Elizabeth Power - Tamed By Her Husband

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

COMING NEXT MONTH

HE COULD feel the tension in the air. The thick heat of the late afternoon was oppressive and, even in his lightweight suit, Kane Falconer felt decidedly uncomfortable.

Normally, Barcelona was a place in which he liked to linger, but now, striding through the tree-lined, pedestrian thoroughfare, past the stalls with their souvenirs and bright floral displays and the open-air cafés, he was glad his business was over.

The student protest march in which he had very little interest, had brought the city to a standstill. In the surrounding streets, horns blared, throttles revved, with the lurid Spanish phrases being hurled from dusty cabs adding to the noise pollution. A squawking from one of the stalls grazed his already raw nerves, drawing his reluctant gaze to some brightly feathered creatures, caged, ready for sale, their fluttering wings ineffectual in the cramped confines of their environment.

Kane looked away in disgust and longed for his own space. At least he could walk away. He wasn’t trapped here in this noise and heat and dust, he thought gratefully, already sensing mounting vibes of unease. He cast a glance towards the bright blooms of a basket decorating one of the stalls, his gaze falling on the girl who was standing on tiptoe, head thrown back as she inhaled one of the hanging blossoms.

The pale cascade of her hair moved like honey against her arched back, the striking length of that oh, so elegant neck bringing him up short with a swift, sharp stab of recognition.

Shannon Bouvier! Of all the places in all the towns in all the world, he hadn’t expected to find her here.

When he had enquired at the address he had been given for her in Milan over six months ago, he had been told by a rather surly landlord that she had left to move in with her boyfriend—that the two of them had gone abroad—but no one could tell him where.

Shannon Bouvier. Society girl. Rich bitch—as those less kindly disposed were apt to call her. Heiress to a national development company she neither wanted nor cared about.

She was thinner, he noted from an assessing glance over her clinging red crop-top and low-slung, rather shabby combat trousers—much thinner than when he had seen her last. Her features were almost gaunt compared with those of the blooming teenager who had kept her dignity—if not her reputation—under the claws of the mauling British Press—but it was definitely her.

His jaw was set in a determined cast, his body tense from an awareness he didn’t want to acknowledge as he steeled himself to close the distance between them.

Shannon took the pale orchid the elderly stall-keeper handed her—a gesture the Spanish woman had taken to making often when the ‘fragile-looking señorita’, as she called her, passed her stall.

Now the woman shrugged, her arms thrown wide at all the shouting and horn-blowing induced by the marchers. It was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration, but some dissidents had threatened to disrupt it, Shannon remembered uneasily, flicking a glance over her shoulder towards the advancing students. She gasped at the sight of the man blocking her view.

‘Hello, Shannon.’

Something leapt inside her, that familiar excitement she had always felt in his presence coupled with something else which instantly put her on her guard. He was the last person she had expected to see. Yet here he was, as large as life.

No, larger than life, she thought hectically, as his dark and dominating presence seemed to put everything else out of focus so that he became the only noticeable person in Las Ramblas, and the demonstration gaining momentum down the surging thoroughfare was like the backdrop to a movie. Unreal. Only secondary to what was going on between the two of them.

‘Kane!’ If she had wanted to appear unfazed, then that shocked little utterance would have denied her even that simple pleasure. Too long, it seemed, her eyes rested on his hardboned face, reacquainting her with every well-remembered feature; the thick, expertly cut brown hair, the high forehead and firmly-set square jaw; that distinctive and tantalising cleft in his chin. ‘What are you doing here?’

From the pale tailored suit that accentuated the hard fitness of his body, he was obviously there on business, although he was tie-less and his fine white shirt was unbuttoned at the neck, offering a glimpse of tanned flesh beneath the corded strength of his throat.

‘I was about to ask you the same thing.’ Above the blaring horns and angry voices his tone was soft and deep—relaxed. He didn’t seem tense or agitated as she was, left wondering what to say. ‘I thought you’d gone much farther afield.’ Assessingly, his eyes seemed to scour the delicate lines of her face, touched briefly on the equally delicate perfection of the orchid she was holding. ‘Someone told me you were in Rio.’

Had they? Mentally, Shannon dragged herself from the mesmerising effects of those blue-grey eyes. Had he been discussing her? Or had it been just a casual comment on someone else’s part? A careless reference to the girl who wrecked lives, who had made the headlines for a few days nearly three years ago, providing sustenance for a scandal-loving public?

‘Well…as you can see…’ she gave a careless laugh—threw out her arms ‘…I’m not.’ Then wished she hadn’t when the action drew the man’s attention to the swell of her small breasts beneath the scarlet crop-top with its logo emblazoned across it: Emancipation for Bulls.

His mouth—a cruel mouth, she had always thought—firmed, and those steely eyes looked, as they had often looked—as though they were mocking her. Except that they hadn’t the last time. ‘Still fighting the cause of the underdog, Shannon?’

She didn’t even glance down. ‘Someone has to.’

His mouth moved again, a twist of lips that was somewhere between a grimace and a smile. ‘I veer towards the view that if you’re a guest in someone else’s country, you respect their customs.’

With a dignity she hoped she was managing to hang on to, she lifted her chin and said quietly, ‘You’re entitled to your view.’

His head dipped briefly, leaving her feeling like someone who had just won a round merely because their opponent had let them. ‘So what are you doing here in Spain?’

She glanced across at a young couple browsing through the handcrafted jewellery on one of the adjacent stalls. What was she doing here?

About to tell him, she thought better of it and, with a small shrug, uttered, ‘Killing time.’ Well, it was the truth—of sorts.

The amusement went out of the hard masculine face and his mouth took on a decidedly grim line. ‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean?’

Shannon tensed, catching the disapproval in those dangerously soft tones. But then, he had always disapproved. Just like everyone else with his preconceived ideas about her. And no more so than that last time, when he had called her an attention-seeking little socialite. Surprisingly, the memory still hurt.

‘I mean it’s as good a place as any to do nothing.’ To get over things. Recharge one’s batteries, she thought. To get well.

‘Is that what you’re doing?’ He slipped a hand into his trouser pocket, stretching the fabric across hips that were lean and hard. ‘Nothing?’ The disdain on his lips assured her he wasn’t too impressed with her answer.