by Lucy King
‘Oh, you’re so right,’ she said with heartfelt conviction. ‘I’m not perfect at all.’
‘And, yes, I made a mistake but it was years ago and I refuse to carry the guilt around any longer.’
‘Good, well, about that—’
‘You’ve made many more mistakes than I have.’
She nodded. ‘I know. I know.’ She’d made tons.
‘I thought I wasn’t worthy of you. But I am.’
For a moment she reeled. How could he ever have thought that? Had she made him think that? ‘You are,’ she said with a stab of shame.
‘We need each other, Lily,’ he said, his eyes dark and intense and focused wholly on her. ‘We love each other and we deserve each other.’
‘We do.’
‘So here’s how this is going to go. We’re going to get married, you and I, after which I plan to devote the rest of my life to proving to you how much you can trust me. We’re going to communicate. Talk. Be a proper partnership. We’re also going to adopt a brood of children and be extremely happy.’ He arched an eyebrow as if challenging her to object. ‘So what do you think about that?’
But why would she object when it was everything she wanted? Filled with so much relief, happiness and love she couldn’t speak, instead Lily just walked over to him, put her arms around his neck, pressed herself against him and kissed him.
And damn it felt good because it had been such a long, miserable time since she’d been in his arms, but now she was because he was hauling his hands out of his pockets and putting them on her back, pulling her tight to him and kissing her back equally fiercely.
Free from all the insecurities that had plagued her these last few weeks, all the doubt and confusion that had so troubled her, and filling with the absolute certainty that she and Kit were going to be all right, she kissed him long and hard and with everything she felt. And when they broke for breath, his breathing was as ragged as hers, his heart was thundering as hard and fast as hers and his eyes were blazing as fiercely as she could imagine hers were.
‘I’m taking it that you’re not averse to the idea,’ he said hoarsely.
‘I couldn’t be more for it,’ she said with a giddy kind of smile. ‘Although that bit about devoting the rest of your life to proving to me how much I can trust you? You don’t need to do that.’
He frowned. ‘I don’t? Why not? I was looking forward to it.’
‘I don’t know how I could ever have thought I couldn’t trust you, Kit. I’d trust you with my life. I’m so sorry for doubting it.’
‘You trust me?’ he said after a moment’s pause. ‘Since when?’
‘Since about an hour ago.’
‘What happened an hour ago?’
‘I came to realise that trust is a choice, and I guess before I chose not to trust you. I don’t exactly know why. Because I was scared maybe? Because it was all going too fast and I panicked? Because I could feel myself retreating and I couldn’t stop it?’
‘And now?’
‘Now I want to trust you and I do. With everything I am and everything I have, because when have you given me reason to doubt it? You haven’t. Not once. And you won’t. I know that.’ She shook her head in despair. ‘I was such a fool. I went back on our deal to communicate and shut you out again. But I promise that that won’t happen again because I’m done with denial. It’s the coward’s way out and I don’t want to be a coward any more. I’m sorry if I made you think you don’t deserve me because if anything I don’t deserve you. And I’m sorry for breaking up with you. It was just about the worst thing I could have done. This last fortnight has been horrible. The worst of my life.’
‘Mine too,’ said Kit, his voice rough. ‘I thought I’d lost you for good.’
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘I was the one doing the losing.’
He tilted his head and looked down at her, his eyes filled with warmth and love and the promise of a future. ‘I’m pretty sure it was me, but do you really want to argue about this?’
‘Not really.’
He gave her a soft smile and his eyes took on a gleam. ‘Because you know there are far better things we could be doing,’ he said, his hands slowly sweeping up her back to her shoulders and making her shudder with longing.
‘Like what?’
‘Like you agreeing to marry me. Will you?’
Lily felt the backs of her eyes begin to prickle because how many people got a second chance? How many people were that lucky? ‘Yes,’ she said, blinking a bit. ‘Because I want to, obviously, not because you scared me into it with all that “this is how it’s going to go” thing.’
Kit’s smile deepened and what with the way he was now stroking the skin of her shoulders her stomach practically dissolved. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he murmured. ‘But I wasn’t taking any chances.’
‘Don’t be,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It was very assertive. Very dynamic. Very alpha male.’
‘I’m delighted you think so.’
‘And attractive.’
He slid his hands beneath the spaghetti straps of her vest top and slowly inched them down. ‘How attractive exactly?’ he asked softly.
‘Extremely,’ she said, beginning to tremble.
‘So about these other things we could be doing…’
*
Keep reading for an excerpt from FLIRTING WITH THE FORBIDDEN by Joss Wood.
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin KISS story.
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ONE
Noah Fraser dodged past a couple kissing and ran his hand across his prickly jaw. His eyes flicked over the waiting crowds, mentally processing faces against his internal data bank, and nobody blipped on his radar until he saw a tall, thin man with his hands in the pockets of his expensive trousers.
He frowned and wondered what was so important that Chris had to meet him here.
