Defying the Billionaire's Command

by Michelle Conder

  At first, Carly had wondered if Dare’s posturing about protecting his mother hadn’t come from some self-interested space, but she knew immediately she was wrong when she saw them together. These two people had a connection that reminded her of the love she shared with her own parents, and she’d felt a pang of homesickness as she’d taken her seat at the alfresco dining table.

  ‘I’m young.’ Dare smiled at her with only the slightest trace of mockery in his eyes. ‘And fit. I’m sure I can make it.’

  He had been polite to her all lunch and quite a few times Carly had longed to lash out at him and show his mother just how rude her son could be when she wasn’t around to see it.

  Especially when Gregory had scurried up to Dare and jumped up at him until Dare had reached down and placed the little mutt on his lap. As far as she was concerned the only reason the two of them got on so well was because they recognised each other as twin spirits of evil.

  ‘He’s really not that scary,’ Dare had commented with an arched brow as he’d petted him.

  Carly had offered a brief, forced smile, not wanting to find him the least bit amusing. As far as she was concerned he and the adoring dog deserved each other because it had been Gregory’s fault she had nearly been run over by the man in the first place.

  ‘A walk sounds lovely,’ Rachel agreed, ‘and I’m sure Dare won’t be bored at all.’

  Carly kept a smile on her face as she caught the Baron’s pleading look. The man certainly knew how to tug at her heartstrings, that was for sure. And perhaps she could agree to escort Dare into the village and then kick him in the shins once they’d rounded the side of the house.

  ‘Okay, fine,’ she groused.

  ‘Don’t be too enthusiastic, Red. I might think you like me.’

  She’d show him how much she liked him, she thought, right around the next corner.

  Smiling pointedly at Benson, she took hold of his wrist. ‘I’m sure you and Rachel have a lot of information to exchange.’ And he’d better use this time to inform her of his illness or Carly would risk being fired and do it for him!

  Satisfied that his pulse was fine, she stood up but not before she caught sight of Dare’s narrowed eyes on her hand. She supposed to an outsider her casual touches could be construed as affection, but still... It was a big leap to go from affection to sleeping with someone and it certainly didn’t excuse his rudeness towards her, or his grandfather.

  * * *

  Dare had been surprised Carly had not continued to try and wheedle out of their little walk to the village. He’d been surprised even more to find himself accepting the old man’s suggestion even before he’d received his mother’s not-so-subtle kick in the ankle beneath the table. She wanted time alone with her father. So, okay, he’d give it to her and accompany the little gold-digger into the village.

  The little gold-digger who had played his mother like a finely tuned harp at lunch with her polite and surprisingly insightful views on current affairs and international issues. He’d even found himself agreeing with her at one point, but then he supposed if one aimed to become a trophy wife one needed to be able to converse with a variety of intelligent people. Perhaps Miss Carly Evans was just wilier than many of the women of her ilk.

  ‘Okay, this is as far as we go,’ she said coldly, stopping suddenly as soon as they were out of sight of the terrace.

  Dare glanced at the ten-foot manicured hedges leading to what looked like a maze, and a set of well-kept clinker brick stables off to the left. ‘Small village,’ he offered.

  ‘Don’t be smart,’ she snapped, giving him a look that could wipe ten percent off the Dow Jones in seconds. ‘We’re not going to the village.’

  ‘And what will I tell old Benson when I return and he asks how I found it?’

  ‘They’ve only thrown us together because they want time alone, you know?’

  ‘I know that,’ Dare drawled. ‘I’m not an idiot.’

  She gave him a look that said she disagreed and shrugged. ‘So go polish your bike or something.’

  Dare grinned. ‘I think you like my bike. Go on, admit it.’

  ‘That death trap?’ Carly scoffed. ‘Do you know how many emergency-department patients are injured on motorcycles every day?’

  He pulled a face. ‘I don’t think I want to know.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Carly said. ‘Next time take the bus.’

