Her New Worst Enemy

by Christy McKellen

  Ellie’s stomach dropped away. His gentle innuendos were doing nothing to calm her erratic heartbeat.

  “You’re incorrigible,” was all she could muster.

  She was finding it an increasing strain to relax around him, but she had to get it together if they had any hope in pulling off their plan. For years she’d teased and berated him to prove he didn’t get under her skin. She was determined not to give herself away now.

  • • •

  Gideon reminded himself he needed to be more careful with Ellie. She wasn’t someone he should be toying with, but he didn’t seem to be able to stop himself. He jostled her gently, trying to undo the damage.

  “I was talking about my sparkling repartee.”

  He laughed as Ellie raised an eyebrow at him. “Come on. One night alone with me can’t be that bad. I promise, I will be a perfect gentleman.” He laid on the sarcasm, but somehow it failed to dispel the unnerving undertone of possibility he’d created.

  This was going to be a long night.

  Motioning her to follow him, he unlocked the heavy oak door and led her into the hallway.

  He was aware of feeling uncharacteristically unnerved around her and it seemed to be making him act rashly. If he was going ahead with this crazy plan, he needed to be driving it; if there’s one thing he hated, it was being out of control.

  Being in the manor house brought back the memories that still haunted him. After losing both his parents when he was eight years old, he’d only spent holidays here hiding from his strict grandparents. The twang of unease as he walked inside made him shiver. His strongest memory was standing here in the hallway, his bags at his feet as he waited to be driven off to boarding school only weeks after his parents had died.

  He’d reacted by getting into trouble for the next three years and had almost been expelled. He didn’t know what would have happened to him if Ellie’s brother — a day boy at the school — hadn’t taken him under his wing. He was understandably messed up for a long time, but after meeting Gareth’s family and being so warmly accepted into their home, he’d finally found the strength to deal with his grief one baby-step at a time.

  Ellie’s parents had been shocked at his grandparents’ lack of interest in him and had taken him under their wing, inviting him for meals and sometimes to stay with them in the holidays. He’d even spent Christmas with them, and he’d be forever grateful for their kindness.

  He watched as Ellie looked around the grand hallway of his home and felt a rush of affection toward her. After not laying eyes on her for months, he’d been appalled to see how little care she’d taken with her appearance when she’d turned up in the restaurant. When she was young she’d always taken such pride in the way she looked, but you wouldn’t know that to look at her now.

  He was surprised she’d come to him, too. He couldn’t remember a single time since he’d met her seventeen years ago when she’d dropped that proud front to ask for help.

  Especially not from him.

  He’d spent the last couple of days talking himself in and out of her crazy scheme and had finally come to the uncomfortable conclusion that he couldn’t let her down.

  This problem with Penny had obviously fired her up enough to finally get her out of the house for something other than work, which had to be a good thing. Perhaps it would permanently coax her out of hiding.

  He knew her family was worried about how she’d cut herself off from them over the last six months, and that really said something. The Holdsworthys were the closest-knit family he knew. Their support and love had been invaluable to him, and now it seemed the perfect opportunity to pay back some of that perturbing debt had fallen straight into his lap.

  • • •

  “How many bedrooms did you say you have here?”

  “Twelve.”

  “Wow.” Ellie stood in the impressive entrance hall, her gaze following the grand sweep of the staircase to the magnificent stained glass windows above them. “What are you going to use them all for? Sleep in a different one every month of the year?” She ran her hands over the highly polished wooden banister; it felt beautifully sleek under her fingers.

  “Trust you to think of something as loopy as that.” He grinned over at her. “You’d do that if you had the chance.”

  “Of course.” She grinned back at him and looked away quickly as the idea of christening each of the rooms with him flitted through her mind. The thought made her breath catch in her throat.

  “I’m going to drop the shopping in the kitchen, then I’ll give you the grand tour.”

  “I’ll come with you. I love kitchens; they’re always the best room in the house.”

  “Suit yourself. It’s this way.”

  Ellie watched him stride away, a shopping bag slung over each arm. He moved with utter confidence. His lean, fit body gave him the appearance of an athlete and his well-honed muscles made him graceful, but powerful. Plus, he was one of those annoying people who had a knack of looking good in whatever he chose to wear.

  Ellie had the opposite effect on clothes since she’d turned sixteen and found herself lumped with overgenerous breasts and hips. Very little seemed to suit her so she clung to what did with a vengeance. She hated shopping for new clothes now. She despised her awkward shape, which gave her a cartoonish look if she tried on anything tight-fitting. Paul had always laughed at her when she tried to look glam, so she’d stopped trying.

  With a shock, she realized Gideon was looking back at her expectantly. “Well? Are you coming?”

  “Yes, sorry, I was miles away.” She hurried after him, annoyed to be caught staring at his ass. That was just the sort of thing that would give her away and she really couldn’t afford to do that. If he even had an inkling about how attractive she found him, she’d never hear the end of it. It would be ridiculing fodder for years.

  Anyway, she was well and truly off men right now.

