‘What happened between the two of you before I arrived?’ Reece watched her closely.
‘Not a lot,’ she evaded. ‘There isn’t a lot left to say when one of you changes your mind about getting married.’
‘Are you—friends again?’ he probed softly.
‘No!’ she denied harshly, and then willed herself to calm down, to relax. Reece was too astute, too interested in what had taken place between her and Giles to be fooled for long if she didn’t get a grip of herself. ‘We never will be,’ she added abruptly. ‘Thank you for your offer of help, Reece, but as I told you, it was completely unnecessary,’ she told him dismissively, wanting him to go.
‘That wasn’t the reason I wanted to be here,’ he said huskily. ‘I wanted to make sure he hadn’t changed his mind and tried to persuade you to take him back.’
‘I wouldn’t do that,’ she assured him stiffly.
‘I wanted to be sure.’
‘Reece, will you stop this!’ she groaned tiredly, having had little sleep the night before, worried about her unpaid lease and the consequences of that. From Giles’s attitude tonight she was going to have a lot more sleepless nights before it was settled. ‘I don’t need my confidence restoring—or whatever it is you’re trying to do!’
‘Maybe I do,’ he said drily.
Once again she looked at him sharply. ‘Reece, whatever you’re doing, stop it,’ she ordered coldly.
‘Did Gilbraith have this much trouble?’ He hunched down dejectedly in his body-warmer.
‘Trouble with what?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘Never mind,’ Reece shook his head dismissively. ‘Are you about finished here?’
‘I’ve hardly started,’ she grimaced. ‘I have to do the books for the end of the week yet.’
He glanced at his wrist-watch. ‘It’s almost seven, and we’re expected for dinner at seven-thirty; how about if I help you?’ he raised dark brows.
She bristled resentfully. ‘I’m perfectly capable—’
‘I know that,’ he humoured. ‘You wouldn’t have stayed in business five years if you weren’t.’
‘How do you know how long I’ve had this shop?’ She eyed him guardedly.
‘Amanda,’ he drawled. ‘Is it my capabilities you doubt?’ he quirked one brow.
She smiled openly for the first time that day. ‘Hardly!’
‘Private business, hmm?’ he made a face.
‘Yes,’ she answered bluntly.
‘In that case I’ll go home and change, come back and take you back to your flat and then we can be off,’ he organised.
‘I usually walk home; it isn’t far.’
‘It will be quicker if I call back for you,’ he insisted. ‘I’ll leave you to count your money now,’ he teased.
She was a little surprised he had accepted her decision so easily, he didn’t come over as the sort of man who readily accepted opposition to his plans. But he had agreed, and she was stunned by it. Maybe he wasn’t as arrogant as she had always thought he was. Yes, he was! She was sure it had taken tremendous will-power for him not to impose his will on her. Although she ignored it for the most part she was well aware of his method of seduction this last two days, and if he thought she was going to fall into his arms like a ripe plum for the picking he was mistaken! She was grateful to him for what he had done, but not that grateful. She had heard all about the parade of women in the life of the Harrington heir, and she wasn’t about to become one of their number.
‘Why so pensive?’
Her head ached where she had been bent over her cashbooks the last twenty minutes, all the time, at the back of her mind, the knowledge that she had nowhere near enough money left in the bank to renew her lease for the next year. She didn’t feel at all like going out to dinner, especially with her mother and Robert. The last thing she needed for the next few hours was the company of this devastatingly attractive man, she thought, as he came inside the shop out of the cold. While she closed up behind him again, she found herself wishing the chocolate-brown velvet jacket weren’t quite so well tailored to the width of his shoulders, or the brown trousers to his narrow thighs and long legs. As raw as she felt emotionally she just may do something silly before the night was over! And none of her was this man’s for the taking, not her body, her heart, nor her soul. And she knew he would demand all three as his by right if he chose to.
‘Gilbraith didn’t come back, did he?’ Reece frowned at the apprehension in her eyes.
‘Of course not,’ she denied in a puzzled voice.
