A Safe Pair of Hands (10 page)

He walked just a little behind Sadie, almost as though he was
ushering her along, and he already had his key card in his hand
when they reached their room.

He kept her just in front of him, and as the door swung open,
Sadie almost fell inside the room.

She would have, had it not been for Nick's arm around her
waist, pulling her against him as they stepped inside and the door
closed behind them.

Sadie tried to turn around, but Nick stopped her, by holding
her tighter, as he bent to nuzzle at her neck, kissing and tasting
her with his tongue.

His hand came up in front to caress her breast over her
clothes, and Sadie groaned as she felt the brush of his hand
against her nipple.

Her legs buckled but he held on tight to her – refusing to let
her move away even by a millimetre.

He continued to nuzzle at her neck as his hand slowly slipped
between the buttons of her silky blouse.

Sadie heard one or two of the buttons pop, and something went
flying across the room, but she really did not care, she wanted to
get out of her clothes.

She needed to get out of them, and to have Nick get out of
his, so that their naked flesh could once more touch.

“
I'm addicted,” she muttered under her breath. “I am addicted
to him, and I don't think I will ever get enough!”

Chapter Ten

They had retired early in the evening to their room, and they
stayed there for the entire night, but not sleeping, well not very
much anyway.

And that became their routine for the next few days, leaving
their room only for long enough to have something to eat, and let
one of the cleaners go in there to freshen the room up a
bit.

Sadie and Nick, and all of the other travellers were stranded
in the hotel for three days – and Sadie thought that they were the
happiest days of her life.

But on the fourth, a policeman arrived to tell them all that
the snow had stopped – something that they had all seen through the
windows, and the snow ploughs had been along all the main roads,
which were now open again.

“
So folks, you can all leave when you are ready,” the slightly
overweight policeman told them jovially.

Sadie cast a quick regretful glance at Nick, who smiled at her
in return.

“
If we leave in the next half an hour, we should be back home
for lunch.”

She nodded sadly. “Yes, I will just go and get my things
together,” she said calmly.

“
You do that, and I will sort out the bill, and join you
presently.

“
Is there anything I can sort out for you?” she asked suddenly,
and Nick thought how delightfully married that sounded, with his
beautiful wife going off to pack his case for him.

“
No, thank you; it won’t take me five minutes to do it
myself.”

*

By the time he had paid the bill and a chatted to the
receptionist for a few moments, he got back to the room, to find
Sadie was all packed and sitting neatly on the edge of her bed,
with her little holdall sitting beside her on the floor.

For a moment Nick thought that she could not wait to get
going, until he saw the slightly dejected droop to her usually
happy mouth.

“
All ready?” he asked rubbing his hands enthusiastically, and
when she nodded. “Great, just give me two seconds and we can get
started.”

He swept through the room like a mini tornado, scooping up his
toiletries bag and bits of clothing as he went.

He dumped it all into his overnight bag, zipped it up with a
flourish, and turned to her with a grin.

“
All ready?” he asked again.

“
Yes, of course,” Sadie almost snapped as she stood up and
picked up her own bag – honestly did he have to keep on asking her
that?

“
Well I am not quite,” Nick murmured as he took her bag from
her, and then bent to kiss her lingeringly on the mouth.

“
There now, that will have to do – for now.”

He glanced around the room, as though memorising the place,
and then looked down at Sadie with a dark enigmatic
gaze.

“
Shall we?” he asked opening the door, and indicating that she
should go first.

Sadie nodded again and walked out to the elevator.

The reception was a hive of activity as people bustled around
preparing to leave.

“
You wait here, Sadie; I will bring the car round to the front
entrance once it has thawed out a bit.” Nick pointed to a chair
just next to a window facing out to the front car parking area.
“You keep a watch out for me there, and then I won't have to come
in to fetch you – and you won't have to stand outside freezing to
death while you wait for me.”

Sadie nodded again and stood watching as Nick strolled
outside, carrying both of their overnight bags with him.

He shivered as the cold air first hit him, and she saw how he
pulled his thick coat tighter around him.

He looked so tall and handsome, and she stood dreaming of the
next time they might be together.

She knew for the moment that their personal developing
relationship would have to be put on hold.

That at work they had to retain their employer – employee
relationship, and so she just did not quite know where they would
go from here.

She gave a little sigh, and determinedly swallowed back the
tears that she had been fighting down, ever since that policeman
had come along and told them all that they could leave
now.

*

Sadie gave a little shiver as she walked quickly out of the
hotel and across to where Nick was sitting with his car engine
running.

He had taken quite a while to show up, and she had begun to
wonder if there was a problem with the car... oh if
only!

But as she slipped into the passenger seat and slammed the
door, she felt the warmth taking away the chill from her brief time
outside.

He had deliberating taken his time, to give the car a chance
to warm up thoroughly.

“
Okay?” he asked glancing across at her.

She smiled at him brightly. “Yes, it is perfect in
here.”

He grinned back. “Good.”

He set the car in motion and for the first twenty minutes or
so he kept his attention firmly on the still snowy and icy roads in
front of him.

