Her New Worst Enemy

by Christy McKellen

  “Yeah, well, Penny’s important to me. She was great after Paul left. I don’t know what I’d have done without her.” She shook her head, trying to fling away the sadness that had begun to bear down like a lead beret.

  “Are you sure you want to do this? It’s a bit over the top. Perhaps you’re over-reacting because of what happened with Paul,” he said.

  She gripped her mug tightly and fought for control. The last thing she wanted was to break down in front of him. “Look, all we need to do is highlight his weaknesses and make sure Penny stops to think about what she’s doing. Then, once she realizes his game, get the bastard where it hurts and send him on his way, pronto.”

  He flashed a smile. “I’ve got to hand it to you, I never thought you had an evil streak. It’s quite refreshing.”

  She felt him watch her as she took a sip of her tea, intensely aware of how chaotic she must seem to him.

  For years, she’d watched from the sidelines as he’d dazzled every woman he came within ten feet of, winning them over with his easy charm and stunning looks. He had a way of making even the plainest girls feel beautiful. She’d seen it in their faces when he talked to them. He flattered and excited them, making every one of them fall in love with him. It was his special talent, one that he took full advantage of and used regularly. Except on her. For some reason he’d never shown her the same interest, given her the same attention as the others that flocked round him, desperate for his praise.

  The thought of him questioning her reasons made Ellie uncomfortable, but he didn’t know the full story of her break up — nobody but Penny did, not even her parents — and she wanted to keep it that way.

  “So where are we carrying out this ambush?” His question jolted her out of her train of thought.

  “I haven’t figured that out yet. We need somewhere away from his comfort zone, somewhere he can’t run away from easily.”

  “We’ll use my house in the country.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Seriously? I thought it was still being renovated.”

  “Finished, as of last week. I need to do some checks on the building works, so I’m going down there anyway.”

  “That would be perfect.”

  “No problem.”

  She’d never been to his family home before. He’d never even invited her brother to visit him there, so his offer was both astonishing and exciting in equal parts. After his grandparents passed away within months of each other last year, he’d set about stripping the place and renovating it to his own taste, eradicating any trace of them.

  How must it feel to want to eliminate all signs of your family? The idea of it made her shiver. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like not to have her family around.

  She found her gaze lingering with his but turned away quickly, her heart sending disturbingly heavy thumps up into her throat.

  He moved away into the living area and she heard the sofa cushions groan as he sat down. She was so tense, her body felt like a tightly coiled spring on the verge of pinging loose. This was ridiculous. It was just Gideon, playboy extraordinaire and long-time breaker of hearts. She would be mad to let him get under her skin. She needed to pull herself together.

  “So, how do we get them there without it seeming too contrived?” His question made her jump. “We don’t want her to see straight through it.”

  She threw her shoulders back and turned as casually as she could to face him. “I’ll phone her and say I bumped into you, and you suggested we all celebrate her engagement at your house for a long weekend before she gets married. I’ll ask my brother and Ali to come too, I doubt my parents will make it, but it’ll be like old times, all of us holidaying together.”

  Gideon sighed. “Do we really need to drag Gareth into this?”

  “We need it to sound feasible. She’ll think it’s strange if it’s just you and me.” A hot flush crept up her neck again at the mere suggestion of the two of them participating in anything together. This was ridiculous. How was she going to pull this off if she constantly had to hide her face from Gideon?

  “Remind me never to get on the wrong side of you,” he said.

  Ellie shot a quick grin in his direction, then focused back on her plan. “Okay. We need to figure out how we start the charm assault. Then how we move on gradually to the undermining attack until we’ve got him by the balls.”

  “Ellie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  She turned to find him smiling at her, and tried hard to concentrate on a rogue piece of hair sticking up on his head and not the way his mouth quirked at the corner.

  • • •

  One week later Gideon’s car made its leisurely way along a winding road, passing through jaw-droppingly beautiful countryside. Ellie was too caught up in her plans and schemes to notice the magnificence of the surroundings.

  “I think we’ve worked out the best way to make the intervention a success, but we might need to improvise at points as time’s against us.”

  Gideon glanced over at her as she leafed through the notebook that contained the details of “Code-name Expose and Destroy,” as they’d begun to refer to it.

  “You know, it’s starting to sound like a murder mystery weekend. You’re not going to ask me to wear a fake mustache and cravat are you?”

  Ellie grinned at him “I was thinking more tight trousers and flexing muscles.”

  Gideon looked aghast. “Christ.”

  The air between them felt heavy with a sexual undercurrent — or was she just imagining it? It occurred to her that she couldn’t think of a single time before this when she and Gideon had been alone together. Previously, they’d always been surrounded by friends or family, which had made it easy for her to draw away from him.

  Gideon’s deep tones broke into her thoughts. “So how did you manage to persuade Penny to come? I thought she wasn’t talking to you.”

  The plan. She needed to focus on the plan. “I groveled. It wasn’t pretty.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “She was really pleased when I told her you’d offered your house. She’s looking forward to seeing you again.”

  “It’ll be good to see her, too. It’s been ages.”

