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Fire Beneath the Ice

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She really hated him. She turned and stared out of the window in despair.

She had been a fool to come.

"Don't you like it?" The deep male voice next to her had a note of almost comical amazement.

"What?" She turned to look into his dark face.

"The hotel." He gestured towards the building as she turned to him.

"You're glaring at it as though it's Wormwood Scrubs," he added sarcastically, his voice dry.

"I've never seen Wormwood Scrubs, or any other prison for that matter," she said haughtily.

"And of course I like it. It's absolutely beautiful." She glared at him angrily.

"Then why the ferocious frown?" he asked wryly.

"Wolf, you have the right to object if I'm not concentrating at work, you even think you have the right to " suggest" how I wear my hair in the office," she continued coldly, 'but one thing you do not have the right to is my thoughts. They, at least, are all my own and I have no intention of sharing them with you or anyone else. “She stared at him crossly.

"I see." He settled back a little further in his seat and she waited for the explosion. It didn't come. Instead he surprised her utterly by reaching forward, after a long moment of studying her angry eyes, and cupping her face between his large hands.

"You have to be the most beautiful lady I have met in my life," he said quietly, 'as well as the most enchanting. Look at the sky. "

"The sky?" She was beginning to feel she was caught up in one of those awful plays that appeared now and again on television with no beginning and no end and utter confusion all the way through.

"What?"

"Wait." He had left his seat and walked round to her door before she could move, helping her out of the car and then slipping his arm round her waist as he turned her head upwards towards the black, velvety sky overhead. The night was icy-cold, with the smell of frost in the clear dry air, and the dark blanket overhead was pierced with a hundred tiny twinkling stars in which the clear orb of the moon sat in silent splendour as it surveyed the world beneath.

"The sky." He had pulled her back against him so his body was the length of hers, his chin resting in the pale silk of her hair and his arms holding her securely against his hard frame. She didn't see the sky. Every part of her was vitally aware of the powerful male body behind her, the smell and feel of him sending a million tiny signals to nerve-endings she had never known she possessed.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked softly.

"Yes." She had begun to tremble, but for the life of her she couldn't control the faint tremors. All she wanted, more than anything else in life, was for him to kiss her. And then he did just that.

"You're cold." He had noticed the shaking she couldn't hide and turned her round to face him, pulling her hard into him as his mouth took hers in a kiss that curled her toes. His mouth was urgent and hungry as they stood there in the shadowed darkness, the crisp clean air and faint smell of winter adding a poignancy to the moment that stayed with her for a long time afterwards.

"Lydia..." His voice was a groan, almost a tortured sound in the still air, but in the next instant she was free as he moved her from him, his breathing harsh and ragged as he stared down into her face.

"This is ridiculous, you know that, madness..."

She couldn't move, couldn't say anything, although she wanted to. All she could do was to stare up into his dark, handsome face and wonder how she was going to get through the rest of her life after she said goodbye to this man.

And it was imperative she said goodbye, and soon. This dark force, this overwhelming attraction that drew her to him like a moth to a flame would destroy _her peace of mind forever if she wasn't careful. He wanted a brief dalliance, a temporary affair at the most, the sort of game he was used to and enjoyed. And she wanted. She stepped back from him so sharply that she almost fell. She wanted nothing. Nothing. She wouldn't let it be any other way. If she wasn't strong now she would regret it the rest of her life.

"Shall we go in?" Her voice was as flat as she could make it, but nevertheless she heard the little tremor in its depths and hoped he didn't.

"In?" He had been staring at her, his eyes hungry on her mouth and his face dark with desire.

"In to the hotel," she said carefully.

"It's cold out here." It was true, the air was cold with a biting quality all of its own, but the chill that was emanating from deep inside her was far more wintry than anything Mother Nature could dredge up. He wanted her for one thing and one thing only. He hadn't even tried to pretend otherwise.

And she felt vulnerable here, in this bleak, beautiful part of Scotland with its majestic beauty and harsh, untamed mountains. He was too seductive, too powerful, too fascinating. "Of course." He instantly slipped back into business mode, his face straightening into its habitual handsome mask that revealed little and his eyes veiled.

"You must be freezing." She was, but the weather had little to do with it.

He tucked her case under one arm, holding his with the same hand, and took her elbow in his other hand, and she felt the contact like an electric shock.



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