“Lovely.”It was suddenly a lot harder to inject enthusiasm into her voice.The sight of four impossibly good-looking men on horseback, whacking the life out of a polo ball, made her wonder if Conor would be joining them on what, on the face of it, was their honeymoon.
Several more men with a military look about them were lounging against the fence as they watched the match.“Do you lease out the field to other riders?”
Conor turned to look at her with surprise.“No.These are my teammates.This facility is exclusive to Blood and Thunder.All my colleagues have substantial properties where they breed ponies and play polo, so we have several similar opportunities to play the game wherever we are in the world, even when we aren’t competing.”
“Are all your friends here today?”she queried as brightly as a clenched heart would allow.
“Not all of them, but enough to enjoy some games.I thought you’d rest while I play polo.Rest and recreation,” he reminded her.
Rest for her?Recreation for him?
Stop that!She warned herself fiercely when tears threatened.This is your new life.Adapt.To sitting around while my husband continues on with his old life?
“And here’s my home.Your home now,” Conor added, completely oblivious to her concern as he stopped the vehicle outside an impressive low-lying ranch-style building.
“Wow.”It was most definitely wow by size and obvious quality, but far homier than she’d imagined after the austere if elegant lines of Conor’s London house.This was a traditional stone-built farmhouse, if on a rather grand scale, that looked as if it had graced the landscape forever.A beautifully kept garden added to the picture-postcard appeal.Wisteria framed the door in lavender plumes, while lead-paned windows twinkled a welcome.
There was even a smiling housekeeper standing at the door.
Your home now, rang in her ears, so why did she feel apprehensive?Because it took more than words and pretty pictures to make a home.And a pack of Conor’s closest friends did not a honeymoon make.
Conor helped her down from the SUV and sketched an introduction to his housekeeper, Mary, but then turned to go—to join his friends on the polo field, he explained.
Conor was so dangerously attractive, the temptation to take him on any terms was a seductive prospect.A force of nature that couldn’t be stopped, he was set in his ways when it came to his team.But those ways included a wife now.Glancing out the window, she watched the macho greeting exchanged between the men and wondered again how long those men would be staying on the property.
Some honeymoon!They had an arranged marriage that probably wouldn’t last much longer now that Conor’s mission had been completed.
“He’s a wonder, that one,” Mary remarked fondly as she followed Karolina’s anxious gaze.“And I’m so glad to meet the new Mrs.Murphy,” she enthused, raisin-black eyes twinkling with warmth and welcome.“I’d say Conor has done rather well for himself.”
“Could you tell him that?”Karolina asked smiling and only half-joking.
“I’m sure to be your biggest fan,” Mary promised.“Will you have a cup of tea?It’s freshly made.”
In spite of her apprehension regarding Conor’s behavior, Karolina’s first hour in her new home passed in a soothing wave of warmth and normality.It was great to have an opportunity to chat and look around with someone so genuine.Mary was more than eager to share the pleasures of her life in such beautiful surroundings.
“Look at the view out that window,” she encouraged as she showed Karolina upstairs.“Have you ever seen anything like it?”
“No.I never have,” Karolina admitted.The view was glorious, made even more so by the sight of Conor striding toward the house.Backlit by a sky streaked with fire as the sun waned, the fields behind him stretched to the horizon.Ponies grazed quietly, while the sparkling river reflected the technicolor sky, but it was the man who held her attention.Even with all that beauty around him, Conor dominated the landscape.“Did you know he was bringing a wife home?”she felt compelled to ask.
“Come on, now, here he is,” Mary exclaimed, neatly side-stepping the question.
Karolina’s best guess as the front door banged open was that Conor hadn’t mentioned her to Mary.And why should he?Lucky for her, the redoubtable Mary appeared to take everything in her stride.
Fresh from the polo field with the tang of leather and horse rising off him, Conor Murphy, Karolina’s husband, she reminded herself, was a breath-stealing sight.Every part of her yearned for him, and she couldn’t care less what he’d said or done, because this was the only man who could fill her world with everything she needed.
“You two getting to know each other?”he asked with a grin as he knocked the top off a bottle of beer and swigged deep.
Conor was a living master class in brutal masculinity and coiled-spring energy, which was why her body was going wild for him, but her heart and mind adored him too.“Definitely,” she confirmed with a warm smile for Mary.It was just a shame that she couldn’t move past a lifetime of doubt.
“Did Mary tell you that she gave me my first job?”Conor swiped the back of his hand across his mouth.
“When you were a wild, unbridled youth,” Mary added with a glow of affection in her expressive black eyes.
“With no parents and no regular home to speak of.”
“He slept under hedges and stole his food,” Mary confided, as if this was only to be expected of young Conor, though Karolina could see beneath the mask that Mary wore to the concern she’d felt for a homeless child.
“Until you gave me shelter and meals in return for delivering the food you prepared for local families in need,” Conor supplied, turning serious.
