‘Yep.’
‘Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?’
‘Not when my sister’s happiness and perhaps her physical well-being is at stake.’
She recalled Thierry’s latent physical threat to her and thought Dylan might have a point. Still...
‘I want to ask for your assistance, Mia.’
‘Mine?’ she squeaked. What on earth did he think she could do?
‘I want you to befriend Carla. She might confide in you—especially as Thierry has made it clear that he doesn’t like you.’
Had he gone mad? ‘Dylan, I can be as friendly towards Carla as it’s possible to be.’ She’d already resolved to do so. ‘But when we get right down to it I’m just one of the many people helping to organise her wedding. We don’t exactly move in the same social circles.’
‘I’ve thought about that too. And I’ve come up with a solution.’
She had a premonition that she wasn’t going to like what came next.
He leaned towards her. ‘If Carla thought that we were dating—’
‘No!’ She shot so far away from him she was in danger of falling off the bench.
He continued to survey her, seeming not put off in the least by her vehemence. He unwrapped a chocolate bar and bit into it. ‘Why not?’
She wanted to tell him to eat a sandwich first—put something proper into his stomach—but it wasn’t her place...and it was utterly beside the point.
‘Because I don’t date!’
‘It wouldn’t be real dating,’ he said patiently. ‘It’d be pretend dating.’
She slapped a hand to her chest. ‘I work hard to keep a low profile. I don’t need my past coming back and biting me more often than it already does. I have a plan for my life, Dylan—to finish my field officer training and find work in a national park. Somewhere rural—’ remote ‘—and quiet, where I can train towards becoming a ranger. All I want is a quiet life so I can live peacefully and stay out of trouble. Dating you won’t help me achieve that. You live your life up among the stars. You’re high-profile.’ She pointed to herself. ‘Low-profile. Can you see how that’s not going to work?’
He tapped a finger against his mouth. ‘It’s a valid point.’
He leaned towards her, his lips pressed into a firm, persuasive line. It took an effort not to let her attention become distracted by those lips.
‘What if I promise to keep your name out of the papers?’
‘How? Australia’s golden-boy bachelor slumming it with an ex-jailbird? That story’s too juicy to keep under wraps.’
Heaven only knew what Gordon Coulter would do with a headline like that.
‘I’ve learned over the years how to be very discreet. I swear to you that nobody will suspect a thing.’
‘Will Thierry be discreet too?’ she asked, unable to hide the scorn threading her voice as she recalled his threat to make trouble for her.
‘You leave Thierry to me.’
With pleasure.
Dylan pushed his shoulders back, a steely light gleaming in his eyes, and she had to swallow. The golden charmer had gone—had been replaced by someone bigger, harder...and far more intimidating. Beneath his laughing, charismatic allure, she sensed that Dylan had a warrior’s heart.
His nostrils flared. ‘I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch you.’
She couldn’t have said why, but she believed him—implicitly. Her heart started to thud too hard, too fast. ‘Dylan, surely you’d be better off concocting this kind of scheme with one of Carla’s friends? They’d—’
‘She doesn’t have any. Not close. Not any more.’
Why ever not?
His face turned to stone, but his eyes flashed fire. ‘Two years ago Carla’s boyfriend ran off with her best friend.’
Mia closed her eyes.
‘Carla went into a deep depression and pushed all her friends away. She’s never been the sort of person to have a lot of close friends—a large social circle, perhaps, but only one or two people she’d consider close—and...’
‘And it was all a mess after such a betrayal,’ she finished for him, reading it in his face and wanting to spare him the necessity of having to say it out loud. ‘Loyalties were divided and some fences never mended.’
He nodded.
She leapt up, needing to work off the agitation coursing through her. ‘Dylan, I...’
‘What?’
She swung back to him. ‘I don’t know how we can pull off something like that—pretending to date—convincingly.’
She sat again, feeling like a goose for striding around and revealing her agitation. When she glanced across at him the expression in his eyes made her stomach flip-flop. In one smooth motion he slid across until they were almost touching. He smelt fresh and clean, like sun-warmed cotton sheets, and her every sense went on high alert.
He touched the backs of his fingers to her cheek and she sucked in a breath, shocked at her need to lean into the contact. Oh, this was madness!
‘Dylan, I—’
His thumb pressed against her mouth, halting her words. Then he traced the line of her bottom lip and a pulse thumped to life inside her. She couldn’t stop her lip from softening beneath his touch, or her mouth from parting ever so slightly so she could draw the scent of him into her lungs.
‘I don’t think you realise how lovely you are.’
Somewhere nearby a peacock honked. Something splashed in the lily pond. But all Mia could focus on was the man in front of her, staring down at her as if...as if she were a cream bun he’d like to devour...slowly and deliciously.
It shocked her to realise that in that moment she wanted nothing more than to be a cream bun.
Dangerous.
The word whispered through her. Some part of her mind registered it, but she was utterly incapable of moving away and breaking the spell Dylan had woven around them.
‘Sweet and lovely Mia.’
The low, warm promise in his voice made her breath catch.
‘I think we’re going to have exactly the opposite problem. I think if we’re not careful we could be in danger of being too convincing...we could be in danger of convincing ourselves that a lie should become the truth.’
A fire fanned through her. Yesterday, when he’d flirted with her, hadn’t it just been out of habit? Had he meant it? He found her attractive?
‘Dylan...’ His name whispered from her. She didn’t mean it to.
His eyes darkened at whatever he saw in her face. ‘I dreamed of you last night.’
Dangerous.
The word whispered through her again.
But it didn’t feel dangerous. It felt right to be whispering secrets to each other.
His thumb swept along the fullness of her bottom lip again, pulling against it to explore the damp moistness inside, sensitising it almost beyond bearing. Unable to help herself, she flicked out her tongue to taste him.
‘Mia...’ He groaned out her name as if it came from some deep, hidden place.
His head moved towards her, his lips aiming to replace his thumb, and her soul suddenly soared.
Dangerous.