Carole Mortimer - Mistletoe Magic

‘I don’t think so.’ Gideon reached out and easily caught her wrist as her hand would have made contact with one of his cheeks. ‘In fact…’ he muttered grimly, and his head lowered and his mouth took possession of hers.

Molly was so stunned by the unexpected kiss that for several long seconds she merely stood transfixed in his arms, his body hard against the softness of hers as his mouth explored hers with complete thoroughness.

Cold thoroughness…

That was what brought her to her senses, what stopped her from responding. Because, to her intense dismay, she actually wanted to respond.

Somewhere in the course of the last twenty-four hours—and she couldn’t for the life of her imagine when it could have been—she had become attracted to Gideon Webber!

It couldn’t have been when he was tormenting her. Nor when he was being sarcastic. After all, despite her earlier unfortunate love affair, she wasn’t a complete masochist, and certainly hadn’t deliberately allowed herself to become attracted to such an arrogantly impossible man. But for some reason she had done so anyway…

Which was why he had to stop kissing her!

‘No!’ She pulled sharply away to object, pushing away from him as his arms momentarily tightened about her.

Gideon looked down at her with hooded blue eyes. ‘No?’

‘No,’ she repeated firmly, glaring up at him. ‘I’m well aware of what you think of me, Gideon—’

‘Are you?’ he taunted, his arms dropping back to his sides as he slowly stepped away from her. ‘Somehow I doubt that very much,’ he added harshly.

Molly easily met that contemptuous gaze. ‘I would have to be a complete idiot not to know,’ she snapped. ‘And, no matter what you may think to the contrary, I am not an idiot! For some reason you have decided I’m some sort of femme fatale—’

‘For some reason?’ he repeated scathingly, shaking his head disgustedly. ‘I didn’t imagine you that morning at James’s apartment. Or the fact that you were completely naked underneath the shirt you were wearing—James’s shirt,’ he added pointedly. ‘Two pretty good reasons for deciding something, wouldn’t you say?’ He eyed her contemptuously.

Molly gasped, could feel the flush in her cheeks. ‘If taken at face value, yes. But—’

‘What other way is there to take them?’ Gideon cut in scornfully. ‘You aren’t trying to tell me that it was just coincidental that Crys was away at the time on a promotional tour for the publication of her newest cookery book?’

Molly looked at him wordlessly for several long seconds. He really did think…

She dropped down abruptly onto the bed, staring up at him disbelievingly. She knew he had a bad opinion of her, but…

She shook her head dazedly. ‘Didn’t you ever talk to James about that morning? Didn’t you ask him?’

‘No, I never spoke to James about it,’ Gideon cut in harshly. ‘And I didn’t ask him anything, either. What I did do was tell him what an idiot he was for risking his marriage to Crys over a brief affair with someone like you,’ he concluded grimly.

Molly felt numb—couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, could only stare at Gideon Webber in stunned disbelief. It had never occurred to her…

‘So there you have it,’ Gideon continued when she made no reply. ‘Was this what you wanted when you suggested the two of us talk—all of this out in the open, with no more need for even cursory politeness between the two of us?’

‘I wasn’t aware that there had been much of that anyway,’ Molly felt stung into replying, still stunned at what this man was accusing her of. He believed she’d had an affair with his brother James!

His mouth twisted humourlessly. ‘There is in front of Crys and Sam,’ he snapped. ‘Crys obviously knows nothing about you and James—’

‘There was no me and James!’ she cried protestingly, at the same time knowing that on the evidence this man had, her protest sounded hollow, to say the least. Even if it was the truth.

His top lip curled contemptuously. ‘Obviously nothing James felt important enough to need to make any deathbed confession to Crys.’ Gideon gave a disgusted shake of his head. ‘That’s something to be grateful for, at least!’

‘But…’

‘But I know. And you know,’ Gideon continued hardly. ‘Let’s just leave it at that, hmm?’

Molly’s eyes widened disbelievingly. ‘You surely don’t think that I would ever—’

‘Who knows what you’re capable of?’ he cut in disgustedly. ‘From what I can gather, Crys is your best friend—and yet you felt no compunction about taking advantage of her absence from the marital home to jump into bed with her husband.’

This was incredible. Unbelievable. Oh, it certainly went a long way towards explaining Gideon’s behaviour towards her—it was just totally inaccurate as to what had really happened just over three years ago.

‘There’s only one positive thing that I can see about this situation,’ Gideon continued hardly.

‘There’s a positive to all this?’ Molly echoed dazedly.

‘Oh, yes.’ Gideon nodded with grim satisfaction.

She blinked. ‘And that would be…?’

Those dark blue eyes gleamed with that same satisfaction. ‘Crys is now married to your stepbrother. A situation that would certainly alter if you were ever to feel the need to clear your own conscience. Crys would find it very difficult to stay married to the brother of the woman who had an affair with her first husband.’

‘Now just a minute—’

‘I’ve wasted all the time that I’m going to tonight,’ Gideon rasped with a dismissive shake of his head.

On her, that was, Molly acknowledged numbly. This was worse, so much worse than she could ever have imagined. Oh, she had known there had to be a reason behind Gideon’s complete contempt for her, had guessed that it probably had something to do with finding her in James’s apartment that morning just over three years ago, but she had never imagined…

‘Be warned, Molly,’ Gideon added harshly. ‘I won’t ever let you do or say anything that will hurt Crys. Is that understood?’ he prompted determinedly.

She swallowed hard. ‘Perfectly.’ She nodded, wondering if he weren’t being just a little hypocritical. His protectiveness of Crys—erroneous as it might be in her own case—seemed to indicate more than just ex-brother-in-law affection on his own part.

Not that she was particularly interested in that; it was his belief of her own behaviour that was so disturbing.

Crys had been, and still was, Molly’s best friend. And Molly had known James for some time before introducing Crys to him; James had been one of her best friends, too. But that was all he had ever been: her friend.

Not that she thought this man was about to believe that for a moment. He had formed an opinion of her on one brief meeting. A bad opinion. And the only way to even try to explain herself was to give him an explanation of a time in her life she would rather forget. An explanation he was unlikely to believe in any case.

‘Good,’ Gideon bit out with satisfaction. ‘In that case, I have nothing further to say to you. Except—’

‘Please,’ Molly protested weakly, putting up a shaking hand to the temple that had started to throb painfully. ‘I’ve already heard enough of your insults for one evening.’ She sighed heavily.

Gideon paused on his way to the bedroom door. ‘Oh, I wasn’t about to insult you again, Molly,’ he assured her lightly.

‘No?’ she said disbelievingly.

‘No,’ he said derisively. ‘I was about to tell you that I’d lied about dealing with the spider. It’s on the ceiling directly above your head. Have a good night!’ he added tauntingly, before letting himself out of the bedroom.