CHAPTER FIVE
‘Pepper? Pepper? Oh, where are you, you daft cat?’
It was her afternoon off, and she had intended to spend a few hours on the sofa with Pepper, catching up on her favourite soap. But there was no sign of the cat, and he didn’t even bother to appear when Hannah shook his packet of cat treats. Normally nothing would keep him away once he heard that inviting sound, so he was either too far away to hear it or intent on stalking some defenceless small creature.
‘I have better things to do than go cat hunting on my afternoon off,’ Hannah said, grumbling to herself. She peered out of the front door, shaking his treats once more, but to no avail. ‘Well, he’d better not be up to any mischief.’
Secretly, Hannah was worried about Pepper. He hadn’t been eating as much as usual and he hadn’t even bothered to attack the Christmas tree in recent days. He didn’t seem unwell. His ginger coat gleamed, and he felt as solid as ever, so skipping meals didn’t seem to be doing him any harm. But one night he hadn’t come in at all. That wasn’t like Pepper, who was a home-loving cat, and Hannah didn’t like it.
She didn’t want to think about what could happen to a cat on a quiet rural road that now had half of London, and the expensive half at that as far as she could tell, zipping up and down it in fast cars. Though Daniel had told her at lunch the other day that his glamorous film friends had all driven back to London now, so she was unlikely to be troubled by more late night screams and party-goers.
Still, he had not said he wouldn’t have any further visitors at all while house-sitting for Ivy, who would be away on her cruise until Christmas was over.
‘Pepper?’
She hesitated, checking up and down the quiet road. Could he be trapped somewhere? She searched the garden, calling his name with increasing urgency, and punctuating her shouts by shaking his cat treats like maracas.
She searched the out-houses, and then ventured into the road.
‘Pepper?’
Still nothing.
Disheartened, she was about to go inside when a splash of ginger in the window of Abbey Villa caught her eye.
She frowned suspiciously. Was that Pepper?
Keeping low, she crept a bit closer to her neighbour’s house, sticking to the grassy verge than bordered the drive so the crunch of gravel wouldn’t give away her approach. His car was parked near the front door, so he was almost certainly in. Unless he had gone for a walk. Which was possible, since the weather was cold but sunny today.
She was getting a bit too good at creeping up this drive, she reflected. But she needed to find Pepper, and she didn’t really want to see Daniel again.
She was, to say the least, emotionally confused. Or conflicted. Or whatever best described this mild case of the blues. She’d decided, almost before she left him on Monday after their lunch, that a man like Daniel Elliott spelled heartache for her. Perhaps it was cowardly. But there was too much pain in a short affair with a fixed end-by-date, and it was obvious from the way Daniel had talked about his home in London that he loved the buzz of city life, and she wasn’t doing long distance again.
Simple.
Besides, he hadn’t been in touch at all since their lunch ‘date’. Which suggested that he had been interested but only fleetingly. Perhaps signing all those napkins had put him off …
Reaching the front of the house, she stiffened in outrage. It was Pepper in the window. The ginger cat was curled up asleep in a rare shaft of late afternoon sunlight.
‘So this is where you’ve been hiding, you traitor.’ Hannah shook the packet of cat treats gently next to the glass. ‘Wake up, Pepper.’
The cat didn’t move. Deaf even to treats, apparently.
In desperation, Hannah tapped the glass. As softly as she could, for fear of alerting the occupant of the house to her presence. Not least because she had not brushed her hair since changing out of her work uniform, or put on any make-up, so she probably looked pasty and dishevelled, wearing tatty old jeans and an outsized fisherman’s jumper she’d bought cheap from a charity shop in York. The cable-knit jumper was thick and warm, and she loved it. But she was aware the cream knit wasn’t quite pristine in places, and there was a small but growing hole in the wool under one arm. Hardly the most impressive outfit to wear when there was a chance of encountering a celebrity.
At her insistent tapping, Pepper finally opened one baleful eye and fixed it on her. She saw the gleam of recognition turn to interest as he spotted the treats.
Slowly, he stood up and stretched, arching his back.
‘That’s right, come on, Pepper. Look what I’ve got for you.’
Hannah rattled the treats again.
