Taming the Rebel Tycoon: Wife by Approval / Dating the Rebel Tycoon / The Playboy Takes a Wife

Raising her hand to his lips, he said quietly, ‘I thought you might go to pieces, but obviously I’d underestimated your courage.’

As he had underestimated her beauty.

Still holding her hand, he looked into her face, made both fascinating and mysterious by the moonlight, his eyes lingering on her mouth.

Flustered by his praise and afraid that if he kissed her she would weaken, she half turned away. ‘At least I wasn’t alone, as Mag must have been. And presumably she had only a taper or a candle.’

‘Which was, I daresay, somewhat more reliable than our torch,’ he commented dryly.

Tina had started to smile when, taking her completely by surprise, he turned her into his arms and lifted her face to his. For an instant he looked down at her with queer darkened eyes, then his mouth covered hers.

Her lips parted helplessly beneath the masterful pressure of his and he deepened the kiss, reawakening all the clamouring demons of that morning and sending pleasure coursing through her like red-hot lava.

Lost in a world of sensual delight, she was limp and quivering, almost mindless with desire, when a warning bell began to ring and she stiffened.

His blood heated with anticipation of the night ahead, Richard found it far from easy to play a waiting game, but, feeling that tacit resistance, he ended the kiss and lifted his head.

Drawing a deep, ragged breath, she told herself that she was thankful he’d called a halt. She had virtually no defences against him and if he hadn’t drawn away when he did, if he’d laid her down there and then on the moonlit grass, she would have been his for the taking.

And he would have thought her easy.

For a moment or two she struggled to pull herself together. When she had, to some extent, succeeded, she found her voice and said a little breathlessly, ‘The tower’s bigger than I first thought. How many rooms did it have?’

He told her and began to point out where the different floors had once been, where the fireplaces had been situated and where the old stone stairs had spiralled upwards.

When she had seen all there was to see, he turned away and reached to take her hand. Afraid of his touch, afraid of weakening, she pulled it free.

Without comment, he led the way through a gap in the crumbling walls, where long grass and weeds were thrusting up between the fallen stones.

Favouring her bad ankle and trying her best not to hobble, she followed him as best she could.

He made no further attempt to hold her hand; indeed he appeared to be deep in thought as they headed back towards the castle.

They were skirting the beechwood—the glorious blaze of colour bleached to a pale bluey-purple by the moonlight—when, wanting to break the silence, she reminded him, ‘You didn’t finish telling me what happened to Mag.’

He roused himself and said, ‘I’m afraid it’s a sad tale. One night, it seems, she waited for Sir Gerwain in vain and the next day she learnt—’

Tina was looking up at him, concentrating on what he was telling her, when her injured ankle turned painfully.

At her little gasp, he stopped speaking abruptly and threw an arm around her to steady her as she wobbled on one leg.

His voice grim, he said, ‘I should have had more sense than to take you walking in those heels.’

‘I should have had more sense than wear them,’ she admitted ruefully.

He took off his jacket and, spreading it on the grass, lowered her on to it. Then, squatting down, he examined her ankle, which was already showing signs of swelling.

‘Well, that settles it,’ he announced firmly. ‘You can’t possibly go back to town in this state. The best place for you is bed.’

‘Oh, but I—’

Rising to his feet, he said, ‘There’s no way you can walk on that. A cold compress, a good night’s sleep and we’ll see how it is in the morning…’

He’d had two objectives and his first had been achieved more or less by chance. Now, with a bit of luck, he could make use of that same chance to achieve his second.

‘However,’ he went on, ‘at the moment our priority is to get you back.’

Gathering herself, she made a valiant attempt to struggle up.

‘Stay where you are,’ he ordered. ‘No doubt we could make it back under our own steam, but it’s a fair distance, so it would make more sense to have some transport.’

She was waiting for him to say he would walk back and fetch the car, when he asked, ‘Do you have your mobile handy? I’m afraid I left mine in my jacket pocket when I changed.’

‘Yes.’ She fished in her shoulder bag and produced her phone.

‘Thanks…I’ll ask Mullins to drive round and fetch us…

‘Ah, Mullins,’ he said after a moment, ‘Miss Dunbar has hurt her ankle walking back from Daland Tower. We’re by the beechwood, if you could pick us up…’

Then, to Tina, ‘He’ll be here directly.’ Switching off the phone, he slipped it casually into his trousers pocket and sat down beside her, his muscular thigh brushing hers. ‘Now, I was telling you about Mag. Where had I got to exactly?’

‘One night Sir Gerwain didn’t turn up…’ she prompted somewhat distractedly.

‘Right…Well, the next day, Mag learnt that he was about to marry a lady of rank. A lady he’d been betrothed to since they were both children.

‘Left pregnant and alone, Mag threw herself off the battlements into the moat.

‘But, if the ghostly legend is to be believed, on moonlit nights she still walks there, waiting for her faithless lover.’

Hearing Tina’s sigh, he said, ‘I told you it was a sad story.’

‘To be honest, I hadn’t expected anything else. I’ve never heard of any ghost who haunted a place because he or she had been happy there.’

His teeth gleamed as he laughed. ‘And I always thought it was men who were practical and women who were romantic.’

‘Perhaps it is as a rule.’

Looking into her eyes, he said, ‘But you’re a fascinating mixture of both.’ Then, sounding almost surprised, ‘I’ve never met a woman who intrigued me as much as you do.’

The intensity of his gaze was as intimate as a touch. It made her senses reel.

Still gazing into her eyes, he leaned forward and, while she sat there as though mesmerized, touched his lips lightly to hers.

Then, a hand on her nape, he deepened the kiss until there was nothing in the whole world but him and what he was making her feel.

Eyes closed, heart pounding, she had just accepted that she was lost, when he drew away and said, ‘Mullins will be here at any moment.’

As he spoke she heard an engine and a second or two later an estate car came bumping over the rough grass towards them.