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It certainly did not mean that she would let him kiss her, even when he made the offer in that low, sexy voice. It was bad enough that she was actually tempted to take him up on it. And for one thing, nobody had ever accused her of being a babe before.
The whole situation was surreal. For once she was grateful for Nathan’s absence from his sister’s life. She would never live this down.
“I don’t think so, Mr Chase. I’m not one of those ‘babes’, and I’d appreciate it if you stopped blocking the door and let me get back to my own room. It’s very late and I’m cold and tired.”
“Call me Nathan,” he said smoothly, ignoring her outburst. “After all, you’re standing naked in my bedroom. Plus, you claim you’re family.”
That did it. At last her long-repressed anger at the absent Nathan Chase came to the fore. She took a deep breath, and then the words erupted. “I am family, you inconsiderate bastard!” she hissed. “If you’d cared enough to come to your sister’s wedding or to the baby’s christening or to any of the Christmas gatherings, or even a single family barbecue, you’d know who I am.”
She had been venting her anger at him for years in her mind. It all came pouring out now. “Do you know that your sister almost canceled her first holiday in three years, just because you’d be staying here for, what, all of six hours? It took all of mine and Thomas’s persuasive skills to convince her to go.” She jabbed her finger into his chest. “And your father’s funeral? No, you were too busy taking snapshots and picking up babes on the other side of the world. And your sister’s wedding? She so wanted you to give her away. Until the last minute she hoped you’d suddenly show up. When you didn’t she walked alone down the aisle and spent half the reception making excuses for you!” She stopped for a breath. “Half her friends think you’re a myth! You didn’t even attend the baby’s christening. Your sister named her daughter after you, but you couldn’t even spare a few hours to visit! She’s almost a year old and you’ve never even seen her! And then you dare show up here, wearing a pair of perverted rabbits, and of course you pick a time when they aren’t even here!”
Nathan was standing still in front of her, body tense, his features stony. Erin closed her mouth, then her eyes. There was silence for a long moment, but she kept her eyes closed, hoping the scene would just vanish and she’d wake up sweating in her bed. This had to be a nightmare.
At last he spoke.
“Perverted rabbits?”
She let out a heavy breath. Obviously, and perhaps unfortunately, her speech hadn’t hurt his feelings. His voice reflected no emotion other than amusement. Nothing she had said meant anything to him. Of course not. If the man had feelings, he wouldn’t behave the way he did towards his own family.
But she had no right to betray Sally’s feelings like that. Her sister-in-law never complained about her brother’s behavior or questioned the validity of his excuses.
She felt something touch her shoulders and realized he had draped his shirt over them. Defeated, she accepted the gesture, and put her arms one at a time in the sleeves, but gave up trying to fasten the buttons while still holding the towel in place.
“Are we discussing the moral message of my socks now?”
The humor in his voice tugged at her mouth, threatening to pull up its corners. She resisted. He would not charm his way around her even if he did everyone else.
“Actually, Erin, you know nothing about me, or my rabbits. And, you know, I believe those creatures are engaging in perfectly normal conduct for the rabbit species.” He began buttoning the shirt for her, without, she conceded, even so much as brushing a finger against her body.
“Nothing perverted about them. There,” he added, fastening the last button. “You’re decent now, Librarian.”
“Right.” She couldn’t believe she had allowed him to dress her like a child. This night had to be the weirdest one of her life. Shaking her head in disbelief, she turned the doorknob. Once again, he stopped her, this time with his fingers circling her wrist.
“You were in my room before I went to sleep, weren’t you? You saw my socks when I was getting undressed.”
She nodded.
“Did you enjoy the show?”
“I was hiding under the bed,” she snapped. “I didn’t see anything except those darn socks!”
“Too bad,” he muttered, “I’ll have to give you a repeat performance some time.” He released her wrist, only to put a finger to her cheek and turn her head so their eyes met. His smile was wicked. “Next time I strip for you, I’ll put more feeling into it.”
Once again, Erin opened her mouth, only to close it again, firmly banishing the tempting mental images to the basement of her mind. He reached towards her again and she jumped. Raising an eyebrow, Nathan reached past her to the door and pulled it open.
“Goodnight, Miss Librarian,” he murmured. “It’s been a pleasure. I’ll take a rain check on that kiss.”
Erin’s anger surged again as she escaped from his room. His door shut quietly behind her a second before she slammed her own door shut and collapsed on the bed.
What a bastard! She slapped her pillow a few times, then grabbed her hairbrush and brushed her hair into shape with quick, angry movements. What an unfeeling bastard! He didn’t care how he hurt his little sister. And grinning all the time, as if this was all one big joke. She threw the hairbrush on the nightstand, the towel across a chair, and crawled into bed. Grateful for its warmth and softness, she pulled the covers up to her chin.
