by Romy Sommer
Annabel touched her mouth, and shivered. “We should…”
Daniel nodded. “Let’s go. It’s freezing.” He pressed his mouth to hers in a brief kiss, then opened the door for her.
Black ice made the road treacherous, but at least there was no traffic on the route home. Daniel turned up the heater. On a night like this one five years ago he’d lost his friend John on this very road. Black ice demanded all of his attention.
“Your place or mine?” Annabel asked.
He couldn’t risk taking his eyes off the road for a moment, but the quiet question reignited in an instant the erection he’d been concentrating on controlling.
“Oh, I’m sorry, that sounded so cheesy…” Annabel sounded embarrassed.
“It sounded great. Let’s go to mine.” He stared through the windscreen, smearing now with traces of the fog that fell so suddenly here, close to the hill’s summit. “The road is treacherous tonight, otherwise I’d…”
Ahead, tail lights shone watery red at an angle from the road. An angle that indicated the car was in the ditch, or worse.
“Damn!” Daniel braked slowly, feeling the car start to slide on the invisible black ice, before righting itself. He pulled over behind the car and turned the hazard lights on. “There’s a blanket in the back, could you get it for me?” He glanced at Annabel’s white face. “Bring your phone.”
She nodded, and pulled on her coat.
Quickly, Daniel made his way to the car. He checked for smoke or flames, and breathed easier when he didn’t find any. The front passenger side had collided with a tree, and glancing inside, he saw the driver’s airbag hadn’t deployed. The crash hadn’t been at excessive speed, at any rate. “Are you okay? Can you move?” The back seats were empty, and he recognised the woman from the restaurant car park.
She didn’t move, but her eyes were open. “Miss?
Wincing, she turned.
Daniel opened the door, turned off the engine, slipped the keys into his pocket, and left the car lights on. “Can you move?”
“I…I think so.” Her fingers curved into her thighs as she moved her feet up and down. “Yes, I….ow.”
“Steady.” It was to be expected she’d have a bruise, maybe even a cracked rib if she’d been jerked hard against the seat-belt. “Any other pain apart from across here?” His fingers traced the path of the seat-belt across her body.
“My chest hurts.”
“What’s your name?” It was an important detail to find out in case she went unconscious. Someone, somewhere, would be worried about her when she didn’t make it home.
“Felicity Markham.” Her eyes closed.
“Stay with me, Felicity.”
“I have the blanket.”
Daniel turned at the sound of Annabel’s voice.
“Call the ambulance.” Quickly and efficiently he reeled off the car’s location and gave her rough details to pass on.
“Let’s see if we can get you out.”
Felicity’s eyes flickered open. She was going into shock, but the ambulance would be with them in a matter of moments. The car seemed safe enough, but there was always the possibility of a collision if another car lost control on the slippery surface. He needed to get her out of the car.
The seat-belt unfastened easily, and with help, she stepped out the car.
“Could you lay the blanket down on the grass?” With a jerk of his head, Daniel showed Annabel a spot on the verge, away from danger if any other car suffered the same fate as hers had on this treacherous night. Annabel ran ahead, and did as he asked.
“I found a silver blanket in the back too.”
Daniel nodded. He always kept emergency supplies in his car. In winter, having an emergency space-blanket could be the difference between life and death if caught in a snowstorm. “That’s great.” He carefully helped Felicity to sit, then shrouded the light foil over her shoulders.
She was shivering. Daniel pulled off his sheepskin coat and draped it over the space-blanket. “The ambulance will be here soon.” He held her hand, offering comfort, as the faint sound of a siren grew stronger, heralding the imminent arrival of an ambulance.
Chapter Six
Annabel stood on the grass verge in the darkness and watched Daniel talk to the ambulance crew. He pulled the car keys from his pocket, speaking all the time, passing on vital information. In his role as firefighter, he obviously knew the ambulance crew well. By the time they had Felicity safely inside, Annabel’s fingers were cramped with cold. She flexed them, picked up the blankets and Daniel’s coat from the frost-crisped grass, and walked to the car.
Through the windscreen, she saw the ambulance driver thump Daniel on the back—man shorthand for acknowledging a job well done. Daniel was still smiling as he walked to the car.
“She’ll be fine.” He turned on the engine, and dialled the heat up full. “I better get you home.”
“Wait.” She needed to tell him, needed to show him. Annabel reached for the side of Daniel’s face, trailing her fingers across the slash of his cheekbone to the back of his head. Pulling him in for her kiss. Without even trying, just by being himself, so warm and caring to a stranger in peril on the road, he’d shown the sort of man he was. The sort of man who gave. The sort of man who cared. The sort of man that she could give her heart to, without fear.
His lips moved over hers in a caress that heated far more efficiently than the warm air blowing at her frigid feet. His hands cupped either side of her head, holding her in place, thumbs slowly stroking her jawline.
By the time he pulled away, her heart was pounding like a jackhammer. Denim eyes stared into hers.
“Let’s go home.”
