‘Are you here because of what they’ve started saying about us in the press?’
‘Don’t insult me.’
Biting her lip, she replied, ‘They’re saying our marriage was on the rocks before it began. But if you think I started that rumour—’
‘I don’t think that. And I’m not worried about what people think. Our marriage is our business. And, before you ask, no one can touch the ranch. The deeds are in my vault and that’s where they will stay. So, you see, I am no longer in the market for a “convenient bride”.’
She smiled a little, hearing her own words thrown back at her. ‘So why are you here?’
‘We’ve been apart long enough. Everyone on the ranch misses you. Lizzie and Chico wonder why they don’t see more of you. You’ve shut yourself away here. Lizzie misses you, Annie misses you—Deus, Danny, I miss you.’
He hadn’t realised how much.
‘Come back to us,’ he said softly.
She remained silent and he looked around the rundown farm, with its broken fencing, peeling paintwork and neglected yard.
‘I don’t know what this proves. You must be working an eighteen-hour shift just to keep things on an even keel here.’
She firmed her jaw, but didn’t deny anything he’d said.
‘No one doubts you can stand on your own two feet, but why isolate yourself like this? Why are you punishing yourself, Danny?’
‘I’m making a life,’ she said simply. ‘And I’m doing it without your money. I’m sure Lizzie understands why I must do this.’
‘Lizzie might understand, but it doesn’t stop her worrying about you. Is that fair? I don’t understand you, Danny. I don’t understand why you’ve separated yourself from people who care so much about you. I don’t understand why you’re pushing us all away.’
‘You’ve no right to discuss me with Lizzie.’
‘I’ve got every right. We care about you. Is that such an alien concept to you?’
‘It is where you’re concerned. I’ve never known you to express your feelings before.’
‘And you’re so open with yours?’
She turned, restless, uncertain, hovering, as if she wanted to go but also wanted to stay. ‘Thank you for coming to see me,’ she said at last. ‘I do appreciate your concern—’
‘For God’s sake, Danny, I’m not the local doctor. I’m your husband.’
‘Of one night,’ she said. ‘And I know this farm doesn’t look much, but I enjoy my work here.’
‘You’d enjoy any job with a horse attached to it. Is this a permanent position?’
Lifting her chin, she peeled off her riding gloves and blew onto her cold red hands. ‘Nothing’s permanent—is it, Tiago?’
Shaking his head, he ignored the jibe. At any other time he would have seized those hands and put them inside his jacket, so his blood could heat hers, but Danny was like an edgy colt that might bolt if he made any sudden movement.
Undaunted, he asked, ‘How about lunch in town?’
She looked at him as if he were mad.
He shrugged. ‘I’m hungry. It’s nearly lunchtime. And it’s far too cold to hold our reunion here.’
‘But what would we have to talk about?’
He had to remind himself that he had vowed to take this slowly.
‘I’m sure we’ll think of something.’
* * *
The only possible reason she could come up with for sitting in the sedate hush of the Rottingdean tea rooms with a barbarian, whose face was coated in thick black stubble and whose brilliant smile made the elderly waitress primp and simper, was that it wasn’t possible to ignore her husband when he was in town. Tiago had come all the way from Brazil, she reminded herself, and she owed him the common courtesy of a conversation—if only in the hope that they could find some sort of closure.
‘Do you have to do that?’ she demanded—an unreasonable demand, she registered a split second after the words left her mouth, as Tiago removed his jacket.
Just revealing the powerful spread of his shoulders was enough for her awareness of him to soar into the stratosphere. She would challenge anyone to spend the night with Tiago and then just blank it from their mind.
‘You take it off, laddie,’ one of the elderly waitresses advised, endorsing Danny’s opinion that in this sun-starved land Tiago Santos was a rare treat. ‘You’ll never feel the benefit when you go outside if you don’t take your jacket off,’ she commented approvingly, and a dozen or so more women turned their heads to stare at the splendid sight of Tiago, whose powerful frame was clad in the finest black Scottish cashmere.
With a warm smile at the waitress, Tiago raised a brow as he turned to Danny.
‘You wanted to hear about my place of work?’ She judged that a safe enough topic to start off with.
‘Go ahead.’ Smiling faintly, he looked down as he attempted to ease his legs beneath the dainty table without sending it crashing to the floor.
‘You’re too big for here,’ she said as she steadied the teapot.
‘Too big for civilised company?’
She buried her face in her teacup.
‘So?’ he pressed with a faint strand of amusement in his voice when she failed to answer him. ‘This farm where you’re working...?’
‘It’s a tenancy,’ Danny revealed, looking up now they were back on safe ground. ‘The landlord lives off-site. He owns several similar properties, and he has asked if I would consider managing all of them for him.’
‘Has he indeed?’ Tiago’s jaw tightened.
‘There’s no need to sound so suspicious. He’s old enough to be my grandfather and due to retire any time now. More tea?’
