He sighed. ‘Very well, Grand Duchessa, we’ll go and check together.’

Leo exited the front door with Violetta trotting at his heels. As they approached the tangle of wildflowers on the lawn he hoped whichever of his security team she’d seen had made themselves scarce. If they hadn’t, and she spotted them, they’d worked their last day for him. If it was paparazzi and they’d been allowed to penetrate the tight ring of security he’d ordered thrown around this place, years of loyal service or not, his head of security would also find himself out of a job.

He wanted her to believe they were entirely alone. He didn’t want her thinking she could just march out of here and request help from one of his men. Not until he’d had time to talk her round and persuade her to marry him after all.

‘Wait here,’ he ordered as they reached the edge of the overgrown lawns.

Of course she ignored him. She hitched up her dress and clambered onto the lawn. Instantly struggling to wade through the tussocks of grass in heels and all those petticoats. She nearly tumbled and made a grab for his hand.

Irritated, he took it, his own progress slowed by having to assist her with almost every step. Eventually they reached the treeline.

The tall grass swayed in the breeze. The boughs creaked in the heat. A startled bird shot for the safety of the skies. Otherwise, silence.

‘See,’ he said, ‘no one here at all.’

She peered around him. ‘The grass is battered down and there is a trail leading away from it.’

Damn it, she was smarter than he’d been told. Willing and decorous—the penis and bedpost remark came back to mind—neither of those had been true so far.

‘A deer, most probably. Basking. It took off when it heard us,’ he said.

She snorted. ‘Sharks bask. Deer maybe sun themselves. But that...’ she pointed at the bowl of flattened grass ‘...is far too big to have been made by a deer.’

He pretended to assess the terrain, squinting at the mountains behind them. ‘I suppose we’re high enough up for it to have been a wolf.’

‘A wolf?’ She shrieked, flattening herself against his back.

‘Relax, it’ll be long gone. It would have run off the moment we stepped outside.’ He looked down at her. ‘Satisfied?’

She sent one last piercing glance to the trees but there was nothing to see. ‘I suppose it could have been a bird.’

She struggled to turn to walk back to the house. In frustration Leo scooped her up and hefted her over the grass to the gravel drive.

As he picked his way back through the tussocks of flowers she clung to his neck. Her hips and thighs were swathed by all her petticoats. But her waist was slender and her arms supple. Small breasts pressed against his chest.

What would she do if he carried his prim bride right over the threshold back into the house? With all the connotations that had.

His foot landed on the first of the gravel.

‘Put me down. I can walk from here.’

‘It’s only a few more paces to the house.’

‘You are not carrying me over the threshold. Put me down. Now!’

Biddable? Strike that too.

‘As you command, Grand Duchessa,’ he purred.

‘Stop calling me that. I’m not the grand duchess until midnight.’

Wasn’t he acutely aware of that?

The second her dainty feet hit the ground she scooted away from him, making a production of shaking out her petticoats and smoothing down the skirt. Beautifying the dress that she apparently loathed. She gave a little sniff of derision and stalked off towards the house, voluminous skirt dragging through the gravel. Her maids would never get the dirt out of it, he thought.

Leo strolled in her wake. Oddly fascinated by the angry sway of her hips in that full gown. What were her legs like beneath all that fabric? Long? Slender? Would there be a supple curve to her thighs? He’d never wondered before and during their previous meetings they’d both been in evening wear, which had meant full-length gowns for her.

Her sister too had been lithe. She’d been a keen rider. Did Violetta share that passion? He was beginning to realise how little he actually knew of his intended. And that it might be useful to know more if he was going to change her mind about marriage.