Unsure how to deal with the comment without making things worse, he’d left her to her tea and taken her bags upstairs. He clearly had not been meant to overhear it anyway. He’d just walked in at the wrong moment. Still, he was surprised at how it stung. It shouldn’t. What did he care what a load of Yanks thought of him anyway?
But he didn’t want to leave her completely to her own devices. Not after hearing her friends talk about investigating the house. The sooner he could persuade her to just leave things as they were and go away the better. But he was reluctant to go back into the drawing room and talk.
So he stood on the stairs, listening to the house respond to her return. Expecting the worst. Any second.
The sound of china shattering was like a jolt of electricity. He swallowed hard and cursed to himself before hurrying to the drawing room door once more.
Alex was on her knees, trying to gather up the shards in the tray. He asked if she was all right and she’d looked like she was about to burst into tears. And no wonder, really, he realised. She was exhausted and stressed. She’d lost the last member of her family. It had been a difficult time for her and she had then travelled halfway around the world to the last place she wanted to be. A thousand excuses. All valid.
But he knew the real reason was the Hall.
Wildewood Hall.
It sent a wave of sympathy through him. Something he had no right to feel and she had no right to expect. Not that she appeared to expect it. So he tried to be kind. He tried to be patient. And he was apparently very rusty at that because the woman did not look in any way convinced.
‘You’ve had a long day.’ He knew that. She’d driven through the worst weather the county had to offer, in the dark. And he’d hardly been welcoming, had he? He could tell himself that he didn’t have to be, that she was here to ruin everything and, worse, she was putting herself unknowingly in danger, and that there was no way he could warn her. Not in any way she would believe. ‘I’ll show you your room. Get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow will be better. I’ll clean that up.’
He watched those blue eyes glittering with unshed tears, the exhaustion straining her beautiful features.
A shiver ran down his spine, like cold fingertips tracing the line of vertebrae beneath his skin. There was something like a laugh beside his ear, a rush of icy breath.
Then she said those words.
Take me to bed.
Nick froze. He couldn’t help himself.
Oh he knew what she meant. It was not an invitation or anything like that. She was so tired she’d fall asleep there in the chair if he let her.
But the words were out and they sent a pang of something else through him. Impossible, and so stupid. He could only stare at her, at the dawning look of horror and embarrassment as she realised what she’d said. A thousand emotions crammed their way up through him, his body and mind responding. His very soul…
It was the house, he told himself, pushing it all back down ruthlessly. Because he had to. It was just him being alone in the house for far too long. It was his grief at losing Theo, and the strange familiarity that ghosted around Alex, Theo’s twin.
And this place. This benighted place.
He cleared his throat, and tried to unfurl the fists into which his hands had clenched, letting go of the need, the desire, the burning thoughts of taking her to bed.
This isn’t appropriate, he told himself. This isn’t real. You don’t even know her.
And a thousand other things that even though they were true, somehow felt like lies.
He needed to get her to her room, let her unpack and rest, and make himself as scarce as possible. The woods would help. Being out there always did. He needed the feel of the wild around him, grounding him in the earth of this place, reminding him who and what he was. Never mind the weather.
Nick took a cautious breath and let it out again, slowly, pushing away all those thoughts of her in bed, centring himself again. He couldn’t make himself look at her though. He couldn’t let her see the reaction he had to those simple words. Or his desperate need to get away from her right now.
‘This way,’ he said. Best to get this over with as fast as possible. Take her through the house – the parts of it that weresafe – get her settled in the nicest room, and then tomorrow, when she was feeling more pampered and maybe had a better outlook on the place, he could talk to her about its future.
Because she was the only hope he had now.
And he could not afford to mess this up. Or to be distracted by a pretty face. Not just pretty, he thought glumly. Beautiful.
He needed her to leave. He didn’t want to get himself entangled with anyone. Especially not her.
No matter what his treacherous body might try to tell him.
CHAPTER 6
ALEX
