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Riona knew he was tel ing the literal truth. He had no plans for her to fit into his life, long-term.

His father, however, misunderstood, saying, ‘Quite right, son. I can’t think of anything worse than turning a lovely girl like Riona into a social-climbing executive wife.’

‘But perhaps she’d like to be turned,’ Melissa persisted, her calculating gaze on Riona. ‘She’s already started to dress the part. Out of interest, is that outfit Cam’s choice or yours?’

‘Cameron’s,’ admitted Riona, gritting her teeth.

‘I thought so.’ Melissa looked pleased with herself, adding to Cameron, ‘I must compliment you on your choice. Simple cut, basic colours—much

more flattering for the—shal we say—ful er figure.’

‘You can say what you like, Mel.’ Cameron actual y laughed off the insult—after al , it wasn’t directed at him. ‘You won’t bother Riona. She’s too

sensible to consider emaciation a fashion statement.’

Riona frowned, neither liking his ‘sensible’ nor Melissa’s comment. In fact, she was getting very tired of being the subject of discussion.

‘Garbage,’ Melissa continued inelegantly. ‘Al women long to be thin, just some of us are luckier than others... Perhaps if you ate a little less,’ she directed at Riona just as she turned her attention back to her dinner.

For a second or two Riona was too stunned by the other’s rudeness to react, then she careful y put down her fork and knife, said with leaden

restraint, ‘Good idea,’ and rose from the table before anyone realised her intention.

Cameron cal ed after her, ‘Riona?’ but she kept walking, across the dining-room and out into the hal beyond. She would have kept walking if

Cameron hadn’t caught her on the stairs.

‘What are you doing?’ He grabbed her arm and wheeled her round.

‘What does it look like?’ she retorted with al the anger she’d been suppressing. ‘I’m going to my room. That way it’l make it even easier for your family to talk as if I’m not there—because I won’t be.’

‘What? You’re not making sense.’ He was calm in the face of her temper.

‘Aren’t I?’ she threw back. ‘Wel , maybe I’m not quite so sensible as you think. Maybe I even mind being cal ed fat!’

‘Fat? No one cal ed you fat,’ he tried to pacify her.

‘Oh, yes, go on. Take her side,’ she went on erratical y. ‘Just don’t take me for a fool as wel .’

‘I don’t. I never have,’ he declared seriously, ‘and I’m not taking Melissa’s side. I realise she can be a bitch sometimes. If you want me to have a word with her—’

‘And let her think I can’t cope,’ Riona cut in angrily. ‘No, thank you!’

‘Then what do you want?’ he asked, with heavy patience.

‘A one-way ticket back to Scotland,’ she answered wildly, but found she meant it, too. These weren’t her people. Cameron was no longer her man.

He looked shocked, as if he hadn’t expected such a response, but he should have. ‘Forget it. We have an agreement. Six months minimum,’ he

reminded, his hand closing tighter on her arm.

‘An agreement?’ Riona scoffed at the term. ‘Do you real y see it like that? You point out how little I have to offer Rory, then you say you’l give him Invergair. And if I don’t agree, wel , you’l drag us both through a court battle. What choice did I have?’

‘What choice did you want?’ he snarled back at her. ‘Fergus Ross, I suppose. A sailor gone half the year, you scratching a living on Braeside, a

baby in your bel y after every leave. Is that it?’

Of course, it wasn’t, but Riona found herself shouting back, ‘Yes, that’s it. Why not?’

‘You bitch...’ He climbed on the step beside her and she struggled to free herself from his grip.

‘Let me go!’ she spat at him. ‘Let me go or I’l scream.’

‘Scream away,’ he invited, not caring who heard, and lifted a hand to the back of her head.

‘Don’t...’ she breathed in fury, but it was already too late as he brought his mouth down on hers.

He kissed her hard, wanting to hurt, needing to, forcing her to accept, to open her lips to his. She gasped in anger and shock, and he thrust his tongue into the warm recesses of her mouth. She pushed at his chest and tried to twist from the grip of his hand, but he was too strong. He trapped her against the banister and went on kissing her, punishing her for preferring another man, branding her as his.

And al the time Riona’s mind cried out in protest, desire flicked through her body like fire. She went on fighting against it, against him, against his terrible power over her, until final y he broke off and pushed her away from him.

