Flirting With Danger. Kate Walker

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t like to wear make-up all the time. Having to—’ She caught herself up sharply, not wanting to give too much away. ‘I prefer to let my skin breathe,’ she corrected hastily.

      ‘My sister feels exactly the same way.’

      It was a bland reply, easily spoken, but she knew that she hadn’t succeeded in distracting him completely from the way she had covered up what she had been about to say. The aquamarine eyes had narrowed sharply, and she could sense a watchful awareness about the powerful body before her that made her stomach twist in painful apprehension.

      Her father never seemed to dominate the room in quite the same way, she reflected nervously. He never made her feel that the elegant blue and grey room was somehow too small to contain him—or perhaps that was just a reflection of her own inner feelings, the tension that now always seemed to torment her when she was in the presence of any man she didn’t know.

      ‘That coffee must be ready by now. I’ll go and get it.’

      ‘Mrs Bentley will bring it through.’

      ‘No.’ She shook her head determinedly. ‘I’ll go and fetch it. You rely too much on your housekeeper since I left home, Dad. It’s well after six, and she should have the rest of the evening off.’

      She prayed that the words wouldn’t sound like the excuse they were as she hastily made her way from the room, grateful for the chance to escape from Evan Lindsay, whose presence in her father’s house had started to become distinctly unnerving, his watchful scrutiny disturbingly oppressive.

      In the kitchen, her father’s efficient housekeeper had everything ready, but all the same, after she had dismissed the older woman, Catherine lingered needlessly—rearranging the layout of the cups and saucers on the tray, adding a plate of biscuits, some hot milk as well as the cream, and finally coming to a halt, staring sightlessly at the bright floral blind that concealed the window as she had to face the fact that she was trying to avoid going back to join her father and his companion.

      Was her nervousness just a natural response to events? she couldn’t help wondering. Was it just the sort of fear that anyone else might experience if they had been subjected to the sort of pressures, the harassment that she had endured, or was it something more? Was it something more personal, more directly involved with Evan Lindsay himself?

      She had acknowledged that shivering sense of reaction when she’d looked at him, the intuitive recognition of a streak of something dangerous in him that had lifted the tiny hairs on the back of her neck in the instinctive reaction of a wary cat faced with a hostile intruder into its territory, but could she trust that? Did that sense of recognition come from her own inner turmoil or some other, more primitive response to his own individual aura?

      ‘Can I carry something through for you?’

      The voice sounded suddenly behind her, making her start violently and drop the spoon she had been holding, letting it fall from nerveless fingers to land on the tray with a clatter that sounded appallingly loud in the quiet of the early evening. Reacting purely spontaneously, she swung round sharply, blue eyes blazing furiously.

      ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, sneaking up on me like that? How dare you invade my privacy in this way? I—’

      ‘Hey!’

      Evan’s hands shot out, catching her flailing arms in a powerful grip, stilling their wild gesticulations.

      ‘Calm down, lady! There’s no need for this.’

      ‘No need!’

      If he hadn’t touched her then perhaps she might have been able to rein in her temper, get a grip on her self-control, but with the pressure of those strong fingers on her skin, sending electrical impulses shooting through every nerve, it seemed as if something had exploded inside her head, threatening to blow off the top of her skull.

      Her vision hazed and she didn’t see Evan Lindsay as a man but as the personification of the male force—big and dark and ominously threatening.

      ‘No need! You creep in here—’

      ‘I said, calm down!’

      He actually shook her—not hard, but firmly enough to drive the message home, sweeping the panic from her mind and replacing it with a calmer, more logical way of thinking.

      ‘You were a long time getting the coffee, and your father seemed concerned so I came to see if you needed any help. I wasn’t creeping around anywhere!’ he added more emphatically. ‘It isn’t my fault if you were so lost in a dream world that you didn’t hear me come into the room.’

      If she needed bringing back down to reality, then the look in those cold, sea-coloured eyes was enough to do just that. It was like having a bucketful of icy water thrown straight into her face, and it shocked her out of her panic without a second’s hesitation, leaving her gasping in reaction.

      ‘I—I’m sorry,’ she said stiffly. ‘I was—thinking of something else.’

      ‘Obviously,’ was the sardonic response. ‘And something none too pleasant from the looks of things. Just what—?’

      But Catherine had remembered exactly what she had been thinking in the moment that he had come up behind her, and with that half-formed fear of him still shadowing her mind she wasn’t prepared to reveal any of her innermost feelings to him.

      ‘My thoughts are my own, Mr Lindsay,’ she returned tartly. ‘I’ll thank you not to poke your nose in where it’s not wanted.’

      ‘Fine.’ The single syllable was cold and curt, like the smile that he switched on and off as briefly as a flashing neon sign.

      It was only when he let go of her hands that she realised he had still held them, the jarring abruptness of the movement as her arms fell to her sides aggravating her already disturbed state of mind. But she was totally unprepared for the devastating and bewildering sense of loss that ripped through her as cold air reached the spot where the warm strength of his hands had been only seconds before, so that it was all she could do to keep herself from crying out in distress.

      ‘Would you like some help with the tray, or would that be an invasion of your precious privacy too?’

      ‘What? Oh, no-’

      Catherine struggled to regain some composure, feeling as if the tattered shreds of her self-control were fluttering wildly round her like the remains of some torn and ragged garment.

      ‘Thanks—that would be kind…’

      Her voice faded as Evan moved forward, coming into the full glare of the fluorescent light for the first time, his features being thrown into harsh relief as if someone had directed a spotlight full on to his face.

      He was definitely not a pretty man, or even a handsome one, she reflected privately. That strongly carved bone-structure was too harsh, too forceful to be described in any such way. He was a very tough-looking man—a man whose face seemed to be carved out of hard, unpolished wood, all knots and angles and…

      ‘What happened to your nose?’ The question escaped before she had time to consider whether it was wise to show an interest in such a personal matter.

      ‘My СКАЧАТЬ