by Kathryn Ross
Steven was right—she didn’t like to admit to any emotional weakness…and why the hell should she? she asked herself furiously. It was better not to get emotionally involved at all. Opening up your heart to someone was tantamount to handing out a big sledgehammer and telling whomever you’d given it to to do his worst.
‘I’ve hit a nerve, haven’t I?’ Steven asked softly once they were left alone again.
‘No.’ She held his gaze. ‘I’m not in love with Nile; I’m not in love with anyone. In fact, I think I told you when I was at your house that weekend…I don’t really believe in love at all.’
A waiter brought a bottle of champagne to the table and poured them both a glass before placing the bottle in an ice bucket next to them and leaving them.
‘Happy birthday,’ Steven said as he raised his glass towards hers.
After a moment’s hesitation she joined him in the toast. ‘Thank you.’
‘I’m sorry if I was prying,’ he said lightly.
She shook her head. ‘No, I’m sorry to be so edgy. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about Nile.’
‘Or any kind of emotional involvement?’
She looked over at him questioningly.
‘So, who is it that hurt you, Chloe…was it Nile or someone else?’ he asked softly.
Suddenly her eyes seemed an impossible shade of violet-blue. ‘When you said you wanted to do some research tonight I didn’t realise that it was going to be quite so in-depth,’ she said coolly.
Steven noticed the way her hand wasn’t entirely steady as she picked up her glass and took a long sip.
‘Well, as I’m going to stay with your family this weekend, I felt I should know a little more about you,’ he said casually.
‘There’s not much to know.’ She paused slightly before continuing to speak. ‘Maybe I’m a bit raw from what’s happened between Nile and me, but that’s about all.’
Steven wondered why he didn’t believe her.
Someone had hurt her very badly, so badly that she found it hard to trust. He could see it in the wariness of her eyes.
Steven remembered that night at her apartment when she had given herself to him so freely and felt a surge of desire rising from nowhere. He wanted her again, had done for weeks. But he sensed if he wanted to get close to her on any level he would have to exercise a lot of control. However, that didn’t mean backing down from something he knew was the truth.
‘If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s OK,’ he said gently. ‘I can understand that. I didn’t want to talk much after I lost Stephanie, not on any kind of deep level anyway.’ He grinned, a kind of self-deprecating grin that made Chloe’s heart squeeze painfully.
Then swiftly Steven changed the subject. ‘So, tell me a bit about your family,’ he said. ‘Fill me in on details I need to know for this weekend.’
She felt herself relax as the focus of the conversation drifted away from her.
‘Well, Dad is a family doctor, and Margaret, my stepmum, was his receptionist.’
‘They met at work?’
Chloe nodded.
Steven listened as Chloe talked, noted the warmth in her eyes and in her voice. Obviously she loved her family very much.
‘What about your family?’ she asked him suddenly.
‘My dad died five years ago. My mum took it hard—they were happily married for forty years.’
‘Being happily married for forty years is a big achievement,’ Chloe said softly. ‘They were lucky to have that.’
‘Yes, they were.’ Steven’s eyes moved thoughtfully over her face.
‘And how many brothers and sisters have you got?’
‘I’m the only boy and I’ve got five sisters.’
Chloe laughed. ‘It’s no wonder you are so at ease around women.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Steven grinned. ‘I’m well-used to tights drying in the bathroom and razors that mysteriously go blunt. And I could probably tell you a fair bit about the art of coordinating your wardrobe as well.’
Chloe laughed. ‘So where are your sisters now?’
‘They all live away. Two are in America, one in France, one over in Holland. Maddi is the only one who lives anywhere near by; she’s in Cornwall, which means she comes up for a visit more often than the rest.’
‘Is she the one whose jeans I squeezed into?’
‘Yes.’
‘I must give those back to you. I’ve washed and ironed them but I keep forgetting to bring them into work.’
‘There’s no hurry.’ Steven leaned over and refilled her glass. ‘Tell me more about growing up in Ireland,’ he invited lazily.
