“Thank you, Willa Mae. I appreciate your concern.” His deep voice broke into her thoughts. “So, what are your plans for the evening?”
She returned her eyes to his face. “I have none, actually. I’ve been given two weeks’ vacation. Jill thinks I have no life.” She smiled wryly at the admission.
“And is she right?” He quirked a brow at her and waited for an answer.
“I’m…I’m not as high maintenance as other people,” she hemmed.
“Ah! That sounds like code for ‘yes’.” He laughed when she glared at him. “So, since you’re officially on vacation, where will you spend it?”
Willa Mae sighed deeply before admitting, “I have no idea. Maybe I should go and visit my grandmother. I haven’t seen her in a year.”
“This is the lady who lives in Florida?” he asked.
“Yes. She lives in Orlando. I’ll bet she would be thrilled if I went and spent a couple of weeks with her.” The more she thought of it, the more she liked the idea.
“Is Orlando where the famous Disneyland is?” he wondered. “And will your grandmother be able to accommodate you in her assisted living facility?”
“Disneyland is in California. Disney World is in Florida,” she corrected him. “And no, I’ll still have to go to a hotel, but I can spend time with her every day, or as often as she’ll let me.” She chuckled. “She’s pretty busy most days with her senior activities, and if she knows I’m on holiday she won’t let me spend all my time with her. She’s a very independent lady.”
Something sparked in Niall’s eyes, but he lowered them before Willa Mae could try to interpret their intent. Still, she felt a frisson of awareness shiver down her spine.
“I’m inviting you to dinner this evening, then, to kick off your vacation.”
“Oh, that’s very kind of you but you don’t have to…”
Niall interrupted her. “I do many things I don’t have to do,” he informed her haughtily. “Sharing a meal with people I like is one of them. And I’d like to spend an evening with you that isn’t about business. So, will you have dinner with me?”
Chapter Seven: Baby Steps
Niall waited somewhat impatiently for Willa Mae’s response to his invitation. He could see no reason for her to refuse his invitation. It would be nice to coddle her for a change outside of her job and its responsibilities. The last two meals they had shared had been business-related. He had had to feed her. This time, he was doing it because he wanted her company. He wanted to be with Willa Mae the woman, not Willa Mae the property developer. He wanted to keep working on her seduction. He especially wanted to kiss her again, not as a punishment for goading him, but because he wanted to taste her, to drown himself for a while in her essence.
The past month had been particularly difficult. Aside from his family’s continued efforts to block his plans, which resulted in arguments that had finally driven him across the pond to New York in search of peace, he had yearned to see Willa Mae again. It shocked him how much he missed her, after only two days in her presence. Now he had a chance to be with her alone without the excuse of her job between them. He would push this advantage as far as he could. He had no pressing need to return to Scotland before her vacation was over unless someone died, and he knew that the village board would not meet without him present.
Feeling a little guilty for using her to irritate his family further — because they would be furious that his stay in the States would last longer than the weekend — he waited for her to answer him. He would figure out a way to spend more than this one evening with her. One step at a time, he admonished himself. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“Very well,” she said coolly. “Where shall I meet you?”
He eyed her askance. “What sort of man would I be if I allowed you to find your way to our dinner date venue?” he asked, scandalized. “Am I so hard to be around that you would shorten the time spent with me?” He paused, watching as her eyes darkened, and couldn’t stop himself from adding, “Or is it that you’re afraid you’ll succumb to my charms if you spend too much time with me?”
“You wish!” she sputtered.
“I do,” he admitted at once, and saw the surprise spark in her eyes at his frankness. “I wish to enjoy every second of the time we spend together. I wish to…how do you all say it here? Show you a good time.”
“You mean you wish to seduce me!” she returned sharply, disdain creeping into her voice.
“I do,” he said again. “Is that so bad?”
“Don’t you have other more attractive and famous women to pursue?” she asked defensively.
“I don’t have anyone, lass,” he said. “I am without a consort.”
“So I’m just a standby, until a suitable companion shows up?”
Her tone was offended, and Niall was torn between amusement at her affront and annoyance at her stubbornness.
“Have I said or done anything to give you that impression, Willa Mae?”
She looked away and he reached across the table and caught her chin between his fingers, forcing her to look at him again.
“Why do you resist me? What are you so afraid of that you prefer to insult me than to have dinner with me?”
He could see she wasn’t going to answer his questions. The determination to remain aloof was there in her cool stare. He wanted to leap across the table and kiss her into submission. But that would have to wait until they were alone together. For now, he was willing to bait her.
“Perhaps you think to make yourself more alluring by pretending to be disinterested.”
