by Alex Ryder
Recovering her wits, she tried to break away, but her strength was no match for his and she gave up the struggle. Determined not to respond, she kept her body stiff and her lips rigid, but as the assault continued she began to melt in the heat of aroused passion and she could feel her legs going.
At last he released her, looked down into her dazed eyes, and, to her chagrin, remarked cynically, ‘You can’t decide whether to be consumed by anger or desire, can you? Your red hair should have warned me, but now I know how to deal with your tantrums in future. I think I’m going to enjoy teaching you how to behave.’
She got her breath back, then glowered at him. ‘You’re despicable.’
‘And you are a vision of beauty,’ he pronounced solemnly. ‘Especially when you’re aroused.’ He placed his forefinger under her chin and tilted her head upwards until she was forced to submit to his gaze. ‘Your skin goes a delicate shade of pink and those blue eyes shine with fire.’ His voice became lower and huskier. ‘You’re a very beautiful woman, Catriona. I’ve never seen lips that look so kissable and tempting as yours.’
A memory stirred and an alarm bell rang in her head. She pushed his hand away and snorted with derision. ‘That must be one of your standard lines, is it? You used it on me in London. But I suppose that a libertine like you with so many women in his past is bound to get his wires crossed now and again.’
‘No…’ he explained, unabashed. ‘I was curious to find out just how good your memory was of that night in London.’ He took her arm again and said pleasantly, ‘Now, let’s have that stroll along the riverbank and we’ll discover what else you remember.’
She was glad to get off the terrace. There were too many curious glances being cast their way for comfort. ‘You can let go my arm,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s not as if there’s any place I can run to, is there?’
Although the sun had dipped lower in the sky the evening was comfortably warm, and the still air was filled with that intoxicating perfume which was particular to the Western Highlands. The broad, fast-flowing river gurgled and cavorted over and around its boulder-strewn course, pausing to rest occasionally in deep, dark brown pools.
The grass was soft and springy underfoot as they strolled slowly upstream and she kept a good arm’s length away in case he suddenly took it in his mind to grab her again and do the deed there and then. She wouldn’t be surprised at anything he did from now on.
They walked in silence for a few hundred yards then suddenly, beneath the dark green canopy of a huge Scots pine, he stopped and slowly surveyed the scene. She backed away and eyed him with caution.. She knew it! His over-active hormones were on the warpath and he couldn’t wait until tonight.
At last his grey eyes came to rest on her and she took a deep breath. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she demanded with a betraying tremble.
‘Like what?’
The puzzled frown on his face didn’t fool her for one minute. ‘You know like what,’ she wavered. ‘It’s all you think about, isn’t it? You’ve got a one-track mind.’
His eyes flickered in amusement and the frown changed into a sardonic grin as understanding dawned. ‘It seems to me that you’re the one with the one-track mind,’ he drawled. ‘First of all you tempt me in the shower and now you’re at it again, outside and in full view of anyone who happens to pass by! You’re a very promiscuous young lady, Catriona McNeil. I’m sure your mother would be shocked if she knew.’ He gave a sad, reluctant shake of his head, then sighed. ‘Again I’ll have to forego the pleasure on the grounds of safety. If we indulge ourselves here I’d be up all night picking pine needles from your tender little posterior.’
Her mouth sagged open. Oh, why couldn’t the ground just open up and swallow her? If it really was his intention to make a fool of her then she was making it very easy for him.
Gathering what shreds of dignity she had left, she faced him calmly. ‘If I misinterpreted your reason for stopping at this spot then it’s your own fault. I don’t think there’s a woman in the world who would feel safe in your company.’
‘Some women like it that way,’ he remarked glibly. ‘In fact, most do. The least it does is let them know that they have the ability to attract a man. Why else do they wear perfume, make-up and pretty clothes?’
She knew there was an answer to that typically male chauvinist argument. It was just a pity that she couldn’t think of it at the moment. Instead she had to be content with saying sharply, ‘Well, I’m not one of them.’
