Page 52 of Booked for Summer

‘Shit, Jade, are you okay?’

Relief washed through him when she began to sit up. ‘I’d be better if you hadn’t scared the crap out of me.’

‘It was a hello honk, not a scary one,’ he protested, squatting on his haunches.

‘And I’m supposed to tell the difference how?’

She shifted, and guilt wriggled through him as he saw the long graze from her elbow to her wrist. Gently he lifted her arm to examine it, wincing at the combination of blood and dirt. ‘We need to get that cleaned up.’

‘Yeah,Ineed to do that.’ She jerked her arm away from him. ‘Youneed to go back to whatever it was you were doing before you decided to scare people off their bikes with your nasty horn-blowing.’

He sighed and pulled the bike to one side so he could help her to her feet. ‘I came here to apologise.’

‘Oh.’ She stumbled a little, holding on to him as she balanced her weight away from what was clearly a tender ankle. ‘Well, I’m kind of busy right now, so maybe you can save it for another day.’

‘Jade.’ He exhaled, trying to keep a lid on his frustration. ‘You need to come back with me.’

‘Um, actually I don’t. It’s my day off today so you’re not the boss. I can do what I want.’ She shuffled away from him and bent to pick up the bike.

As he watched her struggle to lift it while balancing on one foot, blood dripping onto the ground from her scratch, the frustration bubbled over. ‘For fuck’s sake, Jade. Leave the bike, I’ll pick it up later. Get in the car and we’ll get you cleaned up and that ankle looked at.’

‘Actually, no.’ She brushed a few stray hairs that had whipped across her face in the breeze. ‘I came here to see the lighthouse.’

She began to limp off towards the damn thing, wheeling her bike.

Frustration bumped up against amusement, and both gave way to admiration as he watched her slowly make her way along the path. ‘Fine, if you insist on being stubborn, let’s do this in a way that will at least make me feel slightly less terrible.’ Carefully he prised the bike out of her hands, settled it against the fence, and lifted her into his arms.

She squealed, wriggling. ‘Oh, my God, you can’t just kidnap me. Let me down.’

‘You wanted to see the lighthouse, I’m taking you there.’

He started to walk, annoyance quickly giving way to a simmering arousal as his hands curled around the soft skin of her thighs. When she threw her arms around his neck to steady herself, he was done for, his erection jamming against the zip of his chinos.

‘This is ridiculous,’ she muttered.

‘The ridiculous part is you refusing to let me take care of you.’

Her shoulders rose and fell. ‘Fine. I’ll come back another day.’

‘Good decision.’

He swivelled and began to march back to his car.

‘It’s not like you could have carried me all that way, anyway.’

He halted. ‘Want to bet?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Just get me into your car without dropping me.’

He eased her carefully into the passenger seat, trying not to touch or look at her any more than was necessary. He didn’t want to be this attracted, this aroused by her. Thisunbalancedby her.

‘Did you really come out here to apologise to me?’ she asked as he pulled back onto the road.

He glanced sideways at her. ‘What do you think?’ He let out a long breath. ‘I shouldn’t have given you an ultimatum like that. I… lost my temper.’

Her gaze skimmed over his face and she seemed satisfied with what she saw because she gave a little, pleased smile. ‘How did you know where I was?’

‘Jeremy told me.’ He cleared his throat. ‘We… talked. He seemed to think I might be interested.’

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