‘Then are you finished here?’ He rubbed his hands together to get them warm. ‘It’s starting to snow.’
‘Really?’ She moved to the door once again, opening it to let in a blast of icy cold air—and several flakes of snow. It was starting to settle on the ground, already leaving a thin layer of white over everything. ‘I love the snow.’ She grinned her pleasure as she briefly turned back to Reece, twisting her head back to lift her face up so that several of the fluffy flakes landed on her warm skin.
‘I’ll give you a snowball fight later if it settles,’ Reece told her indulgently as he came to stand beside her in the doorway.
Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she looked up at him. ‘You’re talking to the fifth-year snowball champion,’ she warned.
‘God, Laurel, you’re beautiful when you let go!’ he muttered before taking her into his arms to claim her mouth in a sensual caress, slowly, erotically, drawing her into him.
Reece’s brand of lovemaking was an unknown quantity to her, always catching her unawares—and vulnerable. He slowly caressed her back as the kiss deepened and lengthened, her fingers fluttering nervously either side of his face as she tried to resist the urge to touch him—and failed. Her fingertips brailled the hardness of his cheek, his high bones, and that delightful dimple. It was a show of mischief in an otherwise harshly defined face, and she loved it.
‘Can I have a go after you, mate?’ A raucous male voice cut into the heady delight.
They broke apart abruptly, Reece light-heartedly returning the boy’s banter while Laurel went hastily back inside the shop, a hand up to her temple as she realised she had once again been lost to the sensual pleasure of being in Reece Harrington’s arms.
‘He meant no harm, Laurel,’ he spoke gruffly as he followed her through to the office, the boy having gone on his way again now.
‘I know that,’ she sighed. ‘I… it just shouldn’t have happened.’
‘Why shouldn’t it?’
‘God, Reece, I was going to become engaged to another man last night!’ she groaned.
‘But it didn’t happen.’
‘It was going to,’ she insisted.
‘You didn’t love Gilbraith, Laurel,’ he told her confidently.
‘I don’t love you either!’
‘It was only a kiss, Laurel,’ he reasoned.
‘There seem to have been too many of them!’ She glared at him.
‘I enjoy kissing you. And don’t say you don’t like it,’ he warned abruptly. ‘Or I’d have to prove you wrong,’ he added with relish. ‘Besides, didn’t you know your nose will “grow and grow” if you tell a lie?’
The sense of the ridiculous he occasionally displayed didn’t fit the image of the sober banker he was during the day, and it was all the more disconcerting because of that.
‘Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing in my case,’ she ruefully acknowledged her snub of a nose.
‘I think your nose is adorable just as it is,’ Reece told her as she locked up and pulled on her coat in preparation for leaving. ‘It’s the one thing that makes me hold out hope for you.’
She looked up at him slowly as she slid the strap of her bag over her shoulder. ‘Hope for what?’ she asked warily.
‘The little girl inside you trying to get out from behind all that logic and practicality.’ He took hold of her arm as they stepped out into the freezing cold wind, snow still lightly falling, the pavement treacher
ous beneath their feet. ‘She pops up every now and again. She’s the one that wants to play snowballs later, not the one that coldly assessed every facet of Gilbraith’s nature before she decided to marry him. You slipped up badly that time, Laurel.’
She looked up at him sharply. ‘What do you mean?’
He held the door open as she climbed inside the car, the wind threatening to whip it out of his hand to land against her legs if he didn’t hold it tightly. ‘That assessment didn’t allow for the fact that he might decide he didn’t want that sort of marriage.’
‘I wouldn’t even have considered marrying Giles if I hadn’t—been fond of him,’ she stiltedly defended as he got in the car beside her.
‘You wouldn’t?’ he mocked.
‘No!’ She deeply resented the sarcasm in his voice.
‘In that case you’ve made a miraculous recovery from his rejection,’ Reece drawled.
‘Like you, I am not about to justify my actions,’ she bit out tautly.
