‘Of course. It’s in my handbag by the bed.’
‘Stay there. I’ll fetch it.’ He got up, the flames throwing the planes and hollows of his face into sharp relief as he looked down at her. ‘Is there anything you need?’
She smiled faintly. ‘Only something I can’t have.’
His mouth twisted. ‘Tell me about it! What are you hankering for, Georgie?’
‘What I always yearn for in a power cut—hot tea.’
‘Give me a few minutes and I might be able to do something about that,’ he said, surprising her. ‘Don’t move until I get back.’
On her own, Georgia stared morosely into the leaping flames, cursing her mad idea of Christmas alone in the country. But a white Christmas was such a rarity these days she’d given no thought to bad weather. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a situation like this. She’d learned one valuable lesson at least. If it addled her wits to the point where she’d virtually begged Chance to make love to her, she’d never drink champagne again.
He was away much longer than a few minutes. But when Georgia opened the door to his knock later she forgave him for the delay, and everything else, when she found him standing there in the dark, with her handbag slung over his shoulder and a mug of tea in each hand.
She shook her head in wonder as she took one of the mugs. ‘How on earth did you manage this?’
His smile was triumphant. ‘I went out to the stables to look for my old two-burner gas stove from my camping days and, miracle of miracles, found I still had a full canister of gas from the last power cut. But I had to light the candles in the kitchen before I could do anything. Luckily I’d left matches on the island.’
Georgia smiled graciously as she went back to the sofa. ‘I’m impressed.’
Chance gave her the handbag as he sat down beside her. ‘I thought you might need it, but be careful—it’s heavy. I put a spare torch in it. You’ll find it handy later.’
‘Thanks. You were obviously a boy scout.’
‘Unfortunately not. Their motto is “Be Prepared”. And I wasn’t.’ He sighed impatiently. ‘I’ve been meaning to get an emergency generator for ages, but I’ve never got round to it.’
‘Did you ring the electricity board?’
‘Not yet. The phone’s still in your bag.’
She took it out and handed it to him.
Chance dialled, waited, and then shook his head. ‘Engaged. Everyone around here must be trying to get through. I’ll try again later.’
‘Drink your tea first,’ advised Georgia as Chance shivered. ‘You’d better put your jacket on, too. Were you out in the stables without a coat?’
‘No. I slung one on to go outside, but it got damp so I left it in the boot room when I came in.’ Chance gave her a searching look. ‘Do you feel better now?’
‘Yes.’ She sipped rapturously. ‘I can see why tea was once regarded as medicine.’
His mouth twisted. ‘I was actually asking if you’d thawed a little towards me—or do you still want to assault me with the poker?’
‘No. The tea saved you from that.’
‘If it’s any consolation, I’m amazed by my nobility,’ he said bitterly. ‘As you know damn well, I’ve wanted you from the first moment we met.’
Georgia eyed him coldly. ‘So why did you reject me tonight?’
His hands clenched. ‘I didn’t reject you, Georgie. I meant what I said about having you in my care. And my definition of care doesn’t mean taking you to bed to make love to you all night—much as I want to.’
She sighed. ‘If you want the truth I was angry because I want that too. Which hardly ever happens for me.’
He moved nearer. ‘Why not?’
‘Good question. Even in school my peers were having sex all the time. But when a girl in my year got pregnant at sixteen it put me off the whole thing.’ She shrugged. ‘I had some boyfriends at university, but no grand passions and broken hearts involved.’
‘At least on your side.’ Chance took her hand. ‘I can’t imagine any man parting from you willingly. Toby’s a case in point.’
‘Your brother and I were hardly more than acquaintances. He has absolutely no right to carry on like a—’
‘Drama queen?’
She smiled reluctantly. ‘Well, yes. I only agreed to go out with him because he caught me at a time when I was feeling a bit low after Mother left. And there was a link, because when he talked about you I realised you were the man my mother and Paul had met while they were renting Ridge Cottage.’
‘Where did you first meet Toby?’
‘In a café near Amy’s shop. It was crowded, and he asked to share my table. Not exactly the romance of the century!’
