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Chapter Five

‘I—WHAT do you think you’re doing?’ Beth had wanted to sound indignant, dismissive. Instead her voice was husky. Breathless.

‘I’m sure you already know the answer to that, Beth,’ Nick murmured throatily, looking down at her as she swallowed hard, her cheek hot against the back of his hand.

She moistened her lips with the pink tip of her tongue. A totally sensuous caress that caught and easily held Nick’s attention. He felt the urge, the need, to run his own tongue across those soft and slightly parted lips before kissing her. He wanted to take her in his arms and mould those slender and delicate curves against him.

Beth couldn’t move, held captive by the sudden darkening of Nick’s gaze as he looked down hungrily at her mouth, unable to do more than groan low in her throat as his arms moved about her to draw her slowly towards him.

God, his body was so warm. Hot. And hard. His chest against her breasts feeling like steel encased in velvet, and his thighs—

Beth raised her panicked gaze to his. ‘I don’t think we should be doing this, Nick…!’

His eyes were dark and smouldering. ‘Why not?’

Because Beth could feel herself reacting, responding to the sheer intimacy of having Nick’s body moulded against hers. Her breasts felt full and heavy, the tips ultra-sensitive, and there was a fluid heat between her thighs, a swelling moistening of those delicate tissues.

She didn’t want to feel this way! Didn’t want to have this response to Nick Steele, a man far beyond her reach in physical experience!

‘We both know how ultimately damaging any relationship between the two of us would be!’ she reminded him.

‘But we already have a relationship, Beth…’

Beth stiffened. ‘What…?’

He gave a slow, seductive smile. ‘You’re Bekka’s teacher, and I’m her father.’

‘Exactly!’ Beth managed to push her hands in between them, against that warm and velvet-hard chest. ‘Let me go, Nick!’ she insisted. ‘You have to let me go now.’ Tears stung her eyes as she looked up at him pleadingly.

Nick’s gaze narrowed as he saw the tears on Beth’s lashes. Those tears were a complete contrast to the way her body had melted against his seconds ago. ‘How long has it been for you, Beth…?’ he probed softly.

She stilled. ‘Has what been for me…?’

‘Hell…!’ Nick gave a groan as the truth of this situation suddenly hit him. ‘There’s been no one for you at all since your husband died, has there…?’

She blinked. ‘In what way?’

In any way!

Anyone looking at Beth Morgan could see that she was beautiful, with a body that was ripe for physical arousal. But those tears balancing so precariously on her lashes also told Nick that there had been no other man in her life—or her bed—since the death of her husband two years ago.

He had been utterly faithful to Janet during the years of their marriage, but since their separation and divorce there had been numerous women to briefly share his bed. Contrary to what he might have thought—hoped—the same obviously wasn’t true of Beth!

He gave a firm shake of his head and dropped his arms back to his sides before he stepped away from her. ‘I can’t be that man for you, Beth,’ he rasped harshly.

‘What man?’ She looked slightly dazed.

‘That man,’ he said again pointedly, his expression grim. ‘The man you will want to fall in love with. That you would want to fall in love with you.’ He should have realised sooner—should have known—

‘I didn’t start any of this—’

‘No, I did,’ Nick accepted. ‘And I have nothing to offer any woman except a casual relationship.’

‘Aren’t you being conceited in thinking I would want any sort of relationship with you?’ Beth glared her indignation at him.

Nick searched her face for several seconds, knowing by the flush in her cheek, the slightly wild glitter in her eyes and the hard swell of her breasts, that no matter how Beth might deny it, wish it wasn’t true, she had been as aroused by their closeness just now as he was.

‘I apologise.’ He nodded abruptly. ‘You’re right—it is time I drove you home now.’

It was a relief, now that Beth no longer had Nick’s body pressed so intimately against her own, to be able to breathe again. To think coherently. To realise how close she had come to having Nick Steele kiss her. To allowing him to do so much more than just kiss her…

What was wrong with her? How could she have allowed herself to respond, to feel desire for Nick, when she already knew exactly how wrong he was for her?

Nick was sophisticated, handsome, rich and powerful, and experienced in ways Beth couldn’t even imagine—in ways she didn’t want to imagine. She certainly didn’t want to be the next in the long line of women in Nick Steele’s life. Or his bed!