Pepper looked at them, yawned extravagantly, and then sat down and began grooming himself in the sunshine.
‘Oh right, I see.’ Her fingers tightened on the plastic treat packet. ‘I bet he’s been feeding you, hasn’t he?’
She gritted her teeth. It looked like she was going to have to knock on the door and ask Daniel for help if she wanted her cat back. Which was the last thing she wanted to do, frankly. Daniel hadn’t been in touch since lunch, which had pained her, despite it being for the best. But she could be grown-up about this. Couldn’t she?
She was not happy to see her cat in his house though. Even if it was technically Ivy’s house, he was in charge of it right now, so this had to be his fault. After all, she thought crossly, friends shouldn’t tempt pets away or encourage them to defect. In fact, Hannah was pretty sure there was a special place reserved in hell for people who bribed pets away from their owners.
Annoyance buoyed her all the way to the front door.
She lifted the knocker, meaning to bang it down sharply, but the door swung open under the force of her movement.
She looked inside. There was nobody in the hall, but she paused, listening.
‘Hello?’
Silence greeted her.
Perhaps she could simply creep inside and grab Pepper. On second thoughts, she shouldn’t have to kidnap her own cat in such a surreptitious manner. And she had words to say to Daniel about him encouraging Pepper.
A series of thumps upstairs, and then a loud curse that made her eyes widen, echoed through the house.
‘Daniel?’
Hannah pushed the door fully open and stepped inside, listening intently. There was another muffled curse from upstairs. Yes, definitely Daniel.
Perhaps he needed help.
Hannah moved cautiously towards the foot of the stairs. What would he say about her being in his house without having been invited? She put her hand on the carved newel post and peered up, uncertain what to do.
‘Come on, you bugger.’
Startled, Hannah looked behind herself. The door yawned open, the garden and drive empty beyond it. The downstairs of the house seemed unoccupied too, no sound whatsoever from any of the other rooms.
Was he talking to her?
‘Daniel?’
There was a short pause and then he came to the top of the stairs, staring down at her in amazement. He looked totally edible in black hipster jeans and a Black Sabbath T-shirt, his hair damp as though he’d recently showered.
‘Hannah?’ He sounded blank. ‘What are you doing here?’ His head whipped round, then he lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘Look, that doesn’t matter now. Come up here, quick as you can.’
She swallowed. ‘Up … up there?’
‘Yes, absolutely.’ His eyes fixed on hers intently, reminding her oddly of Pepper. ‘I need you.’
She touched herself on the chest. ‘Me?’ she almost squeaked. ‘You want … me?’
‘Do you mind?’ He held out a hand, gesturing her to hurry. ‘I’m desperate, to be honest. Thank god you turned up before … Well, who knows what might have happened. I’ve been going mad up here.’
She hurried up a few stairs, then stopped midway, frowning, perplexed and a little suspicious. ‘Sorry. Desperate for … for what, exactly?’
‘Some help.’
‘With what?’ She eyed him with a sudden misgiving. ‘Is this a film thing? Because I’m not interested in doing anything smutty.’
‘Smu – ?’ He stared, then blinked. ‘Erm, no. It’s nothing like that. Though I could do with another pair of hands. He can be a bit slippery.’
Her eyes widened. ‘He?’
Yes, he.’ He turned away, staring along the landing, then glanced back at her in surprise. ‘Didn’t I say? Woody’s loose. My garter snake. So mind how you go.’
‘Your … snake … is … loose?’
He nodded. ‘Hush, not so loud. I’m trying to lure him back into his tank.’
Hannah still did not move, her feet frozen on the stairs. ‘Does he bite?’
‘Yes, but I’m sure he won’t if we’re careful.’ Daniel beckoned her up again. ‘Come on, you’ve arrived just in time. Once we find him, you can help me corner him.’
‘Well, I only came to get Pepper. He’s asleep downstairs … I saw him through the window.’ Hannah decided this wasn’t the right time to demand why he had lured her cat into his house. ‘Perhaps I should just grab him and go.’
‘Don’t be such a coward. Woody can’t have gone far and we’ll find him together in no time.’
