let her.
‘Afternoon,’ he said calmly.
‘Another day date?’ Heat filled her face as she thought of the last one. The scent of the grass suddenly hit her, along with the remembered sensation of him pressing her into it.
‘Kind of. But there won’t be any exercise this time. You need to wear something a little more formal. That dress you wore to the movies would be good.’
She swallowed. No exercise, huh? His oh-so-casual attitude sharpened her antagonism. He so wasn’t dictating her wardrobe to her. ‘I can do a little more formal.’
‘Great. Then I’ll pick you up at one.’
‘Okay. See you then.’
He rang off without saying goodbye. It made concentrating on work the rest of the day impossible. Well, not impossible, but it was extremely annoying that she had to be there and not at home so she could obsess.
She went out for a walk and bought an ice-cream—to cool herself down on the inside. Gave herself a headache by eating it too quickly. She really had to pull herself together. She was not going to ruin her reputation at work because of some guy she was going to see only once more. She had to get a grip. Self-pep-talked up, she went back to the office and sat down and worked overtime, losing herself in the tasks and not once going back online.
In the evening at home she texted Megan for support. He wanted a little more formal? She was going to need some help with that. Formal for day-time wasn’t that easy to pull.
Def wear dress but hair down not up. Help yourself to anything in my wardrobe.
Saturday morning she followed Megan’s advice, plaiting just a narrow section of hair near the front and then clipping it back. She totally wished she could borrow some of Meg’s amazing shoes—except she’d have to stuff tissue into the toes to fit them, and that just wouldn’t be a good look. She put a little more make-up on than usual—mainly to hide the signs of sleeplessness under her eyes.
Right on one o’clock she opened the door, and with a brain-draining combination of nerves, excitement and foreign shyness looked at him. Neither spoke. The moment of silence went on so long she started to panic.
‘Is this not okay?’ Totally husky rather squeaky this time.
‘No, it’s okay.’ He cleared his throat at the same time she did. ‘You look great.’
He was smart-casual too, and she was glad she’d gone with the little gilt heels and the silver dress. But she was melting into a puddle—awkwardness was the only thing that saved her. She wanted to apologise, she wanted to beg, she wanted to start over. She wanted so many things that were impossible.
He had his car, held the door for her to get in. She didn’t look at him.
‘Change the music if you want,’ he said as he pulled out into the traffic.
Actually, she liked this band and their loudness. The car smelt nice—it smelt like him. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Oh, you know I like to preserve a little mystery,’ he answered too smoothly.
She glanced at him, but he was looking hard at the road ahead and she wasn’t inclined to try and start the conversation again. Nor was he—so somehow forty minutes rolled by in silent, screaming tension.
Eventually they cruised into one of those cute home counties villages—all quaint and expensive. And then he pulled into the driveway of one stunning country home. There were little pink balloons on the gate, and a line-up of flash European cars parked along the street.
Nadia’s tension couldn’t stay silent now. What the hell were they coming to? She slowly got out of the car and followed him to a beautiful doorway. Through the windows of the house she saw people in pretty party dress milling—and she knew.
‘This is some kind of family occasion, isn’t it?’ Appalled, she slowly climbed the steps up to the door. All the needing-to-apologise feeling fled.
‘My niece’s christening, yes.’
‘I can’t be here.’ She saw the amusement on his face and her temper flared. ‘This isn’t the place for you to play your manipulating games.’
‘Oh? That’s fine coming from you—the mistress of manipulation. Treat me mean, keep me keen—is that what you were doing?’
There was only one bit of that sentence she registered. Dumbfounded, she gazed up at him. ‘You’re still keen?’
‘Why?’ Roughly his hands snaked around her waist and he yanked her against him right there on the doorstep. ‘You still want me?’
One hand slid lower, firmly curving around her butt. Through the thin shiny dress his heat burned. Her instant tremor was obvious to them both. And suddenly she felt like crying. She was tired of feeling this desperate for him. ‘I wasn’t playing games with you.’ Oh, she sounded pathetic—and pleading.
‘The hell you weren’t.’ His intense gaze stripped her completely.
And she was pleading now. He was vibrating too—with annoyance, and something else. Something every ounce of her wanted to believe was desire. She gazed up at him, too thrilled by the close contact to realise what she was revealing to him—too hot to care. All she wanted was this contact to become closer still.
She heard his breath catch, watched immobile as his head angled and slowly lowered, his sensual lips coming towards hers. Her own breath caught then, while her heart thundered. She tilted her chin, wanting the kiss so badly. His hands tightened, sending more pleasure shocks along her nerves. She liked feeling the strength of him.
But suddenly he looked up. Too late she registered that the door beside them had opened.
Not releasing her from his tight embrace, Ethan suddenly flashed a totally different sort of smile. ‘Hello, Mother.’
‘ETHAN! It’s you.’ The woman sounded stunned. ‘You and …’
Nadia flinched, felt his muscles spasm too. Suddenly it registered that she was resting all her weight against him. But she couldn’t pull away. The steel band across her back—i.e. his arm—wouldn’t let her. Desperately she licked her lips, so she could manage a smile, and turned her head to face the one woman she’d never, ever expected to meet.
‘Ethan?’ Another voice, and then two other, younger women materialised to flank his mother’s sides.
‘Mother, meet Nadia. Nadia, this is my mother, Victoria, and my two sisters Jessica and Polly.’ The mocking amusement in his voice was apparent, but it didn’t chase the surprise off all their faces.
Nadia wished he’d let her go so she could run away to a small dank cave. But he still held her far, far too closely. She shook her head slightly to dispel her fuzzed vision—only the situation dived drastically when she saw his family clearly. Ethan the Gorgeous just would have two glamorous, swan-like
