DESPITE THE OVERHANGING grey clouds and constant threat of humid rain they had a glorious day. They walked along the Thames, had lunch in a tiny French bistro, and came across that horrendous art exhibition Dare had attended with Lucy. He had nearly groaned when Carly wanted to take a look inside, having the good sense not to mention that he’d already been.
‘It looks like the artist really disliked his last girlfriend,’ she mused. ‘Or boyfriend.’
Dare laughed and asked her what she thought of the white column thing that still looked like a table to him.
After that they talked about everything from politics to Hollywood movies and which was better, Thor or Iron Man. She waxed lyrical over Chris Hemsworth; he might have mentioned Charlize Theron once or twice.
‘Charlize, huh?’
‘She’s a fine actress,’ he explained with a straight face. ‘She’s won awards.’
‘Yes, but I bet it’s not her awards you picture when you think of her,’ she teased.
No, he didn’t, but for some reason with Carly standing in front of him with shafts of sunlight striking her hair he couldn’t bring any other woman to mind.
‘You think?’ he said.
She laughed and Dare grabbed her and dragged her up onto her toes in the middle of a busy street, forked his hands in her hair and kissed her.
After that they headed to his apartment. Made love.
He couldn’t get enough of her and if he had enough brain cells left in his head he’d probably be worried about that.
‘How can you have black coffee when you have this wicked-looking machine that can probably grow the beans, collect them, and roast them at the same time?’ she asked.
She was wearing one of his T-shirts and he’d bet nothing underneath. He loved it when she did that.
‘I like top-shelf stuff,’ he said, thinking of her.
She perched on the edge of a stool. ‘Because you never had it growing up?’
They’d talked a bit about his childhood. Nothing too drastic, just where he’d gone to school, how he’d had to work hard to put himself through college, his first car—a 1990 Mazda RX-7 he’d been so proud of at the time. But things he’d never discussed with anyone before.
‘Yeah, I suppose so.’ He gave her a quick smile. ‘You might not believe this but I was a scrawny kid when I was younger, always coming from the bottom.’
‘Oh, I bet you liked that!’ She laughed.
He grinned. ‘I might have gotten my head punched in a few times when guys tried to push me around about it.’
‘What did your dad say? Did he step in and threaten to do the same to them?’
Dare’s grin slipped a notch. ‘My father wasn’t around much.’
‘Why not?’
‘He was a dreamer.’
‘A dreamer?’
Dare nearly laughed. Saying his father was a dreamer was putting it mildly. And part of him wanted to tell her everything. Tell her how he had looked up to his father, believing in him right up until his death, tell her how he had defended his father in the schoolyard, tell her how bitterly disappointed he was to find out that he was just a liar. But the words stuck like a block of cement in his throat.
And why sully the moment by rehashing the past? Especially when she was looking at him the way she was. All big-eyed and soft-mouthed.
‘He’s not worth talking about,’ he said, pouring the coffee.
‘Is he still alive?’
‘No. He died when I was fifteen. Here,’ he announced with a masculine flourish. ‘One girlie coffee for your tasting pleasure. Tell me that isn’t the best coffee you’ve ever tasted in your life.’
Carly knew Dare was deliberately changing the subject and she told herself it didn’t mean anything.
Giving him a quick smile, she forced herself to sip the warm liquid. It really was good. She blinked up at him, wondering if there was anything he couldn’t do well. ‘Mmm...’ She rolled her lips together, savouring the taste. ‘You’re right, it is good. But the best...’ She took another sip. Licked her lips again.
Dare stared at her mouth. ‘Now you’ve done it,’ he said, coming around to her side of the counter.
‘Done what?’ Carly asked innocently.
‘Gone and made something hard,’ he growled, lifting her onto the benchtop. ‘And seeing as how you’re a doctor and all, you might like to take a look. Give me your professional opinion.’
‘My professional opinion, huh?’ Carly reached down and cupped him in her hand. Dare groaned.