He laughed sourly. ‘Then why did you turn up at our first date looking as if you’d just stepped from the pages of a fashion magazine?’
She frowned. ‘How was I supposed to turn up? It was a dinner date at a West End restaurant, wasn’t it? I’d have looked out of place in baggy sweater and jeans, wouldn’t I? And don’t tell me you wouldn’t have cared.’ She tossed the hair out of her eyes. ‘You had invited me to dinner and I was simply paying you the compliment of dressing suitably for the occasion.’
His eyes turned hard and he gave a grunt of derisory scepticism before turning his back on her and continuing with his stroll.
She stared after him indignantly, then caught up with him and blocked his path. With her legs apart and her hands on her hips she stuck her chin out and demanded hotly, ‘If you’ve got some kind of accusation to make then make it instead of just walking away. I’m not a mind-reader.’
He looked her up and down, which only infuriated her further, then he frowned. ‘Are you having another tantrum? You know what happened the last time.’
She took a nervous step backwards. ‘I’m not having a tantrum. I just want to know what was so wrong about the way I was dressed. You seemed to like it at the time. Or was that another one of your lies?’
‘Oh, it was no lie. In fact you looked positively dazzling,’ he admitted readily. ‘But of course I didn’t really know who you were at the time, did I, Miss McNeil?’
Her blue eyes were perplexed. ‘What does that have to do it? You knew my name and where I lived, didn’t you? Wasn’t that enough?’
‘It was a designer dress in silk, as I recall,’ he mused aloud. ‘It must have cost a fortune. And you didn’t wear it just to pay me a compliment, as you suggest. It was obviously chosen to make you look even more attractive than you are.’
She was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. He was leading up to something.
‘Where did you get it, by the way?’ he asked. ‘I suppose you borrowed it from the shop you work in?’
Her hands dropped to her side as embarrassment took over from indignation. ‘It…it was reject stock,’ she muttered, then added, as if it was some feeble excuse, ‘There was a flaw in the hem.’
‘I see…’ He was regarding her now with scornful amusement. ‘You didn’t tell me that at the time though, did you? I also recall that when I complimented you on the dress you said…’ He scratched at his ear thoughtfully, trying to remember her exact words. ‘Yes…you said that you’d had a problem deciding what to wear and that you’d only made up your mind at the last minute. Now that’s not the kind of thing a woman would say unless she’s trying to give the impression that she’s got a wardrobe full of the damn things, is it?’
She swallowed, then blustered, ‘All right! But it was only a dress, dammit! I don’t know what you’re making all the fuss about.’ She looked at him reproachfully. ‘I may have told a little white lie but it’s nothing compared to what you did to me.’
He shrugged. ‘As I told you before, you only have yourself to blame for that.’ Her mouth opened in protest but he gave her a warning look, then growled in exasperation, ‘I know you’re not a fool, Catriona. Why can’t you see that you engineered your own downfall? If you hadn’t tried to pretend that you were something you’re not then things might have been different between us.’
She stared at him in bewilderment, then shook her head in despair. ‘I’m sorry. I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. You’ll have to explain it
to me.’
He gestured her to follow him with a flick of his head and they resumed their stroll along the riverbank. The sun was lower now, getting ready to bed down behind the mountains in the west where the sky was turning a fiery red.
‘The dress was the least of it,’ he explained quietly. ‘But, taken together with all the other things you said or didn’t say, you created an image of yourself that was far from the truth.’ He laughed at a sudden memory. ‘You were so convincing that when I arrived in Kindarroch I was naive enough to ask directions to the McNeil estate. Naturally enough no one had ever heard of it. And the only Catriona McNeil they knew was your good self, so they pointed me in the direction of your parents’ house. It was only then that I realised how you’d fooled me.’
She had the grace to blush. Everything he said was true. There were more ways of lying than by using the spoken word. If someone assumed something about you and you did nothing about it then that was as good as lying, wasn’t it? Just as she’d let him go on believing that the luxury flat in Palmerston Court belonged to her instead of telling him that she was merely a lodger.
