So Close and No Closer

And that was the last thing she wanted to do.

He looked at her for so long that the pink flush darkened to bright scarlet and, although she longed passionately for him to go away, it was no longer because her nudity embarrassed her, but because she was afraid of what he might make her say.

‘Why the change of heart, Rue?’ he asked her quietly.

If only she had had the forethought to prepare herself for this interview. If only she had not rushed foolishly into action. If only she had waited until she had already left before getting in touch with her solicitor…

She fought to maintain some degree of self-possession and said huskily, ‘I know this is your home, Neil, but surely I’m entitled to some privacy? Can’t we discuss this later, when I’m dressed? The water’s getting cold,’ she added, giving a genuine shudder.

‘You’d better get out of the bath, then, hadn’t you?’ he told her unemotionally, adding, ‘I’m not a complete fool, Rue. If I give you the opportunity, you’ll disappear without telling me what the hell’s going on.’

Rue stared at him in disbelief. He didn’t expect her to get out of the bath with him standing there, did he? It seemed that he did, and when he saw her hesitation he looked at her grimly and said, ‘Don’t move.’

When he opened the door and walked into the other bedroom she was half tempted to get out the bath and make a dash for her own room, but she was glad she had resisted the urge when

he returned in less than two minutes carrying a thick towelling robe.

‘Here, put this on,’ he told her, handing it to her and then turning his back.

The water had gone cold and she shivered as she stepped out of it, her fingers clumsy as she pushed her arms into the robe, which was many sizes too big for her. The faint, elusive musk that clung to it was Neil’s, she recognised, her body reacting to the intimate scent of another human being.

‘This is your robe,’ she said almost accusingly as he turned to face her. ‘What was it doing in that room? Your bedroom is right down the end of the landing.’

‘Is it? What makes you think that?’ Neil asked her.

Uncertainly Rue looked at the half-open door.

‘I moved into this bedroom because Hannah said the decorators would probably want to start on the master suite first, and just as well I did, too. The first night you were here you had a nightmare, and you were screaming fit to raise the dead.’

Rue’s mouth went dry, her whole body suddenly tense, the question she had to ask trembling on her lips. She stared at him, her eyes enormous with despair and pain.

‘I tried to wake you up,’ Neil continued drily, ‘but you were too deeply under—not so deeply, though, that you were going to let me go.’

‘Let you go?’ Rue demanded chokily, her chest tight with anxiety. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Only that when I leaned over you to try to wake you up you put your arms around me and whispered that you wanted me to stay.’

‘No,’ Rue protested, but even as she made the denial she wasn’t sure of her ground. She had no recollection of that night at all, apart from those fragmented memories of a bad dream about the fire, followed by the blissful comfort of being held and comforted…

‘Yes!’ Neil insisted. ‘Yes! You opened your eyes and looked at me and told me that you wanted me to stay. You spent the whole night sleeping in my arms.’

‘I didn’t know what I was doing,’ she told him huskily. Suddenly it had become imperative that she convince him that her behaviour had meant nothing. ‘Anyway,’ she added wildly, ‘that isn’t important now. If you don’t want to buy my property, Neil, then all you have to do is to say so. No doubt I can find another buyer.’

‘No doubt,’ he agreed, and then demanded, ‘Why the rush to sell, Rue?’

‘I don’t feel the same about the cottage now. After the fire…’ She gave a shudder that wasn’t entirely faked.

‘Are you sure it is just the fear of your memories of the fire you’re running away from?’ he asked her softly.

Something in the way he was looking at her alerted her to her danger. ‘Of course,’ she responded defensively. ‘What else could it be?’

‘This,’ he told her succinctly, closing the space between them and taking hold of her, sliding his hands up under the cuffs of the too-large robe, his fingertips stroking her skin and raising rashes of goose-bumps along her arms.

Her entire body trembled beneath his touch, her eyes wide and dark, betraying her fear.

‘I think you’re running away because you’re frightened of the way I make you feel. You’re running away because you can’t face up to the fact that you want me…’

‘No,’ Rue denied desperately, as his head bent closer, his breath scorching her skin.