His Christmas Feast by Nora James

Author:Nora James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Published: 2019-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Christophe bit the inside of his cheek as he knocked firmly on Emily’s door. He listened to the song of the magpie in the gum tree while he waited, trying to empty his mind and calm the knot forming in his stomach. He sighed. She was in there and not in a hurry to open up.

He knocked again, even harder this time. ‘Emily, it’s Christophe. We need to talk.’ Come on, Emily.

The door opened a crack and then a little more, and Emily stood before him, lips pressed tight. She kept her gaze on her feet.

He wanted to feel her eyes on him, wanted to run his fingers through her golden mane and kiss the tip of that cute button nose, but he had to act like they were nothing more than acquaintances. He cleared his throat. ‘Emily, what is going on? What is going on with you, with us?’

She shrugged. ‘Nothing is going on, Christophe. We’re neighbours. We went for a walk together.’

He held back a gasp. She sounded like she believed that, when there was enough electricity between them to light up an entire city. It baffled him. ‘Can I come in?’ He needed some time with her, to convince her that she was wrong.

She fiddled with her top. ‘It’s getting late and I’m pretty tired. I haven’t yet eaten, either.’

It was unsettling having to reach out to her from her front porch, kept at bay like a complete stranger. How could she let him into her heart if he couldn’t even make it into her home for a few minutes? Maybe she didn’t feel at ease inviting him in, but what if he asked her over to his house? ‘I’ve made too much pizza. Would you like to come over and share it? I just have to put it in the oven and it’ll be ready in ten minutes.’ He held his breath like a little boy waiting to hear if he’d be granted his wish for Christmas.

Her lips twisted and her face seemed to hollow. ‘Thank you, but I’d rather not.’

Did she mean not tonight because she was tired? Or was it a permanent refusal, a not ever because she was once again back to doing her best to avoid him? Christophe wasn’t one to insist when a woman said no, but this time something told him not to let go. All he wanted was a chance to get things out into the open, to really understand what was going on. ‘I’d so appreciate a chat about what happened down at the beach. There are things I need to say, and things I have to know or I’ll lose sleep over it for sure.’ That was putting it mildly. He was already in agony; the night would be torture.

She looked up at him with her beautiful doe-eyes, those eyes he could drown in without hesitation, if only she would let him. ‘All right. Let’s sit out here for five minutes.’

His shoulders relaxed as he followed her to the old wooden bench under the jasmine-covered arbour in her front garden.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.