The car eased off the road and drove through two cast-iron gates that swung open as they approached. The driveway was surrounded by high, tangled bushes, so she could see nothing of the house or grounds. “I feel like Julian Best entering the lair of his archenemy, Sturgis Wolfe.”

“Sometimes I get lazy and just look out my window when I need a description.”

Suddenly the bushes fell away, and a winter-brown lawn spread out before them, leading up to a rambling mansion clad in gray shingles, the trim of its mullioned windows and graceful columns painted a crisp white. Allie loved the asymmetry of it, with oriel windows punctuating a gambrel roof here while a brick chimney poked up there. Somehow that made it seem less imposing and more inviting despite its massive size.

Linda drew the car up under the front portico with a flourish, jumping out to swing open Allie’s door. The scent of the sea met her nostrils again, but the house sheltered them from the slam of the wind.

Gavin put his arm around her shoulders. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

Allie snorted. “It’s about as humble as you are, but I like it. It has charm.”

“If I match it in humility, I hope I also match it in charm.”

“That’s not the first word that comes to mind.”

He dropped his arm to her waist and bent so he could murmur in her ear. “Let’s play word association. What adjective does come to mind first?”

She debated between honesty and humor but went for the first. “Fascinating.” She could have added dark, sad, and enigmatic, but she didn’t want to get that complicated before she’d even gotten inside the house. Other words—words about her feelings toward him—she was trying to banish from her own mind.

“I’ll take it.” His grip tightened. “Although I was hoping for sexy as hell.”

“That’s three words, so it’s not acceptable.”

He huffed out a laugh and started them up the brick steps to the wide planks of the front porch. He pulled open the bright red front door to usher her into a light-filled double-height entrance hall with a curving staircase climbing up on the left, and arched openings offering glimpses of elegant rooms on three sides.

“You leave it unlocked?”

“Linda opened it before she left. I didn’t think you’d let me get away with being greeted by the butler.”

“The butler. You have a butler here.”

“It takes a substantial staff to keep this place running, even when I’m not here. And I don’t really want to hire and fire them seasonally.” His tone was slightly irritated.

“You’re right. I’m just not used to . . . this.” She waved her hand at the grand space around them.

“It’s quite cozy when you get settled in.”

Allie couldn’t stifle her laughter as she took in the patterned marble floor, the long second-floor gallery, and the oversize brass chandelier above her head. “For a writer, your word choice is pretty inaccurate.”

He held out his hand. “Let me show you why I bought this house.”

His green eyes glinted with pleased anticipation as he closed his fingers around her hand. He towed her through a large, sunny room filled with casual furniture upholstered in soft greens and blues with touches of bright peach. It was, in fact, close to cozy. The wall opposite them was made entirely of french doors opening onto a porch paved with irregular stones in more vivid hues of the room’s color scheme.

Gavin flung open a door and pulled her outside.

Before them was nothing but undulating sand dunes covered with waving sea grass and salt spray roses, bare except for their bulbous red hips. The dunes were bisected by a gray boardwalk that led straight to the wide, empty beach. The wind whipped sand up into a fine haze and tore foam off the tops of the breaking waves.

“Some people put swimming pools between the house and the beach,” he said, raising his voice over the rush of wind and crash of surf, “but I didn’t want a puddle of tame blue water between me and the raw power of the ocean.”

Allie surveyed the sky filled with fast-scudding clouds, the beach stretching out to either side of them, and the restless sea that drew the flat line of the horizon, and understood. “It makes you feel insignificant,” she said.

“Gloriously insignificant,” Gavin said, his voice vibrating with something elemental. She glanced sideways to find him smiling with fierce excitement. She could imagine him at the helm of a pirate ship, dressed in black as he was now, shouting commands to the sailors climbing the rigging like monkeys as they bore down on their prey.

“Do you sail in the winter?”

He tore his gaze away from the view to look at her. “My boat goes to Florida at this time of year, I’m afraid. Would you like to fly down and take a cruise?”

She laughed at the same time as a shiver ran through her. Gavin wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his hard, warm body.

“Let’s go inside and I’ll warm you up,” he said.

“With some hot chocolate?”

“As long as you’re willing to drink it in bed.”

“So you brought me out into the freezing cold as a ploy to get me under the covers with you.” But she was flattered and a little turned on by his unabashed desire for her.

“And I thought I was being so subtle.”

They went back through the french door and took a different path through the big living room, ending up in a huge kitchen with restaurant-grade appliances. A brown-haired woman in a white chef’s jacket, jeans, and clogs sat at a butcher-block table, scrolling through screens on a laptop. She rose as they walked in.

“Germaine, meet Allie Nichols. She has a yen for some hot chocolate.”

Allie nodded hello, and Germaine smiled. “And for you, Gavin?”

“The same. We’ll be in the office. Working.” Gavin cast a sardonic glance at Allie as they exited through a different doorway.

“That was very master-of-all-you-survey,” Allie said. “I’m surprised you didn’t have her deliver the hot chocolate to your bedroom.”

“If I thought you’d allow it, I would have.” He headed for the curving staircase and made a wry face. “Today I walk up the stairs without assistance.”

She heard a note of self-disgust in his voice. “You had good reason to be upset.”