‘Is that what you’re looking for, Georgie? Romance?’
She stared into the flames. ‘I suppose it must be. That’s why all the frenetic coupling around me in college seemed so pointless.’ She pulled a face. ‘I sound sanctimonious, don’t I?’
‘No. Just different.’ Chance smiled wryly. ‘I was the usual hormonal teenage male at university, and enjoyed myself enormously. But I enjoyed sports, too. And—the last straw for most girls—when I wasn’t playing cricket or rugby I spent so much time in front of a computer they spat geek insults at me and stormed off when I preferred my kind of games to theirs.’
Georgia eyed his profile objectively. ‘I can’t visualise you as a geek, Chance.’
‘Delighted to hear it!’ He swivelled to look at her. ‘Look, Georgie, now we’re without heat, other than this fire, we need a plan of action.’
‘You need a list,’ she agreed. ‘Batteries, candles, basic provisions, et cetera. Your fridge is stocked up, and I noticed a freezer in the boot room, so everything in there should last for a while as long it’s not opened too often.’
He nodded. ‘We’ll take inventory in the morning, when we have natural light. Who knows? The power might be back by then.’
‘What about the dogs?’
‘They’ll be fine. The temperature in the rest of the house will nosedive very quickly in this weather, unfortunately, but the kitchen is still quite warm. The Aga will keep some heat for a while yet, and I’ll put some blankets in their beds tonight. I’ll find some for you, too, Georgie.’
She pulled a face. ‘A pity I left my hot water bottle at the cottage. I don’t suppose you have one somewhere?’
He laughed ruefully. ‘Afraid not.’
‘Never mind. I packed plenty of socks.’
With reluctance Chance heaved himself to his feet. ‘Time I bit the bullet and took the dogs out. I’ll check on you when I come back.’
On her own in front of the crackling flames, Georgia counted her blessings. Instead of shivering alone in a cold cottage she was safe in Chance Warner’s beautiful house. Her sole regret at cutting Toby out of her life had been cutting out his all too attractive brother at the same time. But fate seemed determined to throw them together. When she’d opened her door last night to see him standing outside in the rain she’d thought for a moment she was hallucinating. But not only was it Chance Warner in the impressive flesh, the original chemistry between them was still there in full force—and no figment of her imagination, as she’d tried to convince herself. But, chemistry or not, tonight he’d rejected advances she’d never made to a man before. Which was a good thing, she told herself firmly. It would be madness to get involved with a man who had Toby Warner for a brother.
‘Wow,’ said Georgia, eyeing the laden tray Chance eventually brought in.
‘We need to keep warm, and food is fuel,’ he informed her, and put the tray on the desk. ‘I made a pot of tea for you, but I fancy a shot of Scotch myself. It’s damned cold out there, and still snowing like blazes. Ruby was only too happy to get back inside, and for once so was Luther. Did you put more logs on?’
She shook her head. ‘I wasn’t sure about your supplies, so I just poked the fire a bit.’
‘No problem on the log score. I chopped a tree down
in the summer.’ Chance bent to make up the fire. ‘I took a quick look in the freezer and found one section full of bread, by the way, so I took a loaf out to thaw and used the bread in the bin to make sandwiches. Tuck in, Georgie.’
Georgia was amazed to find that even after the dinner she’d enjoyed, and the quarrel later that she hadn’t, she was hungry. Chance filled a plate and sat down, leaning back with a sigh of satisfaction as the flames leapt up.
‘This roast beef is fabulous,’ she said with relish.
‘Better with horseradish, but it was too much of a hassle to look for it. Tomorrow I’ll get out all the candles I possess.’
‘We don’t need them in here with the fire.’
‘True. And you have a torch to light you to bed. Keep it on hand in case you need to get up in the night.’
‘Do you want some tea?’
‘No, thanks. I’m warm enough after my Scotch. Tomorrow I’ll wear more appropriate clothes.’ He smiled at her as she sat down. ‘Formality was necessary tonight, to live up to such a beautiful dinner companion.’