  Ellie stared out of the window, recalling the fun they’d had on the family holidays together. She and Penny had worshiped Gideon when they were young. He made their time together hum with excitement and promise. The throb that had begun low in her pelvis the moment she’d got into the car with him intensified.

  “So, are you going to be able to cope without a bevy of beautiful babes to seduce this weekend?” It was impossible for her not to rib him.

  He raised a sardonic eyebrow. “You know you’ve got a worryingly skewed idea about how I run my love life.”

  Ellie cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Hmm. I’d hate to see your bedpost — it must be in bits by now.”

  “Come over some time and see for yourself.”

  She looked sharply over at him. Was he flirting with her? The thought sent an unwelcome frisson of excitement straight to her nerve endings. Surely he couldn’t be. He’d never taken the slightest bit of interest in her as a woman before; why would he start now? He must be doing it to wind her up; that was the only feasible explanation.

  He glanced over and she had to avert her face so he didn’t see how flustered she was. She couldn’t deal with this teasing conversation. Not here. Not now. She was acutely aware of his hard thigh only inches away from her own. The air held his scent; clean with an underlying spicy undertone. It made her head swim.

  “No thanks, people might talk and I couldn’t stand the shame.”

  She jumped as he shifted gear and his hand skimmed tantalizingly close to her knee. The low throb moved further down her pelvis. Where was her focus when she needed it?

  Regarding him out of the corner of her eye, she felt a stab of arousal at the teasing smile on his handsome face. She cleared her throat again, suddenl
y aware of how loud it sounded in the confines of the car. “So Gareth and Ali can’t come until the last day, but Penny and Will should be arriving about eight tonight.” Her voice sounded strained to her, but Gideon didn’t comment on it.

  “Well, we’ll be ready for them.” He smiled, his sensual mouth widening to reveal straight rows of pearly white teeth.

  Ellie wrenched her gaze away and took a deep, calming breath.

  • • •

  After twenty more minutes of driving past tall hedges and down narrow lanes, Gideon finally swung into an unmarked private road. They bumped down a track dominated on each side by ancient oak trees, their grand branches forming a tunnel blocking out most of the light, until they fell away and the road opened out onto a sweeping drive. The handsome red brick manor house swung into view, and Ellie let out a low whistle of appreciation.

  “Nice. You really are Lord of the Manor.”

  “Hardly.”

  “But your grandparents were titled, weren’t they?”

  She glanced over at him as an expression of discomfort flashed across his angular face.

  “I don’t use it.”

  “Surely it’s a prime pulling tool though.”

  Gideon swung up to the front of the grand facade of the house and jammed on the hand brake. He turned to capture her gaze, leaning in to her, only inches away, locking his eyes with hers. The air crackled between them.

  “You can tease all you want, Ellie, but you’re not getting a rise out of me.” His emerald eyes changed color as a shaft of sunlight streamed in through the windscreen, his irises flaring from dark to light.

  Ellie swallowed a lump in her throat. “We’ll see.” She jumped out of the car quickly, before the strangely charged atmosphere drove her do or say something stupid.

  She could see why so many women fell at his feet. She wouldn’t though. He was the exact opposite of what she wanted in a partner. She needed someone she could rely on. Someone who wasn’t going to walk away without a backward glance — and anyway, she couldn’t stand the humiliation of him getting the better of her. She was sure the only reason they’d remained friends was because he actually liked her cool, glib taunting and found her refreshing after the simpering women he usually surrounded himself with. Refreshing, but not sexy. Not sensual or foxy. Just straight and honest and … well, Ellie.

  • • •

  Gideon watched as Ellie strode toward the house, gazing up at the grand facade in wonder. Her movements were slightly awkward as if she knew she was being watched and he felt a stir of something not unlike desire at the thought. He checked himself. This was Ellie, the crazy kid sister of his best friend, who he still thought of as being eleven years old with her wild curls and tomboy figure.

  Except she wasn’t any more.

  Over the years, she’d blossomed into a striking looking woman, with sensuous curves and dips in all the right places.

  He imagined exactly how she’d look under those oversized clothes; how her breasts would be softly curved and high, how they would feel under his hands. He mentally shook himself. Just friends — that was what they were. Her disapproving tone earlier had provoked him into flirting with her, just to watch her squirm, but he wasn’t seriously entertaining the idea. Was he?

  No. She was off limits.

  Gareth would kill him if he made a move on his sister, and anyway, he made a point of never sleeping with his friends. It made things too complicated.

  Besides, she’d made it perfectly clear she felt no attraction to him whatsoever.

  A soft voice in his head whispered something about a challenge. He let it live there for a moment before getting out of the car and walking around to the boot.

  He needed to keep focus. He’d only agreed to this hare-brained scheme, or appeared to, to keep her out of trouble and save her family from more stress and heartache.

  He was acutely aware of the debt he owed Ellie’s family, and the least he could do was stop her from making a fool of herself and losing her best friend, along with her mind, in the process.

  The end of her last relationship had obviously knocked the wind out of her, and she was probably projecting her anger about it onto Penny’s fiancé. He needed to gauge for himself if this guy was for real before deciding on the best course of action.

