CHASING TROUBLE

Even if Caroline had succeeded in getting to him, in breaching his guard, in a way he couldn’t remember any other woman ever doing before… His mouth thinned. “You are right, it was stupid,” he acknowledged harshly. “Let’s just forg-” He broke off as his phone began to vibrate against his hip.” Excuse me.”

He took the phone out to take the call-no doubt a telephoned answer to one of the e-mails he had just sent.

Caroline didn’t know which of them she was most angry with. Herself for having responded to Nicholas in the way she had. Or Nicholas for the way he had so readily agreed their behavior had been stupid.

The latter, probably…

“Tell her I’ll call her when I have the time,” Nicholas said decisively into his mobile, even as he kept his coldly dark gaze fixed steadily on Caroline. “I don’t give a damn what she wants, Adam; you can tell her I’ll call her when I’m good and ready!”

Her? Don’t give a damn what she wants? I’ll call her when I’m good and ready… Nicholas couldn’t have told Caroline any more clearly that there was already a woman in his life. No doubt a woman who also lived in New York. A woman who had believed she could trust Nicholas to be apart from her for a few days without the fear that he would end up with another woman in his arms. Another woman who had allowed Nicholas to kiss and touch her in a way she had never been kissed and touched before!

“What did I do wrong now?”

Caroline had been so full of self-condemnation for her own gullibility that she hadn’t even realized that Nicholas had ended his call and was now studying her from between narrowed lids.

“Who said you had done anything wrong?”She glared at him.

He scowled.” Your disgusted expression said it for you.”

Caroline scowled at him.” I can’t imagine what makes you think that.”

“Male intuition?”

“Men don’t have intuition!” she flashed back.

“Ah.” He grimaced. “You are one of those.”

Her eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”

Nicholas shrugged. “A man-hater.”

Caroline felt heat in her cheeks at the taunt. “I don’t hate men.”

“Just me, hmm?” he said knowingly.

Caroline only wished that she did hate this man. But the truth was just being in the same room with Nicholas disturbed her more than any other man ever had. As for being kissed by him, touched by him…!

“Not at all, Nicholas,” she denied coolly.

“But I had no sooner walked in here and found you using my laptop than you began kissing me-”

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she found him watching her, with one of those boyish grins on his face. She forced herself to stay focused, “-Please don’t do it again,” she concluded.

“Don’t do what?”

Caroline looked away, “Kiss me…Don’t kiss me again, Nicholas. It’s inappropriate and it shouldn’t have happened,”

He shrugged, “You share the blame as much as I do, Caroline. You kissed me back, remember?”

“Stop teasing me, Nicholas,”

“Who says I’m teasing?” He quirked dark brows.

“I do.” Caroline glared at him.

Nicholas rubbed his forehead, “Look, Caroline, I’m not in the habit of explaining myself or my actions to anyone. But you and I know that you enjoyed that kiss just as much as I did, so please stop acting like a victim here,”

She drew her breath in sharply. “I wasn’t-” she began

“Oh, yes, you most certainly were,” he rasped. “And, enjoyable as those kisses were-and probably would be again, given the opportunity-”

“Which there won’t be!”

“I think you should know that I don’t do permanent relationships!” Nicholas concluded harshly, as if she hadn’t interrupted.

Caroline had never felt so uncomfortable and humiliated in the whole of her life! Nicholas couldn’t have told her any more clearly not to read anything into the kisses they had just shared. As if! Caroline was as anxious to forget them as he obviously was.

She gave him a scathing glance. “Well, that’s just fine-because neither do I, and I don’t remember asking you for a relationship!”

He looked at her speculatively. “Does that mean you do casual instead?”

“It means that where you’re concerned I don’t do any sort of relationship whatsoever! We’re only here together because of circumstances.”

And Caroline wished now that she hadn’t been goaded into staying on. “I will be leaving tomorrow and I suggest that for the rest of my time here we stay well out of each other’s way!”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

Nicholas gave a terse inclination of his head. “I’m glad we got that straightened out.”

“So am I!” Caroline had never felt quite so much like hitting someone as she did Nicholas at that moment.

He gave a slow, taunting smile. “Does that mean you won’t be joining me for dinner?”

Dinner? Caroline was so angry-with herself as much as Nicholas-that she wasn’t sure she would be able to eat anything for the rest of the day!

Her chin rose. “I will be quite happy to have a tray in my room.”

“That seems a little unfriendly, don’t you think?”

A frown appeared between her eyes. “I thought we had just agreed that neither of us does friendly?”

“Oh, I do friendly. Just not forever,” Nicholas regarded her mockingly. “Did you eat dinner on a tray in your room when I wasn’t here?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then you don’t need to do it now, either,” he pointed out.

Need? What Caroline needed was some time-and space-away from Nicholas Connelly, in which to regain some of her shattered composure. “I would like to get on with some work now, if you don’t mind.” She deliberately turned her back on him.

“No problem,” Nicholas came back nonchalantly. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

Caroline continued to stand unmoving in the middle of the library long after she knew Nicholas had gone. Nicholas had kissed her, and she had kissed him back. Damn it, she hadn’t just kissed him, she had been hungry for him! Hadn’t been able to get enough of him! To get close enough to him! Still ached with wanting him… He was everything she had ever fantasized about. Everything she had never thought to encounter in her quite frankly boring life, she told herself wryly.

Maybe.

But for her to have totally lost all inhibition with a man she knew nothing about was seriously worrying.