Second Chance with the Millionaire(9)

For what felt like a lifetime but was probably only a second he looked  into them, and then both hands cupped her face, one thumb softly probing  the moist fullness of her lips.

She responded instinctively, her head tilting back as she let him draw  her even closer to his body so that she could feel the measured thud of  his heartbeat against her skin.

Her eyes opened and watched the agonisingly slow descent of his head  before her eyelids grew too heavy and fluttered closed. This time there  was nothing fraternal in the touch of his mouth against her own.

Instinctively and willingly she met its demands, giving herself to the  heady thrill of desire he aroused within her with a trust that would  normally have appalled her. It was almost as though she possessed some  instinct that overrode caution to tell her that with this man she would  always be safe no matter what heights he urged her to scale.

When he released her she told herself she was not imagining it was with  reluctance, and certainly there was a glitter in the darkness of his  eyes that suggested he was as affected by their kiss as she was herself.

But now that he had set her free and her body was no longer being  intoxicated by the heat of his, she reminded herself that she would be  foolish to read too much into a mere kiss, and so as she stepped back  from him she said as lightly as she could,

'Well then. Now we really are kissing cousins.'

The smile that curled his mouth made her pulses race. His eyes on her lips, he said softly, 'I certainly hope so.'

* * *

She was still half in a daze when the others came home. Oliver was full  of the war stories the colonel had been telling him, and Tara was  talking anxiously about the labrador puppies who needed a good home.

'Tom is such a sweet man,' Fanny told her when the children had been put  to bed. 'And so thoughtful. He told me he thought I ought to get away  for a little while …  have a holiday. Of course I told him it was out of  the question. For one thing there simply isn't the money. And then I  could hardly go off and leave you alone to cope with Oliver and Tara.'                       
       
           



       

At first inclined to agree with her, it occured to Lucy that her recent  irritation with Fanny might have sprung from the fact that they were  both still suffering the after-effects of her father's death and, that  being the case, it might possibly be a good idea for Fanny to have a  short break.

'If you wanted to go away I'm sure something could be arranged,' she suggested thoughtfully.

'Do you think so?' Immediately Fanny brightened. 'Tom did mention that a  friend of his has an apartment in Marbella which he is sure I could  rent for next to nothing.'

Privately Lucy doubted that, but she held her peace. They were not so  short of money that Fanny couldn't go away if she wanted to and although  she was determined to take a responsible and caring attitude towards  her guardianship of the children, it was no part of her brief to monitor  Fanny's spendings or say what she should spend her allowance on.

'I think it would do us both good,' Lucy told her generously. 'We're  neither of us used to living so much on top of one another. The Dower  House is quite sizeable compared with most houses, but it is an awful  lot smaller than the Manor.'

'Oh, Lucy, you are a darling.'

She found she was being enthusiastically hugged. 'I'm sorry I've been  such a beast lately. But I'm so lost without your father. Would you like  me to speak to Saul and tell him that I was wrong-that you don't  dislike him?'

Lucy shook her head, giving her a small smile.

'No-it's already done,' she told her wryly. 'By me!'

Within a couple of days everything was arranged. Fanny would fly out to  Marbella at the weekend for a fortnight's stay in the colonel's friend's  apartment.

During those two days Lucy had seen Saul on several occasions. Nothing  personal had occurred between them, no reference had been made to the  way he had kissed her or the way she had responded, but she was  conscious of a complete change-about in his manner towards her and she  basked in the warmth of it, like a small cat indulging herself in the  heat of the sun after the coldness of winter.

Without her knowing it there was a subtle change within her, a certain  feminine chemistry that made her more alluring …  softer. Tara noticed it.

'I really like living in the Dower House,' she confided in Saul one  morning when he found her in the stables where he had insisted that  Harriet remained.

'Lucy likes it, too. She's always laughing-and she cuddles me a lot. I like that!'

Lucy, coming into the stable in search of her just in time to catch her  last words, felt herself go a vivid scarlet. Saul, who was looking at  her, grinned as she turned to leave the stable; he paused beside her and  murmured so that only she could hear, 'So would I!'





CHAPTER FOUR


FROM then on it seemed at though both she and Saul were possessed by an  inner radar system that caused them both to gravitate to the same point  at the same time.

Every time it happened Lucy found herself less and less sure that she  was too old for the folly of falling in love. Saul only had to look at  her and smile for her insides to start melting and her heartbeat to  thud. And with every smile, every small gesture he made towards her,  Saul said silently that her feelings were not hers alone. Outwardly  there was nothing obviously lover-like in his behaviour towards her, but  her senses so delicately attuned to his informed her that he was quite  well aware of what it did to her when he placed his hand on her arm when  he was talking to her, or pushed a wayward curl of hair back off her  face with gentle fingers. And his eyes told her that he enjoyed the  contact just as much as she did, promising that what was happening  between them was merely a tentative, learning prelude to what was to be.

It pleased Lucy that he didn't rush her. Her feelings towards him were  powerful enough to make her slightly afraid. Desire of such a voluptuous  intensity was unfamiliar to her and, even while his touch delighted  her, it was frightening to realise how vulnerable she was to him.

When they talked it was of commonplace, day-to-day things. She told him  about Fanny's trip to Spain. He suggested that, since his car was the  larger, he should transport Fanny to the airport, adding that if she  cared to they could make a day of it, seeing Fanny off on her early  morning flight and then going on to spend the day in London with Oliver  and Tara. She responded gravely that she would put it to the children,  already knowing they would not refuse.                       
       
           



       

Fanny was nervous on the Saturday morning of her flight, half inclined  not to go, but by the time Saul pulled up outside she was feeling more  cheerful.

In no time at all they were all in the car. Fanny and the children in  the back, Lucy seated next to Saul in the front. Fanny had been about to  take the front passenger seat but, by some dextrous manoeuvre, Saul had  got her ensconced in the back. A tiny frond of pleasure uncurled inside  her as Lucy sat beside him, content in the knowledge that he had wanted  her there.

As they drove through the gates he slowed down and then stopped as their postman cycled towards them.

'You're getting an early start.' His smile encompassed them all as he  handed two or three letters to Lucy and then reached past her to give a  large bundle to Saul. Most of them seemed to have American stamps;  business letters by the look of them, and it struck her how little she  knew of the life Saul had lived in the States. Almost as though he knew  what she was thinking he smiled at her before glancing wryly at his  mail.

'From my company by the looks of it. I've taken some leave of absence to  come over here, but it looks like some things won't wait.'

His words reminded Lucy that his stay in England could not be a  permanent one. No doubt as soon as he had put the Manor on the market he  would be returning to the States. An icy finger of dread touched her  heart. What would happen to her then? If he were to ask her to go with  him, would she?'

Her heart leaped at the thought. She would go anywhere with him, she  acknowledged shakily, or at least she would had she been free to do so.  She had her obligation to Oliver and Tara to consider …  She shivered,  forcing back a wave of desolation, and Saul, seeing it, looked at her  with a concerned frown.

'Cold?'

She shook her head, retreating into silence as she tried to remind  herself she had only known Saul a very short time; far too short surely  to be thinking that, without him in it, her world would be a very  desolate place indeed.

* * *

'Tired?'

Both children nodded sleepily in response to Saul's question as Lucy bundled them into the car.

After seeing Fanny safely off they had gone on to London, spending a few  hours at the zoo before having lunch at a MacDonalds. A bus trip round  the sights of the city, followed by afternoon tea at the Grosvenor House  Hotel, and then a brisk walk through the park, had resulted in two very  happy and very tired children.