‘All right, commercial break,’ he said roughly, scooping her up into his arms as if she weighed nothing, ‘If you carry on like that, this whole event is going to be very short-lived. You need to slow things down, angel. Make me beg.’

Beg?

She had no idea how to make a man beg. Flora clamped her mouth shut, judging it wise not to confess as much at this point. The problem with playing the seductress was that you were expected to follow through.

He carried her up a flight of stairs to the bedroom. Dusk was falling but there was enough light for her to see open fields and the jagged ruins of Glenmore Castle.

‘It’s a wonderful view,’ she breathed, and he gave a lazy, confident smile as he deposited her in the centre of the bed.

‘The only view you’re going to be looking at has me in it.’ He delivered a lingering kiss to her mouth and then lay down beside her and rolled onto his back, arrogantly sure of himself, his gaze direct.

And she understood. He wanted active, not passive. He was giving her the chance to change her mind but she had no intention of doing that.

She wanted this. She wanted him. And this time she wasn’t going to blow it. The whole of Glenmore could sing and dance outside his bedroom window and it wouldn’t make any difference.

Aware that he was waiting for her to make the first move, she reached out a hand and stroked his shoulder, shivering slightly as she felt smooth skin and powerful male muscle.

He lay still, his eyelids lowered, watching and waiting, and suddenly she felt desperately nervous and impossibly excited.

‘You can stop whenever you want,’ he murmured, but he sounded less cool and composed than usual and the edgy quality to his voice gave her courage.

‘I’m not stopping. You have an amazing body,’ she said huskily, and her eyes slid shyly to his and her insides tumbled and warmed. He was so outrageously sexy that it was hard not to stare and even harder not to touch. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, feeling the roughness of male stubble under her lips. Then she ran a finger over his nose, exploring the bump. ‘How did you break it? Were you fighting?’

‘Rugby.’ He turned his head and kissed her fingers. ‘I’m not quite the animal everyone seems to think I am.’

‘Aren’t you?’ She trailed her finger over his mouth and then replaced it with her lips and he slid a hand behind her head and held her there while they kissed. His mouth was hot and purposeful and she felt the excitement flash through her body, turning her from willing to desperate.