‘If making assumptions is a fault of mine, I apologise. Here, let me do that.’
‘I’m quite capable of—’
‘Your abilities aren’t in question. I just think you ought to sit down and let me make you a drink. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity for you to tell me a little about yourself. What do you say?’
CHAPTER FIVE
SITTING at the table, her mug of hot milk cradled warmly in her hands, Liadan glanced briefly at Adrian in the chair opposite, trying desperately to come to terms with the strong sensation of intimacy that frighteningly seemed to flow between them.
‘What do you want to know?’ she asked quietly.
‘How long have you lived in the village? It’s strange I’ve never seen you there before.’ If he’d seen her he certainly would have remembered her…
‘I’ve been around. I moved here three-and-a-half years ago. Before that I lived in Dorset with my mother. She lives in Spain now.’
‘Why didn’t you go into the hotel business when you left Dorset? Why did you go to work in an esoteric bookshop, of all places?’ He was smiling, but this time not mockingly. Liadan sensed the tension in her stomach ease a little.
‘There aren’t many hotels in the local vicinity and those I tried didn’t have any vacancies at the time. My friend Mel has a friend called Jennie who owned the shop and was looking for someone to help out. As luck would have it, Mel’s boyfriend owns the local estate agent’s, and he helped me get my mortgage on my cottage when I decided to move here.’
‘And this Mel? She lives in the village too?’
‘That’s why I moved here. We’ve known each other since we met on holiday when we were kids.’ Liadan took a sip of the fragrant creamy milk laced with nut-meg and experienced a rush of surprise that Adrian had made it so perfectly. There was something highly personal about him making it for her—something that very definitely blurred the lines of employer and employee, and made their relationship suddenly far more intimate.
‘So…you’ve been here three and a half years and you’re still alone?’
‘Alone?’
‘No significant other?’ Taking a slug of whisky, Adrian made a face as the fiery spirit scorched the back of his throat, then put down his glass and fastened his slow, deliberate gaze on Liadan’s face with deepening interest. Her throat convulsed a little, and her grasp on her mug tightened.
‘There was someone,’ she admitted softly. ‘We were going to be married but things between us didn’t work out.’
‘You decided the married state wasn’t for you after all?’
Her heart beating an uneasy tattoo and, unsure of how much to reveal, Liadan shrugged the comment aside and forced herself to continue. ‘No. The man I was involved with had a conflict of priorities. It was either me or his calling to the Church. In the end the Church won hands down. I don’t blame him. He had a right to follow his heart.’
‘And you loved this man?’ Adrian’s voice sounded like whisky and cigarettes and Liadan found that, as much as she desperately needed to, it was nigh on impossible to break away from the burning intensity in his eyes.
‘I…I thought I did.’ Shrugging her slim shoulders, because there was a wealth of soul-searching behind that statement that she couldn’t begin to explain, Liadan looked pained. It was enough to know that she’d analysed her behaviour deeply and with enough regularity to write a psychology book. ‘I don’t know if I was actually “in love” with Michael. He was solid and reliable and at the time I thought I needed that.’ Until he’d started to dictate what she could or couldn’t do, that was.
Feeling as though she had to qualify her statement, particularly what she knew must sound like a complete lack of affection for the man she had been engaged to, Liadan found words spilling from her lips that she hadn’t meant to say. ‘My father died, you see. I was very insecure after that for a while. He’d appeared so healthy and strong up until his heart attack, and my mother and I had no notion that anything was wrong. It’s scary when someone you love suddenly isn’t there any more, and we’d always been so close. When he died I was quite lost for a while. Well…for a long time, actually. When Michael came along I suppose he picked that up. In a way he liked the idea of rescuing me, I think. He was very much a man who liked to take charge and he wanted me to defer to him in practically everything—even down to the friends I had. As soon as that started happening I should have known that things would never work out. Anyway…in the end I was relieved he made the decision he did.’ She paused, feeling slightly ridiculous for revealing so much, for allowing herself to expose her failings and vulnerability to a man like Adrian who, with his cynicism about the world, probably took it as read that relationships didn’t work out—period.
‘I wonder if he still believes he made the right choice?’ Before Liadan could answer the question, Adrian slid the palm of his hand across her fingers gripping the mug of hot milk, his touch all but scorching her. His skin was smooth and warm and incredibly erotic and for brief seconds such a longing swept over Liadan that she couldn’t do anything other than stare deeply into his eyes and let the feeling take her. Her heart slamming against her ribs, she told herself he meant it as a consoling gesture and it was nothing to get worked up about. But somehow her wildly racing heart refused to listen. He must have access to a kind of magic to instil that much magnetism and that much sensation into just one simple brush of his skin against hers, Liadan thought frantically, staring at him in fright.
‘I’m sure he does. Why shouldn’t he?’
She shot out of her chair, milk slopping out of her mug onto the table, jarred by the suddenness of her movement. Feeling hot colour pour into her cheeks, she swung round in disarray to search for a mopping-up cloth.
‘Do you really have to ask why a man wouldn’t choose an austere celibate life over being with you, Liadan?’ Getting to his feet, Adrian held her gaze for a brief but ignitable couple of seconds before silently locating a dishcloth, wringing it out and mopping up the spill in the middle of the table with quiet efficiency. Watching him, Liadan was mesmerised by the ease with which he moved his fit, muscular body, his movements unconsciously and devastatingly sexy to her hungry eyes, the space he inhabited the compelling focus of her complete and undivided attention.
‘Please don’t get the idea that sleeping with me was any kind of inducement. As far as Michael was concerned I was…tarnished because I had slept with a boyfriend before.’ Looking down at the floor, Liadan wished she didn’t still feel humiliated by her ex’s judgemental opinion and rejection. ‘Besides, I don’t think church life is as austere as all that nowadays. At least I hope not. Michael likes his comforts.’ She knew she was babbling. She always talked too much when she was nervous and Adrian Jacobs made her very nervous. Lifting her head, Liadan saw that his deliberate dark gaze was examining her with what appeared to be concern in their liquid depths, and she worryingly sensed her equilibrium coming undone. Clutching at the collar of her robe, she tried for a smile but somehow couldn’t get the necessary muscles to assist her. ‘Thank you for clearing up the spill. I should have done that.’
‘So what are you telling me, Liadan? That you and this Michael never actually made love?’
‘I think he was waiting for the day when God would personally come down and absolve me of my sins in front of him. He wanted a guarantee that I was good enough.’ Her soft mouth twisted with painful humour.
‘The man must have been insane.’ Adrian shook his head in clear disbelief and Liadan felt a surge of wild gratitude for his vote of confidence.
‘I shouldn’t have disturbed you,’ she said breathlessly. For a long, unsettling moment, Adrian just stared. Then he shook his head as if coming to a decision.
‘Go back to bed and get some rest. We both have to be up