Rob rapidly dropped his arms, shooting a confused look at Rachael before they both focused on the same thing. ‘Will you be okay?’ he hissed at her. ‘And Suse?’
Frowning, Susie turned to see what they were looking at.
George met the offender’s gaze. The offender, after a moment’s hesitation and a rushed conversation, fled. George’s newfound instincts were screaming at him to follow, while his head frantically attempted to instil some reason into the equation. He was mid-internal battle, when he saw Susie stumble.
And then he was there. She clung to him and his arms wrapped tightly around her. She leaned against him, seeming to need the support. He manoeuvred backwards, moving them off the dance floor to a quiet corner. Cassie and Rachael followed. They were concerned. As was he. But every time he attempted to remove himself a little so he could get in a position to check how she was, she clutched him tighter.
That had to be a good sign, didn’t it? She hadn’t lost consciousness and … He shouldn’t be thinking it, but her clinging to him felt good. Damned good.
As she appeared to stir, he loosened his hold but only a fraction.
Susie shook her head. The white noise which had been screaming around it was finally abating and her erratic breathing was normalising. How stupid – or nuts – was she? She could have sworn she’d just seen George Silbury. Opening her eyes to regain her bearings, she took a few moments to realise she was in someone’s arms.
‘I’m terribly sorry,’ she breathlessly exclaimed, and looked up. But before her eyes had a chance to focus, her body told her whose arms she was in. And then her eyes did focus. And then he grinned. A slow, sultry, deliciously irresistible grin that transfixed her, while her body turned to jelly. His arms tightened around her.
‘I think that last dance may have taken it out of you,’ he said gently, his voice unmistakably shaky.
And the sound … It was doing that thing to her again, and leant up against him like this, the resonance thrumming through her was in perfect sync with the reverberations from his chest.
‘It certainly had its effect on me,’ he added quietly.
‘Oh please!’ she heard from behind. ‘You were like a bulldozer and we will be having words.’
It was enough for Susie to recover herself. To be aware it wasn’t just the two of them in an intimate, intense, body-blowing, mind-numbing, insane vacuum! This was George Silbury. She couldn’t admit how good it felt to be in his arms. She wasn’t safe around him. And she was going to have to go through the inexplicable agony of walking away all over again.
Pushing against his chest, he dropped his arms. And taking a step back, she stood free of him. Her legs held her up. Just. But it didn’t feel good. She wanted to be back wrapped in his arms, his body touching hers at every juncture. His broad chest pressed to her breasts. His powerful thighs against her hips. His …
‘I’m so sorry,’ she gasped, not intending to look into his eyes, but unable to resist.
Oh God! They seemed to be doing that connection thing. She shut her eyes tightly before she spoke again. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’
Her eyes snapped open again at his touch on her bare arm. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked. ‘Your eyes shut and you looked—’
‘I’m fine,’ she managed, snatching her arm away, but instantaneously yearning for that lost touch. ‘And calling it a night.’ She had to get out of here. She turned to Rachael, who was talking into another woman’s ear. She recognised her. The other woman looked up and smiled.
‘We met briefly, but not in the best of circumstances. I’m George’s sister. Cassie.’
Of course. She remembered her at his side when he was … unconscious in Rachael’s consulting room! The result of her throwing herself at his non compos mentis person! She had to get out of here.
Susie tried to smile back, but struggled. She didn’t think she liked this woman, but didn’t know why. She would have to think on that one when she was more capable of thinking.
‘Rach? We’re going, yeah.’ Now. Please.
‘Sure thing. I’ll sort out a taxi. You wait here. Somewhere where you can sit down quietly. There’s a lounge out back that will be cooler. You’ve gone from ghostly white to beetroot.’
Susie winced. ‘It’s okay. I’ll—’
Her words were interrupted by those from the woman she had yet to make her mind up over. ‘George, make sure Susie sits down. I’m going to touch base with Rachael while we get a taxi sorted.’
