MacAllister's Baby (10 page)

Elisabeth stared. He was the best-looking man she had ever seen.

The entire restaurant, the tables, the flowers, the tasteful lamps, the two teenagers standing beside her, all vanished. His gaze started at her face, and took in her dress, her bare arms, her legs, her silly sexy shoes.

It only took a few seconds, and during that whole time it felt as if his ravaged, sensitive hands were trailing up and down her body. For a fleeting moment, Elisabeth saw such longing in his eyes that she could not breathe.

Then he grinned. ‘I’m excited that you’re here.’

For the first time in her life, Elisabeth was annoyed the English language only had one second person pronoun, so she couldn’t tell whether Angus was talking just to her, or to all three of them. Then she mentally shook herself. It didn’t matter.

She was excited she was here, too.

He pulled out a suede-upholstered chair for her and she sank into it and watched him do the same thing for Jennifer, gesturing Danny into the seat to his right, making sure they both had glasses of mineral water. His body was full of energy.

‘I envy you three so much,’ he said. ‘You’re about to have an experience like nothing else you’ve had before. Damien Virata is the most extraordinary chef working in Britain today. You’ve got to leave all your preconceptions behind, and rely on your senses only. Look, and smell, and feel, and taste. Don’t think.’

He sat beside Elisabeth and held out a champagne flute to her. She took it, her fingers brushing his. She felt the contrast between the chilled glass and his warm flesh.

‘Thank you for letting me do this,’ he said to her. ‘I’ve been looking forward to it for days.’

And with that, Elisabeth realised that the impreciseness of the English language really didn’t matter, because she liked Angus all the more for wanting to take her out, and being generous enough to share the experience with others.

‘Cheers.’ She chimed her glass with his, then with the kids’ glasses of sparkling water, and took a sip. On her tongue, platinum bubbles; around her body, buttery suede; in the air, electricity.

Her senses seemed preternaturally sharpened from being close to Angus without the possibility of moving away. She could practically feel the soft texture of his suit by looking at it. Even though she couldn’t see underneath the table, she knew from a tingle on the side of her right knee that his own knee was inches from hers.

‘I let Damien choose our menu,’ Angus said. ‘Jennifer, you scrub up well, don’t you? That’s a pretty dress.’

Elisabeth tore her eyes away from Angus’s left hand, lying on the tablecloth very close to her right hand, to look at her students. Jennifer wore a sky-blue dress with a white cardigan over it. Out of her uniform she looked older, much less like a frightened little girl. She blushed furiously at Angus’s compliment.

She has a crush on Angus,
Elisabeth realised, and smiled. She really couldn’t blame her.

Danny was wearing his school shirt, tucked in for once, and a blue tie. It was loose around his neck, but at least it wasn’t trailing out of his pocket.

Elisabeth, influenced by the surroundings and her own sensory overload, saw the four of them briefly as an outsider might: a smart teenage boy, thrilled by where he was; a young girl on the threshold of adulthood; a happy, handsome man, courteous and attentive; and a woman dressed to the nines, enjoying herself.

It was a picture she would have considered impossible only days before.

A plate appeared before her, interrupting her reverie. She blinked down at the white porcelain overlaid with pink and green slivers, laced with yellow sauce.

‘This looks more like art than food,’ she said. ‘What is it?’

Angus’s eyes sparkled. ‘Not telling. Just try it.’

She took a forkful: some silky texture, with a crispy edge, a sweetness overlaid with something intensely salty. It was fish, but she didn’t have a clue what else was on the plate. The flavours melded together, one and then the other dominating on her palate.

Elisabeth glanced at the teenagers, and she could see what her own expression was probably like, mirrored in their faces. Bafflement, and wonder, and a surprised pleasure.

‘Do you like it?’ Angus leaned forward, watching her.

‘It’s not like anything else I’ve ever tasted.’

‘Yes, but do you like it?’

She took another bite, considered.

‘Yes.’

Angus clapped his hands together and rubbed them in joy. His smile bathed his face in light.

It was funny—Danny and Jennifer appeared older in these surroundings, but Angus was so full of excitement that he seemed almost like a boy.

She thought of her mother, waiting breathlessly as Elisabeth opened her present.

