Fairytale Beginnings Read Online Free Page A

idiot and accidentally groped her. What would she think of him? His stupid dog had knocked her over, ruining her dress. He’d accused her of being a child, immediately judging her on her pink tipped hair and pink sparkly Converse. And to top it all, with the whole discussion about bedrooms, there had been only one place he had wanted her to sleep and that was in his bed with him.
    What was wrong with him? He’d been swayed by a pretty face before, hell, who hadn’t? But he’d sworn he wasn’t going to go down that road again. She’d recognised him too, that much was very clear. When she’d first looked at him, she’d stared at him in shock. He didn’t need another gold digger fawning all over him. He would not be led by lust anymore and he certainly wasn’t going to have a fling with the one woman that could save his ass and save the castle. He had to keep this on a professional level and he absolutely had to stop thinking about what it felt like to have her pressed against him.
    He’d show her the castle and then keep out of her way over the next few days while she conducted any tests or surveys she needed to do.
    He just had to hope that she was ok with ghosts.

    ‘ S o that’s the grand tour,’ Cameron said, as he showed her the bedroom she would be sleeping in for the next few nights.
    He had kept his distance as he had taken her round the castle, answering all her questions professionally but she never saw him smile again. Any warmth that had started to materialize over lunch had completely vanished, making Milly wonder if she had imagined it in the first place.
    The castle was causing him a lot of worries, she knew that. She was determined to do something to help him.
    As she’d wandered around, she had seen furniture and parts of the castle that were definitely a lot older than she had first thought. Some of the rooms had been built hundreds of years before, maybe mid to late sixteenth century, judging by the material used and the way they had been built. The room she was in now was quite a bit younger, probably early nineteenth century, despite Cameron’s claims that the towers were part of the original structure, it seemed that the towers were added about two hundred and fifty years later, suggesting that the building probably hadn’t started life as a castle at all. Another reason Castle Heritage probably wouldn’t touch it.
    It was a hodgepodge of historic periods, the banqueting hall especially seemed to be a right mixture, with the intricate patterned plastered ceilings of the late eighteenth century and the square oak panelled walls of the sixteenth century. It had clearly seen lots of renovations over the years. The bottom of the main staircase was definitely Jacobean with its carved and painted bannister, balusters and newel posts which set it in the early seventeenth century, while the carved staircases further up the towers were definitely more Georgian, as were the bedrooms on the first floor. The furniture dated from a range of periods, with some beautiful unique pieces that the museums of the world would be desperate to get their hands on.
    She moved to the window. Out on the slopes behind the castle was a huge maze that looked very wild and overgrown at the moment. The castle seemed so much bigger on the outside than it was on the inside. Although she had seen lots of beautiful, dusty rooms on her tour, it felt like there were parts she hadn’t seen at all.
    She stared at the external wall that dropped below her and tried to map out everything she had seen and where it was in relation to where she was now.
    ‘Have I seen everything?’
    She felt Cameron standing behind her; the heat of him seemed to sizzle against her skin. Her body erupted in goosebumps at his proximity and she tried to quietly breathe through her mouth instead of her nose so she wouldn’t smell his amazing scent. It didn’t work. She hated that he made her feel this way. She had long ago accepted that she was never