She frowned at him. ‘Hmm, my professional opinion is that you really should do something about that.’ She tapped her finger to her lips. ‘I’m just not sure what.’
Dare lifted his shirt to her waist. ‘Here, I have an idea.’
* * *
A faint stream of early morning sunlight woke her and once more Carly’s internal muscles cramped pleasurably as she moved. This time, however, instead of waking alone she found Dare still with her, sprawled out on his back, one arm flung over his head, the other curled beneath her neck.
Carefully, so she didn’t wake him, Carly rose up on her elbow and looked down at him.
He was magnificent. His dark beard growth making his jaw appear even squarer, his dark lashes creating a thick curve on his cheekbones.
Last night he had been both passionate and gentle. Powerful and tender. And completely insatiable. She had been completely insatiable. Waking in the early hours of the morning to find his mouth on her as he drew her from sleep in the most delicious way imaginable.
But it wasn’t just the way he made her feel that mesmerised her. It was the man himself. He was so strong, so sure of himself and, yes, controlling, but that was somehow part of his appeal, much as she never thought she’d ever say such a thing!
‘What are you looking at?’ he rumbled without opening his eyes.
Carly grinned. God, she loved him, and her heart felt as if it were glowing inside her chest.
‘You,’ she said, leaning down to gently kiss his jaw.
The arm beneath her came around her shoulders and he lazily caressed her spine.
‘A little less looking and a lot more action would be preferable,’ he advised with drowsy appreciation.
Carly laughed. ‘You’re insatiable.’
‘Hmm.’ He gripped the nape of her neck and encouraged her head to bend to his. ‘I am where you’re concerned.’
Carly stroked his chest. ‘We should check how Benson is doing.’
‘I already did.’
‘You did?’
‘I woke up earlier and called the hospital. They’re thinking of moving him out of ICU later today.’
‘Oh, that’s fantastic news.’ She smiled at him, drawing slow circles on the sprinkling of hair on his chest. ‘That was nice of you to check. I think “the old man” is growing on you,’ she teased.
Dare grunted and she hid a smile against his shoulder. He came over all cold and tough, but deep down he wasn’t. Deep down he was the man of her dreams.
‘Are you accusing me of going soft?’ he murmured suggestively.
‘Never!’
She squealed as he rolled her onto her back and held her hands above her head. ‘Let me up,’ she said breathlessly.
His eyes drifted over her naked breasts. ‘Make me.’
Carly reviewed her options and her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.
Dare’s eyebrows rose in alarm. ‘Okay, I give up.’
Carly laughed at his antics. ‘I haven’t eaten for hours,’ she defended.
‘Then I’d better feed you.’ He rolled away from her. ‘How does an American omelette sound?’
‘Great, but what’s the difference between an American omelette and our omelettes?’
He dropped a kiss on her mouth. ‘We cook ours.’
Carly grinned, watching him tug on his jeans, leaving the top button undone, with the casual disregard of a confident male.
A surge of emotion shook her out of her happy delirium as it struck her that maybe she needed to pull back a little.
‘Why don’t you have a shower while I cook?’
She swallowed heavily and shook off the maudlin thought. Dare wasn’t a mistake. How could he be when it felt so good?
‘Sounds like a plan.’ She smiled.
‘Oh, I have plans for you, Red. I’m just building your stamina first.’
‘Promises, promises.’ Carly laughed and she headed for the shower.
* * *
Dare pulled a carton of eggs and a block of cheese from the fridge, a frying pan from the cupboard.
He was humming, he realised, and grinned. He couldn’t remember a time he’d felt this good. This amped. Maybe when he’d seen his risky stock options turn him from a possible contender on the financial markets to a man everyone respected. And maybe when he was speeding along an open road. But never with a woman before.
He glanced at the day outside the window. It wasn’t raining so maybe he’d try and get his doc to set aside her reservations and hop on the back of his death trap with him.
He frowned.
His doc?
