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

‘Oh. Fine,’ she muttered, sitting down abruptly to concentrate all her attention on pouring the coffee. She didn’t want to think about anything else!

‘You’re quite right, Ellie,’ Patrick began softly, ‘it is none of my business just how—intimate your relationship was with Davies. Except…’

She looked up sharply. ‘Yes?’

His gaze was intense on the paleness of her face. ‘Did he hurt you, Ellie?’

She felt the blood drain completely from her cheeks, her hand shook as she held the coffee pot poised over one of the cups.

‘Ellie?’

She drew in a deep breath, swallowed hard, willing herself to carry on pouring the coffee without spilling it. No, Gareth hadn’t hurt her, he had humiliated her. But it wasn’t an incident she particularly wanted to relate to Patrick. It was the reason she knew she had meant absolutely nothing to Gareth—the reason she knew what sort of man he really was…

She gave an over-bright smile, her gaze not quite meeting Patrick’s as she handed him his cup of coffee. ‘It isn’t important, Patrick,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘We’re all agreed that he isn’t a nice person.’

Patrick reached out, his hand covering hers as it rested on the tabletop. ‘Tell me what happened,’ he encouraged huskily.

She closed her eyes, wishing she could shut out the memory of that last time she had been with Gareth but at the same time knowing that she couldn’t.

Gareth called into her office as she was finishing work, suggesting that he drive her home. Things had been rather strained between them the last couple of weeks—forgotten telephone calls, cancelled dates—and she had welcomed this chance to talk to him alone for a while.

Toby was still at work when they arrived back at the house, and almost before Ellie and Gareth were in the door, it seemed, Gareth began to kiss her. But as the kiss deepened, with Gareth’s hands roaming more freely over her body than ever before, Ellie began to pull away from him.

‘Don’t,’ she told him frowningly, at the same time pushing ineffectually at his painful hold about her waist.

He smiled then—a smile like no other Ellie had seen him give, a smile so scornful it made her cringe. ‘That’s always been the trouble with you, Ellie,’ he told her scathingly as he released her so abruptly she staggered slightly. ‘Maybe if you hadn’t been so frigid I wouldn’t have needed to find someone else. As it is…’

Ellie stared at him. She had suspected something; of course she had. Gareth had been far too elusive these last two weeks for her not to have realised that something had gone seriously wrong with their relationship.

Gareth raised blond brows at her stricken expression. ‘Of course, it isn’t too late,’ he drawled suggestively. ‘I could still be persuaded into continuing our relationship. If you were to—’

‘You conceited—!’ Ellie broke off angrily, glaring up at him disgustedly. ‘Let me get this right, Gareth,’ she said evenly, eyes narrowed now. ‘If I’ll agree to go to bed with you then you’ll consider breaking off your other—relationship?’

The fact that he had another relationship had come as a complete shock to her. But she would think about that later. Once Gareth had left. Because he was leaving. Soon!

He smiled. ‘Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far,’ he mocked.

Her eyes widened. ‘You’re suggesting that I become part of some harem?’

‘Of course not, Ellie.’ He chuckled. ‘If everything goes according to plan, I should be getting married soon. But that’s no reason for us to break off our relationship. If things were different between us,’ he added pointedly.

If everything went according to plan! What plan?

She swallowed hard. ‘If the two of us were lovers, you mean?’ she clarified icily.

Gareth shrugged. ‘Well, it would hardly be worth the risk otherwise, now, would it?’

‘Get out,’ Ellie told him shakily, her hand on the table beside her for support; her legs felt so shaky she thought she might fall over otherwise.

‘Now, Ellie, there’s no reason to be like that,’ he cajoled huskily, taking a step towards her.

She straightened, her chin raised challengingly. ‘I said, get out, Gareth, and I meant it. And God help the poor woman you’re planning to marry,’ she added disgustedly.

He had come to a halt some distance away from her. ‘Frigid,’ he repeated scornfully.

Her eyes glazed coldly. ‘You’ll never know,’ she bit out forcefully.

He smiled. ‘But I already do know, Ellie,’ he assured her derisively. ‘Oh, well.’ He shrugged in the face of her stony expression. ‘I made the offer. See you around.’ He raised a hand in farewell before letting himself out of the house.

She turned to Patrick now, having no intention of relating any of that conversation to him. It was bad enough that she still remembered every painfully humiliating word of it, without sharing it with anyone else. Least of all Patrick!

She gave him a dismissive smile. ‘It isn’t important what happened, Patrick,’ she told him lightly. ‘Gareth hurt me with words, that’s all. And as my mother always said, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”,’ she quoted ruefully.

Patrick looked unconvinced. ‘Bones heal; words can never be forgotten.’

How true that was. She hadn’t forgotten a single word Gareth had said to her six weeks ago, whereas a broken finger or wrist would have healed and been dismissed by now.

‘Surely it’s Gareth’s problem if he considers that any woman who doesn’t want to sleep with him must be frigid.’ She shrugged.

Grey eyes widened. ‘He actually said that? To you?’ Patrick sounded incredulous.

Ellie gave him a disgruntled frown. ‘Yes, he said that to me,’ she repeated irritably.

Patrick chuckled softly. ‘You’re right, Ellie.’ He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘He isn’t important,’ he explained at her questioning look. ‘He obviously didn’t get to know you very well at all, did he?’ he added derisively.

‘Exactly what do you mean by that remark?’ she demanded defensively.

He looked at her consideringly before answering. ‘Ellie, you are one of the warmest, most responsive women I have ever had the pleasure to meet.’

Her cheeks coloured hotly. It was no good denying what he said; her response to him whenever he touched her was undeniable.

‘I’ll tell you something else,’ Patrick added huskily as he stood up to move round the table and pull her unresistingly to her feet. ‘I’m glad Davies never got close enough to you to discover that for himself,’ he murmured throatily, before bending to lightly brush Ellie’s lips with his own.

So was she.

She hadn’t always felt that way, had wondered in the days and then weeks that had followed Gareth’s abrupt departure from her life whether she could indeed be frigid. But she only had to be in the same room with Patrick to be completely aware of him, and when she was actually in his arms like this…!

No, she wasn’t frigid. She was just a woman who only responded to the right man. The right man for her. Because, although he was unsuitable in every other way—rich, powerful, successful, completely removed from her own lifestyle—she knew she had fallen in love with Patrick McGrath.

She had been fighting that knowledge for some time now, refusing to allow the thought to even enter her head. But alone here with him in the silence of her kitchen, held in his arms, their two bodies moulded perfectly together, she could no longer deny how she felt about him.

To herself, at least.

To Patrick it was another matter!

‘Well, I’m relieved to hear it,’ she told him lightly, at the same time moving determinedly out of his arms. ‘Maybe there’s hope for me after all,’ she added with deliberate self-derision.

Patrick’s gaze followed her frowningly. ‘Ellie—’