But eventually he was able to get onto the motorway, where the
road had been thoroughly cleared, and the traffic was moving
freely.

Nick gave a satisfied little sigh, and set his speed to
sixty.

“
We should be home in no time at all now,” he said giving her a
quick sidelong glance.

“
Yes, I suppose we will,” Sadie could not keep the regret out
of her voice, and Nick had clearly seen the unhappy tilt to her
mouth.

“
Did I ever tell you, how absolutely floored I was, when you
first walked into my offices looking for a job?” he laughed lightly
under his breath, as he tried to start up a light
conversation.

Sadie shook her head. “I was never quite sure
why
you actually gave me
that job... I mean you looked at me as if I had just crawled out
from under a rock – or something worse.”

He could clearly hear the remembered hurt in her voice, and he
felt a rush of anger towards himself for causing that.

“
I am sorry if I gave you that impression,” he said gruffly.
“But I never thought that – never at all!”

“
No,” she challenged sharply. “Not even when you thought me to
be a callous bitch who had told my husband to go and kill himself –
rather than keep bothering me?”

He sighed. “I never really knew what to think, I mean I was
there and had seen him and how you looked at him, and spoke to
him... and I had reached that exact conclusion – I will admit
that... but deep down inside I always questioned that conclusion, I
just knew that there was more to what I had seen really, but I
could not find a way to ask you for the truth of it.”

“
So why did you not just send me on my way, you had real doubts
about me as a person, so why on earth would you employ someone like
that?”

He was silent for a moment, and as the time and miles slid by,
Sadie began to wonder if he would even answer her.

“
I gave you that job, Sadie,” he finally began slowly, “because
your qualifications were out of this world, your job experience
previously was high class, and when I rang some of your former
employers they all said the same thing, that they had been sorry to
lose such a valued member of their staff.”

“
But I am certain that there were other equally qualified
applicants?” she persisted.

He shrugged. “There were a couple, yes, but neither of them
were quite as good as you... and to tell the truth... I had lost
you once, and I was damned if I was going to risk you losing you
again.”

There he had said it!

He heard her suck in a breath of surprise, but it seemed that
she had nothing further to say, other than a slightly breathless.
“Oh!”

He gave rather rueful chuckle as he shifted gear, and
increased his speed to seventy.

He glanced at his petrol gage.

“
I think that I will need to stop off for petrol before long...
shall I try and find somewhere that has services as well, and then
we could stop for an early lunch?”

She hesitated for a moment, but when she spoke; her voice was
liquid warm with pleasure. “Yes, I would really like
that.”

Nick gave a silent little sigh of relief that their almost
argument had not materialised. He really wanted their relationship
to stay a happy one; he wanted her to go home from this trip with
only happy thoughts and memories.

*

They travelled on for about another hour, before they came to
signs indicating fuel and services just up ahead.

“
That looks like a pub just on the corner,” Nick said as he
signalled to leave the motorway. “If they serve all day food, then
I think that that would be nicer than some of the fast food
alternatives.”

“
I agree,” Sadie nodded.

He stopped off at the petrol station first, and Sadie sat
watching him as he walked around the car to the pump.

He was just so good looking, that she could not seem to keep
her eyes off him, and her imagination would go into overdrive as
she remembered that last three days – and nights.

She had once said to Nick that she had never been able to look
at a person and tell what they were really like, but with Nick she
realised that she already knew what he was like, that what you saw
with him, was exactly what you got.

He would never have a hidden agenda, he would always be
upfront and honest with her; and she knew that he would never to
anything to hurt her... at least not consciously.

*

Nick helped her out of the car and then taking her hand in
his, they walked into the pub, which seemed to embrace them with a
blanket of warmth, after the chill outside.

“
Good morning, folks – what can I do for you,” the young man
behind the bar greeted them cheerfully.

“
Good morning, we were hoping to get an early lunch?” Nick
returned the greeting, with a friendly smile.

“
If you would like to pick a table – I'll sort you out some
menus.”

They ordered a couple of soft drinks, and as Sadie studied the
menu she found that she was quite hungry. Maybe it was the cold
weather, and her body was doing its best to keep itself
warm?

She ordered a jacket potato with a side salad, and brown bread
and butter, and sipped at her drink while Nick ordered his
food.

The place was quiet with only a couple of other patrons and as
Sadie felt herself relaxing she gazed idly out of the
window.

The snow blanketed the ground, giving everywhere a clean
fairytale look, she could see one or two people moving around and
as she watched one man walking towards this place, her attention
became rigid on him.

His walk, and the way that he held himself, she knew him, she
recognised him.

But her mind was shying away from the identity of him. She so
did not want it to be him, to have him intruding into her life once
more, especially not now – not at this moment.

But as he looked up suddenly and seemed to look straight at
her – she could not hide away from it any more – she could not deny
her eyes any longer.

The man heading straight towards her was her ex-husband –
Rick.

Chapter Eleven

Nick was watching Sadie with a half smile and a look of
tenderness, when he saw the change come over her.

He had a horrible moment of déjà vu, and a sickly feeling
settled in his stomach.

Something was distressing her, and this time he was not going
to sit and wait to find out what it was.