Page 10 of Shy Innocent In The Spotlight

‘I don’t.’ Something in his tone made her turn back to look at him. His expression was inscrutable except for that enigmatic smile curving his sensual lips.

‘Why do I get the feeling you’re playing with me like a cat does a mouse?’

Mack came back to stand in front of her. ‘I’m fascinated by you.’

She disguised a nervous swallow. ‘Wh-why?’ She could safely say no one had ever been fascinated by her before.

He picked up a loose strand of her red-gold hair and wound it around his index finger. The slight tension on her scalp sent a delicious frisson through her body. The laser focus of his gaze sending her heart rate into the danger zone. But then, everything about Mack MacDiarmid spelled danger. She had never met a more potently attractive man. Never been so close to a man she could almost sense his body’s primal reaction to her. A primal reaction that triggered a firestorm in her own female flesh. ‘You’re a mystery I want to solve.’

‘I can assure you there’s nothing mysterious about me.’ Why couldn’t she get her voice above a throaty whisper? Why couldn’t she just step away from him and get the hell out of the library before she lost all control of her senses? She was hypnotised by his alluring presence, drugged by his touch, addicted to the sound of his voice, hungry for the crush of his sensual lips on hers.

‘Ah, but that’s where I disagree,’ he said, slowly unwinding her hair from his finger. ‘As soon as I saw you at the upstairs window earlier today, I sensed you were hiding something.’

Elspeth rapid-blinked and flicked her hair back behind her shoulders. ‘Of course I was hiding something. I was standing there in nothing but my wrap, for pity’s sake.’

‘You’ve been seen in much less by millions of people all over the world.’

She bit her lip for a nanosecond. ‘Look—I really think we should get back to the rest of the bridal party. The rehearsal’s about to start in a few minutes. It’ll look odd if we’re not there to play our role.’

‘You’re right.’ Mack stepped back from her with a mercurial smile. ‘We have both been assigned an important role to play this weekend, yes?’ There was a cryptic quality to his tone that made her heart rate spike once more.

‘Erm, yes...’ Elspeth gave a nervous swallow. ‘We have.’

But her job this weekend would be a whole lot easier if Mack MacDiarmid weren’t so sharply intelligent and eagle-eyed observant.

Or so deliciously, knee-wobblingly attractive.

‘What are your feelings towards my brother?’

Elspeth decided to be brutally honest. ‘I don’t think he’s good enough for Sabine.’

A knot of tension flickered in his jaw and a hard light came into his eyes. ‘So, you’d like to see the wedding called off? Is that what you’re saying?’

Elspeth forced herself to hold his diamond-hard gaze. ‘Do you think he’s truly in love with her?’

His mouth twisted in a cynical manner. ‘I’m not sure my brother understands the meaning of true love.’

‘Do you?’ The question was out before she could monitor her tongue.

Mack gave a harsh grunt of a laugh. ‘I understand it, I’ve seen it and the damage it can cause when it’s unrequited, but I haven’t experienced it myself.’

‘Nor have I.’

‘Not even with your ex-fiancé?’

Elspeth mentally kicked herself for momentarily slipping out of character. But had Elodie actually loved Lincoln Lancaster? Their relationship had been hotly passionate from the get-go and Elspeth had felt a little envious that no one had ever looked at her the smouldering way Lincoln had looked at her twin. Elodie had claimed to love him right up until the day of the wedding. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, she’d insisted it was all a mistake, that she was too young to settle down, that Lincoln wasn’t the right person for her, etc, etc. It had shocked everyone, Elspeth most of all because she had truly thought Elodie had found her soulmate only to watch her throw him aside as if he were a toy she was no longer interested in. ‘I decided I was too young to settle down. I thought it better to call off the wedding rather than go through a costly divorce further down the track.’

‘But did you love him?’ His gaze was laser-pointer direct.

Elspeth raised her chin at a combative height. ‘My feelings towards Lincoln Lancaster are none of your business.’ She spun away but before she could move a step, his hand came down on her wrist, his fingers curling around her slender bones in a gentle but firm hold.

‘What about your feelings for my brother, Fraser? You cleverly avoided answering me before.’

Elspeth knew she should be brushing off his hand but, just for a moment, she let it stay exactly where it was. The warmth and tensile strength of his fingers on her wrist sent shivers racing up and down her spine and a spurt of liquid heat to her core. How could a man’s touch be so magnetic? So intensely sensual? ‘You want the honest truth?’ she asked with a pointed look.

‘If you can manage it, yes.’ The cynical edge to his tone matched the glint in his eyes and both ramped up her ire.

Elspeth pulled her wrist out of his hold and rubbed at it as if it had been burned by his touch, which it had, come to think of it. A searing burn that travelled all the way to the core of her being, simmering there in secret. ‘I dislike him intensely.’

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