‘It’s only thanks to Mother and Amy that I look like this,’ she assured him. ‘I wasn’t expecting to dine out during my escape to Ridge Cottage…’ She trailed off at the glint in his eyes. ‘What?’
‘You hid your present from your friend pretty sharply. Was it underwear? And are you wearing it now?’
‘Yes, it was, and no, I’m not,’ she retorted.
Chance smiled as he got up to mend the fire. He rang the electricity board again, and this time got a recorded message announcing that power would be restored as soon as possible. ‘Lord knows when that will be. We’re a bit isolated up here, and usually the last in line to get power back. I pity the poor guys forced to turn out in this weather to locate the fault.’ He turned to look at Georgia. ‘Don’t worry, I promise to keep you safe.’
‘So you’ve told me. Repeatedly.’ She gave him her phone. ‘Use it to ring your father if you like.’
He shook his head. ‘It’s already running low.’
‘I was going to put it on charge when I went to bed tonight.’
‘Talking of bed, are you tired?’
‘Yes. But I do so hate to tear myself away from this fire.’ Georgia sighed. ‘I did more of a paint job on my face than usual tonight, too, which means a session in a cold bathroom to clean it off. Who’d be a woman?’
He slid nearer and put an arm round her, tightening it when she stiffened. ‘Only practical—to conserve body heat.’
Practical, but dangerous. His personal blend of pheromones had been the culprit the first time they’d met. She’d known she was kissing the wrong man right away, but one touch of that skilled mouth had shorted some circuit in her brain. Since her brain was now working normally, Georgia slid from his grasp. Safety measure, not retaliation, she assured herself.
Chance smiled at her sardonically. ‘Nervous, Miss Smith?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s just practical to go to bed while I’m warm.’ She gave him the smile she used on Amy’s customers and put her phone in her handbag. ‘Goodnight.’
But he was already on his way to the door. ‘I’m coming with you, but don’t worry—only to light your way and make sure you’re—’
‘Safe?’ she said tartly.
The total darkness in the hall was a shock after the glow of the fire in the study. So was the dramatic drop in temperature. Chance grasped Georgia’s hand and shone the torch beam on each tread of the stairs as they went up. Faint light filtered through the landing window as they reached the top.
‘Switch on your torch and do what you have to do as quickly as possible in the bathroom, and get into bed,’ Chance ordered as they reached her room. ‘I’ll give you ten minutes tops before I get back with some blankets. I want to see you in bed and—’
‘Safe,’ she said through chattering teeth.
He let out a crack of laughter and went out, leaving Georgia to make a feverish start on her programme. She ran back into the bedroom after a freezing session in the bathroom and got into her pyjamas at top speed. She added her cardigan and a pair of wool socks, then hung her Christmas Day finery over the back of a chair, put the torch on the other pillow and dived into bed just as Chance knocked and came in.
‘Allow me, madam.’ He draped a thick blanket over the duvet, and tucked it in on all sides with precision.
‘Thank you,’ she gasped.
‘I’ll leave another blanket folded at the end, of the bed so you can pull it up if you need it. Goodnight, Georgie. Try to sleep.’
‘I will. Thank you. Goodnight.’
Alone in the dark, Georgia found that the darkness was relative. Courtesy of the snow, faint light showed through the filmy curtains at the windows. Comforted by it, she forced herself to lie still and try to sleep as Chance had ordered. He was good at orders. He’d set about solving their problems with such efficiency it was hard to believe that girls had thrown geek insults at him in the past. Anything—or anyone—less geeky was hard to imagine. She smiled to herself in the dark. It had obviously been the worst insult some sexy female student could think of when he refused to leave his computer to go out—or stay in—and play with her. But even if he had been the archetypal geek in the past—which she seriously doubted—in the present he was a powerfully attractive man. Yet the attraction was by no means just physical. She had been perfectly happy just to be in his company as they’d waded through the snow in the garden, or shared tea and cake in front of the fire. She shivered, wishing she was in front of it right now. If the snow persisted she would ask Chance to let her sleep on the sofa in the study tomorrow night.
