Annie West - Sultry Nights

Kate nodded.

‘Hmph. Thought so. Too skinny—just like that other one—but I’d say she’s bigger now, after the baby!’ Mama Lucille guffawed again and pinched Kate’s cheek. ‘Don’t you worry, angel. A few days of my cooking and we’ll put some fat on those hips …’

Kate had to laugh as she imagined her agent’s horrorstruck face if she arrived back a few pounds heavier, and with that came the familiar yearning to just let go and stop being so aware of things like her weight.

Before she knew it, Mama Lucille had disappeared in a flurry of movement, with a promise of some dinner in a couple of hours. A young girl with a shy pretty smile appeared and took their bags into the house.

Tiarnan took Kate by the hand. She would have pulled away, but he held her with easy strength, looking at her with an assessing gaze that made her toes curl.

‘Come on, I’ll give you the tour.’

Kate felt dizzy by the time Tiarnan was leading her upstairs. The house was completely charming. All dark polished wooden floorboards, white walls and beautiful old furniture. White muslin curtains fluttered in the breezes that flowed through open sash windows, with latticed shutters wide open. She’d seen a butterfly dart in one window and out through the next with a flash of bright iridescence. It was truly a home. Kate could imagine the doors always open, people coming and going all day, and yet it had a tranquil air that beguiled and seduced …

‘Do Mama Lucille and Papa Joe live here too?’ Kate asked as she followed Tiarnan up the stairs and tried not to look at his bottom. He glanced back and she coloured guiltily.

‘No. Even though I’ve been trying to get them to move in for years. They’re on the other side of the property. There’s a back entrance, down by the private beach, and they live in the old gate lodge. Mama Lucille says she prefers it because there’s not enough room for her family to come and stay, and it’s the only way she and Papa Joe get peace and quiet to themselves.’

Clearly, from the warmth in his voice, Tiarnan was as crazy as Rosie was about this place and the people. It made Kate’s heart do a funny jump in her chest. And what also made her heart feel funny was that the same impression she’d had on the plane: she’d never seen this more relaxed side of Tiarnan before. There’d always been something slightly aloof about him, distant and distinguished. Formidable. And here all that was being stripped away. Distance—keep your distance , she repeated like a mantra in her head, futile as she knew it was.

She got to the top of the stairs to see a wide open corridor, doorways on each side, and a huge window seat at the end with what she could imagine must be a spectacular view over the garden. Tiarnan was leaning nonchalantly against a door that led into a bedroom.

‘This is your room.’

Kate looked at him warily as she passed him and went in. Her bag had already been deposited inside. The same lovingly polished floorboards were echoed in the antique furniture. Old black and white photographs hung on the walls. A huge four-poster bed was in the centre of the room, its muslin drapes pulled back. A small door led to a white-tiled bathroom with a huge stand-alone bath and shower in the corner. It screamed understated luxury. A pair of open veranda doors led out to the second level wooden balcony, along which trailed vine-like flowers of colours so vibrant it almost hurt to look at them. And beyond that lay the unmistakable clear blue waters of the Caribbean. This truly was paradise.

She turned at the open door and looked back at Tiarnan, her heart thumping heavily. ‘It’s beautiful. Really.’

He walked towards her with all the grace and danger of a dark panther, and Kate could feel her eyes grow bigger as he came closer. Her loose linen trousers and shirt suddenly felt constricting, but he just took her hand and led her outside and to the left, where she could see an identical set of open doors. He stopped at the entrance and Kate could see another room, a little bigger and obviously decorated along much more masculine lines. His room .

He didn’t even have to say it. The understanding was heavy between them. Within this stunning house and these two rooms they were as effectively cut off and private as they wanted to be. He let go of her hand and looked down at her. Kate felt unbearably hot right then, and it had nothing to do with being in the tropics.

He gestured with his head back to her room. ‘That used to be Rosie’s room when she was smaller, so I could hear if she woke during the night, but she hasn’t slept there for a few years. Her room is on the other side of the villa. This balcony isn’t accessible except by these two rooms.’ He took her hand and raised it to his mouth, kissing it briefly, his eyes searing down into hers. ‘All you have to do is let me know …’

Kate gulped. ‘Tiarnan, I …’ She stopped. She couldn’t fight the inevitable—couldn’t not own up to her own desire. So finally she just said weakly, ‘OK.’

Sudden trepidation assailed her. He must be assuming that she’d had plenty of practice in the last ten years, and while she hadn’t been celibate, she hadn’t exactly been swinging from the rafters either. He certainly wouldn’t be getting the sophisticated seduction he was no doubt used to and expecting!

He let her hand go and stepped back. ‘Why don’t you rest up and settle in? Mama Lucille will be serving dinner in a couple of hours …’

He stood there, silhouetted by the sun, looking taller and leaner and darker than she could ever remember him being, and Kate felt almost paralysed by the strength of her desire. When she finally could, she just nodded, and turned and fled.

THAT evening Kate looked blankly at her clothes laid out on the bed. Luckily she’d been able to go shopping in Madrid to pick up some more things. Tiarnan had offered to buy them for her, but her withering look at that suggestion had made him throw his hands up and step back saying, ‘Fine—I’ve just never known a woman to turn down a chance of a free shopping trip.’

Kate’s hackles had risen—and a sense of having made a monumental error. ‘Well, I’m not every other woman out there, and I can afford to dress myself—thank you all the same.’

Her mind returned to the present, but with a lingering aftertaste of the jealousy she’d felt when he’d alluded to dressing other women. She forced it from her mind. She was well aware that she was going to be the latest in a long line of Tiarnan Quinn’s conquests. He was nothing if not discreet about his lovers, and Kate knew that was to protect Rosie—but, coming from the world she came from, she was well aware of the gossip that told of the countless beauties he’d bedded over the years, all of whom had been left with extravagantly generous gifts. Kate vowed there and then that she would not be the same. No trinket, no matter how expensive, would be lavished on her at the end of this. Even the thought of it made her burn with humiliation.

She finally focused on the clothes in front of her again. What did one wear to dinner with the man who’d stolen your heart for what felt like all your life? Kate felt the colour drain from her face and she pressed a hand to her chest, feeling suddenly constricted. He hadn’t stolen her heart. He hadn’t . How could he have? She’d had a teenage crush that had culminated in the single most shattering moment of her life. That was all. She hadn’t spent enough time with him to fall in love with him. That night had ripped away any rose-tinted views she might have had of love. And she certainly hadn’t come close since.

She couldn’t love someone like Tiarnan. He was too hard, too forceful. Too obviously driven to succeed—like her father. She’d always pictured herself with someone kind, gentle … unassuming.