  Dare laughed and she gave him a withering look.

  When she made to continue past him he blocked her path. ‘And where do you think you’re going?’

  ‘To the village.’ Her little chin tilted up so high he wanted to nip it with his teeth. Nip it and continue down the long, slender column of her throat until he reached her collarbones and continued on to her sweetly rounded breasts.

  ‘Great.’ He cleared the gruffness from his throat and urged his body to settle down. This woman might affect him like no other but she was without morals and God only knew what else—panties, perhaps? ‘Come on,’ he growled. ‘You don’t want me telling Benson you’re being stubborn.’

  ‘I’m not stubborn.’

  Dare took her elbow and laughed softly as she pulled it out of his grasp. ‘As a mule.’

  ‘I don’t think you would tell him,’ she challenged. ‘I don’t think you’d dare.’

  ‘Try me.’ His expression darkened. ‘It might make him realise what a disloyal little gold-digger you are.’

  ‘You were the one who kissed me,’ she said, outraged colour winging into her cheeks.

  ‘You kissed me back,’ he pointed out, wanting to do nothing more than curl his hand around the nape of her neck and remind them both how good it had been. When she glared at him without responding he raised an eyebrow. ‘You get points for not trying to deny it.’

  ‘Why bother?’ she tossed at him. ‘Men like you do what you want anyway. You make your own rules.’

  Something in her tone made his gaze sharpen. Rather than look like a woman on the make, she looked suddenly wistful and lost and innocently beautiful, like a woman he wanted to take to his bed and never let go.

  And stupid thoughts like that were what had driven his father to follow one rainbow after another.

  Scowling, he made an elaborate gesture in the direction of the village.

  ‘Shall we?’ he said tersely.

  She looked as if she was about to tell him to go jump on his head but then she stuck her nose in the air and stalked off ahead of him.

  Dare smiled grimly and set off after her.

  They hadn’t gone very far when Dare put his hand out in front of her body to stop her.

  Startled, Carly threw him an annoyed look until he put his finger to his lips to keep her quiet and pointed into the bracken. A deer and two fawns were grazing on a patch of grass, their ears twitching. Dare could feel the heat of the sun on his shoulders, the soft breeze on his face, and was pleased to sense that Carly was as aware of the delicacy of the moment as he was. A bird called overhead and the deer all raised their heads.

  He heard Carly’s sharp intake of breath as the doe made eye contact. A moment later her nose twitched and she alerted her fawns before dancing off into the trees.

  Dare smiled. He loved the outdoors and since starting his business ten years ago he hadn’t had much time to commune with nature as he had done as a boy.

  ‘Oh, my, that was beautiful,’ Carly murmured.

  ‘It reminds me of home.’

  ‘Really?’ She gazed up at him, wonder turning her gaze soft. ‘How so?’

  Dare swallowed. ‘I grew up in a small town at the foot of the Smokies. Had plans to become a forest ranger at one point.’

  Her eyes grew wide. ‘What made you switch from forest ranger to finance whiz?’

  ‘Whiz, huh?’

  ‘Some m
edia person’s view, not mine.’

  Dare shrugged. ‘I was good with numbers. My math teacher saw it. He encouraged me, and I won a scholarship to Harvard.’

  She nodded slowly. ‘That’s pretty impressive.’

  ‘Yeah, I like what I do. I like investing in businesses and seeing what I can do with them. Seeing them come off. But living in cities doesn’t leave much time to go round up deer.’

  And what was he doing sharing his private thoughts with this woman? If he wasn’t careful he’d tell her he sometimes felt lonely in those cities, living in large, empty apartments and never feeling settled.

  ‘No deer in Liverpool.’ She laughed. ‘Our local wildlife consists of teens hanging out at train stations for all the wrong reasons.’

  Disgruntled by how much he was enjoying her company, Dare scowled.

  ‘Do you love him?’

