Susan Stephens - Susan Stephens Selection

‘You’ll allow?’ she challenged softly.

‘Doesn’t the idea of being mastered appeal to you…if only for an evening?’ he suggested provocatively as they walked out on to the terrace.

‘Equality appeals to me far more.’

‘In some things, perhaps.’

‘In everything,’ Kate insisted, with a little more force than she had intended, but she had to do something to marshal her wayward senses. To her surprise Guy seemed to like her answer.

‘Still the same feisty Kate.’

‘And does that please you?’

‘ Mais oui ,’ he said, throwing her a long steady look. ‘It pleases me very much.’

It was hard to think straight when she was being bombarded with sensation. In spite of his reserve since The Kiss, what Guy seemed to be saying was that he wanted her. Could it be true? Everything about the setting conspired against it. There were at least three servants standing discreetly in the shadows of the terrace—and then there was Megan—and the Professor.

Kate’s head shot up abruptly as Guy pressed the foaming glass into her hand. Was she going crazy? Had she lost all semblance of sanity? This wasn’t a game. This was Count Guy de Villeneuve and she was Kate Foster, a successful businesswoman certainly, but one who moved in a different world from the enigmatic man by her side. Her fantasies seemed to suggest that she should simply take him by the hand and lead him upstairs to one of the twenty or so bedroom suites… She gulped the whole glass down barely tasting it. A one-night stand—was that really what she wanted? A man like Guy would think nothing of a woman who threw herself at him. Kate knew from the scandal sheets that there were more of those than he knew what to do with already. They had all met the same fate, she reminded herself, willing ice into her veins and stone into her heart.

‘Why so serious, Kate?’ Guy asked as he refilled her glass.

‘You don’t want to know.’

‘Oh, but I do,’ he argued as his lips tugged down in a rueful smile. ‘Perhaps this second glass will help…if you sip it.’

Kate’s senses flared at the reproof. She loved it when he scolded her. It was no use pretending. Independence was fine in the real world, but this was a moment out of time where fantasies ruled. She wanted nothing more than to be taken by him into the deepest heart of his fairy-tale château; a place that was dark and still. Perhaps to the dungeons where he could tie her up with silken ropes and keep her for himself for ever…

‘Dinner is served, sir.’

‘Kate?’

Kate woke as if from a trance, a dangerous trance, she realised, as she felt her nipples rubbing painfully on the cleverly concealed bones as they fought the tight confines of the bodice. And as she took Guy’s arm again and began to walk she realised that the deliciously sensitised place between her legs had assumed such a high state of arousal no amount of self-control could hope to purge it now. She was wet. Very, very wet. She could only be thankful that the delicate skirt of the dress was composed of several layers and all of them shaded—a damp stain wouldn’t show—though it was almost impossible to hide the state she was in when her rapid breathing had to struggle to keep pace with her heart.

‘Are you all right?’ Guy murmured with his mouth very close to her ear.

‘I’m fine—perhaps a little cold,’ she added as a quiver ran through her from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. Walking with Guy was like taking a shower of sensation, Kate thought, basking in the torturing needles as they raced each other through her body. And then, just when she had believed it impossible to feel anything more acutely, as they were about to leave the terrace and enter the château again, he held the door open for her—but, instead of standing back while she walked through, he remained with his hand leaning against it so that she was forced to pass under his arm. The sense of domination was overwhelming. With that one gesture he made her feel tiny and vulnerable and cherished, whilst he towered over her like some lusty knight from an ancient engraving; commanding and powerful, seductive and vigorous…

‘Dinner will be served on the Grand Terrace,’ he said as he took her through another door. ‘From here you can see all the lights.’

Collecting herself, Kate turned around. What she saw was completely mesmerising. ‘I’ve never seen anything so lovely,’ she murmured. From every window in every turret of the château lights twinkled and blazed against the deep blue velvet of the cloudless night sky.

‘Do you like it?’

‘Like it? It’s absolutely stunning—’

‘But?’

‘But nothing—except…’

‘Yes?’ he prompted as they walked towards the intimate table set for four under a silken canopy in the centre of the huge formal terrace.

‘So many more people could have enjoyed it. It’s such a shame your father couldn’t have…’ She could have bitten off her tongue when she saw the flash of pain in Guy’s eyes.

‘There was never any money to do this,’ he said quietly as he held out her chair.

‘And this is one thing on which I will not compromise,’ he reminded her. ‘The Villeneuve estate cannot play host to hordes of people and remain a smooth-running machine…’

‘A smooth-running machine,’ Kate echoed softly.

‘You don’t approve?’

‘For a business?’ She shrugged. ‘Yes, of course, I like to think that my business is a smooth-running machine. But Château Villeneuve is so beautiful, Guy. The architecture, the grounds, the interior are all exquisite.’

‘All the more reason, surely, to keep it exclusive, to retain its mystique, preserve its perfection.’

‘You make it sound like a museum.’

‘And so it is, in many ways.’

‘Oh?’ Kate said softly. ‘I thought it was your home.’

Megan and Professor Gilman joined them then, remarking on the splendour of the lighting display as they walked up the broad expanse of stone steps that led up to the terrace.

‘Everything all right, Kate?’ Megan asked discreetly as she took her place at the table.

‘Fine.’

‘Don’t lie to me,’ Megan whispered.

‘All right, then,’ Kate said, flashing a glance at Guy, who was conferring with his sommelier on the serving of the wine, and Professor Gilman, who was studying an interesting modern silver peppershaker. ‘I can tell you now that he’s absolutely adamant about enforcing the no-holiday-home rule on the estate. The only way I could get away with it is to offer free holidays—make out that everyone was my personal guest…’

‘Now there’s a thought.’

‘And where would your wages come from?’

‘Point taken.’

‘But look at all this, Megan,’ Kate said, swivelling round in her seat. ‘There’s nothing like it in the whole of Europe—but at the same time there’s no life here. It’s fabulously beautiful, but sterile and bleak.’

‘It needs an injection of Kate, if you ask me,’ Megan supplied, planting her chin on her hand as she surveyed the spectacle of lights.

‘The only thing missing here are the crowds,’ Professor Gilman said when Guy had finished his discussion.’

‘ Exactement ,’ Guy said, shooting a look at Kate as if to make sure she had heard the professor’s remark.

‘But a few more people couldn’t hurt,’ Professor Gilman added, unaware of the undercurrents around the table. ‘Forgive my bluntness, Count, but I can’t help thinking that you must get awfully lonely here.’

‘Lonely? No,’ he said. ‘I confess there used to be a lot more people here when there were holiday homes on the estate. But I’m afraid there just isn’t room for that sort of thing now.’