Because she couldn’t. After years of watching her mother’s gullible heart drive her from one man to the next, one relationship to another, she had decided to marry only for reasons that didn’t include love. She was twenty-six years old, had a successful business, plenty of friends, but her private life was still an empty one. A husband, a suitable husband who wouldn’t make too many demands on her, emotionally or physically, had seemed like the logical step to take to erase her feelings of loneliness. She wasn’t afraid of men or a physical relationship with them, she just had no intention of letting her life be ruled by passion and love for a man who could never deserve or cherish it.
But Reece was right, she had slipped up badly where Giles was concerned, the added shock of finding he was already married showing her just how badly she had misjudged him, that he had never intended going through with marrying her, that he had only dangled the idea of marriage between them in front of her to persuade her to give him the opportunity to take the money that had been his objective all the time. For all of her practicality, she had been taken for as much of a fool as her mother had ever been!
Reece sat in her lounge while she went through to her bedroom to shower and change. No doubt the restful green and cream decor she had throughout the apartment was too practical and ordered for him, too!
She was getting a little tired of his derision of her orderly existence, taking out a deep purple evening dress, its flared skirt smooth over the gentle sway of her hips and down to the floor, the sleeveless, strapless bodice moulded to her curves. She had seen that setter of fashion, Diana, Princess of Wales, in a black dress like this that had caused furore during her engagement to Prince Charles, and she decided she loved the dress and had to have one as like it as possible. Its style was ageless, could have been worn a hundred years ago or any time in between, would never cease to be in style. It left her creamy shoulders and arms bare, the tightness of the bodice revealing the gentle swell of her breasts above the purple silk, She styled her hair softly about her face, adding little make-up, knowing her eyes had taken on the purple colour of the dress, her mouth glistening and inviting.
‘I’ll call the parents and tell them we can’t make it.’ Reece stood up slowly as she entered the lounge, looking hypnotised by her beauty as he couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. ‘I’d rather stay here alone with you,’ he added huskily, his hungry gaze devouring her. ‘And have the pleasure of slowly removing that dress.’
‘You don’t like it?’ Laurel deliberately teased him, the gown giving her a reckless feeling, as if she truly were a woman from another age and Reece were her beau.
‘I love it,’ he breathed raggedly.
‘I had it made exactly like the original,’ she said with satisfaction. ‘Except for the colour. Black is a little stark on me.’
‘I saw the original,’ Reece told her absently. ‘Diana looked no more lovely than you.’
‘As she has once again been voted the most beautiful woman in the world, I thank you.’ Laurel gave a graceful inclination of her head.
‘There’s no chance of my seeing if you look as lovely without it?’ Reece prompted hopefully.
She looked at him unblinkingly. ‘What do you think?’
He grimaced. ‘I think we had better get back to the house before I’m in Amanda and Dad’s bad books, too. Speaking of books,’ he draped the velvet wrap about her shoulders, ‘while you were changing—and what a change!—I took a look at yours.’
‘Not a torrid romance amongst them!’ she teased as they went down to his car. She knew there weren’t any romance books on the bookcase in the lounge because she kept her private collection of them in her bedroom, and no man had ever been invited in there.
‘I did find something interesting, though,’ he acknowledged the absence of the romances.
‘Oh yes?’ It was still quite warm in the car from their drive here earlier, but Laurel was still chilled, snuggling down in the white velvet wrap.
He gave her a mischievous look. ‘A well-read copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.’
‘It is a classic,’ she pointed out without embarrassment. ‘It’s also one of my favourite stories.’
‘And mine,’ he admitted surprisingly.
‘In that case I hope you take back what you said about my being in the least like Scrooge,’ she said sternly.
‘It’s true, I’ve never heard you say “Bah” or “Humbug”,’ he taunted.
‘I’m not mean with my money either,’ she flared.
‘Not with money, no,’ he accepted. ‘The dinner service you bought my father and Amanda as a wedding present was very beautiful—and expensive.’
‘But?’ she prompted sharply.
