“I’ve always loved this country,” Scarlett sighed to herself as she stared lovingly down at the harsh stone castle. She was standing on the stone battlements, the part of the castle that looked sturdy and strong. The walls and turrets were centuries old and needed a lot of care. It was possible that several areas of the stone where the mortar had disintegrated too much over the years would need to be replaced, but she was up for the challenge. She’d hired an architect who was already busy working on the structure to make sure the walls and roofs were strong and sturdy. A gardener was designing the gardens and all she had to do was make the interior warm and inviting. It was going to be a challenge, but she could do it.
The line of SUVs and a limousine coming up the long, winding drive startled her. Because there weren’t many trees, one could see for miles on a day like today when the sun was out and the humidity was low. “Who in the world?” she asked. She couldn’t see the man who stepped out of the vehicle from this distance, but she instantly knew that it was Grayson. She could tell by the way he walked, the arrogant way he scanned the area, as if he were king of all he surveyed.
She smiled as he walked into the castle, his bodyguards spreading out and moving into place. The man was arrogant and obnoxious…but she’d made the decision that she was going after him. She loved him and, after that kiss in his limousine the last time they saw each other, she suspected that he loved her. She just had to get him to admit it.
He was a tough cookie. Grayson was one of those guys that the other businessmen didn’t challenge. They always came out the loser. Seeing the way he simply walked into an area, she understood why he was so feared. She smiled in anticipation of the upcoming weeks. She could do this, she told herself. He wanted her. Last week after the gala proved it. If Harrison hadn’t been in the parking garage, she would have spent the whole night in Grayson’s arms.
Now he was here, in “her” house and on her turf. She knew this castle, had been staying here for a couple of days to start working on the changes that were needed. She could make this work, she told herself with a confidence she didn’t necessarily feel. She had to make this work!
“Uncle Charles, if you’re up there, could you help me a bit?” she said to the clouds. “You know how stubborn he is. If there is any advice you can give me, or if God has any secret way to get the man to love me, please send that advice my way.”
Scarlett rubbed her arms, fending off the chill as she took a deep breath and walked down the stairs towards the main part of the castle. And her man.
Grayson had gone through every room in the ridiculous, crumbling castle and Scarlett was not here. “Find her!” he snapped to his guards. “She might be hurt or in danger!”
The guards were already running around, their microphones going crazy with all of the chatter as they relayed various bits of information to each other.
Scarlett stepped into the large foyer, pressing her back against the heavy, wooden door. “Hello, Grayson,” she said and smiled at his surprised expression. She heard one of the guards mumble something and suddenly, the two of them were alone. “What are you doing here?”
He crossed his arms over his massive chest. “It is too dangerous out here for you to be working here alone, Scarlett.”
Her smile widened. “And you’re here to make sure I’m safe? Don’t you have work to do?”
He shrugged, his eyes taking in her bright, yellow capris and her slim-fitting white, silk shirt that hugged her breasts lovingly. Pulling his eyes upwards, he forced himself to concentrate on his woman. “I have one of my tech guys upstairs installing equipment so that I can work while I stay here and make sure you’re safe.”
She laughed softly. More evidence that he loved her. More than loved her. From previous observations with the other men in their small circle, he was protecting “his woman” as Malik would say. It was the most un-politically correct thing to say, but her five men, and this one in particular, were alpha males who stalked their territory like lions, protecting their turf. She should be offended, but she knew that his protection came with many benefits. The best of which was another night like the one they’d shared.
“So what’s your time schedule?” he asked, dropping his arms and moving to one of the rooms. Looking around, he noticed several cracks in the stonework not to mention the dusty furniture that would probably be more useful to an enormous fire than to hold a human body. “You have a lot of work to do around here. This place is a mess.”
Scarlett didn’t take offense. Grayson could find profitable business opportunities in the strangest places but he couldn’t see the beauty of a building or the potential of a room as she could. This was her area of expertise and she loved every moment of her work. “I think this place is beautiful. It has solid bones and graceful lines.” She looked up at the ceiling. “It has a lot of potential.”
