CHASING TROUBLE

Nicholas Connelly was obviously not a man it would be wise to cross! Or be attracted to… Unfortunately, Caroline suspected it was already too late to warn herself off being attracted to him. Just looking at him sent shivers of awareness up and down her spine. That over-long dark hair. Those dark and piercing eyes. The firm sensuality of his mouth. The lean sensitivity of his hands. The leashed power in that perfectly muscled body…

“No doubt you have one of those perfect lives” Nicholas continued scathingly. “Perfect life. Perfect friends. Perfect parents. Perfect relationships. Perfect everything.”

Perfect relationships? He had no idea! Caroline thought.

“Come on, Care-”

“I believe I told you I prefer to be called Caroline!”

Nicholas glanced at her, irritated with himself because of how attractive he found the way the color came and went in her cheeks, and the way her eyes sparkled with emotion when she was angry or annoyed- Whoa! Caroline Anderson wasn’t his type. At all. Nicholas preferred his women to be tall, soft and feminine. Women who knew and accepted that a relationship with him had no future. He wanted nothing to do with a woman who was short and prickly, a personal assistant immersed up to her pretty neck in vampire romance novels and history, whose ideal was no doubt the house with the picket fence and two point four children!

All the same, Nicholas couldn’t stop himself from flirting with her just a little, to see how uncomfortable-and beautiful-it made her. He deliberately took a step closer, crowding her.

“Care is so much more-friendly, don’t you think…?” he murmured huskily.

Those deep blue eyes narrowed to warning slits. “I have no wish to be friendly with a man who can speak to people like you just did on your phone,” she said scornfully.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

Nicholas’ eyes widened. So Caroline had overheard part of his conversation with Rachael, had she? And she’d obviously drawn her own conclusions from it too. No doubt helped along by an over-active imagination from reading too many vampire books! Well, Nicholas had ceased even trying to explain himself a long time ago-least of all to a woman as unbending as this one.

“What can I say?” He gave an unconcerned shrug. “Sometimes a little aggression is necessary when people won’t do as they are told the first time.”

Caroline repressed a shudder of apprehension at the callousness of his tone. Her first impression of this man last night had been the correct one after all; he really was dangerous!

“Don’t look so worried, Caroline,” Nicholas murmured softly. “The only time I enjoy hearing a woman scream is in bed…”

The erotic images that statement instantly conjured into Caroline’s head, of a lithe, bronzed and naked body entwined with a much paler and softer one, caused the color to once again burn hotly in her cheeks.

She turned away. “Perhaps we should get back to the house after all.”

“Running scared, Caroline?”

“Of you?” Her eyes glittered as she glared at him. “I hardly think so!”

“You could have fooled me!” Nicholas gave her another one of those mocking smiles. “We are only going to have lunch, Caroline, we are not going out on a date together.”

She hadn’t imagined for one moment that their lunch together could be called a date. It was just a little disconcerting-more than a little, if she were brutally honest with herself-to think of spending time alone in a restaurant with a man who was so blatantly, breathtakingly male that just looking at him made even her teeth ache in awareness! It was a raw attraction that was completely corroborated at that moment, as a woman passing by on the pavement happened to glance casually their way-only for her attention to suddenly become riveted on Nicholas, a flush warming her cheeks as he shot her a lazy smile. Nicholas Connelly wasn’t just dangerous-he was utterly lethal!

Caroline scowled. “I’m not hungry after all,” she snapped. “It must be all that aggressive talk earlier on-you’re nothing but a bully!” she added challengingly.

Nicholas looked at her rigidly disapproving face and chose not to explain his discussion with Rachael to her. She was an ex who just wouldn’t understand that it was over between them.

“Hasn’t affected my appetite,” Nicholas assured her blithely, giving her no more opportunity to disagree with him as he took a firm hold of her arm and strode forcefully towards the Hotel, across the other side of the square.

“So, what shall we talk about?” Caroline said dryly to Nicholas once they were seated at a table in the saloon bar of the hotel where he had decided they were having lunch. He sat back against the bench seat, seemingly unaware of the interested female stares that had been coming his way ever since he had gone up to the crowded bar to order their food. Including Caroline’s own more surreptitious glances! Had she ever been this physically aware of a man before? Not that she could remember. But she was so aware of Nicholas, on so many levels, that she felt she could see and hear practically nothing else but him.

Her skin felt hotter than the temperature in the bar warranted. Her breasts were swollen, the nipples slightly tingly, and there was a telling dampness between her thighs that shocked her… Ridiculous. From the little Caroline had overheard of his telephone conversation with someone called Rachael, Nicholas Connelly was little more than a thug. No doubt his years in the army, the physical discipline he had learnt there, had made him as lethal as any of the weapons he had been trained to use.

As a woman who had always valued intellect rather than muscle, how could Caroline possibly find all that leashed physical power arousing? Except…she did! To such an extent that she could imagine nothing more pleasurable than ripping all that black clothing from Nicholas’ bronzed and muscular body so that she might caress every powerful, rugged inch of him.

In fact, just thinking about doing those things increased the temperature of her own body to an almost unbearable degree!

Nicholas gave a dismissive shrug. “Who says we have to talk at all? I came here for food, not conversation.”