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She narrowed her eyes, tilted her stubborn little chin and thought, Oh, yes that is really going to happen! Who did he think he was, issuing orders to her? She opened her door and got out.
Two uniformed officers were already moving towards the car, and Nik walked towards them, looking calm and confident.
By the time she was within hearing distance, the police were complimenting Nik and shaking his hand.
‘Thank you, sir. If all witnesses could be so clinically precise it would make our job a lot easier.’
‘More resources,’ the younger one said, ‘would too.’
In response to a look he received from his colleague, he added a defensive, ‘It’s no secret that we’re overstretched.’ Then he stopped as he saw Chloe coming towards them, his eyes widening.
Before he could speak to her, Nik moved, cutting off her approach. With a firm hand on her elbow, he turned back to the men. ‘We won’t get in your way, officers, and thank you. Come on, Chloe.’
She was hustled back to the car with equal ruthless efficiency. ‘You didn’t let me say a word to them! What did you think I was going to do?’ she demanded as Nik folded his long length in beside her.
‘Distract them from their job,’ he replied succinctly.
‘So what happens now?’ she huffed.
‘Now I take you home. The police have given me a route that should be clear and, before you ask, the Tube stations are closed, so don’t even think of asking me to stop the car again.’
The rest of the journey was completed without incident and in total silence.
She waited until he had neatly reversed the car into a parking space clearly marked reserved outside her building before releasing her seat belt.
‘I should thank you.’
‘But you won’t.’
‘That’s not what I...’ A sound of irritation rattled in her throat. He drove her insane! ‘All right, I do thank you.’
‘It was my pleasure.’
He moved to open his door and she shook her head. ‘No, don’t get out; I’m fine.’
‘I will see you to the door.’
‘I’m not going to be ravished or kidnapped between here and there,’ she said, nodding to the Georgian building behind them. Once it had housed one family; now it was split into twenty one-bedroom apartments, a bit down at heel, or, in estate-agent speak, ripe for improvement. Chloe had no cash to improve hers as she had poured all the money her blog had made into buying the place.
‘Looking like that, I would not be so confident.’
‘You mean I would be asking for it?’ she countered crankily.
His exasperation increased. ‘I mean that you are a very beautiful woman, this is a fact, and it is also a fact that a man who forces himself on a woman is no real man.’ His nostrils flared in distaste. ‘And a man who excuses the actions of such a person is no less of an inadequate loser.’
He got out and walked around to her side of the car, standing there silently as she got out.
She tilted her head to look at his shuttered face. ‘I’ve offended you.’
He arched an eloquent brow.
‘Sorry.’
He bowed slightly from the waist. ‘Accepted.’ A glimmer appeared in his eyes. ‘Friends again?’
Chloe looked at the hand extended to her as if it were a viper. It was news to her that they ever had been friends, but he had got her home so she reached out.
He took her hand but not to shake it. Without his seeming to exert any overt pressure, she found herself colliding with his body.