He stood for a moment, looking from her bruised mouth to her wild eyes, then cursed with soft violence, ‘Damn you. What are you doing to me?’

Riona shook her head. She was doing nothing. He was the one. Destroying.

She shook her head again and he lifted a hand as if to touch her. ‘Ree—’

‘No!’ She backed from him and turned to run.

‘Ree...’ he cal ed after her, and she was crippled by it, but she kept running.

Why did he cal her Ree? Why, when he’d just kissed her as if he hated her? Why, when he’d already kil ed the girl cal ed Ree, the one he’d loved?

She ran until she reached her room, then she threw herself down on the bed to cry once more for the man she’d loved—gone from her forever.

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT WAS the fol owing evening before Riona saw Cameron again. He appeared in the nursery quarters just as she was finishing bathing the baby.

‘I came to see Rory.’ He barely glanced at her before fixing his eyes on their son.

‘Yes, OK.’ She lifted the baby from the bath and wrapped him in a large, fleecy towel.

Cameron sat on a chair while she dressed Rory in his nightclothes, then he broke the silence by asking, ‘Can I hold him?’

His tone was polite, but it stil disconcerted Riona. Last night he’d been almost snarling at her. Now he was being so reasonable. She didn’t trust the change.

But she handed over the baby and watched father and son together. Physical y they were so alike it hurt. A strong baby, Rory clutched at

Cameron’s lapels and pul ed himself up to half stand on his knee. Cameron took his smal hands and helped him bear his weight, and Rory smiled his two-teeth smile before plopping back down.

The game went on for a little while before Rory became tired and anxious and looked round for his mother. Cameron understood and handed him

back immediately.

‘He’l never real y know me.’ He spoke his thoughts aloud, and Riona found herself feeling an emotion curiously like guilt.

‘I... of course he wil ,’ she answered with a certain optimism. ‘He already recognises your face and voice. And when he’s older and comes to

Boston for his holidays, you’l get to know each other then.’

Cameron looked sceptical. ‘I doubt it. By then we’l be polite strangers, nothing more.’

‘But I’l tel him about you,’ Riona promised, suddenly realising her own selfishness in keeping father and son apart.

‘You’l tel him about me,’ Cameron echoed, and gave a short hol ow laugh. ‘And what exactly wil you tel him, Riona? That I’m the bastard who

ruined your life?’

Riona stared at him in disbelief. Did he real y imagine she would be so vindictive? ‘You don’t think much of me, do you?’

‘It’s the way you see it, isn’t it?’ He raised a questioning brow.

Riona didn’t know what he wanted her to say. ‘Please, Cameron,’ she sighed, ‘let’s not go through it al again. I can’t take another fight.’

There was real weariness in her voice. She’d been woken twice in the night by Rory, and had spent a long day in the nursery, brooding. She held

Rory to her now, her face shadowed by unhappiness.

Though she’d admitted her vulnerability, the last thing she expected was Cameron to relent. Yet he did, saying, ‘I’m sorry. Believe it or not, I didn’t mean things to go like this.’ He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked towards the window, before adding, ‘I promised myself I’d be calm and rational but, round you, things never seem to work out that way.’

Riona understood wel enough. It was the same for her. Every time he walked into a room, her body tensed and her thoughts became a jumble.

‘Look, I’d like to visit Rory every evening. If we could cal a truce...’ He faced her once more.

‘I...’ She hesitated, not real y believing a truce was possible between them.

‘I don’t think either of us could take another six months’ fighting,’ he added, his tone revealing some of the strain he was under, too.

Riona looked at him properly for the first time. He was dressed in a dark conservative suit and white shirt. The silk tie at his neck had been pul ed down and the top button opened. He looked grey and drained, very different from the man he’d been in Invergair.

‘Al right,’ Riona murmured in vague agreement, then indicated Rory growing restless in her arms. ‘I have to give him his last feed.’

‘Yes, OK.’ Cameron recognised it as a dismissal and, for once, accepted it. ‘I’l see you at dinner,’ he told her, and, lightly touching his son’s head in farewel , left before she could contradict him.

After last night Riona would happily have dined in her room. But she was no coward and, with Rory tucked up for the night, she changed into a

green silk blouse and elegant black trousers. Then she reluctantly went down to dinner.

She wondered what to expect from Melissa, but, apart from flicking her a hostile glance on entrance, the American girl proceeded to ignore her

throughout the meal.

