She was determined not to react to his soft, taunting tone. ‘What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you flew off before the sun set.’
‘The sun went down and your stars were out before I could get away.’
‘The reporters,’ Zoe remembered. ‘Anthea told me about them. Did you send them packing?’
‘Like Zeus, with a single blow of my breath.’
Now he really was mocking her; Zoe stuck up her chin. ‘Zeus doesn’t have a place up there in the heavens. Up there he’s called Jupiter. The Greek gods did not get everything their own way.’
‘I know the feeling,’ he drawled sardonically.
Meaning she had stopped him getting all his own way? Well, she could argue with that, since she was the one standing here in his garden, on his island, simply because he had decided that this was where she should be.
‘So, how did you get here?’ She hadn’t heard a car while she’d been out here.
‘I walked from the village along the beach. I like the dress,’ he tagged on casually.
‘Oh … thanks.’ Looking down at the dress, Zoe started frowning. ‘You bought it,’ she told him. ‘Which is something I need to talk to you about. You should not be spend ing—’
‘Do you like your room?’ he interrupted.
‘Yes, of course I like my room, it’s beautiful. Thank you,’ she said again with an added snap of impatience this time. ‘But about the clothes …’
‘And you found everything you needed to make your brother comfortable?’ he cut in on her yet again.
Zoe shifted from one foot to the other. ‘That’s another thing we need to talk about.’ She refused to drop the subject though she knew that what he was trying to make her do. ‘All those soft toys and—things—were not necessary. We will only be here for a couple of weeks and Toby is too young to—’
‘I believe my staff made you welcome.’
Zoe sucked in some air and clenched her hands into fists. ‘You’re not going to stop me from telling you what I think, you know!’
‘I noticed.’ It was his turn to alter his stance. ‘However, do you think you could hold back on our next argument until I’ve at least put a foot inside my house?’
It was the same as a slap on the wrist, Zoe noted, and accepted that she probably deserved it. ‘I was just …’
‘Shut up now, Zoe,’ he urged wearily. ‘The clothes were a gift. I will not miss the money. Same thing with the stuffed toys. When I walked out of the wood and first saw you standing here, I was bowled over by how extraordinarily beautiful you looked—until you started sniping at me, then you spoilt it. Now I think I will cut my losses and go inside.’
With that he swung to face the house.
‘OK,’ she said quickly. ‘I accept I should have been more gracious with my thanks.’
Though he didn’t walk off, his darkly handsome face with that wicked five o’clock shadow did not look very impressed with her small climb-down.
‘It was not my intention to start another fight with you.’ Zoe tried again. ‘The clothes were a very thoughtful gesture. And I am, truly, very grateful that you went to so much trouble on mine and Toby’s behalf and … Well, anyway, I’m sorry I am such an irritant to you and …’
‘You are not an irritant,’ he clipped out impatiently.
What was she then—warm solicitude?
It was her turn to twitch. ‘It really is no use trying to have a normal co
nversation with you, is it?’ She sighed, flicking out a hand in an empty gesture because she didn’t like it that her voice had developed a hurt shake. ‘I was trying to be nice, when you don’t deserve it. I must be stark staring mad. After all, even you must know that your behaviour today was pretty much borderline unforgivable.’
Still the stubborn devil held his grim silence. Zoe heaved in a breath.
‘However, I am also not stupid. I can see for myself that this place is paradise compared to a small terraced house in Islington laid under siege by the press. But if you believe that you are the only one to have had a horrible day, then—’
He moved so gracefully she didn’t see it coming. Next thing he had hold of her chin in the cup of his fingers and a long thumb, and the rest of what she had been about to say just drained from her head. His face was so close to hers now that she could see a brooding restlessness at work behind his darkness, felt a breathless tension spring up between them, made all the more potent by his continuing grim silence.