‘Show a little backbone, Nell!’
This was Spain, not the Antarctic. She was not going to die of hypothermia. There were no wolves…were there? Unable to resist the impulse to glance nervously over her shoulder, she switched on the torch. She even had a light and tomorrow when the sun came up she would go and find the keys before Luiz even knew they were missing.
Having satisfied herself this was a workable plan and telling herself it would all make a good story when she got back home with Lucy she settled herself for the night ahead.
Nell had not allowed for the altitude. Once the last faint rays of sun slid behind the horizon her thin cotton dress didn’t offer much protection from the elements, not to mention the wildlife.
Listening to the sounds of the night, Nell sat with her back pressed to the car, her chin propped on her knees as she hugged herself in an effort to retain a little body heat.
Her imagination in overdrive, she flinched at every little sound as the mountain that had seemed wild but beautiful in daylight became sinister and very noisy. She held her nerve until something warm and furry scuttled across her foot.
A scream locked in her throat, her heart banging against her ribs, she leapt to her feet and ran. Once in the trees she headed towards the glow of the campfire.
Luiz lay to one side of the flames, his back turned to her, his breathing steady and slow.
Holding her own breath and keeping one eye on the sleeping Spaniard, she crept silently to the opposite side of the fire and dropped to her knees, then, taking care not to make a sound, she eased herself into a lying position.
‘I hope you don’t snore.’
Nell started and turned over. Luiz lay on his back one arm curved above his head, looking at her.
‘You’re asleep,’ she heard herself say stupidly.
‘I was,’ he agreed. ‘But your perfume is very distinctive.’
‘I’m not wearing perfume.’ Not sure if he had heard her, she raised her voice as she added, ‘I changed my mind…about the car. It was stuffy.’
‘Ah.’
Nell’s relief that he hadn’t asked any awkward questions about her change of mind was short-lived. The breath snagged in her throat as he rose to his feet in one fluid motion. Her pulse raced in dizzy, dry-throated anticipation as he walked towards her. At her side he stopped and looked down; his liquid dark eyes made her tremble.
It was when he started to shrug off his jacket that she was able to reassert a little control over her lust-paralysed limbs.
‘What are you d…?’
He leaned down and placed his jacket over her. ‘Sleep well, querida.’
The mortified colour rushed to her cheeks. ‘I can’t take your jacket.’ The man wants sleep, not you, Nell.
‘And I suppose you are insulted if a man opens a door for you?’ he suggested tiredly. Nell, struggling to cope with the intense anticlimax, barely registered the strain in his voice. ‘It’s late, so allow me one courteous gesture without looking for an insult or ulterior motive.’
After a short strained silence Nell nodded her head and whispered, ‘Thank you,’ as she pulled the cloth still imprinted with the warmth of his body around her shoulders. ‘I am a bit cold.’
He smiled with his eyes—a neat trick and one that never failed to make Nell’s insides go mushy. ‘The clue was the shivering, querida.’
Nell let the casual endearment pass and watched as he walked, tall and effortlessly elegant, back to his side of the fire, pausing to drop a log on the fire on the way.
Despite everything Nell, utterly exhausted, fell asleep almost immediately, though on the point of drifting off she roused herself to ask in a sleepy voice, ‘Are there any wolves?’
She didn’t hear his reply.
Luiz lay there listening to the sound of her light, even breathing. He did not require a great deal of sleep but when he did he could sleep any place any time—normally. Tonight that ability appeared to have deserted him.
Tonight a lot of things seemed to have deserted him.
Eventually Luiz managed to empty his mind, but he had barely nodded off when the blood-curdling feral sounds of her screams split the night. He leapt to his feet, adrenaline coursing through his veins as he ran to her side, practically running through the glowing embers of the fire on the way.
Dropping to his knees beside her, he laid his hands on her shoulders.
‘What is it? What has happened?’
She looked at him blankly with no recognition. He had seen cornered animals look the way she did as she fought wildly to escape.
Luiz made no attempt to avoid the blows of her hands, or subdue her with his superior strength, he just took her face between his hands. ‘It’s all right…’ he soothed, his voice quiet and steady.