So did Barbara Adams, but Riona was growing used to that. She was a chil y, distant woman whose conversation with her husband was limited to

household requirements and social events. Had there been any love between her and Cameron’s father, it seemed to have long since died. They treated each other like polite acquaintances, no more.

Riona recognised this because it mirrored the way Cameron treated her. Not that the family seemed to notice the lack of any real warmth between

them. Perhaps it was normal for upper-class Bostonians to behave with such cool reserve, but Riona found herself longing for the Cameron who had been wild and funny and so alive.

Melissa, however, wasn’t put off by this more aloof Cameron as she did her best to monopolise his attention with questions about the business and

remarks about mutual friends and some pretty blatant flirting.

‘You mustn’t mind Melissa,’ Charles Adams said later as they drank coffee in the lounge while Cameron went outside to look over a new sports car

the other girl had purchased and Barbara Adams disappeared altogether. ‘She’s always looked up to Cameron, doted on him as a big brother. I guess she’s a little jealous now he’s final y getting married.’

‘It’s al right.’ Riona wondered if the older man could be real y that naive about Melissa’s interest in Cameron, but she saw no point in disagreeing with him. After al ,
she
wasn’t jealous. Was she?

‘Wel , I just don’t want you to get any wrong ideas,’ Charles ran on. ‘Speaking for myself, I’m more than delighted that you’re marrying Cameron,

and, while you’re living in this house, I want you to feel at home.’

‘Thank you.’ Riona smiled, grateful for his kindness.

‘You know we have some tennis courts out back,’ he volunteered. ‘I’m sure Melissa would give you a game.’

It was an unwelcome idea and Riona was relieved she could say, ‘I’m afraid I don’t play. I’m not very sporty.’

‘Never mind,’ Charles dismissed his suggestion, adding, ‘What sort of thing do you like doing, then?’

‘At home?’ Riona thought for a moment before admitting, ‘Nothing very exciting. I read a little, play the piano, go for walks.’

‘You play piano,’ her future father-in-law echoed with interest. ‘Wel , that’s one thing you could do here. There’s a piano in the music-room—rather a fine one. How wel do you play?’

‘Competently enough,’ Riona said with some modesty, before explaining, ‘My grandfather taught me. He was bril iant. With formal training, he could

have been concert standard.’

‘What about you?’ Charles asked. ‘Did you ever have any formal training?’

She shook her head. ‘I was actual y lucky enough to win a place at the Royal Col ege in Edinburgh, but I never got round to taking it up. I suppose I’m not real y dedicated enough.’

‘Or maybe you had your eye on greater things?’ was suggested in sarcastic tones, not by Charles Adams, but by Melissa, who returned through the

French windows that opened out on to the terrace at the rear of the house. ‘Imagine, a potential Stravinsky in our midst, and you gave it up for poor old Cameron... Wel , maybe not quite so poor.’

‘Shut up, Melissa,’ came from Cameron, who was standing by her side, but there was little force in his words.

Instead it was against Riona his anger seemed directed, as he stared hard at her. His dark blue eyes seemed to accuse her of something, but what

was the question?

‘Come on, Melissa.’ Charles Adams stood up and took his stepdaughter’s arm. ‘Let’s go play some bil iards. You can take things out on me.’

Riona had thought the older man an amiable character without his son’s force of personality, but he proved otherwise as he marched a protesting

Melissa out of the room.

The moment they were alone, Cameron demanded, ‘Why didn’t you tel me you had a col ege place?’

Riona shrugged in response. ‘It didn’t seem important. I wasn’t able to take it up, anyway.’

‘Yeah, and why was that?’ Cameron’s tone was sceptical, as if he expected some poor excuse for her lack of ambition, but then he suddenly

worked out the answer for himself. ‘You had to look after your grandfather instead.’

‘I didn’t
have
to,’ Riona stressed, ‘I wanted to. I suppose you could say if I’d been real y talented or ambitious I would have chosen col ege.’

Riona had admitted as much to herself some time ago. Dedicated musicians let little or nothing in the way of their music. She wasn’t like that. She wasn’t single-minded enough and she didn’t rate music above everything else.

‘You did what you considered right at the time.’ Cameron seemed to agree with her decision. ‘But why didn’t you go to col ege later?’