Chapter Three #3
He picked up a loose strand of her red-gold hair and wound it around his index finger.
The slight tension on her scalp sent a delicious frisson through her body.
The laser focus of his gaze sending her heart rate into the danger zone.
But then, everything about Mack MacDiarmid spelled danger.
She had never met a more potently attractive man.
Never been so close to a man she could almost sense his body’s primal reaction to her.
A primal reaction that triggered a firestorm in her own female flesh. ‘You’re a mystery I want to solve.’
‘I can assure you there’s nothing mysterious about me.
’ Why couldn’t she get her voice above a throaty whisper?
Why couldn’t she just step away from him and get the hell out of the library before she lost all control of her senses?
She was hypnotised by his alluring presence, drugged by his touch, addicted to the sound of his voice, hungry for the crush of his sensual lips on hers.
‘Ah, but that’s where I disagree,’ he said, slowly unwinding her hair from his finger. ‘As soon as I saw you at the upstairs window earlier today, I sensed you were hiding something.’
Elspeth rapid-blinked and flicked her hair back behind her shoulders. ‘Of course I was hiding something. I was standing there in nothing but my wrap, for pity’s sake.’
‘You’ve been seen in much less by millions of people all over the world.’
She bit her lip for a nanosecond. ‘Look—I really think we should get back to the rest of the bridal party. The rehearsal’s about to start in a few minutes. It’ll look odd if we’re not there to play our role.’
‘You’re right.’ Mack stepped back from her with a mercurial smile. ‘We have both been assigned an important role to play this weekend, yes?’ There was a cryptic quality to his tone that made her heart rate spike once more.
‘Erm, yes...’ Elspeth gave a nervous swallow. ‘We have.’
But her job this weekend would be a whole lot easier if Mack MacDiarmid weren’t so sharply intelligent and eagle-eyed observant.
Or so deliciously, knee-wobblingly attractive.
‘What are your feelings towards my brother?’
Elspeth decided to be brutally honest. ‘I don’t think he’s good enough for Sabine.’
A knot of tension flickered in his jaw and a hard light came into his eyes. ‘So, you’d like to see the wedding called off? Is that what you’re saying?’
Elspeth forced herself to hold his diamond-hard gaze. ‘Do you think he’s truly in love with her?’
His mouth twisted in a cynical manner. ‘I’m not sure my brother understands the meaning of true love.’
‘Do you?’ The question was out before she could monitor her tongue.
Mack gave a harsh grunt of a laugh. ‘I understand it, I’ve seen it and the damage it can cause when it’s unrequited, but I haven’t experienced it myself.’
‘Nor have I.’
‘Not even with your ex-fiancé?’
Elspeth mentally kicked herself for momentarily slipping out of character.
But had Elodie actually loved Lincoln Lancaster?
Their relationship had been hotly passionate from the get-go and Elspeth had felt a little envious that no one had ever looked at her the smouldering way Lincoln had looked at her twin.
Elodie had claimed to love him right up until the day of the wedding.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, she’d insisted it was all a mistake, that she was too young to settle down, that Lincoln wasn’t the right person for her, etc, etc.
It had shocked everyone, Elspeth most of all because she had truly thought Elodie had found her soulmate only to watch her throw him aside as if he were a toy she was no longer interested in.
‘I decided I was too young to settle down. I thought it better to call off the wedding rather than go through a costly divorce further down the track.’
‘But did you love him?’ His gaze was laser-pointer direct.
Elspeth raised her chin at a combative height. ‘My feelings towards Lincoln Lancaster are none of your business.’ She spun away but before she could move a step, his hand came down on her wrist, his fingers curling around her slender bones in a gentle but firm hold.
‘What about your feelings for my brother, Fraser? You cleverly avoided answering me before.’
Elspeth knew she should be brushing off his hand but, just for a moment, she let it stay exactly where it was.
The warmth and tensile strength of his fingers on her wrist sent shivers racing up and down her spine and a spurt of liquid heat to her core.
How could a man’s touch be so magnetic? So intensely sensual?
‘You want the honest truth?’ she asked with a pointed look.
‘If you can manage it, yes.’ The cynical edge to his tone matched the glint in his eyes and both ramped up her ire.
Elspeth pulled her wrist out of his hold and rubbed at it as if it had been burned by his touch, which it had, come to think of it. A searing burn that travelled all the way to the core of her being, simmering there in secret. ‘I dislike him intensely.’
‘So you regret hooking up with him?’
Elspeth couldn’t meet his gaze. ‘Of course. It’s put me in such an awkward position.
..’ Wasn’t that the truth? She chewed at her lower lip and added, ‘I hate the thought of Sabine finding out but, again, I hate the thought of her marrying him tomorrow without knowing he cheated on her.’ She returned her gaze to his.
‘He should have told her well before this, so she could decide whether she wanted to continue their relationship or not. She thinks she’s marrying a devoted and loyal partner but instead she’s marrying a cheat and a liar.
’ Elspeth knew she was hardly one to criticise someone for lying when all she had done so far this weekend was do exactly that—lie and deceive people.
‘So you believe in honesty in intimate relationships?’
Elspeth’s gaze skittered away from his. ‘As far as possible.’
‘Meaning?’
She glanced back at him but his expression was inscrutable.
‘I’d like to think if I was in a committed relationship with someone they would honour me by being truthful about their feelings.
If they felt, for instance, their needs weren’t being met in some way, wouldn’t it be better to talk about it rather than have those needs met clandestinely with someone else? ’
‘I couldn’t agree more.’
There was a silence that was so intense Elspeth was sure she heard a rose petal drop from the flower arrangement on the antique table in front of the window.
Then the silence was broken by the click-clacking sound of approaching footsteps and before Elspeth could put some distance between her and Mack, Sabine came in with a wide smile.
‘Oh, here you two are. What on earth are you up to in here?’ Her eyes twinkled like a fairy godmother on a matchmaking mission.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Elspeth said, moving away from Mack, conscious of the fiery heat pooling in her cheeks. ‘Are we holding up the rehearsal?’
Sabine’s blissfully happy smile was painful to witness. ‘Only a little. I’m so glad you two are getting along so well.’ She linked her arm through one of Elspeth’s and added, ‘It will make Fraser’s and my wedding day all the more special, won’t it, Mack?’
‘Indeed it will,’ Mack said with a stiff smile that didn’t reach the full distance to his eyes. Then he reached for Elspeth’s clutch purse off the bookshelf and held it out to her with an enigmatic look. ‘You might not want to leave this behind.’
Elspeth was shocked to realise how distracted she had been by him that she had completely forgotten it.
Her life depended on the EpiPens in that purse.
‘Thank you.’ She took her purse from him, only just resisting the urge to snatch it out of his hold.
How could she have been so caught up in the moment she had compromised her own safety?
And not just her physical safety. She was beginning to realise Mack MacDiarmid was a threat to her emotional safety.
And sadly, there was no EpiPen for that.