Inescapable

“We need to talk.” He was so still, so contained, and yet everything about him suggested action. “I need your compliance. I want you to do as I say while you are under my protection.” He paused. “But you don’t like following instructions, do you?”

Her spine straightened. She glanced away, blocking out the thoughts that surfaced. He’d hit a nerve there, but she wasn’t about to let him know that. “I don’t like being pulled out my life over something that has nothing to do with me.”

He looked at her, steadily. “I understand that. Believe me, if you were aware of all the circumstances you’d be glad you are in witness protection.” He paused again, and one corner of his mouth lifted. “In fact, you might even play nicely.”

“You reckon?” She threw him a sarcastic glance.

That only seemed to amuse him.

“Why don’t you come across the hallway and be social?”

The smile that hovered around his mouth made her lips part as she thought about how that mouth felt under hers, and how brazenly she’d acted when she thought he was Adrian. She wasn’t ready to go in there and ‘be social’, because there was no way she could sit with the two of them and chit-chat, not yet.

He took a step closer, and it was with such deliberate intent—his eyes never leaving hers—that her heart missed a beat. Frustrated, she lashed

out. “Okay, you win. I can’t make any calls. But my flatmate will report me missing if she doesn’t hear from me, I know she will.”

He frowned. “That may or may not be good news.”

There was no way she was going to flatter him by asking what his cryptic comment meant. “Look, I need some time alone to get my head around all of this.”

He stared at her for the longest moment, and then nodded. But he didn’t make a move to leave. In fact he looked rooted to the spot.

“Keep an eye on Adrian,” she said, hurriedly, feeling guilty about that, “concussion can come on several hours after the injury.”

“Don’t worry, I will. He’s doing okay, he’s just a bit shaken up and that’s understandable.” That did set her mind at rest, but he was still focused on her, seemingly unwilling to leave. “And you need to eat,” he added. “I’ve made you a sandwich, I’ll fetch it.”

Why was it that everything he said annoyed her? “You’re too kind.”

“I’m trying. Believe me.” A sardonic smile passed briefly over his face.

The way he smiled made Lily realise how rarely it happened, but when he did, it was thoroughly wicked. His eyes were dark with secret thoughts.

“I’m not your enemy here, Lily, please try to remember that.”

His comment struck a chord, and the way he said her name—as soft as a caress—made her breath hitch. His glance was brooding, sexual. It was also intimate, and somehow intrusive. It made her feel frustrated with him, and yet it made her feel outrageously horny, too. She knew she should put her foot down, tell him to get out of the room, and yet the fact he was there at all secretly thrilled her. Wired to every sensation, to every atmospheric change in the room, her skin prickled.

“This would all be so much more pleasant if you chilled out.” Eyebrows lifted, he went further. “We could act as if we were meeting for the first time, like we did earlier today.”

The bastard, he had to bring that up—and there was a suggestive glint in his eye as he reminded her of it. She shook her head. “You’ve had your fun with the phone, leave me alone.”

“You don’t mean that.” They were inches apart and he was studying her as if he was aware of how turned on she was by his presence.

“Don’t I?” Her body was a mass of conflicting signals. Her blood raced and she was finding it difficult to control her breathing.

Moving quickly, he grasped her around her wrist with one determined hand and drew her arm away from her chest, taking away her shield. His hand felt warm and yet unyielding as he held her wrist, and her other arm automatically fell to her side.

“We have unfinished business, and you know it.”

Unnerved, she tried to pull away, but when he held on to her and drew her closer still, she melted. “No. That was a mistake. I thought you were Adrian,” she whispered. “That’s why I kissed you.”

That didn’t faze him.

“I know. It was a blind date, but you liked what you saw, didn’t you? You made your move, and you made it on me.” He said it so suggestively, and for some reason his Welsh accent seemed to key into a deep part of her.

“You’re an arrogant prick.” Even so, the memory of what she’d said and done raced through her mind over again, hammering the point home. Her face was on fire.

“Thing is,” he said, running one finger down her top and around the outside of her breast, making her head spin, “I enjoyed it, and I think you did too.”