‘But a snake – ’
‘You can hardly miss him. He’s nearly a metre long.’ Daniel looked at her persuasively. ‘Please? You can take Pepper home afterwards.’
‘A metre?’ Her breath caught in her throat and she had to cough, pretending it was a tickle. ‘Good grief. I mean, how do you lose a metre-long snake?’
‘I was cleaning his tank out and he did his Houdini act again.’
There was nothing for it but to help. Unless she wanted to look very unneighbourly indeed. Not to mention a total coward.
Hannah ran lightly up the carpeted stairs and onto the landing, edging around the bottom of the loft ladder after casting a cautious look up into that dark opening.
‘Could he be in the loft?’
‘I doubt it,’ Daniel said distractedly, turning over a basket of knitting and finding nothing beneath it. ‘Okay, I’m going to go over this floor again. Why don’t you start with the bathroom?’
Hannah gulped, remembering his story about Woody in the loo. ‘I suppose I could, yes.’ Turning, she stifled a scream when she found Pepper right behind her, watching them both with large curious eyes. ‘Oh god, Pepper! I nearly fell over you there.’ Tentatively, she tiptoed into the bathroom, checked behind the toilet, in the bath, and then took up the cleaning brush to make a quick, half-hearted sweep of the toilet bowl. No scaly head loomed up to terrify her.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she called out, ‘Nothing to report in here.’
‘Thanks,’ he called back. ‘Try the spare bedroom. It’s the one next to the bathroom. If you do find him, just call me, don’t try tackling him on your own. His bite can be painful.’
‘Right, great.’ She looked out at Pepper, still sitting on the landing, but the cat merely gazed back at her with a bland expression. ‘Thanks for that.’
If Daniel picked up on her sarcasm, he didn’t comment.
Hannah found the spare room. She was looking in an empty wardrobe and trying to think of ways to check under the bed that wouldn’t involve her potentially being on the same level as the snake, when she heard a soft thud from above her head.
She and Daniel both emerged onto the landing at the same time. ‘Did you hear that?’ he asked, meeting her gaze.
Hannah nodded. ‘Was that in the attic?’
‘I’ll go and check.’
Daniel set his foot on the lowest rung of the ladder, glanced up into the darkness of the attic, then said, ‘The light switch is over there. Could you possibly … ?’
‘Sure.’
She leant past him to flick the wall switch, and watched as he began to ascend the ladder, leaving her with a pleasantly male, spicy scent of cologne. She stood anxiously at the bottom of the ladder as he climbed until his top half was lost in the gloom of the attic. That’s when she realised how dark it was getting.
Suddenly he cursed.
‘The damn light bulb’s gone up here. I can’t see a thing. Could you pass me up a torch, please? There should be one on the bedside table in my bedroom.’ He hesitated, peering down at her. ‘That’s the first room on your right.’
Hannah found the torch quickly, trying not to feel like an intruder in his personal space and trying not to spend time absorbing the details, like a pair of faded denim jeans spread on the bottom of his bed, a white T-shirt crumpled in a corner, his comb on the table. She didn’t want to notice those private details. They made him seem less of a celebrity, more accessible and even ordinary. Not good if she wanted to keep her distance.
She climbed up the ladder far enough to pass him the torch, hoping that he would find Woody up in the attic. (As that would mean the snake wasn’t down here with her!) And of course it would mean she could go home and continue her not-seeing Daniel policy, which had foundered somewhat in the past half hour.
Standing at the very top of the ladder, he played the torch beam over the attic. The beam cast some of his face in light and some in shadow, reminding her a little spookily of the night she’d suspected him of being a vampire. He used his other hand to steady himself, his index finger tapping lightly against the side of the ladder. Like he was playing a tune …
‘Can’t see him up here,’ he began, then gave a muffled exclamation. Inexplicably, he had somehow lost his grip on the ladder and was now falling, toppling back towards her. Hannah saw him coming as if in slow motion, but before she could dart sideways, his body suddenly collided with hers, knocking her to the floor.
Even covered in deep-pile carpet, it was a hard landing.