The time seemed to fly by after that. They talked about everything, and nothing, Steven drawing her out skilfully so that she found herself telling him things from long ago in her past, light-hearted, silly things she had almost forgotten herself.
When the waiter arrived at the table with their coffee she was aware of a feeling of disappointment that the evening was coming to a close. She couldn’t remember a time when she had been so relaxed, so at ease in a man’s company.
‘Thank you; that was a lovely meal, Steven,’ she said quietly.
‘Yes, not bad.’ He smiled. ‘And the company was excellent. Do you know, I think this is the first time since that weekend we got snowed in that we’ve spent so much time in each other’s company without mentioning work once?’
‘Yes, I suppose it is.’
‘And it’s been fun.’ His eyes held hers. They were dark and serious and they made her feel as if she was melting inside.
‘Yes. It has.’
‘Come on, I’d better take you home.’ Steven lowered his voice conspiratorially. ‘Let’s escape before Jamie McDonald wants us to fill in a report card on the meal.’
After the jovial atmosphere in the restaurant, the journey back to Chloe’s apartment seemed strangely silent.
Chloe’s mind was running ahead, wondering if she should invite him in. She wanted to so much. Wanted to feel his hands against her skin again. Wanted to taste his kisses.
‘Would you like to come in for a coffee?’ she asked, somehow managing to inject a bright tone into her voice as he pulled into the square and to a standstill outside her apartment.
He switched off the car engine and looked over at her. There was silence for a minute, broken only by the sound of the rain drumming against the car. It seemed to fill the space between them like the drumming of her heart.
‘No. I won’t come in tonight, Chloe. But thank you for asking.’
‘Oh, OK.’
‘But I’ll see you tomorrow. Pick you up at around one-thirty.’
She nodded, aware of a deep and completely illogical disappointment. ‘Well, thank you again for a lovely evening.’
When he made no move to kiss her goodnight she leaned across to him and kissed him on the cheek.
The familiar tang of his aftershave sent a heady wave of feeling through her. As she moved to pull hastily back he stopped her by putting one hand on her arm. For a moment she looked up into his eyes and felt her heart thudding wildly. Then he lowered his head and kissed her. The touch of his lips against hers was electric; it filled her with such a need for him that she almost felt light-headed. His kiss started as gently persuasive and compelling and then as she kissed him back more hungrily his lips became harder, more demanding.
Then swiftly she pulled away and reached for the door handle of the car, running through the rain towards home.
CHAPTER NINE
CHLOE put the dishes from her lunch into the dishwasher. Then she glanced around the apartment, checking that everything was switched off.
Her suitcase stood in readiness by the front door, and everything was done. Any moment now Steven would be here. That thought brought a rush of excitement through her.
She walked to the windows and looked out.
The rain from last night had left everything looking fresh. The sky was a bright azure-blue, and a gentle breeze stirred the cher
ry blossom in the park, causing some of it to flutter to the ground like confetti.
She remembered the way Steven had kissed her last night. The masterful way his lips had aroused her, the sensation of need and ecstasy. If she didn’t know herself better, she might imagine that she was in love with Steven Cavendish, she thought dreamily and then pulled herself up sharply.
Love didn’t work; she didn’t believe in it, she told herself staunchly. It clouded your brain so that you couldn’t think straight and it ended in pain and disappointment. She was too sensible to fall in love with Steven.
So what were these feelings that assailed her every time he was near? she wondered. That weird feeling in the pit of her stomach as if her heart had slipped and bounced, that ache of longing when he touched her…
Steven’s BMW turned the corner into the square. Hurriedly she moved from the window and checked her appearance in the mirror.
After much deliberation she had chosen the practicality of jeans and a lightweight top with a heavier matching jacket, because it was comfortable for travelling in. Her hair was neatly drawn back from her face and she was wearing a new pair of designer glasses that had cost her a small fortune. She probably shouldn’t have bought them—she was only just getting back onto her feet financially—but they seemed to suit the shape of her face and she just hadn’t been able to resist.
