For Christmas, Forever: The Yuletide Engagement / The Doctor's Christmas Bride / Snowbound Reunion. Barbara McMahon

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СКАЧАТЬ heard him use just now. But, nevertheless, she doubted Gareth would just meekly stand there and take whatever Patrick had to say to him.

      ‘Come on, sis,’ Toby encouraged lightly. ‘Let’s go through to the other room and get some food.’

      The last thing Ellie felt like doing was eating! How could she even think about food when Patrick and Gareth might even now be at each other’s throats?

      She hung back. ‘I just want to go home, Toby.’ She sighed. ‘In fact, after tonight I need to rethink my whole life,’ she added frowningly.

      After tonight she wasn’t even sure she could go on working in the same building with Gareth, let alone anything else. If Gareth could be this threatening in the midst of his future in-laws, what possible chance did she stand of avoiding his wrath at the office?

      She had worked for Delacorte, Delacorte and Delacorte since leaving school at eighteen, had been steadily promoted through the firm, until she’d become George’s personal secretary four years ago. It was a job she greatly enjoyed. At least, she had. The last couple of months, with the chance of bumping into Gareth around every corner, hadn’t been quite so much fun. And after this evening it promised to get worse!

      Toby frowned. ‘I don’t think you need to do anything drastic just yet, Ellie,’ he cautioned. ‘Give Patrick a bit more time to resolve the situation, hmm?’

      She gave a wry smile. ‘You have great confidence in your employer!’

      Her brother gave a rueful shrug. ‘I’ve never seen Patrick at the losing end of a fight yet.’

      No, she could believe that; Patrick had the air of a man completely confident in his own abilities. But this situation was too personal, too close to home, to be dealt with like the business deals he was usually involved with.

      ‘Hello, Ellie,’ Sarah greeted her brightly, looking exceptionally beautiful in the green dress she had bought earlier that afternoon. ‘You don’t happen to have seen my fiancé about anywhere, do you?’ she added ruefully.

      Ellie felt the colour drain from her cheeks. ‘Er—’

      ‘He was outside talking to Patrick when I last saw him.’ Toby was the one to answer. ‘I’m Ellie’s brother Toby, by the way,’ he added lightly, holding out his hand in friendly greeting.

      ‘Sarah Delacorte.’ She gave Toby a considering look as she shook his hand. ‘Yes, I can see the likeness.’ She smiled warmly. ‘You work with Patrick, don’t you?’

      ‘For him, actually,’ Toby corrected dryly.

      Sarah’s smile widened. ‘Of course. Well, it’s very nice to meet you,’ she added sincerely. ‘I hope you’ll both excuse me while I go and find Gareth?’

      Ellie looked up impatiently at Toby once they were alone. ‘Shouldn’t you go and warn Patrick?’

      Her brother shrugged unconcernedly. ‘One thing I’ve learnt from working for Patrick—he’s quite capable of taking care of himself. Now, let’s go and get some food; I’m starving!’ With his hand under her elbow he guided her through to the dining room.

      Toby had learnt something else from working for Patrick, Ellie realized: how to take charge of a situation with the same arrogance!

      Somewhere along the way, she realised dazedly as she put food on her plate without even noticing what she had chosen, her little brother had grown up…

      She had spent so long thinking of him as her younger brother, that she just hadn’t noticed him grow into a man almost as confident as the one he worked for.

      He was a handsome man too, Ellie had to acknowledge as a girl of about twenty who stood helping herself to the buffet—probably yet another relative of Patrick’s—gave him more than a cursory glance from beneath lowered dark lashes.

      At twenty-six and over six feet tall, with short dark hair, laughing blue eyes, a pleasantly handsome face and a healthily fit body from his visits to the gym several times a week, her brother wasn’t the boy she had always thought him; he was a man who was obviously attractive to women.

      When had that happened? She—

      ‘You aren’t eating, Ellie.’

      She turned sharply to find Patrick standing at her side, and quickly checked his face for signs of a fight. Thankfully she didn’t find any.

      ‘How was I supposed to eat when for all I knew you might have been lying unconscious in the hallway?’ she came back, her sharpness due to her worry concerning his welfare.

      Like a mother when her child came back to her unharmed after doing something she considered dangerous? Or like a woman worried about the man she loved…?

      Patrick’s reply didn’t exactly calm her impatient anger. ‘Not very likely,’ he drawled confidently.

      Ellie’s eyes sparkled angrily. ‘That’s okay for you to say, but—’

      ‘Ellie!’ Toby cut in laughingly. ‘I told you that Patrick is more than capable of taking care of himself.’

      She glared at them both—Toby laughing, Patrick amused, one dark brow raised mockingly. ‘Men!’ she finally muttered frustratedly, turning away to pile more food haphazardly onto her plate.

      ‘Are you sure you’re going to eat all that?’ Patrick murmured close beside her. ‘Maybe we should just share the plate,’ he added teasingly.

      Ellie turned to find that she and Patrick were alone. Toby had wandered off, was now standing across the dining room chatting to the dark-haired girl who had given him such an admiring look a few minutes ago. He hadn’t wasted much time!

      She looked up at Patrick, some of her anger abating in the face of his teasing look. ‘I had visions of a brawl in the hallway,’ she admitted ruefully.

      He shrugged. ‘I very rarely resort to violence, Ellie. Although in Davies’s case,’ he added hardly, his expression becoming grim, ‘I could be willing to make an exception. As it is, I’ve made it very clear what I will do to him if he so much as comes near you again, let alone touches you.’

      Ellie raised dark brows. ‘Oh?’

      Patrick nodded abruptly. ‘I think we need to discuss your continued involvement in all this.’

      Ellie felt her heart stop for a moment. What did he mean? Was he suggesting that it was no longer necessary for her to be involved?

      She might have decided minutes ago that she needed to rethink her life, to perhaps consider giving up her position at Delacorte, Delacorte and Delacorte as a way of avoiding accidentally bumping into Gareth any more. But she hadn’t included not seeing Patrick any more in that rethinking…The very thought of that filled her with desolation.

      A week ago Patrick had just been her brother Toby’s boss—a man she had once shared an embarrassing experience with—but he was now so much more than that. How much more she still didn’t want to admit to herself. She just knew she couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing Patrick again!

      Her mouth tightened. ‘You can manage without me СКАЧАТЬ