‘Blood pressure is normal and all vital signs are good. The residual fatigue will pass the more rest and recuperation you have.’
Sofie’s face flamed like a furnace when her nurse friend Claire said that to Darius, who was sitting on a chair at right angles to her at the kitchen table.
Claire had popped in after work to do a check-up on Darius, and Sofie went cold and then hot again when she thought of how close she’d come to still being in a very uncharacteristically dishevelled state when she arrived.
What if Darius hadn’t woken her and handed her her phone, saying, ‘Someone is trying to contact you.’
She’d slept the entire day away, almost in a coma after an overload of sensual pleasure that defied any attempt to try and understand it. Even now she felt dangerously languorous, and was assiduously averting her gaze from her guest.
Eventually, after tea and small talk, Claire got up to leave. Sofie saw her out, feeling as if her friend must surely see right through her.
Claire turned to her in the doorway, eyes narrowing. Sofie’s stomach plummeted.
‘Is everything okay?’ Claire asked.
Sofie balked. ‘Fine. Why wouldn’t it be?’
‘Your guest is...behaving himself? Not giving you any trouble?’
A bubble of hysteria rose up inside Sofie. He wasn’t giving her trouble—quite the opposite. She swallowed down the urge to giggle. This was ridiculous—she wasn’t a teenager!
‘He is being a perfect gentleman,’ she said. Not quite true either.
Her friend’s eyes narrowed even more. ‘I would have to have been unconscious not to have noticed the zing between you in there. You were both trying so hard not to look at each other that your eyes were almost falling out of your heads.’ Her tone turned dry. ‘I’ll admit it’s been a while since I felt it myself, but I do remember what it’s like.’
Sofie’s heart skipped a beat. She blushed. Started to babble.
But her friend put her hand up. ‘No judgement here at all. Believe me, if I was in your situation with that man, and if he wanted me, wild horses wouldn’t stop me from indulging. But we both know that he is not from here. And I mean that literally and metaphorically. Anyone can see that he’s a huge fish out of water. Before too long he’ll remember that himself and we’ll have a fleet of shiny sleek cars coming to take him back to where he comes from.’ Claire’s voice gentled. ‘I just don’t want you to be hurt.’
Sofie bit her lip, all hysteria gone now. ‘I’m okay, really. I’m under no illusions about what this is.’
But the truth was that she had no idea what this was. All she knew was that she didn’t want it to stop.
‘Was your friend warning you to be careful?’
Sofie looked at Darius where he stood by a bookcase in the lounge. They’d just had dinner and had come in here to watch a movie. Darius had expressed interest in trying to see if any of the classics might jog his memory. He’d actually managed to find a pair of faded jeans that more or less fitted him, albeit snugly, and a long-sleeved top that did little to disguise the power of his leanly muscular chest.
He was far too distracting.
‘Claire?’ Sofie asked, stalling for time. She’d deliberately chosen an armchair to sit in, trying to take Claire’s advice and not forget herself completely.
Darius’s tone was dry. ‘Unless anyone else popped in today, yes, that friend.’
Reluctantly, Sofie said, ‘She sensed something between us and she was a little concerned, yes.’
‘She’d be a bad friend if she wasn’t. After all, I’m a complete stranger.’
‘I know you won’t hurt me.’ Sofie was surprised to find she really meant it. She trusted him.
‘Not intentionally, no,’ he said.
His dark green gaze found hers. Held it. He was sending her a message, she thought. Even though he had no idea who he was, or what his life was about, he somehow knew that he could hurt her emotionally. It had to be a muscle memory. Maybe he was used to telling women not to grow too attached? After all, he’d more or less kept his distance from her today.
Maybe he was already bored with her?
That thought made her feel exposed. She knew how average she was. That this attraction between them was an anomaly. A flash in the pan. She was so far out of his league—
‘So, what are we watching?’
Darius came back over to the couch. Sofie shut the circling thoughts out of her head and reached for the remote at the same time as Darius reached for her hand and tugged her over to the couch, to sit beside him.
Instantly her blood leapt and fizzed as he growled, ‘You’re too far away.’
She couldn’t help saying, ‘I thought for a moment that maybe you didn’t want this any more...’
‘“This”? You mean you?’
Sofie winced at how bald and needy that sounded. ‘Really, it’s okay, I know this is just a temporary madness induced by—’
He stopped her words by kissing her. He pulled back. ‘I still want you. I was attempting to put some space between us, so as not to overwhelm you, but it seems impossible for me to resist touching you.’
He started kissing her again, trailing his mouth across her jaw and down her neck, pushing her hair aside.
Sofie attempted to stay in control. ‘What about the movie?’
Darius lifted his head. ‘I find I’m more interested right now in making love to you than investigating what I remember. But if you insist...?’
Sofie battled for a second, before throwing caution to the wind. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him lead her back into the fire. Darius’s memory and the outside world existed, and would have to be dealt with, but just for now, right here, she could pretend that they didn’t.
And she could pretend that Darius was choosing her for her, and not just because he had no choice.