The Pleasures of Spring (15 page)

Andy rolled, knocking Hall to the ground, but it was obvious that Hall had the upper hand. On the ground, Frankie couldn’t fire again, and Hall had the gun in his hand.

A storm of yelling heralded the arrival of the extras. Still dressed in Viking and Celtic costumes, they stormed around the corner of the castle, as beautiful as angels to Roz’s eyes.

Relief weakened her knees and she slumped to the ground.

Andy yanked her to her feet again. ‘Come on, we have to get out of here.’ He hauled her away from the sounds of battle raging behind her.

‘What’s happening?’ She managed to get the words out in a strained whisper. Her lungs were reluctant to waste
any oxygen on talking. Andy kept pulling her, not giving her time to rest, and it took her dazed brain a few minutes to realize he was heading for the car park.

‘The guys will keep Hall busy while we get away. We have to move now.’ He shoved her into his Jeep, not giving her time to do up her seatbelt before he jumped into the driver’s seat and turned the key. ‘I reckon we’ve got about five minutes before he comes after us again.’

The country roads passed in a blur but it was almost an hour before Andy thought it was safe enough to stop. His body ached all over and he probably needed stitches for the cut over his eye but at least they were both alive.

He had almost lost her. Damn it, he was a complete fuckwit. He had known that Hall was after her, but had been so obsessed with the attraction between them that he hadn’t taken enough precautions. Now he knew exactly why ‘Don’t fuck the client’ was the unofficial motto of Moore Enterprises. It made him careless, and Roz had almost paid the price.

No more, he resolved. From now on, he would do a better job. He would keep his distance and not let himself get distracted again.

Beside him, Roz was in shock. She had gripped her hands together to conceal the shaking but the fine tremble in her body was obvious. He turned up the heating as high as it would go and pulled a coat over her to keep her warm.

They needed a plan. If he let her go back to London she would disappear again. He needed to take her somewhere he could keep a close eye on her. Hall had caught up with her once and there were no guarantees what he might do.

Up ahead, a sign announced a service station and he pulled over. He had forgotten how ridiculous they looked until he saw the expression of the girl behind the coffee machine. He was still wearing his native Celt outfit, splattered with a mixture of fake and real blood, while Roz looked like an extra from a King Arthur movie.

‘Fancy dress party,’ he explained with a wink. Damn. They would have to get proper clothes in the next town. He shoved his wallet into his pocket and, balancing two cardboard cups and a couple of sugary pastries, he walked to the corner booth where Roz was waiting.

Even though her clothing was grubby and dishevelled from the encounter with Hall, she was stunningly beautiful. The sight of her shocked face in that field outside Tullamore would haunt his dreams for a long time. When that shot was fired, he’d thought it was the end, that she was dead.

Possessiveness flared inside him as he remembered last night when she had been his. He needed to experience that again. He wanted her back in his bed and he wouldn’t mess up this time.

He made up his mind. He would break his most solid rule and take her home to Lough Darra. He had given a Belfast address when he had joined the army and had never alluded to his family’s wealth. He was plain Andy McTavish – nothing to do with the wealthy Campbell McTavish family who bred horses. He had always guarded his parents’ home with absolute privacy. There was no connection between him and them. No one would look for her there. His parents would adore her and she could hide out there for months.

The prospect of time alone with Roz cheered him. It was a perfect solution but first he had to convince her. ‘We need to get some fresh clothes and then I’m taking you home.’

‘London?’ She set her coffee cup down.

‘No. My home, it’s called Lough Darra.’ He went on, ‘Look. You have a former Navy SEAL on your trail. He’ll have someone watching the ports and airports waiting for you to leave Ireland. And you can’t go back to Frankie.’

Andy wanted to kick himself when her face crumpled. It was pretty underhanded to play the guilt card, but Roz had to see the reality of her situation. She was alone and penniless in a strange country and she had nowhere to go. ‘I’ll get onto Niall. He’ll see that Frankie is taken care of.’

Suspicion flared in her eyes. ‘And what do you get out of it?’

