Tycoon's Choice: Kept by the Tycoon / Taken by the Tycoon / The Tycoon's Proposal

Just briefly, Madeleine debated making a run for it, but common sense told her she would be wasting her time. He would catch her before she even reached the flat, and if she did manage to get there first she wouldn’t be able to lock him out.

Turning to look at her, he queried, ‘So what’s it to be?’

‘I’ve already told you I don’t want a drink.’

Ignoring her churlishness, he filled a glass with a pale Amontillado and offered it to her, his green eyes daring her to refuse.

Weakly, she took it.

Pouring himself a whisky, he sat down opposite and regarded her. He looked eminently satisfied, she decided resentfully, Wellaware that he was the master of the situation. Wellaware that she knew it.

From being a life-saver, she thought bleakly, this offer of a job had turned into a nightmare. Sipping the unwanted sherry, she stared into the flames, trying to sort out the confusion in her mind. Surely being offered a post in Rafe’s house was too much of a coincidence?

Yet it couldn’t have been planned…Or could it?

But if it had been planned, why? What could Rafe possibly hope to gain?

The answer was, he had nothing to gain and everything to lose if Fiona found out.

But still the suspicion was there, and Madeleine wondered, had Rafe, for whatever reason, put his godmother up to it? Had George Rampling really any need for a physiotherapist, or had the whole thing been an elaborate hoax?

Though how could they possibly have known she was coming back to England? It had been such a last-minute decision that no one other than Eve and Noel had known.

Except Katie.

She had emailed the child late on Saturday night, so it would have been the following morning before she read it, and later on that same day Mrs Rampling had contacted Grizedale Clinic…

But how had she known to do that? How could she have known…?

‘Penny for your thoughts.’ Rafe’s voice sounded amused, a little mocking.

Madeleine looked up slowly and met those gleaming eyes. ‘Does Mr Rampling really need physiotherapy, or was the whole thing just a pack of lies?’

‘No, everything that Harriet told you was true. She’s been on the lookout for a live-in physiotherapist for weeks now.’

‘So are you saying that my being here is nothing but a coincidence?’

Rafe raised an eyebrow mockingly. ‘Would you believe that?’

‘No,’ she replied sternly.

He smiled briefly. ‘I wouldn’t have expected you to. As a matter of fact it was carefully planned.’

Fear sidled up to her and took her hand. With a sickening feeling that she’d walked into some kind of a trap, she felt her mouth go dry and the blood in her veins turn to ice.

Putting the sherry glass on the table with shaking fingers, she crossed her arms and rubbed her palms up and down her bare arms as though she was cold.

The last time they had met, he’d said, ‘One day we’ll meet again…’ That was all. He hadn’t said what he would do when they did meet, but there had been an underlying threat in the quietly spoken words, a hint of menace, that even now made her shiver at the memory.

Making an effort to fight off the panic, she told herself stoutly that she was just being silly. What could he possibly do to her?

But there was a hardness about him, a barely leashed anger, that made her afraid.

Unsteadily, she demanded, ‘How did you know I was coming home?’

‘How do you think?’

‘Katie?’

‘Got it in one. Knowing I was—shall we say?—interested, Diane has been keeping me up-to-date on what was happening in Boston. When she got your email, Katie was so excited she couldn’t wait to tell her mother.’ The ice clinked in his whisky glass as he took a sip.

‘That still doesn’t explain how you found out enough to be able to trick me into coming here. How you knew I was looking for a live-in post. Only Eve…’ She stopped speaking abruptly.

Remembering their last conversation, her friend’s strange volte-face, her obvious uneasiness, the way she had admitted to having second thoughts, Madeleine asked sharply, ‘When did you talk to Eve?’

‘When Diane told me you were coming home I wanted to know exactly what your plans were, and I felt sure Eve would know. I finally managed to contact her at the clinic, and after some initial resistance on her part we had quite a long talk. She told me what she was trying to do for you, and I mentioned I might be able to help.

‘All I had to do was suggest to Harriet that she rang the clinic’s physiotherapy department and talked to a Miss Collins—which she was only too pleased to do.’

So as well as using his godmother, he had used Eve…But what had he said to her to get her to talk to him? And why hadn’t Eve told her?

As if she’d spoken the thought aloud, he said, ‘In the end it was easier than I’d anticipated. I didn’t even need to ask Eve not to say anything. It was she who suggested that it would be better if you didn’t know I was involved until we’d had a chance to talk. I think she was afraid you might change your mind about coming back…’

There was a tap at the door, and the housekeeper put her head round to say, ‘Dinner’s all ready when you are.’

‘Thank you, Mary, we’ll serve ourselves. You can leave anything else that needs to be done until Annie gets here.’

‘Thanks…I’ll say goodnight, then.’

‘Goodnight.’

As the latch clicked, realising belatedly that she should have used the opportunity to escape, Madeleine jumped to her feet and started for the door, crying, ‘Mrs Boyce—’

An arm snaked round her waist and a cool hand covered her mouth.

Pulling her back against him, Rafe put his lips to the side of her neck and murmured softly, ‘That’s not on, my sweet. I don’t want Mary involved.’

Trembling, shaken to the core by the caress that was no caress, she stood quite still.

As soon as he released her, she rounded on him. ‘And I don’t want to be kept here against my will.’

Then, helplessly, ‘I can’t understand what you’re hoping to gain, why you went to so much trouble to get me here.’

He took a stray tendril of blonde hair that had escaped and tugged it gently, making her flinch away. ‘It was no trouble. In fact the whole thing worked incredibly smoothly.’

She gritted her teeth. ‘Why—?’

‘We’ll talk about it after dinner.’