Twenty hours ago he’d boarded a plane at the Ministro Pistarini International Airport just south of Buenos Aires, after a week spent doing a full-spectrum security analysis for a museum. He’d identified threats and risks and then provided them with solutions to plug the holes. It was a part of the business they were trying to grow and it was lucrative.
Because he was a frugal Scot, he still felt guilty that he’d upgraded his seat to business class, but he just hadn’t been able to face the thought of wedging his six-foot-three frame into a minuscule economy class seat to spend thirteen hours in cramped misery. As Chris kept reminding him, business class also allowed him to review his files in privacy, to catch a couple of twenty-minute power naps, to drink good whisky. He’d worked hard for a long time, he told himself, and he—the business—could afford it.
Noah rolled his shoulders as he made his way through Customs, looking forward to a decent shower, a beer and to sleeping for a week.
Of course sleeping for a week was a pipedream; he was working all hours of the day to build his company, and sleep was a luxury he just couldn’t afford. Self-sufficiency and financial independence were a lot higher up on Noah’s list of priorities than sleep.
Who knew why he was being met by Chris, his oldest friend, partner and second-in-command at Auterlochie Consulting? Something must be up. He swallowed as dread settled over him. The last time Chris had met him at the airport it had been because Kade, one of their best employees, had committed suicide. God, he didn’t want to deal with something like that again…
‘No one has died,’ Chris said quickly and Noah wasn’t surprised that he’d read his mind.
They’d learnt to read each other’s faces—sometimes their thoughts—in dusty, unfriendly situations and it was a trait they’d never lost.
Noah did a minor eye-roll as Chris shook his hand and pulled him into that one-armed hug he did so well. Only Chris could get away with that kind of PDA; when you’d saved a guy’s life you had to overlook his occasional sappiness.
Noah adjusted the rucksack on his shoulder as they made their way across the terminal. ‘What’s up?’
Chris jammed his hands in his pockets and gestured towards the nearest coffee shop. ‘I’ll explain. You look like hell.’
Noah grinned wryly. ‘Nice to see you too.’
Ten minutes later Noah was slumped into a plastic seat at one of the many generic restaurants scattered throughout the hall. He sent his friend a sour look and took another sip of his strong black coffee. By his estimation he’d been awake for more than thirty hours and he was feeling punchy.
‘How did the assessment go?’ Chris asked.
‘Brilliant. They took all my suggestions on board and paid the account via bank transfer before I left the office. The money should be through already.’
‘It is. I checked. It’s easy money, Noah.’
‘And we can do it with our eyes closed. If we start getting a reputation for providing solid advice at a good price, I think we could double our turnover—and soon too.’
‘We’ve already exceeded our initial projections for the business. In fact, we’re doing really well.’
‘We can do better. I want to build us into being the premier provider of VIP protection and risk assessment in the UK.’
‘Not the world?’ Chris quipped, gently mocking his ambition as he always did.
Chris was less driven than he was, and had his feet firmly placed on the ground. It wasn’t a bad thing. Noah had enough ambition for both of them. They were great partners. Chris was better with people: he had an easy way about him that drew people in. Their clients and staff talked to Chris; he was their best friend, the elder brother, a mate. Chris was the touchy-feely half of their partnership.
Noah was tough, decisive and goal-orientated; the partner who kicked butt. He called it being disciplined, reasonable, responsible and dedicated in everything he did. Chris called it being a control freak perfectionist. And emotionally stunted. Yeah, yeah…
Well, that was what happened when you grew up far too fast… Noah ran a hand over his face as if to wipe away the memories of his childhood, of picking up the pieces when his mother died, the wrench of losing his brothers. He pulled in a breath and along with it control.
He was in control, he reminded himself. It was a long time ago that he was sixteen and had felt the earth shaking under his feet.
He saw Chris’s insightful look and summoned up a smile. ‘I’ve scheduled world domination for next year,’ he quipped. ‘What was the response when you told our employees that we wanted them to do a mandatory session with a psychologist every six months?’
‘They grumbled, but they understood. Kade’s death has rocked them all. You do know that we’ll have to do it too.’
Noah blanched. ‘Hell, no.’
‘Hell, yes. Kade was our responsibility and we didn’t pick up the signs. What if we’re working too hard, trying to keep too many balls in the air, and we miss the signs in someone else? We have to be as mentally healthy as—more mentally healthy than—any of our employees, Noah. That’s non-negotiable.’
Since Chris was the healthiest, most balanced person he knew, Noah didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Chris was talking about him. Chris thought he was too stressed—working like a demon, juggling far too many balls. He knew that Chris was worried about him burning out, but he also knew that that he was nowhere near the edge…
Working hard never killed anyone—and besides, he’d been to the edge before and he knew what it looked like. He was still miles away.
Chris slapped the folder he’d been holding onto the table and pushed it towards him. Flipping open the cover, Noah looked down into the laughing face of a green-eyed blonde. She was standing between her famous mother and father, her brother behind them. The most successful family on planet earth, he thought. Rich, successful, close. A unit.
He felt a pang of jealousy and told himself that despite the fact that he had not been part of his brothers’ lives for most of their formative years he was now, and they weren’t doing so badly.
