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Chelsea stared at hi that Tom should irl was in love with Slade? No doubt he didn’t want to be accused of callously disregarding the feelings of a local girl, Chelsea thought bitterly Her parents were obviously his friends and he was cynical enough to believe in the maxim that it was aliser to play away from home

There was si she could say to him to convey the depth of her contempt

As she swept out of the study only she knew that her senses had betrayed her by relaying a detailed awareness of the lean bulk of Slade’s body clothed in close-fitting black jeans and ashirt open at the throat For athe belt encircling tautly h the door, her heart pounding against her chest, a tight unbearable pain squeezing tears into her eyes and locking her throat

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘YOU realise you’ll be alone here over Christmas?’

‘Yes’ Chelsea made the monosyllabic reply and then concentrated on her breakfast coffee For two days she had studiously avoided Slade as best she could Two days when she had constantly been te Tom to explain the truth and had always at the last moht the worst of her, she admitted tiredly There could after all have been no future for them, but Slade’s extraordinary behaviour still left a bitter aftertaste in herherself to speak to him

‘Mrs Rudge will be away,’ Slade reminded her, ‘and this house is remote More snow is forecast’

Chelsea glanced out of theat the white landscape It had started snowing the previous day and she hadn’t been able to suppress a tiny thrill at thedown to cover the earth A white Christmas; the embodiment of all her childhood drea it alone

Mrs Rudge was leaving after breakfast to spend Christ in the afternoon It would be a relief to be alone in many ways, Chelsea adle to conceal how she felt froht to have killed what she felt for him, but it hadn’t, a fact which only increased her fear

She risked an upwards glance and wished she hadn’t when she saw the open one, and there would be no s like this to undermine her shaky self-control

He was dressed casually, a checked shirt open at the throat revealing enough of his chest to re it had scraped erotically against her own skin Faded jeans hugged his hips, re her that he was no callow boy but an intensely sensual and experienced ainst her veins, her sto to his tanned forearlanced absently at his watch and she looked hurriedly away He had showered before co down for breakfast and the clean male scent of his skin seemed to reach out and envelop her His hair was still daed to reach up and touch it; to have the freedom to slide her hands inside his shirt and feel the warently as her own

She pushed her coffee away unfinished and stumbled to her feet, her face pale, stunned by the awareness of how quickly everything but Slade had lost anyfor her At least with Darren she had retained so, soe tension as though she were about to co and bitter e she knew that if he were to touch her now there was si, fro him to make love to her

She was di to her, but it seemed to reach her fro sound that reainst the ear

She took a step forward and sturasp of his hands on her waist Her whole body shook violently with reaction, her teeth chattering even though she felt quite hot

‘Chelsea!’ This ti her fog of fear ‘What’s the matter? Are you ill?’

She couldn’t speak Her throat seemed to have closed up and she felt perilously close to tears She longed to beg him to set her free Her skin felt scorched with heat where he touched it Like hi jeans, her boots already on preparatory to the walk to Darkwater which she felt was safer than risking the car in present weather conditions Overnight the snow had frozen, and more was forecast, as evidenced by the leaden sky, with its oe The hills seerey sky, and she wondered absently if all Tom’s sheep were safe

To him up and explain, but she knew she wouldn’t

‘Chelsea! Da his voice to call the housekeeper ‘Chelsea, what’s wrong?’ He was shaking her, and she hated herself for the way her body exulted in even his briefest touch

The dining rooe cae from hauteur to dismay as she took in the scene

‘Lord save us, she’s not ill, is she?’ she heard her asking Slade ‘Well I can’t stay to look out to her Made ements I have’

‘I can look after ed to croak, her speech ht-headed It’s nothing—just so I’ve always been prone to,’ she lied

‘I’ll go and e pronounced, darting a disapproving glare at Slade as she left

‘I’ that he would release her His hands still gripped her waist and he was close enough for her to be able to see the sreenness

‘I don’t like leaving you here alone,’ he told her abruptly ‘This place is too reh to pretend you are when you aren’t’

‘Stubborn?’ Chelsea laughed weakly, pushing back the weight of her hair as it swung forward Herher There was noto life in his eyes, and just for a second she conte the tiny step which was all that would be needed to carry her into his arms

Between one heartbeat and the next she realised the supreme folly of what she had so nearly done, and more to punish herself than Slade she lashed out bitterly

‘Quite a wasted opportunity as far as you’re concerned, isn’t it? If you weren’t going to New York you’d have me completely at your mercy, wouldn’t you, and ample opportunity to carry out your threats’

Slade’s gritted, ‘Don’t teht her back to shocked sanity, and her eyes dilated with fear as he added gratingly, ‘You oweelse’

She wasn’t given the chance to evade the brutal strength of the arainst his, and forcing her neck back until she thought it would snap under the pressure Her vulnerability only seeer There was noher lips to yield and part, and she was forced into the igno helplessly to his shoulders, totally unable to defend herself fro

As though he suddenly sensed that hurting her would not achieve the result he desired, Chelsea felt the pressure of his hands lessen, one slowly

a handful of her hair and forcing her head up to e scrutiny of his eyes Dull dark colour lay along the sharp angles of his cheekbones, a raw passion sreen depths of the eyes fastened on her

For a ly along a path she knew instinctively could only lead to pain