The Thorn in His Side

Libby’s throat was so dry her voice was barely above a whisper, barely audible above the pulsating thud of her heart as it tried to climb its way out of her chest. ‘Libby.’

She’d read somewhere that head injuries could make people act totally out of character—so what’s your excuse, Libby?

‘Libby?’ He rolled the word around his tongue experimentally.

She nodded, hardly recognising her name when he said it, but finally placing his accent as Spanish.

‘Look, this is silly—’

His mouth lowered, close but not quite touching, a whisper above her trembling lips.

What the hell are you doing, Rafael?

Rafael would have responded to the last-minute reassertion of sanity had she not at that exact moment given a choky little gasp and pressed her warm lips up against his.

A split second later with a scared little gasp she pulled back, but the damage was done.

Shame burned her cheeks as she met his eyes. ‘That was so—’

‘Not bad,’ he inserted in a low sexy growl that did further serious damage to her already demolished nervous system. ‘But I think we can do better.’

And he did.

His lips moved with slow sensuous skill across the trembling curve of her mouth; she heard herself whimper as he ran his tongue along the sensitive inner flesh of her lower lip and tugged the flesh gently between his teeth.

Libby, who had not moved a muscle, pulled back with a horrified gasp, breaking the connection before proceeding to fall out of the car in her haste to escape.

CHAPTER THREE

LIBBY stood there, hand pressed to her mouth as the horror of what she had just done hit home with the force of a hurricane.

This was one thing she could not blame on jet lag; she had lost control—sexually, with a stranger, a man whose name she didn’t even know.

Mortified colour ebbed and flowed in her cheek. What had possessed her?

The answer to her question was getting out of what remained of the top-of-the-range sleek powerful car, his body language not suggestive of someone who had just survived a car smash or, for that matter, someone who had just kissed her passionately.

He looked … A soundless sigh escaped through her clenched teeth.

Shameful memories flashed through her mind. For a breathless moment she could actually feel the texture of his lips, the taste of his hot mouth. Libby clenched her teeth, struggling to purge the image of his smouldering sexy eyes. She succeeded in pushing them away, but not before the hot core low in her pelvis had tightened to a hard fist of desire.

Knowing what she was feeling was shallow and only physical did not make the experience easier to cope with.

Her knees were shaking as, breath coming in a series of painful gasps, she watched covetously from under the sweep of her lashes as he stepped out onto the grass and stretched the kinks from his spine. The gorgeously cut suit was special and so was the tall Spaniard, and she wasn’t just making excuses—he really was!

She swallowed. In the cramped confines of the car it had been obvious he was a powerfully built man, but until now she hadn’t realised how dauntingly impressive his physique was.

Several inches over six feet, he had an athlete’s body, greyhound lean and muscular, the width of his shoulders balanced by long legs—very long legs and narrow snaky hips.

As she continued to stare he walked around the car, inspecting the damage that would have made many men weep or at the very least swear, with an inscrutable expression on his lean patrician features. Libby felt her stomach flip.

She had never imagined that the way a man moved, even if it was with the grace and arrogance of a panther, would make her feel breathless.

Her unwilling appreciation gave way to indignation as he began to hit the keys on his phone. He hadn’t even glanced her way!

She was shaking all over and he was acting as though nothing had happened, which on one level was good because the last thing she wanted right now was a postmortem. She wanted to walk away, or possibly run, and forget it ever happened.

On the other level it had happened—he’d kissed her. Admittedly it wasn’t a marriage proposal, but to act as though nothing had happened … well, it was just bad manners.

And she hated bad manners. It wasn’t as if he’d turned her world upside down or anything dramatic and she’d stop shaking some time soon, but a show of penitence or even a thank you would have been something.

‘What is the name of this place …?’ he asked without looking up.

Libby glared with dislike at the top of his dark head. She could play it cool too. ‘So you have a signal now?’

He deigned to notice her. ‘Yes.’ He angled an interrogative brow.

‘Buckford,’ Libby snapped.

‘Buckford …?’ Rafael repeated, wondering as he punched in the name why the name of a village in the middle of nowhere should sound vaguely familiar.

He returned to his text and Libby watched him, her temper rising. Jaw tight, she stomped up the hill.

Within seconds of sending the message Rafael received a text back from Gretchen, who assured him she would be with him in less than ten minutes. Satisfied with the response, he glanced up in time to see the redhead, whose progress up the muddy bank he’d been aware of in the periphery of his vision, bend over to slide one foot and then the other into a pair of heels.

The fresh air had cleared the remnants of haziness from his head and, sanity restored, Rafael was already regretting his impulsive actions. Struggling to control his temper, he recognised that his irritability was in part due to nothing more complicated than sexual frustration.

Regret or not, watching her shapely rear as she climbed the incline sent a stab of lust through his loins.

On the road above Libby stamped her feet, grimacing as her damp, muddy toes squelched inside her lovely new shoes. Anchoring her hair back from her face with one hand, she straightened up.

Even before she turned she knew he was watching her; she could feel his silent stare.

‘What happened, that was unacceptable, even if you have got concussion,’ she informed him icily.

‘I do not have concussion.’ Just an extremely bad headache, but nothing a couple of aspirin would not cure. ‘Though I am confused.’

A small choking sound left Libby’s throat … He’s confused.

‘Are you implying that a man would need to have a head injury before he wants to kiss you?’

Thrown off her stride by the insert, Libby glared wrathfully at him. ‘No, of course not. For your information a lot of men want to kiss me.’

His lips quivered. ‘Of this I am sure.’

‘If you do that again I’ll … I’ll … you’ll be sorry!’ Libby’s hauteur suffered a wobble as she struggled against the impulse to turn and run as he began to stride up the steep incline, his progress a lot more sure-footed than her own had been.

He stepped onto the road and Libby immediately lost what height advantage geography had given her. He towered over her, forcing her to tilt her head to look him in the face. Size might not be everything but at that moment she would not have minded an extra inch or two.