Boss Meets Baby(114)

‘Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?’ she demanded, her gaze latching with fright onto the six-feet-plus frame of the menacing individual hovering outside Keir’s bedroom door.

‘I might ask you the same bloody question!’ came back the irritated and furious reply.

‘Keir!’

‘If I were you, Georgia, I’d put down that extremely— lethal looking poker before you drop it on your foot and break a couple of bones!’

‘I thought you were a burglar!’

‘You thought what?’ His hard handsome face was glistening with moisture from the rain, and his jacket and trousers were darkened in several places from the spreading damp. Keir’s disbelieving blue eyes regarded Georgia as though she was deranged.

Her heart slowing to a more normal beat, she pushed still shaking fingers through her tousled dark hair, her relief too immense to be measured. ‘You should have rung to let us know that you were coming home!’ she said accusingly.

‘Why?’

Studying her with a mockingly sensual grin, Keir let his gaze drop deliberately to the thin, inadequate robe that was clearly outlining the very feminine contours of Georgia’s body. Of course he must know that underneath it she was naked.

‘Are you telling me that you missed me?’

What a question! Her gaze cleaving to the darkly brooding expression on his hard-hewn features, Georgia felt as if her breath had been suddenly snatched from her lungs. She’d missed his presence, yes…— But surely not in the way he was implying? She quickly laid the heavy poker down on the casement windowsill beside her, as though it were now something distasteful, and curled her fingers into the flimsy edges of her robe around the neckline. Her skin was hot and prickling beneath his mocking regard.

‘You’re the owner of this house…I’m sure—I’m sure everybody notices it when you’re not here.’

‘That’s not what I asked, and you know it!’

Impatiently Keir threw off his sodden jacket, uncaring— where it landed, and scraped his hand through his equally damp dark hair as if too furious to contain his rage.

‘And if I had been a burglar, what exactly did you think you could do against some threatening thug twice your size? Even with a poker? You could have got yourself killed or badly injured! Didn’t it occur to you to phone the police if you suspected someone was breaking in? Dear Lord! Don’t you have any common sense?’

An explosive crash of thunder overhead leached the colour from Georgia’s already pale face. Coupled with the tension that was already holding her stomach in a vice, it made hot, frustrated tears spring readily to her eyes.

‘Stop shouting at me! I was scared—scared of who you might be, and of this hateful storm!’

Needing to get away, Georgia fled back into her room and slammed the door behind her. Awful, horrible,— ingrate! It would have served him bloody well right if burglars had ransacked the whole house and stolen everything he held dear!

But even as the tears started to roll down her cheeks, the door opened behind her and Keir came into the room. Georgia turned and clutched at her robe in shock. She watched dry-mouthed as he carefully— closed the door again, his straight, broad-shouldered— physique seeming to suck up all the oxygen in the room with its indomitable presence, leaving her very little left to breathe. The expression in his eyes was not one she recognised either.

‘You should have said you were frightened of the storm.’ His voice was gruff but not in an unkind way.

Georgia’s heartbeat skittered.

‘Are you crying?’ he demanded.

Before she could reply, he strode up in front of her and touched the palm of his hand to her damp cheek. With the pad of his thumb he brushed away the slippery track of a tear and his warm breath drifted over her. Had she ceased breathing? It certainly seemed as if she had. Her senses held in thrall by his touch, the storm that raged outside all but forgotten, Georgia gulped down air and exhaled raggedly.

Keir’s chin, with its hard, masculine cleft, was just inches from her forehead, and she had to look up to meet his searching gaze…

Staring into her mesmerising tear-filled eyes was like seeing the sun glinting gold above the green of the Glens…Her exquisitely feminine scent seemed to saturate his senses, and Keir hardly dared move lest he somehow shatter something irretrievable.

He’d stayed away longer than he’d needed to in New York because of this woman. In the couple of days following their attendance at the concert he had found it almost impossible to be in the same room as Georgia without needing to touch her. His desire had almost grown into a compulsion. She’d drawn his gaze wherever she went, and he’d barely been able to concentrate on the work that had to be done. It was a distraction he’d found hard to deal with. That was why he had grabbed at the chance to go to New York. But even when he’d been an ocean away she had dominated his thoughts. Now, home again, he realised that this budding attraction was developing into something nearer to obsession.

‘There’s no need to be afraid. The storm won’t hurt you or this house. Can you imagine how many storms Glenteign has endured over the years? In an hour or so it will have blown itself out, and everything— will be calm again.’

‘You probably think I’m behaving like a complete coward!’ Her mouth quivered, and Keir’s hungry glance latched onto it as though it were heavenly perfection— itself.