He called me beautiful, she thought in wonderment. No one had ever called her beautiful before. But she felt beautiful when he said it. She watched the way his firm, well-kept hands moved on the steering wheel and unbidden came the thought of those same hands touching her.

‘Penny for them,’ he said quietly.

‘Oh, I’m just enjoying the drive,’ she said hastily.

By the time they got back, her foot was already feeling a bit better. As they stopped outside the front door of the hotel, he said, ‘Wait a minute and I’ll carry you inside.’

‘I can limp along perfectly well if you’ll just let me lean on you.’

‘It’ll be better for me to carry you.’

He bent down and surprised her by tilting up her chin to kiss her again. She pushed ineffectually at him with one hand, not wanting to embrace in such a public place. But he ignored her and finished the kiss in a leisurely and eminently satisfactory manner.

She couldn’t help sighing as his lips left hers.

When he bent towards her again, she gasped, ‘D—don’t!’

‘Why not? You were enjoying it as much as I was.’

‘I – you – we hardly know one another.’

‘We will,’ he said confidently.

He picked her up and she leaned against his chest, enjoying the sensation of being in his arms.

Then the spell was broken as a concierge rushed to fetch a chair. ‘Shall I bring you a wheelchair, madam? Or a walking stick. We have quite a collection, left behind by guests.’

‘A walking stick will be enough,’ she insisted, feeling colour rise in her cheeks. ‘I’m all right, really I am. It’s just a sprain.’

When Ben had helped her up to her room he smiled. ‘Dinner at seven?’

‘I’d love to.’

‘In my suite again? I’d come here, but I’m expecting a call from New York.’

‘All right.’

‘You’d better rest for a while. I’ll get them to send up some ice, then I’ll go and find out about your car.’

She’d forgotten that completely.

After another excellent dinner in his suite he looked at her across the table as she sipped a liqueur and tried to smother a yawn. ‘You’re tired and I have some international calls to make.’

She looked at him ruefully. ‘There’s something about a day in the fresh air, isn’t there? I loved it, though.’

‘Me too.’

He escorted her to her door again, watchful as she limped carefully along the corridor beside him using the walking stick. She didn’t know what to say. Was this the end of their acquaintance or not? She’d been hoping he’d remember his promise to show her Bamburgh Castle, but he hadn’t mentioned it again, so she hadn’t either.

At the door she turned and gave him a determined smile.