by Walker Kate
'You're cold!' Immediately Sean was all concern. 'I've kept you out too long!'
'I'm OK," Leah managed, but that feeling of uncertainty still lingered, like a premonition of disaster, draining her voice of all conviction and making Sean frown swiftly.
'I'm a fool! I forgot that you've been ill, Leah, I'm sorry. It's time I took you to bed.'
But not to sleep, his eyes promised, and as the warmth of his smile enclosed her, his arms folding round her, Leah pushed away the dark shadow of foreboding and let herself be lifted up once more and carried into the house and up the stairs.
CHAPTER TEN
SEAN woke with a contented smile on his face. A smile that grew into a wide grin as the movement he made brought him into tingling contact with the soft, warm female body curled up alongside him.
Leah. Just the sound of her name was like a song inside his head. A song that echoed through his heart and along every vein, tantalising other, more sensitive parts of his anatomy.
'Leah,' he murmured softly, reaching for her.
But he left the movement uncompleted as a new and very different sound impinged on his consciousness. A noise he hadn't heard for so long that it took him a while to register it properly and recognise exactly what had made it.
Rain. Large, heavy drops pattering steadily onto the roof, their regular pounding almost shocking after the silence of the past snow-bound days.
Rain. The implications of that fact hit home with a jarring shock, jolting his head up off the pillow, sending his gaze swiftly to the window.
Was it his imagination, or had the white glare of the snow that had showed through the slit in the curtain eased already?
Moving slowly and carefully, so as not to disturb the sleeping girl, he slid out of the bed. His bare feet making no sound, he crept from the room, collecting his clothes as he went.
He wasn't prepared for the sight that met his eyes when he opened the front door. The pristine drifts of snow no longer existed, in their place was a muddy, churned-up swamp, patched here and there with grey-white lumps of stubbornly resistant ice. Clearly the rain had been falling for far longer than he had realised.
But then, of course, neither he nor Leah had been aware of very much for the past... He checked his watch. For the past sixty or so hours. Christmas Day and Boxing Day had come and gone unnoticed by them, as had the first twelve hours of the twenty-seventh.
If the truth were told, they had barely even been aware of whether it was day or night, so lost had they been in their own secret, sensual little world, in which nothing mattered beyond each other and the fires of passion they lit between them. They had only emerged from his bedroom long enough to eat. But the sandwiches and coffee they had snatched had tasted far better than any turkey dinner with all the trimmings could have done.
The grin that had been on his face when he had woken surfaced again at the thought of Leah lying asleep upstairs. He'd make her some tea—possibly even breakfast on a tray—and take it up to her. He would kiss her awake slowly, gently, and with any luck they'd forget all about food all over again.
A loud, shrill sound echoing through the stillness of the morning startled him out of his reverie. For a couple of seconds he stood confused, not recognising it. But then sudden realisation had him heading for the study.
When had the telephone lines been repaired? Obviously that, too, was something that had happened while he and Leah had been otherwise occupied.
'Sean! Hi!'
He scarcely recognised his brother's voice, it was so completely different from the dull, lifeless tones he had last heard Pete use.
'Happy Christmas, big brother! Rather late, but what the hell?'
'Pete?'
It was a struggle to drag his thoughts back from the heated daydream of Leah and the anticipation of a sensuous exploration of her body on which they had been lingering.
'Where are you ringing from?'
Was his brother even now on his way to the cottage? And if he was...
'Home,' Pete's cheery voice informed him. 'Where I've just spent the most wonderful Christmas of my life. I've never had so much fun. And Annie—'
Annie? The name reverberated in Sean's skull like the after-effects of a heavy blow.
'Hang on a sec, kid! Did you say Annie?”
'Sure did! She's right here with me, has been for the past six days. Oh, I know I should have told you, and put you out of your misery, and I tried to but I could never get through.'
'The lines came down in the blizzard.'
Sean's response came vaguely. He was thinking back frantically, reckoning up dates. Six days. The day Leah had become ill, when the phones had been cut off.
'It was all a damn stupid mistake.'
Pete was blithely oblivious to his brother's stunned silence, his evident happiness making him insensitive to everything else.
'The silly girl got into a terrible panic. She'd convinced herself that she wasn't good enough for me! Her not good enough! Can you believe it? And so she made up the whole stupid story of another man, thinking that she was setting me free, when, as you know only too well, the last thing on God's earth I wanted was my freedom without her!'
As Sean managed some sort of inarticulate murmur that might just have been agreement, he heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. Leah was awake and out of bed.
'She'd planned on going home to her parents to lick her wounds, but the snow was so bad that she had to turn back. And when I went round to her fiat she was...'
The rest of the story faded into a blur as the study door opened and Leah appeared, her face still flushed from sleep, her dark hair loosely dishevelled around her shoulders. A navy towelling robe—his towelling robe, Sean noted with a jerk of his heart—was all that covered her nakedness.
Her smile made his mouth dry and he held out his hand to her, his heart kicking again as she came forward so eagerly to take it, her fingers linking softly with his.
