Force of Feeling

It took far longer than she had anticipated to remove her wet jeans. They clung stubbornly to her legs, resisting all her attempts to tug them off, but at last she managed to remove them. Underneath, her skin was red and chafed from the irritation of the harsh cloth.

She had to take down her hair as well, but only realised when she was in the bathroom that she had forgotten her shower cap, so she had to use some of Guy’s shampoo, and waste even more time.

When she stepped out of the shower, she discovered she had left her fresh underwear on the bed. What was happening to her? She was normally so organised.

Still wrapped in the damp towel, her hair curling wetly on to her shoulders, she stepped irritably out of the bathroom and walked straight into Guy.

His hands steadied her, holding on to the bare skin of her upper arms.

‘Are you OK?’

‘Of course I am.’

‘You’ve been up here so long, I thought your fall must have been more serious than you were letting on.’

She was carrying her wet briefs and top in one hand, and her toilet bag in the other. It wasn’t very warm on the landing, and already she was starting to shiver.

‘I’ve already told you I’m perfectly all right, and if you don’t mind I’d like to go and get dressed.’

When Guy didn’t release her immediately, she pulled away from him, and then gave a sharp cry of dismay as she felt her towel starting to slide away from her body.

She dropped everything she was carrying immediately, but even so Guy moved faster, catching the towel just as it slithered down to reveal the full curves of her breasts.

‘Whoops…’

Deftly, he caught up the ends and secured them more firmly above her breasts, and she, for some reason, simply stood there and let him.

She was having difficulty in breathing, and her brain seemed to have stopped functioning at precisely that second when she had felt the brief touch of Guy’s fingers against the swell of her breasts as he reached for the towel. Her body turned and then froze, her mind blank of everything bar the feeling his touch had engendered.

Sickly, she acknowledged the truth. When Guy had touched her, she had actually been physically aroused.

Oh, God, what was happening to her? She must be sick, deranged in some way. She had to be to feel like that. How could she be stupid enough to desire a man whom she knew could never, ever want her?

Dimly, she was aware of Guy bending to pick up the things she had dropped, and gently handing them to her. She focused on him, her eyes unknowingly dark with pain and shock.

He touched her arm and she flinched.

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’

All right? How could she be all right, when she felt like this, when her whole body was still tormented with the most acute thrust of need she had ever felt?

The sound of his voice brought her back to reality. She couldn’t let him see what was happening to her. She had to fight against whatever madness it was that possessed her; she had to stop herself feeling like this. If only he could go away and leave her in peace…but she couldn’t run away. Not a second time…

The betraying words hung in her mind, as though they were written there in the fire. A second time… Her mouth went dry, and she forced herself to swallow to relieve some of the tension invading her throat.

Was that why she had come here, then? Because of Guy French? Because she had known subconsciously that she was physically attracted to him?

They were questions she couldn’t bear to answer. There was only one way she could escape from her torment, she acknowledged, only one way she could stop herself from going mad thinking about her folly, and that was to lose herself in her work.

‘I don’t want any lunch,’ she told him harshly, ‘I want to get back to work. I…I had an idea while I was out…’

It wasn’t true, but she had had an idea the previous night, and she could work on that. Anything to get away from him.

CHAPTER FOUR

CAMPION dressed quickly in the first things that came to hand; a thin jumper and an old pleated skirt. She didn’t want to waste time doing her hair. She went downstairs with it still hanging in damp tendrils around her face.

Her breasts felt slightly sore and tender, an unfamiliar sensation that was extremely disturbing.