Fairytale Beginnings (9 page)

‘I can’t believe they would do that, ruin your reputation just because they couldn’t wait.’

Cameron shrugged and passed the book back to her. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time that a publisher used a ghost writer, or the last.’ ‘But if you’re Phoenix Blaze, surely you have enough money to renovate this place. I know you said your ex-wife took a lot of your money but you still must be earning money from the books.’

‘I am, but nowhere near as much as you’d think. A lot of the women I’ve dated since Eva thought that too. I was comfortably off before I inherited this place, now everything I had in savings has gone to pay off some of the debts for here and severance pay for the villagers. Beyond my house, car and a few thousand I have in the bank, I have nothing. I’m hoping I can make some money out of the next series. I feel like I have a lot to prove with this next book and I’m not sure how many of my fans will be loyal enough to buy this series when they were so disappointed with the last one.’

‘Word of mouth is a wonderful thing. If it’s half as good as
Dream Pirates
, then word will soon get around.’

He smiled at her optimism.

‘I can’t believe my books are here, in this old library. I never heard from my Dad after we left, I had no clue he knew about my writing career.’

‘All the books are there, even the shit ones. He must have been very proud.’

He smiled at that.

She cuddled back into the blanket and yawned.

‘Why don’t you go back to bed and I’ll come and sit with you for a little while until you fall asleep?’

She smiled. ‘Underneath this ferocious bear costume, you’re actually really sweet.’

She stood up and, for a brief moment, he saw a flash of bare thigh. Good Lord, was she naked under the blanket?

She shuffled up the stairs and he followed her up to the top of the tower. He watched as she climbed onto the bed, still wrapped in the blanket.

It was only then that he noticed how cold the room was.

‘It’s freezing in here. I’ll build the fire back up.’

He walked over to the fireplace and threw a few more logs on the dying embers, padding it out with dry paper and leaves that he hoped would catch fire. He gave it a few rough pokes, anything to keep his mind from Milly, sitting in bed a few feet away.

When the fire finally started to take, he sat next to her on the bed, leaning against the headboard.

‘Here, get under the covers.’ He lifted the blankets over her and he smiled when she returned the favour for him. They both sat in silence for a moment. He was hoping she would lie down and go to sleep, but sitting in bed together, deliberately not looking at each other and suddenly finding nothing to say was beyond awkward. He stared at a giant red tapestry that depicted some kind of fight with a dragon. He had to keep his eyes away from Milly but she clearly had no intention of going to sleep any time soon.

‘Do you want to tell me why the skeleton freaked you out so much?’

She looked up at him and smiled, sadly. ‘My mum died when I was five. It was just me and her, my dad had walked out before I was even one. She said goodnight to me on Friday night and when I went in to wake her on Saturday morning she was dead, though I don’t think my little five-year-old brain had worked that part out. I lay with her, hoping she would wake up, but she never did. I was trapped in the house, couldn’t find the keys. Silly thing had left the phone in the shed, she was always doing that. Our house was quite remote, the only person that ever came near it was the postman. It took four days for someone to find us.’

‘You were trapped in a house with a corpse for four days?’

She nodded.

‘Christ. I’m so, so sorry, what a horrible thing for you to go through.’ He wrapped his arm round her shoulders, pulling her against him before he realised how inappropriate it was for him to do that. But Milly leaned into him, obviously needing the comfort.

‘It was. She went grey and green. She smelt funny too.’

His stomach twisted.

‘I’m so sorry.’ It was inadequate, he knew that, but what else could he say?

She forced a smile onto her face. ‘It’s ok, it was the subject of many a nightmare but it was a very long time ago. My aunt Belinda raised me after that, she’s the most marvellous woman.’

Cameron noted the subject change but let her take the conversation in whatever direction she needed.

‘She had such an interest in history, the ancient world more than British history, which is my forte. Her house was filled with pictures and artefacts or replicas from Ancient Greece and Egypt. She used to be an archaeologist and she took me with her on a good many digs. I guess that’s where I got my passion for history too. Anyway …’ She shook her head, obviously realising she had gone off on a tangent.