Then why did her body still tremble from that near-kiss? Why could she still feel the imprint of his hard body pressing against her own? Why did her breasts still ache for the touch, the caress, that hadn’t happened?

She would be an idiot, a fool, if she allowed herself to see Nick as anything more than a governor of the school she worked at and the parent of one of her young students.

‘Ready?’ he prompted, not waiting for Beth’s reply before striding out into the hallway, already holding the front door open for her to leave by the time Beth joined him there only seconds later.

As anxious to be rid of her now as she was to go, Beth thought.

Not surprisingly, the drive to her home was completed in strained silence. ‘Thank you for a lovely evening,’ Beth murmured quietly, once Nick had parked his car outside her apartment building.

‘Very nicely said,’ Nick drawled, and his hand came out to grasp her arm to stop her from getting out of the car. ‘Can I take it you’ve definitely decided not to come bowling with us tomorrow?’

Beth turned back with a frown, her face appearing very pale in the moonlight. ‘Nor will I be joining you and Bekka for Christmas Day.’

Nick’s eyes glittered in the semi-darkness. ‘Or setting eyes on me ever again if you can help it?’ he guessed easily.

Her mouth firmed. ‘No.’

He gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘Nothing really happened tonight, Beth, so stop beating yourself up.’

She chewed briefly on her bottom lip. ‘I don’t know what you mean…’

‘Liar,’ he replied as he turned fully in his seat to face her. ‘If I had to guess, I would say you’ve only ever had one lover in your life—’

‘That’s none of your—’

‘A man who died two years ago,’ Nick continued. ‘Two years, Beth!’ he repeated incredulously. ‘Isn’t it time—past time—that you moved on?’

Her chin rose defensively. ‘By having an affair with you, I suppose you mean?’

‘I thought we had already agreed that probably isn’t a good idea.’ Nick gave a hard smile. ‘You did nothing wrong this evening, Beth—nothing you have to feel guilty about.’

‘I don’t feel in the least guilty!’ Beth assured him.

‘I would call you a liar again, but twice in one evening may be once too many!’ he said sceptically.

Her cheeks burned. ‘I’m not lying—’

‘Are you saying you didn’t want me earlier…?’

Beth drew herself up stiffly. ‘You think you know everything, don’t you, Nick? Think that every woman you meet has to fall down adoringly at your feet?’ She gave an impatient shake of her head. ‘Well, think again! I didn’t want you earlier, and I don’t want you now, either!’

Nick considered her accusations. ‘One—no, I don’t think I know everything. Two—I would prefer that any woman who did feel the need to fall down in front of me adoringly concentrated her attentions on another part of my anatomy entirely. And three…’ his voice lowered huskily ‘…deny it all you want, Beth, but you did want me.’

Her eyes flashed like twin sapphires. ‘You’re a conceited, arrogant—’

Nick silenced her in the easiest and quickest way possible—by claiming her mouth with his own and so cutting off all further conversation.

She tasted as good, as headily erotic, as Nick had imagined she would, her lips soft and delectable against his as she gave a low groan of capitulation, her lips parting invitingly beneath his.

Beth’s senses were assaulted with sensation. The heat of Nick’s lips as they moved hungrily against hers. The hardness of his chest against her aroused breasts. And the heady pleasure of his hands as they moved restlessly down the length of her spine before he pulled her hard against him in crushing need.

His hair felt dark and silky as her fingers became entangled in its thickness at his nape, and his skin was hot to the touch as his lips continued their heady and hungry assault on hers, his teeth gently biting before the hard thrust of his tongue entered the hot cavern of her mouth.

She did want this man, Beth acknowledged achingly. She wanted Nick with a hot fierceness that totally shocked her. Knew that she had felt this physical awareness of him from the very first moment she had looked up two days ago and seen him through the rain and sleet after she had tumbled into the road in front of his car.

Her throat arched as Nick dragged his mouth from hers to move down the length of her throat and then slowly up again, and Beth quivered with pleasure as she felt the rasp of his tongue against her earlobe.