As her anger slowly subsided, that insistent voice in her head reclaimed center stage. Never before had she experienced such an instant attraction to a man. And that to someone she had disliked from afar for years. She groaned, and pulled the covers over her head as she began to wonder what would have happened if she had agreed to that kiss. The kiss that might have happened, she admitted, if he hadn’t roused her fury with that conceited crack about babes.
With a sinking feeling, she refused to let herself wonder. They had not kissed. They never would. Nathan Chase would be gone in the morning, and good riddance.
She turned on her side and punched her pillow into submission, then closed her eyes, determined to put the whole ridiculous episode behind her. He would be gone by the time she woke up and who knew when she would see him again? With any luck she would wake up thinking he was just a dream.
A bad dream.
CHAPTER TWO
COFFEE.
Erin’s nose twitched as she trudged barefoot and yawning out of her room. She smelled coffee. Yes, this was the smell of coffee, a drug she could absolutely use right now. She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. The night had been filled with fragmented dreams as she’d hovered in the twilight zone between sleep and insomnia.
Coffee. The seductive aroma was irresistible. Her nose leading the way, she padded down the stairs.
It wasn’t until she was almost at the bottom of the stairs that she realized the smell of coffee indicated the presence of another person in the house. That other person could only be Nathan. She glanced at her wrist, then slapped the banister in annoyance. Her watch must still be in the bathroom where she had left it before taking that shower last night. A late sleeper, she considered it sacrilege to rise earlier than nine on a Sunday morning, and, considering how late she’d gone to bed last night, it must be close to noon now.
Nathan should be long gone, not sitting in the kitchen drinking the Colombian nectar of the gods.
For a moment she considered going back upstairs to get dressed, but rejected the idea. After all, she was the one house-sitting; he was the overnight guest. And it was not as if her practical cotton nightgowns came close to being seductive.
Coffee.
First coffee, then think.
The morning sun streamed in through the large kitchen window, reflecting off the spotless countertops. She stopped short and stared in disbelief. Spotless they had not been the previous evening. Who had done the dishes? Three days’ worth of dishes? She squinted against the light and looked around. Nathan was sitting in the corner seat, her seat, she thought in annoyance—reading the morning paper, her paper, over a cup of coffee. His coffee, she acknowledged reluctantly.
“Morning,” she mumbled in response to his cheerful greeting and quickly fetched orange juice from the fridge and popped bread in the toaster. She helped herself to a cup of the coffee and gulped half of it down while she made her breakfast and sat down at the table opposite Nathan.
The caffeine didn’t take long to kick in, and as the fog in her mind began to lift she noticed from the corner of her eye that he had put his paper away and was scrutinizing her.
She still hadn’t looked directly at his face. Last night the room had been lit only by moonlight, his face cast in shadows. She knew the shape of his features, the glint of eyes and teeth, the waves of hair, and the silhouette of his body, but she found herself reluctant to look at him in the light of day, to complete the picture.
“I wondered this morning if you had been a dream,” Nathan murmured, laughter edging his voice. “It was you last night, wasn’t it? On the roof? Wearing a skimpy blue towel?”
“The towel was yellow!” she corrected, stung for some reason. So much for an unforgettable experience.
He laughed. “You’re right. The other towel was blue. The one you so graciously gave to me.” He looked her up and down. “Anyway, my shirt becomes you even better than the towel did.”
Erin blinked and looked down at herself. She wasn’t wearing one of her nightgowns after all; she was still wearing Nathan’s shirt, the one he had dressed her in last night.
Heat flushed her cheeks. Her hands went to the buttons of the shirt, as if to return it right away, but her brain managed to stop them in time.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I still had that on,” she muttered. “You’ll get it back today.”
“No hurry. We really got off on the wrong foot last night. Maybe we should start over.”
She made a noncommittal sound. “You haven’t looked at me once. Did I frighten you last night? I’m sorry if I did.”
The man looked even better than his pictures.
Lifting her head, she forced herself to look at his face. Clinically, she ticked his features off one by one. Black hair with the faintest red highlights where the morning sun grazed it. Too long, for her conservative taste, curling towards his collar at the back. Strong chin and cheekbones, firm mouth, curved in what seemed to be a permanent half-smile. Laughter lines around his mouth and eyes. Gritting her teeth, she allowed their gazes to meet. Green eyes. Deep, vibrant green.
Better than the teasing shadow that had haunted her dreams last night.
No wonder that her dreams had revolved around him, she thought, glancing at the soft fabric of his shirt over her breasts. There was something intensely intimate about wearing a man’s shirt to bed.
Mentally she shook herself. Nathan had asked her a question several minutes ago. He might expect an answer.
“You didn’t frighten me,” she told him. “Of course I was scared at first, when I thought someone had broken into the house, but the rest was just embarrassing. I’d just like to forget all about it.”
