by Kim Lawrence
But he wasn’t alone, and knowing that Chloe’s safety was his responsibility changed everything. He had talked his way out of much worse situations, but with Chloe here he wasn’t prepared to take even a calculated risk.
‘No, I’m not hiding and leaving you exposed,’ she stated, but her fists were clenched tightly.
‘Why does beautiful so often go with stupid?’ He sighed.
Her wrathful gaze met his in the mirror and he smiled. If she was angry, at least she wasn’t afraid. ‘Relax, agape mou, I will not let anything hurt you.’
She believed him, although it seemed that she ought to be more concerned about her mental well-being than her physical! She caught his arm and he paused, his eyes going from her fingers curled into the fabric, to her face. ‘You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?’
‘Could you be more specific?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know...like fight them.’
He let out a loud throaty laugh. ‘Me against fifty, sixty people? I don’t much like those odds, but I’m sorry if I disappoint you in the hero stakes.’
‘I promise you I never thought you were a hero.’
One corner of his mouth lifted in a lopsided grin and there was something about him...a combustible quality that made her think it would have been a brave person who bet against him, even if the odds were stacked against him.
‘But I do think you’re capable of doing something stupid.’
‘Like they say, a good general chooses his field of battle. I am not good or a general but the concept holds true.’
‘Are you going to drive on through them?’ she asked nervously.
Nik had been going to reverse, but a glance in the rear-view mirror made it clear this was a now-or-never choice. The street on one side—he adjusted the mirror and silently corrected himself—on both sides of the road were full of people streaming towards the main artery road. It was hard to be accurate but he suspected that their options would close in seconds, not minutes.
‘Hold on, this might be a little bumpy.’
She connected with his eyes and made a shocking discovery. ‘You are enjoying this, aren’t—?’ She let out a shriek and closed her eyes as the car went into sudden reverse, travelling at what felt like the speed of light. It continued backwards even when it hit obstacles, objects in the road flung down by rioters.
The banner-waving maniacs followed initially, but they quickly fell away and by the time the car reached the gaggle of police cars the protestors were nowhere in sight.
‘Wait here.’
She narrowed her eyes, tilted her stubborn little chin and thought, Oh, yes that is really going to happen! Who did he think he was, issuing orders to her? She opened her door and got out.
Two uniformed officers were already moving towards the car, and Nik walked towards them, looking calm and confident.
By the time she was within hearing distance, the police were complimenting Nik and shaking his hand.
‘Thank you, sir. If all witnesses could be so clinically precise it would make our job a lot easier.’
‘More resources,’ the younger one said, ‘would too.’
In response to a look he received from his colleague, he added a defensive, ‘It’s no secret that we’re overstretched.’ Then he stopped as he saw Chloe coming towards them, his eyes widening.
Before he could speak to her, Nik moved, cutting off her approach. With a firm hand on her elbow, he turned back to the men. ‘We won’t get in your way, officers, and thank you. Come on, Chloe.’
She was hustled back to the car with equal ruthless efficiency. ‘You didn’t let me say a word to them! What did you think I was going to do?’ she demanded as Nik folded his long length in beside her.
‘Distract them from their job,’ he replied succinctly.
‘So what happens now?’ she huffed.
‘Now I take you home. The police have given me a route that should be clear and, before you ask, the Tube stations are closed, so don’t even think of asking me to stop the car again.’
The rest of the journey was completed without incident and in total silence.
She waited until he had neatly reversed the car into a parking space clearly marked reserved outside her building before releasing her seat belt.
‘I should thank you.’
‘But you won’t.’
‘That’s not what I...’ A sound of irritation rattled in her throat. He drove her insane! ‘All right, I do thank you.’
‘It was my pleasure.’
He moved to open his door and she shook her head. ‘No, don’t get out; I’m fine.’
‘I will see you to the door.’