Annabel traced her top lip with her tongue, feeling the shadow imprint of his mouth. One word encapsulated every emotion tumbling inside perfectly. “Yes.”
The journey through the inky blackness felt predestined. Like the planets high overhead were perfectly aligned. Every step up Daniel’s path to the front door was a step away from the heartache of the past, towards a new future, one glittering with possibilities.
There was no need for words. No pretence of making coffee. As the door closed behind Annabel, Daniel turned her into his arms and pressed his mouth insistently to hers. The door was hard against her back as Daniel stripped off her coat and her fingers simultaneously slipped his heavy sheepskin jacket from his shoulders.
His hands gripped her hips, pulling her so close the hard evidence of his arousal pressed against her stomach. In a haze of sensation, Annabel rose up on tiptoe, wanting, needing more.
Without breaking the perfect melding of their mouths, Daniel lifted her.
Annabel’s legs hooked around his back as he held her secure with one hand under her bottom, and climbed the stairs.
In the bedroom, he slowly let her down. The glow of the streetlight outside the window slanted through a gap in the curtains, illuminating the room with a soft, magical light. Without words, he unzipped her dress and slid it from her shoulders.
“You’re beautiful.” His voice was deep.
Standing in her underwear, Annabel was glad she’d decided against tights and worn stockings instead. She stared at his chest, shaking fingers undoing every button on his black shirt.
His chest… There was a reason why women had fantasies about firefighters. Daniel’s upper chest was perfect. Wide, with powerful muscles perfectly defined. Her fingers trailed down his stomach, feeling each curve and dip beneath her fingertips. When she reached the top button of his trousers, he moved quickly, pulling her close and joining their mouths again.
The next few frantic moments flew by and then she was on the bed, naked, with an equally naked Daniel cupping her breasts with his powerful hands. Hands that could be gentle, could be caring, just like the man.
“You have a freckle on your breast.” Daniel traced it with his tongue. “It’s sexy.”
Laughter bubbled up, and Annabel let it free. “You have an awesome body, but you know th
at, right?”
Daniel looked up.
She shivered at the touch of his chin on her bare skin.
“No-one’s ever told me that before.” He grinned.
Annabel tapped her lips with her index finger. “Come up here,” she whispered. “And I’ll tell you what I’d like you to do with it.”
Daniel shook his head. “I have a plan. You’ll like it.”
And as he kissed his way down her body, Annabel had to agree that she did.
Chapter Seven
After a morning spent staring at his computer screen, checking email, reading blogs, and basically doing everything except what he should be doing, Daniel flicked off his monitor and strode into the kitchen.
The past month had passed so quickly he couldn’t believe it. Already, his mother had started to ask what he and Chloe were doing for Christmas. They’d alternated between his mother and sister for the holiday since Chloe was born—Chloe loved the buzz of family at Christmastime.
But a Christmas wouldn’t include Annabel. Not unless he changed things. Made her publicly a part of not only his life, but Chloe’s.
He threw out the old grounds from the coffee machine, and mechanically started a new batch. A couple of nights a week, he sent Chloe to stay with her granny to give him and Annabel some time together. It felt like sneaking around. And he was sick to death of it.
This morning, Chloe’d asked if Teacher was his girlfriend. Her eyes had lit with unmasked hope. Hope that Teacher might become Mummy. He’d done what he’d always swore he’d never do, and told his beloved daughter that they’d talk about it later.
He sat at the kitchen counter. Gazed at the pictures stuck on the fridge. Right now, Annabel and Chloe were together, as they were every day. In the role of teacher and pupil. And Annabel wanted to keep up the pretence that they were nothing more than that, fearful that dating her student’s father would somehow affect her standing in the tiny school.
Coombethwaite was curtain-twitch central. The gossip had started already. The guys at the firestation were always asking him to bring Annabel out to the pub, to introduce her, but the snatched moments they had together were too fleeting, too important to share.
He poured a cup of coffee, adding a splash of cold water from the tap.
Last night, she’d stayed over. Laid out her small collection of toiletries on the edge of the sink. They’d made love long into the night, her scent clung to his sheets even after every other trace of her had been tidied away into the bag that she stowed in her boot. Just like always.
Like a man in a dream, Daniel clutched the coffee cup and trudged up the stairs. There was a dent in her pillow. A discarded earring lay on the carpet half under the bed.
Daniel stooped and picked it up. Placed it carefully on the bedside table, where he wanted it to be. He’d wanted everything once, and for a blind minute had thought the woman he was with wanted it too. How long was he going to let the lessons of the past dictate his future?
He’d never believed he could fall in love so quickly, so totally. This Christmas, he wanted Annabel’s clothes in his wardrobe. His ring on her finger. His daughter to have a mother. And more than a lover, he wanted Annabel as his wife. Forever.
He glanced at the alarm clock. Twelve o’clock. The parent/teacher meeting was at three. He had time.
#
Annabel had a hidden agenda, and she wasn’t ashamed to admit it to herself. She’d scheduled Daniel as the last parent of the day, purely so she could stretch out the allocated ten minutes to fifteen. Five extra minutes they could spend together without igniting gossip.
