yourself as much if not more than I was this morning.’
For a moment, Cory could not even remember who Mrs Stratton was.
‘Indeed,’ he said, when memory had returned. ‘She was trying to persuade me to take part in Lady Sally’s watercolour book.’
Rachel laughed. ‘No doubt you were more receptive to her persuasions than you were to mine?’
‘I was probably less outspoken with her,’ Cory said, ‘but the outcome was the same.’
Rachel leaned over to take her final shot. Cory moved until he was very close to her, their bodies just touching. Rachel shifted away. Cory moved imperceptibly after her. She looked up, her face red.
‘Stop it! You are doing it on purpose!’
‘Doing what?’ Cory asked innocently.
‘Trying to put me off,’ Rachel said crossly.
Cory smiled. ‘My proximity has never disturbed your game before,’ he pointed out.
‘Well, it does now!’ Rachel bit her lip. ‘Kindly stand further off.’
Cory moved away obediently, keeping his gaze on her face. There was a militant light in Rachel’s eye, but beneath it he could see her uncertainty. His physical presence had not troubled her in the past. Probably she had not even been aware of it or aware of him. Yet since he had joined the excavation in Suffolk the awareness between them had been so sharp that it struck sparks. Cory intended to keep it that way. There would be no settling back into a comfortable friendship now.
Rachel hit the ball far too hard, jamming her cue into the top of the table. The ball leapt, jumping off the end of the table and bouncing on to the wooden floor. Cory heard Rachel swear, which in itself was a most unusual occurrence. He picked the ball up and held it out to her.
‘Would you like another go?’
Rachel was struggling to control her temper. She looked like an infuriated child.
‘No, thank you. And if you sabotage me again like that you will feel my cue between your ribs!’
Cory caught hold of her arm, pulling her close to him. He could sense the genuine distress beneath her childish anger and it was like a blow to the heart.
‘Pax, Rachel,’ he said. ‘I am sorry.’
She looked up at him and he could see the conflict in her expression. She was aware that something had changed between them but she did not understand what was happening to them. Swiftly, briefly, unable to resist, Cory lowered his head and kissed her. It was not much different from the comforting caresses he had occasionally offered to Rachel when she had been younger and had bumped her knee. The images in his head were of consolation and reassurance, but such thoughts fled as his lips touched hers and the kiss transformed itself into something entirely different. Rachel’s lips parted for him with a trusting innocence that incited a rush of desire and swept all memories away. Suddenly he was kissing her with a fierce heat that almost pushed all common sense beyond his reach. Rachel’s lips were soft and helplessly accepting beneath his and he drove one hand into her hair to hold her still so that he could plunder the sweetness still further.
The billiards cue fell with a clatter beside them and they both jumped. Cory let Rachel go so suddenly that she almost fell and had to put out an instinctive hand to steady herself against the billiard table.
‘Sorry,’ Cory said. He caught Rachel’s arm to help her regain her balance, flinching as he saw the way she pulled away from him.
‘I’m sorry, Rachel,’ he said again. He did not regret what he had done, but he was obliged to admit that he could have shown considerably more finesse.
Rachel’s eyes were blank for a moment, then expression slowly returned to them. She put up a hand and touched her lips gently. ‘What…what was that?’
Cory felt his stomach drop at the bewildered note in her voice. ‘That,’ he said, ‘was a kiss between friends.’
Rachel nodded slowly. ‘I remember you saying the other night that a kiss between friends was a mistake. Now that it has happened, do you think it is true?’
Cory did not think so, but equally he did not want to frighten her further. He could see how shocked she was at the way their comforting friendship had so abruptly shifted into something far more dangerous. Even though there had been intimations of such a change over the previous weeks, the suddenness of it had startled her as well as aroused her.
‘What do
Rachel’s hazel gaze focussed on his face. ‘I think it was the inevitable consequence of getting too close to a rake,’ she said.
Cory laughed ruefully. ‘I cannot in all honesty deny that,’ he said, ‘although I think there was probably more to it than that. Do you mind, Rae?’
Rachel gave him a brief glance. He sensed that she felt shy with him, which was an unusual state of affairs between them.
‘No,’ she said slowly. Her brow puckered. ‘I suppose I ought to mind.’
Cory took her hand. He could feel her pulse racing beneath his fingers and the way she trembled beneath his touch. It lit a savage male urge within him. At its most primitive, it made him want to throw her down on the billiards table and make love to her there and then. He took several steps away from temptation, drawing her with him by the hand and forcing himself to be gentle.
‘So you did not mind it.’ Cory kept his tone soft. ‘Could you even go so far as to say that you enjoyed it, Rae?’
Rachel pursed her lips. Cory wanted to kiss them again.
‘It was quite pleasant,’ she allowed, withdrawing her hand from his, ‘but it was a mistake all the same.’ She unconsciously pressed her fingers to her lips again. ‘If we are to remain friends, Cory, I do not believe that we should kiss each other.’
Cory drove his hands into his pockets and tried to hold on to his self-control. ‘Is that what you want, Rae-that we remain friends?’
Rachel nodded vigorously. ‘I think that we should pretend that it never happened.’
Cory raised his brows. ‘Do you think it will be as easy as that?’
Rachel hesitated. She looked a little bewildered. ‘Is it not that simple?’
‘I suppose so.’
But it was not. Cory knew it. Something had been transformed between them and time could never be turned back. More importantly, he did not want it to be, but he knew not to press the matter now. For all her retreat into friendship, Rachel had admitted to enjoying the kiss. More than that, she had responded to him with a sweetness that had stirred his blood.
Rachel was still looking at him as though she expected him to say something else. Cory clamped down on all the things that he wanted to say to her and waited politely.
‘Well,’ Rachel said after a moment, I suppose that I shall see you tomorrow, Cory. Goodnight.’
Cory waited until he heard the soft patter of her footsteps die away along the corridor, then he took the billiard ball from his pocket, placed it on the table, took aim and hit it viciously and precisely into the corner pocket. It relieved some of his frustrations, but not all of them. Nothing short of taking Rachel to his bed would do that, and even then he had the suspicion that as soon as he touched her he would not want to let her go ever again. Given the difficulty he knew he would have persuading her into marriage, he almost groaned aloud. Never had a rake set himself such a daunting task. Never had he been more determined to succeed.
Chapter Ten
‘Lady Sally is the most consummate hostess, is she not?’ Deborah murmured to Rachel as they stood side by side in the long gallery at Saltires a week later. ‘She promised us a ball and here we have one that would grace the
‘There seems to be plenty of hunting going on this evening,’ Rachel said drily. ‘The ladies seem determined to
