Caroline stared at the hard rigidness of Nichs’ back, wondering what he was thinking. What he thought of her. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be any worse than what she thought of herself. She wondered now how everything was going to change.
“What is there left for us to talk about?” she bit out. “Whether or not you are going to fire me when we get home,”
His eyes had narrowed to slits as he turned to look at her. “Who said anything about firing you?”
Caroline gave a disbelieving snort. “What else is there when this keeps happening between us? We can’t work together like this,” She breathed shakily, wondering if she could possibly feel any worse than she already did. She trembled just at the memory of the intimacies they had shared. “How can we continue working together?”
His mouth tightened. “Do you want us to continue working together?”
She grimaced. “I don’t think what I wantes into it, do you?”
“Oh, I think that it does.” He nodded slowly, pale gaze unreadable.
Caroline closed her eyes briefly before raising her lids to look at him once again. “I want just now not to have happened,” she muttered gruffly. “I want us to have a professional rtionship,”
Nichs gave a humorless smile. “And if that proves to be impossible?”
She swallowed hard. “Then I’ll have to consider leaving.”
He continued to look at her for several long minutes before nodding abruptly. “In that case, I suggest we try to keep our hands off one another from now on. I don’t see the need for your resignation.”
How different this could have been if Nichs had loved her, Caroline wished achingly. If he loved her as she was starting to love him… Because she did love him. She had absolutely no doubts about that now. She knew she could never have behaved in the way she just had, never have responded in that way, if she wasn’t already in love with him.
Just as Caroline knew that the only way she could stay in his life was if he never knew that she loved him. “I still can’t believe-” Caroline broke off with a self-conscious groan. “Jim or Jennie could have walked in on us a few minutes ago!”
“But they didn’t.” His eyes shed.
“More by luck than judgment!” Caroline’s eyes red darkly, knowing that anger was probably a safer emotion than theplete devastation she really felt.
“Stop beating yourself up, Care, and just go to bed,” Nichs rasped wearily.
One look at the grimness of his expression told her that he didn’t want to talk about this any more tonight, either. If ever! Which suited her perfectly. Caroline could imagine nothing more cringe-making, more embarrassing, than discussing herpleteck of control a few minutes ago. Ack of control that still made her body tremble and quake with remembered pleasure… “Fine.” She nodded abruptly. “I-I’ll see you in the morning, then.
“No doubt,” Nichs bit out.
Caroline hesitated only long enough to give him onest, lingering nce before hurrying from the room and up the stairs to the bedroom, closing the door sharply behind her, wishing she could as easily close the door on her memories.
How would she ever be able to so much as look at him without those memories zing between them?
She would certainly never be able to look at Nichs without knowing that she was falling for him…
__________
“It was kind of Jim and Jennie to pack lunch for us,” Caroline ventured softlyter the next morning as she turned to wave to thendlord and his wife as they stood in the doorway of the inn, watching them leave. The snow-plough had done its job and cleared the minor road earlier this morning now that the major roads were driveable.
Nichs nted her a brief nce. “And you could use a little kindness right now, hmm?” He watched as a bing blush coloured her cheeks. Cheeks that until a few minutes ago had been deathly pale.
Not that Nichs felt much better. He hadn’t slept well the previous night, and thatck of sleep owed nothing to the ufortableness of the chair he’d slept in and more to the fact that he couldn’t get Caroline out of his head. Kissing her. How she had felt. How soft and creamy her skin was. How responsive her body was to the slightest caress. Of how she hadpletelye apart in his arms.This content is ? N?velDrama.Org.
He had still been able to taste her. To feel her. Her skin had felt so satin-smooth. Her breasts had fit perfectly into his hands. Her curls had been soft and silky to the touch as he’d sought and found the center of her arousal. Caroline had been so responsive, sopletely beautiful, as he’d felt her climax against his stroking fingers.
Nichs hadn’t been able to get the memory of that from his head. He still couldn’t. So much so that all he wanted to do right now was take Caroline to the nearest bed and finish what they had startedst night. He wanted to see her naked. He wanted to know if those silky-soft curls were as her hair. Wanted to touch and kiss the petalled rose between her thighs, to drive her over that edge with the touch of his lips and tongue. Most of all, he wanted to bury himself inside that rosy moistness, to stroke himself inside her again and again until they both found release.
In the circumstances it was probably as well that he had to concentrate so hard on his driving. The roads were still slightly icy despite having been gritted overnight. Although that didn’t stop his thoughts from constantly returning to the previous evening… What the hell was happening between the two of them?
Last night, Caroline was amazing. Her coolness hadpletely melted to reveal a woman with physical passions that ran as fiercely as his own. She had been so hot and responsive, almost wild in her pleasure. Had she ever reacted in the same way in another man’s arms? Jealousy wasn’t an emotion Nichs recognized. In the same way he didn’t recognize possessiveness. He had never had any use for either emotion. And yet just the thought of any other man bringing her to the same release he hadst night filled Nichs with anger.
“Perhaps you don’t like my particr brand of kindness?” he rasped insultingly.