Christmas With The Billionaire (11 page)

He flashed a grin. “I hope you’ll find that impossible.”

They worked side by side through the day, each anticipating what the other might need without having to spell it out. When they did talk, Kate filled in the gaps and he listened.
 

“I always knew you were an only child,” she said when they were taking a well-earned break.

“Did you? How?” They were at the farmhouse table again, where all the eating and talking was done, as far as he could gather, and for now they had the kitchen to themselves.
 

 
“You don’t gobble your food down before someone else grabs it,” Kate said, pausing to give her theory some more thought. “And you were horrified by the amount of food I prepared for the Christmas party in London, but now you can see why.” She laughed as she glanced around at the empty chairs her family usually occupied. “However much food we prepare here, it’s never enough. And then there are your clothes,” she added, narrowing her eyes as she sat back to study him. “They don’t look as if ten people have been wearing them before you.”
 

When he laughed and relaxed, she asked him the one question he had never answered for anyone. “What was growing up like for you, Jason? Do you still see much of your parents?”
 

There was a long pause and then he admitted, “I never knew my parents. I grew up in a children’s home.”

Kate couldn’t have looked more shocked. “I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have said anything. I had no idea.”

“Why would you know?”

She shrugged. “I should think before I speak. I shouldn’t blurt things out the way I do.”
 

“But I like you the way you are,” he argued.
 

“Still, I wouldn’t have said anything if I’d known.”
 

“I’m not made of glass, Kate.”

She looked around the room, taking in her mother’s knitting, her father’s newspaper, and all the other items that accumulated when a family shared a house. He could see her thinking that all she’d known was this warm, close-knit family life.
 

“Don’t look so worried.” Putting his arm around her, he drew her close. “I’m fine with how things used to be.”
 

“But you missed so much.” She made an impatient sound. “There I go again. Must I always speak my thoughts out loud?”

He smiled. He thought it one of her most endearing qualities.
 

“It explains a lot about you, Jason—why you’re so driven to prove yourself. Why you were so solitary before you met me. And why you take so long to trust—”

“Not in every case,” he argued.
 

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “But trust takes time to build. Look at us—” She stopped, and he knew she felt awkward at the thought that there might be no ‘us’.
 

“One step at a time, Kate.”
 

“Yeah.” Her resigned gaze flicked up as she huffed a short laugh of agreement.
 

Perhaps it was as well her mother chose that moment to come back into the room.
 

“Are you eating out tonight, you two?”
 

He had stood up when her mother entered and now he glanced out the window. “The snow’s eased off. How about it, Kate?” He turned back to face her mother. “I’ll take good care of her.”
 

“I know you will,” she said. She held his stare a moment or two longer, and then said to Kate, “Don’t feel you have to hurry back. Jason’s come a long way to find you.”

She had no idea how far, he thought.
 

Chapter Thirteen

Swinging the door of her small pine wardrobe wide, Kate had to concede that she was pretty useless when it came to fashion. She had clothes for the farm, clothes for her college courses, and clothes for the occasional drink at the pub. Which added up to three pairs of jeans and a couple of tops, with a heavy winter jacket to wear over them. And tonight she was going on a date with Jason Kent—
 

Yes. A date at the pub, so jeans were fine, Kate reassured herself as her heart went crazy at the thought of Jason close by. Jason
here
.

 
She turned at a knock on the door.

“Can I come in?”

 
“Of course you can.” Fastening her jeans, she pulled a clean sweater over her head as her mother walked into the room, holding out the beautiful silk shawl Kate and her brothers and sisters had clubbed together to buy their mother for her birthday.
 

“I know your wardrobe’s limited,” her mother began, hesitating for once in her life, as if she could sense something special in the air. “I thought you might like to borrow this. You can wrap it around your shoulders like the models do—”
 

“Mom—” They hugged.
 

Her walk to the village with Jason was magical. The sky was cloudless and littered with stars. The moon shone so brightly it was like a lantern lighting their way as their boots crunched over the freezing snow. They walked side by side in silence. The tension between them had been rising since the moment she’d walked into the room and Jason had looked up and held her gaze, though it kept them a hand’s breadth apart now, as if they both knew that to touch would lead to explosive consequences, and they had to reach the safety of the inn first.
 

They were soon within sight of their goal. The village pub had good associations for Kate. It was where she’d landed her first job. Her boisterous family had prepared her well for dealing pleasantly with awkward customers, and it was the landlord who had suggested she make hospitality her career.

The warmth and noise enveloped them the moment they were over the threshold. The landlord left the bar to come and greet them when he saw them come in.

“Supper is served. You must be ready for it?” he said, seeing the glitter of frost on their clothes.

“We are,” Jason confirmed. Taking hold of her hand, he followed the landlord through the brightly lit bar area, to a more discreetly lit area at the back.
 

Her hand in his felt small and safe. She felt small and safe. Was that such a bad thing? She wondered as Jason held her chair. Just because she had been brought up to be independent, the type of woman who didn’t need a man, didn’t mean she had to close the door on every man. There were times when everyone needed someone. But could she rely on Jason to be that someone? They hardly knew each other, after all.
 

They sat down, and within minutes the waitress had arrived with bowls brimming with fragrant soup.
 

“I didn’t realize I was so hungry,” Kate admitted as she dunked the home-baked bread and tucked in.