  The kitchen was impressive, but in a completely baffling way. Ellie had expected all dark, glossy cupboards, marble worktops, and shiny metallic appliances. This looked like a kitchen that someone would actually cook in. The Shaker-style furniture, terracotta flagstones, and slightly battered looking racing-green aga gave it a homely feel. An overstuffed cream-colored sofa stood at one end and a scrubbed, reclaimed pine table at the other.

  “Nice.”

  “You like it? Good. I wanted it to be a room I could live in. I used to spend a lot of my time in this kitchen when I was young, hiding out from my grandparents.” He leaned casually back against the work-surface.

  “Really? I never thought of you as a kitchen person. You’re very much a living room person in my head. So tell me, if you spent so much time in the kitchen, how come you’re such an awful cook?”

  “I’m not.”

  “No? I seem to recall a particularly atrocious meal a couple of years ago that you foisted on us at my parents’ house.”

  “That was Gareth. I was trying to teach him one of my recipes, but he ended up drinking most of the cooking wine and got the measurements wrong.”

  “If that’s true, why the hell did you take the blame for it?”

  “I dunno, I thought he deserved a break. He was pretty gutted about getting it wrong. He tried hard, you know, but he was nervous about impressing Ali.”

  “Oh yeah, it was the first time she’d met my parents. No wonder he kept quiet. That’s sweet. She knows the truth now though after living with him for a couple of years.”

  “Sure does, poor girl.”

  They grinned at each other and the silence grew heavy around them. Ellie’s heart beat hard against her chest in the pause. She tapped her fingers nervously against the work-surface.

  “That was kind of you.”

  “Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.” His eyes hinted at surprise.

  A strange hum tracked along her nerves, momentarily disorientating her. She needed to return things to normal but the discovery of his unexpected generosity had thrown her.r />
  She’d always thought of him as being self-obsessed, but that one kindness to her brother made her question herself. It was as if she’d discovered a deep, dark secret about him, which was ridiculous really, but his actions seemed so human, so basic. In her caustic opinion of him, she’d never endowed him with such thoughtful characteristics. The Superhero thing had been a jibe, but she realized now that she’d genuinely thought of him in those terms. A gifted loner whose self-obsession would always be his downfall.

  “Ellie?”

  “Hmm?”

  Gideon’s raised eyebrow told her she’d zoned out again and she needed to pull herself together, and fast.

  “You want to see the rest of the place?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Follow me.”

  • • •

  Gideon walked her through the ground floor of the large manor, taking her into room after room; the breakfast room, the library, the sitting room, the drawing room … they went on and on, each one more impressive than the last.

  “Wow. I hope you’ve got a cleaner because you could spend your whole life keeping this place straight.”

  “I have a team of them.”

  “How much money do you actually have, Gideon? Are you a secret millionaire or something?”

  “No. Not a secret one.” The look on her face made him laugh, his deep tones echoing round the hallway.

  “I had no idea.”

  “Why would you?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never thought of you in those terms. I know you work hard and that your family were rich. You’ve just never acted like a rich person before.”

  “With good reason.”

  Ellie shook her head. “No wonder you have so many women dripping off your arm.”

  A dark expression flashed across Gideon’s face. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll find those clothes out for you.”

  The sudden change in the atmosphere unnerved her. She realized she’d hit on a touchy subject and thought it best to file it away under “best left well alone.”

  Gideon was already halfway up the stairs so she mounted them and hurried after him. He led her to a door at the end of the sweeping landing and opened it to reveal a small, neat room, flooded with soft light that housed an antique wooden wardrobe and a freestanding mirror.

  “The dressing room.”

  He opened the doors of the wardrobe to reveal neat rows of clothes on hangers, and carefully folded piles of sweaters and jeans.

  “Wow. Your sister left all her clothes here when she disappeared?” Ellie ran her hands over the row of clothes in wonder.

  “Yeah. She saw a chance and took it.”

  “And you’ve never heard from her?”

  He crossed his arms and gave a small shrug. “No.”

  A shiver tracked up her spine at the thought of how devastated she’d feel if it had been her left behind in a loveless household. “What did your grandparents say?”

  “Nothing. It was like she’d never existed.”

  “Wow, that’s cold.”

  “That was my grandparents. She committed the ultimate sin, falling in love with someone they considered to be a low life. They’d never have let her marry him if she’d stayed. She’d have been miserable. I don’t blame her for going.”

  “But what about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Didn’t she miss you?”

  “Apparently not.” His face revealed nothing of the hurt she knew must be there, digging into his heart.

  “I’m sorry.” Ellie thought about her haphazard family, and with a pang of guilt, how much she would miss them if they weren’t around anymore. No wonder Gideon had spent so much time at their place, if all he had left in the way of family were grandparents who hid him away at boarding school at age eight.

  She almost went to put her arms around him, to pull him in close, but stopped herself. Their relationship was already precariously balanced as it was and she’d be totally humiliated if he pushed her away.

  He took a step backward, breaking the moment. “Anyway, help yourself. When you’ve chosen what you want, take them into the room two doors down — that’s your bedroom while you’re here.”

