HER ONE AND ONLY VALENTINE - (2 page)

'Why?' She couldn't hold the incredulity from her voice. 'Mattie loved this place; he would never have parted with any of it while he was alive.'

'Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have.' Kane reached out a large hand to turn hers so that he could light the other candle, his dark gaze focused completely on the task, while he continued in a low, almost seductively male tone, 'But he'd overstretched himself on the estate and with all the treatments he tried to get well and he wouldn't accept a loan, so I bought back his shares in Micro-Tech and the estate, on the proviso that I would never sell it separately from the house.'

Oh, this really was a nightmare! Any second now she would wake up—she had to—because this just wasn't happening! And surely he didn't think she could afford to buy it back off him?

'I'm prepared to make you an offer on the house.'

Rhiannon gaped up at him, suddenly aware that his fingers were still curled around hers over the candle. She thrust the other candle at him and the movement dropped hot melted wax on to the back of her hand.

Kane scowled when she gasped. 'We need something to put these candles on.'

'While we have a business meeting in the middle of the night?' She shook her burnt hand to ease the sharp pain on her skin. It focused her mind, gave her a second to calm her thoughts into something resembling sense when all she could really concentrate on was one thing; she had been at Brookfield less than one full day, and already she was in trouble.

And, like all of the main troubles she'd been through in her life, it once again involved Kane damn Healey!

'I hadn't planned on talking to you in the middle of the night. You weren't supposed to be here yet. I've arranged for an estate agent to come value the place tomorrow morning so I had some figures.'

'Behind my back?'

He shrugged. 'If I had figures to show you, then you could make a more informed decision on a price.'

'I've just moved house; I have no intention of moving again.' And she'd given up her job, lifted Lizzie out of school—away from her friends and the only home she'd ever really known. She couldn't do that all over again. The only reason she'd been able to make the decision to uproot them both had been the fact that they would have a home of
their own.

'You can't support a house this size.'

'You can't tell me what I can and can't do!'

Reaching over her shoulder for a saucer to balance the candle on, his darkened eyes noted how she snatched her shoulder back from him, one hand rising to draw the lapels of her silk dressing gown closer together. And he frowned in annoyance again.

This wasn't going the way he'd planned. Did it ever where Rhiannon MacNally was concerned?

Despite what she may think, he wasn't doing this just to make her life difficult. Because he knew that he was probably the last person she'd want to have dealings with, let alone be forced into any kind of a business partnership with. She'd made it more than plain over the years that she wanted nothing more to do with him.

But he was also pretty sure she couldn't afford to buy the estate off him, so that meant his buying the house made more sense. Then she could do what she wanted with the money. It wouldn't be anything to do with him any more.
Simple.

Except that already it was more complicated than he'd thought it would be. Being hit in the stomach with what he now knew was a tennis racquet had led to her soft body being pressed against his. And
that
had brought back memories he'd had no intention of ever remembering again.

In the soft candlelight, she was simply stunning.

The intimate arc of light picked up the fine strands of red in her auburn hair, made her doe-brown eyes sparkle when she glanced up at him from beneath long lashes, surrounded her in a halo that made her seem even softer and more feminine than she already looked with her curves barely hidden beneath long, flowing rose-pink silk.

If they'd been two other people, in a different place and different time, then the temptation to be doing something other than talking in the candlelight would almost have been too much to resist.

She'd always been dangerous that way.

Leaning back from her, he dragged his gaze from her face and focused on dropping wax onto the saucer until there was a large enough pool to stand the candle upright while it cooled. Then, as the wind hailed rain against the windows again, he took a breath and glanced at her from beneath hooded eyes.

'It's late. We'll talk about this in the morning.'

Rhiannon's eyes widened. 'You're not
staying
here.'

Oh, for goodness' sake! 'It's a very large house, Rhiannon; you won't even know I'm here till you see me at breakfast.' He smirked. 'I promise not to come looking for you in the dark again.'

The innuendo didn't help. 'I don't want to see you at breakfast. If there's anything else to talk about, then you can come back when Lizzie has gone to school.' She looked away from his face, her gaze flickering upwards again while she frowned. 'Things are already unsettled enough without her asking a dozen questions about
you.'

It was a feeble excuse, he felt. 'Then I'll wait until she's gone and, after the estate agent comes, we can talk. There isn't a hotel or a B&B for miles.'

'There's nothing to talk
about!'
Her chin rose as she punched the words out and for a moment she almost looked panicked, which didn't make sense to him.

He didn't see what the problem was himself.

'Yes, there is.' With another deep breath to maintain his patience, he leaned his face closer to try and make his point. 'Whether you like it or not, the estate and the house are a partnership and if you won't sell and you don't have the money to buy the land back, then that makes us partners, which means we have some negotiating to do.'

Her large eyes narrowed, her voice icy as she calmly informed him, 'I'd rather chew off my own leg than enter into any kind of a partnership with you.'

He quirked a dark brow.
"Again,
you mean?'

His gaze swept over the flush that immediately rose on her cheeks. Then he tilted his head to the side, his face hovering over hers. 'I thought we made quite a "partnership" last time, didn't you?'

'Oh, you are a complete and utter—'

'Now, that's hardly the right language for the new lady of the manor, is it?'

Her eyes blazed with anger and he smiled. She looked as if she would dearly love to hit him again.

