The Bride Wore Scarlet

It was going to be up to him to do something about it.

The opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with Enid came far more easily than Annie could have hoped for.

After taking Mark on one side—hustling him out of sight after a strained afternoon tea on the terrace—she’d pointed out that getting physical hadn’t been part of their agreement—she didn’t like touching, not even something relatively innocuous like holding hands, if she wasn’t serious and committed.

Mark thought she was mad, and she could have slapped him for the scornful derision on his face. Slapped herself, too, because who the heck did she think she was kidding?

The arrogant, bloody-minded Daniel Faber only had to touch her to make her want to do whatever he wanted her to do.

And the only thing she was serious about as far as he was concerned was the fierce and futile wish that they had never met. And committed? As if!

She and Mark had sat grumbling at each other on a bench behind a potting shed at the far end of the garden for much longer than either had realised.

‘Good Lord!’ Mark shot to his feet. ‘We’re meant to be changing for this evening’s bash.’ He grabbed her hand and tugged her upright, then dropped it. ‘Forgot. Look but don’t touch! Though I presume I’ll be allowed to dance with you later tonight? It would look a bit odd if we didn’t.’

‘Dance?’ She had to trot to keep up with his headlong pace. ‘Isn’t that a bit over the top for a family birthday party?’

‘You don’t know Ma’s parties! She’s a gregarious creature and is best friend to everyone in a ten-mile radius! And they’re all invited to celebrate her birthday. Hence the buffet. And the early start so those with young families can join the fun. After they go—around nine—it all begins to swing. At least we’ll have tomorrow to recover!’

Annie had already made up her mind to head back to London tomorrow. She’d phone for a taxi to ferry her to the nearest train station and Mark would be the last to know. She’d invent some pressing and urgent reason for not staying on, so as not to give offence to the Redways.

She really couldn’t endure another day pinned down beneath the insufferable censure of Daniel Faber’s smouldering eyes, she thought, hurrying along the corridor to her room, meeting Enid as she emerged from the bathroom opposite her doorway.

‘Oh.’ Enid did her best to smile, but Annie saw the lovely face go pale, heard her voice wobble as she said, ‘We all thought you and Mark had got lost. You were missing for so long.’

‘Just talking,’ Annie said breezily, knowing the other girl didn’t believe it, knowing that the other members of the family wouldn’t, either.

‘Oh.’ Again the wobbly attempt at a smile. ‘I’m sharing your bathroom. I hope you don’t mind. Staying overnight. Molly’s parties go on and on.’

This was the golden opportunity, and Annie meant to make full use of it. ‘It’s time we talked,’ she said soothingly. ‘My room, or yours?’

Hours later, Annie wondered if anyone would miss her if she slipped away from the increasingly noisy party and went to bed.

After her talk with Enid, when she’d seen comprehension and complicity suddenly gleam in the beautiful blue eyes, she had felt strangely elated, divorced from it all. Let them sort themselves out.

Mark had had no right to ask for her involvement, and she’d had no right to agree. But, one way or another, she’d be out of here tomorrow.

And the advice she’d given seemed to be working. Enid, bewitching in soft jade-green silk, had been dancing with the hunky son of one of the local farmers ever since the first tape had been slipped into the deck. She ignored Mark completely, giving every impression that she was having the time of her life.

‘Excuse me, Annie.’ As the tempo of the music changed into slow and smoochy, Mark released her from his half-hearted clasp and strode across the floor to claim the woman who was no longer showing the slightest interest in him and far too much in a younger, better-looking guy.

Annie inched towards the open double doors that led to the comparatively quiet hallway. She’d dressed as down as she could, given the stuff she’d brought with her, teaming a float white cotton skirt with a sleeveless black top which had a modest neckline—well, reasonably modest, she amended as she slipped over the parquet of the hall, heading for the staircase.

Mission accomplished, as far as Enid was concerned, and only a few more hours to go before she could make her excuses and leave. Thankfully, Daniel hadn’t asked her to dance. Being held close to that hard, sexy body, knowing that for some reason or other he held her in contempt, would have been purgatory.

