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Teeth clenched, she could visualise the sardonic amusement glittering in his eyes without turning her head—she retained a little common sense.

‘Behave, Leandro,’ his mother reproached, her voice warm and amused. ‘You are making the poor girl blush.’

‘A rare thing, a woman beyond a certain age who can blush…’

It would have looked undignified to resist the cool fingers curled around her chin and turned her head up to him.

Did she actually want to resist?

From somewhere, she summoned a streak of defiance as her eyes met and were held by the darkness of his. ‘Are you calling me old?’

For a moment, he did not react, but then he released her, the disturbingly intense expression in his eyes becoming a dark taunt as his fingers fell away, leaving streaks of tingling heat branded on her skin where they had rested.

‘More…mature.’

‘Leandro,’ the Dowager Queen, looking amused by their interchange, censured her son, ‘you must bring Elsie to visit me when things have calmed down. You can take her walking in the hills—he spends more time there than with me.’

‘In a tent. I hardly think Elsie would want to rough it.’

His mother frowned. ‘But she does—she is a great walker and enjoys her solo expeditions.’

‘No, he’s right,’ Elsie cut in, swallowing her annoyance at his assumption that he knew anything at all about her. ‘I like to walk and explore at my own pace. Company tends to defeat the object of being alone with my thoughts.’

Despite Elsie’s rebuttal, the older woman’s frown lines smoothed but didn’t vanish.

‘Besides, he is not very good at accommodating his stride to mine and I don’t enjoy trotting.’ She mimed a trotting action with her hands and clicked her tongue.

‘Now, that is true and he was always the same, such an active child and so kind.’

Elsie looked at him then, turning her head to see the magnificent symmetry of his profile, all sharp planes and dramatic hollows. Kind was not the first word that sprang to mind—ruthless and relentless—but then maybe he had changed a lot over the years—an awful lot!

He straightened up but then bent down. To anyone watching, the way he brushed her ear with his lips would look intimate.

‘Nice catch,’ he murmured, his breath causing havoc to her impaired nervous system.

‘So, when did you two meet?’

They responded in unison.

‘Four years ago.’

‘Four years ago.’

They turned to look at one another.

Leandro smiled and, despite the fact she knew the intimacy was an illusion, her stomach flipped. ‘Then we kind of drifted apart—it wasn’t the right time. And now it is.’

Elsie knew it was an act, but her insides melted anyway.

She was struggling to control her breathing when he walked away. Her eyes helplessly followed the tall commanding figure.

‘I was worried when Leandro told me. I fell for my husband at first sight, and you and Leandro, it was all so sudden.’

‘And convenient?’ Elsie suggested.

‘I only thought that before I saw you two together.’

Thrown by the admission, Elsie bit her lip.