The shrill ring of the doorbell cut through her thoughts and hurriedly she pushed all of that to the back of her mind and went to let him in.
Steven looked summery and relaxed in a pair of fawn-coloured trousers and a lightweight shirt that seemed to emphasise the width of his shoulders and the perfect lines of his body. Gillian was right; he was gorgeous, Chloe thought as she stared into the darkness of his eyes.
‘Hi. Are you ready?’ He smiled at her.
‘Yes, all ready,’ she said breezily, and, trying to ignore those strange symptoms that were there again, she turned away from him and picked up her handbag.
‘Is this all your luggage?’ Steven asked, looking at her case.
She smiled at that. ‘It’s enough…don’t you think?’
He grinned as he picked it up and felt the weight of it. ‘There’s nothing like travelling light,’ he said.
‘And this is nothing like travelling light.’ They said the words in unison and then both laughed.
As the laughter died and their eyes met she felt the sudden surge of need rise in her again.
‘Let’s go, then,’ she said, turning to lead the way downstairs.
Steven put her case in the BMW and Chloe transferred her attention to Beth, who was waving to her excitedly from the back seat of the car.
‘Hi, darling,’ she said as she slid into the front passenger seat. ‘Are you looking forward to the flight?’
It was lucky that Beth was so talkative, Chloe thought as they made their way through the Friday-afternoon traffic towards Heathrow Airport. The child’s constant happy chatter covered a tense silence that seemed to have descended between her and Steven.
She darted a sideways glance at him as they stopped for a moment at the traffic lights.
‘It’s warm, isn’t it?’ he remarked, and reached to switch on the air-conditioning. His arm brushed against hers as he moved and immediately she felt herself charged up with electrical current.
Maybe what she was feeling was an entirely physical attraction, she told herself sharply. Lust, that was what it was, a purely sexual attraction.
‘Is that better?’ he asked as cool air drifted over them.
She looked into his eyes and felt her stomach dip hungrily and her temperature soar. ‘Yes, much better.’
No, it definitely wasn’t love. Apart from anything else, the first rule of love had to be, don’t fall for a man who will never return your feelings. That was just a one-way ticket to unhappiness.
Steven drove the car into the multi-storey car park and they took their luggage out of the back and headed for the lifts to the terminal. Beth clung tightly to Chloe’s hand.
‘Have you ever been on a plane before, Beth?’ Chloe asked.
‘Yes, Daddy took me to Disney World, but I don’t remember it very much. I remember Mickey Mouse, though.’
Steven smiled. ‘I’m not surprised you don’t remember much about that journey; I think you were only four. It was just before you came to work for me, Chloe.’
As they mingled with the crowds to check in their luggage Chloe was suddenly picturing Steven alone at Disney with his daughter; he was a good father, she thought, caring and sweet and… She pulled herself up. He was also a man, and maybe he hadn’t been on his own at Disney. Very probably he had taken a girlfriend as well. There had never been any shortage of girlfriends in Steven’s life.
They picked up their boarding tickets and went through to the departure lounge.
‘Would you like a coffee?’ Steven asked. ‘We’ve got about an hour to kill.’
‘Yes, thanks,’ Chloe smiled and brought Beth over to a seat in the window whilst Steven went to get the drinks.
Despite the fact that she had worked for Steven for a while, she didn’t really know him that well, she told herself fiercely. Not well enough to think she was in love with him. They were relative strangers to each other really.
But Chloe wanted to know him. She wanted to know what he was thinking about when he looked at her, what made him happy, what made him tick…she wanted to know him inside and out.
She glanced up towards the coffee bar where Steven was waiting to be served, just in time to notice a very good-looking woman who was standing in the queue beside him smile provocatively at him. He smiled back at her, that easy, warm smile that was so attractive it was like a lethal weapon. The thrust of jealousy Chloe felt was quite out of proportion to anything that had happened or anything that was reasonable.
