She turned around, only to find he was standing right behind her. She looked up and blinked. He had an odd, entirely too satisfied look on his face.
She gave a soft gasp as he picked her up and tossed her potato-sack fashion over his shoulder.
‘Put me down!’ she shrieked. But apparently one hundred and fifty pounds of wriggling woman didn’t deter a man who had been pushed to his limit, and Ava was getting the distinct impression this might be the case.
As he waded through the undergrowth she stopped struggling and sagged a little against him. Gianluca only put her down when they reached the road.
She spotted the red Ducati immediately.
‘What’s this?’
‘Transport down the mountain.’
As he spoke he straddled the bike.
Ava’s feet had frozen. She was not strapping herself to his back on that thing.
‘Sorry, Benedetti. Been there, done that...’
‘Get on the bike, Ava.’
Something about the tone of his voice, the fact he was not quite looking at her, and the way she was feeling—tired, confused, and a little overwhelmed at seeing the bike—had her doing as he asked.
He fired up the four-stroke engine. It purred and crackled with energy. She approached and slid carefully onto the seat. There wasn’t much room. Her pelvis was smack up against his hard rear, her inner thighs pressing against his lean, muscled hips. She held herself as stiffly as she could, but he was big and warm and solid, and as they took off her hands groped instinctively for his waist. She tightened them over slabs of hard muscle and heat and swore she felt them move.
Her thighs melted as if on cue. This was not good.
The bike leapt as they hit the road. He took the corners on the narrow ribbon of mountain road at speed. Without helmets there was some risk involved. But something else was riding him. She could feel the tension in his big body. Which was just fine by her, because none of this was her idea of fun either. Except for the part about her entire body buzzing and tingling like an electrical storm. But she put that down to proximity and friction.
‘Next time remind me to take a bus,’ she commented as he braked and they pulled over to allow a small car to pass on the single road ribboning down the mountain.
‘Si? You would last five minutes, cara. The minute you opened that fine mouth of yours the driver would dump you on the roadside.’
She relaxed slightly. This was good. This she could do.
‘Careful, Benedetti, or I’ll jump off—and how are you going to explain that to your mother and Alessia?’
‘Believe me, bella, once they meet you nobody will question me for dumping you.’
He gunned the engine and they took off again.
Ava guessed she deserved that one. If she was going to dish them out, she had to take them. But she knew well enough that neither woman liked her particularly, and the reminder recalled her to the reality of her situation. She’d almost forgotten in the excitement what this was all about, and her heart started to thump to an irregular, painful beat she recognised.
‘Hold on,’ he instructed, and he angled them off the road where they hit an unsealed track. Within minutes it became increasingly rocky.
Bouncing behind him, she shouted, ‘This wasn’t your best idea!’
‘It’s a damn sight safer than the road,’ he responded grimly, ‘and the benefit is, you get to live.’
‘With bruises on my posterior!’
‘Keep looking at the upside, cara.’
They hit a rut and her bottom came down hard on the seat. She moaned.
‘You did that on purpose!’
‘Sometimes fate takes a hand.’
This wasn’t fun any more. She was tired of all the fighting, mostly engineered by herself, to keep him at arm’s length. But he seemed to be taking some enjoyment in shaking her up. She fell quiet, concentrating on not coming down too hard on the seat.
To her surprise he was braking gently, gradually bringing the bike to a halt. His movements were careful, deliberate. The brake, the ignition, the footrest. The dreadful sudden silence.
Ava looked around at the craggy rocks rising up above them and for some reason she panicked.
‘What now?’ she asked nervously. ‘You get off, push the bike into the ravine and I’m never heard of again?’
He shifted around and she jerked back, unable to unhook her legs. She was stuck. On a bike, in the back of beyond, with a man who seemed to be all brawn and muscle. And she’d been poking him with a big sharp stick. All day.
His golden eyes moved over her with unsettling directness, and under his scrutiny she could feel her cheeks starting to burn.
‘We need to get this out of our systems,’ he asserted roughly.
Ava could have put her hand over her heart in that moment and sworn it was the last thing she’d expected him to say.