Free One Night With Morelli by Kim Lawrence Page A

lean face.
    He wasn’t touching her but there was a fierce intensity in his rigid attitude that made her stomach muscles vibrate.
    ‘I’m not going to have sex with you to prove I’m not a lesbian.’
    ‘Oh, I think you proved that already seeing as your friends have left. And it is always polite,
cara
, to wait to be asked first.’
    She had no defence against the mortified rush of colour that bathed her body in a guilty glow. ‘Pity you didn’t ask first before you mauled me about like that. And you can quit with all that Italian
cara
stuff; it’s incredibly cheesy.’
    ‘To be accurate I think we should call it mutual…mauling,’ he mused, the smouldering glow in his deep-set eyes sparking as he added, ‘And to be honest that didn’t go quite the way I anticipated. Sorry—’ he glanced over his shoulder ‘—but Josie could be here any minute.’
    Just when she thought she could not feel any more humiliated, she tossed her head. ‘It was only a kiss.’
    His brows lifted and he barked a dry laugh. ‘If you think that was
only a kiss
,
cara
, I can’t wait to see your version of
just sex
!’
    ‘There won’t be any just sex! No sex at all!’ Turning on her heel, she could hear his soft laughter following her.

CHAPTER SIX
    I F HER MUM had been around this wouldn’t be happening because Eve knew that Sarah would have taken one look at her daughter’s face and said, ‘No way are you driving, my girl—you’re in no fit state.’
    It wouldn’t have mattered what Eve said because that was what mothers did: they stopped their daughters driving even if they were perfectly capable—or she would have done if she’d been there and not off on her honeymoon with her new husband.
    Eve gave a self-pitying sniff as she trudged on, finding it easy to lay her present predicament at the door of Charlie Latimer. She decided to give it until that next bend, because how frustrating would it be if she turned back only to later realise that she had actually been within a few hundred yards of the main road and hopefully some help or at least some place with a phone signal?
    She was trying her phone again when she heard the car in the distance and felt a stab of relief. But by the time the distant light had become dazzling the relief had morphed into apprehension; if this were a crime drama she’d be the body in the first scene, the one that normally made her want to shout at the screen, How could you be so stupid?
    She took a deep breath. This was real life, most people were not homicidal maniacs and she was not about to get into a car with a stranger. She just wanted to ask if they could contact a local garage to come and pick her and her car up…yes, that was definitely the sensible option.
    The big low car slowed and, heart beating hard, Eve carried on walking, though more slowly, projecting as much confidence as possible as you should when you were alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere… For goodness’ sake, Eve, Surrey is hardly the last wilderness! she scorned.
    ‘Are you totally insane?’
    It was not the conversational comment that made her spin around directing her wide-eyed stare at the driver of the car, but the deep voice with that tactile ‘once heard never ever forgotten’ quality. Her stomach reacted by going into a deep dive while simultaneously every square inch of her skin prickled with an appalling awareness that was painful in its intensity.
    Her head was immediately filled with thoughts of his mouth crashing down on hers, his warm lips teasing, tormenting… With a massive effort she reined in her imagination and her indiscriminate hormones, managing to focus on the here and now.
    The painful truth here was that in some ways a homicidal maniac might have been easier to cope with.
    The engine was still running as she took a deep breath, lifting a hand to her face against the glare of the headlights as the driver’s door was flung open and the occupant vaulted out.
    It was impossible to