Harlequin Romance September 2013 Bundle: Bound by a BabyIn the Line of DutyPatchwork Family in the OutbackStranded with the Tycoon

by Kate Hardy

  What would Ben do if she kissed him?

  Luce closed her eyes. No. Back to what mattered. Nest. Her book. Not her sex drive.

  Although Nest had obviously had enough of one, given the number of men she’d been connected to and the number of children she’d borne.

  Not the point. Okay. Enough about Nest the woman. Focus on the book itself. The structure. Should she break Chapter Seven into two parts? Should she ask Ben in for dinner when they got to Cardiff? Or more...

  Oh, God, this was hopeless.

  ‘We’re here,’ Ben said, his voice amused, and Luce realised belatedly that the car had stopped moving.

  Fumbling with the handle, Luce threw the door open and stepped out into the snow. She smoothed down her skirt with one hand, aware that Ben was walking around the car towards her.

  ‘Figured out where we are yet?’ he asked.

  He was standing too close for her to think straight. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her neck, a wonderful contrast to the wintry chill.

  She stepped away quickly and looked up. ‘Oh!’

  The twin round towers of Cilgerran Castle loomed overhead, grey and dark against the sky, snow capping them, and Luce’s breath caught in her throat. She’d have known where she was in an instant, even without the information board at the edge of the car park. This place mattered. This was history made real, right before her. ‘This is it. This is—’

  ‘Cilgerran Castle. Where they say Nest was abducted from.’

  Ben moved behind her and she could feel his warmth through her coat.

  ‘Good idea?’

  She nodded, her head jerking up and down hard to show him just what a fantastic idea she thought it was. This was what she needed. To get close to Nest physically as well as intellectually. She needed to stand where she had stood, needed to feel the stone walls around her. Needed to understand how Nest had felt so many years ago.

  Why hadn’t she come here before? Oh, she had, she supposed, back when she was studying for her Masters and Nest had been just a passing interest in half a module of her course. But never since. After all, she’d done it already. Why waste the day getting there and back to Cardiff again when there was so much else she needed to do?

  But she’d never felt then what she felt now. The feeling that all of history was coming together in one place, just to help her understand.

  ‘I hadn’t realised it was so close,’ she murmured, and felt Ben shrug behind her. He was so close, too.

  ‘A couple of hours. You were daydreaming on the way here.’

  Had it really been that long? They could have got to Cardiff and back already. ‘I was thinking about Nest.’ Mostly.

  ‘I saw a leaflet for it in the Eight Bells rack earlier. Thought it looked like your sort of thing. And when I remembered how you told me Nest had lived here, was taken from here, I had to bring you.’

  Luce spun round, finding herself nose to chest with him. How had she forgotten he was so close? His hand settled on her waist to steady her when she stumbled on the uneven ground and heat radiated through Luce’s body. Raising her gaze to meet his, she said, ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  The words were simple, but the emotions they evoked were anything but. His lips were just inches away. If she went up on tiptoes she could kiss him so easily. It would be a thank-you kiss, nothing more, but she’d get to feel his mouth against hers. And, oh, how she wanted to...

  She bit down on her own lip to try to curb the temptation. But Ben’s fingers still pressed against her waist. Then he glanced away, hands dropping from her body, and she saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

  ‘Shall we go in?’ he asked.

  Luce stepped back and nodded again. Nest—that was why she was here. And then she was leaving. She really had to try to remember that.

  CHAPTER TEN

  BEN WATCHED LUCE’S rear move enticingly under that touchable flowing skirt as she gripped the handrail of the bridge over the moat, struggling to keep her footing on the icy wood as she made her way into the castle. It had seemed like such a good, obvious idea to bring her when he’d seen the leaflet. Killing two birds with one big hunk of tumbledown rock. Lots of Brownie points for him for thinking of it, meaning she’d be thinking kindly of him again as they drove to Cardiff. Maybe even enough to say yes if he asked her to dinner again. He could spend the night in Cardiff, head straight to London in the morning. Because this wasn’t over yet. It couldn’t be.

  Memories of his twenty-first birthday flashed through his mind again. He’d wanted to seduce this woman eight years ago, before he’d even really known her. And now that feeling was a thousand times stronger.

  He was pretty sure she’d go along with it this time, if he did. Last night’s awkward resolution notwithstanding, he’d seen the signs. The way her body swayed into his whenever he got close, the way her eyes widened when her gaze caught his. And the way her teeth had pressed down into her lip, displaying just how plump and kissable it was. Her resistance was definitely crumbling.

  He had to stop thinking about this. He had to wait. Otherwise he’d be seducing her up against a very cold stone castle keep.

  Inside the castle walls Ben found a bench near an information board, brushed off the snow as best he could and sat down to watch the show. Cilgerran was a nice enough castle, he supposed, but not exactly his main area of interest. That, right now, would be Luce.