Nick felt Beth arch against him as his teeth gently bit on that sensitive flesh, feeling the hard-tipped thrust of those soft breasts against his chest, and unable to resist the temptation of moving his hands beneath her sweater.

His mouth captured Beth’s again as her skin burned against the coolness of his hands, her back soft and silky, the skin firm over the curve of her ribcage, the thrust of her breasts bare as he cupped her there, the nipple firm as a berry as he ran the soft pad of his thumb rhythmically across it.

Beth groaned, her fingers tightening in his hair, and Nick felt the trembling of her body as she arched into those caresses in silent pleading.

Nick’s body was one pleasurable ache—a hard, pulsing ache that couldn’t be fully satisfied in the close confines of the front seats of his car.

He wrenched his mouth away from hers. ‘Invite me in, Beth!’

‘What…?’ She moved back slightly to look up at him in a daze.

His eyes glittered down at her in the darkness. ‘Invite me up to your apartment,’ he prompted huskily.

She continued to stare at him wordlessly for several long seconds, the enormity of what he was saying, what he was asking, almost overwhelming her. She knew exactly what would happen if she invited Nick into her apartment. What they both wanted to happen next. Making a complete nonsense of their earlier conversation!

‘I can’t, Nick!’ She wrenched herself out of his arms.

He reached for her. ‘Beth—’

‘I said no!’ Beth fumbled as she opened the passenger door, the instant blast of icy cold wind from outside sobering her, bringing her to her senses as nothing else could have done. She climbed hastily out of the car before turning back to look at him. ‘Please tell Bekka that I’m really sorry I can’t join her for the bowling tomorrow, or her birthday on Christmas Day.’ Beth didn’t wait for Nick to answer before slamming the door closed and turning sharply on her heel to hurry inside her apartment building.

‘Beth?’ came the tersely impatient query down the telephone line as soon as she answered the call.

A terse voice that was all too familiar! ‘Nick—Mr Steele…?’ she corrected firmly even as her fingers tightened about her mobile.

It had been four cold and icy days since the two of them had parted so ignominiously. Four long and lonely days and nights for Beth. Days and nights of self-doubt and self-recrimination for the way she had responded to Nick so completely.

Days and nights when Beth hadn’t been able to stop thinking of him. Of the way he had kissed her. Of the way she had wanted him to go on kissing her—and more!

‘Nick will do,’ he rasped. ‘I’m really sorry to bother you, and I wouldn’t have done so, except—I find myself in something of a dilemma.’

Nick was in a dilemma?

This man had turned Beth’s whole calm and ordered world upside down four days ago when he’d kissed her. Had evoked a heated response in her that still made her tremble just to think about it. Just the sound of his voice over the telephone now was enough to make her hands shake and her heart pound…!

‘What sort of dilemma?’ she asked warily.

Nick stood in his study at home, staring sightlessly out of the window into the back garden. ‘Bekka’s had your cold for the last three days—’

‘I’m really sorry about that, but you were the one who insisted I come out to dinner with the two of you,’ Beth reminded him indignantly.

‘Bekka’s cold isn’t the problem. Well…only indirectly.’ Nick grimaced. ‘My housekeeper was out shopping earlier today and slipped over on the ice. Luckily someone called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital. I received a call from there a few minutes ago. Apparently Mrs Bennett has broken her ankle pretty badly.’

‘Yes…?’

His mouth tightened as he heard the increased wariness in Beth’s tone. Rightly so, probably, after the strained way the two of them had parted on Friday evening.

He should never have kissed her. Certainly never have suggested she invite him up to her apartment when she was obviously so vulnerable, when he knew how dangerous that vulnerability was!

In the same way he knew he shouldn’t have allowed his thoughts to dwell on her so often in the past four days…

His mouth hardened. ‘It seems, because it’s a bad break and Mrs Bennett is in her sixties, that they’ve decided it might be better to keep her in overnight.’

‘Yes…?’

He grimaced his impatience at Beth’s continued guarded response. ‘Obviously I need to go in and see her, but once I had explained about Bekka’s cold the hospital made it obvious they would prefer it if she didn’t take her germs into the ward. Normally I could have asked my parents to come and sit with Bekka while I go to the hospital, but unfortunately they flew to the States a few days ago to spend Christmas with my sister and her family—’

‘Surely there must be someone else you can ask to sit with Bekka?’ There was a slight note of desperation in Beth’s voice now as she realised the reason for Nick’s call. ‘An agency, perhaps?’

