Reluctant Date (5 page)

Her mother
solved part of her dilemma.
 
Usually a
late riser, she surprised Claire by coming into the kitchen while she was still
drinking her coffee. Dunking a teabag into a mug of hot water, she smiled
knowingly at her daughter.

“Having
trouble sleeping darling?”

“A bit,”
Claire admitted. Then she took in the full implication of her mother’s sly
glance and choked on a mouthful of coffee. Really it was too bad! Why couldn’t
she have a normal mother instead of one who immediately assumed that her early
morning wakefulness was because she was frustrated?

Her mother
forestalled her protest with a chuckle. “From the look of him I don’t imagine
that Daniel would be too upset if you did decide to knock on his bedroom door
you know.”

Claire
glared at her in irritation.
 
She was
impossible! It was obvious she was totally convinced they were dating, and
Claire knew from bitter experience that no amount of protest would change her
mind. She decided not to waste her breath trying.
 
Instead she made a decision.

“We’ll be
out all day,” she said, determined to keep Daniel as far away from her parents
as possible to avoid further embarrassment. “I’m going to show him the beach
and the pinewoods, and then we’ll probably drop into
The Lifeboat
Inn
for
lunch.”

Her mother
nodded a relaxed acceptance of Claire’s plan.
 
She never minded how her visitors spent their time. It was one of the
things Claire liked best about coming home.
 
Although her parents had no interest in her life in the city, they
didn’t have expectations when she came home either, so she was free of
obligation, free to do whatever she wanted, go wherever she wanted, or she had
been until now.
 
Unfortunately Daniel’s
presence seemed to be complicating things. It was obvious he intended to make
the most of her parent’s assumption that he and Claire were an item and stay
for the entire weekend, so she had no choice but to entertain him.
 

Her mother
drained her mug and started bustling around the kitchen, thinking aloud as she
began to assemble the ingredients needed for a cooked breakfast. “I suppose
you’d better have something hot before you set out…although I’ll never
understand what makes you want to go out and commune with nature in all
weathers…and I think I’ll make a nut roast for supper.”

“You’ll do
no such thing,” Daniel’s deep drawl startled them both.
 
“I’m going to take you all out for a meal
this evening.
 
It’s the least I can do to
repay your hospitality.”

He stood in
the doorway. He had addressed his remark to her mother but his eyes were on
Claire. He had obviously heard her plans and was questioning her intention,
hoping her decision to spend more time with him meant she was interested in the
job.

He was
dressed in jeans and a thick navy sweater. Still wet from the shower, his
mussed up hair was the colour of warm treacle. She ignored the effect his
sudden appearance had on her pulse rate and forced a smile. “I hope you have
some shoes suitable for walking because it’ll be pretty rough underfoot after
last night’s storm.”

“My hiking
boots have achieved their own frequent flyer award,” he told her with a
relieved grin as he pulled his car keys from his pocket and made for the front
door.
 

Claire’s
spirits lifted slightly when he returned carrying scuffed hiking boots in one
hand and a thick weatherproof jacket in the other. If he came equipped for
walking each time he travelled across the Atlantic, then he must be serious
about wildlife. Maybe her decision to spend more time with him before she made
up her mind about his job was the right one after all. A day fighting the
elements would not only clear her head, it would show her exactly what Daniel
Marchant was made of.

* * *

An hour
later, protected from the wind by a thick padded jacket, and with her hair
bundled into an old woollen hat, Claire led the way across the open heath. In
the distance were the miles of undulating sand dunes that provided a wind and
sea defence between the land and the beach.
 
Daniel, similarly clad, followed her, a pair of powerful binoculars
swinging from a leather strap around his neck.

They had
barely exchanged half a dozen words since they left the house but somehow it
didn’t seem to matter.
 
For the first
time since their original meeting Claire felt at ease with him again.
 
She could see from the expression on his face
that he was as focussed as she was, his eyes alert for any sign of wildlife,
his interest excited by the unusual terrain.

Over
breakfast she had given him a potted history of the area.
 
Now she was eager to show it to him.

The morning
passed quickly as they trekked through
pinewoods busy with red
squirrels, and across uneven scrub where flocks of grazing birds rose in noisy
protest as they disturbed them.
 
Time and
again Daniel raised his binoculars to his eyes with an exclamation of delight,
and time and again Claire had to force her fast beating heart into submission
as she responded to his enthusiasm and tried to answer his questions.

Eventually they moved shoreward, clambering across the sand
dunes until they had an uninterrupted view of the sea. It was black and wild
under scudding clouds that occasionally parted to reveal unexpected patches of
pale blue sky. The beach below them, deserted except for an occasional dog
walker, stretched for miles in both directions.

Daniel was silent for several long minutes as he slowly took
in the panoramic view.
 
Then he turned to
Claire, his face full of barely repressed excitement.

“Look at those dunes!
 
They go on forever. It’s amazing!”

Claire stared at him, startled by his over-the-top
enthusiasm for what, to her, was just a familiar hike, somewhere she enjoyed
for its peace and its wild, windswept beauty.
 

When he saw the surprised expression on her face he
chuckled. “You have absolutely no idea that this dunescape is one of the most
important nature conservation areas in Europe, do you?” he teased.
 
“To you it’s just home, but I’ve read all
about it, and to me it’s a conservationist’s dream. Don’t worry though. I’ll
get over it.
 
I tend to forget that most
people aren’t turned on by coastal erosion. Now how about lunch? I think you
mentioned a local pub.”

“Yes,
The Lifeboat
Inn.
It’s a fifteen minute walk from here if we approach it from the beach
,”
Claire pointed across the dunes to
where a path meandered inland through misshapen pines that were pitted and bent
by the constant buffeting of the wind.

