at freeing her wrist, but her arm had slackened weakly the moment Hal had taken it prisoner.
‘I told you—I can’t do that any more.’ Even to her own ears her answer sounded less than convincing.
His dark brows beetled in a mocking frown. ‘In my dictionary there’s no such word as “can’t”, sweetheart.’
‘I think you’ll find that there is. Maybe not in yours, but in most dictionaries the term is described as a contraction. Perhaps you need to update your volume?’
Even as she came back with the witty rejoinder Kit’s heart was hammering, because she knew that this was one situation where she wouldn’t get the better of him. Not this time.
‘You’re too clever for your own good, Kit Blessington. Now, shut up and let me kiss you.’
Pulling her down to him, he crushed her lips beneath the slightly rough, melting warmth of his own. With a surrendering gasp she allowed her mouth to be thoroughly captured, offering not the slightest resistance as his tongue swept its satin interior and his hands cupped her face. The taste and feel of him was like being given the keys to Nirvana. The pleasure he gave her was almost indescribable.
How was she supposed to keep to her resolve not to be intimate with him again? Hal Treverne was in her blood, like a raging fever that wouldn’t be cooled, and Kit knew she was fast becoming addicted to him. More than that, she realised, she was deeply in love with him. The thought wrenched a partly shocked, partly despairing groan from her. Despite her heartfelt vow not to, it seemed she was intent on repeating her mother’s reckless folly all over again.
‘We should—we should get going,’ she murmured.
With her legs decidedly unsteady, she stepped abruptly away from Hal and reached up to the hook on the coatstand for her warm sheepskin-lined jacket. Draping a purple scarf around her neck and loosely knotting it, she saw that Hal was fastening his suede jacket with a somewhat bemused expression on his face.
‘That kiss was like having a warming dram of whisky before we set out on our expedition into the cold.’ He grinned. ‘I can’t pretend I won’t be tempted to have another one on our return. Lead the way, Captain.’
With a charming, mocking salute, he defied her not to give him an argument.
THE WIND WAS particularly raw and unforgiving that day. As Kit briskly pushed Hal’s wheelchair along the smooth concreted paths in the park she knew that being forced to be static wasn’t helping him maintain his body’s warmth. He would have hated it, but she wished she’d brought a rug to tuck round him. She’d be willing to endure his angry glares if it made him feel more comfortable.
As if reading her mind, Hal piped up, ‘It’s warmer than this climbing a glacier! I can’t say I’m exactly bowled over by this expedition, Kit.’
‘It’s not an expedition. It’s meant to be a pleasurable stroll. I know it’s cold, but at least we’re out in the fresh air. There’s a charming little café at the other side of the park and we’ll head over there soon. But first I think we should take a little exercise, don’t you?’
His broad shoulders tensed as he turned round to observe her. His chiselled profile was far from amused.
‘That’s not very funny and I don’t appreciate the joke.’
‘I’m not mocking you, Hal.’ Swallowing hard, Kit frowned in apology. ‘I just want you to know that even though you can’t get around like you normally do right now you can still have fun.’
‘This is your idea of fun?’
‘Anything can be fun if you have the right attitude. How about this, for instance? Make sure you’re holding on.’
Taking a deep breath, she firmed her gloved hands round the wheelchair’s handles and started to run at full pelt down the path. Fortunately the park was sparsely populated that morning, the path was wide, and the only person they passed was an elderly man walking his terrier. As the trees, lake and the benches on the path flew by she couldn’t help laughing out loud. Inside, she was suddenly filled with the kind of joy she very rarely if ever felt. The discovery that it was immensely liberating going against the conformity of what people expected made her want to do it more often.
At first it seemed as though her madcap idea had stunned Hal into silence, but as she continued to push him at speed down the path, he shouted up to her, ‘You are one crazy woman, Kit Blessington. Do you know that?’
‘Are you having fun now?’ she shouted back.
‘Hell, yes! Can’t you go any faster?’
Kit kept her promise and after making their way across to the other side of the park, out of breath and with her cheeks healthily pink, she took Hal to the café she’d mentioned for coffee and cake. The table they selected had a wonderful view of the sparkling lake—at last the sun had started to shine, making the blue-green water shimmer like diamonds. Gratefully curling her hands round her hot mug of coffee, and observing the heightened colour in the sculpted planes of Hal’s handsome face as well, she knew a delicious sense of well-being that she wished she could bottle.
‘Feeling a bit warmer now?’ She smiled.
‘I feel strangely like I’ve run a marathon.’ The corner of his lips quirked beguilingly. ‘Well...maybe a half marathon. You were right—that was fun.’
‘Good. I had fun too. What’s the fruitcake like?’
Hal was already shaking his head and returning the slice of cake he’d just taken a bite out of to his plate. ‘Nowhere near the standard of yours. Six out of ten, I’d say.’
‘And mine is...?’
‘You’re a bad girl, fishing for compliments like that.’
His voice lowered to a smoky cadence that heated Kit’s blood and made the tips of her breasts prickle hotly inside her bra.
‘But I’ll still tell you. You’re definitely a ten. I can’t fault you, it seems.’
‘We’re talking about my cake...aren’t we?’
‘Are we?’ Leaning across the table, Hal reached for her hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed it. ‘The truth is you make me giddy. The line between reality and fantasy always seems to be blurred when I look at you, Kit.’
He meant every word. Her presence in his life was growing more and more essential to his well-being—and not just because she had appeared in his life exactly when he needed her. As he gazed into her bewitching summer-blue eyes his heart gently pounded inside his chest. He’d climbed mountains and navigated raging rivers in his search for thrills and excitement. He had taken recording artists to the pinnacle of their careers because he’d believed in them when no one else had, where no one would take the risk of backing an unknown. But nothing he’d done or achieved in his life could beat what he felt when he was next to this woman...no wonder she made him giddy!
Kit’s face flushed even pinker at his comment.
‘It’s probably the fresh air and the unexpected speed