  “Thanks.” She turned back to rifle through the rail, grateful for the chance to be on her own for a few minutes. Just being in the same room as him made her jittery.

  Pulling out a pair of jeans and a cardigan, she turned back to see him still there.

  “Are you going to watch me undress?” It was meant to be a joke, but it had a strange effect on her and she felt her body flood with longing; her panties growing damp.

  Gideon cleared his throat. “No, of course not. I’ll get started on the dinner. Risotto okay for you?”

  “Great.” He turned to go, “Gideon? Thanks. For all of this I mean.”

  “No problem.” His mouth curved into a lopsided grin and he strode out.

  Ellie exhaled and rested her head against the polished wood of the wardrobe door. Torture. That was what it was. She shook herself vigorously and grabbed a soft duck egg blue t-shirt to try on.

  • • •

  Gideon paused on the landing and leant on the rail, looking down into the hallway of the house that still held so many painful memories for him. Seeing Ellie looking through his sister’s old stuff, then answering her question about Harriet brought back more of the old feelings he’d tried to forget.

  Even though he understood why Harriet had left him there, he couldn’t forgive her for never contacting him again. It was as if she’d lumped him in with their grandparent’s heartless behavior and blamed him for how things had turned out. Or maybe he was too painful a reminder of what they once had.

  They’d never been particularly close — their age difference hadn’t helped that — but they were still family. He hadn’t tried to find her out of pride. She clearly didn’t want to have anything to do with him, so he’d decided he didn’t care about seeing her again.

  Being back here brought back flashes of the pain and loneliness he’d felt for a lot of his young life. It made him mad to see how cavalier Ellie was about pushing her family away when all they wanted to do was help and support her.

  Perhaps he should be a bit more forceful about pointing this out to her? After all, he had a lot of experience on the flip side.

  Walking back to the dressing room, he decided to be straight with Ellie about how he felt about Harriet and hope she took something away from it that might make her think about her own family.

  The door had swung back on its hinges so it stood half open, and as he approached he could see Ellie as she pulled a t-shirt over her head and dropped it casually onto the floor.

  Blood pounded through his veins as he took in the curve of her pale shoulder against the soft light that poured in through the window.

  He stopped short, caught in the sensual grip of the moment.

  She turned so her profile was to him and his eyes dipped to the swell of her breasts, encased in a simple white cotton bra. He felt himself harden uncomfortably, his breath coming in short bursts while his libido raged at him.

  She had an amazing figure, just as he’d predicted. All gentle curves; with long, lean legs and magnificent, pert breasts. He found himself itching to march in there and unsnap that bra so he could get his hands on her.

  This was ridiculous. He was spying on her like some teenage peeping Tom. It had to stop. He backed away quietly in case his movements drew attention to his lingering and softly padded downstairs, focusing on a particularly tricky business problem, an issue with the heating system, the nine times table, anything to banish the image of Ellie’s tantalizing body and his own body’s hard response to it.

  • • •

  The wonderful aroma of the risotto hit Ellie’s nostrils as she walked into the kitchen.

  She was wearing some of the new clothes she’d selected, but had put her baggy sweater back on because they were all tight fitting and she felt a bit strange about wearing
them in front of Gideon. She gave him a surreptitious look but he seemed engrossed in what he was doing at the stove.

  She poked around the cupboards and drawers, examining the supplies, to give herself something to do while she waited for the food to be ready.

  “We probably haven’t got enough for the whole weekend here. Should we go shopping tomorrow?”

  Gideon glanced up from his interminable stirring. “Yeah, okay. There’s a good supermarket ten miles away. We’ll drive over in the morning and stock up. Pour some wine, will you?”

  Ellie nodded and opened the bottle, pouring generous measures into the two glasses he’d put out, before putting them on the table. “How long for food? I’m starving.”

  “It’s ready. Pass me those bowls.”

  Ellie handed the crockery over and watched him spoon large mounds of soft rice into them, her stomach rumbling in appreciation at the sight. Gideon handed her a bowl, grabbed the baguette from the side and took his food over to the table.

  Sitting down, he tore some bread for himself, then for Ellie, before digging in. Ellie followed his lead, spooning the delicious mixture into her mouth without a break until her bowl was empty.

  “So, not the slop you expected?” Gideon’s bright eyes flashed at her and she grinned back.

  “No. That was delicious, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” He leaned back comfortably in his chair, taking a long sip of his wine, and watched her scrape up the last of the sauce with some bread, a frown creasing his brow.

  “When did you last see your family, Ellie?”

  Something twisted in her chest. “A while ago. I’ve been a bit busy recently, so I haven’t spoken to anyone for a while.” She picked up her own wine and took a large gulp.

  Gideon nodded, a frown marring his handsome face. “So how long has it been since Paul left?”

  A thud of pain made her stomach constrict. “Six months.”

  “And you haven’t been out with anyone since?”

  “No. I told you, I’ve been busy.”

  “Busy being stubborn.”

  Ellie glanced over at him; unsure whether he was teasing her. Gideon looked back steadily, the underlying worry in his eyes niggling her senses and causing a shot of anger to fire through her.