He pulled her tighter against him, offering comfort in the only way he could.

He watched her; her blonde hair splayed out over her shoulder, with the candyfloss pink tips that looked both silly and unbelievably sexy at the same time. He felt her body rise and fall with each little breath.

He had to leave, he couldn’t stay here like this. But he didn’t want to leave her if she needed him. After a while he chanced a look down at her face, but her eyes were closed, her mouth open slightly. She looked so at peace. He tried to relax and not think about the warmth of her body next to his or her sweet scent.

Heat filled the room and he found his eyes closing. Within minutes he was fast asleep.

M
illy woke
the next morning and looked up at Cameron, who was still sleeping. After the nightmares that chased her for the first part of the night, she had slept like a baby since Cameron had joined her. His bare chest was velvety smooth and warm and had provided the perfect pillow for the rest of the night. Both his arms were wrapped around her, holding her tight and there was something very wonderful and very right about waking up with this man, whom she barely knew yet felt so comfortable with. She stretched sleepily, wondering if she should go back to sleep for a while, because right then there was nowhere else she wanted to be.

She suddenly wriggled from his arms and sat up. He stirred but didn’t wake.

What the hell was she doing? She had spent the night in bed with a client! She had cuddled up to him like he was a friend or boyfriend. She would be fired on the spot if Castle Heritage found out, reputation was so important to them. What was she thinking? There was a chemistry between them, she couldn’t deny that and she knew she was falling for him but she couldn’t let anything happen. He was a paying client and she had to remember that, but more than that she couldn’t go through the devastating pain of having her heart broken again.

He rolled over towards her, his features soft in sleep. She had seen a very sweet side to him since she arrived. Maybe he would be different to the men that had hurt her in the past.

What was it he had said the day before when he spoke about his ex-wife? That there was lots written about him in the papers and most of it wasn’t good.

A thought occurred to her. As a good historian, she had done extensive research into every project she had considered taking on before making a decision. If she was going to give him a chance, after her work here at the castle was done, if she was to give up her ban on men, then she needed to research him, too.

She slid out of bed and pulled on a hoody to protect herself from the cool of the early morning. She pulled her laptop out of her bag and sat down in a chair.

She watched him carefully as she waited for the computer to fire up, touching her star bracelet as she hoped she wouldn’t find anything bad. Finally it sprung to life and there was Wi-Fi here which was obviously a good thing.

She googled ‘Cameron Heartstone’ and there wasn’t a lot about him. But when she googled ‘Phoenix Blaze’ the search engine returned millions of results. A lot of it was about his books, reviews and interviews he had given. He worked hard at his stories and had so much passion for what he did. There were articles about his mum dying four years ago and also about his dad dying and leaving him an unnamed castle last year. The press really could get hold of any information. But what stood out were the stories of him with different women.
Charming
,
sweet
,
attentive
,
seductive
were all words used by the women he had bedded to describe their brief relationship with him and she could vouch for all those qualities. They also said he was magnificent in bed. Several women had sold their stories to the papers and Milly’s heart bled for Cameron, that he had been betrayed first by his wife and then by these women. She clicked on Google Images and the screen filled with photo after photo of Cameron with hundreds of different women at glamorous parties and events. All of them were blonde and tanned with large boobs. He obviously had a type and although she wasn’t tanned and didn’t have big boobs, she still felt she fit into it to some extent. If she let anything happen between them, she would be one of many, a face in the crowd and someone he would forget soon after he’d had her in his bed.

She stared at the screen in disappointment. He had seemed so different to the men she had been with in the past. He listened to her, he was sweet, attentive, protective but in reality he was just like all the rest.

Suddenly, amongst the sea of blondes, one photo stuck out. It was obviously taken on Cameron’s wedding day, somehow the press had managed to get hold of that too. Eva had long brown hair that cascaded in loose curls over one shoulder. The look Cameron was giving her was one of pure love. It was so different to the way he was with the other blonde women, so different to how he was with Milly too.

