Fiancee By Mistake

by Walker Kate

  Snatching up the tablets, she tossed them into her mouth and gulped down the water he had provided.

  "There! Happy now? I take back everything I said about you being a kind nurse. You're nothing but a big bully!'

  'You drive me to it. So, can I offer to help you upstairs, or will that count as bullying too?'

  He'd fully expected her to protest, to refuse outright. So he was genuinely surprised when she switched on a brilliant and almost convincing smile.

  "That would be kind,' she said sweetly. "Thank you.'

  It was a relief to deposit her on the bed, an even greater one to pull the duvet over her and escape downstairs once more.

  He had barely reached the kitchen when a thud on the floor above had him freezing in shock.

  'What the...? Leah!'

  Already his body had sprung into action, reacting even before he was aware of having mentally decided to move. He was at the top of the staircase again before he realised it, a chain of frantic thought running through his mind.

  Had she fallen? Fainted? Why was she even out of bed? What if she had hit her head or worse? And what...?

  In the doorway he came to an abrupt halt, his eyes going straight to the figure by the foot of the bed.

  'Leah!'

  At the sound of his voice she looked up, and relief at the fact that she was obviously unhurt clashed with the still uncontrolled fear that had set his heart racing just moments before.

  'What the devil have you done now?' he demanded, his voice rough and harsh.

  'I'm sorry. I knocked these over.' With a wave she indicated the small pile of books on the floor, two more in her hand.

  'You— What possessed you to get out of bed in the first place?'

  'I—wanted to go to the bathroom.'

  'Then why didn't you just say?'

  A glare from those violet eyes told him just what she thought of that.

  'Surely I'm allowed some privacy? I thought I could make it on my own. I could have made it on my own if those books...'

  'Give me patience!'

  Released from the fear that had held him frozen, he marched into the room and came to her side. Picking up the books from the floor, he slammed them back down onto the table, his feelings spiralling close to anger, as if the sense of relief had been a spark that had set light to it.

  'I take back everything I said about you being an easy patient! Do you ever do anything without arguing?'

  'Pots and kettles!' Leah returned impishly. 'Of course I do. I'll have you know that at work I'm considered to be the most reasonable, easygoing...'

  'You could have fooled me,' Sean put in sardonically.

  'I— Oh, all right.' She gave a resigned sigh. 'So I'm not quite as strong as I thought. If I take your arm, will that do?'

  'You only had to ask.'

  With his arm around her waist he helped her but onto the landing and into the bathroom before he tactfully withdrew to his own bedroom.

  Catching sight of his own reflection in the dressing table mirror, he saw the way the panic of moments before still lingered in the shadowed eyes, the lines etched round his nose and mouth, and moved to study his face more closely. He could barely recognise himself in the one that stared back at him. |

  What the hell was happening to him? How had he let this woman get under his skin in a way that no one else had ever done?

  The sound of the shower running across the landing distracted him from his thoughts.

  What now?

  In a rush he yanked open the bathroom door to find Leah testing the warmth of the water with one hand.

  'You're doing it again!'

  'I want a shower.'

  ''You have got to be joking!'

  'But I look such a mess! My hair—it's awful—lank and dull.'

  She pulled at a strand of it and let it drop again with a 'grimace of distaste.

  'You've been ill. You still are. You should be in bed.'

  'But I feel so foul. I haven't washed properly for days, and I'm all dirty and sweaty and—ugh! I can't go to sleep like this. I'll feel even worse in the morning. I must have a shower.'

  'Give me patience! You're not fit...'

  'Oh, Sean, please!'

  Her eyes were huge and dark, pleading with him to understand, and she came to put a hand on his shoulder, smoothing it slowly down his arm.

  'It'll only take a minute.'

  She was even closer now, both arms sliding round his waist, her head lifting so that the softness of her cheek rubbed against his.

  'Please!'