“Good because I’m ravenous,” Daniel ran down the dune at
speed, jumping the final slope at the point where the spiky maram grass gave
way to sand.

Claire followed more slowly as she pondered his enthusiasm.
If only she affected him the same way.
 
Instead, she now had to accept another reason for his insistence on
driving her home last night. It hadn’t just been about persuading her to take
his job; it had been about visiting the rolling dunes of the northwest coast as
well.
 

She watched him from her bird’s eye view at the top of one
of the tallest dunes.
 
Out here, with the
wind tugging at his clothes and a woollen hat pulled down over his ears, he
seemed younger somehow, and carefree. He was certainly very different from the
sophisticated businessman with jet lag who had shared a meal with her on
Monday. He was different, too, from yesterday’s pushy Daniel, the one who had
tracked her down and dropped such a bombshell of a job offer into her life, and
then had managed to invade her home as well as her heart.

It was obvious he knew a great deal about conservation
too.
 
His knowledge about the local area
proved it, as had his questions during their hike.
 
Time and time again she had found herself
responding eagerly to his enthusiasm, anxious to share her own knowledge with
him, so why was she holding back about the job?
 

You’re just a coward
Claire Harris,
she told herself as she negotiated the downward slope.
You’re not prepared to take risks with
anything, especially your heart, so serve you right if you do end up an old
maid, just like Jenny said you would.
 

“Ow…Ow…Ouch!” All further thoughts were forgotten as the
edge of the sand dune gave way beneath her and toppled her all the way down to
the beach.
 
She landed with a thump and
before she could catch her breath another section of the dune sheared away,
covering her in sand and leaving layers of soil and roots exposed to the
elements. Strong arms pulled her free and then supported her as she struggled
to her feet.

“Don’t do that!” Daniel seized both her hands in one of his
as she tried to brush soil and sand from her face and clothes.
 
Then he made a systematic search of his
pockets with the other.

Claire was too surprised to resist.
 
Instead she peered blurrily at him as her
tear ducts attempted to wash the sand and grit away.
 
He didn’t release his grip and she heard
concern in his voice when he spoke to her.

“You seem to have cut yourself or something.”

Finally he found a tissue in one of his pockets, wadded it
into a pad, and pressed it against the side of her face.
 
When he took it away it was scarlet with
blood.

Claire gritted her teeth against a wave of sudden nausea and
tried to ignore the small army of black dots that were beginning to cloud her
vision. She wasn’t going to do this!
 
She
wasn’t going to faint in front of Daniel Marchant so that he could add
faints at the sight of blood
to the list
of fears and ignorance he seemed to be uncovering.

She couldn’t fool him though.
 
He saw the colour drain from her face and
felt her wobble as her knees began to give way.
 
Cursing under his breath he locked his arms around her and gently
lowered her onto the sand.

“Don’t do this to me Claire!
 
Don’t faint!
 
Come on! Look at
me!
 
It’s not as bad as all that. It just
needs cleaning up. You must have knocked it against a tree root or something
when you fell. You’ll be fine once it’s clean.”

She shook her head weakly.
 
“It’s not that…it’s the blood…I…ouch!”

The black dots were swiftly replaced by a feeling of extreme
discomfort as he pushed her head down over her chest and held it there.

“Sorry about this but it’s the only way I know to stop
someone from fainting,” he told her.

Her indignation was muffled as she spoke into the woolly scarf
looped round her neck.
 
“Well it
certainly works! I’m fine now, or I would be if I could breathe!”

The pressure behind her neck eased allowing her to lift her
head and glare at him. “There was no need for the strong arm treatment. I
wouldn’t have fainted.”

“So you say,” he looked unconvinced as he dabbed at her
cheek again.
 
“It’s not bleeding quite as
much now but you need to get it cleaned and covered.
 
Do you think you can make it to the inn you
mentioned?”

“To
The Lifeboat Inn?
Yes,
of course I can,” Claire began to get to her feet but Daniel was there before
her.

“Whoa! Not so fast!
 
Get up slowly and lean on me.”

He kept his arms around her, leaving her no choice but to do
as he said.
 
He didn’t take them away
once she was upright either. Instead, he merely settled one hand firmly on her
waist and tilted her face towards him with the other one so that he could get a
clearer look at her injury.
 
Instinctively she jerked her head away.
 
He was far too close for comfort.
 
She could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek.
 
She could see how the Florida sun had
bleached the curling tips of his eyelashes, and there was a tiny mole at the
side of his mouth that she hadn’t noticed before, and a…

Daniel stopped inspecting the cut on her cheek and looked at
her.
 
“Are you okay? Did I hurt you or
something?”

“No. I’m fine,” she said.
 
“I’m just a bit woozy, that’s all.”

He looked at her doubtfully.
 
“Well lean on me then and tell me the minute you feel shaky.”

* * *

The journey to the inn seemed to take forever. Claire felt
she was wading through treacle as she put one leg in front of the other, but
the feeling had nothing to do with the cut on her face and everything to do
with Daniel’s proximity. She couldn’t escape the arm holding her close to his
side, nor the way the warmth of his body seemed to burn through her jacket,
sending sparks of desire deep into the pit of her stomach.

She forgot about her injury as she wrestled with her
reactions.
 
This was ridiculous!
 
He was someone she had only just met, someone
who wasn’t remotely interested in settling down, someone who had made it clear
that he wasn’t even looking for a girlfriend, so why had she decided to fall
for him, or at least why had her treacherous body decided to fall for him?
 
It couldn’t be anything more than his good
looks because she still wasn’t sure who Daniel was.