‘Absolutely brilliant,’ he said.

That course was followed by a frothy green palate-cleansing drink, and then by another course, and another. All of them were small, but the balance of textures and flavours was constantly surprising.

Elisabeth knew nothing about food. She’d been raised on a diet of lentils and strange herbal teas. But even she could appreciate the barrage of sensory detail. Her mouth and tongue had never been so subtly seduced.

And the rest of her body inevitably followed.

Angus sat so close to her. His throaty voice laughing, explaining aspects of the dishes to the students in the way that she would analyse a poem. His hand lingering on her wrist as he asked her a question.

She caught every nuance of his expression, felt the power of his delight. The touch of his eyes crackled on her skin. His intimate questions, almost-whispered comments, tantalised her ears.

Every time she took a bite, she felt her rationality slipping away.

‘Here,’ he said to her, ‘you can’t eat each part separately, it’s got to go together, the fruit and the lamb and the purée and the sauce. Try it like this.’ Angus held a fork out to her, balanced with the different parts of the dish together.

Without thinking, she stretched her neck forward, opened her mouth for Angus to feed her. She saw his grey eyes focused on her mouth as she closed her lips around his fork.

‘Are you enjoying it?’ A deep, rich voice came from behind her. Elisabeth, startled, pulled away from Angus and looked around.

The man was short and stocky, with dark curly hair. He wore a chef’s white tunic and chequered trousers.

‘Damien!’ Angus was out of his chair and shaking the chef’s hand. ‘Fantastic grub, as always.’

The famous chef beamed at all of them, his cheeks rosy and shiny. ‘I’m glad to have the next generation here. Would you like to see the kitchen before dessert?’

Jennifer’s wide eyes and Danny’s ‘I’m cool’ shrug were answer enough.

As they walked into the kitchen Angus’s hand rested in the small of Elisabeth’s back, creating a pool of heat that spread through her body. Still, it was a shock to encounter the steam of Chanticleer’s kitchen, full of people and noise and flames. Was this loud, frantic, dangerous place the place where Angus felt at home?

She saw, but couldn’t hear, Damien speaking with Jennifer and Danny and pointing out different areas of the kitchen. Angus’s hand closed around Elisabeth’s wrist.

‘Come here,’ he murmured in her ear, tugging her gently to one side.

He opened a steel door in the wall and pulled her in after him.

She saw shelves stacked with produce and plastic boxes. She felt the whisper of a chill and realised that they were in a walk-in refrigerator.

Angus shut the door after them.

CHAPTER SIX

A
NGUS
leaned back against the door, his bright smile on his face, looking irresistible and dangerous.

‘I’ve been dying to get you alone,’ he said.

She rubbed her hands along her bare arms, though she wasn’t cold yet. ‘In a refrigerator?’

‘Elisabeth, I’d be warm in a freezer if you were there.’ He looked her up and down again, as he had when she’d first arrived, and Elisabeth shivered. Not from the cold this time, either. ‘You are stunning. It’s taken all my will-power to keep my hands off you tonight.’

Likewise,
Elisabeth thought, but she only rubbed her arms again.

He stepped away from the door, closer to her, and held his hands above her bare shoulders. Not touching, but Elisabeth could feel his heat.

‘I’d love to warm you up,’ he said. ‘May I?’

Please, please, please, yes.
Elisabeth bit her lip. ‘The children—’

‘Will be fine for the next twenty minutes, at least. They won’t miss us, but this place could feel very cold if we don’t build up some body heat soon.’

‘You could let us out.’ Her voice sounded unconvincing even to her. Maybe it was because she couldn’t quite catch her breath.

Angus shook his head. ‘Not a chance, Miss Read. You’ve been dodging me since the day you met me, and I want to know why. At first I thought it was because you were angry with me.

But I don’t think that’s true any more. Now I think it’s because you don’t trust me. Is that right?’

She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms more tightly on her chest. ‘And I’m supposed to trust somebody who traps me in a refrigerator?’

‘You can leave whenever you want to. Just hit the button on the door.’ But he didn’t move away from her, and she didn’t move either.

‘Why don’t you trust me?’ he asked.

‘Because you’re a flirt and you charm people without even thinking. You don’t mean it.’