She wasn’t his anything. She was very definitely her own woman and he could only imagine her temper taking hold if he suggested anything else.
He cracked eggs, ground pepper and salt into a bowl, and grinned.
That ex of hers had really done him a favour, he thought, cheating on her. The guy must have been a moron. It was the only explanation Dare could come up with because Carly was magnificent. Everything a man could ever want in a woman.
He stopped stirring. What was he thinking? That he was going to keep her?
His heart found its way into his throat. Was that what he wanted?
He stared into space.
Yes, the answer came back, yes, he did want her, and that was when he knew that he could no longer avoid the truth. Somehow, some time, he’d fallen in love with the lovely, the beautiful Dr Evans. And he wasn’t even worried about it. The fact was he’d never met a woman like her. So open and honest, so genuine and giving. And, man, was she ever giving. Last night—
The buzzer sounded on his intercom and almost bemusedly he pressed the button.
If someone had told him a week ago he’d fall in love with a feisty redhead he would have laughed. Deep down he’d believed love wasn’t something he’d ever want or something he would ever need.
‘What’s up, George?’
‘Sir, a Mr Beckett Granger is here to see you.’
Dare frowned and almost told him to tell Beckett to take a hike, to use one of Carly’s expressions.
Then he thought better of it. Better to talk to Beckett here than at the hospital.
‘Send him up, George.’
And what about Carly? he wondered. Was she falling in love with him too?
He recalled the breathy little sighs she made when he touched her, the way she moaned his name, the smile she’d given him when he’d woken up this morning that had nearly blinded him. Was that just lust or was it—?
‘What the hell are you playing at?’
Distracted as he was, Dare wasn’t even aware that he’d opened his front door until a very angry Beckett dressed in a pinstripe suit and smelling like a men’s fragrance counter pushed past him into his home.
Dare swore under his breath and caught up with him in two strides but by then he was already in his open-plan living room.
‘What do you want, Beckett?’
Beckett swung round. ‘Nice digs. Glad someone can afford them.’
Dare stared at him. ‘I repeat, what do you want?’
Beckett took his time answering. ‘So I tried to log in to my computer this morning only to find that I’ve been banned from accessing certain parts of the business.’
‘I hope you didn’t bother Benson with that,’ Dare snarled, knowing their grandfather wasn’t fit for that kind of discussion just yet.
‘I wasn’t allowed because his watchdog said he was sleeping. But I figured you’d know all about it. And I’m right, aren’t I?’
‘We can discuss this later. At my office. If you call my PA she’ll make an appointment for you.’ And if he ever called his mother a watchdog again, Dare would deck him.
‘I don’t want to make an appointment. I want an explanation. Now.’
‘I’m not prepared to discuss it,’ Dare said.
Not until he’d spoken to Benson to see how his grandfather wanted to play things. This wasn’t Dare’s issue and, while he’d followed Benson’s instructions to have BG’s second-in-command take over as acting CEO, he wasn’t about to further isolate Beckett without first knowing what damage he could do. ‘And now you can—’
‘Why, Dr Evans,’ Beckett simpered as he glanced behind Dare. ‘How very...unexpected.’
‘Beckett? What are you doing here?’
Having heard voices, Carly had come to investigate and now wished she had taken the time to dress in more than one of Dare’s T-shirts because Beckett was openly staring at her legs. And her breasts.
Carly folded her arms across her chest, gazing from one man to the other, and wondering if she shouldn’t make herself scarce.
‘It would seem that we have the same taste in women,’ Beckett murmured and Carly very definitely thought about making herself scarce.
‘Excuse me?’ Dare’s quiet question was lethal.
Beckett paused before smiling. ‘I have dibs.’
Carly frowned. ‘Don’t be rude, Beckett,’ she said sharply, remembering that she still had his necklace in her handbag.
Beckett ignored her in favour of Dare. ‘Or is Grandfather just up to his old matchmaking tricks again? He really fell for our doctor here,’ he informed Dare. ‘I suppose he doesn’t care which grandson ends up with her.’