‘I’m not going to be ravished or kidnapped between here and there,’ she said, nodding to the Georgian building behind them. Once it had housed one family; now it was split into twenty one-bedroom apartments, a bit down at heel, or, in estate-agent speak, ripe for improvement. Chloe had no cash to improve hers as she had poured all the money her blog had made into buying the place.
‘Looking like that, I would not be so confident.’
‘You mean I would be asking for it?’ she countered crankily.
His exasperation increased. ‘I mean that you are a very beautiful woman, this is a fact, and it is also a fact that a man who forces himself on a woman is no real man.’ His nostrils flared in distaste. ‘And a man who excuses the actions of such a person is no less of an inadequate loser.’
He got out and walked around to her side of the car, standing there silently as she got out.
She tilted her head to look at his shuttered face. ‘I’ve offended you.’
He arched an eloquent brow.
‘Sorry.’
He bowed slightly from the waist. ‘Accepted.’ A glimmer appeared in his eyes. ‘Friends again?’
Chloe looked at the hand extended to her as if it were a viper. It was news to her that they ever had been friends, but he had got her home so she reached out.
He took her hand but not to shake it. Without his seeming to exert any overt pressure, she found herself colliding with his body.
His dark face lowered to hers. ‘It’s all about sleight of hand and distraction,’ he whispered before his mouth came crashing down on hers.
The kiss was hard, hot and hungry as he plundered her mouth with ruthless efficiency. For a split second, shock held her immobile, then as his dark head began to lift something snapped inside her. Chloe felt it, even heard it, as she dragged his dark head back down to hers, parting her lips to invite a deepening of the slow, sensual exploration.
It was an invitation that he accepted, driving his tongue deep into the warm recesses of her mouth.
She was distantly conscious of the throaty, mewling little sounds but didn’t make the connection between them and herself. Her hands curled into his jacket to stop herself falling as tongues of flame scorched along her nerve endings, and she felt a deep shudder ripple through the hard, lean body pressed close to her.
‘Oh, God!’
Her shaken gasp seemed to break the spell.
The thud that Chloe heard when she fell back to earth seemed almost as real as the searing humiliation she felt as, still shaking, she looked up at him, to see that he was perfectly fine. Standing there as though nothing had happened, she thought, her indignation going supernova...then cooling slightly as she noticed the streaks of colour along his cheekbones and the fact he was breathing pretty hard.
At least he had put enough distance between them to make the basic stuff like breathing a whole lot easier. She tilted her head but it was impossible to make out his expression. Even with her eyes narrowed, his face was just a dark blur, which was probably a blessing of sorts because he no doubt looked as smug as a man who had just had his point proved could look.
She took a deep breath. ‘I am not sure what that was meant to achieve.’
‘Achieve?’
She ignored the interruption and didn’t even register the odd strain in his v
oice.
‘I already knew that you were a good kisser.’ He was a good everything, that was the problem.
‘So the problem is...?’
Arms crossed over her chest, she rubbed her upper arms with both hands. ‘I enjoyed the night I spent with you, but I happen not to be quite as casual about sex as you are. That’s not a criticism,’ she hastened to assure him. ‘I mean, as far as I’m concerned, each to his own.’
‘So now you have developed a puritanical streak?’
She slung him a look of simmering dislike. ‘Last time you looked...hurt...lost...’ And what’s your excuse this time, Chloe? ‘I don’t know, but—’
‘You are saying you had pity sex with me.’
‘No.’
‘So are you looking for a deep and meaningful relationship?’
The sneering tone of his voice set her teeth on edge and tightened her expression into a glare, though she fought to keep the edge of antagonism from her voice. ‘I’m not actually looking for any sort of a relationship just now, but when I am... I’d like to find a man who will accept me for who I am inside, and not care about the way I look.’
