After that kiss this morning nothing. Why he’d even given into temptation was still eating away at him. It was something his fool father would have done. Gone after a magic moment and to hell with the consequences. And Dare knew Carly hadn’t told his grandfather about it because the old man hadn’t tried to take him out.
In some way he wished he had because the thought that he’d come on to his own grandfather’s mistress made his stomach turn. Especially when he didn’t even like her. In fact the only reason he’d even touched her was because she’d damned well goaded him into it.
Yeah, just like Jake Ryan forced you to steal a car when you were fifteen to take a joy-ride that could have ended a lot worse than a lecture from the local sheriff.
Dare sighed. Bottom line he’d wanted to kiss her and so what if it had driven him almost to the point of no return? His emotions were all over the place right now. Unusual, yes, but not unmanageable and certainly not worth thinking about. In a matter of hours she’d be history—at least for him—and he’d consign any memory of her to the bin. Where it belonged.
Hearing voices on the terrace below, he glanced over the wrought-iron railing. His mother was holding a bunch of flowers his grandfather had just given her.
Nice touch, he complimented cynically. His mother loved flowers.
Another voice joined theirs and Carly stepped into his view looking fresh and dazzling in white trousers and a striped T-shirt.
Scowling, he stepped back inside, changed into fresh jeans, a T-shirt and boots. It wasn’t exactly garden-party attire, but then he hadn’t brought garden-party clothing in the duffle that fitted beneath the seat of his bike. Nor was he in a garden-party frame of mind. And he certainly wasn’t here to impress anyone.
He cast his helmet a pained glance. Two hours and he’d be on the open roads again.
* * *
‘Walk to the village?’ Carly repeated, not sure she’d heard right.
She had been counting the seconds until this torturous lunch would be over and now the Baron wanted her to extend it. And extend it with Dare of all people!
Oh, she knew why he had asked. He wanted some private time with Rachel without his odious grandson breathing down his neck and she couldn’t say she blamed him. Sure, Dare hadn’t been as hostile as he had been the previous evening, but he hadn’t exactly been nice either. But take him on a walk to the village? That was definitely going above and beyond the call of duty. She was here to take care of Benson’s physical health, not his emotional health.
‘He’ll be bored.’
‘I’m game.’
Both she and Dare spoke at the same time and the older two at the table chuckled at them.
Carly’s eyes cut to Dare’s irritating blue ones, even more vibrant in the matching knit shirt.
He couldn’t be serious. Why would he say that when it was clear to anyone watching that he wanted to monitor what went on between his mother and grandfather?
‘It’s quite a walk,’ Carly muttered, hoping her intentions to put him off weren’t too obvious.
She had liked Rachel on sight, finding Dare’s attractive mother warm and down to earth, her tiny stature belying a woman with a core of steel. She also had a core of gentleness and evidently had a very close relationship with her son.
At first, Carly had wondered if Dare’s posturing about protecting his mother hadn’t come from some self-interested space, but she knew immediately she was wrong when she saw them together. These two people had a connection that reminded her of the love she shared with her own parents, and she’d felt a pang of homesickness as she’d taken her seat at the alfresco dining table.
‘I’m young.’ Dare smiled at her with only the slightest trace of mockery in his eyes. ‘And fit. I’m sure I can make it.’
He had been polite to her all lunch and quite a few times Carly had longed to lash out at him and show his mother just how rude her son could be when she wasn’t around to see it.
Especially when Gregory had scurried up to Dare and jumped up at him until Dare had reached down and placed the little mutt on his lap. As far as she was concerned the only reason the two of them got on so well was because they recognised each other as twin spirits of evil.