She lay there, not quite able to draw enough air into her lungs. Black spots fizzled and popped in front of her eyes, and as her vision cleared, she looked up into Daniel’s face. His green eyes seemed equally dazed, and a lock of black hair fell forward across his forehead as he stared down at her. Hannah had the oddest desire to smooth it back, and if she’d had enough breath she might have done so. Fortunately for her sense of self-preservation, she couldn’t move her hands.
‘Wh-What happened?’ Hannah managed to wheeze.
‘Your bloody cat happened,’ he told her testily. ‘He leapt out of nowhere and attacked me.’
‘Impossible.’
‘Oh, is that so?’
Daniel raised himself onto his elbows to glare down at her, removing some of his weight. Her chest heaved with relief, air dragged into her lungs, her brain starting to focus again.
Staring upwards, she saw Pepper looking down at them out of the attic, his gaze quizzical.
Oh no, Pepper, she thought dismally. What have you done now?
Waving a hand under her nose, he said, ‘Look.’ There was a livid set of red scratch marks on his skin, suggesting definite cat interference. But Hannah couldn’t seem to concentrate on the evidence. His muscular legs still lay tangled with hers, and his pelvis was imprinted against the top of her thighs. The heat of him, the sheer masculine power pressing against her was … Well, it was a potent distraction.
Keep your mind out of the gutter. Think of the cat.
‘Serves you right for feeding him and tempting him away from me,’ she said, trying to regain control over the situation. Only her words didn’t quite come out right. They sounded a bit thin and breathless. Like she was panting, for god’s sake.
‘Yeah, sorry about that. I did it so that you would come over.’ He settled his weight more thoroughly on her lower body, befuddling her wits even more.
‘Really?’ She blinked. ‘Why didn’t you just ask me to pop by?’
‘From the chilly way you headed back to work after lunch on Monday, I got the impression you weren’t too keen on seeing me again.’
She couldn’t deny the truth of that. Though he had misunderstood her reasoning.
‘I didn’t much want to see you today either.’
‘Is that so?’ He gazed down into her eyes, the power of that hungry stare mesmerising. His nose was nearly touching hers, his voice low and husky, almost a growl. ‘Why not?’
‘Because you’ll be moving back to London soon,’ Hannah whispered the words into the millimetre space between their lips. ‘And I’m not interested in a one-night-stand.’
‘I still want to kiss you.’
‘Do you?’
His eyes scorched her face. ‘Don’t you too?’
‘Maybe,’ she whispered, unable to look away. ‘But only once. Just for a … a minute or two. To see what it’s like.’
‘Good idea.’
She raised her head slightly, he lowered his, and their mouths bumped somewhere in the middle. His lips were warm and firm, barely brushing against hers before they withdrew again. Hannah’s lungs constricted, but this time it wasn’t because he was squashing her into the floor. It was the flutter of desire somewhere under her ribcage.
‘That won’t do, will it?’ he asked softly.
She shook her head silently. That wasn’t even an hors d’oeuvre. She wanted to know what it was like to kiss Daniel-not-a-vampire-Elliott.
‘Let’s try that again.’ Yet he lingered, gazing down at her, teasing her with nothing but his closeness and the warmth of his breath against her cheek, until she took matters into her own hands.
Hannah’s lips were already parted when she grabbed Daniel and finally pressed her mouth to his. This time it was a proper kiss. Slow and deep, as if they were savouring each other. She understood then that Daniel was a man who liked kissing, and enjoyed learning about her body, and guessed that making love would be more than a means to an end for him. Her eyes closed, her mind drifting into pleasure, and she forgot about reclaiming Pepper, or finding his lost Woody, all puns aside. For now, there was only the taste and feel of Daniel.
He cradled her face as if she were something precious, whispering her name and making love to her mouth.
Hannah twined her fingers through the dark, silky strands of his hair, holding him close as if by doing so she could stop the kiss from ending.
At some point, he slid an arm under her neck and rolled them so that she was on top straddling him. The tenor of the kiss changed, turning stormier, the first tender exploration consumed by the hunger that flared between them. Hannah met Daniel’s mouth with equal passion, kissing him back with enthusiasm until finally they broke apart, panting.
Daniel began, his voice husky, ‘Oh my god, I want to – ’
Sadly, whatever it was Daniel wanted, Hannah wasn’t destined to find out. Because her dreamy vision had suddenly sharpened on something long and brown slithering towards them across the landing carpet.
