Bestseller Collection 2010

by Carole Mortimer

  At the time she’d had no idea Gideon was in hospital, or that several hours later she would be visiting him there!

  ‘With Simon Cauley,’ Gideon added derisively when Madison’s answer wasn’t immediately forthcoming.

  ‘The film was good last night, wasn’t it?’ she said admiringly.

  He nodded tersely. ‘More than good,’ he acknowledged economically. ‘But I’m sure Cauley doesn’t need us to tell him that!’

  She most certainly had told Simon that earlier today! In fact, they had spent a very enjoyable couple of hours together. At least she could relax in Simon’s company—something she found impossible to do when with Gideon!

  She shrugged again. ‘Everyone needs a little praise sometimes.’ Except Gideon, of course; he already knew he was brilliant!

  ‘So why aren’t you out giving Cauley his?’ Gideon scorned.

  For some reason she felt reluctant to tell him she and Simon had already met for lunch, probably because of that scornful attitude Gideon seemed to have adopted whenever he talked of the other man. Whatever the reason, she was not about to tell him anything about her lunch with Simon…

  ‘I’m sure you should be taking things easy, Gideon,’ she told him briskly. ‘With no unnecessary excitement.’

  His mouth twisted derisively. ‘Talking of Simon Cauley does not cause me any excitement!’

  But it didn’t soothe his temper any, either!

  ‘But maybe you were referring to yourself when you made that last comment,’ he added insultingly.

  Madison drew in a sharp breath. He really was the most aggravating, insulting man she had ever met! ‘Not particularly, Gideon,’ she drawled unconcernedly. ‘Now, what did the hospital say about your after-care?’

  ‘Damn what the hospital says!’ he exploded furiously. ‘I’m thirty-eight years old; I’ll do what I damn well please!’

  ‘What’s new?’ she bit out caustically, turning to look unseeingly out of the window, effectively cutting off their conversation with her obvious lack of interest in anything else he had to say.

  She wished she had never gone to the hospital in the first place, had no real idea why she had done so. Except that it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and Uncle Edgar had agreed with her when she’d told him what she intended doing. For all the gratitude Gideon showed she might just as well have stayed at home and done her packing!

  ‘Don’t tell me you were offering to sit at my bedside and mop my fevered brow?’ Gideon cut mockingly into her indignant thoughts.

  ‘Only if it was with a freezing cold ice-pack!’ she snapped. ‘You really are the most ungrateful swine I’ve ever met, Gideon.’ She rounded on him furiously. ‘Claire obviously took time out of her own evening tonight to bring your clothes in to you, and all you could do was be rude to her. And—’

  ‘You’ve done the same thing, and I’m being equally rude to you,’ he conceded ruefully, that angry edge gone from his voice now. ‘Would it help if I said I was sorry?’ he added huskily.

  Madison stared at him. Gideon had just apologised. And she had once inwardly accused him of being a man who never apologised for anything he did or said!

  He laughed softly at her dazed expression. ‘I’m not really that uncompromising, am I?’

  ‘Worse!’ she confirmed with feeling.

  He quirked dark brows. ‘I did say I was sorry.’

  ‘I’m sure Claire will be glad to hear it—’

  ‘I wasn’t apologising to Claire,’ he murmured huskily.

  He suddenly seemed very close to her in the back of the car, Madison held mesmerised by the silver glitter of his eyes. He really did have the most beautiful eyes, and his lashes were—

  ‘Not again, Gideon!’ She straightened self-consciously, moving determinedly away from him. ‘You seem to make a habit of kissing me in the back of cars!’ she explained abruptly at his questioning look. ‘Something I grew out of when I left senior school!’

  He continued to look at her for several long seconds, and then his mouth twisted derisively. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Madison,’ he drawled tauntingly, ‘but I was not about to kiss you. I have slightly blurred vision since my knock on the head last night,’ he continued mockingly. ‘I was merely endeavouring to put you into focus. My only consolation is that if you think I look bad you should see the other guy!’ he added with satisfaction.

