The Tycoon's Delicious Distraction Page 11

  Usually when something was troubling him Hal’s habit was to take some exercise—either to jog, run or take a bike-ride—so that he could think what to do. Because all of those outlets were denied him right now the sensation that the walls of his surroundings were pressing in on him added to the already considerable stress he was under. He longed to get out—to fill his lungs with some fresh air and breathe freely again.

  Kit was standing by the worktop waiting for the kettle to boil when he entered. Her beautiful red hair had been curtailed into two neat plaits, and dressed in jeans and a tunic-style white shirt—wearing no make-up as far as he could tell—she looked just like a schoolgirl. Despite his irritability, Hal’s heart missed a beat. He might be mad at her for running out on him last night, but it didn’t make him want her any less. The blood in his veins was already simmering at the mere sight of her, and the thought that he might never again have her in his bed soured his already dark mood even more.

  ‘Morning,’ he muttered, deliberately averting his gaze and wheeling himself across to the table.

  ‘I was just about to bring you in some coffee and toast and help you to get dressed.’ She stopped speaking and sighed, and Hal couldn’t resist lifting his head to check out her expression. ‘But I see you’ve managed it without me,’ she finished.

  ‘I’m not entirely helpless,’ he returned gruffly. To his astonishment, her lips curved in an amused smile—which wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. ‘What’s so funny?’ he demanded, privately furious that she might be mocking him.

  The smile vanished. ‘You’ve put your sweater on back to front.’

  Glancing downwards, Hal saw that she was right. The grey cashmere V-neck was indeed back to front. Hardly welcoming the fact being pointed out to him, he muttered a curse and then impatiently pulled it up over his head. Bare-chested, it didn’t help to maintain his dignity when he got into a tussle with one of the sleeves in an attempt to turn the sweater the right way round so he that could put it back on again.

  Kit instantly reacted. ‘Let me help you.’

  Presenting herself in front of him, she carefully relieved Hal of the cashmere, sorted it out so he could put it back on, and gently pulled the jumper down over his head. By the time she’d completed the task, tugging it gently but firmly down to his hard lean waist as though he were a child, his heart was thudding fit to burst. It didn’t help matters that he found it almost unbearable to be so close to her and not be able to spontaneously reach out, pull her down onto his lap and embrace her.

  ‘For God’s sake, stop fussing, woman! How old do you think I am? Three? If you want something useful to do you can go and see to my coffee and toast.’

  ‘I intend to do just that,’ she answered primly, her hands crossed over her chest. ‘But a simple thank you for helping you out wouldn’t go amiss. My mother may not have been an educated woman, or have been able to afford for me to stay on at school, but the one thing she absolutely insisted on when she raised me was my having good manners. I think manners can tell you a lot about a person.’

  The revealing comment stopped Hal from coming back at her with a cutting or flippant rejoinder. He frowned. ‘Does it bother you that you had to leave school early and didn’t get a better education?’

  At first she turned away from him. But she turned back again almost immediately, her hands on her hips and her cheeks flushed. ‘It depends what you mean by “a better education”. I may not have been to college or university, or studied for a profession, but I’m not stupid. I’ve learned a lot on my way to becoming a fully-fledged adult—including the wisdom to know what’s best for me and the importance of making good decisions. I’ve learned that you suffer if you don’t. There are a lot of important facts about life that even a privileged or expensive education can’t buy, you know.’

  ‘Are you perhaps suggesting that my own education was privileged and expensive?’

  The rosy tint on Kit’s alabaster cheeks grew even pinker. ‘It’s pretty well documented that it was. Are you saying that’s not true?’

  ‘It’s true. I did indeed have a privileged and expensive education. I also grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth. But does that make me a bad person? A person you wouldn’t think it worthwhile getting to know? I may have had most of the material advantages that a lot of people aspire to having, but that doesn’t protect a person from experiencing the challenges we all have to face as humans and nor should it.’

