Not only was she injured and involved with someone else, but their relationship bordered on adversarial.
Who was he kidding? They didn’t have a relationship.
So why did he suddenly want to strip her naked and bone her into next week?
What the hell was wrong with him?
Given the circumstances his response bordered on the depraved, but knowing that seemed to make no difference. His body was a throbbing ache and he tried again to ease away from her, but she nestled closer. Immediately he was engulfed by the light, fresh scent of flowers.
He glanced down again, to the shimmer of her nails and the elaborate silver cuff on her narrow wrist that was obviously one of her own unique designs, forcing himself to admit the truth—he was turned on by a woman who set off every alarm in his body. The type of high-maintenance female he went out of his way to avoid.
And he was taking her back to his hotel room.
Last time he’d helped a woman in trouble it had ended badly.
He hoped the minibar was well stocked because he was going to need every bottle in the fridge to get through the next few hours.
Merry Christmas, Alec.
CHAPTER TWO
SKYLAR’S HEAD POUNDED, as if a thousand elves from Santa’s workshop were hammering on her skull. There was a tickling feeling on her face and she kept her eyes closed, drifting in and out of sleep, lulled by the hum of the engine and the low murmur of male voices.
Alec’s voice. Alec Hunter.
She lay against his shoulder, the strength of his arm keeping her locked against a chest that was solid muscle.
He was an academic. A man who spent at least half the year delivering lectures and studying papers. He wasn’t supposed to have the body of a fighter.
She knew she should pull away but she didn’t have the energy.
Had she been in a better state she would have laughed.
Of all the people who disapproved of her, her parents and Richard included, Alec Hunter led them all. He made no secret of the fact he thought she was shallow and frivolous.
Princess.
It was the cruelest irony that he’d been the one to be by her side at her lowest moment.
At some point during the journey she felt him move. She assumed he was about to push her onto her own side of the seat, but then she felt him applying a soft pad to her head and realized that the tickling feeling was blood coming from the wound.
He’d given her his coat, she remembered, which meant that her head was rubbing up against the pristine white of his shirt.
Pristine no longer.
Even knowing that didn’t motivate her to move.
She would happily have stayed in the cab forever, all her problems suspended.
Eventually they came to a standstill.
Alec eased her away from him and pushed her hair back from her face.
“Sky? We’re here.”
She was surprised by how gentle his fingers were.
She opened her mouth to ask where “here” was, but he was already leaning forward to pay the driver and then there was the sound of the door opening followed by a rush of cold air that made her gasp.