‘It’s only a few days before Christmas—not a good time to be hiring a nanny…’ Nick replied.

‘In other words, I’m your very last resort…?’

Nick scowled. ‘If Bekka hadn’t caught your damned cold I could have taken her with me.’

‘You’re being unfair now!’ Beth cut in indignantly. She was sitting down in an armchair by this time—her knees were shaking so badly just from speaking to Nick again that she’d had to sit or risk falling down instead!

‘I apologise if it sounded that way,’ Nick muttered stiffly. ‘It’s just that all Mrs Bennett’s close family live in Scotland, and—Oh, just forget it. I’ll send her things over by taxi and just hope she’ll understand why I couldn’t go in and visit her personally!’

Beth relented slightly. ‘All you want me to do is sit with Bekka for a couple of hours while you go to the hospital…?’

There was a brief, telling silence. ‘What else could I want…?’ Nick finally enquired.

It wasn’t a question of what Nick wanted, it was a question of Beth’s complete inability to resist him…!

Much as Beth hated to admit it, Nick had become a danger to the calm and uneventful life she had been leading since her move to London a year ago. She was very aware that since their first meeting her emotions had been seesawing all over the place. Feverish and out of her control whenever she was in his company. Flat and uninteresting—boring, in fact—when she wasn’t.

So much so that the quiet Christmas Beth had planned for herself now seemed utterly unappealing.

She looked down at the baggy thigh-length blue jumper she was wearing over faded denims and calf-high black boots. Did she have time to put on some make-up and change before she went to Nick’s house—?

No!

If Nick wanted her help that badly, then he could take her as he found her. ‘I’ll get in a taxi now and be there in fifteen minutes,’ she assured him abruptly.

‘Are you sure…?’

No, of course Beth wasn’t sure!

It was completely hazardous to her hard-won peace of mind to be anywhere near the disturbing Nick Steele…

‘As I said, I’ll try and be there in fifteen minutes,’ she said stiffly.

‘I’ll reimburse you for the taxi fare when you get here.’

‘I’m quite capable of paying my own taxi fare, thank you.’

‘You’re doing this as a favour to me—’

‘I’m doing it for Mrs Bennett and Bekka,’ she corrected him firmly.

‘We’ll argue that point later,’ Nick dismissed briskly, before ringing off.

Beth didn’t intend doing anything with him later!

Even if she had been wanting—aching!—to see him again, be with him again, for the past four days…

Chapter Six

‘I REALLY appreciate you doing this for me,’ Nick said as he opened the front door before stepping back to invite Beth inside the house.

‘I’m doing it for Mrs Bennett and Bekka, remember?’ Not quite meeting his gaze, she turned away to slip off her duffle coat before handing it to him, knowing she would be warm enough in the centrally heated house.

She didn’t need to look at Nick to know how devastatingly male he looked in another one of those tailored dark business suits. Or to see the dark sheen of his hair to know that it was silky soft. Or to look into the chiselled perfection of his face to be aware of how her pulse was racing just being near him again…

‘Beth…?’

She stared at the perfectly knotted tie at his throat. ‘Yes?’

Nick didn’t at all like the way Beth was once again avoiding even looking at him. ‘Damn it, despite my telling you not to, you’ve been wallowing in guilt for the past four days!’

Irritation was evident in those dark blue eyes as Beth’s gaze flickered briefly up to his face and then away again. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Nick,’ she snapped scathingly.

Was he? Was Nick mistaken in thinking that he and the kiss the two of them had shared the other evening were the reasons for those dark circles under Beth’s eyes and the paleness of her cheeks?

He frowned darkly. ‘Do you still intend to spend Christmas Day on your own?’

‘I don’t see what that has to do with you…’

Neither did Nick. Except he hated the very idea of Beth—anyone—being alone during the holiday period. But especially Beth…‘What about your parents?’

‘They were killed in the same car crash as Ben,’ she said abruptly.

God…!