He gave a hard, incredulous laugh. ‘Well, if that’s the kind of man you’re looking for, I’d start looking for a couple of nice cats instead, if I were you. What’s so wrong with being beautiful? It’s not exactly a curse; women spend their lives and fortunes trying to look like you and they never will. How is noticing you’re beautiful an insult to you?’
She stuck out her small determined chin. ‘I’m a hell of a lot more than that, not that you’re ever going to know, and, believe you me, that’s your loss!’ she flared, secreting the security card she’d extracted from her bag in her palm.
She widened her eyes and looked into the middle distance. ‘Oh, my!’
As soon as he turned his head to see what she was staring at, Chloe ran to the door. Her security card swiped first time and she stepped into the foyer, slamming it shut a split second before he reached it.
She pressed the button on the intercom. ‘It’s all about sleight of hand and distraction.’
A reluctant smile fought its way to his lips. ‘I thought you never hid.’
She might not know about distraction, but she understood about odds. Her father owned the leg of a racehorse and she knew the odds were good that if Nik kissed her again and she got another taste of that raw power, if she felt the impression of his erection grinding into her belly, instinct would take over and reason would fly out of the window.
And everything would be hot and marvellous until he got an up-close-and-personal look at the part of her that once had been perfect and now wasn’t. Did she want to carry the memory of his look of disgust or embarrassment as he pulled away from her? That was a no brainer.
‘I’m not hiding from you. I’m walking away. There’s a difference.’ The moment she turned away from him the tears she had been holding back began to fall, and, running up the stairs, she swiped at them irritably.
Just sex was really not worth it!
CHAPTER SIX
IT WAS NOON when Chloe got back to her flat, but the first thing she did was strip off, push her clothes in the linen basket and step in the shower. The act of washing was purely symbolic; she knew the scent of hospital was in her mind, because the only thing the doctor’s consulting room on the top floor of the rather beautiful Georgian building it occupied had smelt of was his expensive aftershave.
Hair still damp, she tightened the belt of her robe around her waist and flung herself down on the sofa, keying in her sister’s number on her phone...but it went straight to voicemail.
With a sigh she dropped the phone in her robe pocket and padded barefoot over to the kitchen. Of course, if her sister had known about the hospital appointment she would have been waiting for the call—no, she would have come with her—but she didn’t know. Chloe deliberately hadn’t told anyone about it, especially her family.
They had been through enough during the long months after the accident—not that her choice not to tell them was entirely selfless. She knew that they, or at least her parents, would struggle to understand her decision not to have further cosmetic surgery. Down the line who knew how she’d feel about it? While it certainly was an option, right now she’d had enough of hospitals and she felt that to go through all that again was unbearable, especially as there were no guarantees regarding exactly how much improvement there would be, as the doctor would not give any promises.
She had taken a sip of her scalding coffee when her phone rang, and she lifted it to her ear and said hello.
It was not her sister who replied and, stifling a surge of disappointment, she said, ‘Can you just hold on a second?’ and reached out to shut the door of the fridge, which was buzzing to remind her she’d not closed it. ‘Hi, Tatiana.’
‘S... Sorry, is this a bad time?’
Chloe’s reaction was immediate; elbows on the counter, she leaned forward, concern furrowing her brow. ‘No, it’s fine...is anything wrong?’ When they had spoken earlier today, Tatiana had sounded relaxed and happy, issuing an invitation that Chloe had refused, which had been to join her on the family estate on the Greek island of Spetses. But now, only a few hours later, she was obviously close to tears.
‘I told you, didn’t I, that I agreed to Eugenie spending the first week of the holiday with her friend Pippa in Hampshire...?’
‘Yes...has something gone wrong?’ Chloe asked.
Tatiana gave an unamused laugh. ‘You could say that. Pippa’s parents in their wisdom decided that two fifteen-year-old girls were mature enough to be left alone in the house while they went away for the night.’
‘Oh, dear!’
