• • •
“Spanking your plank?”
Startled, Gideon looked up from his guitar to see Ellie leaning against the sofa. When had she come in? He’d been so deep in thought he hadn’t noticed her there.
“I beg your pardon?” For one horrible moment, he was afraid she might have seen or heard him in the shower earlier and his body tensed.
She nodded toward the guitar. “Your plank. You’re spanking it.”
He shook his head and forced out a laugh. “You’re completely out of your tree, you know that?” The relief that he hadn’t been caught was acute.
To his amusement, she grinned and took a bow.
“What are you up to?” he asked, allowing himself to relax now he was sure she wasn’t deliberately trying to catch him out.
“Nothing. I was thinking … ”
“Dangerous.”
She raised an eyebrow but ignored his interjection. “We should go to the supermarket now, before they get here. A bit of fresh air might do me some good. Blow the cobwebs away. Fancy it?”
More time alone in the cramped confines of the car with her. Yep, he could deal with that now.
He hoped.
“Okay, let’s go.”
• • •
It was a twenty-minute drive to the nearest supermarket on the edge of Cirencester.
They hadn’t spoken much on the journey there and Gideon was grateful for the silence for once. The weekend was turning out to be even more of a trial than he’d anticipated and he was actually looking forward to Penny and her fiancé turning up, so there would be something to focus on other than Ellie.
He swung into a space and they got out, grabbing a cart that had been abandoned nearby.
“I’ll push,” Ellie said, taking it from his grip and walking ahead. She’d put that ugly sweater back on, but it wasn’t doing much to calm his libido. Not now he knew what a gorgeous body she was hiding underneath it.
He shook his head as she gave the cart an extra hard push, putting one foot on either side of the frame as she rode it into the store. He jogged after her and caught her up just as she narrowly missed crashing into an elderly couple who had stopped to pick up a basket by the door.
“Jesus, Ellie, you’re nothing but a big kid,” he said, running a hand through his hair.
She grinned at him. “Let’s get some fruit.”
Pushing the cart over to the fruit section, she picked up a couple of cantaloupe melons and put one to her nose to smell it before holding them out him.
“Nice melons,” he couldn’t resist saying.
“Thanks,” she dipped her head in appreciation at the bad joke and smiled at him. “We’re going to need some parma ham, too. I love melons and ham together.”
“That sounds like a weird combination.”
“You’ve never had melon and ham? I have it every time I go to an Italian restaurant. It’s the bomb.”
“Okay, I’ll give it a go then.”
“Good choice. You could learn a lot from me, you know.” She grinned and sashayed away from him before he had chance to answer.
He laughed to himself. This was the Ellie he remembered from their holidays away. She had a smart response for everything. It had driven her brother crazy. It was having an altogether different effect on him though. She may be loopy, but she was a lot of fun to be around.
He thought back to the last couple of women he’d dated. They’d been fun to be with too, but not in the same way. They were sophisticated grown-ups whom he’d taken to restaurants and the theater. Conversation with them had been engaging and he’d wanted to take them to bed afterwards, but he hadn’t felt compelled to see them much afterwards. They’d been background noise to the buzz of his life.
He could never describe Ellie as background noise.
He watched as she made faces at a little girl sitting in another cart to stop her crying. The girl stared at Ellie in fascination and even gave her a smile at a particularly screwy face.
He felt a tug in his chest as he saw how happy that smile made Ellie. She’d be a great mum: he could imagine her surrounded by curly haired children, all as loopy as she was. His throat felt peculiar so he tried clearing it with a cough. Ellie glanced back and saw him waiting.
“Sorry, got a bit distracted. Let’s grab some more stuff.”
“No rush,” he said, as she busied off toward the chilled section.
• • •
Ellie walked quickly away from Gideon and the cute child before he noticed the tear that had forced its way out of her eye.
After reveling in the joy of making the little girl laugh, the feeling had been quickly replaced with the painful longing and bitter jealousy that had been gripping her since Paul left.
She wanted to have children. She would have had them years ago if it had been solely her decision, but she’d agreed to wait until he was ready. Look where that had got her.
Even though she enjoyed her job as a primary school teacher, she craved raising children of her own. It was something she’d been desperate for since her early twenties, and Paul had let her think they might even start trying not long before he walked out on her. A wave of humiliation hit her as she remembered how she’d hinted to her parents that they might be grandparents soon. They’d been so ridiculously pleased at the prospect that she hadn’t been able to tell them about splitting up with Paul for ages.
All her hope and excitement about the future had been wrenched away from her. She was nearly thirty, single, and starting to run out of time to find someone to start a family with.
When she was younger she’d thought she would be married with at least two kids by now, but time had moved so quickly and now here she was, still alone.
Gideon came up behind her as she stood staring at the pasta shelf, trying to pull herself together.
“Got a pasta preference?” he asked.
She shook her head, partly to answer him, partly to clear it.
