Page 50 of The Secret Castle in the Highlands

He smirked. ‘You need to stop mooning over a man who isn’t even on this earth.’ He whirled round and strode back over, throwing his case down on the hall carpet. ‘You’re so blinded by him; you can’t see what’s right in front of you.’

My chest rose and fell and I swallowed. ‘Which is?’

‘Do I really need to answer that? Maybe I should show you.’ He was right in front of me in one stride and raised my chin up with one finger. Then his mouth was crushing mine, his hands pressing and kneading my back.

The taste of him was intoxicating. I found my breath catching as I kissed him back with such ferocity, I almost didn’t recognise myself.

I couldn’t resist him. In truth, I didn’t want to.

My stomach fluttered and I pushed my fingers up and into his wiry black hair, gently tugging and pulling those crisp waves. Mason responded by pressing himself harder against me and I reciprocated, arching my back.

Bolts of desire shot through me as his lips continued to seize mine over and over.

A disappointed gasp escaped from the base of my throat when I found him pulling away from me. ‘I’d like to see your precious highwayman do that,’ he growled.

What the hell was wrong with him?

I took a faltering step away from him, as I dragged myself back to reality. ‘So, this,’ I rasped, ‘was just to prove a point?’

What had I done? Why had I let my guard down?

Mason began to speak, but I shook my head. ‘I think you should go.’ I wrapped my arms around myself. ‘I should never have let you kiss me.’

He appraised me from head to toe. ‘You were kissing me every bit as much as I was kissing you.’

‘Well, I shouldn’t have done. It was a mistake to invite you here.’

Mason glowered down at me. I watched his mouth harden. ‘You’re bloody impossible,’ he ground out. ‘I knew there was a reason why I worked alone. It’s a lot less complicated.’

A dry laugh tore out of my throat. ‘Oh, here it comes again. It’s the Lone Wolf speech. You prefer to work alone. You don’t want to be involved with anyone.’

He snatched open the front door, with Darwin trotting at his heels. ‘Relationships aren’t for me. I’ve found that out to my cost.’

‘Yes. You and me both.’

My mouth was still tingling from the feeling of his lips, as he straightened his shoulders. ‘Thanks for dinner,’ he muttered. ‘It was delicious.’

‘Goodnight.’ I stooped down and patted Darwin, before banging my front door closed and biting back disappointment.

I knew I should’ve listened to commonsense. When would I ever learn?

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘And you wonder why I don’t want to get involved with anyone?’ I asked the next morning, as Katie and I unlocked the office door and let ourselves in.

‘Look, Popps,’ she said, gesturing for me to sit down opposite her at the desk. ‘From what you’ve said, it sounds to me as if both of your lives are a bit complicated right now.’

‘It has nothing to do with being complicated,’ I replied, my fingers tumbling over each other in my lap. ‘He goes on like he knows me, but he doesn’t. I’m not even sure why I’m wasting my energy giving him a second thought, anyway.’

Katie buried a knowing smile. ‘Because you like him. A lot. And he’s obviously very attracted to you, too.’

I tried to push away images of his chiselled face. ‘Yes, but not enough evidently, seeing as he’s been spotted with two other women.’

She propped her chin on her hand. ‘You don’t know. They might be work colleagues. Could be entirely innocent.’ She hesitated. ‘Do you know what I think?’

I jumped up from my seat and paced about in front of our noticeboard. ‘No, but I’ve got a feeling you’re about to tell me.’

Katie ignored my sarcasm. ‘You’re both wary of taking a chance. You’re actually more alike than you think.’