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The thought made him sick. He wasn’t here for that. And he certainly wasn’t here to compete with the old man. Let him make a fool of himself over a woman if that was his wont. Dare never had before and he never would.
Especially not over a woman like this. One with such a low moral compass. Which was probably why it bothered him so much that he found her so attractive. He just didn’t understand it. He’d been exposed to a limitless amount of beautiful women since he’d reached puberty and even more since he’d made it rich. Women more beautiful than Carly Evans, and yet all evening he’d struggled to take his eyes off her.
Bottom line, he despised her for what she was and he despised himself for wanting her regardless.
‘Goodnight, Mr James.’
‘It’s Dare,’ he reminded her, holding out his hand even though he knew it would be a mistake to touch her again. He couldn’t help himself it seemed, his legendary self-control a distant memory in her presence.
She hesitated, glancing at his hand, and he nearly smiled for real when good manners—of which, yes, his had been in short supply that evening—determined that she must.
Immediately he raised it to his lips. ‘Sleep well.’ Or not, his eyes said.
Hers widened as if she read him loud and clear before giving him a dismissive little smile.
‘I’ll see you later,’ she murmured to Benson. ‘Don’t be too long.’
Eager little thing, Dare thought, his fist clenched beneath the tablecloth.
He watched her leave the room, the chandelier above the table lovingly catching the highlights in her hair, before he turned his gaze on the old man.
Benson raised a brow in question and Dare saw just how tired he looked. Whatever news he had just received on the phone it hadn’t been good. Not that he felt sorry for the old fool. He’d made his bed years ago and he could lie in it.
‘I’m glad you came a day earlier,’ Benson said, and Dare was quite sure he wasn’t glad at all. ‘It has given us a chance to air some grievances.’
Dare hadn’t even scratched the surface. ‘I won’t have my mother hurt.’
‘I get that. And I want you to know it’s not my intention to hurt her again.’
Dare didn’t say anything, just waited for him to continue.
When his grandfather sighed heavily Dare almost felt sorry for him. Almost. ‘Your mother is coming for lunch tomorrow. I take it that you’re staying.’
‘Will the lovely redhead be there?’
His grandfather frowned at his disparaging reference to his mistress. ‘Carly is a very nice young woman, Dare, she—’
‘Spare me your platitudes. I’m sure she’s wonderful.’
‘She is. And...yes, she’ll be at lunch tomorrow. Is that a problem?’
‘Not for me.’
Benson nodded. ‘Then I hope you will also accept my hospitality and stay the night.’
‘I hadn’t planned to.’ What he’d planned was to find a hotel room and get some distance from the claustrophobic element of this enormous place, check the Dow Jones, catch up on work, but... His eyes drifted unconsciously to the door Carly Evans had just disappeared through. Practically it made more sense to be on site.
‘I’ll stay,’ he said gruffly.
‘Good.’ Benson stood up. ‘Then, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, and, Dare...’ the old man stopped beside his chair ‘... I understand your concerns. I made grievous mistakes thirty-three years ago. Mistakes I want to rectify.’
‘Why now?’
‘I have my reasons, reasons I’ll share with you when we have more time. For now just know that I’m not going to let my foolish pride stand in the way again.’
‘Just remember that I’ll be watching you every step of the way,’ Dare said softly. ‘And if you do anything to my mother to upset her, I’ll ruin you.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘YOU KNEW HE’D think that?’ Carly paused in the act of placing her stethoscope’s bell over the brachial artery in Benson’s upper arm.
The Baron had the grace to look contrite. ‘Not until I saw the way he was looking at you after my phone call, and then...it was sort of flattering.’
‘Flattering?’ Carly inflated the cuff. ‘Flattering that your grandson thinks I’m your mistress?’
One thirty over eighty. Better.
She tore off the Velcro cuff more forcefully than she intended. ‘Only a man would think that,’ she griped. ‘But he thinks I’m a gold-digger as well.’
‘He’s a virile male, Carly, and you’re a beautiful young woman. His masculinity was dented, that’s all.’
‘Dented?’
‘That you would choose an old codger like me over a young buck like him.’
Carly sighed. ‘And men think women are hard to understand. I don’t even know him!’
‘Doesn’t matter.’ He grimaced. ‘How’s the blood pressure?’
‘Still too high. You know, you don’t need this extra stress right now.’
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