He knew that she would never play those kinds of games with him. He recognized her innate integrity. But he needed her riled up so that the truth would come out. And that could only happen if he insinuated that she was what she had called him…a player.
“How dare you!” she grated through clenched teeth, ripping her chin away from him. “I don’t have to take your insults, your lordship.”
She stood up and walked to the front where the cash register was located. He watched her, rising slowly himself and leaving a wad of money on the table. He assumed her company would pay for lunch. By the time she was done arranging for payment, he was waiting for her on the sidewalk outside. She bumped into him on her way out — he had made sure to stand where she couldn’t avoid him — and he heard her gasp with a bated breath of triumph.
“Excuse me!” she said and tried to step around him. “I hope you enjoy the rest of…”
He grabbed her by her upper arms and pulled her into his chest, and the horrified look on her face was all that saved her from another punishing kiss. He would never humiliate her by kissing her in public if that was not her wish. He found himself curiously unwilling to hurt her, and could find no explanation for the sentiment.
“I’ll come and get you for dinner at seven,” he told her. “Wear something pretty.”
Releasing her, he walked beside her as she tried to hurry away from him. “How are you getting home?” he asked.
“I take the train most days,” she answered. “You don’t have to escort me. I know my way home.”
Niall laughed. “That you do, my dear. I’ll see you later.”
She gave him a look that clearly said “Over my dead body” and hurried away. Niall watched her go, her hips moving rhythmically in time to her fast pace. He smiled as he hailed a cab back to his hotel. He wouldn’t give her the chance to run away and hide from him. He had told her seven, but he’d show up at her apartment earlier, in case she thought to disappear on him. He already knew where she lived, as he had gotten that information before lunch from Clare, the wily older woman who ran the office like a stern sea captain. And Clare had made sure to clear it with her boss before complying with his request.
His plan was to have her in his suite for dinner, to show her that he could be trusted not to maul her simply because they were alone together. He had to build her trust so that the next time she was alone in his room with him she would wil
lingly go to bed with him. He ordered a bouquet of flowers to be delivered in an hour, dinner for eight thirty, and drinks to be delivered when he returned from picking her up. He spent a couple of hours dealing with work, reading and responding to emails, and then he showered and changed, and went to get her. It was just gone six when he drove into her townhouse complex and parked in the empty spot in front of her unit. He had his first qualm…what if she weren’t home? What if she had slipped the net and gotten away from him?
Squelching the negative thought, he walked up to her front door and rang the bell. For a long moment there was no sound. He rang again, crossing his fingers, and sighed in relief when he heard footsteps. He waited impatiently, the bouquet in his hand, and smiled when the door opened. The shock on her face was reward enough. She looked rumpled, as though he had woken her up.
“What…what are you doing here? You said seven.” She stifled a yawn.
“And I wanted to make sure you did not run away,” he returned. “May I come in?”
She stepped away from the door, and Niall noticed for the first time that she was barefooted, and wore only a thin slip dress that stopped well above her knees. She caught him looking and he shuddered at the momentary desire that bloomed in her eyes in response. She wanted more as much as he did.
“These are for you.” He handed her the bouquet.
“Thank you. They’re beautiful!” she looked around in a dazed way, and then added, “The living room is through there. Have a seat, and I’ll be right with you.”
He followed her pointing finger and found himself in a cozy room with a sectional leather couch, a small fish tank in which an array of colorful fish swam lazily, a glass coffee table, and a tall stand with a lamp on it. The room was made to feel larger with the addition of a rather impressive gold-framed mirror on the wall next to the one on which the flat screen television was attached. There were a few pictures hanging on the walls, and he walked over to examine them, eager for more knowledge of who she was.
“Would you like something to drink?” she offered, as he was studying a picture of her as a younger woman with a couple he assumed as her parents.
“Thank you. A beer would be fine if you have it.”
When she returned with the beer and a glass, she put them on the coffee table and turned away.
“You’ll have to entertain yourself while I get ready,” she said huffily. “I can’t imagine why you think I’d do something as childish as run away to avoid you.”
She turned away as she spoke, but Niall stalked over and grabbed her hand to stop her. She looked up at him, no doubt as aware of the electricity sparked by his touch as he was.
“You have given me little reason since we first met to think you would not do everything in your power to avoid the attraction between us. I would not call that childish, Willa Mae.”
He pulled her to him, putting a hand at the small of her back just above the swell of her bottom. She was warm, the muscles there tight with tension.
“Relax. I will not ravish you before I have fed you,” he teased, and was rewarded by a reluctant chuckle.
Okay. I’ll hold you to that,” she said. “Now if you’ll let me go, I can go and get ready.”
