“Look at me!” His grip tightened to a point just short of pain. Stubbornly, she shook her head, unwilling to trust her voice, not daring to meet his eyes. The man did have some sort of Svengali quality; she hadn’t imagined it down in the courtyard. He had been mesmerizing or hypnotizing her, or some such thing. That’s how he’d managed to transfix her before. That’s why she’d been behaving so oddly, doing things she never would have dreamed of on her own. He was more devious than she had realized. And a lot more dangerous. An icy prickle crept over her flesh. The worst of it was she seemed to be so powerless against him. It was horrible to feel so vulnerable. And infuriating not to be able to hide her fear any better than this. She groaned inwardly as an uncontrollable shivering took her over. Alan pulled her into a warm hug. “Tabitha, you have got to stop this.” He sighed, his tone suddenly quiet, almost tender. He rested his chin on the top of her head. “I can’t have my wife too terrified to even look at me.