She shook Teddy McDonald’s parents’ hands and assured them he would get over throwing all the dolls out of the playhouse—it was just that with a firefighter as an uncle he wanted to play fireman all the time. And that she’d talked to him about it. Told him that the girls found it upsetting. They’d come up with a solution, a compromise. He could play fire on Fridays, the rest of the week the girls played house.
As the grateful parents left, Annabel nipped out to the water-cooler in the corridor. Olga was already there, filling a small plastic cup.
“Only one more to go for me, how about you?” Olga asked.
“Just one more, yes.” Annabel glanced down the stairs. No sign of Daniel, but then she’d finished early, and he wasn’t expected for another few minutes.
“Daniel Walker?” Olga’s eyebrows rose.
Annabel nodded.
“Chloe is a lovely child.”
Annabel’s heart swelled. “Yes.” She wanted to say so much more. How every day the sight of Annabel’s little face as she came into the classroom filled her with joy. Her eyes matched Daniel’s, how could she fail to love the little girl as if she was her own? Daniel wanted to keep the lines clearly drawn. He’d explained early on that Chloe was the most important person in his life. That he didn’t date because he didn’t want Chloe to become close to a woman who might not stick around forever.
“We all know you’re dating Daniel, you know.” Olga sipped her water, her gaze piercing. She leaned in and spoke quietly. “And we approve. He’s a lovely man who deserves some happiness.”
Annabel breathed in. Apparently her attempts to keep their romance under wraps had been woefully inadequate. “I thought…well…me being Chloe’s teacher…” Word failed her.
“You thought that the other parents would judge you? Or the teachers would?” Olga’s eyebrow arched. “You’re not exactly the femme fatale type.” She softened her words with a smile. “No-one has a problem with it. Love—”
Footsteps on the stairs. Heavy ones.
Annabel peeked over the bannisters.
“Ah, here’s my last appointment.”
Olga winked. Refilled her cup, and strode into her classroom, closing the door quietly.
“Hi.” Daniel was wearing his thick sheepskin jacket.
Annabel clenched the plastic cup tight to resist throwing her arms around him. She always wanted to. But this wasn’t the place.
She stepped back, opened her classroom door wide and followed him to the desk.
He perched on the tiny chair made for six year olds, with his hands resting on his knees.
“You tell me every day about Chloe’s progress.” Daniel stared into her eyes. “But I guess I had to come in.”
Annabel swiped her top lip with her tongue. “Every parent has to come to the parent/teacher meetings. It’s awkward this year…” she looked at the page in front of her on the desk. “Because you and I are dating, but next year it’ll be different, she’ll have another teacher.”
Daniel smiled that smile that made her heart flip. “Next year you’ll be at the meeting too, though won’t you?”
Confusion swirled within. “There won’t be any need for it. Chloe’s doing really well at school. She’s happy, well adjusted, and a very good student.” She shuffled the papers. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Daniel stood and shoved his hand into his pocket. “I have got something to worry about.” The look in his eyes turned her insides to water.
“I don’t want to play this game any more.”
Breathing became difficult. In such a short amount of time, Daniel and Chloe had become her entire world. She couldn’t imagine a life without him in it, but apparently he didn’t feel the same. Pain pierced her heart. She clamped her eyes tight shut.
“Annabel.”
When she opened them, he wasn’t where she expected him to be, but instead on one knee before her, clutching a small blue velvet box.
“Will you come to the parent/teacher meeting with me next year, as my wife?”
“God, yes.” She launched herself from the chair into his arms, kissing him with a joy that knew no limits.
Daniel’s phone beeped. Annabel pulled away, perching on the edge of the chair as he opened the box and slipped a beautiful opal ring on her finger. His phone beeped again.
“You better get that, it might be urgent.”
&nbs
p; Daniel stood and fished the phone from his pocket. Then he sighed.
“What?”
“I popped in to my mother’s on the way here to talk to Chloe. I asked her permission to propose.” He ran a hand through his hair, then pulled Annabel into his arms. “She was so excited, and it appears the secret’s out.” He waved the phone. “She’s brought my mother to the school, and outside that door, is the whole Walker posse wanting to know your answer.”
“Well in that case…” Annabel’s fingers ran through Daniel’s hair, bringing him close for her kiss. “Hurry up and kiss me.”
About the author:
Sally Clements writes fun, sexy and real contemporary romance, partnering hot heros with heroines that know what they want, and go for it! Always a voracious reader, she considers writing for a living the perfect job—the only down-side is saying goodbye to her characters at book’s end. She’s @sallywriter on twitter.
Her latest book, Angel All Year, is available on Amazon now.
Worth the Risk
Tara Pammi
Kindle Edition. Copyright © 2012 Tara Pammi
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Chapter 1
“Have you lost your mind?”
The words rumbled across the small room towards Annie Bennett. She shivered even as every inch of her grew hot from the small fire in the room. The moment the fire had started getting out of hand, she’d started praying fervently. Not that the fire would subside, but that it wouldn’t be Marcus who got called.