She closed the lid on the laptop and looked at him. There was no way she could ever let anything happen between them. She would reassert her professionalism. He was her client and that's as far as it would go.

The room was icy. As the sea wind howled against the castle walls, the tapestry moved slightly. Either the stone walls were not built properly and there were gaps, or one of the stones had come loose and there was now a hole in the wall.

She lifted the tapestry and let out a bark of a laugh that had Cameron groaning as he woke up.

He opened one eye and looked at her. He sat bolt up in bed and looked around in confusion and mild panic, clearly realising where he had inadvertently spent the night.

She would shrug it off, pretend that it meant nothing to her and then he could relax about it.

‘You might be interested to know I’ve found another secret passageway.’

He sat up, his eyes wide with shock. ‘In your room?’

She lifted the tapestry to reveal an open staircase spiralling down the very edge of the castle. ‘No wonder it’s so cold in here.’

He shot out of bed and came to stand with her. Muted daylight filled the stairs from tiny little holes that punctuated the walls periodically.

Cameron started to descend the staircase. She grabbed her shoes and made to follow him.

‘
S
o each of
the four towers appears to have its own fire escape,’ Milly said, as Cameron leaned down into the chamber at the foot of the fourth tower they had explored in the last hour and pulled her up onto the driveway.

She smiled at the big biker boots he had pulled on after they had explored the stairwell in the first tower. Paired with the silly dragon print pyjama bottoms, the two didn’t seem to go together.

‘It makes sense, I suppose. If someone was coming to kill you and you were sleeping in the tower, you’d want an escape route.’

‘These passageways from the tower bedrooms were all built around the time that your uncle Boris was here, about a hundred and thirty, hundred and fifty years ago. Your uncle really did have a case of paranoia.’ Milly shielded her eyes from the bright sun that was beating down on the castle. The warm sea wind blowing over the cliff tops swirled around her, blowing her hair around her face.

‘I can’t believe I never noticed these doors in the ground before.’

‘Well they were behind these plant troughs, you wouldn’t see them unless you were looking for them.’

‘It’s cool though, isn’t it,’ Cameron said, excitedly.

‘Very.’

‘And it all helps in making a case to Castle Heritage for taking this place on, doesn’t it? I presume they will be very interested in this kind of thing.’

Milly’s face fell, and she stared down at the drive as they walked back towards the kitchen. She really had no idea at this stage if Castle Heritage would accept the project. The tests she had taken the day before needed to be sent to the lab and that would determine the exact date of some of the oldest rooms in the house. If it was clear which rooms were there first and the original structure was of a significant size, Castle Heritage might restore it to how it formerly looked, but in its current condition of fairy tale princess castle, they wouldn’t touch it, she knew that. And she had to tell him, sooner rather than later. He would be crushed though and she knew she could help him despite the lack of interest from Castle Heritage.

‘What is it you want, just to sell it to Castle Heritage and wash your hands of it?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I can’t do that. It’s been in the family, as far as I can tell, since it was built. I can’t just get rid of it. And I’ve been warming to it in the last few days, I could maybe see myself living here but I can’t afford to keep it on my own. I was hoping Castle Heritage would give me some kind of grant to do the renovations. The debts I can handle, especially if, as you suggested, I sell my other house, but the general upkeep of the place will need some ongoing money.’

‘You need to make it work for you, open it up as a hotel. Even without the ghosts, people will love to stay in a place like this. It’s beautiful and charming. You could hold parties and balls in the banquet hall, just like your family used to, but charge people to come. Get it catered so you don’t need to worry about food, you can even hire a team of waiting staff for the night. You have eight bedrooms in the towers and as long as you put a door over the secret passageways, you’re ready to open to the public now. Plus we have the bedrooms in the servant quarters we could hire out for a much cheaper price. And we could do tours of the secret passageways and dungeons for a price too.’

‘There’s that “we” again.’

He was smiling and she knew he was teasing her.