Carly felt herself blush. Beckett was being a complete plonker. ‘There was never anything between us, Beckett,’ she said coldly.
‘Oh Carly.’ Beckett thumped his chest with his fist. ‘You wound me.’
‘Just because you’re angry about what’s happened at BG Textiles doesn’t mean you have to make this personal,’ Dare bit out.
Carly smiled. His defence of her warmed her heart.
‘Besides,’ Dare continued, ‘I think we have more important things to discuss. Like your insider-trading efforts.’
Insider trading?
Carly’s eyes flew to Beckett’s. If Dare was right, then Beckett could be in a lot of trouble.
Beckett’s face took on a mottled hue. ‘Don’t you dare try to tarnish my name to get the inheritance for yourself,’ Beckett spat.
‘As you so rightly pointed out when you walked in, I don’t need Benson’s inheritance. Nor do I need to try and tarnish your name. You’re doing a good job of that all by yourself.’
‘Sometimes I wish I had been born two centuries ago,’ Beckett spat, ‘because then I’d call you out for that slur.’
Dare gave him a bored look. ‘Don’t fret it. You would have lost.’
‘You absolute, utter—’
‘I suggest you leave without saying another word, cousin,’ Dare broke in softly.
‘Or what?’ Beckett seethed. ‘You’ll take something else from me? Or hit me, perhaps? Go on, I dare you.’
Dare yawned.
Carly planted her hands on her hips. ‘If he doesn’t I might,’ she warned. ‘There’s absolutely no need for any of this, Beckett.’
Beckett turned to her, his expression tenderly forlorn.
‘Allow a man to express a little outraged jealousy, Red. I did find you first.’
Red!
He had never called her that before.
Carly noticed Dare take a step in Beckett’s direction and shot forward. ‘Wait.’ She held her hand up to Dare and turned to Beckett. ‘Don’t move and don’t say another word,’ she instructed. Then she rushed from the room and pulled the velvet box out of her bag, wishing she’d remembered it at the hospital the previous day.
‘This is yours,’ she said, pushing the velvet box into his hand. Her eyes flashed to Dare as he stood by the front door, unconsciously noting his lethal stillness.
‘I gave it to you.’ Beckett glared down at her and Carly wondered how she had ever thought he was handsome.
‘I don’t want it.’
Beckett sneered at her. ‘Not now that you’ve snared the bigger fish.’
‘Get out, Beckett,’ Dare said with icy fury.
Beckett had given her the necklace! Dare could barely believe it. His senses reeled, his mind shrouded in a red haze so thick he could barely see through it.
He could feel adrenaline coursing through his system like in the old days when kids used to laugh about his loser father.
He took a deep breath and did his best to ignore the beating of his blood that wanted him to beat the crap out of his insolent cousin. If Beckett didn’t leave by the door soon, he’d find himself using the window; a much quicker way to the sidewalk.
‘Goodbye, my lovely Carly. It seems I’m being asked to leave.’
Beckett strolled towards Dare, a swagger in his step. He stopped and shook his head at Dare as if he felt sorry for him.
‘Come in, spinner,’ he said softly, laughing when Dare slammed the door in his face.
Taking a deep breath, Dare turned towards Carly. She looked beautiful and shaken standing in his living room wearing only his shirt.
He frowned. Hadn’t she heard their voices? Didn’t she know better than to come into a room wearing only a T-shirt?
He glanced at his well-stocked bar and wondered if it was too early in the day to have a drink.
‘I never liked him,’ Carly said, hugging her arms around her waist.
Dare looked at her. Why had she felt the need to tell him that? Was she feeling guilty about something? Like sleeping with his cousin right before moving on to him?
Had she lied to him?
The adrenaline hadn’t left his body and he felt edgy and unsatisfied. Maybe he should have hit his cousin after all.
‘Come in, spinner.’
Beckett’s mocking words knocked around inside his head as if they had been shot out of a pinball machine.
