A Terrible Misunderstanding (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 6)

“He is your father. You tell me.”

“Why should I? You don’t want to tell me anything,” Clara snapped. “Why should I reveal my family business to a stranger like you?”

She forced herself to ignore the wild thrill of attraction that coursed through her as she raked him with a dismissive look.

“I have a job to do,” Niall argued.

“So go and do it and stop pestering me,” Clara retorted.

With that she tried to resume her journey only to find Niall in her path again.

“Do you know something, you are worse than Erasmus Boyle,” she told him. “He pesters women as well.”

“I am not pestering you,” Niall snapped.

“Well, that is what you appear to be doing. I don’t need to tell my friends the truth because they already know,” Clara replied. “I am not responsible for what the villagers do. If you don’t like it go and speak with them or leave. It’s up to you. I am not going to change my lifestyle just because you don’t seem able to stay away from me, which is a little unnerving to be fair because you do have a penchant for lurking in people’s gardens late at night as well. Maybe we should report you to the magistrate because, now that I come to think about it, I have never seen Erasmus lurking in my garden late at night. You, however, do.”

“I have a job to do,” Niall repeated. He mentally winced because it was a weak excuse and make him look like an absolute imbecile, but it was the truth. He was only in Serpentine to carry out his orders. “When my job is over, I will take great delight in leaving here and I certainly won’t ever return.”

“Good. Until then, stay out of my garden, and stop telling me what to do.” Clara tried to move around him again only for Niall to slide a hand across the back of her neck and haul her until her nose almost bumped his.

The world around them instantly faded. All Clara could see were the tiny flecks in his eyes. She could feel every breath he drew he was so close, but she refused to move away.

“What would you do if I was a sexual predator?” he murmured.

“Scream.”

“There is nobody here to hear you,” he warned. “I could do what I wanted for as long as I wanted, and nobody is going to be around to stop me.”

“You won’t,” she replied confidently.

“Don’t make arrogant assumptions. You are challenging a stranger; someone you haven’t met until recently and know nothing about, yet you think you can challenge me, someone you cannot control and have no hope of ever truly understanding.”

His voice was so low and hushed it sent warning ripples down her spine. She knew he was right. She didn’t know him, but her instinct warned her she was safe with him. No matter how much he wanted to try to pose a threat to her, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he kept appearing and getting her out of trouble.

“You won’t hurt me,” she whispered confidently.

To prove just how vulnerable she was, Niall placed his lips upon hers. He wanted to press them down hard until the kiss turned painful, but upon the first brief touch just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Everything he was screamed at him to let her go and send her on her way, but his treacherous arms slid around her and tugged her closer instead. When he should have lifted his head and issued her with another warning, he deepened the kiss and claimed her in a way he had wanted to do since the first night they had met. This was nothing to do with the Star Elite investigation, a terrible misunderstanding that had resulted from his rescuing her from Erasmus, or the wayward way she seemed to challenge authority and be determined to put her life at risk. This had nothing to do with his job, who she was, or why he was in Serpentine. This was purely between them, a man and woman who were, although reluctant to acknowledge it, wildly attracted to each other.

He sensed the hesitation in her hands before she placed them tentatively on his chest. He felt the gentle hiccup of breath before she surrendered and allowed him to probe deeper. The faint tremors coursing through her were impossible to ignore because she was so close to him. He could feel every beat of her thunderous heart. Still, he couldn’t step away from temptation. He couldn’t issue the stern rebuke he knew he ought to give her. Nothing seemed all that important anymore. He knew, without question, that he would do whatever it took to keep this woman safe. Horrifyingly, though, he knew it had nothing to do with the Star Elite investigation. This was personal. It was private to him, driven by a protective need he hadn’t ever expected to experience. He had never felt it toward any woman before. He had never felt this compelled to keep anybody as safe as he felt he should with Clara.

Moreover, he wanted to not just keep her safe but keep her for himself. The thought of her being some other man’s wife was enough to drive him out of his mind. It certainly had the ability to make him grumpy, even when he stringently denied he was bothered by it. However much he wanted to just turn around and walk away, Niall knew that he couldn’t. He had to know she was safe. He had to know she was going about her business and wasn’t going to be forced into wedlock with Erasmus or anybody else.

“Just remember that I might not be around the next time you get yourself into trouble,” he whispered when he eventually lifted his head. “Don’t take foolish risks with your life. You only have one. If someone is determined to take it or ruin it there is nothing you can do. Don’t rely on people you know nothing about. Next time, I could be Erasmus, and he might succeed in dragging you away from your family. What then? Are you prepared to die to try to be defiant? Are you prepared to be ruined purely because you want to try to make a point that you can go where you want when you want and shun common sense? I won’t marry you. That is fact. No matter what lies you tell your family, friends, or even yourself, I am not ever going to marry you.”

With that, Niall walked away.

Clara stared after him. She felt used, humiliated, ashamed of her own wayward behaviour. Moreover, she felt shamed that she had allowed herself to be lulled into a false sense of security in believing that he might, temporarily at least, care something for her.

Now, she knew he did not, and never would. There could be no clearer message than the one he had just issued her. He wasn’t ever going to marry her and that was that.

With one last look in his direction, Clara resumed her journey, but it was on shaking legs, to a village she really didn’t want to visit anymore. What she really wanted to do was go home and cry her eyes out.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A week later, a pale and tired Clara left the house and paused long enough to lock it before she joined her aunt in the waiting carriage.

“Are you sure you are all right, dear?” Flo asked with a frown of concern once Clara had climbed aboard and was settling her blanket over her knees. “If you are not well enough, we can leave our afternoon tea for another day.”