Free The Seduction Trap by Sara Wood

lover?’ he enquired insolently, as if he’d consider filling that position should it be vacant.
    ‘No. Nor do I want one. I’ve had men up to here,’ she said, raising her hand and slashing her palm across her throat. ‘I’m going in to dress and I don’t expect you to be here when I return.’
    ‘But I’ve brought your breakfast and a few other supplies.’ Quite unabashed, he heaved a bag of groceries onto the table. ‘Hot brioches, pain au chocolat-that’s a chocolate-filled croissant-jam, decent coffee, fruit-’
    ‘Wait a minute!’ she said, trying to sound irritable despite the incredible smell of warm bread. Her mouth watered. Self-denial was infernally hard! ‘How-how dare you take it on yourself to intrude on my life-?’
    ‘I know. It is a nerve. But you’ve had a dismal welcome and eating is such a pleasure, I find,’ he said earnestly, disconcerting her by gluing his eyes to hers with such compelling sincerity that she couldn’t look away. ‘It’s my offering, from Turaine, to make you feel happier about my village.’
    His village. Yes, she’d forgotten. Tessa studied the food doubtfully. Hungrily. And wavered. She’d made it clear where she stood regarding his flirting. And although her mother had told her to keep away from Guy she’d never know what he was up to if she just told him to leave, would she? It might be interesting, she thought, her eyes gleaming, to see how he intended to acquire the cottages-and why he and her mother loathed one another.
    ‘You’re right,’ she said briskly. ‘I can’t be so ungracious as to turn you down.’
    ‘I knew I could coax you!’ He beamed.
    ‘You didn’t. The chocolate croissant did,’ she said, intentionally flattening his ego. Or trying to. He just laughed, his self-regard not even dented. ‘I’ll get dressed,’ she said, and a mischievous smile lit her face. He was eager to twist her around his little finger. Well, she could take advantage of that. And do a little twisting herself. ‘You can make some coffee for us.’
    ‘Of course,’ he said at once. And with a surprising enthusiasm. Tessa knew then that he must have a private reason for leaping to her bidding. Men like Guy didn’t let women order them around. An unusual excitement fired her body as she walked with apparent demureness back up the path. For her mother’s sake, she’d find out what this reprobate was up to. And take a great delight in scotching his plans!
    Guy picked cherries from the ancient tree with unnecessarily hard concentration, dropping each pair onto the tray close by. After a while, he judged his testosterone to be under control and eased up.
    It amused him that he’d intended to charm her, once he’d discovered she might be the new owner of the cottages, and yet for some reason he’d been dangerously close on a couple of occasions to being captivated himself!
    He strolled to the end of the garden and gazed across the fields to where the Dordogne glistened seductively in the morning sunshine. Unusual woman. Not strictly beautiful, but ... beautiful, nevertheless. Child of the mother. Tessa had her mother’s fatal vulnerability and disconcerting toughness. Plus Estelle’s innate sex appeal. Now he understood his father’s
    helplessness. Both women had the ability to sock a man instantly between the eyes and at all points south, totally missing the brain. He’d never have believed it of himself!
    For a moment, an image of Tessa sprawled like an innocently inviting siren in the hammock came to his mind. Guy scowled. The woman only had to cry and blink at him with those damnably hurt eyes-not even her own colour!-and he felt compelled to forget everything just to touch her, kiss her... And make the same mistake as his father. With Estelle’s daughter, damnit! It would invite a slow erosion of his independence, his honour-his bank account! Guy allowed himself a small, wry smile. He needed a hostess for a wife, not a woman who obsessed him.