What was embarrassing was her knowledge of that instant response to him, that pull of attraction towards a man she didn’t know but already disliked.
Nathan chuckled. “It was funny. As I recall, you found it funny too at the time. You almost fell off the roof laughing.” He extended a hand towards her. “Let’s start over. Hello, Erin. I’m Nathan. Nice to meet you.”
Charm on, full impulse, she thought sourly, looking into smiling green eyes filled with confidence and self-assurance. Well, it’s not going to work with me, buddy. I’m not one of your babes. I won’t succumb to that charm of yours again.
Reluctantly she shook his hand, feeling its warmth shoot up her arm with the speed of light. Irritated, she concentrated on her breakfast, answering his few attempts at conversation with one-syllable words. There was no reason to engage in small talk with him. Perhaps she was being rude, but better that than to embarrass herself again.
She put her cup down after finishing the last dregs of coffee and glanced up at the kitchen clock. It was almost eleven. Nathan had stayed almost double the allotted six hours. He would probably leave right after breakfast.
Perhaps she could manage to be civil just for another hour. For Sally’s sake.
Determined to do her best, she straightened up from her slouch and offered him more coffee. With a slight look of surprise, he accepted.
“Sally said you wouldn’t be staying long.”
Nathan took a sip of his coffee, then ran a hand through his hair. “Actually, I will be staying a while.”
“Oh,” she muttered. There must have been a change of plan. She might have to put up with him a bit longer. Without thinking, she sighed.
Nathan raised an eyebrow, the half-smile turning sardonic. “No need to sound as if your world is collapsing. There is room enough in this house for the two of us.”
“Are there no hot opportunities or babes awaiting you?”
He stared at her until she began squirming in her seat.
“You really dislike me, don’t you?” he asked at last. Erin thought his voice reflected boredom more than anything else. She bit her tongue to hold back the angry words, but they fought their way out anyway.
“I love Sally. She is my friend and my brother’s wife. I dislike it when people hurt her.”
Something flickered in his eyes. It could have been guilt or remorse, but she was more inclined to interpret it as irritation or even amusement.
“Has my sister said that I hurt her?”
“She doesn’t need to,” she snapped back. “It is obvious in her face every time she hopes that you will deign to come home and you don’t.”
“I see.”
“What kind of a man misses his own father’s funeral, for God’s sake?”
The outrage in her voice didn’t seem to affect him in the least. He sipped his coffee calmly and did not flinch from her incensed gaze. “I don’t know, Erin. What kind of a man does that and then comes home sporting perverted rabbits on his socks?”
Erin shook her head in disbelief. “Life is just one big joke to you, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely. An attitude I can heartily recommend. It’s the only way to keep your sanity in this world.” He gave her a small smile. “You’ve made your point. I’m an unfeeling bastard. Fine. Can we now agree to a truce while we’re sharing this house?”
“Just how long will you be staying, then?”
“A while.”
“How long is a ‘while’?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll be here at least until after Christmas.” Erin’s refilled cup almost didn’t survive the trip to the table, spilling precious drops on the white surface.
“After Christmas?”
“Yep.” He seemed unfazed by her obvious consternation, calmly mopping up the spilled coffee with a paper towel.
She groaned and hid her face in her hands. This was a disaster. She had been counting on having this time alone, to think things through and to make plans for the baby. She had taken time off this week, just for that purpose.
“I take it that’s a problem for you?”
“Sally said you would only stay the night,” she moaned. “If I’d known you were staying, I could have made other arrangements. I wouldn’t have sublet my apartment.”
The telephone on the wall rang and Erin answered it morosely, thinking that if he were a gentleman he would offer to move out and check into a hotel. After all, it was only a month until Thomas and Sally returned.
Right on cue, it was her sister-in-law, shouting through a tunnel of static, asking if her brother had arrived yet.
“I’m so glad you got to meet Nathan, Erin!” Enthusiasm all but bubbled out of the phone. “Isn’t he terrific?”
“I’m sure he is,” Erin replied diplomatically, and was rewarded by a prolonged long-distance monologue about Nathan’s virtues.
“Is he there? Can I talk to him for a minute?”
“Of course, I’ll get him. Give Thomas and Natalie a hug from me.”
Nathan hardly got a word in edgeways during the short conversation with his sister. His attempts consisted of a few words that were interrupted every time.
She smiled into her coffee. So even Nathan Chase succumbed to the charm of Sally’s bulldozer personality.
With a wry grin, Nathan handed her back the phone and her sister-in-law’s excited voice was again echoing in her ear.
“Hi again, Erin. I told Nathan you would look after him for me, show him around and stuff.”
Erin’s mouth fell open as her accusing gaze flew to Nathan. He shrugged and shook his head, then picked up the paper again and started reading.