  The castle had free entry until the end of March, but no one else was taking advantage of it. Clearly the weather had scared them off, but they were missing out, Ben thought. Luce flitted from wall to wall, from snow-covered step to window, from arch to arrow-hole, the breeze keeping her skirt plastered against her curves under her short jacket, her colour high and eyes bright. From time to time she’d call out to him, telling him about what she was looking at, what had happened here. The wind whisked away every other word, but it didn’t matter. Ben didn’t care about the castle. He was too entranced by her.

  She was beautiful.

  It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed before, of course. But it had always been a pale, reserved beauty. The sort you could look at but not touch. Hell, she’d practically had ‘Keep Out’ signs plastered all over her. But here...here she was radiant. She was real. And how he wanted to touch her.

  He couldn’t have said how long it was before she jumped down from the low remains of an interior wall, sending a puff of snow flying up. Time seemed to pass differently when he was absorbed in watching her.

  Her cheeks were pink and flushed as she flung herself onto the patch of bench he’d cleared beside him. ‘This place is fantastic,’ she said, sounding slightly out of breath from hopping around the castle walls.

  ‘I’m glad you like it.’ The urge to lean back against the bench, stretch an arm around her shoulders and pull her into him was almost overpowering. In an attempt to resist, Ben leant forward instead, resting his forearms along his thighs. ‘It must have been pretty impressive back in the day.’

  ‘It’s impressive now.’

  Luce’s voice held a tone of reverence, and he knew she saw something here that he never could—something beyond his world. It didn’t matter. He was content to enjoy it through her, to see her eyes light up at the history she saw here. He’d bring her back every week if he could. Just to see that sparkle, that life in her face.

  Except maybe it would wear off over time. Maybe they’d have to tour all the castles in Wales. And the rest of Britain. And overseas. I wonder how she feels about French châteaux?

  Or maybe he’d take her back to Cardiff and never see her again, as planned.

  That thought made the winter air colder, the clouds overhead more threatening. Ben squinted up at the sky. The reports said no more snow until that night, but those skies just screamed bad weather. T
hey should get going or they might not make it to Cardiff. Again.

  But he didn’t want to leave. Not yet. He wanted a little more time with this Luce first. Excited, vibrant, castle Luce. Was that so much to ask?

  ‘So, where do you think Nest was taken from?’ Ben got to his feet as he spoke, reaching a hand out to pull Luce up again.

  She rolled her eyes as she stood. ‘The castle would have looked completely different then. Most of what you see today was probably built in the thirteenth century—a hundred years or more after Owain took Nest.’

  ‘Okay, so tell me what it would have looked like then.’

  ‘Earth and timber building, probably. We can’t really be sure.’ Luce gazed around her again and Ben realised he was staring at her the same way she looked at the castle. He didn’t stop.

  Luce carried on talking, almost as if to herself. ‘It doesn’t matter that it looks different now. The landscape’s the same. The feeling. She was here, and now I am. And I feel... It’s ridiculous.’ She dropped her head.

  ‘Go on,’ Ben said, trying to resist the desperate temptation to move closer to her.

  Luce reached out to place a hand against the stone of the castle wall, palm flat, as if she were connecting herself to the site. ‘I feel like I can understand her better here. Make more sense of her life and what happened to her. There’s so few facts that we can be sure about. But here they come together better.’

  ‘So it’s helped?’

  She looked up, her eyes wide and shining, and smiled at him. Ben felt the moment he lost himself as a dull ache in his chest.

  ‘It’s helped a lot,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

  It was too late, now, he realised. He’d been hers since the moment he saw her again in Chester. Maybe longer. Maybe since that night in the library. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered any more. He just had to have her.

  Stepping forward, he raised his hands to her cold face, his body moving into her space as she fell back to rest against the castle wall.

  ‘We should get going.’

  Sharp white teeth bit down on her lip again after she spoke, and Ben almost groaned at the sight.

  ‘I know.’ But he didn’t move away.

  ‘Kiss me,’ she said, anyway, and he lowered his mouth to hers, the wind whipping round them, cold and icy and utterly unimportant in the moment.

  Her lips were soft and sweet under his as he teased them open, drinking in the taste and the feel of her. Luce’s arms wrapped around his waist, her hands firm against his back, pulling him in deeper, closer, even as he pressed his body against hers, the softness of her curves driving him wild.

  As the first cold drops hit the back of his neck, Ben pulled his mouth away, his hands tugging her body into the warmth and safety of his arms. Luce rubbed her cheek against his coat and he kissed the top of her head.

  ‘We need to get out of here,’ he said, and she moved away, leaving him cold and bereft.

  She blinked up at him and snowflakes landed on her lashes. ‘It’s snowing again.’

  ‘And it’s going to get heavier. But, more importantly, I need to get you somewhere more private than a ruined public castle.’ He took a breath. ‘So—Cardiff or the cottage?’

  Luce’s lips quirked up in a naughty smile, and the expression was so utterly unexpected that Ben bit back a laugh.

  ‘Whichever is closer,’ she said, and he grabbed her hand as they ran for the exit.

  Finally, Ben thought, as the car doors slammed behind them and he set a course back to the cottage. Finally something was looking up.