But in a heartbeat she regained her control. Her breasts rose and fell as she took a deep steadying breath and then her lashes lowered before she focused on his chest and informed him through tight lips, 'I don't want to discuss this in the middle of the damn night.' She stepped back and around him. 'So how about you sleep wherever the hell you want? Just make absolutely sure that Lizzie doesn't set eyes on you before you leave. She has no idea who you are and I'd like to keep it that way.'

Kane turned on his heel and stared at her as she pushed the door open, unable to keep the bitterness from his tone. 'Why the hell would it matter to me whether she knows who I am? She's nothing to do with me.'

Rhiannon swore below her breath as she turned in the doorway, her eyes glittering in the candlelight. 'That's the first thing you've said in a
very
long time that I actually agree with. You stay away from her, Kane Healey. I mean it. She'll find out what kind of a low life you are over my dead body.'

Already irritated that an edge of bitterness had shown in his voice, he scowled at her. What in hell was she talking about?

But, before he could ask, she was gone, the door swinging on its hinges behind her. And he didn't follow, even if it left him clenching his teeth, feeling angrier than he had in a long, long time.

If he'd had any sense at all he would have done any 'talking' through a solicitor. But he had wanted—what?

Frankly, he was already too angry to look for an answer to that. What he
hadn't
wanted was to be made painfully aware of just how much of an effect her presence could have on his libido. And he'd just got that in spades, hadn't he?

The sooner he was out of this place the better.

'So, Mum, can I get a pony? And maybe a dog?'

Rhiannon smiled affectionately as they made their way out of the cavernous hallway and through the front door to scrunch across the gravel to her Jeep. Lizzie had hidden her first day at school nerves behind incessant chatter all the way through the breakfast that her mother had hurried in order to get them out before Kane appeared from wherever he had slept.

If she'd had her way they'd have eaten slices of toast in the Jeep. Just to be on the safe side.

'How about we get properly settled in first before we stock a zoo?' Though, after the adventure of the night before, a dog might not be a bad idea. They were two females alone in the middle of nowhere, after all. A dog would be a good idea. Something of a manageable size, with a nice deep, scary bark, that could live downstairs in the kitchen.

'Whose car is that?'

Rhiannon's heart sank, her hand on the Jeep's door. She'd so very nearly got away from the house without any questions.
So near and yet so far.

Pinning a bright smile on her face, she glanced briefly at the sleek, low-slung sports car peeking from the edge of the house. He must have gone into the house at the back.

'It belongs to a friend of Uncle Mattie.' Well, it wasn't a lie. He
had
been a friend of Mattie's, more so the last few years than when she had first met them all.

Lizzie looked all the more intrigued. 'In the house? Why didn't he come down for breakfast? Will I get to meet him after school?'

Not if her Mother had anything to do with it, she wouldn't. 'No, he'll be gone by then. He didn't know we'd moved in yet.' A thought occurred to her. 'How did you know he was a "he"?'

Lizzie shrugged her narrow shoulders, her blue eyes still wide with curiosity. 'Guessed. What's he like? Can't he stay till I meet him? We can talk about Uncle Mattie. I'd like that.'

Rhiannon's heart twisted at the simple statement. Of course she'd want to meet people who'd known her favourite 'uncle'; talking about him was something that Rhiannon had been encouraging her to do. It was healthy. And, much as it killed her to have to deal with it when Lizzie hadn't even reached the grand age of ten yet, she didn't want her to bottle things up. But neither did she want her talking to Kane.
About anything.

'He's very busy; I'm sure he'll be gone by the time you get back.' The look of disappointment on her daughter's face almost doubled her up with guilt. It was only natural for her to try and reach out for something comforting in the face of so much change. Talking about her Mattie with someone must have seemed an ideal security blanket, 'How about when you come back we go and see what pictures of Uncle Mattie we can find to put on that wall in the library?'

Lizzie brightened a little, her head bobbing up and down, which flicked her long, dark chocolate-brown pony-tail out behind her. 'Okay.'

'Right, well, let's get you to school, then.'

It was only once Lizzie was settled into her new classroom in the primary school, a universe smaller than the city one she was used to, that Rhiannon allowed her thoughts to return to what she had to face back at Brookfield. She wasn't looking forward to it.

And the night before she had tossed and turned, her ears straining to hear any sound of Kane moving around the house, while her thoughts had run riot, trying to cope with how her hatred of him burned like acid in the pit of her stomach as she searched frantically for a quick fix solution to the problem he had presented her with.

Maybe if she'd managed more sleep she might have found an option or two. To have what sleep she had managed uninterrupted by fitful dreams of the past would certainly have helped too...

Tugging angrily on the steering wheel, she made the final turn through the huge wrought iron gates that heralded the entrance to Brookfield.

Having Brookfield and its hundred and something acres to work on was supposed to help both her and Lizzie to focus their intense emotions from Mattie's passing, elsewhere. It was supposed to be a chance to look forwards, not back, and at the same time to allow them to never forget the one person who had helped them when they had needed it most.

They finally had a chance at a real future—the two of them together against the world.

Once through the gates, the Jeep was immediately surrounded by an avenue of tall skeletal trees that wouldn't see leaves for months yet, while Rhiannon thought about the bitterness in Kane's voice when he had asked her why it would matter to him whether or not Lizzie knew who he was.

He had to be out of the house before Lizzie came home; there was no question about
that!

Even if a small, resentful part of Rhiannon thought for a brief moment that it might do him good to see how amazing and beautiful and bright and funny and audacious her child had turned out to be.