He reached around her, brushing his hand against her arm as he went to grab some tagliatelle. Her skin tingled where he’d touched her. An ache had begun low in her body and she felt even more like crying at the power of the need. Everything was so messed up.
He tugged gently on one of her curls and she took a deep breath, dredged up a smile and turned to face him.
He frowned at her. “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” she answered, giving him a dismissive wave. “My head’s a bit heavy, that’s all.”
He continued to frown at her for a moment.
The tears welled behind her eyes again, so she leaned forward and kissed him gently on the cheek so he wouldn’t see. The heat of his body burned into her. “It’s fun being here with you,” she said quietly into his ear, unwilling to move away from the security of the embrace.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His fingers circled her arm and he pulled away to look her in the face again.
“I’m peachy,” she said, pulling away from his grip. “Onward to the cheese aisle.”
When the cart was full, Ellie found a free cashier and began to chuck the food willy-nilly onto the conveyor belt, keeping her eyes down so Gideon wouldn’t see the battle to keep her expression relaxed. Even a simple shopping trip had her in pieces. She took out her frustration on the oranges, bouncing them onto the moving surface.
“Steady on, Ellie, it’s not the Supermarket Sweep game.”
The cashier looked up and did a double-take at Gideon. She was young, probably only seventeen, and obviously attracted to him, if her flushed cheeks were anything to go by. Ellie glanced round to see Gideon giving the girl a killer smile and gritted her teeth. He was incorrigible. Her stomach clenched painfully and a wave of nausea hit her.
“She seems intent on making shopping into an Olympic event,” he said to the cashier, who giggled in response.
“Are you going to stand there flirting all day, or give me a hand here?” Ellie snapped at him, unable to keep her cool.
Gideo
n’s face clouded over, but he didn’t reply, grabbing the baguettes instead and tossing them onto the conveyor belt.
The atmosphere stayed tense between them as they packed up their purchases and wheeled the cart out of the supermarket.
So much for her resolution to have fun and treat Gideon as a friend. Ellie could have kicked herself. They were having a good time until she messed it up by getting all emotional.
She sighed and looked up at him. He stared determinedly ahead as they crossed the car park toward his car. She knew her reaction had been over the top. He was just being himself; there hadn’t been any good reason to snap at him like that.
“I’m sorry for being such a bitch,” she said to the side of his head.
“What was that about?” He turned to look at her now, the expression in his eyes hard and cold.
“I don’t know, Gideon. I’m a messed up fool.” She gave a lopsided smile to try to lighten the lead-like atmosphere.
Gideon turned away without responding and unlocked the car, pulling the boot open and lifting all the bags into it, before turning back to her. Her insides clenched as he stared calmly down at her.
“Do you want to go and buy yourself some new clothes?” he said.
“I’m sorry?” This was the last thing she’d expected him to say. She’d steeled herself for a proper telling-off, but it appeared he was letting her off the hook.
“We could go into the town and get you some more stuff if you’re not happy with my sister’s clothes.” He nodded toward the saggy sweater she’d put on again to hide them.
“Nah, that’s okay. I’m only here for another couple of days, I’ll be fine with these.” She gave him a friendly smile. “Thanks though.” She couldn’t, in all conscience, drag him clothes shopping now, not after behaving so badly.
“Okay,” he said, slamming down the boot lid and going round to the driver’s door. “Stick the cart back in the cart-park and we’ll get going.
Ellie did so, cursing herself. She had so little self-discipline it was ridiculous.
• • •
As they drove back to the house, Gideon mulled over what had happened at the supermarket. The change in Ellie had been sudden and shocking.
It was after she’d made that child in the cart laugh, he realized. She’d gone all quiet and stiff. He could have sworn at one point she’d had tears in her eyes, but he’d dismissed the idea at the time. She’d been so full of energy and fun when they’d first got there. Yeah, it must have been the kid.
He’d come across this reaction to kids before with a couple of his girlfriends. It always made him vaguely uncomfortable.
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to have children, he certainly didn’t for a long while yet anyway. He liked his life the way it was: uncomplicated. Kids were hard work and they messed up your life.
Just like he and his sister had messed up their parents’ lives when they came along. He knew this only too well because his grandmother had made no secret of it after they’d been killed and she was stuck looking after an eight-year-old and a teenager.
Boarding school had been the get-out for her. Even though he’d eventually done well at school, he’d never been able to shake the knowledge that he’d been hidden there, out of his grandparent’s sight. He would never do that to children of his own. If he ever had them.
Ellie sat quietly next to him, staring out of the window. Her mass of curls hid her face from him and he wondered what she was thinking. He hoped she’d snap out of it soon — he was out of depth here with these sorts of emotions and didn’t want to make a false move. This was exactly why he didn’t get too emotionally involved with people. He hated the idea of being caught up in that sort of pain.
Perhaps he could find some other way to cheer her up once they got back to the house. His mind filtered through some options; all of them X-rated and he shifted in his seat as his erection pressed hard against his jeans. He really needed to stop thinking about her like this. At least Penny and Will would be turning up some time soon. They were bound to take her mind off whatever was upsetting her so much and he could back off and get his shit together.