  She blinked up at him. ‘Sorry?’

  ‘The old man,’ he rasped. ‘Do you love him?’

  A cold light entered her lovely eyes. ‘Are we back to that?’ She shook her head as if he had disappointed her in some way and his gut clenched. ‘But he isn’t “the old man”, he’s your grandfather.’

  ‘And you’re evading the question.’

  ‘Because I don’t want to ruin my walk any more than it already is.’

  She marched away from him. ‘Answer the question, Carly.’ His long-legged stride easily matched hers.

  ‘Or what?’ She glared up at him. ‘You’ll make me?’

  ‘Is that what you want?’ His eyes bored into hers. ‘Is the old man too soft for your liking?’

  ‘Oh!’ Carly tried to put distance between them but Dare grabbed her elbow and swung her around.

  ‘You’re disgusting!’

  ‘You touch him like a lover and yet you’re at least fifty years younger than he is. That’s not natural.’

  Actually she touched him like a doctor—or a friend, at most—but she knew Dare only saw what he wanted to see.

  She shrugged off his touch and felt a pang of disappointment when he released her so easily. Incensed by a need she was hard-pressed to understand given her stance on casual intimacy in general, and men like this one in particular, Carly briefly closed her eyes. ‘They say the mighty fall the hardest,’ she said with a composure she had to fight hard to maintain. ‘I so hope that’s true.’

  He scowled at her. ‘If you’re not his lover then what are you? Because I’m not buying the whole “friend of a friend” baloney.’

  ‘Ask your grandfather.’

  A beat passed between them before he nodded in agreement. ‘I intend to.’

  Realising that he might be going to do so now and ruin Benson’s time alone with his daughter, Carly reached out and grabbed his forearm.

  ‘The village is just over the next rise. I thought you wanted to see it.’ She released him. ‘Or was your accompanying me just a ruse to get information out of me?’ She wouldn’t have put it past him.

  ‘Lead on,’ he said hardly.

  Both relieved and agitated, Carly continued on in silence but it wasn’t the comfortable silence of before. Not even the view of the small village as they descended the slight incline onto the High Street was enough to elevate the tension between them.

  Carly smiled at a few of the local folk walking by even though she’d never met them before. Which did make her feel better. In Liverpool most everyone kept to themselves in the city streets, hurrying about their business with grim determination. You hardly ever heard laughter in the streets, like here, where some sort of children’s game was going on in the village square.

  It was a children’s birthday party and the game was dodge ball. By tacit agreement both she and Dare stopped to watch, Dare all brooding male energy with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his shoulders slightly hunched as if he had the weight of the world on them.

  If he did she had no doubt that he would come out the victor. Power and strength radiated from him. If this had been a couple of centuries earlier she had no doubt he would have been some kind of war chief with a thousand men at his back.

  ‘I’m not in love with him.’ The words were out before she even realised they were there to be said and the air between them pulled even tighter. ‘I’m not in love with anyone.’

  His eyes flicked to hers and she berated herself for the foolish comment. ‘What I mean is...’ she took a deep breath. ‘You might want to cut your grandfather some slack.’

  His eyes flicked to hers. ‘Might I?’

  Carly sighed. She would probably get more compassion out of a telephone poll. ‘Forget I said anything,’ she muttered.

  The man was as hard as the sand rock used in the construction of the village buildings. Why she’d even said what she had she didn’t know. The Baron’s secrets were his own to disclose and it wasn’t as if she wanted this man to like her, or think well of her. What would that accomplish?

  ‘Then what is he to you?’ he demanded, his keen gaze probing hers as if he were intent on learning all her secrets.

  ‘I’d rather not talk about it.’ He would find out soon enough and then it would be Carly’s turn to have the last laugh. Until then she’d keep her mouth shut.

  ‘You were the one who brought it up this time.’

  ‘My mistake,’ she said loftily over her shoulder, circling the small square as if she couldn’t wait to see what was growing inside a potted plant across the way.

