The Engagement Deal (15 page)

There was nothing very subtle about what was happening to her. Holly was virtually immobilised with lust. She gave a small soundless gasp and felt the muscles of her flat stomach suck in helplessly as instant desire ripped through her. If he’d chosen this moment to explore in a way similar to that which she’d imagined earlier, it would take him about two seconds flat to discover she was just about dying for his touch!

‘You and Holly? You’ve been…? You’re…?’ Rowena’s attractive voice emerged as a disbelieving croak before her attitude turned rapidly to denial. ‘No…No, that can’t be right.’ She laughed.

It was the laughter that finally drew Holly’s attention back to her sister.
Yes!
she wanted to yell.
Yes
, we have been and with any luck we’re going to again—although the way tonight was panning out didn’t make that likely. Rowena looked pale and seriously shocked by their revelations, but all Holly was conscious of was the laughter. It was a joke. That would be right…Suddenly, she was very tired of being the light relief.

‘Why not?’ Giving an imperious little chin-tilt, she was conscious that Niall had taken hold of her hand. Was the steady pressure of his warm fingers meant to pacify or support? Either way, Holly had stepped back for Rowena for the last time!

A flustered Rowena tore her eyes from the image of Niall’s fingers curling around Holly’s small hand. She struggled visibly to recover her sophisticated composure.

‘No offence intended.’

‘None taken.’ Holly’s spiky tone matched her sister’s in the insincerity stakes.

‘You took me by surprise, that’s all. I think it’s marvellous.’

Overcompensating, Holly decided stubbornly, unconvinced by Rowena’s attempts at reconciliation.

‘Tell me all about it…How did you two…?’ Holly knew Rowena didn’t have a coy bone in her body, but to see her looking up at Niall you’d never have guessed it.

Despite her slick recovery, Holly instinctively knew Rowena minded. The question was, how much did she mind and what was she going to do about it? Holly looked worriedly at her sister, all stylish blonde hair and long, long legs covered in soft supple leather. The sliver of flat tanned midriff gave a glimpse of the perfection of her celestial body. If Rowena decided to retrieve her property, what chance would Holly have?

Deep down she knew, and was guiltily distressed by the knowledge, that she was behaving and thinking like a jealous witch. She’d been in Rowena’s shadow all her life but never until this moment had she felt so bitterly resentful of the fact—not even in her angst-ridden teens!

It wasn’t Rowena’s fault she was beautiful and desirable and it wasn’t her fault loving Niall was making Holly feel more vulnerable than ever before in her life. If he loved me back, things would be very different, Holly acknowledged, feeling the bleak taut band across her chest tighten.

‘You know me…I’ve always been a tad territorial,’ Rowena was confessing with attractive self-mockery to Niall.

Perhaps I am being paranoid, Holly thought, watching Niall respond warmly to her sister’s friendly overtures. There is such a thing as platonic friendship, although in my experience men found it a lot easier to be platonic with women who look like me rather than women who looked like Rowena!

‘I come back expecting to find everything the way I left it and bam! My flat, my sister, my best friend…! I’m dizzy! I’ve heard of while the cat is away, but this…’

‘You’ve still got your sister.’ Niall looked in her direction and Holly forced her stiff lips into a suitably harmonious grin. ‘And your flat, and I’m definitely still your best friend.’

Call me old-fashioned and idealistic, Holly thought, still smiling like an idiot on the outside but feeling bleakly disillusioned inside, but wouldn’t it be nice if your lover was your best friend?

With misty eyes, Rowena looked even more beautiful. ‘Why, thank you, darling,’ she said huskily, letting her fingers trail over his lean cheek. Holly swallowed and resisted the strong desire to slap her sister’s hand away. Holly closed her eyes, willing the feeling to pass; she knew his cheek, even though he looked freshly shaven, would have that slightly abrasive quality she loved.

‘Let me make dinner for you both and we can catch up.’

‘It looks to me like you already were,’ Niall remarked drily, glancing towards the kitchen.

‘I’m a lousy cook,’ Holly said as the sinking sensation in her stomach hit rock bottom. ‘Rowena arrived just as I was about to throw in the spoon and suggest we eat out.’

Niall seemed deaf to the silent pleas she was broadcasting. Perhaps, she pondered resentfully, he actually
wanted
to spend a cosy night in with Rowena. He sure as hell wasn’t doing much to stop things heading in that direction!