“First, this,” he said, and kissed her lips. It was a soft caress, without heat and tinged with affection. “I have been needing to taste you for a whole month, and after your lapse in memory earlier today, you’re getting off lightly as it is.”
She looked up, puzzled, a warmth in her eyes that told him the kiss had achieved its goal. “Lapse in memory?”
“Unless,” he quipped, “despite your protestations, you were deliberately goading me with my title earlier, I’ll consider it a lapse in memory.” He eyed her speculatively. “Which was it?”
She pulled away from him, and he let her go. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she demurred. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Take your time. We don’t have to leave until seven.”
She rushed up the stairs, and he listened to the sounds of her movements above his head. The town house was in a quiet neighborhood in a suburb of the city, close enough that she could drive if she wished, but far enough away that taking the train might be easier. He wondered, as he heard the shower go on, if she took the train to work every day. He knew from experience that train rides could be exhausting.
Needing to distract himself from the sounds of Willa Mae getting ready, because that way led to madness, he studied the photographs she had scattered around, sipping his beer as he did so. He wondered what had happened to her parents, and whether the young man in the pictures was a brother or significant other. They didn’t look like each other, but their arms were wrapped around each other in the familiar way of people who cared about each other. A spike of jealousy hit him and he swallowed more beer to soothe the ache.
He couldn’t afford to let Willa Mae take up residence in his heart. He wasn’t looking for a committed relationship with anyone. His life was too busy, and he had no interest in settling down. Besides, Willa Mae was not someone his family would ever accept, and he was weary of always fighting them for everything he wanted to enjoy. His whole relationship with his family had been one long rebellion, one conflict after another, an endless loop of him going his own way without their support. He had always done as he pleased, because he was never going to be the man his father was, always giving in for love. That was weakness, not love. Compromise should be a two-way street.
No, he would enjoy Willa Mae and when the project was over, he would let her go. He knew his being with her would irk his family, and it gave him a secret joy to push their buttons, even though he knew he would never expose her to their disdain. He wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone. That was the only reason he would protect her from their venom. It had nothing to do with any feeling he might be developing for her personally. He just wouldn’t wish his family on anyone. Going back to sit and wait for her to come back down, he swallowed the lie with more beer.
“I’m ready now.”
Her voice startled him. He had been so lost in thought that he had missed hearing her footsteps on the stairs. He stood up and turned to look at her, and fisted his hands at his side to stop himself from reaching for her. She looked beautiful in a floaty blue dress whose hem stopped well above the knee. It had an overskirt that was a few inches shorter, and the material made the skirt have a flyaway, swirly look. The yellow polka dots on it added a touch of whimsy, as did the flyaway sleeves, and the pretty yellow hoop earrings and yellow bracelets made the polka dots pop. It was a fun, sexy dress, and the sight of her toned legs stretching down to her feet in a lace-up wedge-heeled sandal made his body tighten. He wanted to strip her of the admittedly enticing clothing so he could have his way with her.
Blinking to refocus his mind, he smiled and said simply, “You’re very beautiful, lass.”
“Thank you.” Her answer was shy, her eyes a little doubtful.
“Shall we go?”
She took the beer bottle and glass out to the kitchen and returned a moment later, leading the way to her front door. He let her through and waited until she had locked it before escorting her down to his car. Settling her into the front seat, he walked around the hood, willing his body to calm down.
“Comfy?” he asked, snapping his seatbelt on and starting the engine.
“Yes, thank you,” she said. “Where are we going for dinner?”
“Back into the city,” he replied noncommittally. He didn’t want her to start another argument with him just now. He wanted to bask in the scent and sight of her a while longer before they got back to sparring. Changing the subject, he asked, “Do you really take the train from home every day? It took me half an hour to get to you from my hotel. I imagine it would take longer from your office.”
“I drive to the train station and park the car. There’s a monthly fee, but it saves me wear and tear on the car, and higher parking fees in the city.”
He lik
ed her practicality, her independence, and the fact that she was willing to work hard for what she wanted. He wondered what her dreams were, what she hoped to achieve, what she wanted in a life partner. He wanted to know everything about her because, he told himself ruthlessly, she was fascinating. That was all.
“Is there anyone I should be worried about offending by asking you out to dinner?” She looked at him as though he had just sprouted horns, and he hastened to make an excuse for his curiosity. “I am still trying to determine the reason for your reluctance to accept my invitation earlier.”
“By insulting my character?” she snapped. “Do I seem like the sort of person who would go out socially with one man while in a relationship with another?”
She didn’t. He hadn’t thought through his question. He would never admit that he wanted her all to himself, neither to her nor to himself. He would need to mend fences before they got back to his hotel, or she would never go up with him to his room.
Scottish Swag Page 8