With a movement of his arm, he twisted her round so that she was pressed close up against him. Her back was against his chest, the rounded softness of her behind cradled by his hips where she must surely feel the growing hardness that betrayed his body's immediate response to her. Her hair brushed his cheek as he touched his lips to her temple.
Who? Her mouth formed the question silently as she nodded towards the phone in his hand.
'Pete.' It was just a murmur, his hand sliding over the receiver to cover the mouthpiece. 'And guess what? Annie's gone back to him already, so it was all for nothing.'
'Sean?'
His brother had finally become aware of his lack of response, and with a grimace of resignation Sean realised that his abstraction had alerted the younger man's suspicions.
'Why don't you go and make some coffee?' he whispered to Leah.
Reluctantly he released her, giving her a gentle push towards the door.
'I'll join you as soon as I finish here.'
He watched her walk away, fascinated by the grace of her movement, his gaze lingering on the rounded curves of her body, the sway of her hips. The thought of her wearing the same robe that only the day before had been covering his own body was somehow so exciting, so intimate, that he couldn't focus his thoughts on anything else, even after the door had closed behind her.
'Sean!' Pete was obviously intrigued now. 'What's going on there? Who were you talking to?'
Silently Sean cursed himself for not pressing the secrecy button. His attempt to cover the receiver had obviously not been enough.
'No one important,' he hedged, knowing he was not yet ready to share this special something he had with Leah with anyone else.
It would come soon enough. Now that the weather had changed and the snow was clearing, their isolated hideaway would not stay that way for long. Already the restoration of the phone had brought the outside world back into their private sanctuary.
'Let's just say she's a little Christmas present I've given myself.'
'I see.' Pete's r
esponse was an appreciative chuckle. 'You kept that hidden, brother mine. But then you always were much better at secrets than me; you never used to hunt out your presents before the big day.'
'Well, don't put too much importance on that.'
Sean aimed for a casual indifference, not knowing whether he was convincing his brother or not.
'As I remember it, on Christmas morning it was always the unwrapping that was the exciting part of getting presents. Once you knew what the present actually was, it often lost its appeal. Because, quite frankly, sometimes the wrapping on a parcel is very deceptive, its colour and brightness hiding something you really don't actually want to keep.'
'But as I recall,' Pete put in, 'You always kept your very best presents to yourself, while I just couldn't wait to let everyone know what I'd got.'
'It seems we're not so very different now we've grown up,' Sean admitted, knowing his brother would understand the significance of the admission.
'Well, I'll leave you to your present.' Deliberately Pete emphasised the last word. 'I just wanted to let you know that the wedding's back on again, so I'll see you in the New Year. Why don't you bring that special someone along with you?'
'I don't want to commit myself to anything like that,' Sean put in hastily. After all, what were six days on which to build anything more permanent? They had been six magical days, it was true—or, at least, three of them had—but he had yet to see what would happen when the real world invaded their idyllic existence once more.
'She's not the type I'd like to expose to a family gathering.'
'Typical Sean,' Pete laughed. 'If you ask me, it sounds like this girl's knocked you for six. In fact, you've fallen so hard that you don't even know what's hit you yet.'
Oh, but he did, Sean reflected as he put the phone down again a few moments later. He knew just what an effect Leah had had on him. The problem was what he was going to do about it. After all, when you've been determined to deny that true love exists, how do you recognise if what you're feeling actually is the 'real thing'?
All he did know was that he'd been apart from Leah for quite long enough. He wanted to be with her again, see her smile, hear her voice, kiss her...
He was on his way to the door when a sudden thought struck him and he turned back hastily, reaching for the phone again.
* * * * *
'Your coffee's almost cold.' Leah's tone was unexpectedly stiff and distant, making Sean frown in surprise. He hadn't kept her waiting all that long.
'I couldn't get away, and then I had to make another phone call—for your benefit this time.'
'My benefit?' She was moving to empty the cooling coffee down the sink, refilling the mug and carrying it through into the sitting room. 'What do you mean?'
'Your car.'
Sean took the mug she held out to him with a swift smile of gratitude.
'I rang the garage and asked them to collect it as soon as possible, check it over and sort out any problems the accident had caused. They'll ring back to let you know when it's ready.'
"That was kind of you. Thanks.' Her reply was distracted, the smile that accompanied it a brief flashing on and off, like a neon sign.
'And now that the phone's working you can ring your mother, let her know you're OK. You can call work as well, if you need to. When are you due back at the agency?'
'Not till after the New Year. I took some extra holiday especially, to be with Mum.'
Sean frowned at her response, not in reaction to anything she had said, but because of the way she'd spoken. She'd sounded like a robot, churning out carefully programmed replies without emotion or intonation to give them any sense. Putting down his cup, he beckoned to her with his hand.
'Come here.'
But when she didn't move, watching him instead with eyes shadowed by something that looked worryingly like suspicion, he frowned again, more darkly this time.
'Is something wrong?'
'Wrong?' she echoed with a touch of satire. 'You could say that.'
