The Yuletide Engagement & A Yuletide Seduction by Carole Mortimer Page A

she added disgustedly.
    He had come to a halt some distance away from her. “Frigid,” he repeated scornfully.
    Her eyes glazed coldly. “You’ll never know,” she bit out forcefully.
    He smiled. “But I already do know, Ellie,” he assured her derisively. “Oh, well.” He shrugged in the face of her stony expression. “I made the offer. See you around.” He raised a hand in farewell before letting himself out of the house.
    Â 
    S HE turned to Patrick now, having no intention of relating any of that conversation to him. It was bad enough that she still remembered every painfully humiliating word of it, without sharing it with anyone else. Least of all Patrick!
    She gave him a dismissive smile. “It isn’t important what happened, Patrick,” she told him lightly. “Gareth hurt me with words, that’s all. And as my mother always said, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me’,” she quoted ruefully.
    Patrick looked unconvinced. “Bones heal; words can never be forgotten.”
    How true that was. She hadn’t forgotten a single word Gareth had said to her six weeks ago, whereas a brokenfinger or wrist would have healed and been dismissed by now.
    â€œSurely it’s Gareth’s problem if he considers that any woman who doesn’t want to sleep with him must be frigid.” She shrugged.
    Grey eyes widened. “He actually said that? To you ?” Patrick sounded incredulous.
    Ellie gave him a disgruntled frown. “Yes, he said that to me,” she repeated irritably.
    Patrick chuckled softly. “You’re right, Ellie.” He gave a rueful shake of his head. “He isn’t important,” he explained at her questioning look. “He obviously didn’t get to know you very well at all, did he?” he added derisively.
    â€œExactly what do you mean by that remark?” she demanded defensively.
    He looked at her consideringly before answering. “Ellie, you are one of the warmest, most responsive women I have ever had the pleasure to meet.”
    Her cheeks coloured hotly. It was no good denying what he said; her response to him whenever he touched her was undeniable.
    â€œI’ll tell you something else,” Patrick added huskily as he stood up to move round the table and pull her unresistingly to her feet. “I’m glad Davies never got close enough to you to discover that for himself,” he murmured throatily, before bending to lightly brush Ellie’s lips with his own.
    So was she.
    She hadn’t always felt that way, had wondered in the days and then weeks that had followed Gareth’s abrupt departure from her life whether she could indeed be frigid. But she only had to be in the same room withPatrick to be completely aware of him, and when she was actually in his arms like this…!
    No, she wasn’t frigid. She was just a woman who only responded to the right man. The right man for her. Because, although he was unsuitable in every other way—rich, powerful, successful, completely removed from her own lifestyle—she knew she had fallen in love with Patrick McGrath.
    She had been fighting that knowledge for some time now, refusing to allow the thought to even enter her head. But alone here with him in the silence of her kitchen, held in his arms, their two bodies moulded perfectly together, she could no longer deny how she felt about him.
    To herself, at least.
    To Patrick it was another matter!
    â€œWell, I’m relieved to hear it,” she told him lightly, at the same time moving determinedly out of his arms. “Maybe there’s hope for me after all,” she added with deliberate self-derision.
    Patrick’s gaze followed her frowningly. “Ellie—”
    â€œI just heard a car in the driveway, so I think Toby must be home,” she told him with a certain amount of relief.
    Her mother used to say something