Carole Mortimer Romance Collection. Carole Mortimer

up instinctively.

      Her hand was arrested in mid-action, her breathing ragged in her agitation. ‘You are the most insulting man I have ever met in my life,’ she finally managed to say. ‘That happens to be your father you’re talking about!’ She glared at him for the slur he was making on a man she had cared about very much. And who had cared about her in return.

      ‘He was a man, wasn’t he?’ Liam dismissed harshly.

      ‘He was my friend,’ Juliet defended. ‘My very good friend.’ She could have kicked herself for allowing that emotional catch in her voice; Liam wouldn’t understand things like platonic love between two people who weren’t actually related to each other. And now wasn’t the time to enlighten him, either, as she could hear Janet approaching the study with the coffee-tray.

      ‘Could I have a dinner-tray in my room?’ she requested stiltedly of the other woman as she entered after knocking briefly on the door. She studiously avoided looking at Liam; she was so angry and upset that she might say something completely unforgivable if she looked at him again.

      ‘I have something I wish to discuss with you, Juliet,’ Liam told her coldly before Janet could answer.

      She still couldn’t bring herself to look at him; she needed some time and space away from him. ‘Can’t it wait until morning?’ she said abruptly.

      ‘No. It can’t,’ he answered uncompromisingly. ‘It’s business,’ he added curtly as she still looked mutinous.

      Juliet drew in a ragged breath. Liam had the upper hand in this situation, and he knew it. When it came to the future of Carlyle Properties—something William had entrusted to her—then she had no choice…!

      She nodded. ‘I’ll join you for coffee after dinner,’ she conceded, at last looking up at him—and then wishing she hadn’t! Liam had a way of looking at her that made her feel so—so…It was very uncomfortable, feeling that someone disliked you as much as Liam seemed to dislike her!

      Although dislike possibly wasn’t the right word. As he had admitted, on one level they did get on, and Liam obviously resented that fact. He couldn’t dislike her because he wouldn’t really allow himself to get to know her, but he did resent the effect they had on each other. As she did.

      ‘Very well,’ he accepted icily, obviously not too happy with the compromise, but willing to let it go by because of Janet’s presence. ‘Ten o’clock, in the study,’ he added hardly.

      ‘Very well,’ she acknowledged distantly.

      ‘And make sure she does have a tray in her room, Janet.’ He turned to the housekeeper. ‘Juliet has a habit of forgetting that her body needs food!’ he added drily.

      Juliet gave him a narrow-eyed look before turning on her heel and abruptly leaving the room.

      ‘He had to have the last word,’ she muttered to herself disgruntledly as she went up the stairs. She hoped his dinner gave him indigestion! It was the least he deserved, because she surely wasn’t going to enjoy her own food, no matter what Liam might have instructed to the contrary!

      Ten o’clock came around all too quickly as far as Juliet was concerned. She did eat some of the delicious dinner which Janet brought up for her, just the smell of the beef Wellington making her feel hungry—mainly, she suddenly realised, because she had forgotten to eat lunch. It certainly had nothing to do with what Liam had said to her!

      Why did he bring out such childish rebellion in her? she wondered heavily. She had lived her life quite sedately for the last seven years, and in a few short days Liam had reduced her to an emotional see-saw, one minute so angry with him, the next unable to resist being in his arms. She would be glad when he had gone out of her life again!

      But would she…?

      Yes, Liam evoked emotions she hadn’t felt for some time, emotions she wasn’t altogether comfortable with, but at least she had been alive, totally alive, since first meeting him.

      She couldn’t be falling in love with him…? Not with Liam of all people!

      She felt angry in his presence, irritated, apprehensive occasionally, but those other emotions—of anticipation of seeing him again, the pleasure she had known in his arms, the fact that she felt so alive in his company—what did they mean? They couldn’t mean she was falling in love with him— was already in love with him…

      God, it was gone ten o’clock now; if she didn’t go downstairs soon he would—

      ‘A question of the mountain coming to Mohammed?’ Liam drawled as he entered her bedroom unannounced.

      After the recent thoughts she had been having about him, being alone with him in her bedroom was the last thing Juliet wanted!

      She stood up abruptly from where she had been seated at the table in front of her bedroom window. ‘I was just about to come downstairs and join you,’ she told him stiltedly as she crossed the room to stand pointedly beside the open doorway.

      Liam shrugged, making no effort to move. ‘I’m here now,’ he dismissed easily. ‘We may as well stay here.’

      No, definitely not! ‘Business is better discussed in the right surroundings,’ she insisted determinedly.

      His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘So I seem to remember you telling me once before,’ he said, reminding her of the evening at the hotel in Majorca. ‘I rarely deal in offices, Juliet,’ he continued drily. ‘More business is settled over a good meal, or in a bedroom,’ he added pointedly, ‘than has ever been achieved in a boardroom!’

      His meaning, concerning the bedroom, wasn’t lost on Juliet, and she didn’t like the implied insult one little bit! ‘I would prefer to go down to the study,’ she told him distantly, grey eyes unblinking as she met the challenge in his gaze.

      ‘Whatever,’ he finally shrugged. ‘It’s really totally irrelevant to me.’

      She would imagine most things were that he didn’t think directly affected him. And, as she knew from experience, Liam would say what he had to say no matter what the surroundings.

      ‘The study it is, then,’ she said determinedly, unconcerned with what he might think of her stubbornness.

      ‘After you.’ He stepped back in an exaggerated movement to allow her to pass him.

      Juliet kept her head held high as she went to walk past, and looked up in startled surprise as he stepped in front of her, her eyes widening in trepidation as she saw the look on his face.

      ‘What is it about you?’ he muttered, almost to himself. ‘I have every reason to dislike you, and yet…’ He shook his head in self-disgust. ‘What do you use, Juliet? Spells and magic potions?’ he added harshly.

      She swallowed hard, unable to move, held captive by the intensity of those dark blue eyes. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’ She gave an involuntary quiver of awareness.

      Liam saw her reaction to their closeness. ‘Oh, I think you do.’ He nodded, one hand slowly moving up to caress the length of her hair. ‘I want to make love to you, Juliet!’ The words were said harshly, as if the need was completely against his will.

      As Juliet had no doubt it was! She felt the same attraction herself. But the difference was that she knew it just couldn’t happen. Wouldn’t happen!

      ‘Liam—’

      ‘Don’t start reasoning, Juliet,’ he bit out hardly, his arms moving possessively about her waist. ‘I’ve done enough of that myself, and at the end of the day the whole damn lot goes out of the window the moment I’m alone with you!’ he ground out disgustedly, the warmth of his breath stirring the hair at her temples.

      There was no way she could escape from the steel band of his arms without seriously bruising herself, but she held herself as far away from him as she could, pushing against his arms. ‘This is ridiculous, Liam.’

      ‘I