Cold Comfort (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 5)

“Oh, stop it. You are not going to frighten me into helping you, I can tell you that much, so don’t even think about trying,” Emmeline spat. “I have been going about my business, often unchaperoned, for weeks, months, years, and nothing has ever happened to me beyond encountering gossips.”

Oliver wondered if this was how her father had felt when he had locked horns with Emmeline’s sister. Emmeline was beautiful to look at, all soft and feminine gentility. When determined about something, though, she was as stubborn as a mule. He sighed heavily because he suspected they would continue to run around in circles, arguing over and over about the same thing, for the next several hours and never come to any sort of agreement. She was, if the pink flush on her cheeks was any indication, getting annoyed. He wondered how much longer he could push before she would snap and demand he get out of her house and stop bothering her.

Suddenly, a faint tendril of an idea filtered through the back of his mind. He immediately quashed it and dismissed it as stupid nonsense. He wasn’t so bloody foolish that he was willing to mix business with pleasure, no matter how much he needed her assistance. But Oliver still had to question whether a little gentle persuasion might be in order. Even while he willed himself to stop being every kind of fool in Christendom, his gaze fell to her lips.

“Fine. I can see you are not for persuading,” he began somewhat loudly. “I shall leave you to enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you for your time.”

“Is that it?” Emmeline asked as Oliver turned around and began to make his way to the door.

For a moment, she had wondered if he – well – she promptly closed that thought out. Suddenly, she felt as if she had been dismissed, and didn’t like the feeling one jot. With a frown, she cautiously sauntered after him but, by the time she reached the doorway that led to the hall, it was to find him already at the front door.

“What else do you want? You are not prepared to help me, so I shall have to go it alone and hope nobody else gets kidnapped before I can catch the blackguards responsible. I am sure the next victim will understand the loss of their freedom so you can have yours,” Oliver replied crisply.

Emmeline’s mouth fell open, but she immediately felt awful for the stark reality of the situation he had just revealed; a situation she knew all too well was most probably grounded in fact.

“You have no idea what it was like,” she began somewhat coldly.

Oliver froze in the process of opening the door. The swift change of tone was enough to make him turn to face her with a frown of concern. “What?”

“Seeing the kind of life my sister inhabited. I never want to go anywhere near the life or people my sister was connected to. The poor house would be a better option than Caroline’s life. I am not going to lure these people out of their everyday lives. I won’t do it, and if that means I am selfish then so be it, but I live around these parts, don’t forget. As soon as women started being kidnapped, people took precautions. No young woman goes about her business unchaperoned now. Ever.”

“Who chaperones you then?” Oliver demanded.

“My neighbour, Mrs Brigman,” Emmeline replied swiftly.

So swiftly, in fact, that Oliver didn’t doubt it.

“I have already told you that we will do everything necessary to keep you safe while you do this. I don’t expect you to do anything untoward like challenge these people directly. I don’t expect you to adopt Caroline’s lifestyle, for God’s sake. I – we – just need you to go shopping in town looking as you do – like her. We will just make sure it is timed so that the people we believe are responsible for the kidnappings are likely to see you,” Oliver reasoned.

There was such abject misery on Emmeline’s face that he fell quiet because he realised then just how much pressure he had put her under. He had to stop and chastise himself that he really was being too harsh on the innocent young miss whose life had already faced so much emotional turmoil today. However, he hadn’t expected her to be so stubbornly determined to drive him out of his mind with frustration. It irked him more than he cared to admit that the frustration was driven by more personal reasons than professional.

“Will you do it? Will you help us?” Oliver whispered. When Emmeline didn’t answer, Oliver crossed the narrow hallway to stand before her.

Emmeline struggled to contain the urge to say ‘yes’, especially when he looked at her with such raw appeal.

“I cannot. I am sorry,” Emmeline whispered, her voice laden with the misery she felt.

Oliver puffed out a breath. For a moment, he truly began to believe he had managed to persuade her to agree. Frustrated now more than ever, he tipped her chin up until their eyes met. Whatever he had intended to say next flew out of his mind. All he could do was stare at her and will her to listen and trust him. He wanted her to understand what drove him, to agree to his request and allow him to live in peace as well, but he suspected his life would be far from peaceful now. He suspected Emmeline Elkins was not a woman he was likely to forget anytime soon. She was going to drive him out of his mind with worry whether she helped him or not.

Damn, knowing how she looks, I cannot just leave and hope that she doesn’t get snatched.

Oliver knew that if Smidgley was aware she was alive then Emmeline would invariably be the next to get taken. It was an horrific thought.

“Damn. Now what?” He whispered, more to himself than to her.

“I have no idea,” she whispered back, completely oblivious to his thoughts.

Before Oliver could contemplate the wisdom of what he was about to do, he swept her into his arms and claimed her lips in a kiss that shocked them both. Even when he touched her, Oliver began to curse himself for being every kind of fool there ever could be. He regretted what he was doing, even when his arms tightened around her. His doubts magnified when he felt her small hands clutch his shirt. While he tried to ignore his instinctive reaction to her untutored response, it was difficult to ignore when he wanted to savour more of her so much. It was annoying that he seemed to have such little self-control over the way she made him feel. He found it damned impossible to stop, even when she made a faint mewling sound that he had never heard any woman make before. When he tried to lift his head to see if she was alarmed and likely to slap him, Oliver soon found any distance he tried to put between disappear instantly when Emmeline followed and resumed their kiss.

Emmeline was stunned. When the immediate shock wore off, though, curiosity overwhelmed her. She had never felt anything like this before because she had never allowed any man this close to her - ever. It was shocking. It was amazing. It was worrying. More importantly than any of that, it was downright confusing. She should be putting as much distance between her and this handsome stranger as it was physically possible to put between them. She should be ordering him out of the house, after she had slapped his face of course. But what she did was none of those things. Her treacherous hands wouldn’t co-operate when she tried to force herself to release him. His arms were wound tightly around her waist, assuring her that she wouldn’t fall if she did manage to get her fingers to release her determined grip on the fine material of his waistcoat.

No single woman should feel like this, should she?

It was difficult to know what to think. Her mind refused to move beyond the wondrous feelings this kiss brought her. It was so shockingly intimate that she was enthralled by it. Her body began to warm from deep in the centre of her core and responded to his closeness in a way she had never truly believed possible, or ever hoped to experience. It was all so very new and strange that she struggled to know what she should do, think or even feel. It was so very addictive that she couldn’t make it stop. She didn’t want it to stop. She didn’t want either one of them to stop and that, she knew, was incredibly dangerous.

CHAPTER FIVE

They sprang apart as if they had just been scalded. For a moment, the stunned silence that settled over them was distinctly uncomfortable, but neither of them broke it. They studied each other, sized each other up, as if unsure what to make of what they had just so willingly shared.