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СКАЧАТЬ I. I grew up on a farm. Your grandmother may have married a tycoon but the rest of the family is reasonably ordinary in terms of wealth and status,’ Ronnie explained.

      Tia was relaxed by Ronnie’s warm, open manner. ‘I believe Max is very successful.’

      ‘You know that legendary king who could turn anything to gold with a touch?’ Ronnie interposed and nodded solemnly. ‘When Max was in banking, he was a total whiz-kid. Doug was always very jealous of him.’

      ‘Who’s Doug?’

      ‘A cousin who doesn’t visit. He and Max went to the same school but they don’t get on,’ Ronnie muttered, her face rather flushed as she looked apologetically at Tia. ‘Please don’t mention to Max that I brought up Doug. I would hate him to think that I was pot-stirring.’

      ‘But why would he think that?’ Tia asked in surprise, glancing across the room only to encounter Max’s dark observant gaze and experience a snaking shivery little frisson somewhere in the region of her pelvis. She remembered the heat of his mouth and his wickedly skilled hands and was honestly afraid that she could spontaneously combust.

      Ronnie winced at the question. ‘I’m not getting into old scandals. The truth is we’ve always been rather intimidated by Max. When he was younger some of the cousins were quite rude to him because he was related to Andrew’s housekeeper. It must’ve been tough for him. I’ve never had much time for that kind of snobbery.’

      Some of the other guests joined them. Unused to a crowd of strangers, Tia was relieved when Max rescued her to bring her back to her grandfather’s side. Seated quietly with the older man, she began to relax again.

      Dinner was served in a big dining room at a table almost groaning beneath its weight of crystal, elaborate porcelain and burnished silver.

      ‘It’s like another world,’ she muttered to Max.

      ‘This lifestyle does belong to a bygone age,’ Max agreed. ‘Andrew lives as his father lived.’

      ‘In incredible comfort,’ Tia whispered back. ‘But I’d really like to see the housekeeper’s flat where you grew up.’

      A rueful and surprised smile at that declaration tilted Max’s expressive mouth but he had tensed. ‘I’m afraid it doesn’t exist any more. Andrew renovated the servants’ accommodation after my aunt died and upgraded it all.’

      ‘When she did pass away?’ Tia asked.

      ‘What was that that you were saying?’ her grandfather demanded from her other side.

      ‘I was asking Max how long it is since his aunt died,’ Tia explained, looking up.

      ‘Eight years,’ Andrew supplied, his thin face tightening. ‘It was a complete shock. Carina caught the flu and it turned into pneumonia. She was gone by the time Max managed to get to the hospital.’

      ‘I was a student on a work placement in New York at the time,’ Max explained.

      ‘She was a good woman, Max,’ the older man pronounced, his voice quavering slightly, his sorrow visible.

      And Tia noticed that the table had fallen silent and that the rest of the diners seemed disproportionately interested in the subject being discussed. She wished she had kept quiet and refrained from mentioning Max’s aunt, but she could not imagine why the passing of the old man’s former housekeeper should rouse such curiosity.

      ‘Tomorrow, I’ll show you round the house,’ Max murmured lazily, apparently impervious to the tension in the atmosphere. ‘Then you’ll feel more at home here.’

      Tia did not think she could ever feel at home with servants and fancy clothes and even fancier furniture, but then she glanced at Max and a kind of peace entered her soul. He made her feel safe and, while he was present, he made her feel as if she belonged. Yet ironically, if she was to believe Ronnie, as a boy Max had been looked down on at Redbridge for being related to the housekeeper. Was that why he still seemed unapproachable in the company of Andrew’s relations and friends? Did he think that old snobbish outlook still existed? Or was it simply that Max was a loner?

      After the coffee was served, guests began to leave and a welter of invitations came Tia’s way. Her phone was soon crammed with new numbers and names.

      ‘Who’s Doug?’ Tia pressed Max, recalling Ronnie’s nervous backtracking and that evocative word, ‘scandal’, which had only roused her intense curiosity. ‘And why doesn’t he visit?’

      ‘One of your cousins. Someone mention him?’ Max’s strong jaw line squared. ‘He doesn’t visit because of something that happened a long time ago when we were teenagers,’ he admitted grittily. ‘It was supposed to destroy my reputation but instead it destroyed Doug’s family and made Andrew angry with him.’

      Andrew’s housekeeper, Janette, a slim, no-nonsense brunette, escorted them upstairs and Tia was forced to swallow back the dozen nosy questions brimming on her lips.

      ‘Mr Grayson asked me to prepare the master suite for you,’ the housekeeper informed them.

      Max frowned in surprise. ‘But that’s—’ He bit off what he had almost said and compressed his lips. The master suite had once been Andrew’s, but since his illness had been diagnosed Andrew had been using a specially adapted room on the ground floor and, given that he needed a wheelchair, it was far more suitable for him. But putting both Max and Tia into the principal room at the hall was making a very public statement about how the owner of the house viewed the status of his newly married granddaughter and her husband.

      ‘I hope you’ll be comfortable here, madam,’ Janette declared warmly, closing the door on them.

      ‘It’s beautiful...’ Tia whispered, her bright eyes skimming appreciatively from the welcome log fire burning in the grate to the silk-clad bed and the arrangement of glorious white roses sited in front of the elegantly draped windows. Kicking off her high heels, she moved closer to the fire because the spring chill of an English evening was downright cold compared with the hot, humid climate she was used to.

      Turning her head, she focused on Max. ‘Now tell me about what happened between you and this Doug,’ she urged.

      ‘Later,’ Max breathed, his faint accent fracturing the word as his hands came down on her narrow shoulders to slowly turn her round and ease her out of her jacket. The fire cast a reddish glow over her blonde hair, darkening the glossy strands while accentuating the creamy perfection of her skin.

      Her breath fluttered in her dry throat. ‘Later?’ she queried, the evocative scent of him, heat and masculinity with a faint hint of something citrusy, flaring her nostrils.

      ‘Right now I only have time for you,’ Max confided, tiny flames reflected from the fire dancing in his dark eyes, transforming them to liquid bronze. ‘I let you sleep last night because you were very tired. It was the unselfish thing to do. I also thought you might be...sore...’

      Her face flamed. ‘Not any more.’

      ‘And I need you to be at full strength,’ Max imparted, ‘because I’m not sure I could be that gentle again, bella mia. In your radius I’m in an almost continual state of arousal.’

      ‘Is that so?’ Tia almost whispered, all woman, all appreciation СКАЧАТЬ