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way she wrenched her arm out of his grip as soon as she was vertical made his teeth gnash together.

      ‘I don’t need your help.’

      ‘Listen, lady, it’s only thanks to my quick reflexes that you’re still here at all. You could show a little gratitude.’

      ‘Don’t you “lady” me. It’s thanks to your crappy driving that I now have a sore—’ She stopped as his eyes followed her hands to her bottom as she brushed it off.

      He arched a brow. ‘Behind?’

      ‘Never mind,’ she said primly.

      ‘How did you not hear the bike anyway?’

      ‘This is a private lane and I was chasing after a dog.’ She gave his bike a contemptible glance. ‘I was hardly expecting Evel Knievel to come barrelling down the road.’

      ‘A dog, huh?’ Dare unzipped his jacket and planted his hands on his hips. ‘What kind of dog?’

      He noticed she was staring at his chest, then his flat abdomen, and finally his zipper and heat poured through him as if she’d actually touched him.

      As if sensing his visceral reaction to her she started inching away from him as if he were some would-be rapist and he scowled.

      ‘Yes.’ Her voice had grown husky and she cleared it. ‘A very big dog, if you must know.’

      If she used her brain, Dare thought with rising annoyance, she’d realise that if he was going to grab her he wouldn’t be standing around arguing with her.

      But even as he thought it his eyes dropped to her high breasts pushing up against the straps of her one-piece suit and those long, lightly tanned legs shown to glorious perfection in cut-off denims. He’d seen many girls dressed similarly on a hot summer’s day in his youth but he was quite sure he’d never seen legs as good as hers.

      ‘What are you looking at?’

      His eyes lifted to hers. Moss green, he decided, and full of awareness of how appreciative he had been of her figure.

      ‘Your legs.’ He smiled. ‘You have them on display. You can hardly blame a man for looking.’

      ‘Excuse me?’ Her eyes shot daggers at him and he supposed he deserved it. He wasn’t here to come on to the pool girl and he was hardly desperate for female company.

      ‘Listen—’

      ‘How dare you?’ She stabbed a slender finger at his chest. ‘I’m wearing a bathing suit because it’s hot and I’ve just been for a swim.’

      ‘And you were looking for a dog. I get it. But—’

      ‘Not that I need to explain myself to the likes of you,’ she vented.

      Dare’s eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘The likes of me?’

      ‘That’s what I said. Are you hard of hearing? Oh, no!’ She gave a cry of dismay. ‘My necklace!’ She turned quickly, her russet cloud of hair swinging around her shoulders. ‘I can’t have lost it.’

      Dare sighed. He was tired after driving hours to get here on top of already putting in what felt like a full day at the office, and in no mood to be insulted by some sexy little shrew. ‘What does it look like?’

      ‘It’s a ruby pendant, on a gold—’

      ‘This it?’

      He reached into the longer grass where it circled a bush. He’d noticed a glint of something before when he’d first rushed over to her and now held a very expensive little trinket in the palm of his hand. He let out a low whistle of appreciation. She definitely wasn’t just the pool girl if this was hers.

      Dare flashed a smile. ‘A pretty piece. I’m not sure it goes with the outfit though.’ She stiffened as he looked her over. ‘Might I suggest a string bikini next time?’

      ‘I wasn’t wearing it,’ she said hotly. ‘It was a gift.’

      Dare laughed. ‘I hardly thought you paid for it yourself, baby.’ In his experience no woman would.

      She stared at him mouth agape and he supposed he had sounded a touch derogatory but...

      ‘Did you really just call me baby?’

      Yeah, he had. For some reason discovering the necklace had made his mood take another dive. ‘Look—’

      ‘Listen? Look?’ Her finger stabbed in his direction again. ‘You are one condescending piece of work, darling.’ She stepped forward, her cheeks pink with annoyance. ‘Give me that.’ She reached for the necklace in his hand but Dare reacted instinctively and raised it above his head. She was medium to tall in height but there was no way she was close to his six feet four.

      Realising it, she pulled up short, her hands flattening against his white T-shirt to stop herself from falling against him. Her eyes grew wide, her soft mouth forming a perfect ‘O’, and his eyes lingered before returning to hers.

      Dare would have said the whole ‘time standing still’ thing was just hogwash, but right then he couldn’t hear a leaf rustling, or a bird calling, his mind empty of everything that didn’t include getting her naked and horizontal as soon as possible.

      Instinctively his free hand came around to draw her closer when the sound of yapping at his feet broke the spell. Disconcerted, Dare looked down into the upturned face of an ugly little mutt the size of a cat with its tongue hanging out. He grinned. ‘This the big dog you were chasing?’

      The redhead stepped back and threw him a filthy look as she reached for the small dog that danced just out of her reach.

      ‘Gregory,’ she growled in a warning voice. ‘Heel.’

      Dare would have laughed at her futile attempts to stay the dog if he hadn’t been feeling so out of sorts.

      ‘Here.’ He held the necklace out impatiently as she made to run after the dog. ‘Don’t forget your gift.’

      Turning on him with a malevolent look, she snatched the necklace from his hand and took off after the mutt. He doubted he’d have cause to see her again but strangely he found he wanted to.

      Shaking his head, he walked back to his bike and shoved his helmet on, dismissing the pool girl from his mind as he gunned the engine and headed to the main house.

       CHAPTER TWO

      DARE PACED BACK and forth in what he surmised was a parlour room inside the grand house. He’d never been particularly good at cooling his heels and finding his grandfather out when he’d first arrived had turned an already grim mood further south. Two hours later it was fair to say it had hit rock bottom. He wondered if it was a tactical move on his grandfather’s behalf because Dare had presumed to turn up unannounced a day earlier than he was expected.

      Glancing around the elegant room, he took in the heavily oak-panelled walls dating back to the sixteenth century. Like the bedroom he’d been shown to earlier to ‘freshen up’—which had most likely been code for ditching his leathers—the antique furniture was graceful and well-appointed. Given the state of the rest of the house and grounds that Dare had seen, he surmised that money wasn’t behind the old man’s invitation to his mother. Which left the possibility that he was ill and/or dying.

      The thought didn’t stir an ounce of emotion in Dare at all. But the line of oil paintings mounted high on the walls? They were most likely his ancestors, he thought with distaste, and they gave him the creeps. He steeled himself against the unexpected need to search out a likeness. He was nothing like these people and never would be.

      It was hard to imagine his mother running around here as a child. The place might be majestic and steeped in history, but it was completely devoid of laughter and lightness. And so alien

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