“Neither did I,” Jason murmured, his eyes full of humor as he watched her eat.
 

She guessed his thoughts went a lot further than the soup. “Are you only here for that?” she asked in her usual direct manner.

He laughed. “Is that what you think?”

“I don’t know what to think,” she said honestly. “This has all happened so fast.”
 

“And you don’t like that?”

“I didn’t like it when you disappeared.”

“Eat your soup.”

She’d leave the subject of his disappearance for now, but it wasn’t closed.
 

They ate in silence. The food was excellent, but they were both eating to fuel the tanks and nothing more, and the moment they laid down their cutlery, Jason stood up. “Decision time,” he murmured, staring down at her.
 

She stared at his outstretched hand.
 

The pub was quirky with beams and brasses. The floors were uneven. The stairs were worse. He doubted anyone had ever mounted the narrow staircase faster than they did. Kate was panting and laughing by the time they arrived in his room. He shut the door and turned her against it. Her hair was silky. Her kisses were sweet. Her hands were already working on his belt.

Kissing her was everything he had ever wanted. Her scent, her skin, the soft noises she made deep down in her throat, feeling her hungry body pressed against his, was a pleasure he’d been denied for too long. Hearing her whimper with need against his chest was a torment he had no intention of prolonging. To have her hand brush his erection was even worse. There could be no waiting this time, no teasing preparation—

“Just... Please...”
 

That was all she could manage as he dragged down her jeans and thong. He couldn’t have said as much as that. He lifted her and within seconds he was deep and moving with urgent speed. This was where he belonged. This was the woman he belonged with, to, forever. He closed his eyes to savor the sensation of being one with her, and then with fierce, hungry strokes, she began to move with him. Neither of them showed any finesse. None was necessary. This was essential to life, to their life, to hers, and to his. He exulted when she cried out in his arms, and then he kissed her until she calmed again. His aim was to make it to the bed now, but a table intervened and so they feasted again, with one aim, one goal in mind. And when she quieted this time, he carried her to the bed, lay down beside her, and moved over her.

It seemed unreal to wake at the pub with her limbs entwined around Jason’s. She eased away carefully so as not to wake him. Resting her chin on her hand, she stared down at him.

Even sleeping, Jason’s face was strong and resolute, and with his wild black hair and thick coating of stubble, he looked like the marauder she had first thought him. He was, she remembered, thinking about the press reports of his business deals that said Jason Kent was ruthless and driven. She could understand him being driven. He wasn’t the type to live in the past, but the past had affected him. He would always fight a rear guard action against those demons. The past had made him fiercely protective of the people who worked with him, and absolutely determined to hang on to what he’d gotten. Was that why he was here? Wasn’t he ready to let her go yet?
 

“Hey...” His dark eyes opened slowly. His stare fixed on her face. His mouth curved in a sleepy smile. “Good morning, Ms. Black. I trust I find you well?”

She smiled back in spite of all her insecurities. “Very well, thank you. Never better in fact.” She stretched languorously, relishing the sweet ache of a body well used.

“Pleased to hear it,” Jason murmured, toying with her hair. “For myself, I have never slept better.”

She dropped a kiss on his sexy mouth and felt him smile beneath her lips. His arms went around her and then somehow she was on top of him. Everything after that was a natural consequence of their hunger for each other. She eased her hips into the perfect position, and when Jason’s hands cupped her buttocks, she took him deep.
 

“This is the best way I can think of to wake up,” he murmured wickedly as he eased her up and down to an unhurried, and satisfyingly rhythmical pattern.
 

“There is no better way,” she agreed, forced into silence when he upped the pace. Her powers of coherent speech were lost in the sensation building inside her. It made her focus, made her fierce, made her strong. Staring into his eyes, she sat up and moved firmly in time with him, and then tightening her muscles around him, she brought him with her into a violent release that didn’t end there, but led to another, and then another, until they both fell back to sleep.

It was almost midday by the time Jason got around to soaping her down in the shower, treating her as if she was the most precious thing on earth to him, but there was still something she had to know. “If you’ve come all this way just to see me, is that because you wanted to end us?”
 

“What?” His expression was incredulous.
 

“Stop looking at me like that,” she said. “I have to know. I know how you love to control everything, so I thought—”

“You are the funniest, most adorable woman I’ve ever met in my life. And as for ending this...” Jason frowned. “You’re the iron fist in a velvet glove, so if this is your way of dumping me—”

She laughed. “You should know by now that subtlety isn’t my strongpoint. I’m a lot more direct than that.”
 

 
“I do know.” He smiled as he dragged her close to kiss her beneath the torrent of warm water. “So, what brought this on?” he said, pulling back.

“I’m just trying to keep a hold on reality.”

“This is real for me, Kate.” Switching off the shower, he opened the door and reached for a towel. Having wrapped her snugly, he secured another towel around his waist. “Let’s go discuss reality,” he suggested. Linking fingers, he drew her into the bedroom.
 

“You are Jason Kent, ruthless tycoon—”
 

“Stop right there. I’m ruthless according to the press. I’m not sure how many people who work for me would agree with that.”

“—And I am Kate Black, sheep farmer’s daughter,” Kate continued, determined to voice her argument. “So I have to ask myself, how long is this unlikely alliance going to last?”

“Unlikely alliance? I thought you were supposed to be the romantic. You make us sound like a business merger. This unlikely alliance will last as long as we want it to last.”