Infamous Bargain. Daphne Clair
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of your company.’ He finished his coffee and asked, ‘More for you?’
Briar shook her head.
He paid the bill and took her arm as they left the restaurant. ‘It’s a nice night,’ he said. ‘Feel like a stroll along the waterfront?’ The scent of the sea came faintly to them. Moonlight still shimmered on the horizon.
It wasn’t late. Cars constantly passed by under the green glow of the street-lights. The night air was cool but pleasant. ‘All right,’ she heard herself say. ‘A short one.’
They walked slowly, and he took her hand and tucked it into his arm. She might have withdrawn it except for the darkness which the street-lights didn’t altogether dispel, and the high heels of her shoes. It wouldn’t do to trip and fall at his feet.
After a while they stopped and leaned on a guard-rail, looking out at the water and the multicoloured reflected lights, ceaselessly moving, and breaking into disjointed lines. Small, unseen wavelets lapped at the shore, and a fishy, salty scent rose from the breakwater. Briar removed her hand from Kynan’s and placed it on the cold metal of the railing.
Kynan turned and leaned back so that he could see her face. His elbows rested on the rail. ‘What did your father say when you told him you were going out with me?’ he asked her.
Briar glanced at him briefly. ‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing?’
‘He said you must have taken a fancy to me.’ She tilted her head, challengingly.
Kynan gave a breathy laugh. ‘Not, “Good girl”?’
Briar drew away from the guard-rail, taking a step back from him. ‘I thought you’d admitted you were wrong about that.’
‘About you,’ he corrected her. ‘And your father is no fool. He’s right, of course. I have taken a fancy to you—just as he wanted me to.’ His voice was light, but there was an undercurrent to it that made her decidedly uncomfortable.
‘Am I supposed to be flattered?’
‘You needn’t be.’
She wasn’t at all sure what he was getting at. Why did she have the feeling that half of this conversation wasn’t taking place between the two of them at all, but somewhere inside his head?
‘I’m cold,’ she said.
His teeth gleamed whitely for a second. ‘Sure.’ He sounded as though he didn’t believe her for an instant. He knew she was retreating. ‘I’ll take you back to the car.’
He drove her home in silence, and she felt stifled and fidgety the whole time. At the house he got out and came round to her door, but she was already on the pavement when he reached her.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘The meal was delicious.’
‘You’re not going to ask me in?’
‘I need an early night. We had a party last night, remember.’
‘Aren’t you used to late nights?’ He was looking at her curiously.
‘I don’t spend my life at parties, if that’s what you mean.’
‘How about tomorrow afternoon?’
‘What about it?’
‘It’s Sunday,’ he said patiently. ‘Are you free in the afternoon? Do you like cricket?’
‘You don’t need to offer me any more outings,’ she said. ‘The dinner was more than adequate atonement.’
‘Meaning, you don’t want to see me again?’
Why was he insisting on making her spell it out? She lifted a shoulder, not saying anything.
His voice soft, he said, ‘Playing hard to get, Briar?’
She almost choked on her indrawn breath. ‘If you still think that my father—’
He made a small, derisive sound. ‘This has nothing to do with your father. It’s to do with you—and me.’
Bewildered, she demanded, ‘What are you talking about?’
‘This,’ he said tersely, and he reached for her and pulled her into his arms and kissed her before she could do anything about it, driving her astonished lips apart with stunning eroticism. His mouth was warm and firm and compelling, and he gathered her body against his as if he knew that was where it belonged, with a sureness and grace that had her pliant as a willow branch for long seconds, before she stiffened and thrust her hands against him, wrenching herself away, her breath coming fast between her open, moistened lips.
He said, ‘That’s what I was talking about. If I took a fancy to you—and I did—at least it’s mutual. So stop pretending, Briar. Let’s be honest about it.’
CHAPTER THREE
BRIAR hadn’t known. She felt stupid that she hadn’t known it until then. He was right. And he’d recognised, long before she did, that the unsettling effect he had on her was due to basic sexual instinct that had seethed beneath the surface and manifested itself in the uncomfortable emotional reactions she’d mistaken for dislike and even fear.
She’d been right the first time she saw him when she’d thought he was far too knowing and too sure of himself. It was humiliating that he’d proved his point so easily, but at least now she knew about her own vulnerability and she’d not let him take her unawares again.
‘Sex on its own,’ she said, ‘doesn’t interest me.’
Kynan laughed. ‘It doesn’t interest me, either. Mutuality is much more satisfying.’
She was glad it was dark enough that the heat in her cheeks wouldn’t be visible. ‘I meant,’ she said, fighting for some dignity, ‘that I’m not in the market for a casual fling with any passing stranger.’
He cocked his head to one side. ‘Are you so responsive to every passing stranger who happens along?’
‘You know I’m not!’ she snapped.
‘How could I know? We only met—’
‘That’s just my point!’
‘Ah. You feel we should know each other better before indulging in...intimacies.’
Briar found her fists were clenched. ‘I’ve no intention of indulging in anything of the kind!’
‘Not even when you know me better?’
‘I don’t want to know you better! I have no desire—’
His laughter interrupted her. ‘Liar. Why don’t you want to get to know me?’
‘I have no desire,’ she said deliberately, ‘to get to know a self-satisfied, smug, egotistical—’
‘I get the idea,’ he interrupted. ‘You don’t like me.’
‘No, I don’t!’
He grinned. ‘Do you always jump to conclusions about people you hardly know?’
‘Only when their behaviour warrants it.’
He leaned forward a little, bringing his face closer to hers. ‘But you liked kissing me, Briar,’ he reminded her softly. ‘You can’t deny that.’
‘That doesn’t mean you had a right to do it!’
Changing tack abruptly, he said, ‘I thought you were enjoying yourself, tonight. Or was that another demonstration of your acting ability? Don’t bother to be polite,’ he added with some irony.
Tempted to dispute it, she hesitated and reluctantly admitted, ‘It was very...pleasant.’
‘Damned with faint praise,’