‘God, yes. I think about you a damned sight too much. Which is why I turned up here last night. I drove miles out of my way to see you, not Tim.’ He turned to look at her. ‘I was jealous of the man I saw you with that day, but here comes the real joke. I’m also jealous of my own brother. And because Tim thinks the world of you, Harriet, I can’t do a damned thing about it.’
‘I’m not a pound of tea! Don’t I have something to say on the subject?’ she demanded.
James nodded impatiently. ‘Of course you do, which is where the questions come in.’ He was silent for a while, but at last he swung his feet to the ground and sat on the footrest of his chair. ‘Last night I found that you and Tim are not sharing a room here. Take those glasses off,’ he added. ‘I can’t talk to a mask.’
With reluctance Harriet put them on the table beside her.
‘And living together is not an option, you told me, until after the wedding. So tell me the truth, Harriet. After last night I’ve a right to know. Are you and Tim no longer lovers?’
She was silent for a while, tempted to lie through her teeth, but at last gave it up. Enough was enough. ‘Tim and I have never been lovers,’ she said flatly, and met his astounded eyes head-on. ‘We’re not just good friends, either. It’s a much closer relationship than that. I suppose to me he’s the brother I never had,’ she added, watching James’ body relax, muscle by muscle, before her eyes.
‘And do you feel like Tim’s sister?’ he said guardedly.
Harriet grinned. ‘More like his mother sometimes.’
He pounced, eyes gleaming. ‘So tell me, little mother. What is Tim really doing in Florence?’
This time Harriet had a well-rehearsed answer ready. ‘He’s practising his powers of persuasion on an artist he wants to come to London.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Why don’t I believe you?’
She lifted a bare shoulder. ‘I’m telling the truth, James.’
‘I still think there’s something you’re keeping from me.’ He seized one of her hands. ‘So here’s the question I wouldn’t ask another soul, Harriet. To my knowledge Tim’s never had a close relationship with any woman but you. So if you and Tim are not lovers, is there something else I should know?’
‘What are you asking?’
‘You know damn well. I’m asking if Tim’s gay.’
She gave him a long, hard look. ‘Would it make any difference to you?’
‘None,’ he said, with such utter conviction she believed him. ‘Tim is Tim. Now I know he’s not your lover, Harriet, I can cope if he’s gay.’ He smiled at her crookedly. ‘But if he’s involved with Jeremy Blyth I don’t want to know.’
‘He’s not,’ Harriet assured him, chuckling. ‘Jeremy is his employer, pure and simple.’
‘There’s nothing pure or simple about Jeremy Blyth!’
‘I wouldn’t know about that.’ She looked at James steadily. ‘And Tim’s sexual preferences are not something I’m prepared to discuss. You’ll have to ask him yourself.’
‘I can’t do that!’
‘Then forget about it. Take Tim as he is, warts and all. In my book that’s what loving someone means.’
‘You’re right,’ James said slowly, and gave her a slow, transforming smile that melted her bones. ‘Do you have any idea how good I feel right now?’
‘Even without your questions answered?’
‘You gave me the answer I wanted most. If you’re not Tim’s lover there’s nothing to stop you from being mine,’ he said, with such casual certainty Harriet felt her hackles rise.
‘Only my own choice,’ she pointed out.
‘You had a choice last night.’ He leaned forward urgently. ‘As far as I’m concerned you made it.’
‘And soon regretted it.’
James shot upright. ‘I disappointed you?’
‘Yes,’ she said, pleased when she saw colour flare in his face. ‘Afterwards, not during,’ she added kindly. ‘The sex was utterly wonderful. But your attitude later rather took the shine off it.’
He scowled. ‘Surely you understood? I felt guilty as hell because I’d just made love to my brother’s future wife.’
Harriet glared back. ‘If I had been I wouldn’t have let you near me.’
‘But you did,’ he said swiftly. ‘Why?’
‘For obvious reasons.’
‘They’re not obvious to me.’
Her chin lifted. ‘I’d spent several days alone in the most romantic setting anyone could ask for, and suddenly there you were in my moonlit tower room, the perfect answer to a maiden’s prayer.’