As they passed through one of the picturesque villages a couple of miles away from the house, he had to slow down behind a truck that was having trouble getting past cars parked on the narrow road. The exhaust was belting out dark, acrid fumes so he kept well back from it to avoid drawing them into the car.
In his peripheral vision, he noticed a shape move from the pavement on his left, before running out in front of them. It was a boy, probably about fifteen, with headphones and a hoodie pulled up over his dark hair. He glanced over toward their car and put his hand up as if to say “thanks for slowing down to let me cross.” He was still looking at Gideon as he started to run into the other lane of the road.
It all happened so fast.
He was aware of Ellie leaning forward next to him, her hands outstretched as if trying to reach for the boy. And his heart as it accelerated and banged against his chest. And the feeling of absolute impotency as all he could do was watch the boy run in front of the car that was traveling toward him in the other lane.
“No! No!” Ellie shouted as the boy kept moving, totally oblivious to the vehicle, the driver unable to see him behind the bulk of the truck.
At the very last second, the boy looked round and clocked the car speeding in his direction. He hesitated for a second, like a rabbit caught in the dazzle of headlights, before springing forward, running for his life.
The driver of the oncoming car slammed on his brakes as soon as he saw the teen, but couldn’t control the skid on the narrow road and the nose of the car swung to its right.
A high-pitched shriek and a black cloud of hot rubber came from the tires as they bit onto the road.
All Gideon could do was watch as the car slid toward them.
His hands gripped the steering wheel, blood pulsing through his veins as he braced himself for the incoming impact.
Chapter Four
With a horrific bang, the back wheel of the oncoming car hit the pavement to its left, swinging the nose around and bouncing the back end of the car along the road. A final ghastly squeal of brakes rent the air as it shuddered to a halt millimeters away from their bumper.
Ellie and Gideon sat in shock for a moment, still braced for the impact that didn’t come.
The boy had managed, with a Superhero-like leap, to avoid being hit and stood there, dazed on the opposite pavement. His hood had blown back and his headphones hung lopsidedly around his neck.
Gideon pulled himself together first. “Ellie, are you okay?”
She didn’t answer for a minute and he had to lay a hand on her arm to snap her out of her stunned trance.
“Ellie?”
“Yes,” her voice came out as a croak. “I’m fine. Are you?” Her eyes were wide and her pupils dilated with shock.
He nodded, aware that his actions were jerky and overly fast. Damn adrenaline. “I’m going to check on the guy in that car and the kid. Stay here, okay.”
She looked as though she was going to say something else, but settled for nodding instead.
He opened the door and swung himself out, peering through the windscreen at the man behind the wheel of the car that had nearly hit them. He looked as shocked as Gideon felt.
He walked round to the driver’s door on shaky legs and knocked gently on the window. The guy buzzed it down and stared up at Gideon with a startled expression.
“You okay, mate?” Gideon asked.
“Yeah,” the guy said, rubbing a hand over his face as if trying to wake himself up from a bad dream.
“That was a close one.”
The guy just nodded.
Gideon looked around for the boy, but he’d already legged it, probably terrified someone was going to bawl him out for being such an idiot.
“Maybe you should pull over for a bit. Get a bit of air before you drive again,” Gideon suggested to the man who was now staring
into space.
“I didn’t see him, he ran out in front of me.”
“I know. It wasn’t your fault.”
The guy nodded his head again at length, as if trying to convince himself what Gideon had said was true.
One of the cars that had stopped behind Gideon’s tooted his horn, impatient to get going.
“Prick,” Gideon muttered under his breath. He turned back to the guy in the car. “Let’s get the cars moved, then I can sit with you for a while if you like, until you feel a bit better.”
“No,” the man’s voice came back at him with conviction. “I’m okay. You go, I only live round the corner. Thanks though.”
“No problem,” Gideon said, reaching into his back pocket for his wallet and extracting a business card. “My details, in case you need a witness statement for insurance.”
“Thanks,” the guy said, taking the card with shaking fingers.
Gideon stood up and tapped the top of the car, before walking back to where Ellie was waiting for him.
He slid into the driver’s seat and turned to face her. The color had returned to her cheeks and her eyes looked normal again, if a little tired. He had an overwhelming urge to pull her against him, but he fought it. If he touched her right now, he didn’t know where it would end.
“Is everyone okay?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm.
His nerves exploded with feeling where she touched him and he gritted his teeth, steeling himself against it before answering her.
“Yeah. The kid ran off, and the guy in the car said he was all right.”
They both turned to watch as the car that had almost smashed into them was driven a few yards down the road and re-parked so the traffic they’d held up could get by.
“Let’s get back to the house,” Gideon said, starting the engine and ramming the car into gear.
His body hummed and euphoria engulfed him as he drove them the two miles back to the house. He was aware of Ellie fidgeting beside him and he longed to pull over and hold her to him. To reassure her.
Her New Worst Enemy Page 5