JACQUELINE BAIRD - Paper Marriages - Wife - Bought and Paid For / His Convenient Marriage / A Convenient Wife

As she watched he lifted the glass to his mouth and took a long swallow. She saw the tanned throat move, and his tongue lick with relish around his firm lips, and she felt again the shameful pull of his physical attraction. How she was going to get through the next hour, she didn’t know, but she had to try.

‘Your father always did keep an excellent whisky.’ His cool grey eyes sought her wary green gaze. ‘Why don’t you join me?’ he queried, tipping the glass towards her. ‘You look like you need a drink.’

‘No, thank you, and when you have finished that I will give you the tour of the house,’ she said quickly. ‘You don’t want to waste time. The weather is awful, and you have to drive back to London.’ She was babbling, but she was so tense she could not help it.

‘I am in no hurry,’ drawled Solo, his silver eyes fixed on her in steady appraisal. ‘It was a slow drive down, the rain was so heavy visibility was cut to about twenty yards, and, by the look of you, you need to relax.’

Immediately she felt guilty; of course he had driven through a fierce storm. Where were her manners? She got to her feet. ‘I never thought—perhaps you would like something to eat? A sandwich, soup, anything?’

Solo finished the whisky and stood up, and, placing the glass on the mantelpiece, he came towards her, pausing only when he was within touching distance. ‘No, I’m not hungry.’ Derision glittered in his eyes. ‘At least not for what you are offering. Let’s go.’

Penny’s face turned scarlet. She should not have said anything . She was only trying to be helpful, but he obviously thought she was flirting. He could not have made it plainer he didn’t fancy her, she thought, drowning in embarrassment. But then why was she surprised? He never had, she reminded herself, and, straightening her shoulders, she swung one hand around the room.

‘Well, this is the drawing room, as you can see, nothing much has changed since you were last here except…’

‘Purple,’ Solo said incredulously, finally noticing the surroundings instead of the woman. ‘The walls are purple .’ His eyes gleamed with wry humour as he stared down at Penny. ‘When did this happen?’

‘Veronica’s taste.’ Penny said grimly ‘It matched her colouring, she thought.’ Determined to be businesslike, she ignored Solo’s soft chuckle. ‘The dining room next,’ she suggested.

‘Lead on.’ Solo placed a hand beneath her elbow. ‘But tell me, am I in for many more shocks?’

She wrenched her arm away. ‘It depends on your view of a scarlet dining room, a pink morning room, not to mention a rather virulent lime sitting room. Veronica was a colourful person.’ She slanted him a cynical glance. ‘As I’m sure you know—I seem to remember she was a friend of yours before she met my father.’

After Penny had split up with Solo she’d had a long time to think over the past and, from countless little digs Veronica had made, she couldn’t help wondering just what relationship Solo had had with her stepmother.

His eyes narrowed and his expression became darkly forbidding. ‘Veronica was never my friend, an acquaintance at best, but I think you better stop right there, and show me the rest of the place. That is why I am here.’

Penny gave a casual shrug, surprised to find she believed him, but refused to admit she was relieved he had denied knowing Veronica on a more intimate basis. Anyway, what was the use of raking over the past with the man? Best to get rid of him. With that in mind she led the way to the dining room.

Solo assumed the mantle of sophisticated buyer, and he asked pertinent questions as if they were two complete strangers as she showed him around all the rooms on the ground floor.

Penny told herself she was glad, an aloof, businesslike Solo she could deal with; at least she thought so, until she had to lead him upstairs.

‘I see what you mean about colour,’ Solo drawled with a touch of mockery, walking into the master bedroom and stopping at the foot of the bed.’ Knowing your father, I can’t believe this bright fuchsia and leopard pattern was very conducive to a good sex life.’

The master suite was horrendous, Penny freely acknowledged, standing a couple of steps behind Solo and glancing around with sad eyes.

A bittersweet memory of another time, when her own mother was alive, and the décor was warm almond and elegant. The bed had been a place to curl up in as a child with her parents on freezing cold mornings. There had been no central heating then.

Veronica had been responsible for installing all the mod cons and the horrendous fuchsia wallpaper, not to mention the faux leopardskin bedcover. No one with the slightest taste would like this.

‘I’m never going to sell this place,’ she thought and didn’t realise she had said the words out loud. Not without painting it, at least…

‘Ah,’ Solo said softly and turned to face her. He had wondered when she would finally admit she didn’t want to sell the house, and what she was prepared to do to keep it. ‘We get to the truth. I was wondering when you would show your true colours .’ A steely note crept into his voice. ‘I should have guessed you would choose the bedroom.’

Penny stared up at the grim lines of his face, lost in memories of the past; she hadn’t the slightest idea what he was talking about.

‘It is awful, but I could hunt out the old furnishings, and with a pot of paint it could be okay,’ she said distractedly, thinking if she got rid of Veronica’s worst excesses they might get a better price for the house. As it was it would make most people bilious.

‘Or an interior designer, and a lot of money, my money,’ Solo suggested with a cynical smile.

‘Well, you could afford it,’ Penny snapped as it hit her she really was going to lose her home anyway, whether to Solo or a stranger, it didn’t matter. Determined not to let him see how the loss of her home hurt her, she pinned a bright smile on her face and glanced up at him.

‘Come on…’ She gestured towards him with one hand. I’ll show you the rest was what she meant to say, but never got the chance.

A large hand curled around hers, and a lazy forefinger trailed a tingling path across her cheek to the edge of her mouth, where it delicately outlined the shape of her lips. ‘Sweet, sexy Penny,’ he murmured provocatively.

‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing?’ Penny jerked her head back indignantly, her lips tingling where he had touched, and tried to wrench her hand free, suddenly aware of the intimacy of their position, alone in the bedroom.

‘Agreeing with you, Penny.’ And the hand holding hers effortlessly wrapped around her back and pulled her close to his large male body. With his other he dispensed with the band holding her hair in place so it fell in a tumbled mass around her face.

After the first shock and her own hair blinding her, Penny began to struggle, and launched a hefty, kick at his shin, but all she succeeded in doing was knocking Solo off balance so he tumbled backwards on the bed, with a dishevelled Penny sprawled on top of him.

‘Get off,’ she cried.

‘I’m not on you,’ he drawled sardonically. ‘Yet.’

Then with one swift movement their positions were reversed, and Penny found herself flat on her back on the bed, with Solo’s great body lying half over her. She struggled wildly in an attempt to free herself, and he let her, restraining her effortlessly with his superior size and strength until eventually she gave up and lay helpless and panting, looking up into his strikingly handsome face.

‘Let me go,’ Penny demanded, her eyes wide with fear and something more.

‘Oh, no.’ He smiled slightly, but only with his lips; the grey eyes remained watchful, and slightly cruel. ‘This time I am going to sample the goods before I pay.’