Running From the Storm Read Online Free PDF Page B

nine, happy that he seemed to like her company and hadn’t found her silence dull, Caris glowed.
    She already knew that she would always remember this lovely, romantic evening. An evening she never wanted to end.
    But her father was a hard taskmaster; for the past few weeks, needing to get things done before her vacation, she had worked far into the night most nights and slept badly in consequence.
    Now tiredness was starting to catch up with her, made even more soporific by too much alcohol; she found herself having to stifle a yawn.
    Zander noticed at once. ‘About ready to go?’ he queried. ‘It’s getting late and you look tired.’
    ‘Yes, I’m ready.’ She managed a smile.
    But after such a wonderful evening to return to her lonely apartment with its empty fridge and stripped bed seemed like a complete anti-climax, and her heart felt like lead.
    ‘Or perhaps you’d rather not go home tonight? It won’t be much fun going back to an empty apartment so late, especially with an injured ankle and no holiday to look forward to …’
    Surprised by the way he had picked up so accurately what she was thinking and feeling, she asked, ‘How long have you been psychic?’
    ‘So I guessed right? You don’t want to go home?’
    As lightly as possible, she said, ‘I don’t have much choice now I’m not going to Catona.’
    ‘Why not spend the night at my house?’
    As her head came up, he added, ‘I ought to make it clear that this isn’t an indecent proposal. But as you don’t want to go home—’
    Horrified in case he thought she had been angling for an invitation, she broke in sharply. ‘Oh no, I couldn’t possibly.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘I just couldn’t.’ Uncomfortably, she added, ‘I didn’t mean to sound as if I was …’
    On her wavelength immediately, he heaved a mock sigh. ‘That’s a pity. I was rather hoping you wanted my company as much as I wanted yours. However, if you don’t, there’s always the river.’
    Smiling in spite of herself, she said, ‘I just didn’t want you to think I was—’
    ‘I didn’t think anything of the kind. But, if by any chance I had , I assure you I would have been extremely flattered. So do come.’
    ‘I really couldn’t put you to so much trouble,’ she protested thickly.
    ‘It’s no trouble. Hallgarth has a perfectly good guest room, which my housekeeper always leaves made up, and we can be there in less than half an hour.’
    Persuasively, he added, ‘Say yes, and after you’ve enjoyed a good night’s sleep we can have breakfast together before I take you home.’
    Under normal circumstances, common sense would have insisted that she should say no and mean it. But too much alcohol had swamped both her usual reserve and her inhibitions. If truth be told, she was curious to see his house.
    After a brief hesitation, she threw caution to the winds and agreed, ‘Very well, I’ll come.’
    He smiled, a white, attractive smile that creased his lean cheeks and made her heart give a little lurch. ‘That’s good.’
    Watching her stifle yet another yawn, he signalled to the waiter to bring her jacket, adding, ‘If I don’t get you home soon, you’ll be fast asleep.’
    When he had paid the bill and added a generous tip, he lifted her into his arms.
    At that moment Claude appeared and beamed at them. ‘I hope you have enjoyed a good meal and had a pleasant evening?’
    ‘We can answer a resounding yes to both those questions,’ Zander told him.
    ‘Then you must both come again as my guests.’
     
    ‘We’ll look forward to it.’
    Their thanks and goodbyes said, they made their way out to the car.
    When Caris was settled in the front passenger seat, Zander got behind the wheel and fastened both their seatbelts. In a matter of seconds they had left the lighted restaurant behind them.
    Only when they were travelling down a deserted, tree-lined road, their headlights groping through the darkness like the luminous antennae of some insect, did she