Suddenly he turned, grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a good shake. ‘Why did you do it?’ He shook her again, making her teeth chatter. ‘Give me one good reason for acting so foolishly.’
She broke free and shouted at him angrily, ‘Because I wanted to impress you. Yes, you’re right. I wanted to attract your attention. I couldn’t believe that a man like you could possibly be interested in someone like me. I was trying to be smart and sophisticated, like the women who come into the shop.’ She bit her lip and looked away. ‘I hope you’re satisfied now. I wanted you to love me but all I got was one humiliation after another. Now why don’t you do the world a favour? Tie a rock to your neck and go and jump in the river.’
He began to laugh. At first it was a quiet chuckle, as if he was finding the whole thing strangely amusing, but it grew in strength until to her ears it became more like a sound of brutal derision, and her heart felt heavy with despair. She’d just unburdened her soul to him…and he thought it was funny! With a final look of disgust she left him standing there and retraced her steps wearily towards the hotel.
After a moment he caught up with her and walked alongside.
‘Give me your hand, Catriona,’ he said, reaching for it.
She shrugged him off and muttered, ‘Leave me alone. I hate you.’
‘You’re being very childish about this,’ he remarked.
She didn’t even bother responding to that and she quickened her pace, her eyes misting over.
When they reached the hotel foyer he tried to steer her towards the cocktail bar but she held back. ‘No, thanks, I’m tired and I’m going up to the room.’
His grip on her arm tightened and he growled, ‘I still have things to discuss.’
‘Not with me, you haven’t,’ she replied with an adamant shake of her head. ‘And the only discussion I’m going to have is with myself, and I need peace and quiet for that.’ She pulled herself free from his grip and headed for the lift.
CHAPTER NINE
THE room was in darkness. For the last fifteen minutes Catriona had stood unmoving at the window, watching sadly as the deepening purple of the sky revealed the stars one by one. She ignored the gentle creaking sound of the door opening, and the soft light as it intruded briefly from the corridor outside. The door closed again. There was the sound of a tray being placed on the table then the click of a switch as the shaded light came on.
‘I’ve brought wine and some cold chicken sandwiches in case we feel like a late-night snack,’ Ryan said. ‘I thought it would save Room Service the trouble.’
She continued staring out of the window, unwilling to confront him again and get involved in another slanging match—although she knew it was unavoidable sooner or later. ‘You needn’t have bothered,’ she said tiredly. ‘I’m not hungry.’
‘Nor particularly friendly-sounding, either,’ he observed, to the accompaniment of a cork being drawn. ‘Never mind. A couple of glasses of wine will put that right.’
There he went again, with his arrogant assumption that all he had to do was snap his fingers to bring her to heel, she thought bitterly. Well, no longer. She should never have let him get the whip hand from the beginning. But it wasn’t too late. She was tired of dancing to his tune and now she’d had her fill of it.
She turned slowly, her face at once resigned yet determined. ‘You can have the bed if you like. I’ll sleep on the settee. I’d much rather move to another room but I don’t want to put the hotel staff to any unnecessary trouble.’
He studied her impassively, then shrugged. ‘Forget the staff. That’s why they work here. It can be arranged easily enough. I’ll phone Reception right now if that’s what you really want. They’ll be only too pleased to rent out another room.’ He poured wine into a couple of glasses and handed her one. ‘So you think that my threats are all a bluff, do you?’
She took the offered glass and eyed him defiantly. ‘They may or may not be, but I’m past caring. When I get back to Kindarroch tomorrow I’m going to do what I should have done as soon as you turned up. I’m going to tell the truth. I’ll tell everyone how I was foolish enough to go to bed with you on our very first date.’ She bit her lip. ‘That’ll hurt my parents but it can’t be helped. After that I’m going to tell them how I tried to get my own back when you deserted me and how you then came here to blackmail me.’
He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded. ‘That is one way out of your predicament. I mean, they’re more likely to believe one of their own than take the word of an outsider like me.’
