Fiancee By Mistake

‘I never said—’

‘You didn’t have to say anything! But you’ve made it blatantly obvious that you would have been a lot happier if someone else had come along and rescued me so that you wouldn’t have been obliged to do it. Well, you needn’t worry! I don’t want to be stuck with you any more than you do with me.’

‘I couldn’t agree more.’

It was expelled on a sigh of exasperation. Damn Pete for getting him involved in all this, and damn her too…

For what? For being so beautiful that any man would want her? So lovely that he only had to look at her to burn with desire?

And she knew it, damn her! She had only just left his brother, having tossed his ring back in his face, and she already had a new man lined up. And yet she hadn’t been able to resist trying it on with him in the first five minutes.

She had set out to entice him like some little alley cat, displaying her body in the clinging dress, writhing so seductively against him. And he knew why.

She’d recognised him, hadn’t she? Even used his name as familiarly as if they were old friends. It happened so often now that he’d become inured to it. People saw not the real man but a myth created by the medium in which he worked. To the public at large he was simply a face on a TV screen, a glossy photograph in a magazine—that hated thing, a ‘pin-up’.

‘Well, the best thing is for you to let me use your phone as soon as we get inside. I’ll call the garage and—’

‘I think not.’ Cold, controlled rage turned his voice into a blade of ice slashing through her words.

Forget Pete, and keeping her here until his brother could come and plead with her to take him back! She wasn’t worth it. She’d take the poor kid’s heart and use it as a toy until she was tired of it, and then she’d snap it in two and toss it aside without even bothering to look where it landed.

Women like this one were just predatory spiders, waiting for the next poor sucker of a fly who foolishly wandered into their carefully spun webs. Marnie had been a mistress of the art as well. But Marnie was out of his life now, thank God. Out of his life and flaunting her brand-new wedding ring and the rich husband to go with it.

But he could use his own experience to teach this lady a much needed lesson. He’d play along with her for now, let her think she had him hooked, and then, just as she enjoyed her triumph, he’d show her that she couldn’t play fast and loose with people’s feelings.

‘You’re not going to get away that easily.’

“‘Get away”?’ For the first time it seemed that her confidence had slipped. A seam of anxiety ran through her repetition of his words.

He’d better take things more carefully. It would do no good at all to frighten her off right at the start. Far better to lull her into a false sense of security at first, and only reveal his hand when she had no hope of escape.

So he turned a wide smile in her direction and concentrated on making his tone light and friendly.

‘See sense, sweetheart! If the garage tow-truck would have found it difficult to reach you earlier, it will be damn near impossible now. They’d need a snow-plough to get through this. We’re grounded—stuck together for the duration—so we’ll have to make the best of it.’

CHAPTER THREE

‘WE’RE here.’

Leah registered Sean’s comment, and the fact that the car had slowed, only vaguely. She was grateful for the fact that the nightmare of a journey was over, but only now was it beginning to dawn on her that the tension that had gripped her had more to do with the man beside her than the more obvious danger of the blizzard raging outside.

Her nerves felt stretched tight, as if some cruel hand had gripped them and twisted them hard. Was she imagining things, or had Sean’s words been laced with a dark element of threat?

Certainly his declaration that ‘You’re not going to get away that easily’ had sounded ominous. But when she’d queried it he had dismissed her concern with an easy answer and an even easier smile. Though that smile had failed to convince, she admitted, drawing in a sharp, uncomfortable breath.

‘You don’t look very impressed.’

The lightness of his tone made a nonsense of her feelings.

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ With an effort she forced herself to focus on the house before her, or at least on the little she could see through the thickly whirling snow. ‘It’s just it’s not exactly what I was expecting.’

That much was true at least. Small and square, with its grey stone blending in with the wintry surroundings to give it an almost ethereal quality, the cottage was far more basic, more workmanlike than she had anticipated.

‘It’s not very Sean Gallagher, is it?’ her nervousness pushed her to ask.

Immediately all the light vanished from his face, his smile fading and his lips compressing to a cold, thin slash in his face.

‘You shouldn’t equate the publicity I get with the reality,’ he declared, each word cold and clipped, and in a sudden rush of inspiration she suddenly realised just what was wrong.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you were like the part you play.’

A dismissive shrug lifted the powerful shoulders under the fine wool of his jacket.

‘It’s a common mistake. People see me in a role every week and they tend to assume that role is me.’

And he didn’t like that assumption one little bit. It was stamped into every line on his face. Which was why he had seemed so prickly, so downright hostile at moments during their journey.

She had made it plain that she had recognised him from the first; she had been in no state to hide anything from him. And, being used to people reacting to his screen persona rather than the real one, he had written her off as one of his lovesick fans who would do anything for a single glance from their idol’s brilliant blue eyes.

But while her blood seemed to curdle in her veins at the thought of being so carelessly pigeonholed, a part of Leah’s mind recognised that this fact could actually be her salvation. If Sean saw her simply as an empty-headed worshipper, he would assume that her actions earlier had been the result of excitement at coming face to face with him so unexpectedly.

So, while she couldn’t explain, even to herself, just what had possessed her to kiss him, perhaps it was better that way. She couldn’t face the prospect of him probing deeper into matters that had already severely rocked her sense of mental balance.

‘Well, are we going to make a move, or do you intend to sit here all night until we end up deep-frozen? Here’s the key…’

He tossed it at her as she gathered up her handbag, already pushing his own door open.

‘Leave the door open. I’ll be right behind you when I’ve got your case.’

The freezing blast of icy air in her face was enough to put wings on Leah’s feet. Slipping and sliding, she dashed for the cottage porch, grateful for even the minimal shelter it provided.

Ramming the key into the lock, she turned it with frantic haste, pushing open the door and stumbling into the stone-flagged hallway with a sigh of relief.

True to his word, Sean was close behind her. Dumping her case on the floor, he slammed the door shut behind him as soon as he was over the threshold.

Like Leah, he had already acquired a fine coating of snow on his head and shoulders, the white flakes brilliant and delicate against the darkness. They even, with hearts-topping effect, clung to the thick black lashes that framed his stunning sapphire eyes.

‘The kitchen’s through there…’

He waved a hand towards the end of the hall as he stamped his feet to clear the snow from his shoes, shaking himself like some large, powerful animal, spattering her with the cold drops of moisture that spun from his hair.

‘The stove will still be banked down, so it should be warm, and you’ll need…’

The words trailed off into silence as his eyes met her widened gaze, caught and held.

Why couldn’t she move? Leah berated herself. She must look so foolish—and so disgustingly vulnerable—staring at him like this. Why couldn’t she just pull off her coat and head in the direction he had indicated?

But it seemed as if her feet were rooted to the spot. She felt as if every cell in her body, every nerve-ending, was sharply attuned to some elemental magnetism that emanated from the man at her side. Any awareness of the rest of her surroundings seemed to have blurred and faded from her sight, so that there was only him and that potent tug of need which had formed in the deepest, most primitive part of her being.