The Groom's Revenge. Kate Walker

and you know it You wanted me and I wanted you.’

      ‘And what I brought with me,’ Aidan inserted brutally. ‘So, tell me, how is it with your new lover?’

      ‘Lover?’ For a few seconds she couldn’t focus her mind enough to think. ‘Oh, Jim!’

      ‘Yes, Jim.’

      The twist to Aidan’s mouth, the roughness of his voice, turned the name into an obscenity.

      ‘“You’ve been so good to me” Jim. “I don’t know how to thank you” Jim. What does he do for you, my lovely India? Does he give you more than I ever could? Was he the next wealthy man to walk through the door after I walked out of it?’

      ‘Precisely! You walked out!’ India pounced on the opening he had given her. ‘You walked out on me, remember. So don’t come the jilted fiancé—’

      ‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ Aidan responded coolly, stopping her dead. ‘Believe me, he’s welcome to you.’

      Those dark eyes noted the way India clamped her mouth shut against any weak protest at the callousness, and his smile surfaced once more. The curl of his lips was even more predatory than before.

      ‘But I wonder if he knows just how much it’s going to cost him.’

      ‘If you must know,’ India declared, unable to endure his taunts any longer, ‘Jim is just a very junior cog in the firm of Jenkins and Curran, my father’s—’

      ‘Your father’s solicitors,’ Aidan inserted dismissively. ‘I know who they are only too well.’

      ‘But how?’

      ‘We’ve had dealings,’ was the enigmatic response. ‘Which reminds me. Where is your dear papa?’

      The edge in his voice was worrying, an undertone of threat seeming to lurk in his words like jagged rocks underneath the still surface of a calm sea. Hearing it, India felt an intuitive shiver run down her spine, setting her protective instincts on red alert.

      ‘Why do you want to know?’ she asked warily.

      ‘It was your father I came to see. Let’s just say I have some important business to discuss with him.’

      If she had felt apprehensive before, that cryptic remark made matters ten times worse. Even before her wedding day Aidan and her father had been at daggers drawn, and she very much doubted that time had done anything to ease the situation.

      ‘I don’t think he’d want anything to do with you!’ The memory of the state in which she had just left her father sharpened her voice, giving it extra emphasis.

      ‘Oh, he’ll see me, darling. I promise you, he’ll want to talk to me very much, and if he’s wise he’ll arrange a meeting very soon. So when will he be back?’

      ‘And what is that supposed to mean?’ India ignored the question, concentrating instead on the implications behind that ‘if he’s wise’.

      ‘Just what it says,’ Aidan returned indifferently. ‘I want to see your father, and it would be better for him if I saw him soon. So when do you expect him home?’

      ‘I don’t know.’

      Which at least was nothing more than the truth. No matter when her father came out of hospital, it would be a long time before he would be well enough to talk to anyone, let alone the predatory Lone Wolfe. But what possible business could connect two such disparate men?

      ‘I could give him a message if you like,’ she managed, her attempt at cool confidence sadly marred by the sudden realisation that Aidan was between her and the door.

      If she wanted to get inside she would have to go past him, she told herself. The idea made her uneasy, uncomfortably aware of the heavy shadows cast by the trees, the silence of the night and the recollection of the fact that Gary’s room was at the back of the house, well out of earshot.

      ‘If you just tell me what you want to say.’

      For a long moment Aidan considered. ‘No.’ He shook his dark head decisively. ‘It’s between the two of us. ‘I’ll find him later. Tell him I was looking for him.’

      ‘Is that it?’ India questioned, receiving another of those slanted, mocking glances that aggravated the already edgy way she was feeling.

      ‘Were you looking for something more?’

      ‘Not on your life!’

      She was disconcerted to realise just how close he had come to her, suddenly only inches away from her.

      ‘A pity.’ It was a low, seductive murmur, one that drew her attention against her will. Drew it and held it as if she were hypnotised. ‘Because I was just thinking that I couldn’t let you go without a kiss for old times’ sake.’

      ‘For—!’ India spluttered, a sense of panic gripping her round the throat, choking off her words as his head came even nearer, lowering to blot out the light of the moon.

      He was so near that she could hear the sound of his breathing, catch the tang of some exclusive cologne. Her heart lurched into a wild, uneven rhythm that made her blood pound in her ears, and she was sure he must hear the accelerated beat of her heart.

      ‘Don’t you dare!’

      Her voice was high and sharp, and it stilled that ominous movement, his head coming to a sudden halt.

      ‘Don’t you dare...’

      It was less successful this time. A betraying quiver that she couldn’t quite suppress deprived her words of the force she had aimed for.

      A wicked smile curved his lips, revealing perfect white teeth.

      ‘Oh, I dare,’ he drawled softly. ‘The question is, do you? You see, I wouldn’t be content with just a peck on the cheek and a breathless thank-you such as you gave your so-kind Jim.’

      ‘But you...’

      ‘I what?’ Aidan murmured when she struggled to find words to fling at him.

      The trouble was that with that dark head so very close, with his lips curved into that deceptive softness, all she could think of was how it had once been. She could recall so vividly how it had felt to run her hands through the dark silk of his hair, to have that beautiful mouth against her own...

      To her horror she found that she had actually raised her head, tilting it slightly, her lips parting as if to receive his kiss.

      ‘I what, sweetheart?’ Aidan repeated on a very different note, one so smokily sensual that it seemed to have the power to draw her soul from her body and straight into his ruthless hands. ‘I rejected you, cast you off—is that it?’

      She couldn’t find any response. Her tongue seemed frozen and stiff inside her mouth.

      ‘Ah, but you’re forgetting one thing, my darling India. I may have walked away from the thought of tying myself down, but I could never refuse the invitation offered by that glorious body of yours. I was always unable to resist the temptation you offered, and, after twelve months, the hunger you arouse is stronger than ever.’

      ‘Invitation!’ India exploded, her head coming up sharply, green eyes blazing in rejection of his blunt declaration. ‘Offer! I’m not inviting anything! And, believe me, I have nothing whatsoever to offer you ever again! If you think otherwise, then you have most definitely totally misread the signals.’

      ‘Perhaps.’ His tone implied that he very much doubted it. ‘But, India, sweetheart—’

      ‘And I am not your sweetheart, or anything else! How you can possibly even begin to imagine that after the way you treated me I would want anything at all to do with you, I just don’t know. But...’

      Drawing a deep breath, she snatched at the one thing she hoped would convince him once and for all.

      ‘Get