Her New Worst Enemy (4 page)

“I’ll come with you. I love kitchens; they’re always the best room in the house.”

“Suit yourself. It’s this way.”

Ellie watched him stride away, a shopping bag slung over each arm. He moved with utter
confidence. His lean, fit body gave him the appearance of an athlete and his well-honed
muscles made him graceful, but powerful. Plus, he was one of those annoying people
who had a knack of looking good in whatever he chose to wear.

Ellie had the opposite effect on clothes since she’d turned sixteen and found herself
lumped with overgenerous breasts and hips. Very little seemed to suit her so she clung
to what did with a vengeance. She hated shopping for new clothes now. She despised
her awkward shape, which gave her a cartoonish look if she tried on anything tight-fitting.
Paul had always laughed at her when she tried to look glam, so she’d stopped trying.

With a shock, she realized Gideon was looking back at her expectantly. “Well? Are
you coming?”

“Yes, sorry, I was miles away.” She hurried after him, annoyed to be caught staring
at his ass. That was just the sort of thing that would give her away and she really
couldn’t afford to do that. If he even had an inkling about how attractive she found
him, she’d never hear the end of it. It would be ridiculing fodder for years.

Anyway, she was well and truly off men right now.

The kitchen was impressive, but in a completely baffling way. Ellie had expected all
dark, glossy cupboards, marble worktops, and shiny metallic appliances. This looked
like a kitchen that someone would actually cook in. The Shaker-style furniture, terracotta
flagstones, and slightly battered looking racing-green aga gave it a homely feel.
An overstuffed cream-colored sofa stood at one end and a scrubbed, reclaimed pine
table at the other.

“Nice.”

“You like it? Good. I wanted it to be a room I could live in. I used to spend a lot
of my time in this kitchen when I was young, hiding out from my grandparents.” He
leaned casually back against the work-surface.

“Really? I never thought of you as a kitchen person. You’re very much a living room
person in my head. So tell me, if you spent so much time in the kitchen, how come
you’re such an awful cook?”

“I’m not.”

“No? I seem to recall a particularly atrocious meal a couple of years ago that you
foisted on us at my parents’ house.”

“That was Gareth. I was trying to teach him one of my recipes, but he ended up drinking
most of the cooking wine and got the measurements wrong.”

“If that’s true, why the hell did you take the blame for it?”

“I dunno, I thought he deserved a break. He was pretty gutted about getting it wrong.
He tried hard, you know, but he was nervous about impressing Ali.”

“Oh yeah, it was the first time she’d met my parents. No wonder he kept quiet. That’s
sweet. She knows the truth now though after living with him for a couple of years.”

“Sure does, poor girl.”

They grinned at each other and the silence grew heavy around them. Ellie’s heart beat
hard against her chest in the pause. She tapped her fingers nervously against the
work-surface.

“That was kind of you.”

“Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.” His eyes hinted at surprise.

A strange hum tracked along her nerves, momentarily disorientating her. She needed
to return things to normal but the discovery of his unexpected generosity had thrown
her.

She’d always thought of him as being self-obsessed, but that one kindness to her brother
made her question herself. It was as if she’d discovered a deep, dark secret about
him, which was ridiculous really, but his actions seemed so human, so basic. In her
caustic opinion of him, she’d never endowed him with such thoughtful characteristics.
The Superhero thing had been a jibe, but she realized now that she’d genuinely thought
of him in those terms. A gifted loner whose self-obsession would always be his downfall.

“Ellie?”

“Hmm?”

Gideon’s raised eyebrow told her she’d zoned out again and she needed to pull herself
together, and fast.

“You want to see the rest of the place?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Follow me.”

• • •

Gideon walked her through the ground floor of the large manor, taking her into room
after room; the breakfast room, the library, the sitting room, the drawing room …
they went on and on, each one more impressive than the last.

“Wow. I hope you’ve got a cleaner because you could spend your whole life keeping
this place straight.”

“I have a team of them.”

“How much money do you actually have, Gideon? Are you a secret millionaire or something?”