Grayson grunted, his way of stating emphatically that he disagreed but wasn’t going to hurt her feelings by contradicting her.
“I’ll work in the dining room until my guy is finished upstairs.”
Scarlett smiled at his retreating back, loving him even more now that he was here, thinking she needed protecting from the big, bad world. He was wrong. She could take care of herself, but it gave her a warm, loving feeling to know that he cared enough to move his office here, just to be near her. Oh, he might be using the guise of protecting her. But she suspected it was just to be close. She liked that about him, she thought.
She slowly pushed away from the old, wooden door, eager to get started and even more energized now that he was close by. She had plans for that man!
Watching him walk up the stone steps to the upper level, she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from his firm butt or the broad shoulders that were outlined by his tailored shirt. She now knew what was underneath that fine fabric. And her mouth watered, just thinking about all of those muscles. “That is fine,” she said, almost to herself, still watching him. “I’m going to stay down here and start working through my ideas for this level.”
Another grunt, telling her that he didn’t really care what she was doing now that he knew where she was, and then he was gone from her sight. Not for long, she thought as she moved back into the kitchen so she could retrieve her sketchpad. She and Grayson had been playing poker for the past several weeks, both trying to bluff. But he’d just showed his hand and Scarlett was playing to win now. One thing about poker, she could always beat her guys.
She stood in the middle of the room for a moment, fiddling with the next button on her silk blouse. Should she? Dare she?
She glanced through the doors of the kitchen. At the top of the stairs was a small library, apparently where Grayson was planning to set up his work area but he was in the dining room at the moment, waiting for his equipment to be set up. Spotting Grayson looking down at some papers that were already spread out over the battered, wooden table that someone had probably used in a kitchen at some point, she smiled as her plan formed in her mind. Her fingers continued to fiddle with the button on her blouse while she watched him, fascinated by the way he could focus so completely on his work. So the question of ‘should she’ or ‘dare she’ was finalized as she watched him start to write something on a piece of paper. Definitely, she thought and flipped the button open. She would even open another button on her blouse, but that might be too obvious and she wasn’t sure she was that brave. Not yet.
Taking her ever-ready sketchpad and her pencil, she walked slowly into the formal living room which was right next to the previously elegant dining room. She thought of all the sexy fashion models in the magazines, the way they stood, their hips, the sexually evocative poses and she tried hard to imitate those poses.
Unfortunately, her mind became absorbed in her task and she lost her sexy-model-pose, losing herself in her imagination. Laying her sketchpad on a rickety side table, she bent over and drew several of her ideas, thinking of various ways to transform the room into something special, something cozy and warm where Harrison and Sierra could sit in front of that stone fireplace and slip away from the world.
Grayson watched Scarlett as she lost herself in the redesign of the room. She had wandered in and he’d tried unsuccessfully to keep his mind on his work, but the way she was floating around, looking at walls, then sketching something on her notebook, kept drawing his eyes away from the contracts and the e-mails he should be concentrating on.
And when she bent over, he could see her very round, very perfect bottom in her yellow carpi pants, the curved globes outlined by the soft fabric.
His eyes narrowed as she bent lower, moving about and seeming to be completely focused on her task, doing that cute lower lip biting thing or sticking one of her pencils in her mouth while she used another pencil to do something on her notebook. He had no clue what she was drawing, but whatever it was, she was completely focused on her work.
Which was exactly what he should be doing. But it didn’t matter. His eyes watched her surreptitiously, following her as she shifted around the room. His eyes noticed how sexy her legs looked in her kitten heels. When she turned around and leaned over, the white silk of her blouse fluttered open, giving him an almost unfettered view of the lace of her bra.
Was there a bit more of that delectable shadow showing? Grayson looked intently at her silk blouse, wondering if he’d missed something over the past few minutes. Had that button been undone before? He wasn’t sure, nor did he really care. If it had come open accidentally while she was sketching, he wasn’t going to complain. Nor would he draw her attention to the blouse, not wanting her to button it up again, hiding the enticing view from his starving eyes.
