Daniel was silent for several long minutes as he slowly took in the panoramic view. Then he turned to Claire, his face full of barely repressed excitement.
“Look at those dunes! They go on forever. It’s amazing!”
Claire stared at him, startled by his over-the-top enthusiasm for what, to her, was just a familiar hike, somewhere she enjoyed for its peace and its wild, windswept beauty.
When he saw the surprised expression on her face he chuckled. “You have absolutely no idea that this dunescape is one of the most important nature conservation areas in Europe, do you?” he teased. “To you it’s just home, but I’ve read all about it, and to me it’s a conservationist’s dream. Don’t worry though. I’ll get over it. I tend to forget that most people aren’t turned on by coastal erosion. Now how about lunch? I think you mentioned a local pub.”
“Yes, The Lifeboat Inn. It’s a fifteen minute walk from here if we approach it from the beach,” Claire pointed across the dunes to where a path meandered inland through misshapen pines that were pitted and bent by the constant buffeting of the wind.
“Good because I’m ravenous,” Daniel ran down the dune at speed, jumping the final slope at the point where the spiky maram grass gave way to sand.
Claire followed more slowly as she pondered his enthusiasm. If only she affected him the same way. Instead, she now had to accept another reason for his insistence on driving her home last night. It hadn’t just been about persuading her to take his job; it had been about visiting the rolling dunes of the northwest coast as well.
She watched him from her bird’s eye view at the top of one of the tallest dunes. Out here, with the wind tugging at his clothes and a woollen hat pulled down over his ears, he seemed younger somehow, and carefree. He was certainly very different from the sophisticated businessman with jet lag who had shared a meal with her on Monday. He was different, too, from yesterday’s pushy Daniel, the one who had tracked her down and dropped such a bombshell of a job offer into her life, and then had managed to invade her home as well as her heart.
It was obvious he knew a great deal about conservation too. His knowledge about the local area proved it, as had his questions during their hike. Time and time again she had found herself responding eagerly to his enthusiasm, anxious to share her own knowledge with him, so why was she holding back about the job?
You’re just a coward Claire Harris, she told herself as she negotiated the downward slope. You’re not prepared to take risks with anything, especially your heart, so serve you right if you do end up an old maid, just like Jenny said you would.
“Ow…Ow…Ouch!” All further thoughts were forgotten as the edge of the sand dune gave way beneath her and toppled her all the way down to the beach. She landed with a thump and before she could catch her breath another section of the dune sheared away, covering her in sand and leaving layers of soil and roots exposed to the elements. Strong arms pulled her free and then supported her as she struggled to her feet.
“Don’t do that!” Daniel seized both her hands in one of his as she tried to brush soil and sand from her face and clothes. Then he made a systematic search of his pockets with the other.
Claire was too surprised to resist. Instead she peered blurrily at him as her tear ducts attempted to wash the sand and grit away. He didn’t release his grip and she heard concern in his voice when he spoke to her.
“You seem to have cut yourself or something.”
Finally he found a tissue in one of his pockets, wadded it into a pad, and pressed it against the side of her face. When he took it away it was scarlet with blood.
Claire gritted her teeth against a wave of sudden nausea and tried to ignore the small army of black dots that were beginning to cloud her vision. She wasn’t going to do this! She wasn’t going to faint in front of Daniel Marchant so that he could add faints at the sight of blood to the list of fears and ignorance he seemed to be uncovering.
She couldn’t fool him though. He saw the colour drain from her face and felt her wobble as her knees began to give way. Cursing under his breath he locked his arms around her and gently lowered her onto the sand.
“Don’t do this to me Claire! Don’t faint! Come on! Look at me! It’s not as bad as all that. It just needs cleaning up. You must have knocked it against a tree root or something when you fell. You’ll be fine once it’s clean.”
She shook her head weakly. “It’s not that…it’s the blood…I…ouch!”
The black dots were swiftly replaced by a feeling of extreme discomfort as he pushed her head down over her chest and held it there.
“Sorry about this but it’s the only way I know to stop someone from fainting,” he told her.
Her indignation was muffled as she spoke into the woolly scarf looped round her neck. “Well it certainly works! I’m fine now, or I would be if I could breathe!”
The pressure behind her neck eased allowing her to lift her head and glare at him. “There was no need for the strong arm treatment. I wouldn’t have fainted.”
“So you say,” he looked unconvinced as he dabbed at her cheek again. “It’s not bleeding quite as much now but you need to get it cleaned and covered. Do you think you can make it to the inn you mentioned?”
“To The Lifeboat Inn? Yes, of course I can,” Claire began to get to her feet but Daniel was there before her.
“Whoa! Not so fast! Get up slowly and lean on me.”
He kept his arms around her, leaving her no choice but to do as he said. He didn’t take them away once she was upright either. Instead, he merely settled one hand firmly on her waist and tilted her face towards him with the other one so that he could get a clearer look at her injury. Instinctively she jerked her head away. He was far too close for comfort. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek. She could see how the Florida sun had bleached the curling tips of his eyelashes, and there was a tiny mole at the side of his mouth that she hadn’t noticed before, and a…
Daniel stopped inspecting the cut on her cheek and looked at her. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you or something?”
