Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

‘What the hell…!’ Liam burst back into the room, frowning darkly as he reached her side.

‘Mind the glass!’ she warned, too late, as he began to swear after stepping on a piece of the glass with his bare feet.

‘Never mind that,’ he dismissed, brushing the glass, which hadn’t penetrated the skin, off his foot. ‘What happened?’ He came down on his haunches beside her.

She swallowed hard, pushing back the heavy swath of her hair. ‘I’m not sure. One minute I was standing up, the next I had—well, I fell over,’ she finished lamely, wishing once again that she had more clothes on than her brief underwear; she had never worn so little in a man’s company before. And Liam Carlyle of all people!

His eyes narrowed to steely slits as his gaze ran over the slender length of her body. ‘Are you sure you aren’t pregnant?’ he finally bit out.

Juliet drew in a sharp breath, her cheeks flushed, her mouth a thin, angry line. ‘I told you, no!’ she snapped forcefully, meeting his gaze challengingly.

Liam met that gaze for several seconds, then he shook his head. ‘Then what the hell is wrong with you?’ he rasped. ‘Because this isn’t a normal reaction to an excess of alcohol.’

‘I didn’t drink that much——’

‘I don’t really think that’s relevant any more, Juliet,’ he calmly interrupted her angry protest.

‘Then why do you keep mentioning it?’ Her eyes flashed, deeply grey.

‘I think you should see a doctor,’ he said thoughtfully, ignoring her outburst.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Juliet scorned, holding on to the bed as she got slowly to her feet. The world wasn’t spinning quite so much now. If she just took things slowly…

‘Get back into bed,’ Liam ordered as he straightened. ‘I’m going to call a friend of mine who’s a doctor.’

‘I don’t want to see a doctor,’ she insisted stubbornly—but she got back into the bed none the less, her legs starting to shake once again.

‘I don’t recall asking you what you wanted,’ Liam told her arrogantly. ‘You’re a guest in my home, you obviously aren’t well, so you’ll see a doctor.’

So there! God, he was the most bossy man! ‘I don’t have any say in this at all?’ she challenged.

‘None whatsoever,’ he confirmed flatly.

‘You don’t want a corpse on your hands!’ she said derisively.

He looked down at her coldly. ‘A corpse would be more difficult to deal with than a sick woman,’ he announced before once again leaving the bedroom.

Juliet’s mouth set mutinously as she sat up in the bed. She was convinced that whatever was wrong with her it was nothing serious. And she still intended leaving here—as soon as she could stand up long enough to get dressed!

‘Exhaustion!’ Liam said disgustedly, once again sitting on the side of Juliet’s bed, which was in the guest bedroom, she had discovered once the doctor had arrived.

Liam’s friend Tomás had been very friendly and nice but extremely thorough in his medical examination of her, finally announcing that she was obviously suffering from exhaustion, and that she didn’t eat regularly, or often enough, to sustain her busy life. The last point Juliet could really have done without, given Liam’s remarks already about her eating habits.

‘What the hell have you been doing to get exhausted?’ Liam demanded now, his gaze narrowed on her pale face. ‘I thought you had been on holiday for the last week,’ he added accusingly.

Juliet saw red at his attitude. What had she been doing? ‘I’ve been trying to run a company for the last two months with a partner who refuses to be co-operative!’ She glared up at him.

‘So it’s my fault, is it?’ he said scathingly.

‘Not completely,’ she accepted, knowing it hadn’t just been the last two months that had been so fraught with tension and hard work; that she had been working long and hard for Carlyle Properties for a long, long time. But it had filled her life, kept her busy, hadn’t allowed her time to think or brood on other things.

‘But your attitude certainly hasn’t helped.’ She wasn’t about to let him off that easily; the last two months of just trying to speak to him had been absolute hell. ‘And as for being on holiday this last week…’ she gave him a pitying look ‘…we both know that isn’t true.’

He stood up abruptly. ‘So you are saying that this is my fault because I’ve been difficult about Carlyle Properties?’ He walked over to the window, staring out down the valley to the clear blue sea.

Juliet looked at the rigidity of the broadness of his back. She could say that the strain of the last couple of months had nothing to do with the way she felt now, but it would be a lie; the last two months had been a nightmare as far as she personally was concerned.

‘I said it hasn’t helped,’ she said again quietly.

Liam turned abruptly to face her. ‘I need to think about this.’ He strode over to the door. ‘I’ll bring you some lunch in a short while.’

‘Er—could I have my suitcase from the car?’ Juliet asked almost timidly, sensing that Liam was very close to exploding—he wasn’t a man who liked to be made aware of his shortcomings. ‘I would like to get dressed in some clean clothes before I leave,’ she explained, at his frowning look.

His mouth thinned. ‘I’ll get your suitcase, Juliet, so that you can put a nightgown on or something, and be more comfortable in bed. But you aren’t leaving just yet,’ he added grimly.

Her eyes widened. ‘But—’

‘Nothing is going to change concerning Carlyle Properties in the next twenty-four hours or so. And Tomás said you needed to rest, and improve your diet,’ he rasped uncompromisingly. ‘And I told you, I need to think.’

And she could damn well do what she was told while he thought! Really, the man was impossible. But if at the end of that thinking he decided to be more helpful where the company was concerned maybe this one extra day would be worth the wait. Although she couldn’t give it any longer than that, as she needed to get back.

‘I don’t need to stay in bed.’

‘Tomás said you were to rest, and rest is what you will damn well do!’ Liam bit out challengingly.

Juliet had never met a man like this one before. He was certainly nothing like William, who had been very gentlemanly and caring, welcoming her opinion on things, treating her as his equal. Liam just treated her like a rather wearing complication in his life. Which she supposed she was.

‘Just the suitcase, then,’ she accepted—although if he thought she was staying here any longer than the stated twenty-four hours he was in for a disappointment; she simply didn’t have the time to waste lying around in bed doing nothing!

He nodded abruptly before leaving, but Juliet had no sooner sunk back on the pillows with a weary sigh than he was back again, with the suitcase, which he deposited just inside the bedroom, giving her a glaring look before leaving again.

And a good day to you too, Juliet thought ruefully as she got out of the bed to find some fresh clothes in her suitcase. She realised that she was a nuisance to him, that he didn’t want her here, but he was the one insisting that she had to stay!

Men! No…she slowly corrected herself. Just Liam Carlyle. He had been alternately challenging her and taunting her since the moment she had first met him—except for those few brief minutes when she had thought he wanted something else from her. But she didn’t want to think about them, didn’t want to admit that, for a very short time, she had been extremely aware of him as the attractive man he undoubtedly was. As he had seemed aware of her.

But that was no good; he was William’s son, and, more to the point, he was Simon’s brother…!

‘Now eat,’ Liam instructed tersely, having allowed her to get up and join him for lunch beside the pool when she had refused to have the meal on a tray in bed. ‘I don’t know what my father has been doing with you, but you look as if you would snap in half if any more pressure were put on you!’ he added disgustedly.

‘I told you—’ Juliet kept her own temper with effort ‘—William didn’t do anything with me.’

‘Just kept a fatherly eye on you, did he?’ Liam sneered. ‘Well, he did a damn awful job of it!’

She had been trying to eat some of the fruit, cheeses and fresh bread that Liam had provided for lunch, but it seemed that every time she even attempted to eat in this man’s company he started an argument. They were never going to agree over their opinion concerning William, and so to talk about the older man at all was futile.

‘Why are you selling your hotel complex over here?’ She attempted to change the subject.

Dark blond brows rose over cool blue eyes. ‘Who says I am?’