‘Oh!’ She struggled to untangle herself from Daniel, stabbing an elbow in his stomach as she tried to point past him at his undulating pet. ‘Sn … Sn … Sn …’
He sat up, staring back at her in utter bewilderment. ‘Sn-ow?’
‘Snake!’
As he turned, she rolled free and leapt up, making for the attic ladder, managing to land about half way up before daring to glance back down at him.
Pepper, still peering down from his attic vantage point, hissed with sudden venom at the snake, his fur puffing out to make him look three times bigger. Which was pretty large.
Hannah grabbed him and held on tightly when he began to fight for freedom. ‘B-Bad cat,’ she told him, practically squeezing the unfortunate cat like a set of bagpipes in her panic. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered when he protested with a squeak, relaxing her grip. ‘But you really do have to stay still. At least until …’
But Daniel had risen to his knees in one graceful movement, and now caught the snake as it came past him.
‘Got him,’ he said calmly, though there was an edge of triumph in his voice. ‘Panic over. So you and Pepper can come down from there now.’
‘We’re okay where we are, thanks,’ she said, regarding the errant snake without much favour.
‘Nonsense. He’ll behave himself now, I promise.’ He held out the long, coiled body of the snake towards her, like someone displaying a necklace in a jewellery shop. ‘Come and meet Woody.’
It was all a bit much for her, though whether that was down to the passionate kiss they’d just shared, or because of the snake, now eyeing her and Pepper with what looked like jealousy, she could not be sure.
Unable to stay cool a moment longer, Hannah jumped down from the attic ladder, flushed and dishevelled, and ran past him down the stairs with Pepper in her arms.
Behind her she heard Daniel call out, ‘Hannah, wait! I’m sorry if I upset you. I’ll put Woody back in his tank.’
But she did not stop. She dared not.
Of course, it wasn’t Woody the snake that had made Hannah run from Abbey Villa like the devil himself were at her heels.
Not deep down.
Not if she was honest with herself.
It was The Kiss, as she kept thinking of it later that evening, that had made her flee his house. She stood in her rather too chilly bedroom, Pepper watching her from the bed, and stripped off her clothes before bundling into flannel PJs and fluffy pink bed socks for extra warmth. It was cold enough to snow, after all, and the heavy dark clouds above her cottage tonight made that event increasingly likely.
What an idiot she was, though!
After making up her mind that nothing could, or should, come of liking a man like Daniel Elliott, Hannah was feeling pretty fed up with herself. Not only for allowing him to kiss her, but for participating in it and actually enjoying it. She’d blown all her good intentions in one split-second of ‘wow-he’s-so-kissable’ stupidity.
Even worse, she thought grimly, the kiss had been so damn good she now had no anti-Daniel reserves left. It had effectively removed all her barriers (which admittedly hadn’t been particularly strong, anyway) and left her wanting more. More kisses. More time spent in his company. Just basically more Daniel Elliott. Like he was some delicious cake and she had to have just one more slice …
A cake?
Hannah shook her head at her own banality, dragging back the duvet with its cheerful red-and-green cover, and plumping up her matching red pillows to make them nice and comfy.
Though the man was rather edible, it could not be denied.
‘But maybe he won’t want to see us again, huh, Pepper?’ Hannah mumbled as she slid into her chilly single bed. She rubbed her cheek against Pepper’s fur, and he nudged her in response with his head, thundering purrs vibrating through his body and transferring to her own chest in a comforting cat-cuddle. Her body ached with tiredness, it felt incredibly good to be horizontal at last, even if she was not getting horizontal with the man living opposite. ‘Maybe after running away like that, he’ll … he’ll … ’
But she was so weary, she fell asleep with that sentence unfinished, hoping in some futile, wordless way that she would somehow never have to face him again.
Not even in her sleep.
She didn’t see Daniel Elliott in her dreams though.
Instead, she had the most bizarre and disturbing nightmare, where she was being chased through a maze of mirrors by an oddly persistent, undulating snake. A snake that grew bigger and longer the harder she tried to escape it …