His body was throbbing with need. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her delicious body. She was both elegant and refined while at the same time, sexual in ways he didn’t want to notice.
What the hell was he thinking? This was Scarlett! He’d already mauled her once at a point when she was at her lowest. He was here to protect her, not hurt her again!
Hell, if Harrison had told any of the other guys that he’d been trying to bring Scarlett into his building, all four of them would be on his case, demanding an explanation.
When that thought came to mind, he paused. What would the others do? Maybe they would force him to marry Scarlett? That was an enticing thought and his eyes moved back to her, wondering if he should…
No. He wouldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t force her to be in his life. The woman deserved happiness. But he wasn’t going to leave her unprotected. If there had been home invasions, as Harrison had mentioned, his only job right now was to protect her and make sure she was getting her work done in a safe and secure environment. That’s all!
Turning away, he forced his mind to focus on his work. He had to get this contract finished, he told himself.
“Excuse me, but can I grab your pen?” she asked. But she was already leaning over his shoulder, that soft silk fluttering against the side of his face and he almost groaned out loud. But he fisted his hands and resisted his need to lift her up and make love to her on this table.
When she pulled back, she left behind the soft, flowery scent of her perfume. A scent that he’d given her last Christmas, he realized. As she pulled back and that incredible scent lingered, he gritted his teeth to keep his hands on the table and not wrapping around her arms to pull her onto his lap. He’d never give her another damn bottle of perfume again, he solemnly promised himself.
Her dainty fingers closed around the pen, she scribbled something on her notebook, then placed the pen back on the wooden desk. “Thanks,” she said and glided away again but made sure to “accidentally” brush her hip against his arm.
Grayson watched with growing need as she moved around the room, making notes, taking measurements, drawing something before turning once again. Was she doing this on purpose? Was she trying to entice him? To drive him crazy with lust?
Or was that just what he wanted to think? If he thought for even one moment that she knew what she was doing and understood the consequences, he would toss her over his shoulder and carry her off to his bedroom so that he could make love to her before she could even squeak out any protest.
But this was Scarlett. She was innocent of those types of machinations.
Wasn’t she?
Scarlett moved into one of the cozy guest salons off of the main hallway, closing the arched door and gritting her teeth as she tried hard to overcome the lust that was surging through her after that little attempt. She’d done everything she could think of to entice him but he’d only sat behind that stupid table, pretending she wasn’t even there! Why hadn’t he done something? Was she wrong about his feelings for her? Was she making a fool of herself?
She had no idea but she slumped down into one of the old chairs, coughing and waving her hand in front of her face when a cloud of dust wafted up. She didn’t move though, accepting this as her punishment for being so obvious about her attempts to seduce the man who didn’t want to be seduced. Some people suspected him of being inhuman. As she thought about all the things she’d done in that room moments ago, she wondered if the rumors were true.
But then memories of that one night with him, and then the way he’d kissed her after the gala…
No, the man wasn’t a robot. He was flesh and blood and he was here because he cared. A man couldn’t kiss her like that, he couldn’t make love to her as he had without some sort of feelings for her.
Maybe she was doing something wrong. She wasn’t wearing anything clingy. Nor did she have the sexy underwear on or the plunging neckline with the piece of jewelry to draw his eye. But she had boobs! Why wasn’t he just looking at her boobs? Other men did! She’d caught them! She’d been offended but ignored them. What did she have to do to get Grayson to look at them?!
With a sigh, she stood up and dusted off her clothes and her sketchpad, trying to clear the air so that she could focus on this room and her work. Enough silliness. She’d have to come up with a new game plan because this one obviously wasn’t working very well.
For the rest of the afternoon, she worked by herself, not brave enough to go back and try to entice a man who didn’t seem to want to be enticed.
She worked hard, figuring out creative, interesting ways to use the various spaces in the old castle, thinking of Sierra’s favorite colors, she sketched several ideas, trying to come up with options. Sierra and Harrison could then decide what they wanted the final rooms to look like and she’d hire the contractors to get the work accomplished.