‘So I might not have been so lucky on a wet night in Clerkenwell,’ he said, in a tone that brought colour to her face.
‘You’ve heard about my move, then,’ said Harriet, and retaliated by stretching like a cat, her hands clasped behind her head in a way that threatened the security of her bikini.
James flung away, swallowing, to stare at the pool. ‘Tim told me before he left. Not the exact address,’ he added. ‘So let me have it before I go.’
Right between the eyes if he asked like that, thought Harriet resentfully, and sat up to put on her shirt. ‘I must go and find Anna. She’s brought food for supper tonight, but I assume you’ll be here for breakfast tomorrow. I’d better put in an order for more supplies.’
‘What do you normally do for lunch?’ said James, getting to his feet.
‘I eat tomatoes and mozzarella, mainly, and in the evening I throw pasta in a pot and heat whatever sauce Anna has brought for me. I told her yesterday that Tim might be back tonight, so she’s brought extra today.’ Harriet smiled magnanimously. ‘You can share both meals, if you like.’
‘I’d rather take you out to dinner.’
‘No, thanks. We’d better be here for Tim.’
‘Then I accept your offer. With the greatest of pleasure,’ James added deliberately.
In the kitchen Anna smiled shyly and indicated a large round tin containing a hazelnut torte and told them about the pudding she’d put ready in the refrigerator, as well as the usual pan of fragrant sauce waiting on the stove.
Harriet thanked her warmly and gave her a list of provisions needed for next day. ‘Anna’s husband brings her each morning, but I drive her home,’ she told James. ‘You can do that today.’
While they were gone Harriet went upstairs, chuckling when she looked into Tim’s room. The bed had been made up with fresh linen, and Tim’s belongings moved to the smaller room next door. If the master couldn’t sleep in the master bedroom, Anna obviously felt he should at least have the larger of the two guest rooms.
The tower room was so immaculate Harriet was almost convinced that the bliss she’d experienced there in the night was imaginary. But at the mere thought of it inner muscles tightened and her pulse raced, confirming it had been all too real. And utterly wonderful. She sighed as she looked at her tanned, glowing reflection. Before it could happen again James had to forget any hang-ups from the past and see her as a person in her own right, not as part of a team with Tim.
Harriet swapped her bikini for shorts and yellow halter, and went back downstairs to find that the house felt empty without James. She shook her head in derision. She’d been on her own for days, other than the early mornings when Anna was there. Yet James had been here only a few hours and already she felt lonely without him. She tried hard to concentrate on her book, but it seemed like hours before he returned to find her in her usual place by the pool, reading under the canopy. She looked up with a smile as he strolled towards her.
‘You’ve been a long time.’
‘People know me now in the village. I stopped to chat, and did some shopping.’ He frowned as he noticed her clothes. ‘Why did you change?’
‘I dressed for lunch,’ she said, getting up. ‘Do you want it out here or indoors?’
‘In the kitchen,’ he said promptly, and held out his hand. ‘Come inside, it’s too hot for you out here.’
When they reached the
kitchen Harriet discovered why James had insisted on eating indoors. The kitchen table wore a fresh cloth laid with wineglasses and silverware and the blue ceramic pot of pink geraniums Anna had put there at breakfast time. A central platter held creamy slices of mozzarella and red, juicy tomatoes, rolls steamed invitingly in a basket, and Harriet gave James a smile so radiant he bent to plant a swift kiss on her mouth.
‘I deserve that,’ he informed her.
‘You certainly do. This is lovely.’
‘But not difficult. You gave me the menu, and the ingredients were to hand. I put this in to chill before I drove Anna home.’ He took a bottle of prosecco from the fridge and filled their glasses. ‘And,’ he added smugly, ‘I tore basil and drizzled oil over the tomatoes in true Michelin-star fashion.’
Harriet sat in the chair he pulled out for her, very much aware that things had changed between them. Now James knew the truth about her relationship with Tim his attitude towards her was different, that of a man on equal footing with a woman he found attractive in the normal way of things, rather than a man trying to resist forbidden fruit. When she told him this, his eyes lit with a gleam that sent a shiver down her spine.