  Dare shoved his hands into his pockets and watched her go. There was more to what was going on here and she held the key. But what was he missing? And why this constant nagging desire to take her into his arms and slay all her demons for her?

  Because she had some; he’d sensed it a few times now. And while she might not love his grandfather, there was something between them. He felt it every time she stroked the old man’s hand.

  And why did seeing that irritate him so much?

  Because you want her for yourself.

  And he knew better than most that a life based on wanting was no life at all. Which was why he’d based his on action.

  ‘I’m not in love with him. I’m not in love with anyone.’

  Dare shook his head. She was doing a number on his head. But was it calculated, or just dumb luck?

  He paced over to her, determined to get the truth from her once and for all. ‘I know you’re not in love with the old man, but you do care for him, don’t you?’ he demanded, his voice rough with unchecked emotion.

  She heaved a laboured sigh as if he were an annoying insect she’d like to see the back of. Well, it was nothing compared to how he felt about her!

  ‘Yes.’

  Dare’s gut tightened at the honest emotion behind that single word. What if there really was some genuine affection between this woman and his grandfather? What if she wasn’t just after him for his money? It made what had happened between them on the terrace even uglier.

  But what if she was only playing on his sympathies now? Trying to get him onside so that he didn’t fight her for his grandfather’s assets later?

  Dare stared at the quaint row of shops lining one side of the square. He wasn’t used to second-guessing himself all the time, but he’d been doing just that ever since he’d run into her.

  Frustrated with his vacillating thoughts, Dare was almost relieved when a child cried out and a forgotten ball bounced past him. Without thinking too much about it he strode forward to where the kids had all clustered around a young girl who sat clutching her ankle, tears coursing down her face.

  ‘Move back,’ he said, going down on his haunches in front of the girl.

  ‘Billie!’ A woman’s frantic voice made him look up as she jostled forward. ‘Sweetie, are you okay? What happened?’

  ‘My ankle hurts.’

 
‘I told you not to play too rough. You have ballet tomorrow night—oh, darling, how badly does it hurt?’

  ‘Why don’t I carry her over to those seats?’ Dare offered.

  ‘No, you shouldn’t move her just yet,’ Carly interjected tersely.

  Dare frowned at her and the woman’s gaze flicked between them both before settling on his.

  ‘Oh, well...’ She blushed. ‘That would be very helpful, thank you.’

  Ignoring Carly’s venomous glare, Dare lifted the girl into his arms.

  ‘I think it’s broken,’ the child wailed as he placed her on a nearby bench.

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ he assured her.

  ‘Here, let me take a look.’ Again Carly threw him a dark look and moved to the child’s feet.

  The mother shifted nervously, peering at Dare. ‘Oh, do you think—?’

  ‘I’m a doctor,’ Carly said with a ring of authority. ‘I can tell you if it’s broken.’

  ‘Oh, well, of course, I...’

  Carly ignored the child’s mother who, she noted cynically, hadn’t been so distressed she had missed the bulge in Dare’s biceps as he’d picked her daughter up off the ground.

  It was pathetic, really, but she supposed if you liked the rugged type with an edge of arrogance and danger about him then this man would be appealing. Very appealing.

  ‘Hi there.’ She shoved thoughts of Dare’s male appeal out of her mind and smiled at the worried girl, who must have been about ten years old. ‘Billie, is it?’

  The girl nodded.

  ‘Okay, Billie, I’m just going to have a feel of your leg and you tell me when it hurts and how much, okay?’

  Carly was aware the whole time of Dare’s searing gaze on her and it took every ounce of professionalism to ignore it.

  After a few minutes she announced that the ankle was probably only sprained, but, given the amount of bones in that area of the body combined with the girl’s age, she should probably have it X-rayed. ‘And in the meantime keep a bag of ice on it. That way you’ll keep the swelling down, which will aid the healing process.’