‘I insist.’ Gentle but firm.
To refuse…To refuse was almost an impossibility.
‘Five…five minutes, then.’
‘Ten.’ His eyes were teasing her and he reached forward to grasp her hand, willing or not. ‘Ten minutes of education. It should just about stretch my knowledge to the limit.’
It did no such thing.
The vines.covered thirty or so acres of north-facing hillside. Niall walked Jess from row to row, ignoring her reluctance and talking as he went. It didn’t take Jess long to realise that Niall Mountmarche knew more than he let on.
Wine-growing was in his blood, he’d told her once, and she knew that it was more than that. This knowledge came from a lifetime of reading and thinking and preparing for a future he wasn’t trained for.
‘Did you know you’d inherit this place?’ she asked curiously as they returned along the rows toward her car. Jessie’s hand was still linked in Niall’s and the feel of it was doing strange things to her-but she’d recovered her equilibrium enough to find her voice.
‘No.’ Niall’s steady flow of talk cut off. He looked down at her as if he were preparing to say something-and then thought better of it.
‘So it came as a surprise.’
‘You could say that.’
They drew to a halt by her car.
‘Come and see where we do the crushing,’ Niall suggested but Jess shook her head.
‘My animals need feeding. I’ve been away for too long already.’
‘But you haven’t come to any harm spending this time with me,’ Niall said gently and Jess flushed.
‘Of course not…’
She tried pulling her hand away but Niall would have none of it. His hold tightened.
‘Jess…’
‘Let me go, please.’
‘I don’t think I want to,’ he said softly. ‘The more I see you the more I believe letting you go would be a crazy, crazy thing to do. I’ve only just found you-and I’ve never known anything so precious.’
Jessie was silenced.
The sun was low on the horizon, casting a brilliant, fiery sheen over the sky as it set in crimson glory. The whole world, it seemed, was holding its breath.
Waiting.
‘Please…’
‘Why are you frightened, Jess?’
‘I hardly know you.’ It was a tremulous whisper.
‘And I hardly know you,’ Niall responded. His hand came up to cup her chin, forcing her eyes up to his. ‘But that’s hardly true, is it, Jess? Maybe I’ve known you in a past life but somewhere-somehow-a link’s been built that’s stronger than both of us. I felt it the first time I saw you-and your fear tells me that you feel it, too.’
‘No…’
‘Yes.’ He didn’t let her eyes leave his. ‘Jess, why the fear? What have I ever done to deserve it? I don’t know what I’m fighting here.’
‘You’re not fighting anything,’ Jess stammered. ‘Please…Let me go.’
‘Not until I know…’ His eyes devoured her face and his fingers came up to touch her forehead. Above her eye was the faint trace of an old wound, running from hair line down to brow.
The tear had been skilfully repaired. It was hardly noticeable-but Niall Mountmarche had surgeon’s eyes.
‘What caused this?’ he asked and his voice was deceptively mild-as if enquiring about the weather.
‘Nothing.’ Jess pulled angrily away but Niall gripped and held.
‘If it was nothing then you’d tell me,’ he said mildly. ‘A savage dog? Hardly. No tear marks. It looks like something’s hit you so hard the skin’s split. Am I right?’
‘It’s nothing.’ Jess put her hand up to cover the scar. She covered it carefully with make-up and normally no one noticed-except this man with the eyes of a hawk.
A hawk with his eyes on his prey.
‘Let me go.’
‘Tell me, Jess.’ The voice was insistent. ‘I’ve a feeling I need to know.’
‘You don’t.’
‘Someone hit you? Is that why you’re running scared? Has someone knocked you around in the past?’
The insistent voice was suddenly laced with anger-as though the thought of such a thing was abhorrent.
‘No…’
‘Then tell me.’
‘I don’t have to.’
‘No.’ He pulled her into him and bent to kiss the fine line of scarring. ‘You don’t. But I need to know, my lovely Jess, and if you don’t tell me then I’ll be forced to resort to other methods. The other doctors on this island? The ones who are doing their training on the mainland. One of them’s your cousin, I think you said. I’ll find out who he is and contact him if I must-or resort to even deeper stratagems. Would he tell me?’
‘You have no right,’ she flashed in fury.
‘To fight for what I’m starting to think matters most in the world?’ Niall shook his head, his hands resisting her furious pull away from his. ‘I might not have the right-but I fight to win, Jessica Harvey. And I want to win you.’
‘Well, want to your heart’s content,’ Jess snapped. She put her hands against his chest and shoved for all she was worth. ‘Dr Mountmarche, I don’t know you. You have a life I know nothing of. You could turn out to be a crook-a murderer for all I know…’
‘Is that what happened in the past?’
‘If you want to know, then, yes,’ Jess flung at him. She was trapped in his hold and her voice held desperation. ‘I met a lawyer. John Talbot. A nice solid, safe, dependable lawyer. The sort of man my mum would be delighted with if I brought him home for Sunday lunch. Only he turned out to be a little more than I bargained for. He killed a man…And when I tried to go to the law he very nearly killed me.’
‘He did this?’ Niall touched Jessie’s scar with infinite tenderness.
There was no imagining Niall Mountmarche’s anger now. This man was one who would protect his own, Jess thought, and for one fleeting moment she let herself imagine how it would feel to be Niall Mountmarche’s woman.
She would be no man’s woman. She had determined that. She wanted no man near her unless she had known them since birth-known their every movement through life.
She couldn’t trust again. There had been more than Jess hurt last time because of her crazy trust. She had trusted a man who was a drug dealer, a thief and a murderer and not only had he tried to kill her but he’d come close to killing her friends as well.
It was a lesson well learned.
The only problem was that Niall Mountmarche was standing before her, demanding her trust with every ounce of will in his body.
Niall Mountmarche was different, her wilful heart screamed at her.
This man wasn’t such a one as John Talbot. How could he be? He’d left his medical practice to rescue his small daughter and bring her a world away from his career in London. John Talbot would hardly have done that. John Talbot looked out for John Talbot. Only for John Talbot.
So maybe she could trust.
Maybe she could follow her heart…
‘No matter what that bastard did to you,’ Niall said strongly, his hands catching hers and holding firm, ‘it doesn’t affect us, Jess. What’s between us…it’s special. Unique. You felt it the same as I when we met for the first time. I thought you were a child trespassing on my land-and you…’ He smiled his caress of a smile that made Jessie’s heart do handstands. ‘You thought of me as the Ogre of Barega. And yet what was between us grew. It has a life of its own. Trust it, Jess. Trust me.’