She could see that amused gleam in his eyes again, as if he was silently jeering at her, and she retorted coldly, ‘They’re more likely to believe the truth, you mean.’
‘You’d be surprised at how blind some people can be to the truth, Catriona,’ he said with irony. ‘Even yourself. You find it easier to judge a person by their reputation than by personal experience.’
She gave a bitter snort, ‘Well, I’ve had personal experience of you, and you certainly lived up to your reputation. My biggest regret is that they came in the wrong order.’ She walked stiffly past him and laid her drink on the table. ‘You’d better phone Room Service and have them send up a couple of spare blankets.’
He grinned. ‘That won’t be necessary. You’re forgetting that I’m a gentleman. If you’re really serious then you can have the bed and I’ll have the settee.’ He took a step forward and laid his hands gently on her shoulders. ‘But I really don’t think it’ll come to that. I’m sure we can settle our differences.’
Her throat tightened and her body trembled even under the lightness of his touch. ‘You…you’re not going to make me change my mind, Ryan.’
His lips descended gently on hers and for a moment her head swam, before she found the strength to wrench her head aside. ‘No…’ she gasped. ‘Let me go, damn you.’
His grip on her merely tightened and once again his mouth found hers. This time the kiss was harder…more demanding…and she fought against the temptation to yield there and then. She tried to make her mind a blank and her body unresponsive to his touch but it was like trying to ignore the scorching heat of a furnace. She could feel the thrusting strength of his desire as he crushed her against his lean, muscular body, and with her last remaining strength she managed to wriggle free.
Hot-eyed and panting for breath, she backed away from him. ‘It…it’s no good, Ryan. I’m not giving in. Not this time. For once I’m going to do something right in my life.’
In the light cast by the shaded lamp it was hard to be sure of the expression on his face, but there was no trace of anger or defeat in his voice when he said quietly, ‘You can’t hope to win against the driving force of your own sexuality, Catriona. Are you willing to kiss me once more and put it to the test?’
Her heart was on a roller coaster ride again. One more kiss like that and it would
be game, set and match to him, and they both knew it. She shook her head. ‘No. P-please keep away from me.’
There was a nerve-stretching silence, then she watched dry-mouthed as he removed his jacket and tie. He wouldn’t dare! Would he? A nerve in the pit of her stomach twitched as he picked up her glass from the table and thrust it at her. ‘Drink this,’ he ordered quietly. ‘You and I are going to have a long talk.’
She accepted the glass reluctantly and muttered, ‘Wine isn’t going to make any difference. Neither is talking. I’ve already told you. My mind is made up.’
‘Then perhaps I can change it, Catriona.’ There was a look in his eyes she’d never seen before. Sincerity? Either that or it was just a trick of the light, she thought.
‘Well, you can try if you like but you’ll be wasting your time,’ she vowed. ‘Anyway, it’s getting late and I’m tired, so say your piece and get it over with.’
‘Supposing I told you that I loved you?’ he demanded in a low, husky voice.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she said wearily. ‘You don’t know when to give up, do you?’
‘What if I told you that I want to devote the rest of my life to you and you alone, Catriona?’ He reached out and stroked her hair gently. ‘I want us to have children and watch them grow up together. And I want us to grow old together.’
The glass in her hand trembled but her voice was firm enough. ‘I wouldn’t believe you.’ He’d resort to anything to get her into bed, she thought. ‘You surely don’t think I’m going to believe anything you say, do you?’
His voice was low and determined. ‘This time it’s different. I’ve never been more serious in my life. As soon as we get back to Kindarroch tomorrow I’m going to ask your father’s permission to marry you. That’s how they go about things up here, isn’t it? And then we’ll call on the Reverend McPhee and make arrangements for the grandest wedding Kindarroch has ever seen.’
Her throat tightened and her eyes grew moist. Why was he doing this to her? she thought in despair. Didn’t he realise how much he’d already hurt her? What kind of satisfaction did he derive from putting her through this emotional wringer?