  She had been sure he was about to kiss her! Or was it just that, for a very brief moment, she had wanted to be kissed…?

  No!

  She couldn’t deny, to herself at least, that she responded when Gideon kissed her, but she couldn’t actually be falling for him, could she? Not Gideon Byrne. That wasn’t the real reason she’d felt compelled to come to the hospital this evening once she’d learnt of his injury, was it?

  It would be like falling in love with a chameleon; she never knew from one moment to the next what he was going to do or say!

  But some people would say that was better than boredom…

  They might do, but they weren’t the ones who would have to live with such an impossible love. Because Gideon had made it more than obvious he didn’t intend falling in love with anyone!

  She’d come to London to recover from the disappointment of one love affair; she simply couldn’t fall in love with a man as unreachable as Gideon.

  She couldn’t.

  She mustn’t!

  ‘The other guy?’ Madison prompted distantly beside him just when he’d decided she wasn’t going to speak again.

  Gideon nodded. ‘I regained consciousness as he was going through my pockets; I believe he was admitted to hospital last night too!’

  It had been the shock of Gideon’s life to regain consciousness and realise he was being mugged, and he had reacted instinctively, knocking the other man to the ground, breaking his jaw in the process—so he’d been informed by the policeman who’d visited him in his hospital room late last night so that he could take his statement about the incident.

  He looked at Madison searchingly as she remained silent after his explanation, noticing how pale she’d suddenly become. ‘I’m not a lover of violence, either, Madison,’ he asserted harshly. ‘But neither am I about to let someone just knock me out and try to rob me!’

  ‘Of course not,’ she acknowledged quietly.

  He frowned across at her. ‘You don’t sound very convinced?’

  ‘What do you want me to say, Gideon?’ She sighed wearily. ‘As I understand it, the man actually hit you with a bottle; of course you had to defend yourself.’

  Then why was it he had just felt the need to justify his actions?

  He’d felt so damned annoyed earlier when he’d turned and found Madison in his hospital room; it was the last place he would have wanted her to see him, especially under such circumstances. But his annoyance had abated somewhat once he realised that, instead of going out to dinner with Simon Cauley this evening, Madison was actually accompanying him home to his apartment.

  But her lack of conviction just now concerning his defensive behaviour the previous evening irritated him all over again! With the rage that had engulfed Gideon last night when he’d realised exactly what was going on, the man was lucky he had got away with just a broken jaw!

  But perhaps it was something else that was bothering Madison…

  ‘It isn’t going to affect our travel plans for tomorrow, you know,’ he assured her softly. ‘You may have to lead me about by the arm for a few days, but I’m sure the vision will clear eventually!’ he added self-derisively.

  Madison merely nodded distractedly, confirming that she wasn’t really listening to what he was saying. What the hell was wrong with her?

  ‘Claire brought the newspapers in earlier,’ he told her lightly. ‘The première, Madison; you do remember we went to one last night?’ he prompted in response to her blank look.

  Gideon could only feel relief that they’d finally reached his apartment block, getting out to pay the driver, t
urning to find Madison standing at his side, his bag in her hand. He supposed he should feel grateful that, after seeing him safely delivered to his home, she hadn’t decided to just stay in the taxi and continue on to Edgar’s apartment!

  Except he didn’t feel very grateful. Somewhere back in the conversation he’d lost Madison—and he had no idea where or why!

  He was more than ever aware of Madison’s silence as they came up in the lift and walked down the corridor to his apartment. He unlocked the door to switch on the lights before turning to look at her. ‘What’s wrong, Madison?’ He grasped her by the shoulders, looking down at her with narrowed eyes, filled with impatience as she avoided meeting his gaze.

  ‘Nothing,’ she dismissed tersely, looking everywhere but at him. ‘Can I get you a cup of tea or coffee?’ she offered, frowning.

  This was the last place she wanted to be; Gideon was more and more convinced of that as the seconds passed. But, perversely, this was exactly where he wanted her to be!