Tiago’s eyes narrowed at her prim tone, drawing her attention to the fact that he was twice the size of any man in the tea room. His hair was thicker, blacker, wavier and more unruly. And you could take it as a flat-out fact that there wasn’t another man in the place wearing a gold earring. Local skin was blue-white—freckled, in her case—while Tiago’s skin was swarthy, and she was quite sure there wasn’t a man in a fifty-mile radius who could boast anything close to his physique.
‘I feel like a giant, trying to fit my frame into this chair.’
She was forced to smile when he eased his position gingerly. ‘You’ll break it if you move too suddenly,’ she warned.
Dipping his head, he stared up at her in a way that sent heat to every part of her body. It was impossible to remain immune to Tiago’s particular brand of charm, and impossible to forget how it felt to be held in his arms. And now every woman in the place was staring at him.
‘I won’t catch you if you fall,’ she warned him when he tipped his chair back.
‘You’ve already caught me, chica.’
Tiago’s murmur and that black stare fixed onto hers made her think of one thing only—and it wasn’t tea.
‘Are you ready to go?’ he said.
She was about to leave when the bell tinkled over the door and Hamish, the gamekeeper, and his crew walked in. She was glad of the distraction, and surprised when Hamish acknowledged Tiago as if they were old friends—but then she remembered that they would have met at Chico’s.
‘Are you okay, Danny?’ Hamish asked gruffly.
‘Yes. Thank you.’
After the two men had exchanged greetings, and Hamish had gone to find a table, Tiago turned to her. ‘Come to dinner with me tonight.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘You will be if you refuse me,’ he threatened with a wicked smile.
She gave him a warning look that didn’t deter him at all. ‘Are you asking me out?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m doing,’ Tiago confirmed.
His lips pressed down, drawing her attention to the fact that he was b
adly in need of a shave—as usual. Imagining that stubble scraping her skin was a breath-stealing reminder of how it had felt when he kissed her.
‘It’s harmless,’ he said. ‘We’re married, and I’m in town.’
Nothing was harmless where Tiago was concerned, but she couldn’t bring herself to let him go yet. ‘I have to eat, and so do you. Why not?’
Why not? She could think of a thousand reasons why not. Discarding them all, she allowed her imagination to run riot for a moment... Screaming with pleasure in Tiago’s arms would be preferable to sitting across a table from him...
‘Danny?’
She pulled herself round fast and smiled into his eyes. ‘So you’re asking me out on a date?’
Tiago frowned slightly. ‘I suppose I am.’ But his eyes were dancing with laughter too.
It would be all right. She would confine herself to chatting about people they knew. She would keep the conversation, as well as everything else, on safe ground.
‘Stop frowning, Danny. It’s a meal and a catch-up, and then I’ll take you home.’
Now she just had to convince herself that that was exactly what she wanted. ‘That sounds good,’ she agreed. ‘Yes,’ she said softly.
Tiago smiled his bad-boy smile. ‘You do know that a candlelit dinner is usually a prelude to sex?’
‘If you think that’s going to tip the balance—’ She stopped, noticing that the respectable townsfolk at the tables surrounding them were listening in with avid interest.
‘I think they like me,’ Tiago murmured, with amusement in his dark eyes.
She sucked in a sharp breath as he lifted her hand to his lips.
‘Stop,’ she warned him, pulling her hand back. ‘I’ve agreed to supper—nothing more.’
‘That’s all I’m offering,’ Tiago assured her. ‘Sex isn’t on the menu tonight.’
Now she was hit by doubt. Why didn’t he want sex? Had Tiago found someone else? She felt sick at the thought.
‘If this is another of your games...’
Leaning across the table until their faces almost touched, he whispered, ‘The only game I play is polo.’
‘Is it?’ She was still tense.
‘Although I do have a repertoire of games that don’t require a horse and a mallet to make them fun.’
She made an incredulous sound as Tiago sat back with a confident smile on his face. He continued to regard her steadily, his amused black stare warming her, and even when he looked away to call for the bill a sweet pulse of desire throbbed deep inside her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DANNY WAS ALWAYS CALM, always measured—at least that was what she told herself—except for tonight, when she was catapulting from one side of her room to the other, trying on clothes and trying to decide how she should wear her hair.
Finally she stood back, arms folded, wondering how it was possible for one person to buy so many sale rejects in the hope that one day she would find just the right accessory to pull the hopelessly mismatched set of items together. She had never pulled an outfit together in her life. She had always been a tomboy in jeans.
And she had around five minutes before Tiago was due to arrive to pick her up and take her to supper.
Why had she left things to the last minute?
She blamed it on the shortbread.
In the spirit of keeping things platonic, and to show Tiago some true Scottish hospitality, she had used her small worktop oven and her grandmother’s secret recipe—sure to melt all but the stoniest heart—to bake him a tray of the traditional Scottish cookies, so he didn’t think she was accompanying him tonight solely in the expectation of a free meal.
Tied up with a tartan ribbon, the small cellophane packet was a humble offering, but it was the best she’d been able to come up with in the time available.
* * *
Tiago took a shower, shaved, and tamed his hair in as much as it could be tamed. He even put on a jacket and tie with his jeans for the occasion. He checked himself over in the mirror. He looked like an undertaker. Ruffling his hair, he ditched the tie, opened a couple of buttons at the neck of his shirt and tugged on a sweater. Better.