  To his surprise Hal’s heart was racing as he came to the end of his little speech, and he realised just how much resentment and hurt he’d harboured over the years at being perceived as ‘having it all’—meaning he couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to go without anything and therefore his opinion shouldn’t count. That just wasn’t true. He did know what it was like to go without. The most fundamental thing a human being needed in life was to know that he was loved, Hal believed. But aside from the love of his sister Sam that was the commodity that he had been bereft of most of all.

  ‘You said—you said that you’d tell me more about your mother leaving. Was that one of the challenges you meant?’

  It was extraordinary how Kit seemed to have the unerring ability to get straight to the heart of something, he thought. Rubbing his hand round his jaw, Hal shook his head. ‘I don’t want to talk about that. Maybe if you’d consented to spending the night with me I might have told you. But all I want right now is my breakfast, and after that I just want to get out of here for a while.’

  ‘I’m sorry that you no longer want to tell me about your past...about your mother I mean. But I understand why you don’t. You think that I let you down by not agreeing to stay with you last night. Maybe you even think it was easy for me to make the decision. I assure you it wasn’t. I was only trying to do what was best for both of us. Anyway, you said you wanted to get out. Any idea where you want to go?’

  Not missing the fact that there was a telling break in her voice—as if she was striving to put on a brave face and show she didn’t care that he’d refused to tell her about his mother’s desertion—Hal lifted his shoulders in a shrug even as his heart ached to tell her everything.

  ‘I don’t care. Anywhere that’s not here would be a good start. If I was mobile I’d go for a run, or even a walk. I can’t do that so I’ll leave it up to you to come up with an idea of what to do. I just hate being cooped up like this.’

  Flipping one of her burnished copper plaits over her shoulder, Kit surprised him with a smile. The sight was like a welcome glimpse of the sun coming out on a day that was cloudy and grey, and it didn’t fail to warm Hal’s heart.

  ‘Well, there’s no need to stay here feeling like you’re a prisoner in your own home,’ she announced. ‘We should get out and get some fresh air. Leave it to me. I’ll mull over where we can go while I get you your breakfast.’

  * * *

  Kit’s resolution to distance herself emotionally and physically from Hal was severely tested that morning. She’d been able to tell the instant he’d come into the kitchen that he hadn’t had much sleep. And it wasn’t just because he hadn’t had a shave. His lean, carved features looked almost haggard, and she couldn’t help feeling guilty that her decision not to spend the rest of the night with him was the cause. She hadn’t had a lot of sleep herself for the same reason.

  And when he’d struggled to put his sweater back on, after inadvertently donning it back to front, the sight of his broad tanned shoulders and heavenly chest had made her insides flip at the memory of how incredible it had felt to make love with him. Without a doubt she knew that the act of passion they’d shared had been not just irresistible but necessary too.

  Not that Kit had needed reminding. Her body still ached and tingled from Hal’s ardent attentions and she longed to be able to share with him how he’d made her feel. She’d never felt particularly attractive or sensual
, but he had helped her feel both of those things last night. Now she was torn between following her heart and her finely honed instinct for self-preservation, and therein lay the dilemma.

  Not wanting to dwell on her own inner turmoil above seeing to Hal’s desire to get out of the apartment for a while, she had an idea. As he finished his breakfast at the table she said brightly, ‘I’ve thought of where we can go.’

  ‘Have you?’

  Throwing down his napkin with a weary air, he didn’t sound remotely interested or impressed, and she could tell that a bit of downheartedness and despair had crept in. It made her all the more determined to lift his spirits and proceed with the plan she’d come up with.

  ‘Yes, I have. I just want to clear away the breakfast things and then we can go. I think we’re going to need our jackets and scarves because it looks quite cold and blustery out there this morning.’ She glanced out of the window at the overcast skies and at the windblown leaves that were occasionally flying past, plastering themselves to the panes of glass. ‘Would you like to read the newspaper while I stack the dishwasher? I found it on the mat this morning.’

