Free HER ONE AND ONLY VALENTINE - by Trish Wylie Page B

for me?'
    Kane exhaled and smiled back at her, the tension in him disappearing in a heartbeat. 'Yep. C'mon. Let's go get something to eat.'
    Being in Lizzie's company was the only time he felt completely at ease in the house. But he couldn't keep putting off spending time with Rhiannon and he knew it. The line of communication had to be opened. He wanted answers. More than that—he wanted to know everything so that he wouldn't have to keep studying her and noticing things.
    Like her natural ability to move gracefully, the sensuous way she would tilt her neck to rub her long fingers against her shoulders, how everything from the soft fall of her hair to that way she had of running the tip of her tongue over her full lips when she was nervous constantly reminded him of how innately feminine she was. And how that femininity would tug at an invisible part of him, the part deep inside that he hadn't felt so keenly in a long, long time around another woman.
    If familiarity really bred contempt then he wanted that familiarity.
    'I lit a fire in the stove room.' He stood in the kitchen doorway, studying Rhiannon with cautious eyes while he attempted to keep a soft tone to his voice.
    She looked tired—dark circles under her eyes, her pale skin lacking its normal creamy glow.
    And he'd grudgingly admired her guts for coming down to sit through dinner. No matter how she felt about him being there, she never let it affect the way she was around Lizzie. And that couldn't be easy, he knew.
    Running a cloth over the end of the table, she focused completely on her task, taking a breath before she answered him. And that had to be tiring too, the constant caution around him in the brief moments when they were alone together.
    He pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, leaning a shoulder against the door jamb. 'This place is draughty as hell, isn't it?'
    'Yes, it can be. Most old houses of this age and size are, I think.'
    All right, that had worked. So maybe talking about Brookfield was a starting point.
    'Mattie said you always loved this place.'
    'Yes.' She nodded, turning to rinse the cloth out at the deep Belfast sink. 'Brookfield is special. It's the kind of place you dream about when you're a little girl. I once saw a doll's house with three storeys like this place in a shop window and it became a dream house in my mind. And Lizzie has always loved it here.'
    Kane thought back to the little he could remember of Rhiannon's life from before. And discovered he didn't remember much beyond the fact that her family hadn't been well off. Had she told him more than that? She couldn't have; he'd have remembered.
    She spoke again. 'Where is she?'
    Ah, okay, she was looking for her shield again, was she? And, with a quick glance at the set of her narrow shoulders, he could see that she wasn't happy with being alone with him again minus that shield. Well, if he was going to have to do without it in order to open a line of communication then Rhiannon was going to have to deal with it too.
    'She went up to take her shower.' He pushed off the door frame and walked across to the Aga. 'Do you want coffee?'
    He sensed her hesitation so placed an air of nonchalance into his tone. 'I'm making one anyway.'
    'All right, then.'
    Lifting the kettle from the back of the Aga, he stepped closer to Rhiannon at the sink to fill it with water. The minute his arm brushed hers, she jumped back a couple of inches and Kane sighed impatiently, studying her from the corner of his eye as he poured the water.
    'I don't bite.'
    She didn't answer him.
    But she did fold the cloth, set it over the edge of the sink and step away from him to gather mugs and coffee from a cupboard.
    Kane lifted the plate on the Aga and set the kettle on the plate to boil, before moving to the fridge to get milk. And in the tense silence it occurred to him that it was the first task they had worked on together, albeit in silent communication, since he'd come to the house. She'd stayed on