  Sean swallowed hard, knowing it would take a far more pitiless heart than he possessed to resist her entreaty. Already he could feel reaction twisting his guts into knots, depriving him of the ability to deny her. Did she know what she was doing to him? She had to...

  But then he looked down into those wide violet eyes and realisation hit home like a kick in the stomach.

  She hadn't been joking about the effect of the tablets. Even though they were only mild, they'd clearly combined with her residual weakness after the virus to highly potent effect. Leah was 'doped up', all right! She was almost out on her feet.

  There was only one way this could be managed, but...

  'Please!'

  Hell and damnation!

  'Right!'

  Already one hand was reaching for the shower control, the other still supporting Leah. A sharp movement kicked off his shoes, then he tested the water to make sure it had reached the required temperature.

  'OK, then—this'll have to go.'

  He had peeled off the blue tee-shirt before she had time to realise just what he intended.

  'Hey!' she protested, and now he could hear a faint slurring in her voice.

  'Do you want this shower or not?' he demanded roughly. 'Then this is the only way.'

  Lifting her bodily into the shower, he went with her, supporting her under the jets of warm water, closing his eyes for a moment against the unwanted feelings that assailed him as she clung to him, her hands tight on his arms. 'Sean!' she said again, but on a very different note this time. 'Your clothes!'

  'They'll dry.'

  He dismissed her protest almost savagely, knowing it was the only way he could get through this. He hadn't a hope in hell of stopping his body from reacting to her nakedness, her closeness to him, but at least remaining fully, clothed might go some way towards disguising the fact. 'Now I'm going to wash you...'

  The running water had plastered his hair down over his forehead, almost into his eyes, and he tossed it back with a rough movement as he reached for the shower gel.

  'So if you could just think of me as you would a doctor, or a nurse. After all, that's what I've been these past few days. It's nothing personal, purely objective. If you can just hold onto me I'll be as quick as I can. OK?'

  Her dark head, with the rich, smooth hair flattened against the delicate shape of her skull by the water, nodded slowly, and her hands moved to fasten around his waist.

  'Yes, Sean,' she murmured submissively, so submissively that it struck a very false note, instantly arousing his suspicions.

  'Leah?'

  One hand went under her chin to lift her face to his, the dreamy, unfocused smile telling its own story.

  'Anything you say, Sean.'

  Oh, God help me! Sean closed his eyes again briefly as he struggled with the sensations flooding through him. Think of me as a doctor! Surely any doctor who had thoughts like the ones filling his mind right now would be struck off the register pretty quick.

  How had he ever believed that he could ignore the feel of her soft, warm, very naked body so close to him? That he could control the feelings sparked off by the slide of his soap-covered hands over her slick, wet curves, the rounded breasts, narrow waist and gently flaring hips?

  It was bad enough when she stood stiffly in front of him, but it didn't take long before the warmth of the water and the feel of his massaging fingers took effect. Her eyes closed, the tension seeping from
her body, and she relaxed against him with a small sigh.

  'Oh, Sean, that feels so good!'

  She moved against his hands, increasing their pressure on her body, the sound she made warmly sensual, like the purr of a small, very contented cat.

  'So good... So very good.'

  'Leah!'

  The warning was growled deep in his throat as he moved his fingers to less provocative parts of her body. But her reaction to that was not what he'd anticipated.

  'No!' Leah protested, her soft mouth forming a sulky pout. 'Don't stop!'

  And she reached for his hands once more, pulling them back onto the warm, wet flesh of her breasts.

  'I like that.'

  So did he. Far too much.

  'Leah!' He tried again.

  'What is it?' she asked with a touch of petulance. 'Don't you fancy me any more? I thought you liked me—that you wanted...'

  'You know I do. But now is not the time.'

  'Of course it is! We have all we need. There's you and me and...'

  'And you, my lady, are high as a kite!'

  He almost laughed out loud at the irony of the situation. He'd said he'd wait until she was willing and he had meant it. But now here she was, as willing and as wanton as any man could wish for, and he couldn't trust it.