Nick had become cynical about love and relationships in general after his marriage to Janet had failed so abysmally. Learning that Janet had cancer, and had been diagnosed as terminal, had at least allowed the two of them time to heal their differences and say goodbye to each other before she died.

Not that Nick believed there had been any rifts between Beth and her husband before he died, or between her and her parents, but sudden death made no allowances for goodbyes, and Christmas was a time that must surely bring that home to her…

He grimaced. ‘We’ll talk again when I get back.’

Beth looked fully into his face for the first time. And then wished she hadn’t as she saw the concern that darkened those grey eyes. Her smile was tight. ‘The subject is at an end as far as I’m concerned.’

‘But—’

‘I thought I had already made it clear that I don’t need or want your charity or your pity!’ Her eyes flashed deeply blue.

His eyes narrowed glacially. ‘Why do you have to be so prickly all the—?’

‘I thought you had to get to the hospital?’ Beth cut in pointedly, her brows raised in challenge.

Nick’s mouth thinned. ‘I do. But—’

‘Will you just go, Nick?’ she said impatiently. ‘The sooner you go then hopefully the sooner you’ll be back. I do have a life of my own, you know,’ she added pointedly. ‘One that doesn’t revolve around Nick Steele’s wants and needs!’

‘And what would you be doing now if you weren’t here?’ he challenged impatiently.

‘None of your business.’

Nick knew she was being deliberately awkward. He simply didn’t have the time right now to argue with her. But when he returned later this evening he intended making sure he found the time…

‘Fine,’ he bit out tersely. ‘Bekka is waiting for you on the sofa in the sitting room, wrapped up warm in front of the fire, with the three cats draped all over her. The dog is in the kitchen, so take care if you have to go in there to get Bekka some more medicine. There are plenty of drinks and food in the fridge—’

‘I believe I’m intelligent enough to work all those things out for myself.’

But not, it seemed, intelligent enough to know when not to prod and poke at a sleeping tiger…!

Nick had found himself thinking of this woman far too much the past four days. Remembering how good Beth had felt when he’d held her in his arms. How responsive her lips had been against his. How aroused he had been by her. How badly he had wanted her!

How badly he still wanted her, Nick acknowledged.

How did this ultra-sensitive and consequently prickly woman still manage to look sexy, with her face bare of make-up, her auburn hair brushed back from her face and secured in a ponytail, and wearing a long and baggy jumper that appeared to be several sizes too big for her?

Nick had absolutely no idea, but somehow Beth Morgan managed to do it!

He nodded abruptly. ‘I should only be a couple of hours.’

‘I’m sure that Bekka and I will manage just fine without you,’ Beth assured him.

Nick’s eyes narrowed in warning. ‘Just carry on the way you’re going, Beth…’

She arched auburn brows. ‘And what?’

His smile was feral. ‘I’ll let you know when I get back.’

She gave him a wry smile. ‘And am I supposed to live in fear until then?’

Nick gave a slow, warning shake of his head. ‘You’re playing with fire, Beth.’

Beth felt a quiver of apprehension run down the length of her spine as she looked up into those narrowed grey eyes. Or could it be expectation…? She was deliberately baiting this man, she knew. Couldn’t seem to help herself. Couldn’t stop herself from forcing a response from him. Any response.

The promise of retribution she could read in those mocking grey eyes warned her that she wasn’t going to like that response if she carried on deliberately baiting him.

Or that she might like it too much…!

She drew in a shaky breath. ‘Just go to the hospital, Nick,’ she advised heavily.

Nick continued to look down at her frowningly for several long seconds before giving an abrupt nod of his head. ‘Plan on having dinner with Bekka and me later.’

She bristled. ‘Isn’t it usual to ask rather than assume?’

He gave a humourless smile. ‘Where you’re concerned? No.’ He gave a shake of his head. ‘On the assumption you’re going to refuse to accept any payment for sitting with Bekka—’

‘You assume correctly!’ she snapped.

Nick nodded. ‘The least I can do is offer you dinner.’

‘Offer, yes. Assume, no. Besides,’ Beth added, ‘you already gave me dinner four nights ago. Unless…’ She looked up at him suspiciously. ‘When you said “plan on” having dinner with you and Bekka were you actually implying that I should cook it first?’

