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

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СКАЧАТЬ decide what’s best for me, if you don’t mind,’ Ellie told him shortly. ‘And while I can still be of any help in preventing Sarah making a terrible mistake I intend staying very much in Gareth’s face!’ she announced firmly—in complete contradiction of what she had decided minutes ago!

      But the only way she could continue to see Patrick was to remain a thorn in Gareth’s side.

      And she very much wanted to continue seeing Patrick…

      Chapter Seven

      ‘I’M SORRY, how did you say Toby was getting home?’ Ellie yawned tiredly as Patrick drove her home a couple of hours later.

      He shrugged dismissively. ‘Someone he met at the party is driving him back later, I believe.’

      Ellie would take a bet on it being that pretty darkhaired girl who had looked at him so interestedly as they stood at the buffet table; she certainly hadn’t seen much of her brother during the rest of the evening.

      Oh, well, good luck to him, Ellie thought slightly enviously. She had spent the whole evening with Patrick glued to her side—but for completely the wrong reason!

      ‘I felt so sorry for George and Mary this evening.’ She sighed heavily. The older couple’s unhappiness at their daughter’s choice of future husband had been perfectly obvious to Ellie as they’d looked at Sarah so wistfully. She frowned. ‘Does Sarah really have no idea how they feel about Gareth?’

      ‘George has voiced his—reservations concerning the speed of the engagement.’ Patrick grimaced. ‘Anything else is sure to just make her all the more determined to have her own way.’

      Ellie turned to smile at him in the semi-darkness of the illuminated streets they were driving through. ‘Runs in the family, does it?’ she teased.

      He gave a slight smile. ‘Something like that.’ She could believe it. They were certainly an attractive family, but stubbornness seemed to be one of their less endearing characteristics.

      ‘Gareth is going to cling like a leech,’ Ellie warned heavily.

      Patrick’s mouth tightened. ‘I agree. He’s a parasite.’

      How embarrassing it was for her that she had been the previous woman taken in by Gareth’s charm! In fact, she would rather not talk about Gareth at all.

      ‘So what’s the next move?’ she prompted briskly.

      ‘Dinner on Tuesday, I thought,’ Patrick came back lightly.

      Ellie turned to him frowningly. ‘What’s happening on Tuesday evening?’

      ‘I just said—dinner,’ he dismissed.

      ‘Yes, but—what’s it for?’

      He shot her a sideways glance. ‘So we don’t starve?’

      ‘Yes, but—’

      ‘You’re repeating yourself again, Ellie,’ he mused teasingly. ‘I’m inviting you out to dinner on Tuesday evening,’ he explained lightly.

      Ellie’s frown deepened. ‘But—’

      ‘Ellie, will you or will you not have dinner with me on Tuesday evening?’ Patrick cut in patiently.

      ‘Well, of course. I’ve already told you I’ll do everything I can to help—’

      ‘This is dinner with me, Ellie.’ He parked the car in the driveway and turned in his seat to look at her. ‘No one else. Well…I suppose there will be other people in the restaurant. But they will have nothing to do with us. Have I made myself clear now?’

      If she understood this correctly, Patrick had just invited her out on a date!

      He gave a smile at her perplexed expression. ‘I believe it’s usual to invite your escort in for coffee at the end of the evening.’

      Ellie was still so dazed by his invitation out to dinner on Tuesday that she did ask him in, getting out of the car to unlock the front door of the house and lead the way in to the kitchen.

      ‘Leave that for a minute,’ Patrick murmured softly, and he took the coffee pot out of her hand, turning her to face him. ‘I want to see the bruises on your arms,’ he told her grimly as he removed the wrap from her shoulders.

      She felt the colour warm her cheeks as he turned the sleeves back on her dress. There was a huge thumb-print-size bruise on the front of each arm, one already turning a sickly yellow, the new one a blue-black. Ellie stood still as Patrick walked around to look at the back of her arm, hearing the angry hiss that followed.

      ‘I should have hit him while I had the chance,’ Patrick snapped angrily. ‘Damn it—I’ve a good mind to go back to the party right now and hit him anyway!’ he bit out harshly.

      Ellie shook her head as she pulled the sleeves back down over her arms. ‘He really isn’t important.’

      ‘No, he isn’t,’ Patrick agreed abruptly as he moved to stand beside her, his eyes gleaming metallic grey. ‘But I have no intention of just standing by while he hurts you.’

      She gave a self-derisive laugh. ‘You’re a little late in the day to prevent him doing that!’

      Patrick stepped back, watching her with hooded eyes as she prepared the coffee. ‘Did you love him very much?’

      ‘Not at all,’ she answered with complete honesty. ‘Oh, I may have thought I did for a while. But I was just—flattered by his attention, I suppose. Believe it or not, he can be very charming when he wants to be.’ Besides, she already knew that the way Patrick made her feel, just by being in the same room as her, was far deeper than anything she might have thought she felt for Gareth!

      ‘I’m sure he can,’ Patrick dismissed scathingly.

      ‘No—really.’ She gave a self-conscious laugh.

      It was strangely intimate in the quiet of the kitchen—the muted light under the kitchen cupboards the only illumination, the only sound the drip, drip of the coffee percolator.

      Patrick’s eyes were mesmerizing now as he looked down at her, obliquely black, ringed with silver. ‘Dinner on Tuesday?’ he prompted huskily.

      ‘Er—Well—Yes,’ she agreed awkwardly, still unsure as to the reason for his invitation. ‘Although—’

      ‘Just a yes will do,’ Patrick assured her mockingly, his arms moving lightly about her waist. ‘I would like to see you relaxed and enjoying yourself for a change,’ he added frowningly.

      If he thought she was going to be relaxed in his company then he was mistaken! Although she would enjoy spending the evening with him. If she knew the reason for it…

      But he was standing so close now she couldn’t even think straight, let alone try to rationalise his dinner invitation. Her heart was beating erratically, her breathing shallow as she looked up into the handsome ruggedness of his face.

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