Sharon Kendrick Collection. Sharon Kendrick

elegant chignon with not a single strand out of place. ‘Not to me. And you?’

      ‘No.’ He stared at her, then suddenly, and without warning, lifted his hand to the back of her head, where he located the pin which held the elaborate hairstyle together and slowly pulled it out, so that the thick, abundant tresses tumbled down the side of her face like a Titian waterfall. She heard him suck in an appreciative breath, saw the way his eyes darkened in approbation.

      Her mouth trembled, colour washing over her skin as she realised how much she had missed him. ‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?’ she asked, with a boldness which astonished her.

      ‘Only if you understand that if you set foot over this threshold you’re going to end up in my bed. Probably within the hour—that’s if I can hold out that long.’

      If anyone else had said it she would have run a mile, but when Cormack said it...well, hadn’t he just put into words what she had been secretly thinking, secretly hoping for...?

      But Triss wanted more than a one-night or one-afternoon stand with Cormack, and instinct told her that tumbling into his bed right now might not be the most sensible thing to do.

      So she turned her enormous hazel eyes up at him and smiled, aware and glad for the first time in her life of the sexual power unleashed by that smile. ‘Well, in that case,’ she murmured smokily, ‘you’d better get dressed, hadn’t you? And when you’ve done that you can take me out for lunch. I’ll wait in the car.’ And she turned on her heel without another word.

      Cormack was smitten.

      He ached like a schoolboy during lunch at his favourite restaurant, where today the food tasted as uninspiring as school dinners. He wanted her so badly.

      He had brought her here to try and impress her, but now he cursed himself for his stupidity, resenting the Hollywood big names who trooped over to their table to say hello, wanting above all else to be away from here, so that he could be alone with her again.

      Except that he had probably blown it with his crass approach back at the house.

      He couldn’t believe that a man of his age and with his experience could have come out with a line like that!

      Finally they stood up to leave, bathed in golden sunlight, oblivious to the other diners who watched them so closely, completely unaware of the striking sight they made as a couple.

      ‘I’ll drop you off,’ he said heavily, trying to smile but failing dramatically. ‘Where are you staying?’

      And Triss turned bemused eyes upon him, wanting him so much that she was past caring whether or not it was the right thing to say, because suddenly it was the only thing to say. ‘But I thought I was staying with you,’ she said. ‘Or at least—that was the impression I got earlier. Was I wrong?’

      He smiled then, a heavenly smile, which gave Triss a hint of the pleasures to come. ‘Just come here,’ he murmured, and pulled her into his arms.

      Triss came back to the present to find herself studying Cormack with apparent interest, her shorn head cocked to one side.

      It must be the hairstyle which made her look even more delicate than usual, Cormack decided, emphasising as it did the small, neat features and making her eyes look so huge that you could imagine drowning in them.

      ‘You were miles away,’ he observed.

      ‘So were you,’ she said.

      ‘I was,’ he answered softly. ‘Literally and figuratively.’

      ‘Oh?’

      ‘Remembering how we met...’

      ‘In P-Paris?’ She stumbled stupidly over the words.

      He gave an impatient kind of laugh and his blue eyes seared into her, as if something had made him very angry indeed. ‘Unless my memory is defective and we met somewhere else?’

      Triss stood up. She hated it when he adopted that terse tone—it was making her feel at even more of a disadvantage than she already did. And just how was she going to tell him about Simon, for goodness’ sake?

      She stared into the moon-like face of the grandfather clock as though she were looking at the gates of hell, but at least her face was hidden from him. And that gave her the courage to try and find out what had motivated him into coming to see her so readily.

      ‘Why did you agree to come here today, Cormack?’

      ‘I thought I’d already told you that, sweetheart,’ he returned softly. ‘I was intrigued.’

      Triss sucked in her breath impatiently. ‘Then let me rephrase the question. What did you expect to happen when you got here? Another night of “spectacular sex”, as you so sweetly put it?’

      ‘You’re surely not complaining because I saw fit to praise your undeniable talents between the sheets?’ She could hear the mocking laughter in his reply. ‘Don’t twist my words—’

      ‘I’m not twisting anything,’ he retorted, his voice laden with an undertone of silky menace. ‘But I would be a liar if I denied that I still wanted you, Triss...’

      She closed her eyes in despair as she recognised that despite everything which had happened between them she still wanted him too. So badly.

      Cormack had risen noiselessly to his feet and had moved behind her, so close that all Triss could hear was the hushed sound of his breathing.

      ‘You’re all tense, Beatrice,’ he observed quietly, but there was a husky note which deepened his voice into pure allure. ‘Aren’t you?’

      She knew that tone—knew what it meant. Cormack wanted her; she could tell from the barely contained edge of hunger shivering in his voice. But then, he always had been the kind of man who could go from normality to desire within seconds...

      ‘No,’ she answered firmly, aware that she should move away from him. But she couldn’t. Couldn’t. ‘I’m not tense at all’

      ‘Oh, yes, you are, sweetheart—you’re stretched as tightly as the string of a violin.’ Now he sounded cajoling, using the kind of voice she imagined people must use when they were gentling horses.

      ’N-no.’ Then, with a hint of desperation in her voice, she said, ‘Stop it, Cormack. Please stop it right now.’ But although her words sounded tough enough she still could not bear to turn round, to be confronted by the hot blue dazzle of lust in his eyes. For if she faced that—then would she not just give in and fall eagerly into his arms?

      Cormack did not answer her immediately, just ran his finger very deliberately down the entire length of her long neck, and the effect of his touch on her skin was electric. ‘Just like a swan, that neck,’ he mused quietly. ‘With its pure, clean lines. A thoroughbred.’ He stroked sensually at the soft skin. ‘That’s what you are, Triss. A thoroughbred.’

      She shivered at that first contact and felt the memories flooding back—wonderful, unwanted memories that she had tried to erase from her mind for longer than she cared to remember.

      Like the first time they had made love.

      She remembered shyly telling him that he was the first man for her, thrilled beyond belief to see the look of dark pleasure on his face. In the back of her mind, however, she had been expecting some kind of pain or discomfort—the stuff they always warned you about in all the books she had ever read on the subject.

      But Cormack had been so gentle in his passion, such a slow, sure tutor, that she had experienced nothing but the most perfect kind of fulfillment. She had wept in his arms afterwards, her head cradled on his chest. And he had stroked her dark red hair thoughtfully, but had been remarkably quiet for once.

      And she remembered the time when he had given her a key to his Malibu beach home, recalling how she had burst out laughing at the tragi-comic expression on his face and how he had then started laughing too, telling her that he was mourning his lost freedom.