Mills & Boon Christmas Delights Collection. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ of the sound of rain beating against the window, I rolled my head a little to look out. Rain streaked down the glass, the droplets racing each other and melding together as more joined them. Looking past them, I watched the trees as they bent with the force of the wind.

      ‘It’s pretty vile out there.’ The deep voice made me jump, mostly because it wasn’t Janey’s. ‘Even Pilot gave me a filthy look when I took him out earlier.’ Michael gave me one of those easy smiles, the one I’d seen him use with his family, but rarely outside that. His hair was damp and pushed back and he wore a semi-fitted black T-shirt with khaki cargo pants. ‘Can I come in? Janey’s sent up some soup and a drink for you.’

      ‘Of course,’ I said, pulling the sheet up almost to my neck.

      Michael waited whilst I settled myself. ‘Comfy?’

      I nodded.

      He frowned, then put the tray down on the dressing table. Leaning over, he grabbed another pillow. ‘Sit up a minute.’ I did so and he squished another pillow behind me. ‘Better?’

      It was. Much. I nodded.

      ‘Right. Here you go.’

      It wasn’t that it didn’t look nice or smell good, I just wasn’t sure I felt like eating anything right now. I lifted my gaze and found Michael watching me.

      ‘Just so you know, if I go back with anything other than empty plates, it’ll be my fault. That’s already been made perfectly clear to me.’ I pulled a face and he grinned. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

      ‘Thank you, Michael. For this and for yesterday.’

      He shook his head and turned to go. I took a spoonful of the soup.

      ‘I’m sorry about the whole boyfriend being married thing, by the way.’

      I half swallowed and half choked on the food as the impact of his statement hit me. At the same time, my eyes took in the fact that Janey’s guest bedding was pure white and the soup was tomato red. Michael was back across the room in two strides, removing the tray so that I could die choking in peace without ruining my host’s bed linen. He handed me the glass of water and I managed to find a gap in the coughing to shove some down my throat which thankfully began calming matters.

      ‘OK?’ he asked, bending to replace the tray in front of me, but staying poised to remove it should I try a repeat performance.

      OK wasn’t exactly the best description of how I was feeling so I didn’t reply.

      He put the tray down anyway, taking my silence as acceptance. I kept my eyes away from his and my mind focused on what had possessed his sister to tell him when she’d promised not to.

      ‘Janey didn’t mean to tell me.’

      I remained silent, concentrating on spoonfuls of soup, my mind darting about, trying to get my groggy brain to find a way to leave without upsetting Janey. Or more likely finding a convenient drainpipe to shimmy down which was probably the only chance I had at leaving right now if my friend had anything to do with it. When I finished, Michael took the tray away and put it on the side. But he didn’t leave. For a moment, neither of us said anything.

      ‘Don’t be angry at Janey for telling me.’

      I shook my head. ‘I’m not.’ I knew telling him intentionally wouldn’t have entered her mind once she’d promised me not to.

      ‘I know you and I haven’t always seen eye to eye about your boyfriend, but if you were mine…I mean…’ He fiddled with the spoon in the soup bowl a moment. ‘Well, although I agreed that Janey looking after you was the best thing, I thought that maybe we ought to let your boyfriend know. You know in case he finally wanted to step up and do something for you.’ I gave him a wary look under my lashes. ‘Janey was busy mixing up paracetamol or whatever magic potion it was and was obviously distracted…’

      Turning my head towards the window, I focused on the rain. ‘What did she say?’

      Michael hesitated. ‘Something about his wife probably not being too keen on that idea.’

      I closed my eyes and waited for him to leave.

      His hand on mine made me start. My eyes flew open to find his intense gaze on me. Quickly, I looked down, focusing on the long, sturdy fingers resting on top of mine.

      ‘I know that we started out a bit rocky and that I’m really just a client, so I know it shouldn’t matter…It’s just that I’d sort of thought we were becoming friends.’

      I flicked my glance up to meet his for a moment.

      ‘Admittedly friends that don’t always agree but that’s OK too.’ He gave that twitch of a smile I’d seen the first day when I’d called him out for being an arse. ‘But I’d hoped we’d got to a point where you could at least have told me you’d split up with your boyfriend. I would have made an effort to try and say the right thing. No guarantee I would have said it but I would have tried.’

      ‘I couldn’t,’ I said, softly.

      His brow creased. ‘Am I really that bad?’

      I shook my head and automatically moved my hand. He caught it and held it.

      ‘What then?’ his voice was soft, and when I looked up his face was creased with concern, the green eyes that entranced me held my gaze, demanding an answer.

      ‘Because I thought we…might be able to be friends too. But I knew that once you knew this about me…you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.’ I let my gaze drop. ‘Even though you are the only client who has driven me to distraction, made me lose my temper, and self-control, for some reason, I didn’t want you thinking badly of me.’

      ‘And why would I be thinking badly of you?’

      ‘You know why.’

      ‘Because he was married?’

      I closed my eyes and turned my head, bile rising again just at the thought of it all.

      ‘A fact you had no idea of.’

      I shook my head.

      ‘So in what complicated little scenario would that make me think the worst of you?’

      Calum’s words bounced off the walls of my mind.

      ‘He told me that I must have had some inkling, some idea that everything wasn’t…as it should be.’

      ‘Did you?’ Michael’s tone wasn’t accusatory.

      ‘No.’ Finally I looked at him. ‘I stupidly just swallowed every lie he told me.’

      Michael studied me for a moment, before his fingers reached out to tuck a wayward piece of hair back behind my ear.

      ‘Katie, just to be clear, I do not think badly of you. Him? Well, let’s just say I was right when I said you deserved better.’

      ‘I just felt the whole thing might be a little close to home for you, and I wouldn’t СКАЧАТЬ