Noah concentrated on the photo below him. Morgan…she’d grown up. She was wearing a tight, slinky cream dress that stopped inches below her butt and revealed her giraffe-long legs. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a smooth ponytail and her naturally made-up face was alight with joy. She looked fantastic. Happy, charismatic.
Hot.
Doing a stint as her bodyguard had nearly killed him. Apart from that one incident he’d never before or since needed the same amount of control and determination as he’d summoned the night he’d walked away from the gloriously naked Morgan Claire Morrisey Moreau.
Noah flipped through the papers in the file. ‘Floor plans of the Forrester-Grantham hotel in New York. Photos of the Moreau jewellery collection… I thought the Moreaus were Amanda’s clients—have always been CFT’s clients?’
Amanda. Their ex-boss and his ex-lover. As petite and as dangerous as a black widow spider, she looked like every other ball-breaker businesswoman in the city.
Except that Amanda actually broke balls. She’d certainly tried to go for his when she’d found out that he was leaving the CFT Corporation to start a company that was in direct competition with hers.
That hadn’t been a day full of fun and giggles.
‘Well, as you know, James Moreau and I went to school together,’ Chris said.
Noah shrugged off his tiredness to connect the dots. James Moreau: CEO of Moreau International, brother to Morgan and son to Hannah ‘Queen of Diamonds’ Moreau and Jedd Moreau, one of the world’s best known geologists.
Moreau International owned diamond and gemstone mines, dealt in the trading of said gems—especially diamonds—and had exclusive jewellery stores in all the major cities around the world. Hannah, as the face of the company, had always been a target, and CFT routinely provided her and Jedd with additional bodyguards when they needed more protection than their long-term driver/guards. That protection was only extended to James and Morgan and other high-ranking executives within MI when MI’s security division or CFT received a particular threat, or were monitoring a situation where extra protection was needed.
Eight years ago, just after he’d left the SAS, Noah had been unlucky enough to end up guarding the nineteen-year-old Morgan for a week because a well-funded but stupid militant environmental group had been protesting MI’s involvement with mines in a nature reserve in Uganda. Huge threats had been issued until it had been pointed out that it was an oil company mining for natural gas and not MI looking for gems.
Morgan had never been in any real danger, but no one had been prepared to take the chance. As the rookie, he’d got the so-called ‘creampuff’ assignment to guard the teenager. He’d never told anyone that it had probably been one of the best weeks of his life. Sure, he’d vacillated between wanting to wring her neck and fantasising about her, which had been off-the-scale inappropriate since she’d been his principal and he’d been six years older than her—and a million years in experience. But he’d laughed—internally—been relaxed in her company and had enjoyed her scalpel-sharp mind.
Noah felt heat creep up his neck and he stared at the fingers that gripped his coffee cup. He’d lost his mind that night…well, almost. He’d nearly risked everything he had—his sole source of income at that time—to make love to her. The consequences of his actions still made his blood run cold. If CFT had found out he would have been canned and would never have been able to get another job in security again. And security was what he did—
what he’d trained for—the only skill he’d had at that time.
He’d left the army, his first and only love, to find a better-paying job so that he could put his two younger brothers through college. CFT had offered him a fantastic salary which he’d nearly thrown away to sleep with Morgan Moreau.
Who’d just wanted him to break her duck!
Chris’s voice pulled him back to the here and now. ‘I’ve been working on James to send some business our way, told him we’ve expanded into security analysis, and he’s thrown us a bone.’
‘Oh, yay,’ Noah deadpanned.
‘If we pull it off it gives us an in at Moreau and we want them as clients.’ Chris reminded him. ‘World domination, remember? Moreau’s is a good place to start.’
‘I know, I know… Okay, what is it?’ He tapped Morgan’s picture. ‘Does she need a bodyguard again? Who has her family upset this time?’
‘She doesn’t need protection.’
‘Good.’ Noah lifted an eyebrow at Chris. ‘What’s the job?’
‘Every five years the Moreaus host a grand ball for charity, and they combine the ball with an exhibition of the family collection of jewels—which is practically priceless. Some of the biggest and the best diamonds and jewels collected over generations of wealthy Moreaus,’ Chris explained. ‘There has been a massive increase in armed robberies at such jewellery exhibitions, and James wants a complete, intensive threat analysis. I know it’s a puffball assignment, but you just need to head to New York for a meeting, have a look at their current security arrangements, check out the hotel—do what you do best. With luck we’ll get the contract to oversee the security, based on your report. But for now, it’s just a couple of days in New York and we have an in with Moreau.’
‘When is this meeting?’
‘In the morning. I have you booked on a flight leaving in an hour.’
‘Why can’t you go? You’re James’s mate, not me.’ Noah groaned. ‘I’m beat.’
‘I’ve got a meeting scheduled with another client, and you are far better at security assessments than I am. You’re brilliant at planning operations, getting in and out of places and situations you shouldn’t be, and you can see stuff from a criminal perspective.’