Taggarts Woman

Her hair became a silken curtain over her face as she turned her head, Daniel’s mouth moving down her throat, his deft fingers sliding the zip down her back to pull her dress off one shoulder, baring a breast for his hungry mouth. As he suckled and pulled and nibbled it felt like a thousand tiny needles of pleasure melting her body to pliancy, his hand moving up her thigh beneath her dress now, moving higher and higher…!

She gasped at the warm rush between her thighs, pushing against him, groaning her frustration as his hand was suddenly removed, her breast a swollen ache as his mouth left her, too. She blinked up at him dazedly as he stood up, straightening his shirt and jacket.

She swallowed hard, feeling bereft, her body still aching for him. ‘Why did you stop?’ Her voice was husky with longing.

‘I didn’t think a sofa, in the middle of a house crowded with servants, was the right place to finish this,’ he drawled dismissively.

‘But I—we——’

‘You,’ he corrected hardily. ‘I believe we just answered your question.’

The colour drained from her cheeks. ‘But I thought you—too——’

Daniel looked down at her with mocking grey eyes. ‘We’ve just proved that I can satisfy you,’ he told her drily. ‘The fact that I became aroused by your response is not the same thing.’

It wasn’t? But——Heather pulled her dress back into place as she realised her breast was still bared to him, the nipple pouting hungrily for the touch of his lips. ‘You didn’t exactly seem to hate it,’ she snapped in her humiliation, sitting up, surprised to see that the minute hand on her watch showed that only ten minutes had elapsed since she had gone into his arms; in that ten minutes her whole life had changed.

‘I think we know enough now to give this marriage a try,’ he continued abruptly. ‘What do you think?’

It was as if their lovemaking had just been an experiment, coldly thought out, coldly executed. And maybe to Daniel it had been, but she could never think of her fiery response to him in the same unemotional way. ‘No more Cassandras?’ she prompted softly.

His expression was mocking. ‘Not initially, anyway,’ he agreed. ‘We’ll give it a couple of months to see how we get on together before making promises neither of us can keep. After all, just now didn’t really prove that much.’

Only that she forgot everything but him as soon as he touched her! She would make it the same way for him.

‘All right,’ she nodded. ‘We’ll—we’ll be lovers for two months after we’re married and see what happens.’

‘Oh, I think we both know what will happen, Heather,’ he taunted crudely. ‘It’s just a question of one of us becoming bored with it happening!’

She moistened her lips with the pink tip of her tongue. ‘Does that happen—to you, often?’

‘All the time,’ he answered uninterestedly, glancing at his watch. ‘Why else do you think I’ve never married?’

She shrugged. ‘Because you’ve never fallen in love.’

Daniel gave a disbelieving snort. ‘Surely you realise that love is the last thing to come along in a relationship, that desire and wanting come first, and that more often than not once they have been satisfied love never rears its ugly head!’

‘Ugly?’ She swallowed at his description of the emotion that had caused her more pain than any other, but which she acknowledged had also enriched her life.

His eyes narrowed. ‘It devours and dominates, makes you half a person. It’s an emotion few can afford!’

She knew he was telling her that this was the reason for his success, that he had pushed love from his life to achieve the wealth and prestige he had wanted, and that he intended keeping it from his life. She felt a sinking feeling in her heart.

‘And certainly not me,’ he harshly confirmed her thoughts. ‘We’re being forced into this marriage by your father’s will,’ he told her with brutal honesty. ‘Don’t get any romantic ideas about me; they would be a complete waste of time!’

‘Have many women dared to have “romantic ideas” about you?’ she scorned to hide the pain his words caused, knowing that few women could feel romantic about this hardened man. She just happened to be one of the ones who did!

‘I’m more accustomed to mercenary ones,’ he conceded gratingly. ‘I can live with them.’

Her eyes flashed. ‘Your motives are no more innocent than mine!’ she snapped.

‘Then we start out as equals,’ he drawled mockingly, again glancing at his watch. ‘I think you were also concerned earlier about where we’re going to live after the wedding?’ He raised dark brows.

She should have known this sharp-eyed man wouldn’t have missed her questioning glance in his direction when they were asked that. ‘Where are we going to live?’

Daniel drew in a ragged breath. ‘I have no intention of moving in here,’ he told her challengingly.

Heather gave a nod of calm acceptance. ‘Then we’ll sell this house and find somewhere we both like——’

‘You aren’t going to argue about it?’ He eyed her warily.

Her mouth quirked at his suspicious expression. ‘Why should I?’

‘Because you’ve lived in this house all your life.’ He still watched her frowningly.

‘Then it’s time for a change,’ she shrugged. ‘I would like to take some of the staff with me, if that’s all right with you?’ She looked up at him enquiringly. ‘The ones that have been with us the longest,’ she explained. ‘We wouldn’t need all of them, because I think a smaller house would suit our needs better than this one. If you agree, of course?’

Daniel still watched her warily, as if she had suddenly become someone he didn’t recognise. ‘If I agree?’ he echoed drily.

‘Well, it’s going to be our house, and——’

‘You’ll be spending the most time in it,’ he cut in harshly. ‘Buy as big a house as you want—or don’t want. As long as I don’t have to live here I don’t care!’ His eyes glittered coldly.

Heather blinked at his vehemence. ‘Couldn’t we choose somewhere together?’

‘I told you, I won’t be there that much—and not for the reason you’re thinking,’ he grated at her frown. ‘I don’t say things I don’t mean, Heather, and if I’ve said I’ll be faithful to you for at least the first two months of our marriage then I damn well will! I won’t be at home much to start with because after the last damaging six months of uncertainty I’m going to have to work damned hard to rebuild the airline’s reputation as a stable one!’

‘I’m sorry,’ she gave a guilty blush. ‘I only——Couldn’t I perhaps find two or three places I think might be suitable and then just show you them quickly one day? I promise not to take up too much of your time,’ she added persuasively.

He looked irritated. ‘Don’t try and make me feel guilty because I have to try and correct the damage your father did to——’

‘I wasn’t,’ she assured him quickly, feeling as if she had to walk on eggshells around this man. ‘Daniel, are you sure you’re going to be able to cope with the tie of a wife?’

‘No, I’m not sure at all.’ His eyes glittered. ‘But neither of us has a choice!’

She could already see how he was chafing at having to explain even the most impersonal of things to her, and wondered what it would be like once they were married.

But he was wrong about the choice; she did have one. It was just one she knew she could never take, not when it meant hurting Daniel so much.

‘Daniel, I’m as upset about my father’s will as you are,’ she began.

‘Oh, I realise that,’ he derided. ‘I’m sure you expected to walk away with a fortune, not a husband as well! I know why Max hated me; I just wonder what you ever did to him!’

She turned away to hide the pain in her clouded eyes. ‘He wanted a son; he got me.’ She flatly told him the half-truth, the wound of Max Danvers’ rejection, although an old one, still raw.

‘And he wanted money but instead he got me,’ Daniel rasped harshly. ‘And now, it seems, we have each other!’

Even now, loving him as she did, she wished there were something she could do to release him from the tie to her that he didn’t want. But there was nothing she could do.