‘Sorry, I just get carried away. This place has so much potential and it just makes me so excited about what it could become. You wouldn’t have to do a lot to it to get it ready.’

‘Your ideas sound wonderful but I haven’t the first clue about running a hotel and I really don’t want to. It would take up all my time and I love writing too much to want to focus on anything else.’

‘You don’t have to do it though, you could hire a manager to run all that side of things for you.’

He turned to face her and she stopped to look at him. He smiled. ‘You are very sweet and I find your enthusiasm so endearing. I have never met anyone like you. Ever. You are so smart, but you live in a rose-tinted world. I can’t just open this place up as a hotel and have paying guests staying over at the weekend. We would have to offer them breakfast and probably dinner and that means having a proper kitchen that would need to meet health and safety standards and a proper qualified chef with a food hygiene certificate. I’d have to have staff that would clean and service the rooms, they would need paying, that makes me an employer and with that comes a whole host of legal responsibilities including wages, pensions, tax and national insurance. There’s liability insurance as well which as a customer serving company I would have to have. I would need to do a lot to ensure the dungeons and tunnels and passageways were completely safe, I couldn’t have stairways or tunnels collapsing whilst guests were using them. I would be sued for millions.’

‘No, I know all that. I know there’s a lot more to opening a hotel than just having the rooms. My brother owns a hotel chain that looks after places like this, although I’m sure he has nothing like Clover Castle on his books. All his hotels are unique, historical houses and he is keen to maintain that history and not turn them into something they aren’t, but he knows that people love staying in places like this, it’s something different from the usual hotels. He runs hotels or holiday rentals out of old churches, windmills, manor houses and castles. If you were to work with him, it would still be yours, but he would run the hotel side of things. He’s very successful at what he does, so he must know his stuff. And he’s a very honest man, he will tell you if working with him is not in your best interests. You should at least talk to him because even if you didn’t want to work with him he would still be able to give you some great advice.’

Cameron stared down at her in that intense way, as if he was still trying to figure her out. ‘You have a lot of respect for your brother.’

‘He is my most favourite person in the world.’

‘Then I’d like to meet him. I think I need all the help I can get at the moment.’

Her heart soared a little at the fact that Cameron was prepared to meet Jamie based solely on her recommendation.

He turned towards the castle and she walked by his side.

‘Isn’t recommending me to your brother in direct competition with Castle Heritage?’

Oh crap.

‘I still need to do some more tests to determine the age of the property, I just think you need to have all the options. While I’m doing these tests and waiting for the results you can speak to Jamie and then you can make up your own mind. I don’t think Castle Heritage will keep the castle in its current state. As you’ve already pointed out, it’s not very historical.’

‘You said you loved it?’ There was an accusatory tone to his voice.

‘I do.’

‘And do you not speak for Castle Heritage?’

She thought carefully about how to answer. ‘When I said it was beautiful, I spoke from the heart, not as an ambassador for Castle Heritage.’

He turned to face her again but there were no smiles on his face now. ‘So all this excitement over ghosts and secret passageways during the last few days …’

Oh God, she felt awful, she had fooled him into thinking that she was excited on behalf of Castle Heritage. ‘That excitement was just mine.’

Disappointment registered on his face and it hurt that she felt like she had let him down.

‘It wasn’t my intention to mislead you. I get so excited about old buildings and passionate about history, coupled with my love of fairy tales and magical stories, this place is like a dream come true for me. I feel terrible. I built your hopes up and now I’ve disappointed you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t professional enough that I didn’t separate my emotions from Castle Heritage’s position. Nothing about my visit has been professional and I don’t know what you must think of me or Castle Heritage. It’s this place, it brings out the worst in me.’

Cameron turned away and continued walking towards the kitchen. ‘Or the best.’

She didn’t know what to say to that but she knew she had to draw a line under this now. She wasn’t going to let anything happen between them so she would ensure everything about her stay here would be strictly professional from now on.

