seen him at all since his arrogant gesture in releasing her hair, just for fun, and in the interim she had decided that she really loathed the man. She didn’t like his massive self-confidence bordering on downright arrogance, she didn’t like his too striking good looks, she didn’t like his easy, sexual charm lurking just below the surface, and most of all she didn’t like the way he always managed to get under her skin and do strange things to her composure. She had always been a very composed girl and she meant to stay that way. Men like that frightened her. They were too powerful, too clever, too self-assured. She had always longed for the non-threatening. Hadn’t she?

‘Well?’ Benjamin prodded in his usual forthright manner, which she was beginning to see wasn’t all that different from his son’s. ‘So what’s behind the charming pink outfit which, might I say, is far and away the nicest thing I’ve seen you in since you were here?’

‘Nothing,’ Corinna remarked, pouring herself a mug of coffee and sitting down. ‘And if you think that there is, then your imagination’s running away with you.’

‘A bit like yours was a minute ago,’ he said mildly, crunching into his toast, and she looked at him with resigned exasperation.

‘Well, now that we’ve sorted that one out,’ she said after a while, ‘what are we going to do today? Shall we take the usual walk and then spend some time on your writing, or would you like to do something different? We could go to the local library. You’ve been talking about needing some books which you haven’t got in your library.’

‘Yes, why don’t you?’ The deep, familiar voice threw them both into startled confusion and Corinna looked up, her blue eyes clashing with Antonio’s.

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