  * * *

  The journey back to the cottage seemed to take twice as long as the trip to the castle had done, and that was only due in part to the increasingly heavy snowfall. It seemed worse even than the drive from Chester had been. Cardiff would have to wait another day, apparently, but somehow the thought bothered her far less now. She couldn’t have left without having this, having him, just once.

  Ben drove steadily through the worsening weather, taking bends and dips in his stride. Luce kept her hands clenched against her knees, more to stop herself touching him than from fear of the drive.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked finally, just as the sky went from grey to black and Luce made out a sign welcoming them to the Brecon Beacons National Park through the falling snow.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said.

  ‘Really?’

  No. I want you to pull over so I can ravish you in the back seat. Luce felt her eyes widen at the very thought. Not a very Dr Lucinda Myles type desire at all.

  ‘You’re not over-thinking this?’

  She looked up at Ben as he spoke. His eyes were still firmly on the road, his arms braced tight to the wheel. He looked as if every muscle in his body was taut. Was that because of the weather? Or because he was resisting a similar urge to hers?

  Luce gave herself one moment to believe it was the latter, then realised she still hadn’t answered his question. With a soft laugh she said, ‘Honestly, Ben, I’m barely thinking at all right now.’

  She was watching, so she saw him blow out a long breath, saw his shoulders sink, his body start to relax. Had he really been that worried about her?

  ‘I’m not going to fall apart because you kissed me, you know,’ she said, forehead furrowed with the effort of trying to figure out what he was thinking.

  His mouth slipped into a half-smile. ‘Yeah, but I might if I don’t get to do it again soon.’

  The heat that pooled in her belly seemed hotter, more desperate at his words than it had been even in the castle. Back there she’d told herself it was the location, the romanticism of the castle and its history. But here, when he should be focused on the road, he was still thinking about kissing her.

  ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ She could hear the wanting in her own voice, and Ben obviously did, too. He glanced over at her, just for a moment, surprise on his face.

  ‘Nearly,’ he answered, his voice low and full of promise.

  Luce was almost certain that the rest of the journey took considerably less time than it should have done. But he had to slow down again as they reached the twisting path up to the cottage itself, and Luce gripped the edge of her seat as the car slipped and slid over the still falling snow. Not going to be fun trying to get back through this to Cardiff, even tomorrow.

  The thought was too depressing to dwell on. Instead, Luce focused on thinking about what might happen when they got inside the cottage and bit her lip.

  ‘Okay, this is as close as we’re getting,’ Ben said eventually, wrestling the car onto the side of the road and pulling on the handbrake. They hadn’t even made it to the parking spot they’d managed the day before. This snowstorm was making yesterday’s look like a mere sprinkling. ‘Think you can walk from here?’

  Luce nodded because, honestly, she could do anything if it meant Ben was going to kiss her again soon.

  He trudged round to the other side of the car, helping her out into the snow, and pulled her arm through his so he held her tight against the side of his body. Together, heads down against the snow flurries, they made their slow way up the last of the hill to the cottage, with Ben yanking her upright whenever her boots slipped.

  And then, just when Luce had started to fear they were never going to make it, the cottage appeared through the snow, and warmth burst through her despite the weather.

  Ben fumbled the door open and in moments had slammed it shut behind them and pressed her up against it, his hands cold as they found their way under her coat and jumper to bare skin. His lips were hot, though, warm and demanding, and Luce let her head fall back against the wood and surrendered herself to his kiss.

  Then he wrenched himself away again and Luce’s body ached with the loss.

  ‘This is what you want?’ he asked.

&
nbsp; Luce nodded furiously. ‘Of course—’

  ‘For you,’ he interrupted. His eyes were dark with want, but his face was serious. ‘Not because someone else wants you to, or because it’s what you should do, or even because you’re trying to be something you weren’t in university. Because you want it.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you know...you know what this is?’

  At last Luce realised what he really wanted, and even though she’d promised herself she wouldn’t give it to him, the need that burned through her body meant she couldn’t stop the words even if she wanted to.

  ‘I want you, Ben. Me. I want your hands and your mouth and your body on me. Just for tonight. Just one night.’

  His hands tightened around her waist as she spoke and Luce swallowed at the heat in his eyes. Then she said the words she knew he was waiting for.

  ‘Seduce me.’

  * * *

  That was all Ben needed to hear. With a growl of satisfaction he captured her lips again, even as his hands pushed her coat from her shoulders.

  ‘You’re wearing far too many clothes,’ he murmured, working his kisses down her throat.

  She bent her neck enticingly, to give him better access, and he allowed himself a moment to admire the pale skin there, and the line of her throat to her shoulders. How had he never noticed how beautiful she was when they were younger? Maybe she was more confident now, better dressed, more aware of her own attraction. But her beauty had always lain in the essence of her, the bones and the lines, and he just hadn’t been looking carefully enough.

  Except for that one night, drunk and stupid. Then he’d seen it.

  ‘It was cold in the castle,’ Luce said, and Ben had to concentrate to remember what they’d even been talking about. He was past words already.