‘Oh, yes, definitely oh, dear. The girls decided to have an impromptu party with supposedly just a few friends but, to cut a long story short, it was gatecrashed by lots of other kids, the place was wrecked and the neighbours called the police! Eugenie has been cautioned by the police and she is waiting at the local police station to be picked up. Pippa’s parents have decided she is a bad influence—can you believe it? The problem is, my grandmother has a really high temperature, so I can’t leave her, and my brother’s not picking up his phone and no one seems to know where he is.’
‘What can I do?’
A sob of relief echoed down the line. ‘Could you pick her up for me and take her to the airport?’
‘Of course.’
‘The Gulfstream jet was in Frankfurt; I have no idea what my parents are doing there. Anyhow, I made some excuse up to say I needed the plane, but I really don’t want them to know about this. It should be there by the time you arrive.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll drop her off safely.’
‘Drop her off? Oh, no, Chloe, I need you to travel with her to Spetses, and sit on her if necessary! I’m not risking her pulling another stunt.’
It was only the rising hysteria in her friend’s voice that stopped Chloe pointing out that there seemed little possibility of her daughter coming to any harm on a private flight to a Greek island. ‘Fine, I’ll sit on her.’
‘I knew I could rely on you. Thank you so much, Chloe. I’ll never be able to repay you.’
Actually, Chloe realised as she picked up her car keys, it was Tatiana who was doing her a favour. Left to her own devices she’d have spent the evening brooding over her decision and planning how she broke the news to her parents. Instead, she had plenty to distract her.
* * *
A cloudburst proved to be one of the distractions she hadn’t figured on.
Chloe was drenched to the skin as she sat in the police station studying a poster on the wall that proclaimed in large letters Don’t be a victim, a sentiment she agreed with wholeheartedly, when Eugenie appeared walking alongside a fresh-faced policewoman who barely seemed older than the teen.
The girl’s face dropped when she saw Chloe.
‘I thought Uncle Nik was coming to get me.’
‘Your mum couldn’t contact him
.’ Chloe struggled not to sound judgemental about that as her imagination kicked in, supplying a slide show of selfish reasons for Nik being off the grid, all revolving around beautiful women and bed.
Well, you declined his offer to spend the night with him, Chloe reminded herself. Did you expect him to go back home and weep into his beer, or did you expect him to pursue you?
He clearly hadn’t done either, which reinforced the obvious: it had been an opportunist offer, made in the heat of the moment, and when she’d refused he had chalked it up to experience and moved on.
A circumstance she told herself she was relieved about.
‘Uncle Nik would understand...he wouldn’t lecture me,’ the girl said, her defiant expression suggesting that Chloe couldn’t even begin to do so.
In contrast to the girl’s dramatic pronouncement Chloe kept her voice light and friendly. ‘I’m not here to lecture you,’ she returned, thinking, Thank God, it’s not my job. ‘Just get you to your mum.’
The girl pouted and tossed her head. ‘Well, you took your time.’
Chloe smiled and counted to ten. ‘Yes, I thought I’d take the scenic route as it’s such a lovely day for a drive.’ She gestured to the window, where the rain was falling from a leaden summer sky. ‘And obviously I had nothing better to do.’ Without waiting for the girl’s response, she turned to the policewoman. ‘Thank you very much for looking after her.’ She glanced at Eugenie. ‘Ready...?’
The girl nodded. Minus the truculent attitude, she looked so miserable and very young standing there shifting her weight from one spiky heel to the other that it was all Chloe could do not to hug her.
Instead she slipped off her jacket and draped it over the girl’s bare shoulders. ‘It’s a bit chilly out there.’
Eugenie turned her head to look up at Chloe. ‘Is she really mad? Mum, I mean?’ she muttered.
‘I’m afraid I’m just the chauffeur.’ Chloe hesitated, choosing her words with care. ‘I’ve zero experience of being a parent, but I have been a daughter and when my parents were angry with me it was usually because they were worried about me.’
‘There was no reason for her to be worried.’