“No. Not a secret one.” The look on her face made him laugh, his deep tones echoing
round the hallway.

“I had no idea.”

“Why would you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought of you in those terms. I know you work hard and
that your family were rich. You’ve just never acted like a rich person before.”

“With good reason.”

Ellie shook her head. “No wonder you have so many women dripping off your arm.”

A dark expression flashed across Gideon’s face. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll find those
clothes out for you.”

The sudden change in the atmosphere unnerved her. She realized she’d hit on a touchy
subject and thought it best to file it away under “best left well alone.”

Gideon was already halfway up the stairs so she mounted them and hurried after him.
He led her to a door at the end of the sweeping landing and opened it to reveal a
small, neat room, flooded with soft light that housed an antique wooden wardrobe and
a freestanding mirror.

“The dressing room.”

He opened the doors of the wardrobe to reveal neat rows of clothes on hangers, and
carefully folded piles of sweaters and jeans.

“Wow. Your sister left all her clothes here when she disappeared?” Ellie ran her hands
over the row of clothes in wonder.

“Yeah. She saw a chance and took it.”

“And you’ve never heard from her?”

He crossed his arms and gave a small shrug. “No.”

A shiver tracked up her spine at the thought of how devastated she’d feel if it had
been her left behind in a loveless household. “What did your grandparents say?”

“Nothing. It was like she’d never existed.”

“Wow, that’s cold.”

“That was my grandparents. She committed the ultimate sin, falling in love with someone
they considered to be a low life. They’d never have let her marry him if she’d stayed.
She’d have been miserable. I don’t blame her for going.”

“But what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Didn’t she miss you?”

“Apparently not.” His face revealed nothing of the hurt she knew must be there, digging
into his heart.

“I’m sorry.” Ellie thought about her haphazard family, and with a pang of guilt, how
much she would miss them if they weren’t around anymore. No wonder Gideon had spent
so much time at their place, if all he had left in the way of family were grandparents
who hid him away at boarding school at age eight.

She almost went to put her arms around him, to pull him in close, but stopped herself.
Their relationship was already precariously balanced as it was and she’d be totally
humiliated if he pushed her away.

He took a step backward, breaking the moment. “Anyway, help yourself. When you’ve
chosen what you want, take them into the room two doors down — that’s your bedroom
while you’re here.”

“Thanks.” She turned back to rifle through the rail, grateful for the chance to be
on her own for a few minutes. Just being in the same room as him made her jittery.

Pulling out a pair of jeans and a cardigan, she turned back to see him still there.

“Are you going to watch me undress?” It was meant to be a joke, but it had a strange
effect on her and she felt her body flood with longing; her panties growing damp.

Gideon cleared his throat. “No, of course not. I’ll get started on the dinner. Risotto
okay for you?”

“Great.” He turned to go, “Gideon? Thanks. For all of this I mean.”

“No problem.” His mouth curved into a lopsided grin and he strode out.

Ellie exhaled and rested her head against the polished wood of the wardrobe door.
Torture. That was what it was. She shook herself vigorously and grabbed a soft duck
egg blue t-shirt to try on.

• • •

Gideon paused on the landing and leant on the rail, looking down into the hallway
of the house that still held so many painful memories for him. Seeing Ellie looking
through his sister’s old stuff, then answering her question about Harriet brought
back more of the old feelings he’d tried to forget.

Even though he understood why Harriet had left him there, he couldn’t forgive her
for never contacting him again. It was as if she’d lumped him in with their grandparent’s
heartless behavior and blamed him for how things had turned out. Or maybe he was too
painful a reminder of what they once had.

They’d never been particularly close — their age difference hadn’t helped that — but
they were still family. He hadn’t tried to find her out of pride. She clearly didn’t
want to have anything to do with him, so he’d decided he didn’t care about seeing
her again.

Being back here brought back flashes of the pain and loneliness he’d felt for a lot
of his young life. It made him mad to see how cavalier Ellie was about pushing her
family away when all they wanted to do was help and support her.