‘Perceptive creature. Those were my exact feelings when I found that the schoolgirl had suddenly changed into a woman.’
‘I didn’t “suddenly change” into anything,’ she said tartly, helping herself from the platter. ‘The process happened in the usual way. You just didn’t notice.’
‘I didn’t see enough of you to notice once you went off to college. When I was in Upcote it was a rare occasion that you came anywhere near me with Tim.’ James tore a roll in half with sudden force. ‘Then not so long ago I went to see an Ibsen play at the National and saw you with some man in the bar in the interval.’
‘I noticed you.’ Harriet smiled. ‘I was with Paddy Moran. He’s very keen on Ibsen. Personally I find him a tad gloomy—’
‘Don’t change the subject.’ James gave her a wry look. ‘It took me a minute or two to realise who you were.’
She smiled provocatively. ‘Probably because I was wearing one of my swan outfits.’
‘If you mention ugly ducklings again I’ll turn you over my knee,’ he said forcibly.
Her eyes danced. ‘Is that a threat or a promise, James?’
‘Both—stop trying to divert me.’ He took in a deep breath. ‘I saw you with this man and felt angry on Tim’s behalf, then not long afterwards I saw you coming out of a cinema with a different man.’
‘Did you? I didn’t notice you that time,’ said Harriet, surprised.
‘I was in a taxi waiting for the lights.’
‘It must have been Alan Green. We both love the buzz of going to the cinema. Tim prefers to hire a video to watch at home.’
‘So do I. Then last week I saw you with someone else. And this time I was angry on my own behalf, nothing to do with Tim.’ James gave her a savage look. ‘But I was with some clients, which meant I couldn’t snatch you away from him.’
‘Bad for business,’ agreed Harriet, secretly thrilled by the idea.
James was quiet for a moment as he went on with his lunch. ‘Once I get things sorted out with Tim,’ he said eventually, ‘you and I could do that kind of thing together.’
‘What kind of thing?’
‘Theatre, dinner—anything you want.’
Harriet pushed her plate away. ‘I’m not ready for a relationship with you.’
His eyes speared hers. ‘Why the hell not?’
‘Until quite recently you were someone I actively disliked. I admit I feel quite differently now—’
‘How do you feel?’
Harriet drank some of her wine. ‘I like you much better than I ever thought I would. In the past it was a touch of the Dorian Grays, I suppose. You are beyond question the most attractive man I’ve ever laid eyes on, but because you trampled on my teenage ego I stored this horrible picture of you in my mental attic. It grew uglier and uglier, until my recent stay in Upcote when I discovered that my grandmother had been right about you all along and I was wrong.’ She bit her lip. ‘It wasn’t the only thing I discovered.’
James reached out a hand to take hers. ‘Tell me.’
She gave him a crooked little smile. ‘You remember the day I scalded myself? When you put your arm round me, my body was delighted even though my brain told it to behave.’
‘The feeling was mutual, as you discovered later.’ He frowned suddenly and released her hand. ‘I felt guilty as hell afterwards, that night of the storm. But I had good reason to. You didn’t, Harriet. If you and Tim have never been lovers, why did you push me away?’
‘You’ll have to ask Tim that.’
‘You can count on it. I’m going to ask Tim a whole lot of things,’ he promised. ‘In the meantime you look tired, Harriet. I’ll stow this lot in the dishwasher while you take off to the tower room. Sleep if you can.’
How on earth did he expect her to sleep? But when Harriet reached the cool, welcoming room, the prospect of a nap was so inviting she stripped off her clothes, slid into the bed Anna had made up with fresh sheets, and fell instantly asleep. When she woke James was sitting on the edge of the bed.
‘You’ve been up here for more than two hours,’ he said quietly. ‘I came to see if you were all right.’
Harriet smiled sleepily. ‘I’m fine. I was more tired than I thought.’
James took her hand. ‘I was tempted to kiss Sleeping Beauty awake.’
She stretched luxuriously. ‘She would have liked that.’
