THEY had covered the ground floor of the house, walked the length of the elegant gallery, with its windows overlooking the parkland and the distant vista of the Derbyshire hills, and were just inspecting the enormous ballroom which opened off it when Elena acknowledged inwardly that Roth might have been right to advise her to wait until after she had rested to inspect the house. Haverton Hall’s rooms might not possess quite the vastness of the palazzo’s marble-floored rooms, nor the fading grandeur of the Prague palace, but Elena had already lost count of the number of salons and ante-chambers they had walked through on the lower floor. The gallery felt as though it stretched for miles, and as she studied the dusty wooden floor of the ballroom her heart sank at the thought of inspecting its lofty plasterwork ceiling and its elegantly inlaid panelling. And they still had the upper floors to go over! But she couldn’t afford to show any weakness in front of Roth and have him crowing ov

The next thing she knew, Roth was taking her very firmly by the arm andpropelling her towards the door, ignoring her protests to leave her alone.At the top of the stairs, to her infuriated chagrin, he turned round and swungher up into his arms, telling her through gritted teeth, ‘If you’re going to faint onme, Elena then here’s the best place to do it.’She wanted to tell him that fainting was the last thing she intended to do, buther face was pressed against the warm flesh of his throat and if she tried to speakher lips would be touching his skin and then...Swallowing hard, Elena tried to concentrate on banishing the agonising painin her head but it was something that she couldn’t just will away. As she knewfrom past experience, the only way of getting rid of it was for her to go to bedand sleep it off.They were downstairs now and Roth was crossing the hallway, thrusting openthe door and carrying her out into the fresh air.‘What are you doing?’ she demanded as he w

It had been the house that she had given most of her mental energy andimagination to lovingly creating, though. A house for a family, a house thatwrapped itself lovingly and protectively around you...a house with enough landfor her to have a pony. A house... The house... This house...!Ran had stopped the Land Rover. Shakily she got out, unable to take her eyesoff the house, barely aware of Roth's expression as he watched her.Just for a second, seeing that luminous bemused expression on her face, hehad been transported back in time...to a time when she had looked at him likethat, a time when...Grimly he reminded himself of what Elena had just said, of the terms she hadjust set between them. She had made it more than plain, if he had needed itunderlining, which he had not, that the only reason she was here in his life wasbecause of her job and that, given the choice, she would far rather be workingalongside someone else...anyone else.The gravel crunched beneath her f

As he went to answer it Elena headed for the stairs.‘Vicky...’ she heard him saying warmly, and then, ‘Yes...it’s still on... I’mlooking forward to it too,’ he confirmed, his voice dropping and deepening.‘Look, I have to go...’She was halfway up the stairs when she heard him replacing the telephonereceiver.‘Elena—’ he began.But she cut him short, turning round and telling him crisply, ‘Don’t let medelay you if you’ve got a date, Roth. I’ve got plenty of work to read up on.’‘You need to sleep off your headache,’ he told her curtly.‘On the contrary. I need to work,’ She corrected him sharply as shecontinued on her way upstairs.Roth stood and watched her. God, but she got under his skin. Why did he lether? Why hadn’t he simply told her that the only date he had this evening waswith a damaged fence?Angrily he turned on his heel and strode towards the front door.As he closed it behind him elena's body slumped slightly; tension hadinvaded each and every one of her m

What is it?’ Roth asked her, his attention caught by the movement of her hand.‘You’re heavy, Roth, you’re hurting me,’ Elena told him, not entirelytruthfully, as she tried to bury herself in the night’s cloaking shadows, but it wastoo late and she could see from the sudden narrowing of his gaze as it followedthe action of her hand that he realised, as she had just done herself, that herwretched T-shirt had ridden up far enough to expose the lower curve of herbreasts.The last thing, the very last thing she wanted was for Roth to study her body inany way at all, so why...why, the moment his gaze fell to her breasts, did theysuddenly decide to react to his presence by swelling and firming, her nipplessensually flaunting peaks of explicit womanhood?‘You’re not wearing a bra...’‘Thank you, Roth, but I am already aware of that fact,’ Elena snapped at himthrough gritted teeth, her face hot with colour as she tried to reach the edge ofher T-shirt to tug it down. But before