Moving from room to room, she continued to work, unaware of the afternoon sunlight fading away until Grayson walked in and took her sketchpad away. “Time for dinner,” he announced with a firm voice.
Scarlett’s mouth dropped open, more than ready to protest his obnoxiousness. He worked long hours, why would he try and stop her from doing the same? She was about to argue, but the look in his eyes told her that he wasn’t going to allow it. “Come on,” he said and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the old kitchen. There were slightly more modern conveniences in this room, but some of the appliances would need to be updated and a plumber was already working to replace some of the older pipes. An electrician had already finished the work of installing additional and updated electrical outlets so that the modern appliances could be brought in. Thankfully, it was an extremely large space and it wouldn’t need to be expanded.
When she saw all the food on the counters and simmering on the stove, she was startled. “Where did all of this come from?” She’d been prepared to have just a bowl of cereal for dinner. And breakfast, actually. She loved creating exciting places in which to eat. Creating exciting things to eat in those rooms wasn’t as fun. She’d never really gotten into the whole cooking thing.
There was an opened bottle of wine with delicate, crystal glasses and a veritable feast of tangy pasta, pungent garlic bread and a delicious looking salad.
“Did you make all of this?” she asked, stunned by all the food.
Grayson laughed. “No way. I had someone bring it in,” he told her and poured two glasses of rich, red wine. “Here,” he handed one of the glasses to her. “Now sit down and tell me what you’ve dreamed up to make this sad pile of stones livable.”
Scarlett laughed at his description and took a seat while he piled an enormous serving of the pasta onto her plate. She’d never be able to eat all of that, but she thought he was cute as he filled up the rest of the plate with salad and added two slices of garlic bread. Amazingly, that was only half of what he served himself, but since he was twice her size, she supposed that made sense.
“I have just started sketching out some ideas. I don’t know what Sierra and Harrison want at this point but I thought about some really good ideas for making the rooms a bit more warm and cozy.” She stabbed several pieces of lettuce and looked across the table at him. “What have you been working on?”
Grayson took a long swallow of the excellent red wine before answering. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say because, in reality, he hadn’t accomplished anything today. All his mind could focus on was the way her silk blouse moved against those perfect, beautiful breasts or those long silky legs. Every time he tried to focus on work, an image of her and those yellow slacks reared up in his mind, distracting him once again.
“I reviewed some contracts,” he replied grimly.
Scarlett cringed. “That doesn’t seem very exciting.”
“It is very exciting,” he replied, when he actually did something with the contracts, he silently added. “I prefer looking at contracts and reviewing ways to make money versus drawing something. No one would be able to figure out what I’ve drawn.”
She laughed. “Anything that has a profit and loss spreadsheet interests you.”
They discussed the various repairs that needed to happen on the castle before she could start her work. As she spoke, she realized that there weren’t as many problems with the structure of the castle as she’d originally thought. “The architect thinks that he can be finished in only a couple more days.”
“That soon?” Grayson asked. “I thought there were some pretty major issues with the external structure.”
Scarlett shrugged. “I thought so as well. But when the architect got in here, he discovered that most of the work wasn’t needed. All of the areas that Harrison thought were breaking down were actually fine. There are several cracks in the stones, but the architect explained that the weight of the stone blocks actually supported each other, making it a relatively solid structure.” She shrugged and took another sip of wine. “It won’t stand up to a major earthquake, but it will protect the occupants during many more winters to come. According to the man I hired. I’ll check with Harrison again just to make sure he didn’t want additional work done, but overall the castle is still pretty solid even after all these centuries.”
Grayson finished off his meal and leaned back in the chair, filling up both of their wineglasses once more. He noticed that she had only finished off a fraction of the food that he’d served her and waited until she was finished. “So how long will it take you to finish all the work that you want to do in here?”
Scarlett looked around, her eyes glancing up at the ceiling and the walls. “Well, this kitchen needs some pretty major renovations which should take about four weeks. But that depends on how soon the cabinets and other appliances can come in that I ordered.” She lifted her glass and leaned back into the chair, thinking about all the things that she wanted to do for Sierra and Harrison’s beautiful castle.
