do exercises every day to get his wrist properly mobile again.’
‘I’d better get him to hospital,’ she said.
‘St Thomas’ is the nearest emergency department to here,’ Jamie said. ‘I worked there for a bit. They’re really nice. It’s about ten minutes from here in a taxi and twenty on foot.’
Ade’s mother looked at her son, who was still guarding his arm. ‘I’ll call a taxi now.’
‘We’ll help Ade with his skates while you make the call,’ Anna said, ‘and we’ll wait with you until the taxi gets here.’
She was a natural with children, Jamie thought, telling the boy a stream of terrible jokes to distract him from the pain and even managing to make him laugh. Ade’s mother thanked them when the taxi arrived, and then Anna looked at Jamie. ‘Review time, then. Stop now, or have another skate?’
There was a hopeful look on her face, and he was pretty sure which one she’d choose. ‘Another skate,’ he said. ‘And then I’m guessing it’s hot chocolate?’
‘That sounds utterly perfect,’ she said, smiling at him.
And how crazy was it that his heart suddenly felt as if it had done a backflip?
This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t part of their deal. They were colleagues, sort of on the way to becoming temporary friends. They weren’t supposed to get close and personal.
She was the first woman since Hestia to make him feel like that. Her warmth and her huge, huge heart just drew him. Yet, at the same time, he was pretty sure that Anna was hiding some deep sadness in her own past. She deserved more than he could give her. So he forced himself to keep things light.
Until the moment when she stumbled and he caught her so she didn’t fall.
She looked up at him, those beautiful sea-green eyes wide and her lips very slightly parted.
And he knew then that it would be, oh, so easy to dip his head slightly. Brush his mouth against hers. Wrap his arms round her, and then deepen the kiss until they were both dizzy…
Was it his imagination, or was she staring at his lips, the way he was staring at hers? Did she feel the same thing? Did she want him to kiss her?
His tongue felt as if it had been glued to the roof of his mouth. He couldn’t say anything, do anything but try to resist this insane urge to kiss her.
But if he didn’t resist… What then? Would she kiss him back?
He could hardly breathe.
Could he?
Should he?
And then she said, ‘Thank you for saving me.’
Her voice broke the spell and brought his common sense back into play. No. Of course he shouldn’t kiss her. He needed to be sensible.
‘You’re welcome,’ he said. ‘More skating?’
At least if he had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, he wouldn’t be thinking about how it would feel to kiss her. How her skin would feel against his. How she was tall enough to be a perfect fit in his arms…
‘More skating,’ she said.
He didn’t dare glance at her expression to find out if she looked relieved or disappointed. Kissing was absolutely not an option. This wasn’t a date.
He just needed to concentrate on his footwork and the music. So far, he’d been lucky and they hadn’t played That Song. Hopefully they’d already played it enough times earlier in the evening. Two more songs, and he’d suggest they get hot chocolate and leave.
Anna knew she was really making an idiot of herself. Fancy almost falling at Jamie’s feet, like the poor little boy who’d slipped over earlier.
And then, when he’d grabbed her to steady her, it had felt as if she’d been galvanised.
Propinquity, that was what it was. Or maybe the bright lights dazzling her, the magical feel of the skating rink taking her out of the real world and letting her see the possibilities. Tempting her to do something that really wouldn’t be sensible in real life.
For a moment, she’d found herself staring at his mouth and wondering what it would be like if he kissed her. How soft and teasing and inviting his mouth would be. How it would feel to have his arms wrapped round her, holding her close to him.
But that wasn’t the deal.
She was supposed to be making him feel better about Christmas, showing him the good side of the season and taking the sting out of whatever had hurt him in the past, not flinging herself at the poor man and embarrassing both of them. He’d made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t in the market for a relationship, and neither was she. She needed to focus on skating. Skating, not kissing. She repeated the mantra to herself half a dozen times, hoping that somehow it would stick in her head. Skating, not kissing. Skating, not kissing…
But all the time she found herself very aware of him. The space he took up. His height. His dark good looks, those gorgeous cornflower-blue eyes, that shy and so-rare smile.
Get a grip, Anna, she told herself crossly. This isn’t a date. Stop thinking about the what-ifs, because there aren’t any.
Two more songs and they’d leave.
They went round and round the skating rink, and she couldn’t help noticing how the other couples there were skating hand in hand, how the more confident ones stopped and spun their partner round into their arms and kissed them despite no mistletoe being in evidence.
She wasn’t meant to be noticing the kissing.
Concentrate on the skating, she told herself fiercely. Even if it was driving her slightly crazy.
Maybe she needed some hot chocolate, a sugar rush to stop her thinking about the sweetness of his mouth. So, when the second song ended, she said, ‘I’m done. Time for hot chocolate, I think.’
‘Great idea,’ he said.
Except, when they were in the queue, someone bumped into them and Jamie ended up with his arms around her to protect her.
And all of a sudden there wasn’t enough air. Despite the fact that they were outside and had the whole of London around them, there just wasn’t enough air to suck into her lungs.
She made the mistake of looking into his eyes, and it looked as if it was the same for him because his pupils were absolutely enormous.
It isn’t because of you, she told herself sharply. It’s a physiological reaction to a low light area, that’s all.
Except the lights weren’t really that low. It was actually really, really bright in the courtyard, so anatomically speaking his pupils should be tiny.
The fact that they weren’t made her heart