  ‘I may as well.’

  Clearly resigned, Hal didn’t let his returning glance linger for too long, Kit noticed—as if he’d resolved not to be quite so friendly. The mere thought cut her to the quick. The sooner they were out in the open the better. It would give them both a chance to clear their heads and it would be good to blow the cobwebs away—especially as neither of them had had much sleep last night.

  The household tasks completed, Kit moved across the kitchen to where Hal still sat perusing the newspaper. Without asking his permission, she plucked it out of his hands.

  ‘Hey! What do you think you’re doing?’ His expression was furious.

  ‘You said you wanted to go out, remember? You can read the newspaper when we get back.’

  Deftly folding the broadsheet, she dropped it down onto the table. Then, taking a firm hold of the wheelchair’s handles, she turned it forthrightly towards the door.

  Still seething, Hal remarked sardonically, ‘I was in the middle of reading an interesting article about the number of people losing their jobs...particularly women. Apparently it’s a real problem.’

  ‘Is it really? I don’t expect it will be a problem for very long. Not with women’s ingenuity and resourcefulness at finding replacement situations. We’re very good at rising to a challenge and getting ourselves out of a tough spot...it comes from centuries of having to take care of not so ingenious and resourceful men!’

  ‘You should be a comedian. Anyone ever tell you that?’

  Helplessly, Kit’s lips twitched in amusement. ‘No. They haven’t. But I’ll bear it in mind should I ever find myself without a job. I can turn my hand to most things if I have to.’

  ‘Hmm...’

  His shoulders had stiffened. It definitely irked him whenever she got the better of him, she noticed.

  ‘Presumably we’re travelling to our destination by car?’ he asked, swiftly changing the subject.

  ‘No, we’re not. I’m going to push you in your chair.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ He twisted round with a belligerent glare that might have intimidated her if she hadn’t known better. ‘If we’re not going in the car then I’ll take my crutches and walk,’ he declared.

  ‘Not today you won’t, sunshine.’

  They were travelling down the spacious hallway with its gleaming parquet flooring, and when she reached the coatstand at the end Kit reached up for Hal’s chocolate-coloured suede jacket and briskly handed it to him.

  ‘I want you to get out into the fresh air, but we’re going too far for you to use crutches. By the way, have you got a scarf? I don’t want you getting cold.’

  ‘I’m warning you, Katherine with a K, if you persist in treating me like some dull-witted imbecile then I’ll call a cab to take me wherever I want to go and I won’t let you know when I’ll be back. Then you’ll be forced to stay here on your own and soberly contemplate at what point you pushed me too far!’

  Kit had never seen a man look so adorable when he was angry, but Hal Treverne cornered the market in sheer adorability in her opinion—whatever his mood. However, right then she didn’t think he would appreciate her telling him so. The reason he was angry, she guessed, was because he couldn’t get around with the effortless ease he was accustomed to and it made him feel vulnerable.

  She knew how frightening that was for anyone who strove to be in sole command of his destiny—especially when events didn’t always pan out as he wanted them to. Kit found it easy to empathise because she’d often felt that same sense of frightening vulnerability too. Especially when she’d lived at home with her mother and daily anticipated the rollercoaster existence they were living spinning even further out of control...

  ‘I don’t want to make you mad at me,’ she said.

  Before she thought about the wisdom of her action she brought her hand down on the top of his head and lightly ruffled his hair. Just as she was about to draw away, Hal caught her by the wrist. Almost immediately his hold tightened.

  ‘Then don’t imagine that you’re the one in charge—because you’re not.’

  Even as he warned her Kit saw that his golden eyes were no longer glinting with fury but with something else far more disturbing. Meeting his gaze, she felt as if she’d been steeped in a vat of warm honey.

