Kate Hewitt - Bad Blood

‘I’m not counting.’ Katie’s heart pounded. Or at least, she didn’t want to be counting. All she knew was that something inside her had changed. That day on the boat when he’d saved the child—that night …

Her heart flipped.

It wasn’t love. Oh, no, no . It couldn’t be love. She wasn’t going to let it be love. Not with this man.

Her stomach churned and she felt slightly sick. How had it happened? Less than two weeks ago she’d been going speed dating with Claire. She’d eaten cereal for every meal. She’d worn brown.

Nathaniel Wolfe had been someone she’d fantasised about from a distance. And now …

She’d never considered herself to be reckless, but suddenly she was in love with a man who lived his life in the spotlight. A complicated man, all hard edges and armour plating.

A man who found it hard to talk about anything, least of all his emotions.

If that wasn’t reckless, she didn’t know what was.

They spent three days working with the kids on the acting project. Three days in which Nathaniel felt himself getting sucked deeper and deeper into the emotional issues he’d always made a point of avoiding. Part of him wanted to walk out and go back to the anonymity of writing big cheques. Instead he found himself talking to Gabriela, discussing ways in which the project could extend the support it offered for children. When a young boy revealed that his father beat him regularly Nathaniel ignored the cold slime that crawled over his skin and listened.

The older ones were harder to connect with. They’d learned to lock it away, as he had .

Any attempt to touch on the subject was met with resistance. ‘So I’ve got secrets.’ The shrug was years older than the boy. ‘Don’t you have secrets?’

Yes, he had secrets. He had secrets he carried with him every day of his life. The past churning inside him, Nathaniel turned his head to look at Katie.

Sensing his gaze, she looked up at him and smiled and the smile cut him like the blade of a razor because he knew there was still so much about him she didn’t know.

What had she said to him? I want to know the real Nathaniel .

She’d barely scratched the surface.

As if to taunt him, he felt the phone in his pocket buzz with another message.

Even without checking, he knew who it was and knowing was enough to shake his mood from light to dark.

Normally when the black clouds descended he chose to do something reckless. A motorbike on a slick road. Free climbing a vertical cliff. Any raw physical challenge that required such concentration that nothing else could intrude.

Anything that helped him to forget …

Riding the anger and the stress, he strode across the room and grabbed Katie, pulling her into his arms. ‘We’re going.’

‘But—’

‘Don’t argue.’ Nathaniel spoke briefly to Gabriela, said goodbye to the children and surprised himself by promising to come back again really soon. Then he propelled Katie into the waiting car and drove straight to the airport.

‘What are you doing?’ Breathless, laughing, she moaned as his lips found hers.

Nathaniel was rough. Hungry. Take me away from this. Make me forget . ‘I don’t have a motorbike here and I don’t feel like climbing a vertical cliff ….’

Her eyes were smoky and soft. ‘Is that supposed to mean something?’

‘We’re going back to Wolfe Island. I’ve had enough of sharing you.’ He savoured her mouth, felt the punch of desire slam through his body, sought oblivion in the warm sweetness. ‘I want you to myself.’

For the first time in his life he wasn’t thinking of ways to end a relationship with a woman. In fact, he was looking for excuses to keep her with him.

He didn’t want to share her with a bunch of children, however deserving.

Katie snuggled against him. ‘And you think I’m going to argue with you? I love the island. And when it’s just the two of us, you don’t act. I get to see the real Nathaniel. No hiding. No secrets.’

No secrets.

Nathaniel felt cold fingers of guilt stroke his spine and the guilt angered him.

There was no reason why he had to tell her everything about himself. All right, so Katie had told him pretty much everything about herself, but that was her choice, wasn’t it? Women were different like that. They liked to spill every thought and every feeling. Living like that would drive him mad. Most of his thoughts and feelings didn’t bear thinking about, let alone repeating.

‘So how long are we staying on the island?’ She was smiling at him, unaware of the conflict of emotions at war inside him.

‘Two days. Then I have to go back to LA for the Sapphire Award ceremony.’

She didn’t say a word but he saw the brightness dim.

‘And you’re coming with me.’ He didn’t know he was going to say the words until they left his mouth. ‘I want you to come with me.’

‘To the Sapphires?’ Her jaw dropped. ‘You can’t be serious.’

‘I’m deadly serious.’ Being with her felt good, he reasoned. She was easy company. Unselfish. Cheerful. And sexy.

Why wouldn’t he want her with him?

It didn’t mean anything.

IT WAS all very well having good intentions. Harder to stick to them when the man you were determined not to fall for was Nathaniel Wolfe.

Katie curled up on the sofa in his private jet, trying to hold hope in check. It wasn’t just the thought of attending the Sapphire ceremony that excited her, it was the knowledge that Nathaniel wanted her with him.

He could have flown her home or left her on the island.

But he’d chosen to invite her. Not a skinny A-list actress with visible hip bones. Her. Katie Field. Costume Designer.

And he was no longer acting when he was with her. He was the real Nathaniel.

‘We’ve extended the acting project—’ he was reading an email from Gabriela ‘—and she says Carlos has been back every day.’

‘That’s great.’ And it was. But what really warmed her was how involved he’d become. Far from shutting himself off, he’d opened himself up.

‘He’s emailed me. Gabriela let him use the connection from her office.’ His smile was tinged with self-mockery. ‘I’m going to regret that one. Never given my private email to a snotty kid before. Next thing, he’s going to want to come and stay with me in LA.’ But there was satisfaction in his voice and a smile on his lips as he tapped a reply.

Katie blinked back the tears that stung her eyes. ‘I think that would be great.’

Nathaniel turned his head slowly and held her gaze. ‘I’m glad I got involved. I wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for you.’ He leaned forward and kissed her. They’d kissed so many times over the past two weeks, and yet this kiss was different. She felt the difference. And so did he.

Lifting his head, he frowned. ‘Katie—’

She waited, her heart in her mouth. She had no idea what he wanted to say but she felt the tension and the shift in the atmosphere.

‘Five minutes to landing.’ The captain’s voice filled the cabin and Nathaniel pulled back from her, his eyes blank.

‘Nothing. We’ve arrived. Welcome to Los Angeles.’

They walked off the plane straight into a heaving crowd of reporters and photographers.

‘Nathaniel? Is it true you saw your brother Jacob on your opening night in London?’

‘Do you have any comment about why you walked off the stage?’

‘Have you spoken to him since that night?’

Shocked by the relentless battering by the press, Katie gripped his hand, horrified that all the things he hated talking about were being flung out there for public consumption. To her it seemed monumentally insensitive and cruel and she wanted to shout at them to leave him alone but she knew that wouldn’t help. They were like a pack of hungry hyenas converging on a juicy carcass. They showed respect for neither privacy nor personal space and she found the crowd and the cameras both threatening and intimidating.