It was time for honesty. ‘A fiancée.’

Her lips parted, then firmed. ‘Are you asking me to marry you?’

He couldn’t read her face, but her voice was strained. Fuck, of course she didn’t know his situation, and thought he was trying to mess with her head. ‘No, of course not. It’s for my parents.’

She picked up her cup and took another sip of the coffee before she replied. ‘Yeah, I can see why you’d need a fake fiancée. Your technique could do with a lot of polishing or you’ll never get one by normal means.’

Ouch. He had asked for that one. ‘My parents want me to settle down. I’ve been home less than a week and already they’re parading me about the place like a stallion at Tattersalls.’

A smirk twisted her mouth. ‘Poor little rich boy. My heart bleeds for you.’

He reached for her hand. ‘Please Roz. If I can’t find you a safe house, then Niall or Interpol will. The time for running is over.’

‘That’s blackmail.’ Roz tugged her hand away and folded her arms across her chest. As she stared out the window, Andy watched her reflection. He had always thought that she was identical to her sister Sinead, but there were subtle differences.

Roz had a tiny scar beneath her chin. Her cheekbones were a shade higher and her nails were short and unpolished. He was coming to realize that there was a world of hurt and anger simmering beneath the tough, uncaring façade she presented to the world.

Finally, she turned to face him. ‘Okay. I’ll do it.’

‘Great.’ Andy smiled, waiting for the catch. With Roz, there would always be a sting in the tail.

‘But I need clothes. Your house is posh, isn’t it?’

To him, Lough Darra was home, but he supposed it would look posh to an outsider. He nodded.

‘Then I need a new wardrobe. I can’t arrive dressed like this. Oh, and I want a ring.’

He swallowed. ‘A ring?’

Roz didn’t bother to hide her glee. ‘Yes, a nice, big, expensive one, the kind that you’d buy for me if I really was your fiancée.’

She sat back, waiting for him to refuse. But he wasn’t going to back down.

‘Done. Now, let’s go.’

They couldn’t go shopping for a ring dressed like two
extras from
Braveheart
. Security would stop them before they got into the first store. First stop was an outlet store off the motorway, where he purchased a dress for Roz. When he returned to the car wearing a cheap new shirt and dark jeans, Andy allowed her to clean his cuts with baby wipes, enjoying the small, tender touches. He was turning into a sad bastard.

While he drove, Roz managed, in a complicated manoeuvre, to wriggle out of her costume and into the new dress without revealing an inch of flesh.

‘Stop perving,’ she snapped at him. ‘I can see you looking at me in the mirror.’

Andy kept his eyes on the road, trying not to grin.

In Belfast, with a vague memory of where a former girlfriend shopped when she was in the city, he took her to Cruise. Roz stroked the fine fabrics with pleasure until she saw the price labels. She immediately headed to the sale rail to study what bargains were left over from last season, looked at the price tags and backed away from that.

Andy remembered the wardrobe in her flat in London. Cheap clothes and expensive shoes and gloves. He cursed himself for not thinking about it sooner. Roz would never spend money on herself. He would have to do it for her.

‘My girlfriend’s luggage got lost on the flight here,’ he informed the sales assistant quietly. ‘Why don’t you help her select a whole new wardrobe?’ Andy placed his credit card on the counter.

Roz was bundled into a dressing room and one outfit after another was passed to her to try on. A couple of times, he heard her laugh at the more outrageous selections, but
eventually, they emerged from the store carrying half a dozen bags.

Her face was flushed and her eyes had an unfamiliar sparkle. ‘What’s next?’ she asked.

As they passed a lingerie store, she stopped with a wistful expression. Wisps of lace and satin were draped artfully on a velvet chaise longue and the mannequin in the window wore a steel boned corset that reminded him of Lottie le Blanc. The thought of Roz wearing something like that made his cock stir. Andy relieved her of the bags and inclined his head towards the doorway. ‘You have one hour. Make the most of it.’

