Driving Her Crazy

Who’d have ever thought that could be such a potent combination?

‘Thank you,’ she murmured as he fell back against the front of the door to allow her to squeeze past.

And it was a squeeze. Her body brushed his as she slipped from the room and Kent felt the caress of towelling against his chest all the way down to his groin. For a moment he stood still and did nothing; the impact of her eyes, her mouth, her bare creamy shoulders and the damp tendrils of hair framing it all was temporarily paralysing.

But he was aware of her watching him, her hands fidgeting while she waited for his he-man move, and his brain came back online.

He strode into the bathroom and slowly shut the door. Her clothes were hanging on the back. And, yes, he had to admit, it was one of the larger Huntsman spiders he’d seen. He shook his head and grabbed her clothes. The spider scuttled to the top of the door, then onto the ceiling. He walked over to the bath/shower unit, stepped into the tub to open the window on the wall opposite the shower head so the poor creature could make its escape.

He turned to step out, his gaze falling on a scrap of material hanging on the shower-curtain rail. A silky-looking pink thong with a little diamanté twinkling at the front.

For a heartbeat there was nothing in his head but elevator music. Then there was a whole lot more.

None of it conducive to his sanity.

None of it conducive to going out there and facing her again.

‘Is it gone?’

Her voice sliced like a machete through the inappropriate images in his head and Kent dragged his transfixed gaze off Sadie’s underwear to the back of the door. He stepped out of the tub and had the door open in two strides.

‘Not yet,’ he said, thrusting her clothes at her and shutting the door behind him. ‘I opened the window. It’ll crawl out soon enough.’

Sadie blinked. ‘You did what?’ She clutched her clothes to her chest. ‘Are you nuts? You opened the window? So all his mates could join him?’ She took a step back. ‘What if it doesn’t go?’

It was the second time she’d questioned his mental faculties and, even if they weren’t already a little on the dicey side, her silky pink thong probably hadn’t helped. He wished she’d get dressed already. Damp strands of dark hair brushed creamy shoulders offsetting the natural rouge of her mouth and, frankly, insane had never looked so damn good.

Kent smiled patiently. ‘We’ll keep the door shut.’

‘What if it crawls back in here, under the door? What if it runs over my face in the middle of the night?’ She shuddered. ‘You do know human beings are supposed to swallow eight spiders in their lifetime, right?’

He clamped down on the urge to tell her there was no way she’d choke that sucker down and instead rolled his eyes. ‘I’m sure it’s looking for the fastest exit it can make, Sadie. It’s probably just trying to recover from the stroke it suffered when you screamed fit to wake the dead. I’m surprised the cops haven’t been called to investigate.’