‘You mean artificial insemination?’
She’d really shocked him, it was evident in his outraged voice. Good. Rachel surveyed him uncompromisingly. That would give him something to think about. ‘Who’s judging who on morals now?’ she said in honeyed tones. ‘Would you do that?’ he demanded roughly.
‘We’re not talking about me.’
‘But would you?’ he persisted, as if it mattered.
She shook her head, her curtain of hair moving in soft tendrils against her flushed cheeks. ‘No. My personal conviction is that a child needs a mother and a father where possible.’
The broad shoulders relaxed a little and he expelled a breath. ‘How the hell did we get onto this anyway?’
She was determined not to give ground. Drop-dead gorgeous as he was, he had more than his fair share of arrogance at times. ‘You started it.’
‘Well, of course I would have,’ he said mordantly. Then he smiled. ‘Truce while we eat lunch?’
Did he know the power of that smile? And then she answered herself wryly, Too true he did. But she’d made her point with clogs on. She nodded. ‘Fine by me.’ In truth, she was starving despite the huge breakfast, probably due to the long walk in the fresh air. And the nervous energy she burnt up in Zac’s company, another part of her mind suggested.
As she walked past him towards the door, she found herself swung round and into his arms. ‘It might be a cliché,’ he murmured, his eyes laughing now, ‘but you’re beautiful when you’re angry.’
‘You’re right, it is a cliché,’ she said as steadily as she could, considering the delicious smell and feel of him was all around her and causing sensations she could well have done without.
‘And you’re a mass of contradictions.’ His eyes searched her face. ‘I don’t know where I am with you, Rachel Ellington.’
Her heart leapt but she warned herself against the potent charm. ‘Funny, because I know exactly where I am with you.’ She looked up at him and smiled before ducking out of his arms. ‘I’ve caught a tiger by the tail,’ she said over her shoulder as she opened the bedroom door and began to descend the stairs.
She heard his deep chuckle and every bit of her wanted to turn round and fling herself into his arms again.
‘I’m no longer a wolf, then?’ he murmured softly.
‘Perhaps.’ As he joined her on the landing she kept her tone light. ‘Tigers, wolves, they’re all dangerous.’
He chuckled again and she smiled too, but as they walked downstairs she knew she hadn’t been joking.
CHAPTER TEN
LUNCH was followed by a lazy afternoon.
The walkers, Angel included, were determined to make the most of the snow and had gone outside to build a couple of igloos. Angel had tried to rope Zac in but eventually admitted defeat when he refused to budge from where he and Rachel were ensconced in two comfortable armchairs close to the roaring fire in the inn’s lounge, a couple of drinks at their elbows.
It was very pleasant in the ancient old inn. A gently benign grandfather clock ticked away in one corner and the logs on the fire spluttered and crackled now and again, a perfect antidote to the gently falling snow outside the windows. Whether it was the cosiness of the afternoon or the fact he’d opened up a little to her the night before Rachel didn’t know, but after they’d talked about this and that for a while, Zac began to talk about deeper issues—his marriage, the dark, dangerous time when he’d lost his way after Moira’s death, other painful, bitter truths.
Rachel listened, knowing instinctively he rarely—if ever—revealed himself in this way, and in the mellow quietness she found it easy to talk too, about her cold, confusing childhood, the dawning knowledge that she was in a family but not part of it, her loneliness and fear that had accompanied her into adulthood and why her past had made the episode with Giles so devastating. And then silence enveloped them and she sat wondering if he regretted saying so much, because she did.
It was a relief when just as a cold winter twilight caused the landlady to switch on the lights, the others burst into the inn, shouting that a snow plough was busy clearing the road outside. Angel joined them, her lovely face glowing. ‘The main roads are passable but the driver doesn’t recommend anyone going anywhere tonight unless they have to, not with it snowing again,’ she bubbled, plonking herself down in the chair next to Zac and pulling off her bulky fur-lined jacket so he could receive the full benefit of her generous cleavage. ‘Looks like we’re all stuck here for another night at least. Still, we wouldn’t have met but for the snow and it’s nice to make new friends, isn’t it?’ Her eyelashes fluttered ingenuously.
‘Wonderful,’ said Zac drily as the others joined them too. Soon it was hot toddies all round, and even the landlady came to sit awhile and join in the easy banter that went on amongst the walkers, who teased each other unmercifully most of the time.
Rachel sat quietly, content to listen to the others and watch Zac. He was the sort of man both sexes gravitated to, she thought. Not a lone wolf but definitely the alpha male. Other men wanted his approval and friendship, and women—well, women wanted something quite different. He would always cause a little stir wherever he went, and not just because of his physical attributes, which were impressive, but because of some undefinable presence that set him apart.
A slight stubble was darkening his chin, and during the afternoon while they’d talked he’d removed his sweater, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt to reveal strong, sinewy forearms. He exuded maleness—it was there in every gesture, every movement and it was spinetinglingly sexy. How had a man like Zac Lawson ever come into her orbit and how had she imagined for one minute she wouldn’t fall hopelessly and helplessly in love with him? It had been inevitable from the moment he’d smiled at her.
He glanced across at her suddenly, trapping her gaze, and she blushed, conscious she’d been staring. He smiled at her, a warm intimate smile, before someone else claimed his attention.
She was going to sleep in the same bed with him again tonight, lie next to him, hear the quiet, even sound of his breathing and know he was but a touch away. Last night had been bad enough but since then she felt she’d got to know so much more about him. Was she going to regret it for the rest of her life if they didn’t make love? Or would she regret it more if they did? She didn’t know any more. She only knew she’d never meet anyone like Zac ever again and soon he would be gone.
The thought produced an actual ache in her throat and she swallowed against it, willing hersel
f to come to terms with what she knew. Zac was a love-’em-and-leave-’em man. Whether he would have been that way if his marriage hadn’t gone so terribly wrong she didn’t know, but that experience had been bad enough to send him severely off the rails for a couple of years and change him for ever. She had met him too late, much, much too late. Horrified, she realised she wanted to cry and fought desperately against the weakness.