There was the answer. It required no thinking. She didn’t like her.
And instantaneously someone’s hand was on Susie’s elbow, gently guiding her through the crowds. Oh God! This couldn’t be happening. She was going to be really abnormal again. She could feel it in her bones. And she instinctively knew, walking away was going to destroy her this time.
Chapter Ten
George led Susie to a table in one of the corners of the adjoining room. As soon as she was in a seat, he crouched down to her eye level. Not that she was looking at him. She appeared to be looking anywhere but. Resisting the urge to brush a particular strand of hair away from her face and tuck it behind her ear, he asked gently, ‘Would you like a glass of water or something?’
She nodded and croaked, ‘Yes please.’
‘You sit quietly. I’ll be right back,’ he said, getting to his feet.
‘And the something please,’ she added, as he turned to go to the bar. ‘Whatever you are having?’
‘Whisky?’
She nodded repeatedly, still not looking at him.
George stood waiting for the drinks at the empty bar. Very few tables were occupied in this room and it appeared to be soundproofed, so little noise came from the dance floor next door. It was cooler too. Susie was notably flushed.
He turned to look at her afresh and his heart did that jolt. He shook his head. He hardly knew her, yet he was drawn to her in a way that defied description. And logic. He had the urge to stake his claim. To call her his. To never ever let her go.
But she wasn’t his. He attempted to ignore the unfathomable burst of pain that fact dealt him. He turned to face the bar and pay for the drinks. She’d rejected him. She was only with him now because of Cassie’s meddlings.
And she was in a relationship with another.
Did that man – Peter Boyles – touch her? His body screamed at the idea. Did they kiss? Had they slept together? He clenched his fists tightly and tried to rein himself in. He had no idea what was bloody happening to him here, but the idea of another man …
His head turned towards the door now swinging open, letting the deep bass beat from the music in the adjacent room seep in. His fierce gaze fixed on the man coming through the door.
‘Shit!’ that man appeared to exclaim as their eyes met. An admirably rapid about turn later, just the swinging door faced George.
Rob. Rob the neighbour. Rob the neighbour whose hands had been all over Susie. George took a deep shuddery breath. His baser instincts were clearly coming out and he never knew he had them. And it worried him. Was it dangerous? He’d clearly been dangerous in that consulting room. Psychotic tendencies or some such, Rachael Jones had said. Was he a danger to Susie? He’d not been aware of what he was doing then. He’d been hypnotised and would never let anyone into his head again.
He looked at Susie now as he approached the table with the drinks. He could never be dangerous to her. He knew that instinctively. Anyone who touched her though … Bloody hell! He really wasn’t so sure on that one.
Susie focused on the flower she’d taken from the small display in the middle of the table and … massacred. Every one of its yellow petals was there on the surface in front of her. She had a serious issue here and, as if she needed any reminder of that, her body was innately reacting to who she somehow knew was approaching. And she wasn
’t even looking at him! But it was more than her body. It was her whole being. And where was the sense in that? It was an extreme reaction. Beyond extreme …
She closed her eyes for a moment. A decade-long crazed eye-obsession had graduated to this? Had she finally snapped? Was this what that night had inevitably been leading to? The thought of that night ensured the box in her head started seeping. She didn’t bother reinforcing it. She didn’t have the energy to fight what perhaps had been the inevitable. Loss, desolation, betrayal. They were all there. Beginning their leisurely, but oh so painful, meander through every cell in her body. Filling her with—
A blazing touch on her arm seared through her body, blasting into her mind. Those feelings were gone. No dissipation. Just blasted. She snapped her eyes open in confusion, and came face to face with those eyes. So beautiful. So compelling. And seeking out their connection, as if invisible strands winged their way through her, instinctively finding their home and slotting contentedly into place.
When he wasn’t there, those slots were empty. She was empty. Nuts. Nuts. Nuts!