ACROSS THE LANDING CHANCE lay equally wakeful in his wide, cold bed, cursing himself for alienating Georgie so thoroughly. If he’d followed his instincts, instead of his inconvenient and normally more dormant conscience, he could have been holding her in his arms right now, sharing body heat and making the long, freezing night a thing of pleasure. Instead it promised to be purgatory. He never heated his bedroom, so the atmosphere in here was icy. So were his feet. Like a fool, he wasn’t wearing socks or anything else—as usual. He should have given himself another blanket. At last he gave up and, by the faint glimmer from the windows, got out of bed and pulled on thick wool socks, tracksuit bottoms, T-shirt and dressing gown, and made for the linen cupboard on the landing. As he felt around in it by touch for a blanket he heard a crash from Georgie’s room and shot across the landing, cracking his elbow on the doorframe as he burst into the room.
‘Are you all right, Georgie? Did you fall? Talk to me!’
‘I’m on the floor, trying to find the torch,’ she said irritably. ‘It fell off the bed.’
Chance dropped to his knees and collided with a shivering female body. He grasped her elbows and pulled Georgie to her feet. ‘Get back into bed. I’ll look for it.’
‘No!’
‘Yes, Georgie, you’re frozen.’
‘I was on my way,’ she said through her teeth, ‘to the bathroom.’
‘Oh. Right. Hell!’
‘What?’
‘I trod on the torch.’ Chance bent to pick it up and switched it on, directing the beam at the shivering little figure in striped pyjamas and cardigan. ‘Here you are, then.’
Georgia snatched it, and shut herself in the bathroom. When she went back out, Chance was still standing there.
‘All right, all right,’ she said irritably, ‘Just give me a minute and I’ll be back in bed—safe!’
Chance suddenly cast his conscience to the winds. He took the torch from her and switched it off, then opened his dressing gown and took her breath away by wrapping her up against him. ‘Remember that list of the best ways to cope with our emergency? This is top of mine.’ He picked her up and carried her from the room.
Georgia collected her scrambled wits. ‘Hey. If you’re taking me down to the study I can walk.’
‘I’m not.’ He crossed the landing, guided by the window as he shouldered his
way through his bedroom door. ‘It’s only common sense to share body heat in my bed rather than freeze separately.’ He put her down on the side he’d just vacated and pulled the duvet over her. ‘Don’t move,’ he ordered. ‘I’ll fetch another blanket.’
His instruction was superfluous. Georgia was too cold to do anything but shiver. He came back and threw a blanket over the duvet, then slid in beside her and took her in his arms, holding her there in silence until neither of them was shivering any more.
‘Better?’ whispered Chance at last.
Georgia nodded fervently. ‘Much better.’
‘Good. Sorry to ride rough-shod over you, but it’s too cold to argue. And you would have argued.’
At this moment, blissfully warm in his arms, Georgia found that hard to imagine.
‘I was stupid enough to go to bed commando as usual.’ he went on. ‘I got up—very reluctantly—to put something on and look for a blanket. I was fumbling about in the linen cupboard on the landing when I heard the crash from your room.’
‘Sorry to disturb you.’
Chance tipped her face up to his in the intimate dark. ‘You disturb me wherever you are, so to hell with it. Shut up and kiss me!’
Georgia forgot she was angry with him. His lips were warm and firm on hers, and the feel and taste of them was intoxicating even without the faint tang of whiskey she searched out with the tip of her tongue. He growled, deep in his throat, and slid his tongue between her parted lips in a caress which melted her bones. She forgot about Toby and everything else as she wrapped her arms around him fiercely, wanting this—wanting him—with every fibre of her body as his conquering mouth took hers and steel-hard arms tightened in a relentless grip which thrilled her to the core.
With a gasp Chance sat up abruptly and began removing their clothes at top speed, his shaking fingers making him clumsy. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll keep you warm,’ he assured her hoarsely, and yanked the covers over them to make a cocoon, his long hands splayed against her back as he drew her against him again.
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