Avoiding Mr Right. Sophie Weston
a small animal noise and turned her head blindly to seek the hollow between his throat and shoulder with her lips.
Luc gave a sharp exclamation. He flinched as if he had burned himself. He pushed her to arm’s length almost savagely. Christina swayed and opened her eyes. She blinked. He looked murderous. She could feel the tremor in the hands clamped on her shoulders, holding her away from him. He looked as if he wanted to shake the life out of her.
‘That seems to answer your question.’ His voice was uneven. He was breathing hard but otherwise the iron self-control was back.
Christina shook her head. She did not recover so quickly.
‘Question?’ she echoed blankly.
‘What business it is of mine,’ Luc reminded her. There was an edge to his voice.
Christina stared at him in gathering disbelief. ‘Are you saying that makes me your business?’
‘Of course.’
‘You’re out of your mind,’ she said heatedly.
His mouth quirked. ‘Quite possibly.’
She ignored that. ‘Just because you have the gall to force yourself upon me...in front of everyone—’ She broke off, lost for words.
Instead she looked eloquently round the café. The diners seemed to be making too big a thing of being totally absorbed by their food. Christina was fairly sure that a minute earlier they had been mesmerized by the scene between the tall dark stranger and the English girl they had never seen behave like that before. It made her want to scream with rage.
He said softly, ‘I didn’t hear you calling for help.’
‘What?’
He repeated it. His voice was quiet but his eyes were dangerous.
Christina was not intimidated. She was shaking with justified temper. At least, she told herself it was temper. At his contemptuous words her rage hit boiling point. She stepped back out of his hands.
‘Then hear me now,’ she said grimly. She turned her head and shouted at the top of her voice, ‘Costa!’
Luc winced, but the dangerous glint went out of his eyes. It was replaced by surprise. Then, astoundingly, came amusement and even a hint of admiration. Or so Christina thought, viewing him from behind a red mist of fury.
The proprietor appeared so quickly that she suspected he had been waiting for such a summons. He did not look like a righteously vengeful protector of insulted innocence, however. He looked hugely amused and was not trying very hard to hide it.
‘Throw this jerk out,’ Christina said in a choked voice.
‘I can’t do that, Christina.’
She turned astounded eyes on Costa. ‘You saw what he did.’
Costa chuckled. ‘I’m not a policeman, Christina. As long as the clients pay their bill and don’t break the crockery, they can do what they like.’ He thought about it. ‘They can even break the crockery if they pay for it.’
‘What if they offend other clients?’ she flashed.
‘Don’t worry your head about it. They enjoyed it,’ Costa said soothingly.
Luc gave a choke of laughter. He suppressed it but not quickly enough.
Christina was outraged. She stamped her foot. She made a noise like Sue’s elderly kettle coming to the boil. ‘I didn’t enjoy it.’
‘Then I’m sorry, of course. But I don’t see what you expect me to do about it.’
‘Throw him out,’ she yelled.
The diners began to look interested again. She subsided, rather flushed.
Costa smiled at her paternally. ‘Look at it from my point of view. I can’t throw a man out just because you don’t think he kisses very well,’ he said in a reasonable tone. ‘Besides—’
Christina gave him a steely glare. ‘Besides?’ she prompted dangerously.
He shrugged his beefy shoulders. ‘To be honest, my dear, I’ve seen worse.’
This time Luc did not even try to disguise his laughter. ‘Poor Christina. I don’t think the US Marines are going to speed to the rescue this trip,’ he said when his mirth subsided. He nodded at a table. ‘Why don’t you sit down? Costa can bring us a bottle of his best ouzo and we’ll talk things over.’
Luc and Costa exchanged a look of pure masculine complacency. Christina saw it and recognised an unspoken conspiracy. They thought that she was beaten. She would show them.
Across the café tables Sue was already half out of her seat. Christina bit back her smile. Oh, she would certainly show them. She looked away quickly before Luc could follow her eyes. She had to buy time.
It went against the grain but she said meekly, ‘Oh, all right. I have to go to the cloakroom first, though.’
Neither of the men demurred. She met Sue’s eyes compellingly and turned deliberately. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sue murmur an excuse to her companions and follow her.
In the poky little cloakroom Christina ran her wrists under cold water. She peered in the cracked mirror. Her eyes were wide and a little wild. Her skin felt cold and sensitised, as if someone had coated it with ice. Damn that man. Damn him. How dared he make her feel like this? The door opened.
‘Wow,’ said Sue. ‘That was really something. I take it he’s the “administrative hitch” from this morning?’
Christina glared at her unflattering reflection. ‘No, he isn’t. And he’s not going to be any sort of hitch at all,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m not having a stranger order me around.’
Sue blinked. ‘Have you told him that?’
‘Several times.’
Sue gave a gurgle of laughter. ‘I thought he didn’t look the type to give up easily.’
‘Well, he’s going to have to learn a new skill,’ said Christina with resolution. ‘He’s not pushing me about any more.’
Sue sighed. ‘He could push me about any time he liked.’
Christina turned away from the mirror. ‘You wouldn’t enjoy it,’ she assured her.
‘Oh, yes, I would. He’s gorgeous. If he looked at me the way he looked at you, I’d just lie down and die for him.’
Christina was startled. ‘How he looked at me?’
‘I know you usually ignore the effect you have on men but you must have noticed that,’ Sue said in disgust. ‘From the moment you came in, he couldn’t take his eyes off you. I thought he was going to eat you.’
Christina remembered that devouring kiss. She put up a hand to ease the sudden constriction in her throat.
‘So did I,’ she said in a low voice. She shivered. Instantly, Sue was all contrition. ‘Sorry. I’m a fool. No matter how gorgeous he looks, if he keeps after you when you’ve made it clear he doesn’t turn you on, he’s a heel.’ She patted her friend’s shoulder. ‘Count on me.’
It wasn’t that he did not turn her on, exactly... Christina dismissed it. It was too complicated to explain to Sue, especially when she didn’t entirely understand it herself. And she certainly wanted to escape from Luc Henri as far and as fast as she could.
‘I want to get out of here without him seeing me. And get away before he can follow.’
Sue was thoughtful. ‘Hmm. You can’t go through the kitchen because Costa’s on his side,’ she said shrewdly.
Christina looked surprised at her perception.
Sue nodded. ‘All that machismo. Costa just loves it. He’d tell. Unless