“No. I’m fine,” she said. “I’m just a bit woozy, that’s all.”
He looked at her doubtfully. “Well lean on me then and tell me the minute you feel shaky.”
* * *
The journey to the inn seemed to take forever. Claire felt she was wading through treacle as she put one leg in front of the other, but the feeling had nothing to do with the cut on her face and everything to do with Daniel’s proximity. She couldn’t escape the arm holding her close to his side, nor the way the warmth of his body seemed to burn through her jacket, sending sparks of desire deep into the pit of her stomach.
She forgot about her injury as she wrestled with her reactions. This was ridiculous! He was someone she had only just met, someone who wasn’t remotely interested in settling down, someone who had made it clear that he wasn’t even looking for a girlfriend, so why had she decided to fall for him, or at least why had her treacherous body decided to fall for him? It couldn’t be anything more than his good looks because she still wasn’t sure who Daniel was.
Was he the serious businessman she had first met, or the pushy stranger who had tracked her down and, seemingly without effort, taken over her life, or was he the carefree Daniel who was so enthusiastic about the sandy, windswept countryside surrounding her parent’s home.
“You’re very quiet. Are you sure you’re okay?” He broke into her thoughts, slowing both of them down so he could look at her again.
“I’m fine,” she lied, slanting her gray gaze upwards. For one long moment they stood looking at one another, then Daniel’s unencumbered arm moved up towards her face. His long golden brown eyes widened slightly as she sucked in a breath and caught her bottom lip between her teeth. As he dipped his head towards her, her lips parted for the kiss that never came. Instead he tugged her hat down onto her head, wrapped her scarf more tightly around her neck, and started moving forward again, matching his stride to he
rs.
“Come on. You can’t afford to get chilled, not when you’ve had such a shock. The sooner we reach The Lifeboat Inn the better.”
The last thing Claire was likely to be was chilled. She felt red hot, partly with need, but mainly with embarrassment. Had Daniel seen how much she had wanted him to kiss her? If he had then he couldn’t have given her a clearer message. His actions spoke for themselves. He had no interest in her other than as a possible work colleague and as someone who, right at this moment, he had to take care of, so the sooner she got that into her thick skull the better.
Chapter Five
Daniel didn’t relax until Claire reappeared. She had washed away the dirt and sand and seemed fine despite a large square plaster on the side of her face.
Worried that the sight of congealed blood would make her feel faint again, he had refused to let her deal with her injury alone and had kept her close to his side until the barmaid was free to help. She had taken one look at Claire’s face and produced a first aid kit from beneath the bar.
“Don’t worry. Sit there and enjoy your drink. She’ll be as good as new in no time.” She had given him a cheerful smile as she took Claire’s arm and led her to the women’s restroom.
He had ordered a pint of beer and swallowed half of it in one go, not because he was thirsty but because he needed something to settle his jangled nerves.
It had been a close escape but at least he had managed not to kiss her, not even when her face had been so close to his he could feel her breath on his cheek and see the black circles that rimmed the clear gray of her irises. Mesmerised, he had dipped his head towards her, unable to help himself, but then he had heard her quick intake of breath, felt the recoil as she stiffened in his arms, and had had the sense to start walking again.
Whatever had he been thinking of? He had almost blown everything. He needed to stay focused on the fact that she didn’t want a relationship with anyone. After all she had told him so when they first met and nothing in her behaviour since then indicated she had changed her mind, or that she was in anyway interested in him. Just the opposite in fact! She had also told him, fairly forcefully, that she didn’t want to work in Florida, although something about the way she had said it had left a tiny seed of hope. And it was that hope which was keeping him here, ungallantly ignoring the fact that she didn’t really want him in her parent’s house.
Now, as she approached him, solemn faced, he felt a twinge of trepidation. Had she noticed how much he had wanted to kiss her? He hoped not. He didn’t want to think about it, and he especially didn’t want to think about what her reaction would have been if he had succeeded. She might put herself down, fade into the background when she was with her parents, but he was under no illusion that she was a pushover. She was entirely her own person. Strong-minded, determined, and very decidedly someone who would do the choosing as far as being kissed was concerned.
He gave her a half smile. She smiled back. And then they were laughing about her ungainly fall, her silly reaction to the sight of her own blood, the fact she had unknowingly taken him to one of the best nature conservancy areas in the country, and it was fine. It was a repeat of that first meeting when, after a rocky start, they had had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. This felt the same and they continued to talk well into the afternoon, long after the soup and sandwiches they had ordered had been cleared away and they were the only two people left in the bar. They would have sat there for longer if Claire hadn’t glanced out of the window and noticed that the clear northern light was beginning to fade.
“It’s time we made tracks before it’s too dark to see where we’re going. That is, unless you want to walk home through the village and admire the street lamps.”
He grinned at her. “You know I don’t want to do that, but what about you? Are you up to walking back across country?”