  Hadn't she warned him of the effect the tablets might have? She didn't know what she was saying, and more than likely wouldn't even dream of suggesting any such thing if she were clear-headed. Only the lowest form of brute would take advantage of her present hazy state.

  'High,' Leah echoed, with a catch of laughter in her voice that was almost his undoing. 'Must be the effect you have on me.'

  Suddenly she frowned, her blurred gaze focusing on his now sodden sweatshirt.

  'You can't take a shower fully dressed!'

  Sean froze as her slender fingers slid under the hem of the soaking garment, trailing a path of fire up his chest. But when they slipped down again, closing over the buckle on the leather belt at his waist, he reacted as if he'd been stung.

  'That's enough!' The words had to be forced from a throat that was tight with rigid control as he slammed a door in his mind shut against the heightened eroticism of his thoughts.

  Ruthlessly ignoring the white-hot pulse of his blood, the ache in his body, he reached up and turned off the shower with a swift, violent movement.

  'I was enjoying that!'

  Ignoring her cry of protest, he lifted her out onto the mat once more. A couple of seconds later, with the sensual temptation of her body hidden underneath a large, soft green towel, he felt some degree of control return at last.

  His heart gradually slowed from its urgent pounding; his breathing eased and became more regular. He even dared look at what he was doing, though when he saw the shake in his hands he knew that he was not yet back on the straight and narrow.

  Still with one arm around Leah's waist, he reached for another, smaller towel and gently wiped her face dry before twisting it around her hair like a turban. Her delicate lids were still closed, but now they opened slowly and his heart clenched painfully as he saw that the deep purple irises were still dark and dilated with sensual pleasure.

  'Better get you into bed before you collapse on me,' he muttered gruffly.

  'Are you coming too?'

  It was teasing, wickedly provocative, the smile that accompanied it almost totally destructive to his self-control. It was only by telling himself sharply that she probably had no idea what she was saying that he managed not to react.

  'Don't be silly. You need to sleep.'

  'Sleep? I don't want to sleep.' Her lips were close to his cheek, her breath warm against his skin, her voice husky with a promise of warmth and delight 'I can think of a much better way to spend the night.'

  'Leah, stop it!'

  Sean repulsed her kisses with a violent movement, giving her a rough shake, just enough to wake her a little. His heart constricted as he saw the sensual look fade rapidly from her face.

  'I'm sorry,' she said more stiffly. 'That was silly of me.'

  'Your nightdress is dry; you can put it on again now.' Sean was determined to keep his mind on practical matters as he hurried her through to her bedroom. 'Here...'

  He pulled it from a drawer and tossed it towards her, careless of exactly where it fell.

  'You can get into it by yourself.'

  It was a statement, not a question. He'd had enough. He knew that he couldn't trust himself any further, and the prospect of helping her out of the towel and into the white lacy nightdress was positively lethal to his self-control.

  'I'll put some dry clothes on and be back in a minute.'

  What he really needed now was another shower—a freezing cold one—and then a hefty slug of whisky. But he couldn't take the risk that Leah might come into the bathroom if he did. There were only so many times a man could say no.

  So he concentrated fiercely on stripping off his clothes, discarding the soaked sweatshirt and jeans and pulling on a cream cashmere sweater and nut-brown cords. He wanted to give Leah plenty of time to get dressed, and so he lingered deliberately, waiting a good ten minutes before he ventured back into her room.

  To his relief she had not only put on the nightdress by herself but she had also got into bed. The covers were pulled up close around her neck and her eyes were tightly shut, her breathing soft and regular.

  'Leah?' Sean kept his voice low, so as not to disturb her if she was asleep, and he breathed a prayer of thankful relief when there was no response. The tablets had finally taken effect and she was fast asleep.

  She looked like a little girl curled up this way, her silky hair, still damp from the shower, spread out on the pillow. The temptation to run his fingers through it was almost too strong to resist. It was impossible not to recall the night before, when the electricity had failed and he had shared that bed with her.