  ‘Coffee would be fine,’ he accepted, releasing her. ‘I’ll get the newspapers out of my bag so that you can have a look at them when you come back.’

  It took him all of thirty seconds to locate the newspapers and put them on the low coffee-table in front of the sofa, and the other three or four minutes it took for Madison to make the coffee he spent going back over their conversation in the car to see if he could pin-point what it was he had said or done this time to upset her.

  And she was upset, he acknowledged. Usually she was angry with him for one thing or another, and that anger he could deal with; she just looked more kissable than ever with her green eyes flashing and her cheeks flushed.

  Kissable…

  Maybe that was it? She had thought he was about to kiss her in the car—and she had been right, of course!—and he had teased her into thinking he never intended doing any such thing. But what was he supposed to do? She’d just very clearly told him not to even attempt to kiss her; of course he was going to deny the intention!

  But could that be the reason why she had suddenly become uncharacteristically quiet…?

  He looked up as she came back into the room with the coffee. Two steaming mugs of it, Gideon noted with satisfaction, so she didn’t intend leaving immediately.

  He made room on the table for the mugs, picking up one of the newspapers to show her the page of photographs that had been taken at the première the previous evening. There was a rather good one of the two of them together right in the middle of the page.

  ‘“Gideon Byrne and mystery friend”…?’ She read the caption beneath the photograph, having sat down beside him on the sofa—although far enough away so that no part of them touched, he noted ruefully. Even accidentally!

  She shook her head. ‘I still don’t understand this.’ She indicated the newspaper. ‘That clause in my contract—’

  ‘Has nothing to do with last night. It was done under my control,’ he explained at her puzzled look. ‘And don’t worry,’ he drawled. ‘You won’t remain a mystery for too much longer!’

  She abruptly put the newspaper back down on the table. ‘I’m not worrying,’ she bit out dismissively.

  Gideon shook his head. ‘Something is bothering you,’ he said slowly. ‘Did I say or do anything earlier to offend you?’

  She gave a rueful smile. ‘When didn’t you?’

  ‘A natural ability I have where you’re concerned, hmm?’ He grimaced self-derisively.

  ‘Something like that,’ she said with a sigh, picking up her mug to begin drinking the hot coffee, almost burying her face in the cup.

  Gideon wasn’t used to situations like this. His intimate relationships with women were all based on no pressure, no demands, and when the relationship stopped being fun any more he ended it. And temperamental actresses he could deal with too, and had done so, on several occasions. But Madison was neither of those two things; there was no intimate relationship between them, and he hadn’t actually become her director yet.

  ‘Have you argued with Cauley?’ he probed frowningly.

  ‘Of course not!’ she denied incredulously. ‘Simon and I have been friends for years; it isn’t the sort of friendship that has the sort of arguments you’re talking about.’

  Then what sort of friendship was it, damn it? No matter which way he approached the subject of the other man, Madison blocked answering his questions in any outright manner. And it was really starting to get to him.

  But then, of course, she was twenty-two years old, and as such would have had relationships; he just didn’t like the idea of Simon Cauley being one of them. Not only was the other man the male lead of the moment, much in demand by directors, with work lined up for years ahead, but he was also a hell of a nice man. He was also single, very eligible, and had an easy familiarity with Madison that drove Gideon crazy!

  She stood up abruptly. ‘I think I’d better go, Gideon—’

  ‘And I think you hadn’t!’ he grated, standing up too. ‘Madison, I don’t know what’s happening here—any more than I think you do—but I do know that our efforts to squash it are just making us both miserable!’

  He’d said far more than he meant to say, and he could see by Madison’s startled expression that she wished he hadn’t said it either. But it was too late for that; the words had been said, and somehow they were going to have to come to some sort of understanding so that the two of them could work together for the next eight months.