He chuckled throatily. ‘Not much gets past you, does it, Beth?’

‘You do want me to cook dinner!’ she gasped incredulously.

‘You know the old saying—“feed a cold, starve a fever”.’ Nick shrugged. ‘And obviously Mrs Bennett isn’t here to do it. Of course you could just leave Bekka to my less than proficient skills in the kitchen…’

‘You—I—’ Beth’s eyes were now flashing a deep blue in disgust. ‘Just go, Nick,’ she advised again in carefully modulated tones.

‘I’ll be glad to, now I know the problem of dinner is settled,’ he agreed brightly.

‘Nothing is “settled”, Nick,’ she warned him firmly.

‘Sure it is.’ He gave her a triumphant grin before leaving.

Beth stood in the hallway fuming for several long minutes after Nick had gone.

He was the most arrogant, infuriating—

She had told herself all of this before! Several times, in fact. And yet here she was, back at Nick’s house, taking care of Bekka, and with the added expectation on Nick’s part that she would cook dinner for them all this evening…!

‘I see that you’re feeling better, Bekka,’ Nick said thankfully when he returned early that evening and entered the kitchen in search of his young daughter and Beth, and found the two of them in there preparing dinner together, along with the huge cross-breed of a dog that Bekka had adopted six months ago. There was definitely some Irish Wolfhound in there, if Paddy’s colouring and size was anything to go by—or perhaps it was just wolf!

‘Daddy!’ A happily grinning Bekka rushed over to give him a hug. ‘How’s Mrs Bennett?’

‘Well enough to come home tomorrow,’ Nick assured her as he returned the hug, at the same time giving the traitorous Paddy a censorious glare as the mutt completely ignored him to lean slavishly against Beth’s leg, looking up at her adoringly. Nick usually had a fight as to whether or not the dog would even let him into his own house, and in the few short hours he had been gone Beth had managed to tame the beast.

The whole household seemed to be falling under this woman’s spell!

‘Dinner smells good,’ Nick muttered, as Bekka returned to stirring something in a saucepan on top of the cooker.

‘Let’s hope it tastes the same way,’ Beth drawled, telling Nick that she still hadn’t completely forgiven him for emotionally blackmailing her into making dinner—primarily for Bekka’s sake, but for the two of them, too.

In truth, Nick was no longer sure that it was a good idea, either, as he inwardly acknowledged that the highly domestic scene he had walked in on a few minutes ago was a little too cosy for his comfort. Although Beth didn’t look any more relaxed than he did, Nick noted, as she deliberately turned her back on him to carry on peeling the potatoes in the sink.

‘What is it?’ he prompted curiously as he detected the delectable smell of garlic rising from the pan Bekka was stirring so diligently.

‘It’s something called Pork Tumbet.’ Bekka turned to grin at him.

‘It’s just pork chops covered in seasonal vegetables and cooked in a tomato and garlic sauce. Then the whole thing is covered in sliced potatoes and baked in the oven,’ Beth dismissed lightly, still without turning.

‘Sounds good. It smells good, too,’ Nick murmured appreciatively.

As expected, Beth had spent an enjoyable couple of hours keeping Bekka entertained. The two of them had played draughts and then a few easy card games, and she and the three cats and Paddy the dog had become firm friends. But for all of that time Beth had been aware that Nick would be returning home soon. And not quite sure how she should behave towards him when he did.

It was the thought of having to sit down and eat dinner with Nick that was making Beth feel so nervous. Of course once she had put the food into the oven there was absolutely no reason why she actually had to stay and eat it with them.

That was obviously her way out of this; she would finish preparing the tumbet and put it in the oven, advise Nick on how long to leave it there, and then she would organise another taxi to take her home.

Beth turned, with the intention of telling Nick exactly that, only to draw sharply back against the kitchen unit as she realised just how close he was to her.

So close Beth could smell the elusively expensive aftershave he favoured.

So close she could see the darker ring of grey that encircled the iris of his eyes as she looked up at him.

So close that, once she had quickly glanced away and down from that compelling gaze, she could see the pulse throbbing in his throat.

Could feel her own pulse beating to that same erratic rhythm…