Carole Mortimer - Mistletoe Magic

Molly didn’t see him leave. One glance at the ceiling above her head revealed that there was indeed a spider. A huge one!

She shot off the bed so fast she almost fell over, staring in horrified fascination at the long-legged, fat-bodied insect.

Swine!

Rotter!

Sadist!

And she wasn’t referring to the spider!

THE phrase ‘you look like hell’ came to mind as Molly looked at herself in the dressing-table mirror the following morning. Her hair stood out in a wild tumble of curls and her face pale, with dark shadows beneath her eyes.

It wasn’t just any morning, either; it was Christmas Eve.

But she had never felt less like Christmas than she did at this moment. She had spent a sleepless night, alternately looking at the spider or thinking of the things Gideon had said to her the previous evening.

He really believed she’d had an affair with his brother James behind Crys’s back.

For one thing, she hadn’t felt that way about James—had only ever looked on him as a friend. For another, Crys was her best friend; there was no way Molly could ever have betrayed that friendship, even if she had been in love with James, by sneaking behind Crys’s back and having an affair with him.

But if Gideon ever chose to tell Crys of that morning when he had arrived at the apartment Crys had shared with James, and found Molly in residence, her only clothing one of James’s shirts, would her friend be able to believe in her complete innocence?

Molly would assure her that James had only ever been her friend. But in light of that night Molly had once spent at the married couple’s apartment, while Crys had been away, the night Gideon was aware of, too, would Crys still believe in her innocence?

Gideon had contemptuously assured her he had no intention of ever telling Crys about that night, that he had no desire to hurt her or to ever see her hurt, but would he continue to feel that way if it no longer suited his own plans?

Unhappily, the conclusion Molly had come to during the long sleepless night had been that she simply didn’t know the answer to that question. Despite her aversion to going anywhere near the man ever again, she would have to speak to Gideon on the subject.

But not until she had done something about the way she looked.

And she did try. She washed her hair and styled it until it was silkily gleaming on her shoulders, applied make-up to hide her paleness and those dark shadows beneath her eyes, even chose her clothes carefully: a burnt-orange-coloured blouse teamed with fitted black denims. It was just that none of those things could hide the fact that she looked and felt thoroughly exhausted from all the thinking she had done during the night.

Oh, damn the man—and his suspicious mind. If it weren’t for both those things she would be enjoying a warm family Christmas with Crys, Sam and the baby, just as she had envisaged when she’d accepted their invitation to stay.

‘Last again?’ Gideon taunted the moment she entered the kitchen, shortly after nine o’clock.

He would have to be the first person she saw this morning—and he wasn’t alone, either. Crys was sitting at the kitchen table with him.

The latter turned to smile warmly at Molly as she walked over to pour herself some coffee from the pot. ‘Sam and David have taken Peter and Merlin for a walk to give me a few minutes’ break; Peter was cranky all night—didn’t seem to want to settle.’ She grimaced affectionately.

‘I know the feeling.’ Molly nodded, sipping her hot coffee, her brooding gaze daring Gideon to come back with another one of his barbed comments after the total inaccuracy of his initial statement; they both knew that David had been the last down the previous morning.

Crys at once looked concerned. ‘Sam said there was a spider in your bedroom last night,’ she sympathised.

Molly looked coldly at Gideon now. ‘There was,’ she confirmed flatly. And that sadistic swine had left her alone in her bedroom with it all night.

He returned her gaze steadily, the blandness of his expression giving away none of his emotions or thoughts.

In Molly’s opinion he didn’t have any of the former, and far too much of the latter.

‘Lucky that Gideon was able to deal with it for you.’ Crys nodded happily.

The only thing Gideon had dealt with was his own need to tell Molly exactly what he thought of her—before leaving her alone with that monster spider!

‘Wasn’t it?’ she returned noncommittally, no longer even looking at Gideon, just too tired to cope with any more of his scorn, even in a look. ‘Could I borrow your car to go into town this morning?’ She turned to Crys. ‘I still have a little last-minute shopping to do.’

It had also occurred to her some time during the sleepless night that, as she hadn’t known they were going to be here over the holiday period, she didn’t have presents to give to either David or Gideon tomorrow morning.

Not that she particularly wanted to get Gideon a Christmas present, unless it was a bottle of arsenic, but it would certainly look odd if she bought something for everyone else and deliberately excluded him.

There was no help for it; she would have to buy him a present, too. Something completely impersonal, she had finally decided—like a one-way ticket to the North Pole. He would certainly feel at home there, amongst all that ice and snow.

‘I’m driving into town myself this morning.’ Gideon was the one to answer her. ‘So you may as well come in with me.’

Molly’s eyes widened in horror at the thought of spending any more time alone with this man while she felt so tired and vulnerable. And she made no effort to hide the emotion when he looked at her mockingly.

‘What a wonderful idea!’ Thankfully Crys had turned to look at Gideon and didn’t see Molly’s response to the suggestion. ‘Perhaps you wouldn’t mind picking up a newspaper and my order from the butcher’s while you’re there?’

‘Glad to,’ Gideon assured her smoothly.

‘Great.’ Crys grinned as she stood up. ‘I’ll just go and get the list.’ She hurried from the room.

Oh, yes, just great, Molly echoed heavily in her thoughts, knowing it had been taken for granted that she would accept Gideon’s offer to drive her into town.

And why not? Ordinarily it would be the normal thing to do. It was just that there was nothing in the least ‘ordinary’ about the emotions that passed like electric volts between Gideon and herself.

‘You look tired this morning.’

It was a statement, not a question, and a totally unwelcome one as far as Molly was concerned. Once again she looked up to glare at Gideon. ‘And whose fault is that, do you think?’ she challenged tartly.

He grimaced. ‘From the accusation in your tone, I gather that it’s mine…?’

Her eyes flashed deeply brown. ‘You gather correctly. You—’

‘Here we are.’ Crys bustled back into the room with the appropriate list. ‘It’s the shop in the square—not the one down the street,’ she added lightly, not seeming in the least aware of the tension in the kitchen between Molly and Gideon.

And why should she be? Molly reasoned ruefully. As Gideon had already pointed out, as far as any of the family were concerned the two of them had only met for the first time at the christening.

‘I’m sure that between the two of us we’ll manage to find it,’ Gideon assured her as he stood up. ‘Hmm, Molly?’ he prompted pointedly.

Molly felt a small shock run through her body as he called her by her first name, sure that it was the first time he had done so in the last two days. Not that it had sounded in the least warm or familiar—just slightly alien coming from this particular man.