‘Now, there you’re wrong, Elisabeth. I think about it a lot.’ A fine mist of condensation hung in his words, and in her breath between them. ‘And I genuinely want to help Danny and Jennifer, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m not using them. I’m not using you.’

‘I’m more worried that you’ve flirted with me from the moment you met me and you’ve been trying to get me into bed with you for nearly as long. It’s something you do with a lot of women, so I’ve heard.’

He nodded. ‘Ah. So it’s my public image you don’t like. Well, that makes sense. But I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspapers.’

‘So you don’t have a different woman in your bed every week?’

‘I know a lot of women and I go on dates with some of them occasionally. But, no, I don’t usually sleep with them. And not one of the women I know makes me feel the way that you do.’

Angus hadn’t moved since he’d approached her; his hands still hovered over her shoulders. She was starting to feel the cold on the backs of her bare legs, but everywhere that was near Angus was almost too hot to bear.

‘How do I make you feel?’ she asked.

‘Alive. Intrigued. Hungry.’ His mouth quirked up on one side. ‘Horny.’

‘Likewise.’ This time, she did say it. It slipped out before she could stop herself.

His smile, like a hundred-watt bulb. He had white teeth, slightly crooked on the bottom, a small imperfection that made him even more perfect. His lips were well formed, soft and yet masculine.

But it wasn’t his lips and teeth that made his smile so dazzling. It was the ardency behind it, the enthusiasm, the joy in being.

The way Elisabeth felt right now.

‘I won’t touch you unless you want me to,’ Angus said. ‘Do you?’

‘Yes.’

He stared into her eyes for a moment, as if he couldn’t quite believe what she’d said. Not surprising, as she could hardly believe it herself.

Then his smile faded, his expression became intent. His hands still didn’t touch her. He bit his lip, as if he were concentrating hard. A line appeared between his eyebrows.

He inhaled once, deeply, and then let his hands drop down onto her bare shoulders.

They both held their breaths. Elisabeth closed her eyes to savour the feeling of his hands on her skin, and then opened them again because she didn’t want to miss a single instant of seeing him.

Slowly he slid his palms down the length of her arms. She could feel every hair raise itself into goose-bumps.

Their hands met, and their fingers twined together.

Elisabeth, with some far-flung rational corner of her brain, marvelled at herself. She was standing close to Angus MacAllister, holding his hands, looking frankly into his face. In a refrigerator. Where someone could come in any minute, looking for tomatoes or something.

And it felt wonderful.

Despite her high heels, he was still taller than her. She stood on her toes, stretched up her face, and met his mouth as he leaned down to her.

His lips were warmer than she would have imagined in this cold room. Gentle, and sweet, and lingering. He felt wholly other to her, totally masculine, unlike anything she’d felt before. And yet familiar, as if she’d been waiting for him.

Time passed, the two of them with hands linked, lips pressed together. Not exploring, not moving—just touching, this first time.

When they broke apart Elisabeth felt as if her eyes were shining.

Their kiss had been innocent and romantic. Like the kiss in a fairy tale that woke up the sleeping princess. And she felt awake, aware, buzzing with the possibilities of the present.

Angus swallowed. ‘Wow,’ he said.

‘Wow,’ she said back.

‘I’ve been waiting to kiss you for a while. But I didn’t expect—’

‘I thought it would be—’ She thought of the word. Not sexier, because it had been the sexiest thing she’d ever experienced. ‘More carnal.’

He nodded. ‘I feel like I should recite some poetry or something.’ He brought her hands up to his chest and stroked the backs of them with his thumbs.

‘If you’re having urges to recite poetry, I think you’d better kiss me again.’

She lifted her hands from his and buried them in his glossy hair. Angus curled his fingers around her hips, pulled her closer.

And she knew that their kiss hadn’t been innocent at all, because this close she could feel the hard ridge of his erection through their clothes.

White-hot desire rushed through her and she pulled his head down and kissed Angus as if she wanted to devour him.

Firm lips, hard, smooth teeth, just crooked on the bottom. Rough tongue, the satin of inside his mouth.

Angus groaned and lifted her so that she was still closer to him, her toes barely touching the floor. And then his hands were sliding up her back, down over her bottom, burning fingerprints on her even through her clothes.