‘Mi dispiace,’he said again.
‘What does that mean?’ Lara asked, her aquamarine eyes brimming with laughter at their mutual clumsiness.
‘I’m sorry... I am truly sorry,’ he declared, struggling to disentangle his foot from the bedding.
‘It was your expression...the shock and horror!’ she gasped, giggles convulsing her again.
‘Stop,’ he told her, raising himself up from her prone body to release her from his weight.
He was smiling now though, his shapely mouth quirking with reluctant amusement, his dark golden eyes alight as he scanned her triangular face.
‘You are shockingly cute and sexy,’ he muttered.
Her eyes brightened even more. ‘Seriously?’
‘Even in Christmas pudding pyjamas,’ he conceded in unhidden wonderment, his mouth drifting down closer to hers. ‘DancingChristmas puddings too...’
Lara couldn’t breathe that close to him, but she lifted her head up to him, eyes wide, lips parting in an invitation that seemed so natural in that moment.
His breath fanned her cheek, his lips brushed hers in the briefest possible caress and a feverish little shiver of delicious response rippled through her. With a groan, he levered back from her, and she followed him by sitting up, eyes starry as she stared at him.
‘This is crazy,’ he breathed.
Rebellion twisted inside Lara, who had learned to repress her secret desires and always do the sensible thing. Every time, she did the sensible thing...until she leant forward quite deliberately, all tantalising, teasing femininity, and their mouths collided. It was as if one of them had struck a match and lit a firework as he eased her gently towards him and kissed her with all the unrestrained passion she had always craved and never once received from a man. The pressure of his mouth on hers was urgent, demanding, igniting a new and irresistible hunger. She had never felt that way before and she kissed him back with enthusiasm, squirming with pleasure as his tongue stroked along hers. A flood of heat surged between her thighs, her nipples prickling into tight little buds.
‘Really crazy,’ he extended gruffly, carefully setting her back from him and using the bed to haul himself upright again.
Only then did she become aware that he was only wearing boxers that moulded every angle of his big muscular bronzed body and the effect of that kiss on him was fairly obvious. She reddened, seized by the awful heat of embarrassment at how forward she had been. Such behaviour was so out of character for her that she was astonished by it. The ache that had stirred at the heart of her tightened, reminding her of its presence. Red as a beetroot, she scrambled upright.
‘Don’t know what happened there. I brought you a hot chocolate,’ she muttered in a rush, indicating the mug. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Lousy,’ he groaned, settling back on the bed and yanking up the duvet to cover himself. ‘I don’t think my name is Guy. It doesn’t feel familiar.’
Lara was taken aback. ‘But yousaidyour name was Guy.’
‘No. I began to say the name but when I thought about it, it wasn’t there any more in my head.’ He sighed. ‘I’d forgotten it like everything else.’
Her eyes full of concern, Lara hovered. ‘Like everything else?’
Guy, who wasn’t sure hewasGuy, studied her. ‘I can’t rememberanything. My name, what I was doing out there in the snow alone...who I am...where I come from...there’s just this great woolly blank inside my head!’ he exclaimed in a frustrated undertone.
Emotion boiled like swirling dark water in his highly expressive eyes and nothing could have masked the hint of panic edging his low voice. Lara winced. ‘You banged your head. You’re confused and, if you can’t remember now, it’ll probably all come back to you by morning. The worst thing you can do is get upset about it.’
‘Of course, I’m upset about it!’ he exclaimed rawly.
‘And the more upset you are about it, the more confused you will feel. Try and get some sleep now,’ she urged quietly and swiftly moved back to the door.
‘I shouldn’t have kissed you,’ he breathed abruptly. ‘It was inappropriate and I apologise.’
‘It was nothing, a mad thoughtless moment...that’s all,’ Lara replied with forced lightness of tone. ‘Anyway, I did encourage you and I didn’t exactly run away screaming.’
‘Nonetheless—’
‘Leave it there. Calm your mind and rest.’
‘What am I going to do if I don’t remember by morning?’ he groaned.
‘We’ll see.’