M
illy arrived back
in the kitchen a short while later wearing her smartest clothes. A navy blue spotted dress underneath a long navy jacket. She had her hair clipped back into a tight French roll and she was wearing her smartest, most sensible, most boring black flat shoes, instead of her ridiculous sparkly Converse trainers. She always packed something smart in case there were any formal meetings during her trips. It had never happened, but she liked to be prepared. She had never felt the need to wear them to impress a client before. But she had to do something to reassert her professionalism, if she had ever showed Cameron any to start with. Reputation was everything to Castle Heritage and she had to leave Cameron with a good impression of them even if they couldn’t work with him. Cuddling in bed with a client was stupid and reckless and a million miles away from the professionalism she normally maintained on a site visit.

Cameron stared at the transformation in shock.

‘What’s this?’

‘I’m trying to be professional. I haven’t succeeded so far but …’ She gestured helplessly as she realised it was going to take a lot more than a suit to walk away from this with any degree of respect from Cameron.

He smiled at her and she hated that he was laughing at her. God, he infuriated her, she just couldn’t win.

He stood up and walked towards her, appraising her with heated eyes. He stopped in front of her, too close yet again. This guy clearly had no idea about appropriate personal space. Though she had done nothing to move away from him. She couldn’t; his scent, his heat, it was intoxicating. His eyes were almost black as he stared down at her.

He bent to whisper in her ear. ‘If this look is supposed to turn me off, it’s not working.’

He moved back slightly and she felt her mouth fall open at his blatant flirting.

He continued speaking as if that comment had never happened.

‘I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last few days, I’ve smiled and laughed and it’s been a long time since I’ve done either of those things.’

He reached up and unclipped her hair, untangling the knots with his fingers. His touch was electric and she’d forgotten how to breathe.

He moved his hands to the buttons of her jacket and slowly undid each one. Her heart slammed against her ribs.

‘I’ve enjoyed fascinating, intellectual conversations, not only about the castle but about lots of other things too.’

He slid the jacket off her shoulders, his hands skimming over her bare arms. He folded it neatly over the chair without taking his eyes off hers.

‘I have loved the energy about the place, and the enthusiasm and love you have for the castle. And I’ve really enjoyed flirting with a woman who seems to like me for myself, not for my fame and fortune.’ He stepped back to look at her. ‘Well, apart from the shoes, this is the woman that I’ve enjoyed all of that with. I will be disappointed if Castle Heritage don’t take Clover Castle on, but I don’t think I could ever be disappointed with you.’

Silence stretched between them. Neither of them moved.

‘You like me?’ Milly’s voice was choked when she eventually spoke.

‘Immensely.’

She had sort of guessed that but to hear it confirmed was both wonderful and terrifying.

She swallowed. ‘We can’t do anything, you’re my client.’

‘That’s fine.’

‘You’ve paid for my services, sex isn’t one of the services on offer.’

‘I never thought it was.’

‘I need to go to the post office and post my test tubes to the lab.’ She had to get away from him as she was about five seconds away from throwing professionalism straight out the window.

‘Ok.’

Locked in his hypnotic gaze, she still couldn’t move.

‘I just need my handbag.’

She reached to grab her bag, he didn’t move and she had to lean round him. She picked it up and moved back, looking up into his eyes.

She wasn’t sure who kissed whom, but suddenly her bag clattered to the floor and she was leaning up as Cameron’s mouth came down on hers, hard.

Without taking his mouth off hers, he lifted her. She automatically wrapped her legs round his waist and he powered her back to the wall.

The taste of him was everything, the feel of his hard body against hers, his intoxicating spicy, woody scent. It was complete sensory overload.

But where her kisses were desperate, urgent, needful, his were calm, slow, methodical, as if he had known that this moment was coming all along. He slowed her down, took his time. It was sexy as hell.

Suddenly his phone burst to life on the table. He didn’t break the kiss for a second, as if he hadn’t even heard it. But it was enough to snap her out of her moment of madness.

She pulled back and he stopped, searching her eyes. He sighed and gently lowered her to the floor. She was trembling all over. How could a kiss affect her so much?