‘Are you okay?’ That voice again. So concerned. His hand was still on her arm, providing that blasting – yet comforting, so comforting – blaze. A blaze that, if she was honest, was rapidly morphing into red-hot lust as it coursed through her veins. Her body throbbed in perfect synchrony to his voice. And his eyes …
She wrenched her gaze away, managing to squeak an affirmative. Her desperate wringing hands came into contact with a glass on the table. She didn’t even think as she instinctively grabbed it, raised it to her lips, and emptied it in one tilt.
It hadn’t been the water. ‘Euuurrrgghhhhh!’ she choked out, before hacking what felt like her insides up. ‘Euuuurgggghhh!’ she released on an uncontrollable shudder. Her insides were on fire, but not in a good way. Not in that incredible way she blazed when … She couldn’t allow herself that thought.
As she finally stopped hacking, she became aware of a beautiful sound and someone pressed up close by her side, still spreading his blaze, shaking.
She focused through still watery eyes. He was laughing. It was deep, rumbling and completely mesmerising. It was the most amazing sound. It filled her with joy and made her want to laugh as if it was a compulsion.
‘Susie?’ he managed to get out while shaking his head. ‘Why would you …?’
And then she was laughing too. She couldn’t help it. He was contagious and in the moment it felt wonderful. It felt right. And his arm was loosely around her shoulder and another around her front, and … Oh God, she was so aware of those arms. His forehead lightly pressed to hers. His breath fanned across her face. His hand moved up and his thumb gently wiped away the tears still streaming from her eyes.
He moved back a few inches. ‘You were flushed before but now…’ He couldn’t finish his sentence because of his laughter.
His eyes danced. They were meant to dance, she thought, and in that moment she wondered what it would be like to dance, too. To dance with the man she had no chance of acting normally around. The man she lost her mind around. The man she’d sobbed over as she’d walked away. The man she just wanted to wrap herself around and never, ever let go. The man she … absolutely could not be around! Oh God!
She had to go. She had to make herself go. She mustn’t think of how badly it was going to hurt. She just had to … go. ‘I thought that was the water,’ she murmured, making an exaggerated shudder. His smile … How could it be reassuring, comforting, sympathetic – and hotter than hell – all at the same time? ‘I must—’
‘And it was mine,’ he interrupted, apologetically. ‘Mine was a double. I’m sorry. If I’d known what you were going to do, I’d have positioned the glasses differently.’
His grin … She was in so much trouble here. She’d been seeking Dutch courage, but it sounded like she was going to get oblivion. She hadn’t touched alcohol for a decade. And … Hell! She hadn’t eaten anything tonight. Oh God! She’d known she was going to act abnormally around him, but now? Go! Now, before the alcohol kicks in! What had she been thinking? She hadn’t been thinking. That was the thing. Around him everything became jumbled and … Her panicked thoughts were interrupted by his voice.
That darned voice …
‘You’re going to say you need to go, I know you are. But there’s something … There’s … I …’ His voice sounded remote to his ears, but George couldn’t not act. It was a compulsion. It was as necessary to him in this moment as breathing. No. More necessary. If this was the last thing he ever did, then amen. Their eyes locked, reinforcing that incredible connection to his very core. ‘Before the whisky takes effect.’
He watched the tip of her tongue moisten her lower lip and … he followed it.
The touch of his lips to hers was feather-light. It had to be. He couldn’t give in to the pulsing need consuming his body; he had to keep himself in check. But bloody hell! It was as if that gentlest of touches unleashed the beast within. The dormant beast that awoke for Susie. A primal beast that had been rattling its cage around her, and now found its cage door flung open.
Oh God! His lips … Her body, her senses, her soul. She was being completely overwhelmed by their delirious response. Ecstasy. Her head was trying to break through, but … Stop? She wasn’t that mad.
He groaned, knowing he had to keep himself in check. But as Susie responded, he surrendered. His tongue thrust forward and swept around her mouth, plunging as he pulled her into his arms in an embrace he prayed was gentler than his need. Sweet Jesus. Single malt whisky … and ambrosia. Heaven. Her taste awakened whole new sensations in him. Things were pinging all over the place. It was sensory overdrive. He’d never known anything like it. He was finally … alive.