‘Then isn’t it lucky I arrived when I did?’ Rowena started swishing around the kitchen area with teeth-clenching efficiency.

It was bad enough Rowena had been given double portions in the brains and beauty department; to make her a great cook too was adding insult to injury! Things couldn’t get much worse, Holly thought, left with no alternative but to grin and bear it—predictably, they did! The evening was a nightmare!

Rowena probably didn’t mean to exclude her from the conversation by introducing topics and people Holly didn’t know—but then again, with Rowena, who seemed to be in dazzling form, if a bit brittle tonight, you never could tell. As the night wore on, Holly said less and less and her sister—and, more importantly, her lover—after a couple of feeble efforts to include her in the conversation, didn’t seem to care less.

‘You seemed a bit preoccupied tonight, Holly.’ Niall had one hand braced on the wall beside the lift.

I’m surprised you noticed, Holly thought, as her simmering resentment began to boil.

‘Did I? The lift’s arrived.’ She gestured coldly towards the closed door of the lift, which had swished obediently up to the top floor.

‘I was being polite, actually. It looked as if you were sulking.’

She spun around, an expression of indignant outrage on her face.
‘Sulking?’

‘You acted deaf every time Rowena spoke to you.’

Niall couldn’t recall having a more frustrating evening in his entire life and Holly had taken it into her head to go out of her way to make it even worse! Didn’t she realise he’d had a hard time himself trying to act normal—and he’d made a pretty pitiful job of that—when all he’d actually wanted to do was strip off that sexy little black outfit and make love to her? He still wanted her now, after she’d displayed all the seductive qualities of a spoilt brat!

And not listening to Rowena was the height of bad taste, Holly thought belligerently. The slug of brandy she’d recklessly swigged back after dinner still glowed in her belly; it made her courageous and slightly reckless.

‘Nobody could accuse
you
of not listening to her.’

‘No…?’ Voice smooth as silk, Niall’s eyes had narrowed on her averted face.

‘You hung on her every word,’ she accused unimaginatively. ‘Have you slept with her, Niall?’ The anguished words emerged with all the subtlety of a hand grenade. Barely stifling a groan, Holly knew her skin tones had achieved a sense of oneness with her fiery hair.

‘Is that what this is all about?’ he grated incredulously. He took her softly rounded chin in his hand. ‘Look at me, Holly.’ She twisted her head away and a low growl of annoyance emerged from his throat. ‘I could shake you.’ Not straight away, though; there were other more immediate priorities. He swallowed convulsively as a tide of warm blood deepened his naturally dark colour by several shades.

‘What an excellent basis for a relationship,’ she hissed ironically. ‘And I use the term loosely.’

‘Are you going to go into this Cinderella routine every time Rowena walks into a room?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘I think it’s time you learnt to deal with your insecurities; they’re not attractive.’

Holly’s temper spiked at this brutal afterthought. She viciously bit her trembling lower lip—he wouldn’t make her cry! I suppose this is his way of telling me I’m not attractive, either, she thought.

‘The way I recall it, Cinderella had two ugly sisters; I have one beautiful one.’

‘Sure, Rowena’s a stunner, but that doesn’t mean you’ve any need to be jealous.’

‘Tara was jealous,’ she taunted him. ‘And anyway, I’m not jealous as such,’ she lied with cool dignity. ‘How was I supposed to contribute to a conversation that concerned cute little things that happened when I was still in school?’

Niall gave a deeply exasperated sigh. ‘You’re acting as though you’re still in school,’ he told her scornfully. ‘Rowena and I, we’re just friends: and as her friend I couldn’t help but notice she had something on her mind tonight, and I’m not just talking about me sleeping with her little sister—she was bound to be protective about that,’ he mused thoughtfully. ‘Rowena didn’t want to be alone tonight. Surely you could see that?’ he asked incredulously. ‘Or were you too busy feeling sorry for yourself because you didn’t have centre stage?’

Uneasily, Holly recalled briefly receiving the self-same impression of Rowena’s unhappiness earlier that evening.

‘Perhaps
you
should have stayed, then.’ Despairingly, she heard another in the long line of childish and unattractive hackneyed responses that seemed ready to gush from her lips tonight. ‘To be a supportive friend.’