His eyes darkened. He leaned over her to thread his hands through her hair, and bent to kiss her, gently at first, but soon with such hunger Harriet’s response was openly ardent. She clasped her hands behind his head to hold him even closer, her lips and tongue eager as they answered his. The sheet fell back and James gave a ragged groan when he found she’d slept nude. He leapt to his feet to shed his clothes, then tossed the sheet away and Harriet felt her nipples harden in response to the look that was as tactile as a caress as he gazed at her for a long moment, before he let himself down beside her and took her into his arms. He slid a hand down her spine to draw her close against him, and Harriet’s lips parted against his, damp heat pooling low inside her at the feel of his erection hard and ready against her. His mouth roamed over her damp skin, grazing on it with lips and tongue and teeth, then lingering on her nipples long enough to drive her crazy with longing before moving on down over her waist and the slight swell below until he reached the apex between her thighs. She shut her eyes tightly as she felt the brush of his hair on her skin, followed by a piercing dart of sensation as his seeking tongue found the little bud waiting for his caress and she arched, gasping, and he slid back up her body and entered it all in one movement, and they lay joined and motionless for a moment. James looked deep into her eyes and began to move inside her and her body answered his in perfect rhythm as he took her slowly at first, then gradually faster, towards the glory that throbbed and burned just out of reach as she strove with him to find it. She bit back a scream as the rush of hot release engulfed her at last, and he collapsed on her, spent and panting, smiling down at her with the all-conquering, satisfied look of a man who had just given his woman the ultimate experience of pleasure.
Harriet grinned at the sheer effrontery of the smile, and he laughed and kissed her, then turned over on his side and drew her close with her head on his shoulder, and she sighed and curved against him, her last thought one of faint surprise because she needed to sleep again.
The room was dimmer and the shadows longer when Harriet stirred. She tried to free herself from the arm holding her close, but even in sleep James refused to slacken his grip, and she looked up into the sleeping face, free to take her time over it. The glossy black hair was wildly untidy for once, the eyes hidden beneath closed, thickly lashed lids. Her caressing eyes moved down over the straight nose to the wide, positive mouth—then she tensed, her heart thudding. Awkwardly, because of
the arm holding her tightly against the hard bare chest, she turned her head to find, for the second time in twenty-four hours, a man standing at the foot of the bed.
CHAPTER SIX
TIM DEVEREUX stood transfixed, his eyes blank with disbelief.
Harriet stared back, horrified, and yanked on the arm constraining her. With a mutter of protest James yawned, opened his eyes and shot bolt upright when he saw his brother.
‘About time!’ he accused. ‘What the hell do you mean by going off and leaving Harriet alone here? Anything could have happened.’
‘And obviously did,’ retorted Tim, and turned accusing eyes on Harriet as she tugged the covers up to her chin. ‘You and Jed? How the devil did that come about?’
‘I’m not saying a word until I’m dressed,’ she said, crimson to the roots of her hair.
James slid out of bed to gather up his clothes. ‘You could obviously do with a drink, Tim. We’ll join you in ten minutes.’
Harriet shook her head. ‘Twenty. I want a shower.’
‘Right,’ said Tim, still shell-shocked. ‘See you later.’
When he’d gone James smiled wryly. ‘A spectator sport after all.’
Harriet glared at him, for the moment quite unable to see the funny side of the situation. ‘Just go, please.’
‘Are you that embarrassed?’
‘Embarrassed doesn’t begin to cover it,’ she retorted. ‘Will you please go away?’
‘It’s a little late for maidenly modesty,’ he pointed out.
‘I’m not getting out of this bed until I’m alone,’ she said through her teeth.
‘I’ll be back for you in fifteen minutes.’ James bent to ruffle her hair and strolled from the room.
Harriet wrapped her hair in a towel and rushed through the fastest shower of her life. To boost her morale she put on the outrageously sexy underwear Tim had brought her from Paris and the dress worn at Dido’s party, needing all the armour she could muster for the forthcoming confrontation. Tim had never been the slightest put out by her friendships with any other men, but finding her in bed with his idolised brother was another thing entirely. She turned from adding final touches to her face in an ancient gilt-framed mirror to see James watching her from the doorway.
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