Her head had come up, her voice sharpening. But there was a betraying unevenness in the middle that revealed an inner conflict she was trying to hide.
'Where would you like me to start? How about with the fact that your brother's fiancée is back with him so "it was all for nothing"?' She emphasised the last word bitterly.
'Leah...'
'So, just what was "all for nothing"? Your kidnapping of me and keeping me here? Or perhaps your seducing me—the last couple of days—that "little Christmas present" that you've given yourself?'
So that was what was troubling her.
'You weren't supposed to hear that.'
And, having heard her quote his words back at him, he sincerely wished she hadn't. They sounded much worse than he could have believed, far more insulting than he had ever meant them to be.
'Oh, I'll just bet I wasn't!' Gold sparks flashed in the amethyst eyes, her chin coming up defiantly. 'After all, I don't matter. I'm just "no one important"!'
The acid with which she laced those dreadful words caught him on the raw, because he didn't know how to defend himself without getting into deeper water that he wasn't ready to swim in yet—if, in fact, he ever would be.
Turning away from her, he walked to the window and stared out at the rain, heavier now than ever before.
'So you were listening at the door!' With no time to think, he hid his confusion behind a show of anger. 'Well, you know what they say about eavesdroppers never hearing any good of themselves!'
'I was not eavesdropping!'
'Oh, weren't you?'
Swinging round to face her, he met the accusation of her violet eyes head on.
'Then what else were you doing there? I seem to recall that I asked you to make coffee.'
'And I don't recall ever agreeing to be your slave! I may have slept with you, but that doesn't give you any rights over my body—or my mind!'
'And I may have slept with you, but that doesn't give you the right to intrude into my personal life! That was a private phone call between me and my brother, and you were invading that privacy by listening! It didn't concern you.'
'Of course it didn't! After all, I'm just an unimportant little parcel that you enjoyed unwrapping at the beginning—but now that you've opened your new toy and played with it once or twice you've lost interest. 1 suppose the shine, the freshness has worn off and you're bored!'
'Leah, no!'
Hellfire! Whichever idiot had claimed that attack was the best form of defence wanted their head examined! They'd got it all wrong. All he had succeeded in doing was hurting her, driving her away from him.
The problem was that he was floundering in the dark, not knowing what he felt, let alone what was going through her mind. Talk about the blind leading the blind!
'It wasn't like that at all!'
Moving forward swiftly, he came to take her hand. The stiff way she held her body away from his, the suspicion darkening her eyes tore at something deep inside him and made him tighten his grip on her fingers until she winced in pain.
'I'm sorry!'
But he wouldn't let her go. She looked like a nervous bird, poised for flight, and he was afraid she might run if he did, escape from him, and he would never get her back.
'Leah, you've got it all wrong. You only heard one side of the conversation. And it was Pete...'
'Oh, it was Pete, was it? Pete who said he didn't want to commit? Pete who didn't want me to meet his family, who thought I wasn't "the type"!'
Hearing them this way, Sean actually shuddered at the appalling sound of his own words. Why hadn't he realised how they could be interpreted? He felt as if he stood condemned by every phrase that had fallen from his lips.
'Please—it doesn't have to be like this.'
There was one way he could reach her, one way she couldn't hold out against him. Softly he trailed one hand down the side of her face, his heart clenching when he saw her stony disregard for the gentle caress.
But whe
n he drew her nearer she came unresistingly, and she didn't turn away from the kiss he pressed onto her soft forehead, so he let a little hope slide into the haze in his mind.
'You know what you do to me, Leah. You know how I feel about you.'
His lips moved slowly down her cheek and across to her mouth. Her initial stiffness was distinctly worrying, but then with a small moan of surrender she parted her lips to the pressure of his tongue and he knew a surge of heady triumph.
'When we have this we don't need anything else, sweetheart. We shouldn't let other things get in the way...'
She was melting against him, her body soft and pliant as she swayed towards him. The loose, oversized robe proved no barrier to his urgent hands, the searching fingers that slid in at the open neck. Her skin was so soft and warm, so exciting, so inviting...
'You see...' It was a murmur of satisfaction. 'We don't have to fight. Let me take you back to bed and show you how well we can communicate. Let me—'
'No!'
Her cry echoed round the room as with a violent movement that tore at something inside him she wrenched herself from his hold, pulling the robe back across her exposed breasts and belting it tightly round her.
'I said no! I don't want this!'
'Liar! You've wanted nothing else for the past three days!'
He wished the words back-as soon as he'd said them, but the damage was already done. She hadn't moved away from him physically, but mentally she was way out of his reach.
What the hell was he doing? He was driving her further away from him with every word he spoke.
'All right,' she conceded unwillingly. 'I wanted it, but not any more. It's not enough. Not nearly enough.'
'And what else do you want?'
He saw the change in her face, could almost read her mind, her earlier tirade playing over again inside his head.
'Commitment,' he said, his voice thickening with black cynicism. 'So that's it! The usual female trap—marriage or nothing.'
Her face was white, those amazing eyes pansy-dark above colourless cheeks.
'I never said marriage!'