  Then she had been chilled to the bone, too cold to be aware of anything, and she had curled up against him as sweetly and innocently as a young child seeking comfort from a beloved and trusted parent. His mouth dried sharply as he recalled how he had lain there, unable to sleep, feeling her warm body curved against his, her long, slender legs entangled with his own, listening to the sound of her heartbeat.

  'Oh, hell! Stop it, you fool!' he cursed himself in a violent undertone. 'Get out of here, now!'

  He was relieved to find that at last his stupid body was actually prepared to obey the furious dictates of his mind and move.

  But all the same he couldn't stop himself from turning back, just for a moment, and bending down to place the lightest, most delicate of kisses on her soft, sleep-warmed cheek.

  'Goodnight, love, sleep well,' he whispered, before turning and hurrying from the room as if all the hounds of hell were after him.

  CHAPTER NINE

  LEAH woke the next morning to a wonderful sense of peace and well-being. Yawning and stretching like a contented cat in the warmth of her bed, she found herself smiling in pure delight.

  She felt great! The lingering sickness and exhaustion of the day before had vanished, leaving her feeling clearheaded and totally relaxed. Sitting up, she flung back the bedclothes and swung her legs out of the bed.

  It was then that she recalled the night before. The memory hit home with a force that jolted her upright on a rush of disbelieving embarrassment.

  What had she done?

  Sean had been so kind, so considerate. He had seen just how foul she felt and had acted in order to make her feel more comfortable. He had deliberately kept his distance too, making it all purely objective, no unwanted moves.

  And how had she repaid him?

  By trying, clumsily, to seduce him. By suggesting that he come to bed with her. And of course he had refused. He'd done it kindly, as considerately as he'd done everything else, but he'd turned her down quite unequivocally just the same.

  Oh, God, she felt such a fool! How was she ever going to face him this morning?

&nb
sp; Well, nothing could be helped by putting it off. She set herself to washing and dressing, pulling on jeans and the prettiest sweater she had with her, delicately patterned in blue and white flowers. She needed every bolster to her self-esteem she could find, she told herself as she made her way warily downstairs.

  Sean was in the kitchen, pouring himself a mug of coffee. He looked as if he had spent a less restful night that she had, with shadows lingering under the blue eyes. He also looked frankly surprised to see her up and about, but that was all, no trace of the embarrassment she was feeling in his face.

  'Morning,' he said casually. 'You look brighter.'

  'I'm feeling much better, thanks.' Leah couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes.

  'Sleep well?'

  'Wonderfully!' That much was true at least. 'What's the weather like today?'

  Sean turned a brief glance towards the window, through which the white glare of the drifts covering the ground could still be seen.

  'Well, it didn't actually snow any more during the night, but it didn't get any warmer either—at least, not warm enough to melt anything, that is. I expect any roads that were impassable before will be much the same now.'

  'I don't suppose the phone's been repaired?'

  'You suppose right.' Sean reached for another mug and began to fill it with coffee for her. 'It's still as dead as the proverbial dodo. Breakfast?'

  'Yes, please. I seem to have got my appetite back.'

  'Well, you certainly have more colour in your cheeks.'

  They were like a couple of careful strangers, verbally circling round each other, making polite conversation but actually saying nothing, Leah reflected. Well, she'd take her lead from Sean. If he didn't want to mention the previous night, then she certainly didn't.

  'So what did you plan to do today?' she asked, when, with her first solid nourishment for some days inside her, she felt rather stronger.

  'Do?' Sean raised a deliberately sardonic eyebrow. 'What is there to do when you're stuck inside a snowbound cottage with no way of escape? Do you have some suggestions for our entertainment?'

  'But it's Christmas Eve!' Leah forced herself to ignore the undercurrents she sensed in his words, the double edge he seemed to have put on that 'entertainment'. 'You can't let it pass like just any other day. We have to do something.'