The Seduction Game

Tara registered that in passing as she freed herself and made for the kitchen. It sounded, she thought with dismay, as if Adam Barnard was planning to stick around for some considerable time.

Then everything else was forgotten as she heard Buster begin to bark excitedly and Melusine’s answering and blood-curdling yowl.

‘Oh, baby.’ Heart thudding, she shot to the rescue.

One swift glance from the doorway told her the worst. The dog had Melusine cornered in a small dark space beside the washing machine, and was advancing on her aggressively, barking all the while.

‘See what you’ve done,’ she accused Adam Barnard, her voice shaking, as he joined her. ‘Call him off.’

‘No need,’ he said briskly. ‘I promise you.’

As Buster lunged forward, a black silk paw came out of the shadows and swiped him across the muzzle. He yelped in pain and surprise and jumped backwards, shaking his head.

‘See what I mean.’ Adam Barnard’s tone was dry. ‘The female of any species is always deadlier than any mere male.’

‘And I can do without the chauvinist remarks,’ Tara snapped. ‘She could have been badly hurt.’

‘Her nine lives are still intact. Poor old Buster is the one with the bloody nose.’ He reached down and scooped up Melusine, who dangled aloofly from his shoulder. ‘You big bully,’ he scolded softly. ‘Give my pup a break.’

Tara saw that the dog was indeed bleeding from a nasty scratch.

‘Oh, Lord.’ She swallowed. ‘I’d better bathe it for him.’

Buster submitted with docility to her ministrations, his brown eyes full of the soulful anguish of the totally misunderstood.

‘That’ll teach you,’ she muttered as she swabbed the scratch with disinfectant. Melusine watched the process from the safety of the draining board, where she sat, carefully washing the contaminated paw.

‘Perhaps I’d better put her in another room,’ Tara said as she rinsed her hands.

‘Leave them. They’ll be fine now that the pecking order has been established.’ His mouth curved in amusement. ‘You look as if you’d like to banish me to another room as well.’

‘It had occurred to me.’ Tara gave him a challenging look. ‘I’m still not sure why I agreed to this.’

‘Oh, I think you probably had an excellent reason,’ he said affably. ‘But if you’re now having second thoughts you could always put my share in a doggy bag, and Buster and I will go back to our lonely boat.’

Her smile was wintry. ‘I can probably stand it if you can.’ She gestured awkwardly towards the kitchen table. ‘Please sit down, and I’ll dish up.’

‘If you give me a corkscrew, I’ll open this.’ He held up the wine he’d brought.

‘There’s one in the dresser drawer.’ She turned away and began to busy herself at the stove. There wasn’t much to do, just the final touches to the creamed potatoes, and the Vichy carrots and braised celery to be placed in their respective serving dishes, but she was glad of any activity.

It occurred to her that this was the first time she’d entertained a man alone, apart from business meetings, since Jack, and the realisation made her jittery.

The new-look Adam Barnard was another concern. The clothes he was wearing were clearly expensive, and so was the claret that he was setting to breathe.

She was very conscious that her personal preparations for the evening had been a perfunctory wash and a few strokes of the hairbrush. No make-up or change of clothes for her.

Now that he’d smoothed away the rough edges, she was only too aware of the full force of his attraction. Yet she couldn’t afford to be. That was not the purpose of the exercise, she reminded herself vehemently.

She just needed to find out a bit more about him. That was it. That was everything.

As she carried the food to the table she saw that Adam had found some candles during his hunt for the corkscrew and fitted them into the pottery holders which usually stood on the dresser.

‘I hope you don’t mind,’ he said. ‘I thought it would add a festive touch.’

In truth, Tara minded quite a lot. Candlelight implied intimacy rather than festivity, she thought restively, but now that the tapers were lit she could hardly make a fuss.

Adam, seemingly unaware of her hesitation, sniffed appreciatively. ‘You’ve gone to a great deal of trouble.’

‘Mrs Pritchard did most of it,’ she reminded him coolly. She cut into the pie, and served him a lavish wedge.

‘Hey—save some for yourself.’

‘There’s plenty,’ she said quickly. ‘Actually, I’m not very hungry.’

He looked at her, brows lifted. ‘Really?’ he drawled. ‘We must see what we can do to restore your appetite.’

Cutting out remarks like that would help for a start, she told him silently. Or was she just being ridiculously twitchy? Looking for trouble where there was none?

Pull yourself together, she ordered herself tersely. Just get through the evening.

In spite of her protest, she found that, once tasted, she couldn’t resist the tender chunks of meat and rich gravy under the melting pastry crust. Mrs Pritchard had surpassed herself, she acknowledged gratefully.

The wine was good, too, touching her throat like velvet and filling her mouth with the fragrance of blackcurrant.

As Adam went to refill her glass she swiftly covered it with her hand.

‘I’d better not have any more.’

‘Why not? You haven’t got work tomorrow, and you’re not planning to drive anywhere, are you? At least, not tonight.’

She heard that note of laughter in his voice again, and her mouth tightened. He sounded as if he’d been perched inside her head for the last hour or so, observing her mental struggles.

‘No,’ she said. ‘But I know my limitations.’

‘That’s fine,’ he said equably. ‘As long as you make sure they don’t obscure your potential.’

‘My goodness.’ She offered him the potatoes. ‘Do you write books on self-improvement, by any chance?’

‘I don’t write books at all.’ With equal politeness, he passed her the celery. ‘But I apologise if I sounded sententious.’

She flushed. ‘No—I didn’t mean... That is...’

Aware that she was foundering, she stopped.

‘Sometimes a direct question is best,’ Adam remarked pensively.

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Tara said coldly, concentrating on her plate.