Back in the Lion's Den by Elizabeth Power Read Free Book Online Page A

had turned as hard as theearth they were skirting on either side of the path, where an endless profusion of white roses made her almost heady with their fragrance. ‘How long did
he
stay in the picture?’
    ‘I’d rather not discuss it, if you don’t mind,’ she responded, turning away.
    Her profile, he noticed, was proud and challenging, yet insufferably alluring. He felt that stirring in his blood, that primal desire he had always recognised for his late brother’s wife, and always violently rejected with every bone in his body.
    ‘I bet you wouldn’t!’
    Sienna’s expression as she looked his way again was almost careless, her pink creamy lips set in a sexy pout. He had the almost unbearable urge to crush them beneath his, to feel her body stir as his was stirring—and the evidence would be apparent if he carried on thinking like this! he thought censoriously.
    She gave a little shrug, nonchalant and dismissive, as though her actions in the past were of no consequence whatsoever. That action caused the strap of her dress suddenly to slip off her shoulder. Its bareness was provocative, like pale silk begging for his touch.
    Sienna reached for the fallen strap, sucking in her breath as Conan did the same, getting to it before she could and slipping it back on her shoulder.
    ‘Thank you,’ she murmured, breathless from the shocking electrical impulses zinging through her at the merest touch of his hand.
    ‘When did you have that done?’ He meant her tattoo, and his voice was cool, composed, holding none of the turmoil that was going on inside her.
    ‘On my eighteenth birthday.’
    Something tugged at his mouth. ‘Before you knew better.’
    She ignored that statement, because that’s what it was. Her tattoo was just another thing he didn’t like about her, she realised, telling herself quite adamantly that she didn’t care.
    ‘Daisy has a lot of energy,’ she expressed, wanting to get away from him and his flower-filled garden, finding both disturbing with her troubling awareness of his far too unsettling proximity. ‘Do you think that leaving her with Avril for too long is a good idea?’
    They had stopped on the path. ‘For my mother’s welfare?’ From beneath his dark lashes he regarded her with a contemplative amusement. ‘Or for yours, Sienna?’
    Her throat going dry, she swallowed. Goodness! The man was perceptive!
    ‘Why should I be concerned for
my
welfare?’ she bluffed, her heart rate quickening, pretending not to understand as she sent a glance seawards to where a flotilla of sailboats sported their jaunty colours as they skirted the peninsula.
    ‘Why are you always so jittery when you’re alone with me?’
    ‘I’m not jittery.’ Who was she kidding? ‘Why should it make me jittery being alone with you?’
    ‘You tell me.’
    The warmth of the sun on her skin was a sensuality she could well have done without, and the hum of Mediterranean insects only emphasised the pregnant silence between them.
    ‘Is it because I’m the only one who knows your secret, Sienna?’
    She looked at him quickly, her eyes hooded and wary. ‘My secret?’
    Her tone, Conan noted, was tinged with alarm. What else had she been hiding for those two and a half years she’d been married to his brother?
    ‘The only one who knows the kind of girl you really are,’ he elaborated.
    ‘You
think
you know.
Knew,
’ she corrected emphatically.
    He laughed softly. ‘Whose so-called “shopping trips” to London and all those wanderings around museums were just a smokescreen for an illicit affair.’
    About to deny it strongly, she felt the significance of what he’d meant when he said he was the only one who knew suddenlydawn on her, so that unthinkingly she asked, ‘You didn’t tell your mother about your suspicions?’ She found that amazing. ‘You surprise me, Conan.’ She would have thought he wouldn’t miss a chance to tell Avril exactly what he believed he’d discovered.
    ‘And break her heart