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‘You want hot chocolate with mince pies? As long as you’re not sick. I hate sick.’
Aggie giggled and hopped from one leg to the other. ‘You can’t hate sick. You’re a nurse. Nurses are supposed to love sick.’
Lara shuddered dramatically. ‘Trust me, I hate sick.’
Aggie stopped jumping and studied her with a frown on her face. ‘You’re really weird.’ She hesitated and then smiled. ‘But you’re nice.’ She skipped off to talk to Chloe and Lara stared after Aggie, a lump in her throat.
You’re nice, too, she thought. And I’m going to miss you. Only she wasn’t supposed to think that. She wasn’t supposed to love Christian and she wasn’t supposed to love his children.
None of this was supposed to have happened.
Everything was going horribly wrong.
Why, oh, why had she ever suggested moving in and helping with the children?
Why had she been so arrogant as to think that she’d be immune to a man as gorgeous as Christian Blake?
Feeling something approaching despair, she glanced towards him, only to find him studying her, molten heat simmering in his blue eyes.
‘What? What’s wrong?’ Suddenly she didn’t feel cold anymore. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ He hadn’t looked at her in that way since before the kiss.
He shook his head slowly. ‘I’m trying to work out how I can be violently attracted to a woman who can have a conversation about sick.’
His words took the breath from her body.
She’d assumed that he wasn’t interested anymore She’d assumed that the kiss had succeeded in killing off the chemistry for him.
But now it seemed as though he still felt the same way that she did.
Instinctively she glanced towards the children, but they were both busily examining the Christmas tree. ‘Are you violently attracted?’
‘Do you doubt it?’
She kept her eyes on the children. ‘I thought that you—you didn’t seem—You’ve been very distant.’
‘That was the idea. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have worked.’ His voice was steady. ‘Keep talking about sick. With any luck I’ll see sense sooner rather than later.’
‘Seven-year-olds like talking about bodily functions.’ Lara tried to keep her voice light but it was impossible because her heart was bumping so hard against her chest.
The chemistry was as powerful as ever.
‘This wasn’t supposed to happen, Lara.’
‘No.’ Her voice was a breathless squeak. ‘It wasn’t. It hasn’t. I mean…nothing’s happened.’
His eyes dropped to her mouth. ‘The kiss was a mistake. A big mistake.’
‘I thought it hadn’t bothered you.’
‘Think again.’
She felt as though the breath had been punched from her lungs. ‘I thought we both decided that we were going to forget about it.’
His gaze lifted and a sardonic gleam appeared in his eyes. ‘This has proved to be the one occasion I regret the fact that I have an excellent memory. How about you? How’s your forgetting going?’
‘Funny you should bring that up.’ She dragged her eyes away from his and watched while Aggie and Chloe took a closer look at the Christmas tree. ‘Why is it that, when you’re trying to forget something, that something becomes the only thing you can think about?’
‘I don’t know. I’m pondering the same question.’