“I really love this place. There’s just something about the old stones and the interesting rooms that make me want to just curl up by the fireplace and read a good book.”
Grayson thought of more interesting things that he’d like to do in front of a fireplace, although reading a book with this woman curled up next to him would be pretty nice. “Why don’t you buy it?”
Scarlett laughed. “There is no way that I could afford this place. Besides,” and she looked around once more, “I can’t imagine Sierra and Harrison letting this go.”
Grayson grunted and Scarlett’s eyes fell onto his handsome features. “What does that sound mean?” she laughed.
He shrugged and set his wine glass down so that he could pick up the plates. Carrying them over to the sink, he started rinsing them off. “You should use more red,” he told her.
Scarlett’s eyes were confused. “Sierra doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would like red décor.”
He turned away from her when he noticed she was bending over to brush the crumbs from the table and he could see that shadow between her breasts. That enticing shadow. “When I spoke to her, she mentioned that her favorite color was red lately. Who am I to contradict a woman?” he said and walked back to the table where Scarlett was wrapping up the rest of the food. “Just go with red, like the lady asked.”
She didn’t respond, but thought about asking her friend. There wasn’t a single room in any of Sierra’s houses that had red décor so Grayson’s comment just didn’t make any sense. “We’ll see. I’m off to bed,” she told him, looking at the muscles underneath the material of his shirt. She longed to run her fingers over his back and wondered what he would do if she tried it.
She shivered, thinking of all the ways she’d like to entice him but…
“You sleep in the nude, right?” she asked.
Grayson spun around, a soapy dish in his hand that crashed to the tile floor with her question. “What the hell, Scarlett?” he demanded angrily.
She moved over to the closet and grabbed a broom and dustpan. While she swept up the broken dish and then looked up at him, it took all of her effort to hold back the secret smile that wanted to spring to life on her lips at his reaction. “It was just a question.” She moved slightly closer to him. “What’s wrong with the question?” her voice turned softer. “Do you?”
Grayson pulled back, his black eyebrows moving down to her blue eyes. “None of your business, Scarlett.” But damn, he wanted it to be her business. “What made you ask that kind of a question?”
He pointed towards the garbage can, silently telling her to take care of the sharp pieces.
She moved over and dumped the broken plate into the can, then turned around to face him. “I’m going to try it.”
Grayson closed his eyes, praying that she wasn’t talking about sleeping in the nude. Please God, don’t let her say that she was sleeping without pajamas. He wasn’t sure he could take that kind of an image in his mind right now. “Try what?” But he knew! Damn, he knew what she was going to say and everything inside of him clenched as he waited for her answer. His hands gripped the edge of the counter and his jaw clenched.
“I’m going to try sleeping nude. There must be something to it. I mean, you do it, other people do it. There must be something quite liberating about sleeping without any other clothing between one’s skin and the sheets. Right?” she asked him, watching him carefully.
Grayson shook his head and wiped his hands on the dishtowel. “You’re not sleeping nude, Scarlett,” he snapped out angrily. “You’ll catch a cold.”
That sounded like the most ridiculous reason for her not to try it. “But you never catch a cold. In fact, you’re almost never sick. Maybe that’s why you sleep in the nude. It keeps you from getting sick.”
“That’s specious reasoning and you know it. Just wear a damn nightgown.” Preferably flannel. One that buttoned up to her neck, he thought. And covered everything between, right down to her pretty toes.
The image of Scarlett in a flannel nightgown popped into his mind and he almost groaned out loud. Not even flannel could make her look unenticing.
“I’m going to put it to the test,” and with that, she spun around on her heel and walked out of the kitchen.
Grayson watched, noticing her adorable bottom as it moved against the fabric of her capris. All he wanted to do was lift her up, toss her over his shoulder and make love to her. He muttered several curses under his breath as he accepted that he would get absolutely no sleep tonight. He’d be spending the evening thinking of her moving around under her sheets without a stitch of clothing on. And after their one night together, he knew exactly what she looked like without all those clothes on!
It was going to be an extremely long night.