Susie tried to press as much of her body against his. He must have instinctively known what she needed, because he took her with him so she lay over him as he straightened his whole body out, resting his head on the top of the soft padded seat, his legs stretched out with his heels on the floor. Not once did he release the fluid cage of his arms, not once did he release her lips.
She was powerless to stop. Stopping would kill her. She’d shrivel up and die; a barren husk when she could be so alive. She could feel his hardness pressing against her and she wantonly rubbed herself against him, gasping as he groaned and worked more magic upon her lips.
She moulded herself to him, embracing the sensation of feeling whole as their bodies wrapped themselves together; two pieces of a puzzle, always fitting perfectly in whatever configuration. Her hands were in his hair, grasping and tugging and she moaned into his mouth as his hand found her breast. She gasped when his thumb, working in ever decreasing circles, connected to its peak.
‘Oh God. Oh God!’ she exhaled, taking control of their mouths. Nipping at his lips and then moving to nip around his jaw.
‘Susie,’ he groaned, and her name had never ever sounded like that before.
This was her. Susie. A Susie she had never met before, but who she knew, instinctively, was her; who she was meant to be. Such pleasure, such excitement, such contentment, such comfort, such completeness. It should be scaring the hell out of her, but she couldn’t think about that. Her body wasn’t allowing her to think.
And in this moment, it wasn’t thinking she needed.
‘He won’t be hurt, will he?’ Cassie asked Rachael worriedly, as they descended the stairs on their hunt for a taxi.
Rachael turned with a raised eyebrow.
‘I’ve never seen him like this before and Susie doesn’t seem to be as … enamoured as George. How can they be what you insist they are if—’
‘They’ve both got it bad,’ Rachael declared, confidently. ‘She’s scared and fighting it. That’s my legacy, I’m afraid. But now they’ve met, they’re going to continue to be drawn to each other. It’s the Soul Mate thing. It’s Fate. They are meant to
be together: the perfect match. And barring tragedy, they will be. I’m right, you’ll see.’
They were outside now and observing the plentiful numbers of vacant taxis passing by. ‘That coffee shop across the way looks tempting?’ Cassie suggested, inclining her head in that direction. Their eyes met and they shared conspiratorial grins.
Rachael spoke as they headed across the road. ‘It appears this time around we might be able to work together without my hating you.’
‘I can certainly work with you. I want to see George happy. I’ve never seen him so caught up with a girl before.’
They’d reached the coffee shop and Rachael opened the door, holding it for Cassie to enter.
‘But … this time around? Look our chats have helped a little, but I’m a logical person and a journalist by trade. What seems to be happening is just so … Look, my head – and you – are telling me the most ridiculous things right now. I—’
She broke off to order a tall skinny decaf latte. At Cassie’s prompting look, Rachael ordered, ‘Large hot chocolate with cream, marshmallows and chocolate stick.’
‘I need evidence,’ Cassie continued. ‘Proof. Something more than … I just need proof.’ She wanted to say the comfort of proof, but in this case comfort would be the last thing it would be. ‘I’ve decided to go to Worton Hall.’
Cassie had half expected there to be a Worton Hall, but finding the existence of the Wiltshire home she was supposed to have lived in as Kathryn Montague had not been a good moment.
‘You found it then,’ Rachael said, sounding not at all surprised. Cassie nodded slowly. ‘I knew you would do this. And revisiting is just what you need. You’ll realise you’re not certifiable then. That all this is real. That you were Kathryn Montague. That Freddie and Hannah existed. That you really do remember me as Tessa. It will feel good.’
Cassie looked up from paying for the drinks, shaking her head as Rachael went for her purse. How could confirmation that she had been Kathryn Montague ever feel good?
Romancing the Soul Page 9
