Seduction by the Book. Linda Conrad

day for him. But if it had been her, trying to get through the anniversary of the death of a loved one, she would’ve wanted all her family and friends around for support.

      He tilted his chin with a sharp nod. “It’s just a little ritual of honor that I began last year that helps me bid Christina goodbye again. A commemoration I suppose you’d call it.”

      “Will that be all ruined now?”

      Nick studied her for a moment. “Not if I can help it. Since you have insisted on staying on the island, I want you to spend the balance of the night in your suite alone. You should be able to find things to occupy your time there while I’m in my office.”

      He was such an annoying prickly loner of a man. “I guess that would be okay,” she said through gritted teeth. “As long as you promise to call me if you need anything.”

      On the other hand, who could complain about being alone in that fabulous suite with her CD player and the luxury of being able to read her books without being interrupted? It had been a dream of hers since she’d been a little girl.

      Not that she hadn’t loved growing up in a houseful of kids, but family sometimes became so overwhelming.

      “Just try to sleep through the storm, Annie. It’s the easiest way. The whole affair is usually so dull.”

      She would never mention it to him, but nothing could ever be dull while he was around. He had created a gray world for himself here, but her world had been full of nothing but exciting living color ever since the day they’d first met.

      Two

      After dinner, Annie cleared the dishes, put the pans into the sink and ran water over them. “Would you like coffee with your dessert?”

      “Yes, thanks,” Nick answered as he stood and backed away from the kitchen table. “Is there something I can do to help?” He needed to get this damn meal over with so he could be alone.

      She laughed and the sound lingered in the air, stirring his blood as if she were a real-life wizard with a magic wand. “You volunteering to do the dishes, Nick? I can just see that now. It would be almost as odd as seeing you eating dinner in the kitchen with me has been.”

      “Well, perhaps I might be slightly too fumble-fingered to actually wash. But I feel competent enough to dry the dishes if you wish.”

      He’d actually liked eating in the kitchen at the same table with her. It had been strangely cozy and warm. And as much as he wanted to be alone, prolonging the intimacy for just a little longer might not be so terrible.

      Besides, drying dishes would give him something to do with his hands as he tried to get his needs under control.

      Using the back of her suds covered hand, Annie flipped the hair back off her shoulder. “I’m going to let them soak. Until you…retire for the duration of the storm. Just let me set the coffeepot up, then I’ll get the lime custard pie out of the refrigerator and flame the meringue.”

      “You know how to do that?”

      She tsked at him. “I’ve been taking cooking lessons from your French chef. I even wrote down the instructions.”

      “I can’t imagine that you’d want lessons in cooking,” he said unwarily as he finished the coffee. “Didn’t you tell me that you came from a big Irish family? I thought…”

      “What?” she interrupted as she stood still and glared at him. “That poor kids from the other side of the tracks had better learn to feed themselves? Or maybe that all Irishmen ate nothing but boiled potatoes and wouldn’t be interested in French cooking.”

      “No, not at all. I didn’t mean…” Whatever he’d said was the wrong thing and he didn’t know how to make it right.

      Annie shook her head and then smiled. “Never mind. I overreacted. Sorry. Sit down and I’ll start the show.”

      She lit the small propane torch, ran the flame over the white fluffy top of the pie and the smell of burnt sugar suddenly filled the air. “Oh, by all the saints, how I love the way that smells,” she moaned.

      And oh how he loved the way she had closed her eyes and groaned in pleasure. It was a sensual, earthy sound that put stinging darts of desire right down his spine.

      But he desperately needed to stop listening and looking…stop everything when it came to her. This was all wrong. He simply could not sit here lusting after her. For him to even promote their burgeoning friendship would be dishonorable.

      His feelings toward her ran too strong. If there was one thing he had learned in his life, it was that friendships didn’t last. And when they were ripped away, a huge part of your soul went with them.

      No, friendship and love were illusions. He had never in his life been in love and didn’t even have the foggiest idea what that emotion would be like. His one and only friendship had been with Christina and that had obviously worked out in the worst possible way.

      So Nick was determined to keep his distance from Annie. He had even come to the conclusion that after the hurricane, he would be forced to let her go. Before it was too late.

      When the dessert was perfectly browned, Annie poured the coffee and sat down at the table with him. Her eyes blazed as she lifted the fork and drew hot sugar and cold custard into her mouth.

      “This is so decadent. My mother would call this combination of tastes a sin.”

      Only one of the many ways of putting yourself in hell, Nick thought. He had to get her talking. Sitting close and watching her lick the sugar off her lips was slowly but very surely sending him straight to the devil.

      “Tell me about your mother,” he said as he pushed his half-eaten dessert aside. “Tell me about your whole family.”

      She looked up at him with wide eyes. “Really? There’s a gazillion of them. It might take some time.”

      “A gazillion?” he asked with a chuckle. “How many is that exactly?”

      “Well, I’ve told you that I have three brothers and three sisters…all older. My mother is one of ten children, and my father is the youngest of thirteen. And I have nine nieces and nephews and sixty cousins—so far.”

      “I guess that does qualify as a gazillion. I was an only child. I have a couple of cousins that live in the U.S., but I can’t really imagine having as much family as you. Do you all live near each other in Boston?”

      “Mostly,” she said as she pushed her empty plate aside and took a sip of coffee. “Two of my cousins joined the army and went off for a while. But when their hitches were up, they came right back home to settle down.

      “I do have one daring uncle who took his family back to the homeland to live,” she continued. “Claimed he could only breathe the air if he was in Ireland.”

      Nick caught the sour facial expression. “Interesting. Ever give much thought to moving to Ireland yourself?”

      “Me? No. It would be too much like home—everyone knows everyone else’s business and has to put their two cents worth into it.”

      “Your family are gossips?”

      “It’s more like they all just read each other’s minds…and then don’t like what they see and insist on correcting the other person’s shortcomings. My mother is the worst of the lot.” She said the last with a twinkle in her eyes.

      “My mother tends to be a busybody, too.”

      “Your mother is a saint! You have no idea what a professional ‘stick-her-nose-in’ can be like.”

      He laughed, maybe harder than he had in years. Maybe ever. Annie was a true gem. A tempting emerald set in a ruby cluster, and he was beginning to covet her more than he should—much more than he could stand at the moment.

      “Tell me about what it was like