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‘But how do you know what time I have to be there?’ Kate was struggling not to give in to Tiarnan’s effortless domination.
His mouth quirked and her belly flipped.
‘Because I know everything, Kate. Stop worrying. I’m not going to jump on you like some callow youth. You’re quite safe.’
Just then the massive front door opened, and Kate saw a small dark-haired figure appear. Genuine emotion rushed through her. Tiarnan was forgotten for a moment.
‘Rosie!’
Kate started forward instinctively, but then faltered. Rosie wasn’t running to greet her as Kate remembered she’d used to do. She was standing there looking very serious. In an instant Kate curbed her instinct to go and hug Rosie, sensing that the child had changed since she’d seen her last. And it had been a while. Rosie hadn’t come to Molly’s christening. Instead, when Kate reached her she just smiled and bent to kiss her formally. She pulled back and looked into dark, wary eyes, wondering what had made her so cautious.
‘Rosie, you’re all grown up since I last saw you. You’re becoming quite the young lady.’
Kate couldn’t help tucking a strand of long dark hair behind her ear. Rosie’s cheeks flushed pink as she seemed to fight something, and then she mumbled an incoherent reply before turning and running back inside—presumably to her room.
Kate sensed Tiarnan behind her, sensed his impatience. ‘I’m sorry about that. Rosie is going through a difficult patch. She spent time with her mother recently, which never ends well.’
Kate’s heart went out to the child. She could remember her own trials and tribulations, how her mother hadn’t wanted anything to do with the fact that her daughter was growing and developing into a young woman. She could remember the turmoil she’d felt. Maybe Rosie was going through the same thing? From what Kate could remember, Stella Rios, Rosie’s mother, had never been warm.
She looked at Tiarnan. ‘It’s fine. You don’t have to apologise.’
A buxom housekeeper bustled into the hall, and Kate tried to keep track of the rapid Spanish as Tiarnan introduced them. The woman’s name was Esmerelda, and Kate greeted her warmly in Spanish. She could sense Tiarnan looking at her and turned.
‘I forgot that you speak Spanish.’
Kate shrugged and coloured slightly. ‘Enough to get by.’
She had spent a lot of time working in Spain some years previously, and had kept up Spanish classes when she’d returned to the US.
He regarded her for another long moment, and then gestured with an arm for her to precede him. ‘We have some time before lunch is served—let me show you around.’
Kate duly followed Tiarnan through the house, her awe mounting as he revealed a sumptuously formal reception area that led into a dining room which could seat up to twenty people. But just when she was starting to feel too intimidated he drew them away, towards the other side of the house and a much more relaxed area: a comfortable sitting room, complete with overstuffed couches and shelves heaving with books, a widescreen TV, videos and DVDs on the shelves alongside it.
Something in Kate’s chest clenched. This was truly a home. Warm and inviting, with colourful rugs on the exposed stone floor.
At the back of the house Tiarnan revealed an idyllic garden with sunlight glinting off an aquamarine pool set among the bushes. A slice of paradise right in the middle of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.
‘You have a beautiful home, Tiarnan.’
Kate said the words but they felt ineffectual, stilted. How many women had stood here and told him that?
Tiarnan was looking around them. ‘Yes,’ he said, almost absently.
Kate shot him a look but he was already moving, walking back towards the house. With a last lingering look at the stunning peaceful garden, Kate followed.
Tiarnan heard Kate’s soft footfall behind him. Something forceful and inarticulate was rising in his chest. He’d stood outside and showed her his idyllic paradise, and yet for the first time since he’d bought it he was aware of something inherently empty about it. The image of Rosie appearing at the front door came into his mind’s eye. There had been something so lonely about that image too…
He didn’t know what it was that was suddenly making him so introspective. He had Kate here. He had no grand plan where she was concerned, apart from getting her into his bed. When it came to women he found it easy to detach. But right now he was feeling anything but detached. He assured himself that it was just because he knew Kate already—they had a connection. And that was why she was here. He was going to use whatever means necessary to show her that he wanted her, to get her to admit to her own desire…
Lunch was in a smaller, less formal dining room just off the huge kitchen. Esmerelda was bustling back and forth with delicious food and warm smiles, but that didn’t help dissipate the slight tension in the atmosphere. Despite the fact that Tiarnan was being utterly charming and mesmeric in a way that made Kate feel extremely flustered.
Being the focus of his attention, albeit with Rosie there too, was nothing short of overwhelming. The coiled energy in his taut muscular body connected with hers and she felt jumpy. It was a monumental struggle just to try and keep up with the easy enough conversation.
Rosie was largely silent and monosyllabic when Kate tried to talk to her. Kate had realised that the faint underlying tension was between father and daughter, and she guessed it went deeper than Tiarnan had let on. Rosie was picking at her food, and when she asked in a small, ever so polite voice if she could leave the table, Tiarnan said tightly, ‘You’ve barely said two words to Kate.’
Kate directed a quick smile at Rosie and said, ‘I don’t mind. She can go if she wants. I remember how boring it can be, listening to adults.’
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