Danny was waiting for him in the biting cold outside her front door. Because she didn’t want him to see where she lived, he suspected. The farm seemed even more dilapidated and unappealing to him on second viewing. He didn’t like the thought of her living here on her own.
‘You didn’t have to wait out here.’ He ushered her towards the four-wheel drive
‘I didn’t want to keep you waiting,’ she said, standing back as he opened the door for her. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I can’t say.’
‘You can’t say or you won’t say?’
He smiled. ‘You decide.’
‘Maybe I won’t come with you.’
‘You’ll come,’ he said confidently. ‘You never could resist an adventure.’
He would forgive her anything tonight. Just the fact that she had gone to some trouble with her appearance was enough for his groin to tighten with appreciation—though he would take her straight from mucking out a stable if he had to. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary. Her hair was shining and she was wearing the familiar wildflower scent, and make-up—just a touch, but enough to suggest she wasn’t completely switched off.
‘You’d better not be teasing me with this supper,’ she warned him, frowning in a way that made him want to grab her close and kiss her hard. ‘You tell me where we’re going or I’m not moving another step.’
Maybe the signs weren’t all good, he amended, hiding his amusement. ‘I’m taking you somewhere new.’
‘Tiago,’ she said patiently, ‘there is nowhere new. This is the Highlands of Scotland, where nothing has changed for a thousand years.’
His lips curved with amusement, but he wouldn’t be drawn. Strolling round to the driver’s side, he got into the vehicle.
‘Where is this?’ Danny demanded a short time later, as he swung the wheel to turn the four-wheel drive onto a recently resurfaced driveway lined with majestic snow-frosted pines.
‘You tell me. You’ve lived in Rottingdean all your life—where nothing ever changes,’ he reminded her dryly.
‘But this place has been derelict for years.’ She frowned as she stared out of the window.
‘Not any longer.’
‘When did it become a hotel?’
‘Never, as far as I’m aware.’
She turned ninety degrees to stare at him. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I live here. At least I’m planning to spend a good part of the year here.’
A stunned silence greeted this remark.
‘I apologise if this comes as a shock to you, Danny, but as you haven’t been talking to me lately...’ He shrugged. ‘It’s better that you know. I can hardly be your neighbour and spend time at a house down the road without you noticing at some point.’
‘Let me get this straight. Are you telling me that you’ve bought the Lochmaglen estate?’
‘And the whisky distillery.’
‘You’re going into business here?’ Danny’s eyes widened.
‘I like Scotch.’
‘Tiago!’
‘Lochmaglen will form part of my business empire, but I won’t allow any investment to be a drain on my finances. Everything I put money into has to earn its keep.’
‘Is that what you thought about me?’ she asked him lightly.
‘You sent the money back.’
‘Yes, I did.’ She sounded pleased about that.
Tiago continued without comment. ‘I mostly bought this place for the excellent pasture—or it will be excellent once I’ve reclaimed it from the weeds. I’m going to build a new training facility for my horses.’
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‘But you’ve got excellent training facilities in Brazil.’
‘On the other side of the world,’ he pointed out. ‘But now I’m setting up in Scotland—to service my European interests.’
This made perfect sense to him, but Danny was shaking her head.
‘Don’t think I’m coming to work for you. I’m very happy where I am.’
‘Good,’ he said flatly. ‘You couldn’t have said anything to please me more.’
Was that a flash of disappointment on her face?
‘Ah, there’s Annie!’ he exclaimed as he stopped the vehicle at the foot of the steps leading up to the sturdy front door of the ancient manse.
Hamish’s wife, Annie, the housekeeper at Rottingdean, had offered her services for the night, and was standing ready on the steps, waiting to welcome them.
‘You leave no stone unturned, do you, Tiago?’ Danny threw at him as she waved at Annie.
‘No,’ he admitted. ‘Annie’s missed you. It’s time you two were brought together. So, what do you think I have in mind for tonight?’
She firmed her jaw and refused to answer.
‘You do remember what isn’t on the menu for tonight?’
‘Sex,’ she said, turning her cool stare on his amused face.
‘That’s right.’ Tiago’s mouth curved in a smile. ‘Whatever you want, whatever you need—you’re not going to get it tonight.’
‘You are such an arrogant barbarian.’
‘But you knew that from the start.’
‘What makes you think—?’
‘Danny, please...’ He gave her a look and saw her eyes darken. ‘We should go in. Annie’s waiting to spoil you.’
‘I don’t need spoiling.’
‘Don’t you?’ He reached across to open her door and paused. ‘You’ve got shadows under your eyes. Have you been working all hours?’
‘What’s it to you?’
She turned away, shutting him out. He’d done his research and knew without her telling him that she was trying to shore up a failing stable on her own, with no financial input from the landlord whatsoever. Danny was too proud to take money from anyone—even when she’d earned it. She’d seen difficulty and hardship, and instead of turning her back had responded by throwing her heart and soul into the job. No wonder she looked so tired. She had to be exhausted.
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