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

He shot her a sideways glance. ‘So we don’t starve?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘You’re repeating yourself again, Ellie,’ he mused teasingly. ‘I’m inviting you out to dinner on Tuesday evening,’ he explained lightly.

Ellie’s frown deepened. ‘But—’

‘Ellie, will you or will you not have dinner with me on Tuesday evening?’ Patrick cut in patiently.

‘Well, of course. I’ve already told you I’ll do everything I can to help—’

‘This is dinner with me, Ellie.’ He parked the car in the driveway and turned in his seat to look at her. ‘No one else. Well…I suppose there will be other people in the restaurant. But they will have nothing to do with us. Have I made myself clear now?’

If she understood this correctly, Patrick had just invited her out on a date!

He gave a smile at her perplexed expression. ‘I believe it’s usual to invite your escort in for coffee at the end of the evening.’

Ellie was still so dazed by his invitation out to dinner on Tuesday that she did ask him in, getting out of the car to unlock the front door of the house and lead the way in to the kitchen.

‘Leave that for a minute,’ Patrick murmured softly, and he took the coffee pot out of her hand, turning her to face him. ‘I want to see the bruises on your arms,’ he told her grimly as he removed the wrap from her shoulders.

She felt the colour warm her cheeks as he turned the sleeves back on her dress. There was a huge thumb-print-size bruise on the front of each arm, one already turning a sickly yellow, the new one a blue-black. Ellie stood still as Patrick walked around to look at the back of her arm, hearing the angry hiss that followed.

‘I should have hit him while I had the chance,’ Patrick snapped angrily. ‘Damn it—I’ve a good mind to go back to the party right now and hit him anyway!’ he bit out harshly.

Ellie shook her head as she pulled the sleeves back down over her arms. ‘He really isn’t important.’

‘No, he isn’t,’ Patrick agreed abruptly as he moved to stand beside her, his eyes gleaming metallic grey. ‘But I have no intention of just standing by while he hurts you.’

She gave a self-derisive laugh. ‘You’re a little late in the day to prevent him doing that!’

Patrick stepped back, watching her with hooded eyes as she prepared the coffee. ‘Did you love him very much?’

‘Not at all,’ she answered with complete honesty. ‘Oh, I may have thought I did for a while. But I was just—flattered by his attention, I suppose. Believe it or not, he can be very charming when he wants to be.’ Besides, she already knew that the way Patrick made her feel, just by being in the same room as her, was far deeper than anything she might have thought she felt for Gareth!

‘I’m sure he can,’ Patrick dismissed scathingly.

‘No—really.’ She gave a self-conscious laugh.

It was strangely intimate in the quiet of the kitchen—the muted light under the kitchen cupboards the only illumination, the only sound the drip, drip of the coffee percolator.

Patrick’s eyes were mesmerizing now as he looked down at her, obliquely black, ringed with silver. ‘Dinner on Tuesday?’ he prompted huskily.

‘Er—Well—Yes,’ she agreed awkwardly, still unsure as to the reason for his invitation. ‘Although—’

‘Just a yes will do,’ Patrick assured her mockingly, his arms moving lightly about her waist. ‘I would like to see you relaxed and enjoying yourself for a change,’ he added frowningly.

If he thought she was going to be relaxed in his company then he was mistaken! Although she would enjoy spending the evening with him. If she knew the reason for it…

But he was standing so close now she couldn’t even think straight, let alone try to rationalise his dinner invitation. Her heart was beating erratically, her breathing shallow as she looked up into the handsome ruggedness of his face.

‘You look extremely lovely tonight, Ellie,’ he told her huskily.

‘You said that earlier,’ she reminded him breathlessly.

He smiled, his eyes crinkling warmly at the corners. ‘Some things need to be repeated.’ His hands linked at the base of her spine and he moulded her body lightly against his, his head bending slightly as his lips moved teasingly across hers.

She had forgotten to breathe again, felt as if time itself were standing still. Only her hands resting on the broadness of Patrick’s shoulders prevented her from actually falling down.

‘You have a very kissable mouth, Ellie Fairfax,’ Patrick murmured huskily as he took little sips from her lips. ‘A very sensuous neck,’ he whispered as his lips moved down the silky column of her throat. ‘Divine breasts—’

‘I think perhaps you should stop there, Patrick, don’t you?’ Ellie moved awkwardly in his arms, very aware of the sudden pertness of those ‘divine breasts’, the nipples hard against the silky material of her dress.

He straightened, his head tilted to one side as he regarded her quizzically. ‘Why do I get the impression you’re an innocent?’ he murmured ruefully.

‘Probably because I am!’ Ellie admitted uncomfortably as she extricated herself from his arms, at the same time looking up at him irritably. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that,’ she added sharply.

Patrick’s smile deepened. ‘Did I say there was?’

‘You looked as if there was,’ she snapped defensively.

He shook his head, still smiling. ‘I don’t think so, Ellie.’

Well…okay, maybe he hadn’t. But he certainly seemed surprised to meet a twenty-seven-year-old virgin!

Maybe it was odd at that; Ellie really wouldn’t know. It wasn’t something she had ever discussed with any of the women she worked with.

She had been out with several boys of her own age up to the age of nineteen, but after her parents had died she had been too busy trying to keep a home for Toby and herself—hadn’t really had much time to think about relationships. Which was probably the reason she had fallen for Gareth’s charm six months ago!

But in the face of Patrick’s sophistication, his obvious experience when it came to women, she must seem rather gauche and naïve.

Well, tough! She had no intention of pretending an experience she just didn’t have. And that included appearing sophisticated in the face of Patrick’s appreciative comments on her body!

‘Coffee, Ellie,’ he reminded her lightly, moving to sit down at the kitchen table.

‘Of course.’ She moved economically about the kitchen, getting out the cups, cream and sugar, all the time avoiding Patrick’s gaze, but knowing it followed her every movement.

‘Did Davies—? Steady,’ Patrick soothed as a spoon landed on the floor with a clatter when Ellie just dropped it.

She bent to pick it up, her face averted so that he shouldn’t see the heated colour in her cheeks.

‘Ellie?’

Just that. Her name. Nothing else. But it was said compellingly enough for Ellie to know he wanted her to look across at him. And she did exactly that. The steadiness of his gaze as he looked at her wordlessly was as forceful as Ellie had known it would be.

‘What do you want to know, Patrick?’ she snapped impatiently, picking up the tray of coffee things only to put it down noisily on the kitchen table. ‘Whether Gareth and I came close to being lovers?’ she bit out sarcastically. ‘What business is it of yours if we did?’ she added challengingly, blue eyes bright with anger as she glared down at him.

‘Black, no sugar,’ he told her economically. ‘My preference for coffee,’ he explained mildly at her blank look.