Bizarrely, for someone who was sick to the stomach with fear of losing him, she seemed to be doing her level best to push Niall away.

‘Do you think I like this any more than you do?’ Niall snarled, suddenly taking her by the shoulders.

Drawn into a dizzyingly close proximity to his lean, taut, virile body, Holly blinked up at him, bewildered by the strained intensity in his voice. For the first time, she was conscious of a coiled tension in his strung-out body. Even as her own wretched body responded to the gratifying glitter of sexual frustration in his deep-set eyes, Holly despised her weakness.

‘I’ve been thinking about spending tonight with you ever since we parted this afternoon—before that, even,’ he confessed rawly, his eyes ranging hungrily over her face. ‘If you must know, I’ve been counting the minutes like some silly adolescent because, to be quite frank, you’re driving me ever so slightly crazy.’ A strained grin cracked his taut features. ‘At least you falling on the ice gave me a legitimate excuse to dust down that delightful bottom of yours.’ His hands slipped to her behind as he spoke and he pulled her hard against him.

This unexpected lustful reference to her rear, closely followed by close contact with the core of a pulsing frustration he wasn’t attempting to disguise, made Holly sigh in relieved delight. Her jealousies seemed suddenly irrational; they melted away, leaving her feeling foolish and embarrassed.

‘Me, too,’ she echoed in a husky voice. ‘Counting the minutes, that is. Seeing you and Rowena together, looking so disgustingly perfect—the pair of you look like an advert to promote eugenics!’

‘I know I’m in danger of sounding trivial, Holly, but I’m not interested in your genes, angel.’ His smouldering restless glance gave a lot of clues about what he was interested in. ‘Holly.’ Huskily, he murmured her name before his tongue thrust skilfully between her slightly parted lips. There was raw desperation in the greedy erotic exploration that left her gasping noisily for breath.

‘Why didn’t you kiss me before?’ she moaned angrily, her body stretching in a tight arc as she reached up and tightened her grip on his thick lush hair. ‘I wanted you to do that so much!’

Niall felt the blood pounding in his temples when, as she drew up onto tiptoe, the rounded contours of her small firm bottom tightened deliciously under his hands. The air-conditioned atmosphere of the hallway felt more like a steamy tropical night to him as, with a muffled exclamation he thrust his hand up under her skirt, until there was only thin lace separating his fingers from her warm smooth flesh. The idea of letting his fingers wander towards that hot, silkily damp area between her legs—knowing it was what she wanted—was driving him to the edge. He was having a hard time remembering where they were.

‘Starting’s easy.’ The tip of his tongue traced the full outline of her lower lip. ‘It’s stopping I have the problem with,’ he groaned.

‘So don’t stop,’ she commanded, fiercely reckless. Her hot hungry eyes fused with his.

‘I don’t know what the hell you’ve done to me.’ Continually fascinated by the full plush contours of her soft pink mouth, his tongue flickered greedily out once more. The nightcap he’d sensibly refused couldn’t have intoxicated him half as much as her brandy-tinged lips, he reflected grimly. ‘I think I was right: you must be a witch,’ he rasped.

He was seriously spellbound—or, rather, lustbound; that much was indisputable. Concentrating on what Rowena was saying tonight had been hellishly difficult and, he feared, embarrassingly obvious. Considering his friend’s obvious distress, he felt all kinds of a heel.

Holly was mesmerised by his raw sensual appraisal. The shivery hot sensations that writhed in the pit of her belly had spread until her entire body was shaken by feverish little tremors. Her toes trailed uselessly on the densely carpeted floor as he took the couple of steps that had her spine hard against the wall.

The breath whooshed from her lungs as, simultaneously, every nerve fibre in her body jerked to attention. Her bones melted and submission swept through her body as she felt the imprint of his erection grinding boldly into her belly.

‘Niall…!’ Plea, surrender: her voice carried both these things plus a measure of the agony she saw etched on his own dark, drawn features.

He released his grip on her hips and took a step backwards. ‘Sorry.’ Stiffly, he drew an unsteady hand through his thick tousled hair. ‘Got a bit carried away,’ he added tersely.

Holly pressed the back of her hand to her trembling lips. He’d carried her right with him! ‘Me, too.’

‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ The streak of dull colour highlighted the slashing high curve of his cheekbones.