Encounter with a Commanding Officer

He was still lost in his thoughts when Fliss eventually lifted her head.

‘Ash?’

He turned his head, the sight of her soothing his jostling thoughts.

Tell her now.

‘You look annoyed.’ She peered at him nervously, her initial euphoria seeming to disappear before his eyes.

He hesitated. He was annoyed, but at himself, not at Fliss. It wouldn’t be fair to burst her bubble when she wasn’t the one apparently having difficulty remembering it was just about sex. It was him. But giving herself to him with such abandon was so out of character for Fliss, Ash hated that her happiness was so fragile. He hated that he could be the one to hurt her when suddenly all he wanted to do was protect her. Always.

Ridiculous. Just sex. Right?

‘I’m not remotely annoyed,’ he reassured her, forcing a rueful smile to his lips as he searched for a plausible distraction for his reaction. ‘Frustrated, maybe.’

She flushed prettily, the way he’d become accustomed to her doing when she was feeling self-conscious. She lowered her hand down his body which, despite everything, kicked in primal need.

Just sex.

‘Not here,’ he growled, catching her wrist. ‘I want to strip you down and taste every last inch of you before I finally slide inside you.’

‘Then shall we go back to the hotel?’ Her delighted smile was shy and seductive at the same time. ‘We only have five hours before you have to leave for your flight.’

Deep inside Ash, something came apart. This was the confirmation he needed that he’d been imagining it when he’d thought Fliss was opening up to him as though there was more between them than just a one-night stand.

So why didn’t that please him more?

‘Let’s go,’ he answered grimly, shoving the reservations from his head.

Placing his arm protectively around her shoulders, they headed back down the hillside, her body nestling against his, a perfect fit.

Just sex.

He was finally beginning to convince himself. Still, it was going to be a painfully long taxi ride all the way back, so perhaps it was also the chance he needed to sort his head out.

CHAPTER NINE

SOMETHING WAS DIFFERENT.

Fliss’s heart was beating so madly that it felt as though a jackhammer was assaulting her chest the entire journey to the hotel.

His arm might still be around her shoulders, his hard body almost glued to hers on the hot car seats, but mentally Ash was pulling away from her. And she had a fair idea why.

She’d broken their agreement.

She hadn’t intended to. But there it was. She’d forgotten the just sex part of it and was at serious risk of falling for Ash. And he must know it. It explained why he was trying to distance himself emotionally.

She wanted to put it down to her inexperience with casual flings, but deep down she was afraid it was more than that. It wasn’t the unfamiliar act of a one-night stand which was confusing her, but more the unique man sitting tantalisingly close to her. The one who had made her forget her surroundings back up on that hillside, who had made her forget all her usual rules and codes, and forget herself. When he’d played her body with such skill and finesse that it had thrummed with pleasure. When he’d peeled away the armour she’d spent decades melding for herself, and shown her how to live in that one breathtaking moment. And when he’d laced his fingers through hers and dropped a kiss on her soft knuckles as if he really cared about her.

She’d forgotten all her rules and she’d let herself imagine something more with him. But when she came back down to earth she would remember that neither of them had room in their lives for that. If she was going to salvage tonight then she needed to convince him he had misunderstood, that she wasn’t really thinking with her heart instead of her head. She needed to convince him that it was only about the sex for her too.

Because the alternative was that Ash would call it a night now rather than risk any unwanted further entanglement. And Fliss suddenly suspected that no other man was ever going to get under her skin the way Ash had, and if she didn’t indulge in this one night of wanton abandon with him then she would regret it for the rest of her life.

Somehow, she had to make Ash believe that she did actually know what she was doing.

Even if she didn’t.

Suppressing her nerves, Fliss twisted her body around to his and forced herself to sound confident as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. ‘This journey is taking way too long.’