  A loud ringing came from Ellie’s bag. She whipped out her mobile and answered it, turning her back on him and walking away toward the gardens.

  He watched her go, her corkscrew curls hanging halfway down her back, and he found himself longing to gather them up in his hands.

  What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never looked at Ellie this way before, but now he had, he was having immense trouble looking away.

  She returned a moment later looking rather pink about the cheeks and wild eyed.

  “What’s wrong?” For a moment Gideon was terrified someone had been hurt, and a throb of fear lodged in his throat. A memory of standing in the drawing room of the manor after his grandparents had told him about his parents being killed niggled its way forward, but he pushed it back mercilessly into the recesses of his brain.

  “They’re not coming.”

  The fear subsided, leaving an itch of irritation. “Not at all?”

  “No. I mean yes, they’re coming tomorrow instead.” She ran an agitated hand though her curls. “Will arranged for them to see other friends ages ago apparently, and they can’t get out of it.” She didn’t even try to hide the angry disbelief in her voice. “We came down too early and it’s too far to go back now.”

  “Why would we want to go back? We can use this opportunity to relax. I’m sure we’ll find some way to pass the time.” A look of uncertainty flashed across Ellie’s face and he realized he’d slipped into flirting with her again. He wondered how hard he’d have to push to get the required reaction out of her.

  It was an intriguing thought.

  She’d never been touchy-feely with him, which was probably a good thing; it enabled him to keep her compartmentalized as his best friend’s sister and safely at a distance. Although, standing here in front of him, her big blue eyes staring sadly back at him, her soft lips parted, he was suddenly and unexpectedly hit by a wave of sexual heat that squeezed the air from his lungs and coursed like fire through his veins. He slammed a lid on it.

  He seriously needed to sort out his love life if he was reduced to lusting after one of his oldest friends. He forced himself to smile casually at her, relieved she wasn’t able to read his mind and see all the tantalizing images that had just flashed through it.

  He needed to rein himself in here. Anything other than straight friendship would cause all sorts of trouble and strife. There would be knock-on effects that weren’t worth the risk. He needed to keep his distance. This weekend was going to be a real challenge.

  Chapter Two

  Before Ellie had a chance to reply to his unsettling statement, Gideon turned away and opened up the back of the car, hauling his bag out and swinging it easily onto his shoulder, before grabbing a couple of carriers of shopping. She walked over to where he stood to grab her own bag and stared in puzzlement into the now empty boot.

  “Gideon, where’s my case?”

  He frowned at her. “I thought you put it in the boot.”

  “No, I asked you to put it in.”

  “No, you didn’t.” He shook his head slowly. “You said ‘I’ll put my case in the boot, okay?’ I heard you.”

  “No.” Ellie fought to keep the exasperation out of her voice. “I said, ‘Put my case in the boot, okay?’”

  “Ah.”

  “Gideon! What am I supposed to wear? Bin bags?”

  “Well, to be honest Ellie, a bin bag would be an improvement on some of the outfits I’ve seen you in recently. What happened? You used to be so stylish.”

  It took a moment for the panic to abate before she felt capable of answering. “I could kill you.”

  “Ah, come on, it’s not that bad. Think of it as a good excuse to revam
p your wardrobe.”

  “With what? I’m not made of money you know, and it’s not like we’re in the middle of a shopping Mecca here. The nearest town’s miles away.” She kicked at some loose stones in the driveway in frustration, and watched them skitter away from her.

  “Listen,” he murmured, try to placate her, a bemused grin lighting up his handsome face, “there are some of my sister’s old clothes in one of the wardrobes upstairs. I found them in the attic. I guess my grandmother never got round to giving them to the charity shop.”

  “Great. Thanks a lot. So I’m reduced to wearing your sister’s cast-offs. Did you do this on purpose? I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  “No, Ellie, I didn’t. Anyway, Harriet’s stuff is pretty decent. She was always a bit of a clotheshorse. Our grandmother wouldn’t let her step out of the house in anything less than designer. I’m sure there’ll be something you like. She had good taste.”

  “Hmph.”

  “Although, apparently your taste’s gone missing, so we may be in trouble.”

  She stared down at the ground as unwanted tears sprung to her eyes. “Kick me while I’m down, why don’t you.”

  To be fair to him, he had a point. She hadn’t been paying much attention to her appearance for quite some time. Somehow it hadn’t seemed important any more, but that didn’t stop the sting of hurt his words brought.

  Gideon must have realized he’d gone too far when she wouldn’t look at him because his voice softened and he touched her gently on the arm. “Come on, cheer up. I’ll buy you a new outfit once we venture out into civilization. You can’t say fairer than that.”

  “Okay,” Ellie agreed grumpily. The skin on her arm tingled where he’d touched her.

  “Let’s get inside and dump our stuff … my stuff.” He tried hard to keep from smiling. “I’ll get the kettle on. A cup of tea will sort you right out.”

  “Fine. But I’m cooking tonight. I don’t think I could stomach another ’Gideon’s Slop’ meal. Especially as the nearest hospital appears to be at least twenty miles away.”

  He affected a look of abject hurt. “I’ll have you know I’m an excellent cook. Anyway, I have other talents I consider much more useful.”