She glanced away, annoyed with herself. Then she added to the list of things she wanted to learn about Steven Cavendish… She wanted to learn how she could make him look at her like that, with sensual admiration in his dark eyes.
He came back to the table with their drinks. ‘I bet you are excited to be going home,’ he said as he met her eyes.
‘Yes…very.’
Maybe tonight she should try to seduce him? The outrageous idea startled her; she had never intentionally set out to seduce a man before, but why not? She knew Steven wouldn’t be averse to having sex with her, and maybe at the same time she would prove to herself that she wasn’t in love with him. It was just sex, nothing more. She could take Steven Cavendish or leave him.
‘What is your house like, Chloe?’ Beth asked, interrupting her thoughts.
‘It’s big and it looks out over the sea and it’s very pretty there. They say it’s like an area in Italy called the Bay of Naples.’
Beth leaned her head in her hands as she listened intently. ‘And are there really leprechauns in the garden?’
‘Hundreds of them!’ Chloe grinned. ‘But you have to be quick to see them. They move very fast.’
‘What shall I do if I see one?’ Beth asked, her eyes wide with excitement.
‘Catch him by the tail of his coat and ask him for a wish. You’ll have to be specific, though…and polite… Leprechauns like good manners.’
Beth nodded. ‘I’ll try,’ she said seriously.
Chloe looked back at Steven; he was watching her with serious eyes. Maybe he wasn’t pleased that she was filling his daughter’s head full of nonsense.
‘I hope this weekend isn’t going to be too boring for you, Steven,’ she said.
He grinned suddenly. ‘Don’t be silly. In fact, as soon as we get there I might try to catch a few leprechauns myself. I could do with some help getting Renaldo to sign on the dotted line this afternoon.’
Chloe frowned. ‘The takeover might go through this afternoon?’
He nodded. ‘Yep…the contracts are due to be exchanged at four-thirty.’
‘But it’s scheduled for next Friday, not this Friday!�
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‘It was but they’ve brought it forward suddenly. I had a phone call at the office this morning.’
Chloe’s eyes widened in horror. ‘If that’s the case you shouldn’t be coming with me to Ireland, you should be at the office! This is really important, Steven!’
‘Not more important than your sister’s wedding, surely?’ He smiled lazily. ‘I’m a man of my word, Chloe, and a deal is a deal. I told you I’d come with you to Ireland and here I am.’
‘But you could have cancelled your flight today and flown out tomorrow instead. The wedding isn’t until tomorrow anyway… I’m just going early because I need to be there for a fitting for my bridesmaid dress tonight—’
‘Chloe.’ Steven cut across her firmly. ‘I don’t need to be there for the signing of the contracts. I’ve done all the preliminary work. It’s down to the solicitors now.’
Chloe thought about this for a moment. She supposed he was right; the contracts did depend on the solicitors. Even so, she was touched that Steven hadn’t wanted to let her down today; nobody had ever put her first like that before.
Their flight was announced at that moment and Steven smiled. ‘Anyway, it’s too late to change my mind now. We’re on our way.’
Their flight touched down at Dublin Airport about an hour later, and it didn’t take long to collect their luggage and their hire car.
It was warm and sunny, and as Steven stowed their bags in the back of the car Chloe took off her jacket, glad of her lightweight T-shirt beneath.
‘That lady thought you were my mummy,’ Beth told her as Chloe bent to help her take off a few of her outer clothes as well.
‘Which lady, darling?’ Chloe asked absently as she handed Steven the coats so he could throw them in the back with the bags.
‘The lady on the plane; she asked me if I wanted to sit between my mummy and daddy or by the window.’
‘That was the air stewardess.’ Chloe noticed that Beth’s hair had escaped from its pony-tail and bent to fix it. ‘And I guess it’s an easy mistake for her to have made. I suppose we looked like a family.’