  She swallowed hard, shaking her head. ‘Gideon—’

  He couldn’t stand it any more. He did what he had wanted to do since they’d parted so abruptly the previous evening. He pulled her into his arms, moulding her body close against his, and his mouth came down possessively on hers.

  So much for his decision the evening before, as he’d stared down at the murky depths of the river, that he had to keep a physical distance between himself and Madison!

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IT WAS as if the time that had elapsed since she had last been in Gideon’s arms had never happened. There was no gentle build-up to their passion but a continuation of that explosion, the two of them hungry for each other, mouths and hands searching, the buttons on Madison’s blouse no obstacle to Gideon as he pushed the garments impatiently aside, his lips now against the creamy softness of her skin.

  Madison’s throat arched at the feel of his hotly possessive mouth, one of his hands lightly cupping her breast through the silky material of her bra as his lips sought the throbbing tip, the moan low in her throat as he found it, hot pleasure coursing through her body at the moist caress of his tongue against her roused flesh.

  Her fingers caressed and then clung on to the broad width of his shoulders, a fierce fire engulfing her thighs as she felt the pulse of his desire there, lids closed over eyes dark with her own desire.

  And then the silky barrier of her bra was no longer between them either, Madison feeling her legs give way beneath her as her pouting nipple was taken into Gideon’s mouth, offering no protest as she was swung up into his arms to be laid gently down on the sofa they had so recently sat on side by side. He joined her there and they lay close together, his lips and hands feasting on the nakedness of her breasts.

  Madison’s fingers were entwined in the dark thickness of his hair as she held him to her, her legs entangled with his as she sought closer contact still, breathing heavily in her arousal, her body filled with a restless need that she knew Gideon could assuage.

  ‘You’re beautiful, Madison,’ Gideon groaned huskily, having discarded his own shirt now, their heated skin searing against each other. ‘Absolutely, perfectly beautiful!’

  So was he, his chest darkly tanned, the hair that grew there silky soft against her sensitised skin. And she knew that the rest of him would be just as physically perfect and arousing.

  She let out a satisfied sigh as his lips claimed hers once again, enjoying the weight of him as he moved so that he lay above her, the movement of his body against hers asserting his need
to make love to her.

  Their lips sipped and tasted, and then sipped again, Gideon’s tongue moving erotically across her parted lips before plunging into the moistness inside.

  Madison felt utterly claimed by him, knew herself to be totally desired, groaning as she felt herself floating in a sea of physical need, all control lost, her whole body becoming suffused with a warmth that shuddered through every particle of her.

  Pleasure, like nothing she’d ever known before, swept through her entire body like a tidal wave, carrying her along in its flow, until finally she lay back weak but exhilarated.

  Gideon raised his head to look at her with almost black eyes. ‘Madison…?’

  She couldn’t believe what had just happened to her. Internal combustion. And of a kind completely created by Gideon…!

  But as she looked up at him she was filled with a shyness that made her quickly avert her gaze. What was she doing? What had she just done?

  ‘Don’t turn away from me,’ he said throatily, his hand gently touching her cheek as he turned her face back towards him. ‘Madison, I—’

  ‘Please don’t, Gideon,’ she burst out forcefully, fully aware now of their half-nakedness—and of what she had just experienced. And it was like nothing she had ever known before. How much more physically consuming it would be if Gideon fully made love to her!

  But he mustn’t do that. They couldn’t do that. It would make the next months impossible, a sheer torture.

  What she had just felt with Gideon made a nonsense of her past relationships, but especially the one with Gerry. That relationship, in all their weeks together, had never reached this physical level. And despite the hunger she still felt for Gideon, the knowledge that there was even more than what she had already experienced, she knew this had to stop.

  Now.

  For both their sakes.

  She pulled away from him to sit up, pulling her blouse back on over her nakedness, doing the buttons back up with fingers that still shook slightly. ‘I’m sure this doesn’t rate as “mopping your fevered brow”,’ she told him self-derisively, standing up to thrust her bra into her shoulder-bag before running her moist hands down her denim-clad thighs.