Was Carly really duping him as Beckett had implied? He didn’t want to believe it, but he couldn’t deny the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
‘You liked him well enough to take the necklace,’ he said easily. Too easily.
‘Sorry?’ Carly blinked at him and then her brows drew together. ‘Would you mind repeating that?’
Dare paced away from her. Maybe that hadn’t been the best thing to say given how tightly he was strung. ‘I need some time to think.’
‘About what?’ She wet her lips as if she was nervous. But what did she have to be nervous about?
Red. Beckett had called her Red.
Dare’s teeth ground together. Had he called her that in bed? But no, Carly had claimed that she hadn’t slept with him.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she asked carefully. ‘You don’t actually believe there was something between me and your cousin do you?’
Dare rubbed a hand across his forehead, tried to collect his thoughts. Unfortunately they were scattered like freshly fallen leaves. ‘I don’t know what to believe.’
Carly stared at him. ‘I already told you that Beckett gave me the necklace because he wanted me to go out with him.’
Dare stared at her. Rubbed his forehead again. ‘Did my grandfather mention that he wanted us to get together?’
Carly flushed and Dare knew that he had.
‘Not really.’
His eyes homed in on her like a heat-seeking missile locking onto a target. ‘But he did mention it.’
‘It was a joke.’
‘Not one I find funny,’ Dare said softly.
‘You can’t seriously be giving Beckett’s hateful comments any credence,’ Carly said incredulously. ‘Dare, he was trying to get a rise out of you.’
Dare turned to her. He wasn’t. He wasn’t at all, but... ‘What I’m struggling to understand is why a man who is in so much debt he’d throw his grandfather’s company to the wolves, would then go and give a woman a necklace worth a small fortune.’
Carly felt a cold sensation slither into her stomach. ‘What you mean is,’ she said woodenly, ‘why does a man give a woman he’s not sleeping with a necklace worth a small fortune?’
A muscle ticked in his jaw. ‘So why does he?’
Carly felt so sick she could barely breathe. ‘I already explained it to you once,’ she said slowly. ‘He asked me out. I said no. The necklace was... I don’t know...some sort of enticement, I suppose. I never asked him.’
Dare’s gaze wouldn’t meet hers and Carly knew then that he didn’t love her. Because how could you love someone you didn’t know? Someone you didn’t trust?
Carly was just about at the bedroom door when Dare grabbed her arm and swung her towards him.
‘Where are you going?
‘I’m leaving.’
‘We’re having a conversation.’
‘No, we’re not,’ she fumed. ‘You’re conducting an investigation.’
‘I asked one question,’ he said, as calmly as possible. ‘Which apparently you don’t want to answer.’
‘I did answer it.’ She tipped her chin up. ‘Tell me you believe me.’
A heavy silence followed her request and Carly had her answer. How, she wondered, had she ever imagined she was in love with this man who was exactly like her ex?
A sob caught in her throat and she quickly stifled it.
‘Now where are you going?’ he asked irritably.
‘I told you... I’m leaving. Do you need me to repeat that as well?’
Dare ran a hand through his hair. ‘I just want the facts, Carly. Is that too much to ask?’
Carly clenched her teeth. ‘How many times?’
‘How many times what?’
‘How many times do you want your precious facts until you believe them? Because once wasn’t enough. Will twice do? Maybe three times. A hundred?’
Dare swore under his breath. ‘Look,’ he began reasonably. ‘I could have made a mistake.’
Carly shook her head. This time she wouldn’t be cowed by a man. ‘Well, while you could have made a mistake, I did.’
Dare watched her storm into his bedroom and he headed for the balcony. He looked down at the garden below. Breathed deeply. Tried to get his head together. It didn’t work; if anything he felt more confused. Was she telling the truth or was she lying because she thought it was what he wanted to hear?
When he heard his front door slam that old sick sensation from his childhood returned and he gripped the balustrade in front of him and told himself that he’d done nothing wrong.