CHASING TROUBLE

Nicholas leant back in his chair to look at Caroline with enigmatic dark eyes once they were alone again, arms now folded across that wide, muscled chest. “So, did you find any priceless treasures in the library?” he wanted to know.

“One or two, yes.” She nodded. “A first edition of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species alone is worth a considerable amount of money.”

His brows rose. “How much money?”

“I…. I’m not sure. You should ask your dad. They’re also very collectible.”

“I’m really not that interested, Caroline,” Nicholas rasped.

Her cheeks became flushed. “Then why bother to ask?”

He gave a shrug. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“And is your interest usually this fleeting?”

A slow smile curved those sculptured lips even as the dark eyes once again openly laughed at her. “It depends what that interest happens to be…”

There was no mistaking the deliberate innuendo in Nicholas’ tone. Nor Caroline’s longing to wipe that smile from his ruggedly handsome face!

What was it about Nicholas Connelly that brought out these uncharacteristic feelings of violence in her? That caused her to be constantly antagonized by him? The answer to that was easy! Everything about him made her feel defensive, while at the same time making her feel vulnerable and very feminine in a way that was totally unfamiliar to her. As well as uncomfortable…

Caroline Anderson was defensive, nosy and confrontational, Nicholas recognised as he continued to look at her admiringly from between narrowed lids. An interesting combination for an assistant who read steamy vampire novels when she was alone in bed at night and didn’t like surprises in her personal life. Whereas Nicholas was an adrenaline junkie who lived for the challenges in his own life, personal and otherwise!

Caroline’s mouth firmed. “Obviously your…interest doesn’t lie in rare books.”

“Obviously not,” Nicholas agreed, inwardly starting to regret deliberately baiting her.

Caroline no longer knew what to say…. Or think…. about Nicholas Connelly, so without a reply, she headed out of the room and towards the library.

______________

“This is very kind of you,” Nicholas said as he sat beside Caroline as she drove her car into town that afternoon.

Caroline briefly turned her attention from driving along the narrow road to shoot him a narrow-eyed glance. Kindness on her part had nothing to do with the two of them being here together. How could it, when Nicholas had more or less commandeered both Caroline and her car so that he might meet up with an old friend in town?

Having flown in late the previous night, and feeling tired after a long flight, it appeared that instead of hiring a car Nicholas had simply got in a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the house. Consequently, he had no transport of his own.

“Don’t push your luck,” she warned him tersely.

He arched dark brows. “Is that what I’m doing?”

“You know you are.”

His close proximity-those muscled arms and long, powerful legs only inches from her own-was a little disturbing, to say the least…

Nicholas glanced out of the side window, down the cliffs to where the sea was currently lapping gently onto the golden sand. “I’d forgotten how ruggedly beautiful it is here…”

“I expect it’s a lot different from New York?”

“Yes.” Except Nicholas wasn’t always in New York… He didn’t really live anywhere on a permanent basis, was never in one place long enough to put down any roots. Anyone important who needed to get in contact with him urgently had his phone number. Including his father. He could sense that Caroline disapproved of this, but well, she would just have to go on disapproving!

“I shouldn’t be too long,” he told Caroline once she had parked the car and he stepped out.

“Take your time,” she answered distractedly. “I have a little personal shopping to do when I’m done with the client anyway.”

“Fine.” He nodded. “I suggest we meet back under the clock-tower here in the square in an hour or so, and then find somewhere to have lunch.”

“Lunch?” Caroline echoed sharply, and she straightened so suddenly from locking the car that her head briefly swam.

“Lunch,” Nicholas reiterated firmly. “We are in town anyway, and it will be almost lunchtime, maybe a little late, but why not?”

Why not? Because Caroline didnt want to have lunch with this compelling and disturbing man. In fact, she was quickly coming to realize that she wanted as little to do with Nicholas Connelly as humanly possible! Not an easy thing to do when for the moment, they were actually staying in the same house…but it was a good thing she’d be leaving the next day when she finished with the library in the morning.

“Okay, lunch in an hour, she conceded.

“Or so,” Nicholas added.

“Whatever.” Caroline gave him one last impatient glance before turning away to walk determinedly towards the shops on the other side of the square.

____________

“Fuck it, Rachael! Do whatever you want. I don’t care!” Nicholas snapped into his phone as he strode restlessly up and down in front of the clock-tower, waiting for Caroline to rejoin him so they could have lunch together.

“You’ve become such an asshole, Nick,”

“Then stay the hell away from me then!” Nicholas growled, turning to pace back the other way and instantly finding himself face to face with a pale and wide-eyed Caroline Anderson.

“Goodbye, Rachael” he said curtly, before ending the call and dropping his phone into the back pocket of the black denims he had changed into before coming out.

“I-Did your meeting with your friend go well?”

Nicholas gave a hard smile. “Yeah it did…. It was nice seeing him again,”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Colour heightened Caroline’s cheeks. “You didn’t sound so good over the phone just now,”

“No?” he jeered.

“No,” She frowned. “But It’s really none of my business, is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” Nicholas agreed. “Nevertheless, I’m sure you have an opinion on the subject!”

Caroline was having to force herself to concentrate on what Nicholas was saying. Not easy after overhearing his end of the telephone conversation with someone called Rachael!

Then stay the hell away from me… She frowned as she remembered the implacable tone of voice he’d used towards the other person…Obviously a woman judging by her name.