Perhaps he should be a bit more forceful about pointing this out to her? After all,
he had a lot of experience on the flip side.

Walking back to the dressing room, he decided to be straight with Ellie about how
he felt about Harriet and hope she took something away from it that might make her
think about her own family.

The door had swung back on its hinges so it stood half open, and as he approached
he could see Ellie as she pulled a t-shirt over her head and dropped it casually onto
the floor.

Blood pounded through his veins as he took in the curve of her pale shoulder against
the soft light that poured in through the window.

He stopped short, caught in the sensual grip of the moment.

She turned so her profile was to him and his eyes dipped to the swell of her breasts,
encased in a simple white cotton bra. He felt himself harden uncomfortably, his breath
coming in short bursts while his libido raged at him.

She had an amazing figure, just as he’d predicted. All gentle curves; with long, lean
legs and magnificent, pert breasts. He found himself itching to march in there and
unsnap that bra so he could get his hands on her.

This was ridiculous. He was spying on her like some teenage peeping Tom. It had to
stop. He backed away quietly in case his movements drew attention to his lingering
and softly padded downstairs, focusing on a particularly tricky business problem,
an issue with the heating system, the nine times table, anything to banish the image
of Ellie’s tantalizing body and his own body’s hard response to it.

• • •

The wonderful aroma of the risotto hit Ellie’s nostrils as she walked into the kitchen.

She was wearing some of the new clothes she’d selected, but had put her baggy sweater
back on because they were all tight fitting and she felt a bit strange about wearing
them in front of Gideon. She gave him a surreptitious look but he seemed engrossed
in what he was doing at the stove.

She poked around the cupboards and drawers, examining the supplies, to give herself
something to do while she waited for the food to be ready.

“We probably haven’t got enough for the whole weekend here. Should we go shopping
tomorrow?”

Gideon glanced up from his interminable stirring. “Yeah, okay. There’s a good supermarket
ten miles away. We’ll drive over in the morning and stock up. Pour some wine, will
you?”

Ellie nodded and opened the bottle, pouring generous measures into the two glasses
he’d put out, before putting them on the table. “How long for food? I’m starving.”

“It’s ready. Pass me those bowls.”

Ellie handed the crockery over and watched him spoon large mounds of soft rice into
them, her stomach rumbling in appreciation at the sight. Gideon handed her a bowl,
grabbed the baguette from the side and took his food over to the table.

Sitting down, he tore some bread for himself, then for Ellie, before digging in. Ellie
followed his lead, spooning the delicious mixture into her mouth without a break until
her bowl was empty.

“So, not the slop you expected?” Gideon’s bright eyes flashed at her and she grinned
back.

“No. That was delicious, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He leaned back comfortably in his chair, taking a long sip of his
wine, and watched her scrape up the last of the sauce with some bread, a frown creasing
his brow.

“When did you last see your family, Ellie?”

Something twisted in her chest. “A while ago. I’ve been a bit busy recently, so I
haven’t spoken to anyone for a while.” She picked up her own wine and took a large
gulp.

Gideon nodded, a frown marring his handsome face. “So how long has it been since Paul
left?”

A thud of pain made her stomach constrict. “Six months.”

“And you haven’t been out with anyone since?”

“No. I told you, I’ve been busy.”

“Busy being stubborn.”

Ellie glanced over at him; unsure whether he was teasing her. Gideon looked back steadily,
the underlying worry in his eyes niggling her senses and causing a shot of anger to
fire through her.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Gideon. You don’t know what it’s like
to come home one day, thinking everything’s fine, to find out the person who’s supposed
to love you has left.”

His eyes darkened as she glared at him. The rage she’d been feeling recently flooded
her veins and she barely took in his closed, nonchalant expression. At that moment
she hated him. Hated the way he tossed women aside like pieces of rubbish when he’d
finished with them. How could he not know how much it hurt to be treated like that?
The venom in her veins spurred her on, even though she sensed his anger radiating
back at her from his side of the table.