  ‘One kiss,’ he murmured, the timbre of his voice lowering huskily. ‘One kiss and I’ll let you take me wherever you want to—even in this dratted wheelchair.’

  She made a half-hearted attempt at freeing her wrist, but her arm had slackened weakly the moment Hal had taken it prisoner.

  ‘I told you—I can’t do that any more.’ Even to her own ears her answer sounded less than convincing.

  His dark brows beetled in a mocking frown. ‘In my dictionary there’s no such word as “can’t”, sweetheart.’

  ‘I think you’ll find that there is. Maybe not in yours, but in most dictionaries the term is described as a contraction. Perhaps you need to update your volume?’

  Even as she came back with the witty rejoinder Kit’s heart was hammering, because she knew that this was one situation where she wouldn’t get the better of him. Not this time.

  ‘You’re too clever for your own good, Kit Blessington. Now, shut up and let me kiss you.’

  Pulling her down to him, he crushed her lips beneath the slightly rough, melting warmth of his own. With a surrendering gasp she allowed her mouth to be thoroughly captured, offering not the slightest resistance as his tongue swept its satin interior and his hands cupped her face. The taste and feel of him was like being given the keys to Nirvana. The pleasure he gave her was almost indescribable.

  How was she supposed to keep to her resolve not to be intimate with him again? Hal Treverne was in her blood, like a raging fever that wouldn’t be cooled, and Kit knew she was fast becoming addicted to him. More than that, she realised, she was deeply in love with him. The thought wrenched a partly shocked, partly despairing groan from her. Despite her heartfelt vow not to, it seemed she was intent on repeating her mother’s reckless folly all over again.

  ‘We should—we should get going,’ she murmured.

  With her legs decidedly unsteady, she stepped abruptly away from Hal and reached up to the hook on the coatstand for her warm sheepskin-lined jacket. Draping a purple scarf around her neck and loosely knotting it, she saw that Hal was fastening his suede jacket with a somewhat bemused expression on his face.

  ‘That kiss was like having a warming dram of whisky before we set out on our expedition into the cold.’ He grinned. ‘I can’t pretend I won’t be tempted to have another one on our return. Lead the way, Captain.’

  With a charming, mocking salute, he defied her not to give him an argument.
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br />   CHAPTER TEN

  THE WIND WAS particularly raw and unforgiving that day. As Kit briskly pushed Hal’s wheelchair along the smooth concreted paths in the park she knew that being forced to be static wasn’t helping him maintain his body’s warmth. He would have hated it, but she wished she’d brought a rug to tuck round him. She’d be willing to endure his angry glares if it made him feel more comfortable.

  As if reading her mind, Hal piped up, ‘It’s warmer than this climbing a glacier! I can’t say I’m exactly bowled over by this expedition, Kit.’

  ‘It’s not an expedition. It’s meant to be a pleasurable stroll. I know it’s cold, but at least we’re out in the fresh air. There’s a charming little café at the other side of the park and we’ll head over there soon. But first I think we should take a little exercise, don’t you?’

  His broad shoulders tensed as he turned round to observe her. His chiselled profile was far from amused.

  ‘That’s not very funny and I don’t appreciate the joke.’

  ‘I’m not mocking you, Hal.’ Swallowing hard, Kit frowned in apology. ‘I just want you to know that even though you can’t get around like you normally do right now you can still have fun.’

  ‘This is your idea of fun?’

  ‘Anything can be fun if you have the right attitude. How about this, for instance? Make sure you’re holding on.’

  Taking a deep breath, she firmed her gloved hands round the wheelchair’s handles and started to run at full pelt down the path. Fortunately the park was sparsely populated that morning, the path was wide, and the only person they passed was an elderly man walking his terrier. As the trees, lake and the benches on the path flew by she couldn’t help laughing out loud. Inside, she was suddenly filled with the kind of joy she very rarely if ever felt. The discovery that it was immensely liberating going against the conformity of what people expected made her want to do it more often.