For Christmas, Forever: The Yuletide Engagement / The Doctor's Christmas Bride / Snowbound Reunion

He grimaced. ‘I realise that you’re in love with me, Ellie, but—’

‘You realise no such thing!’ Ellie interrupted heatedly, knowing that briefly she might have thought herself in love with this man. But it had only been briefly. She was most certainly over whatever she had once felt for him! ‘If I’m in love with anyone, it most certainly isn’t you,’ she added scathingly.

Gareth’s gaze narrowed. ‘McGrath?’

She didn’t know what she felt for Patrick—had spent most of the last twenty-four hours determinedly not giving herself time to even think along those lines.

Her chin rose challengingly. ‘And what if it is?’

He gave a pitying shake of his head. ‘Then you’re wasting your time there more than you were with me,’ he scorned. ‘Delusions of grandeur!’ he added nastily.

‘And what about you?’ Ellie flushed angrily—more so because she knew what he said was true. ‘Isn’t Sarah Delacorte just as much out of your league as Patrick is out of mine?’

‘Ah, but I’ve already succeeded with Sarah,’ he reminded her confidently.

‘Not for long, if I have my way,’ Ellie snapped furiously. ‘You—Let go of my arm, Gareth!’ she gasped as he grasped her painfully on exactly the same spot he had the previous evening. And she had the bruises to prove it!

He ignored her, maintaining his grip, his face very close to hers now, his eyes glittering angrily. ‘Don’t try and mess this up for me, Ellie,’ he warned softly. ‘Because if you do—’

‘Everything all right, Ellie?’

It was Toby who came to Ellie’s rescue this time. Gareth released her in time for her to turn and see her brother strolling across the hallway to join them.

‘Davies,’ he greeted the other man coolly before turning to look at Ellie concernedly.

Ellie had a good idea what he would see too; she was both shocked and dismayed by Gareth’s verbal attack on her, and the bruises on her arm were hurting.

‘Ellie, Patrick was looking for you so that you can go into the buffet together,’ Toby said softly. ‘I think you should go and join him,’ he added firmly.

She didn’t want to rejoin Patrick; she just wanted to leave, to go home and lick her wounds—literally. Her arm really was throbbing, adding to the discomfort of the bruises already there.

‘I’ll just stay here and have a few quiet words with Gareth,’ Toby continued lightly, before turning to the other man. ‘I don’t think I’ve congratulated you on your engagement yet, have I?’

Ellie left them to it. These confrontations with Gareth were unpleasant as well as nerve-shattering. Although Patrick seemed to be right in his surmise that she only needed to appear in order to upset Gareth’s selfconfidence. She just wasn’t sure she was up to the effect these meetings were having on her own self-confidence!

Patrick was frowning darkly as she joined him by the window. ‘Where on earth have you been?’ he snapped. ‘I finished talking to my parents long ago. I—What is it?’ he probed concernedly when Ellie’s eyes misted over with tears. ‘Ellie…?’ He lightly clasped her arm.

Ellie gasped at this added pressure on a spot that already felt black and blue, biting her bottom lip as her tears became tears of pain.

Patrick instantly released her when he realised he was hurting her. ‘Ellie, where have you been?’ he asked slowly. ‘And why does your arm hurt?’

She shook her head, desperately blinking back the tears; she didn’t want to make a complete fool of herself—and Patrick—in front of his family. ‘I bumped into Gareth in the hallway—’

‘That’s how you hurt your arm?’ he ground out suspiciously, eyes narrowed to steely slits.

‘Not exactly,’ she conceded awkwardly. ‘You see, I still have bruises there from last night, when he grabbed me, and—’

‘Davies hurt you?’ Patrick bit out, dangerously soft.

‘I don’t suppose he meant to,’ she lied—knowing from the expression on Gareth’s face earlier that he would greatly enjoy strangling her for what he saw as her interference! ‘You see—’

‘Yes, I do see, Ellie,’ Patrick ground out harshly, his narrowed gaze searching as he looked across the room towards the door. ‘Here’s Toby,’ he rasped. ‘I want you to stay here with him—while I go and have a few words with my so-called future cousin-in-law!’

‘Patrick, no—’ But she was too late. He had already left her side, muttering a few words to her brother in passing before going out into the hallway himself.

This was awful! She deplored Sarah’s choice of future husband, knew Gareth for exactly what he was, but the last thing Ellie wanted was to cause trouble at Sarah’s engagement party. And she was pretty sure, from the grim expression on Patrick’s face as he’d left her side, that there was going to be trouble!

Toby smiled as he reached her. ‘Patrick wants me to take you in to the buffet; he’s going to join us in a few minutes.’

Maybe this was the reason Toby had accompanied them to the party—this way Patrick had ensured that she was never left alone. Except she had been…

‘Toby, Patrick is going to find Gareth and, from the looks of him, hit him,’ she said agitatedly, staring anxiously towards the direction in which Patrick had so recently disappeared.

‘So?’ Toby prompted unconcernedly.

‘Toby—’

‘Ellie,’ he cut in firmly. ‘I would have hit the man myself if I hadn’t thought the bruises might show, but I had to settle for a few choice words instead. And talking of bruises…’ He looked down at her searchingly. ‘Patrick said something about Gareth having hurt you just now?’

She sighed her impatience, wishing she hadn’t given away the fact that her arm was bruised beneath the sleeve of her dress. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed. ‘What matters is that Patrick is going to make a scene.’ Her eyes were wide with distress at the thought.

Toby gave a confident shake of his head. ‘Patrick never makes a scene,’ her brother assured her dryly.

No, he probably didn’t—could probably get his point over by talking in that softly dangerous voice she had heard him use just now. But, nevertheless, she doubted Gareth would just meekly stand there and take whatever Patrick had to say to him.

‘Come on, sis,’ Toby encouraged lightly. ‘Let’s go through to the other room and get some food.’

The last thing Ellie felt like doing was eating! How could she even think about food when Patrick and Gareth might even now be at each other’s throats?

She hung back. ‘I just want to go home, Toby.’ She sighed. ‘In fact, after tonight I need to rethink my whole life,’ she added frowningly.

After tonight she wasn’t even sure she could go on working in the same building with Gareth, let alone anything else. If Gareth could be this threatening in the midst of his future in-laws, what possible chance did she stand of avoiding his wrath at the office?

She had worked for Delacorte, Delacorte and Delacorte since leaving school at eighteen, had been steadily promoted through the firm, until she’d become George’s personal secretary four years ago. It was a job she greatly enjoyed. At least, she had. The last couple of months, with the chance of bumping into Gareth around every corner, hadn’t been quite so much fun. And after this evening it promised to get worse!

Toby frowned. ‘I don’t think you need to do anything drastic just yet, Ellie,’ he cautioned. ‘Give Patrick a bit more time to resolve the situation, hmm?’

She gave a wry smile. ‘You have great confidence in your employer!’

Her brother gave a rueful shrug. ‘I’ve never seen Patrick at the losing end of a fight yet.’

No, she could believe that; Patrick had the air of a man completely confident in his own abilities. But this situation was too personal, too close to home, to be dealt with like the business deals he was usually involved with.

‘Hello, Ellie,’ Sarah greeted her brightly, looking exceptionally beautiful in the green dress she had bought earlier that afternoon. ‘You don’t happen to have seen my fiancé about anywhere, do you?’ she added ruefully.

Ellie felt the colour drain from her cheeks. ‘Er—’

‘He was outside talking to Patrick when I last saw him.’ Toby was the one to answer. ‘I’m Ellie’s brother Toby, by the way,’ he added lightly, holding out his hand in friendly greeting.