He found a coffee shop nearby where he could observe the entrance to Orchid Lingerie and settled down to wait for her. He had to file a report and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

‘Andy,’ the voice responded almost immediately. ‘Report. I have reports of a shooting on a movie set in Tullamore.’

Trust Niall. Nothing escaped his attention. ‘How did you hear –’

‘Because it’s a fucking movie set and Jack Winter is one of our clients.’

Andy closed his eyes. Jack had been nowhere near the shooting but the media would hype it up within a couple of hours. ‘Sorry, boss. Hall turned up unexpectedly.’

‘Is Roz – ?’

‘She’s fine.’ Andy reassured him. ‘I’m taking her to a safe house until things calm down.’

But Niall wasn’t put off so easily. ‘What safe house?’

‘Lough Darra.’

Andy heard an intake of breath, followed by a charged silence. ‘Let me get this straight. You’re bringing a former dominatrix home with you?’

‘Yes,’ Andy mumbled.

‘And how do you plan on explaining her to your parents?’ Niall was the only person in his professional life who had ever met his parents. Or even knew they existed.

‘That she’s my fiancée.’

Andy held the phone away from his ear while Niall vented his feelings. He couldn’t blame him. It was barely lunchtime and already he was in the middle of a clusterfuck. ‘Make sure she doesn’t get into any more mischief until I have a chance to sort this out.’

‘Don’t worry, boss. Roz will be completely under my control at all times.’

Niall snorted and hung up.

Andy glanced at his watch. It had been over an hour but there was no sign of Roz. She couldn’t be shopping for all this time. He collected the bags and walked slowly to the entrance and slipped inside.

In the curtained-off changing area, he heard two women laughing. One of them was Roz. ‘Absolutely not,’ she said. ‘There is no way that I’m buying this.’

‘But it’s perfect. Look at your curves.’

‘It costs over two hundred pounds.’

Andy very much wanted to see what was behind the velvet curtain and he wasn’t overly concerned what it cost. ‘She’ll take it,’ he announced.

The shop assistant turned around and Roz popped her head out from behind the curtain. ‘Thanks, but I’ve spent enough.’

He didn’t want to add up what he’d already spent. A couple of hundred quid wouldn’t make that much of a difference. ‘Wrap it,’ he mouthed to the sales assistant.

He handed over his credit card again. There was no point in wincing. They had yet to hit the jewellers and he had no idea what that would cost.

Roz was positively glowing by the time they left the shop. She had changed into one of the outfits she’d bought in Cruise, a figure hugging dress that celebrated her body, and a pair of soft leather boots.

‘So we’re done?’ he asked.

She glared at him. ‘Are you stupid, or joking? I need make-up.’

He looked her over. She was naturally pale, with the sort of creamy skin that cosmetic companies promised to the gullible who used their products and her lips were wide and kissable. ‘You look great to me. Why do you need anything?’

Roz blew him a kiss. ‘Okay, you’ve redeemed yourself a little. But I really do need a bit of slap. Trust me, this is not my best.’ There were dark circles under her eyes and he supposed that she probably wanted to do something with paint.

‘Waste of time, as far as I’m concerned, but see what you can find in the Castle Court Centre.’

Twenty minutes later, she had a bulging cosmetics bag and an evil grin on her face. Andy took her arm and led her to a nearby jewellers. The brightly lit window contained dozens of rings, all gleaming and shiny. He stopped at the entrance. If he was putting a ring on her finger, it wasn’t going to be something ordinary.

‘Getting cold feet?’ Roz smirked at him.

‘No. But this isn’t my kind of place. Let’s go somewhere else.’

Roz looked at the entrance to Malcolm’s with apprehension. Its understated display whispered class but at least the rings in the window had more character than those in the high street jewellers.

Andy’s hand at her back guided her in. Three men in business suits had stopped him to say hello. Their strong Belfast accents were hard to understand but she picked up that they were asking about his father’s health.

Andy was at ease answering them. Roz was good at reading body language. In spite of his cheap jeans and the stubble giving him a dangerous air, he was an equal to these men who wore expensive suits and carried leather briefcases that probably cost five hundred pounds.