Christmas with Her Ex(17)

The scenery was dotted with soaring cliffs and turreted castles and huge suspended motorways that curved like ribbons on stilts around the mountains.

She passed through three carriages of compartments, the bar car, two dining cars and another three carriages before she reached the end, and not once did she see a dark-haired Connor or his vivacious grandmother.

Congratulating herself on her good luck prematurely, she froze when she heard the deep timbre of his voice as she approached the boutique—and his grandmother’s laugh.

Kelsie spun back the way she’d come, she really didn’t need to gatecrash their party again, but before she could slip from the carriage Connor’s voice halted her.

‘Is that you, Kelsie? Don’t change your mind on my account.’

The hairs on the back of her neck rose and prickled. Just the way he’d said her name made the last years flash past. She hadn’t expected such a visceral response.

Kelsie turned but to her disappointment there was still a neutral mask on the face she’d once known like her own. She’d be dreaming to think anything would have changed. ‘Are you sure? I thought you’d be sick of the sight of me.’

Was he that bad? Connor took note of the wariness in her eyes and the challenge of unravelling the mystery of the real Kelsie Summers beckoned irresistibly—as long as he was careful.

He closed the gap between them and the expression on her face was hard to fathom. Not warm. Not cold. More assessing. But still she struck deep into his psyche in a way he remembered from all those years ago. Intriguing to imagine he did the same to her. He couldn’t tell but he would like to know very much.

‘It’s my turn to apologise,’ he said, seeking to find a way past the barriers he could feel between them. Barriers he probably deserved after their lunchtime conversation and the awkwardness he had been responsible for.

She raised those darkly arched brows and her eyes narrowed. ‘For what?’ It seemed she didn’t trust him. Well, that was fine by him because he didn’t trust her one inch. He doubted he ever would but he was damned if he could ignore her.

So she wasn’t going to make this easy. Well, he was almost glad. He wasn’t sure of his plan but he did know that for the first time since he’d stood up after lunch he wasn’t tired. In fact, he could feel the air crackle with sudden tension between them and again wondered just how much chemistry was left from the long-distant past—on both sides.

She shrugged those slim shoulders and time seemed to stop. She’d always done that. He’d have recognised the movement as hers anywhere. His eyes were drawn to the gentle slope of her shoulders, centred on the swell of her breasts, followed the crease upwards to her throat, where a small pulse beat under the translucent skin, and her neck rose enticingly swan-like from the cream of her silk shirt.

He wanted to slide that blue silk scarf slowly from her shoulders so he could watch it caress her neck.

‘Hello? I said, for what?’ Kelsie was looking at him strangely and he blinked. As well she might. He felt like slapping his forehead to wake himself up. Talk about ditherdream and dumbo. She could still scatter his thoughts.

Question? What had the question been? Ah, yes, what he needed to apologise for. ‘Not making you as welcome as I should have.’

Connor considered his options. he should have added he was sorry for cutting her off in the dining car when she’d tried to apologise for the past, but he still had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction over that one. Wasn’t happy with the idea she could dismiss destroying his youthful dreams with a quick apology in a public place.

But they couldn’t stay here. No potential. Though why he was looking for potential in her case was a worry.

‘Will you join me for a drink in the bar? My grandmother is choosing her birthday present… ’ he inclined his head, indicating the boutique ‘… in there, and I have permission to leave her in peace so she doesn’t feel rushed.’

He watched her absorb the words, and realised that watching Kelsie was actually an interesting pastime—he’d have to beware of that—and as she nodded he let out the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

‘If you’re sure you want to,’ she said, and turned around again and led the way. And Connor decided walking behind Kelsie was also a spectacularly pleasant experience.

He could smell some faint unfamiliar floral scent drifting back from her and he wasn’t sure if it was perfume or something she washed her hair in. Either way, he decided it was his new favourite scent.

The Christmas fairy lights made her thick bob of auburn hair shine with flashes of brilliant red and a sudden memory of playing with long strands in the sunlight when she’d worn it past her waist as a younger woman rushed into his memory as if the train had rushed through an unexpected tunnel.