He’d been watching her, though. Leaning against an open windowframe at one end of the buffet. His brooding eyes had never left her. It had given her the shakes.

Although the night was warm, she shivered. She wouldn’t be able to relax until she was back in her own small home where she could hole up and forget her second encounter with Daniel Faber. It had had a traumatic effect on her. Which was crazy.

‘Annie—I want a word with you.’ An inescapable hand clamped around her arm. The touch burnt her skin. She didn’t have to turn to know who it was.

Air rushed out of her lungs, making her heart pound, and she had to fight to breathe it back in again.

‘Loose me,’ she commanded thickly, wondering what it was about this one man that could have such an effect on her.

Daniel’s fingers tightened. ‘You know you don’t mean that.’

He swung her round to face him and he was smiling. He frightened her—or, to be more precise about it, she frightened herself. Her whole body ached to be held close to his, for him to lower that fabulously sensual mouth and kiss her again...

‘But that can wait. You and I need to talk.’

Wait until when? What did he mean? Annie’s eyes cast desperately around. She was in some kind of a trap and there was no one to let her out The remaining guests were in the huge drawing room, cleared of furniture for this evening, dancing or standing in groups talking, eating and drinking. Even if she screamed her lungs out no one would hear her above the music.

‘Annie?’ A gentle shake, his fingers soft on her flesh now, had her fiercely deriding herself for being such a fool. She’d accused him of overreacting before and now she was doing the same.

‘Well?’ She couldn’t say more. Her tongue felt thick.

‘Not here. The noise coming from that room is enough to shake the whole house.’

He slipped a gentle arm around her, and that was her undoing. The smile in his eyes, in his voice, the unexpected gentleness made her whole body quiver as he walked her towards the open main door.

She couldn’t think straight, so how could she walk straight? She leant against his body, sighing as his arm tightened around her waist, his strength supporting her, feeling like a thief because she was stealing a few moments of heaven that he had no idea he was giving...

CHAPTER TWO

THE night air was close and sticky as they walked out of the main door and onto the floodlit drive. A sudden gust of hot wind lifted the flirty hems of Annie’s skirt around her knees and pressed the fine cotton against her tummy. There seemed no respite from the heat, even outdoors. And the way Daniel’s presence made her blood scorch through her veins wasn’t helping.

Annie struggled ineffectually with her flyaway skirts and moments later the first few heavy drops of rain fell.

‘The wind makes a habit of wrapping your skirts around your waist to tease the male sex—what did you barter to get the elements on side?’ Daniel murmured with throaty amusement as another gust lifted the floaty fabric towards the heavens.

Uncalled for. Annie rooted her feet in the gravel, hoping the shadows would hide her furious blush, and Daniel said, ‘We’re in for a storm. My car’s around somewhere in this lot.’

He took her hand in his warm grasp, long fingers wrapping around hers, and tugged her through the guests’ parked vehicles until he located his Jaguar, the silver paintwork gleaming under the security lights.

They were tucked inside just a fraction of a second before the heavens opened. ‘Right,’ Daniel said, and fired the ignition.

‘What are you doing?’ She turned to look at him, big, bemused eyes dominating her face, then relaxed back against the leather upholstery, reassured by the flicker of a smile caught in the lights from the dashboard.

‘Moving to where we won’t be disturbed. Fasten your seatbelt.’

Just for a few yards? Annie shrugged and complied. She supposed it did make sense. The ferocity of the rainstorm made visibility almost nil, the wipers barely coping with the sudden deluge. And of course he would want to move his car out of the way of those of the guests who would soon be departing—and it would be a good idea to talk.

Maybe he’d come to his senses and decided his treatment of her had been way over the top. And she would be able to tell him exactly why she’d mistaken him for Rupert at that other party eight months ago.

Clearly there had been some misunderstanding—a misreading of the situation. No man in his right mind could take so decisively and implacably against a woman merely because she’d flung herself at him, kissing him wildly before realising her mistake and taking to her heels! And there was nothing whatsoever wrong with Daniel Faber’s mind!

So this would be a good opportunity to sort it all out, wouldn’t it?