Dangerous to Know by Nell Dixon Page B

willing her to agree to another date. To his surprise she took a small step backwards out of his arms.
    â€œI don’t know, Jerome.”
    â€œI see.” Although he didn’t see, not really. Disappointment stabbed at his ribs.
    â€œEverything’s always been fun between us, you know, messing about, but…”
    â€œThere’s always a ‘but’.” He made the quip but his tone was serious.
    â€œI just came out of a relationship that I thought was going to be for keeps, and I don’t want to get hurt like that again.” She wrapped her arms protectively across her chest, the lamp dangling from her fingers casting an eerie yellow light in the fog.
    Jerome dug his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans. “You know I’d never hurt you. I just thought you were up for some fun.”
    â€œYeah, well, so did I. I guess we were both wrong.” Her eyes were sad. “I’ll be in my tent.”
    Jerome heard the sound of the zip being fastened. Alone in the mist he thought about what Gemma had said. He kicked one of the small stones near his boot, sending it bouncing into a wiry clump of grass.
    A faint glow came from a crack in the entrance of Gemma’s tent. He’d spent years avoiding emotional entanglements. His lifestyle had been too unsettled for any kind of long-term relationships. Not too many women would be prepared to put up with him disappearing for weeks on end into dangerous places to photograph wildlife.
    He’d resigned himself to being alone and until just lately it had suited him.
    Until Gemma. He moodily kicked another pebble as he tried to work out his feelings towards her.
    Gemma was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. She was smart, sexy, had a good sense of humor… Heck, she’d even come roughing it in a tent without complaining! He sighed and scratched his head as he puzzled over what to do now.
    He couldn’t blame her for backing off, because he was well aware of his reputation with women. To an extent he’d encouraged it, figuring that if the women knew he wasn’t in the market for the long haul they could hardly complain that he’d deceived them.
    Now, though, he had to work out what he did want. Nathalie had warned him that Gemma was an all-or-nothing kind of girl. He glanced again at the tiny ray of light spilling from the tent and knew he couldn’t bear it to be nothing.

Chapter Six
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    Gemma wriggled down inside her sleeping bag and pulled a magazine and a family-sized block of chocolate from her backpack as she got comfortable. She could hear Jerome wandering about outside the tent, his feet crunching on the gravel.
    Half-a-dozen squares of chocolate later, she felt better. She wondered what he was doing out there in the rain. When he’d held her in his arms and asked her to go away with him again she had really wanted to say yes. Gemma sighed and closed her magazine.
    It was impossible to concentrate when her head was full of Jerome. She pummeled her pillow into shape and rolled on to her back to stare up at the canvas. It was time to face the facts. No matter how much she tried to make out that she was a flirtatious woman of the world out for a good time without any strings, the truth was that simply wasn’t her at all.
    If she allowed herself to keep on flirting with Jerome and enjoying his kisses she would be well on her way to a broken heart. She shuffled uncomfortably. Who was she trying to kid? Her heart was already likely to be broken by him.
    A tear trickled from the corner of her eye. Gemma blinked. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been warned about Jerome. Nathalie had been clear about her brother’s reputation. Jerome had always been up front with her, too, so why had it hurt so much when he’d said he was just out for fun?
    Gemma wiped the salty water from her cheek and sniffed. For someone who was supposed to be quite smart, she didn’t seem to be doing a