She snorted indignantly. “I only scratched my face. My legs and arms are still functioning perfectly well.”
“Not wobbly then?”
She gave him a haughty look as she gathered up her coat and scarf in preparation for a renewed onslaught from the wind, but as she wrapped herself up he saw a smile shadow the corners of her mouth.
* * *
Their return journey was brisk. No stopping this time to watch the wildlife or look at the scenery. Not that they needed to stop for the view. It was all around them as they walked towards the setting sun for, in the capricious way of English weather, most of the clouds had cleared during the afternoon leaving a pale sky that was now streaked orange with red and purple highlights. It provided a dramatic backdrop to the flocks of geese returning from their marshland feeding grounds, and to the rooks shrieking and arguing above the treetops.
For most of the journey Daniel and Claire were silent. They had talked themselves out during lunch and now, with the plummeting temperature promising an overnight frost, they walked fast, anxious to escape the biting wind.
Claire glanced surreptitiously at Daniel as he strode along beside her. Her plan to survive the weekend in his company by walking him to a standstill while remaining cool and distant had backfired badly. He’d not only out-walked her, he’d taken care of her when she hurt herself, teased her out of her reserve, and then turned the whole day into one she would cherish for a long time. If he had only shown in the smallest way he found her as attractive as she found him then, despite her earlier misgivings, she might have been tempted to take her chances and reconsider his job offer. He hadn’t though. Not once. Not even when she fell and hurt herself. Oh he had picked her up, shown real concern, and taken care of her and her wounds, but he had done all of it without showing a flicker of desire. Not even during that breathless moment when she had foolishly thought he was going to kiss her when, instead, all he had wanted to do was check her injury and straighten her hat. No! Her first decision was the right one. At the end of the weekend she would say goodbye to him and forget about working in Florida. That way she wouldn’t get her heart broken all over again.
It wasn’t until her parent’s ramshackle old house came into view that she had another thought, one that momentarily stopped her in her tracks. Daniel hadn’t once mentioned the job he was offering her, even though they had been together for most of the day. He hadn’t talked about himself either. Instead he had talked about anything and everything else. He had enthused about the undulating countryside and the wild seascape around them and compared it to what he was used to in Florida. He had teased her about her ignorance of the local conservation area. He had asked her more questions about her unconventional childhood and her life in the city, but all without giving anything personal away except for the most superficial information. Despite spending hours in his company she still knew hardly anything about his life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He seemed to have forgotten about the job offer too.
Her eyes darkened with unexpected pain. She scowled and asked herself what else did she expect? It was entirely her own fault. She couldn’t have it both ways. She had told him several times, and very forcibly, that she wasn’t interested in his job, so she had no cause to complain if he took her at her word and prepared to move on. After all, he had made it abundantly clear he only saw her as a prospective colleague, and there must be plenty of other people out there with the right skills and qualifications who would fit the bill.
Realizing that she was no longer with him, Daniel stopped and turned around to look for her. She was standing stock still a few paces behind him. Her nose and cheeks were red from the cold and the wind, the white plaster was stark against her cheek, there were slight shadows under her huge gray eyes, and a curl of her blue-black tumbling hair had escaped from under her hat. She looked dishevelled and tired…and totally and utterly desirable. As he watched her, his breath caught in his throat. She saw him waiting and, giving him a wan smile, began to move forward again.
“Are you okay?” he asked, wondering how much longer he could keep up the pretence that he had no interest in her other
than as a casual friend and a prospective employee. “Do you need to lean on me again?”
She stuffed her hands into her pockets and gave a resolute shake of her head. “I’m fine. All I need is a warm drink and a hot bath and I’ll be as good as new.”
* * *
Much later, cocooned in the cheerful, noisy warmth of a local restaurant, Claire sipped her wine and let her mind wander as her mother held court. She had seen and heard it all before. Charmed by Daniel’s impeccable manners, and exhilarated by the surroundings, her mother was retelling stories of her own bohemian childhood and enchanting him with glimpses of the life she had lived before Claire was born. And it was interesting if you were a stranger like Daniel, not least because both her parents were born storytellers; always ready to perform to a willing audience.
She watched him as he smiled and nodded and asked questions in all the right places. It was just like that first evening when, against her better judgement, he had persuaded her that she would be doing him a favour if she ate with him. Only this time he was charming her parents instead. He couldn’t help it. The courtesy, the charm, the warm interest came to him as naturally as breathing. He liked people. He was interested in their lives. It was how he was. She had to accept that the meal she had so enjoyed last Monday, the interest he had shown in her, had been nothing to do with her personally at all. Despite his jet lag, he had swallowed his irritation and invited her to eat with him as a way of apologising for his brother’s crass behaviour, not because he had been attracted to her. And it was the same now. This evening was all about thanking her parents for welcoming him into their home.
Another dream bites the dust she told herself with a wry smile at the waiter as he placed a large bowl of pasta in front of her. I’d better not tell Jenny about this one though. If she ever gets to know I turned down Florida I’ll never hear the last of it.
Reluctant Date Page 4
