AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I am more than capable of dealing with my own mother.’
>
‘And any other mother, I’m sure.’
Her blue eyes assessed him warily but he stared back at her so innocently she didn’t know what to think. Giles had gone down the ingratiating route with her mother, falling over backwards to butter her up. It was only now, at this very moment, that she realised it had stuck in her craw. Nevertheless, Zac’s audacity was unbelievable. ‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ she said icily. ‘Even now I can’t believe it.’
‘Neither can I,’ he agreed suitably meek.
This was the perfect excuse to throw a blue fit and ask him to leave. But she didn’t want to. She hoped her confusion, her helpless rush of desire and bemusement and a hundred and one other emotions she couldn’t have put a name to if she’d tried weren’t obvious to him. She felt she was walking on the edge of a precipice every moment she was with him, so why was she torturing herself like this for someone who couldn’t be more than a fleeting shadow in her life? It didn’t make sense. Nothing did.
And then he drew her into his arms, kissing her long and deeply, and she knew why.
When he released her she was flushed, her hair slightly tousled and her breathing erratic. Feeling seventeen rather than a mature twenty-seven, she smiled shakily. ‘Is that your answer to everything? Kiss the girl?’
‘Not everything,’ he murmured. ‘And not every girl.’
She brushed her hair from her hot cheeks, feeling hopelessly inadequate to deal with him. ‘I’ll get my things.’
Zac nodded, and once she brought her case through from the bedroom he took it from her, placing it at his feet before helping her on with her coat. She steeled herself not to shiver at his touch but it was hard. When he’d kissed her his chin had been nice and smooth, he’d obviously shaved in the last hour or so before coming to pick her up. And the now familiar scent of the aftershave he favoured caused a frisson of desire to snake down her nerve-endings. There was something overwhelmingly sexy in knowing he had shaved for her.
He picked up her case and offered her his free arm. ‘Shall we go? It was beginning to snow quite heavily when I drove here so maybe it would be prudent to get under way.’
‘You drove?’ Ridiculously, she hadn’t thought about their mode of transport but she supposed she’d imagined a taxi or something, although a taxi all the way to Guildford would be extremely expensive.
‘I hired a car for the weekend. That way, if we want to escape the others and have a couple of hours doing something else, it’s no hassle,’ he said lightly, opening the front door and ushering her out into the mews as he spoke.
Rachel stopped on the doorstep, staring at the sleek lines of the silver-blue Aston Martin parked a few feet away. Why she hadn’t noticed it when she’d opened the door to him earlier she didn’t know. Then she caught herself. Why would she notice a car when Zac was in front of her? ‘This is some hire car,’ she said weakly. ‘The type James Bond would hire for the weekend.’
He grinned, a wicked little grin that for a moment made him almost boyish. ‘Designed to impress you,’ he admitted wryly. ‘Added to which, I drive one back home so it seemed appropriate, even though it took a while to find one.’
She didn’t doubt it. It wasn’t exactly your average family saloon. ‘It’s very nice,’ she said primly as they walked across the pavement and he opened the passenger door.
‘Isn’t it?’ he said, deadpan.
For a moment she wished Jennie and Susan were there to enjoy a moment she knew the pair of them would relish. Then she reneged on the idea. Far better they didn’t have an audience in view of Jennie’s comments that morning.
Big fat flakes of feathery snow were now falling from a laden sky and settling fast, and once Zac had slid into the driving seat—his close proximity in the low sports car causing Rachel problems with her breathing again—he cleared the windscreen. It certainly wasn’t a night to be driving anywhere.
With that in mind, she turned to him. ‘Do you think it’s wise to try and get there in this weather?’
Their eyes met and held. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said softly.
It took all her will to look away and inject amusement into her voice when she said, ‘Perhaps you’d have been better off hiring a four-by-four. I think we might run into trouble in this.’
‘And miss the fun of battling against the elements? I don’t think so. I like a challenge, Rachel. But, then, you know that.’
It took Rachel a full five minutes to be able to relax her body once they were under way. She had never felt so aware of another human being in her life. His large, capable hands on the steering-wheel, his hard masculine thighs just inches from hers, his narrowed gaze as he concentrated on the road—everything about him stirred her. And yet she knew so little about him. The real him, she amended silently. All the information he’d related so easily had been about his childhood, his family, his work, but nothing whatsoever about his love life, past or present. He seemed to be on very good terms with his secretary, but that could be just his way. And he had told her there was no one back in Canada when they’d first had dinner together. Did she believe that? Her brow creased. She wanted to, which was a problem in itself. And why would a man who looked like Zac and was rich and successful to boot not have a girlfriend? It didn’t add up.
‘What are you thinking?’
His voice startled her and brought colour to her cheeks. She shrugged. ‘I was wondering if my mother will ever speak to me again,’ she lied. ‘She won’t appreciate what you did tonight.’
‘From what Jennie told me, it would be no great loss if she didn’t,’ he said smoothly and—in Rachel’s opinion—callously. ‘But don’t worry, she will. Curiosity will prompt her to call, if nothing else.’
It was insightful and absolutely right where her mother was concerned. Rather than comment on what he’d said, she glanced at his chiselled profile. ‘I don’t know if I like the idea of Jennie talking so freely about me.’
‘She didn’t. She merely described your mother in a few succinct words, that’s all. Painted a picture, you know?’
