His Until Midnight by Nikki Logan Read Free Book Online Page A

lips was all it took; her mind filled then with every carnal thought about him she’d ever suppressed. They burst out just as surely as if someone took the lid off the tank holding all those dragonflies captive, releasing them to fill the room and ricochet off the walls. It took all her concentration to force them back into the lead-lined box where she usually kept them.
    ‘Seriously, what’s the worst that could happen? If I made a move on you, you’d only have to say no.’
    Her lips tightened even further. ‘It would be awkward,’ she squeezed out.
    His snort drew the glance of the maître d’. ‘Whereas this conversation is such a pleasure.’
    ‘I don’t think your sarcasm is warranted, Oliver.’
    ‘Really? Your inference is that I would make some kind of fool of myself the very moment you’re available.’ Disbelief was wiggling itself a stronghold in his features. ‘How new do you imagine I am to women, Audrey?’
    He was so close to the truth now, she didn’t dare speak. But that just gave him an empty stage to continue his monologue. And he was getting right into the part.
    ‘I’m curious. Do you see me as pathetically desperate—’ his whisper could have cut glass ‘—or is it just that you imagine yourself as so intensely desirable?’
    Hurt speared straight down into that place where she kept the knowledge that she was the last sort of woman he’d want to be with. ‘Stop it—’
    But no. He was in flight.
    ‘Maybe it wouldn’t be that way at all. I’m considered quite a catch, you know. They even have a nickname for me. Could your crazy view of the world cope with the fact that I could make a move and you wouldn’t be able to say no? Or want to?’
    There was no way on this planet that he wouldn’t see the sudden blanche of her face. The blood dropped from it as surely as if the sixty floors below them suddenly vaporised.
    And finally he fell silent.
    Stupid, blind, lug of a man.
    Audrey stood and turned to stare at the dragonflies, her miserable arms curled protectively around her midsection where the intense ache was still resident. It was that or fling her hands up to her mortified face. Beyond the glass, the other diners carried on, oblivious to the agony swelling up to press with such intent against her chest wall.
    ‘Is that it?’ Oliver murmured behind her after a mute eternity. ‘Is that why you don’t want to be here?’
    Mortification twisted tighter in her throat. She raised a finger to trace the glass-battering of a particularly furious dragonfly wedged in the corner of the tank who hadn’t yet given up on its dream of freedom. ‘I’m sure you think it’s hilarious.’
    The carpet was too thick and too new to betray his movement, but she saw his reflection loom up behind her. Over her. He stopped just before they touched.
    ‘I would never laugh at you,’ he said, low and earnest. ‘And I would never throw your feelings back in your face. No matter what they were.’
    She tossed her hair back a little. Straightened a little more. She might be humiliated but she would not crawl. ‘No. I’m sure you’ve had prior experience with the inconvenient attachment of women.’
    That was what made the whole thing so intensely humiliating. That she was just one of dozens—maybe hundreds—to fall for the Harmer allure.
    ‘I care for you, Audrey.’
    ...but...
    It had to be only a breath away. ‘Oh, please. Save it for someone who doesn’t know you so well.’
    The soberness in his voice increased. ‘I do care for you.’
    ‘Not enough to come to my husband’s funeral.’ She spun. Faced him. ‘Not enough to be there for your friend in the hardest week of her life when she was lost and overwhelmed and so bloody confused.’ She reached for her handbag on the empty seat at the end of the table. ‘Forgive me for suspecting that our compassion-meters aren’t equally calibrated.’
    With a deft swing, she had the handbag and all its contents over her shoulder and she