In Bed With the Enemy: Dating and Other Dangers / Dare She Kiss & Tell? / Double Dare

Right on one o’clock she opened the door, and with a brain-draining combination of nerves, excitement and foreign shyness looked at him. Neither spoke. The moment of silence went on so long she started to panic.

‘Is this not okay?’ Totally husky rather squeaky this time.

‘No, it’s okay.’ He cleared his throat at the same time she did. ‘You look great.’

He was smart-casual too, and she was glad she’d gone with the little gilt heels and the silver dress. But she was melting into a puddle—awkwardness was the only thing that saved her. She wanted to apologise, she wanted to beg, she wanted to start over. She wanted so many things that were impossible.

He had his car, held the door for her to get in. She didn’t look at him.

‘Change the music if you want,’ he said as he pulled out into the traffic.

Actually, she liked this band and their loudness. The car smelt nice—it smelt like him. ‘Where are we going?’

‘Oh, you know I like to preserve a little mystery,’ he answered too smoothly.

She glanced at him, but he was looking hard at the road ahead and she wasn’t inclined to try and start the conversation again. Nor was he—so somehow forty minutes rolled by in silent, screaming tension.

Eventually they cruised into one of those cute home counties villages—all quaint and expensive. And then he pulled into the driveway of one stunning country home. There were little pink balloons on the gate, and a line-up of flash European cars parked along the street.

Nadia’s tension couldn’t stay silent now. What the hell were they coming to? She slowly got out of the car and followed him to a beautiful doorway. Through the windows of the house she saw people in pretty party dress milling—and she knew.

‘This is some kind of family occasion, isn’t it?’ Appalled, she slowly climbed the steps up to the door. All the needing-to-apologise feeling fled.

‘My niece’s christening, yes.’

‘I can’t be here.’ She saw the amusement on his face and her temper flared. ‘This isn’t the place for you to play your manipulating games.’

‘Oh? That’s fine coming from you—the mistress of manipulation. Treat me mean, keep me keen—is that what you were doing?’

There was only one bit of that sentence she registered. Dumbfounded, she gazed up at him. ‘You’re still keen?’

‘Why?’ Roughly his hands snaked around her waist and he yanked her against him right there on the doorstep. ‘You still want me?’

One hand slid lower, firmly curving around her butt. Through the thin shiny dress his heat burned. Her instant tremor was obvious to them both. And suddenly she felt like crying. She was tired of feeling this desperate for him. ‘I wasn’t playing games with you.’ Oh, she sounded pathetic—and pleading.

‘The hell you weren’t.’ His intense gaze stripped her completely.

And she was pleading now. He was vibrating too—with annoyance, and something else. Something every ounce of her wanted to believe was desire. She gazed up at him, too thrilled by the close contact to realise what she was revealing to him—too hot to care. All she wanted was this contact to become closer still.

She heard his breath catch, watched immobile as his head angled and slowly lowered, his sensual lips coming towards hers. Her own breath caught then, while her heart thundered. She tilted her chin, wanting the kiss so badly. His hands tightened, sending more pleasure shocks along her nerves. She liked feeling the strength of him.

But suddenly he looked up. Too late she registered that the door beside them had opened.

Not releasing her from his tight embrace, Ethan suddenly flashed a totally different sort of smile. ‘Hello, Mother.’

CHAPTER NINE (#ulink_11ca5f8b-9a44-54b0-8172-0e64889c04c6)

‘ETHAN! It’s you.’ The woman sounded stunned. ‘You and …’

Nadia flinched, felt his muscles spasm too. Suddenly it registered that she was resting all her weight against him. But she couldn’t pull away. The steel band across her back—i.e. his arm—wouldn’t let her. Desperately she licked her lips, so she could manage a smile, and turned her head to face the one woman she’d never, ever expected to meet.

‘Ethan?’ Another voice, and then two other, younger women materialised to flank his mother’s sides.

‘Mother, meet Nadia. Nadia, this is my mother, Victoria, and my two sisters Jessica and Polly.’ The mocking amusement in his voice was apparent, but it didn’t chase the surprise off all their faces.

Nadia wished he’d let her go so she could run away to a small dank cave. But he still held her far, far too closely. She shook her head slightly to dispel her fuzzed vision—only the situation dived drastically when she saw his family clearly. Ethan the Gorgeous just would have two glamorous, swan-like sisters and a model-of-class-and-refinement kind of mother.

‘How lovely to meet you.’ Polly swapped a look with her sister. ‘See—this is why I had to pick up Mother, instead of Ethan.’

‘Well, it wasn’t like you were going to bring a date.’ Ethan said, still not releasing Nadia from the inappropriate clinch.

‘We didn’t expect you to either,’ Polly snapped back. It took five crucifying silent seconds for her to realise the her gaffe before she blustered with a sheepish smile, ‘Of course it’s wonderful you could be here, Nadia. You have no idea how thrilled were are to meet you.’

Nadia kept digging her fingers into his shirt, trying to push him away, but the man-mountain wasn’t moving. She could feel the slow, deep rise and fall of his chest against her cheek—completely tantalising and scattering her focus. ‘Oh, thank you so much,’ she babbled to cover her confusion and embarrassment. ‘I’m so sorry to be here unexpectedly. I hope it’s no trouble. I really don’t want to intrude …’ She stumbled over the words and felt her flush deepening. ‘I can—’

‘Come right in.’ Ethan suddenly moved, turning and pushing her slightly ahead of him with firm hands on her upper arms.

The three women stepped back into the house. Nadia walked past them and kept walking to the nearest corner—quite a distance in the stunning large atrium she found herself in. Ethan kept pace.

‘I’m not staying here,’ she hissed, facing him.

‘You have to now.’ He grinned down at her, looking too relaxed all of a sudden. ‘This way you can get to know more about me—my family and my history and all those fascinating, irrelevant things women want to know. I’m sure my sisters would love to fill you in on a few facts.’

Oh, so this was his way of showing her more about himself? She shook her head—he was unbelievable, and now she was stuck here, with no wheels to get away. Of course her curiosity was ravenous … and he knew it.

From the stunned look on his mother’s and his sisters’ faces she figured him bringing a date wasn’t an everyday occurrence. But she knew not to read any significance into it—this was all about their little war.

‘This is so impolite,’ she told him, hoping for a last minute escape.

‘There was me thinking you were an expert at being impolite.’

She swallowed that, then fired right back. ‘You were the one keeping us in that shocking clinch on the step.’

His grin broadened back to wicked. ‘It would have been much more of a shock if I’d let you go and they’d seen how hard I was.’

Nadia flushed, both mortified and melting again. ‘You really think it’s okay for me to be here?’ She gazed up at his laughing façade and saw the shadows lurking in the back of them.

‘As long as you don’t get too close to me again while there are people around,’ he murmured.

‘There’s a little service at the church down the road in a few minutes, and then it’s back here for afternoon tea on the lawn.’ Polly crossed the atrium and interrupted them.

‘Oh.’ Nadia smiled through her breathlessness. ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

Ethan laughed. ‘Jess and Polly have this thing planned with military precision. You can just be decorative, like me. Is he here?’ That last to his sister.

Polly nodded with a helpless sort of shrug. ‘But alone.’

Nadia didn’t miss the look that flashed between the two of them. Who were they talking about?