‘There was something else, much more important, that Scrooge was mean with,’ Reece murmured regretfully.
‘His affection!’ she scorned.
‘Now you do sound like him,’ Reece frowned.
‘Reece, if this is about my relationship with Amanda—’
‘Only partly,’ he sighed. ‘It’s about Gilbraith, too. I could tell he was all wrong for you the moment I met him. There was no depth to him, no—’
‘I’ll bear your opinion in mind,’ she snapped tightly. ‘But considering your own failed relationships I don’t think—’
‘Who says they were failed?’ he frowned.
She shrugged beneath the velvet wrap. ‘You aren’t married either.’
‘Through choice.’
‘I’ve stayed single through choice, too.’
‘A different sort of choice,’ he shook his head. ‘I’m looking for love, you’re avoiding it.’
She didn’t like this man’s perception, or his constant comparisons between her and a man who, until visited by the three spirits who showed him the error of his ways, had been without affection or charity for anyone. She wasn’t like that, she wasn’t!
‘If this dinner party is going to be in the least pleasant I think you had better stop right there,’ she advised abruptly.
‘Scrooge wouldn’t listen either until it was almost too late,’ Reece reminded softly.
She reached out and touched his arm as his hands rested lightly on the steering wheel, a derisive twist to her lips as he turned to look at her. ‘Just making sure you aren’t a spirit,’ she mocked.
‘Very funny,’ he smiled without rancour. ‘But I take your point; who am I to tell you how to run your life?’
Who, indeed? He was the first man to ever kiss her and succeed in blocking everything else from her mind, the past, the present, the future, seeing only Reece as he drew her into sensual oblivion. Maybe he was the Ghost of Christmas Present; her life hadn’t been the same since he had literally taken over last night. But if he were the ‘Present’ he certainly wasn’t the ‘Yet-to-come’ in her life!
Her mother looked beautiful in a simple, but elegantly styled white gown, Robert as handsome as ever as he stood at his wife’s side to welcome their guests. For that was how Laurel always felt w
hen she occasionally joined them for dinner, never feeling part of the family, although the two Harrington men always tried to make her feel so, Reece always present when she agreed to these rare intimate dinners. They had always been strictly family dinners, Reece never bringing any of his many girlfriends, Laurel feeling no inclination to bring along Giles or any of her other male acquaintances.
‘Well, at last the two of you have seen some sense and got engaged,’ Robert greeted them, obviously happy with the new relationship between them. ‘I always thought the two of you were meant for each other. Took another man to make you realise it, though, hmm, son?’ he teased Reece.
‘I got her in the end.’ He shook his father’s hand warmly. ‘And that’s the important thing!’
As these family dinners had gone in the past this was a good one, all of them very relaxed, Reece a little too much so sometimes, as far as Laurel was concerned, constantly touching her and caressing her, occasionally kissing her lingeringly on the lips.
Amanda and Robert were obviously delighted with these shows of affection between their offspring, smiling at them indulgently. Laurel thought she even saw tears in her mother’s eyes once, and then dismissed the idea as being ridiculous; Amanda was too self-centred to cry because she believed her daughter had found happiness.
* * *
‘Is there another reason, besides her divorce from your father, and the difficult years afterwards, that you hate Amanda?’ Reece probed softly on the drive back to her home.
Her face flushed fiery red. ‘I don’t hate—’
‘Oh yes, you do,’ he insisted quietly. ‘I never realised just how deep it went before, but tonight—tonight, I saw it.’ He looked as if it hadn’t been a very pleasant sight either.
‘Weren’t those things enough?’ She gave up denying her dislike of her own mother, faced with a man who seemed to know her almost as well as she knew herself. She had often sensed his brooding gaze on her in the past, but she hadn’t realised she was so transparent to him.
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps at first a little natural resentment on your part, but after that the circumstances should have brought you closer together rather than pushed you further apart. It takes two to decide to end a marriage, Laurel, but I don’t hear any of this resentment directed towards your father.’
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