Julia fumbled for the kiddie torch she’d found. Shining it on her watch, she discovered it was three in the morning. Satan’s hour. Goose bumps broke out on her arms. She was alone and surrounded by rats. No, worse than alone, alone with Max Connor.Scrabble, scrabble.
Julia yelped, shining the torch wildly around the room. For all she knew every rat in Brenthill was creeping toward her in search of organs to gnaw on. At three in the morning, it seemed all too likely.
For the first time since the property office door slammed shut Julia felt truly trapped, unable to run, unable to reach out to anyone for help. Could she go to Max? No, that was pathetic; she was a feminist. There was a rustle not two feet from her head and Julia shrieked and dropped the torch.Sure. Stay here and have an empowering heart attack. Germaine Greer can send a wreath to your funeral.
Scrabble, scrabble, scrabble.
Julia shot to her feet. She would go to Max, make sure he hadn’t died of sexual outrage, then she would return to her carpet-bed, comforted in the knowledge that he wouldn’t let rats chew her face off. She padded down her aisle flicking her torch from side to side, ready to screech at the first sign of rats. Max was curled in the fetal position between a shelf full of samurai swords and glass bongs. His face was smoothed out, his big shoulder rising and falling with his breath. Julia wondered how it would feel to curl up beside him, to lean against something that solid and strong. He had a quality she’d never felt in a man before, a sturdiness that said if he was on your side, nothing bad would ever happen to you. When he’d said he’d protect her from trolls she’d believed him in a way she hadn’t believed Ash or Tiff or anyone else who offered to stand outside her bedroom door with a cricket bat.
“Jules?” Max mumbled, his voice thick with sleep. “What are you doing?”
She jumped, purple torch almost falling from her fingers. “Uh…sorry, I’m leaving.”
Max sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Wait a minute, what’s wrong?”
He’d shed his black T-shirt, exposing a broad, rock-hard chest covered in a thick pelt of hair. Julia’s body thawed so quickly steam should have risen from her skin. Why it was sexy that he was covered in hair as thick as the stuff on his head, Julia had no idea, but it was fucking gorgeous. Exquisitely manly in a way that made her ache. “Uh, nothing?”
“Why are you shining a torch in my face?”
“Sorry.” She let the beam drop to his hard belly. He was one of those guys who was so cut it was difficult to tell where the ridges of his chest finished and his abdomen began. “Nope, that’s worse.”
“Seriously, Jules, what’s wrong?”
She drew in a shaky breath. “Can you hear anything? Because I think there are rats scurrying around and it’s freaking me out."
Max raised an eyebrow. “Rats?”
“Yeah, they’re making a kind ofscrabblingnoise?”
Julia knew she sounded crazy but between Max’s abs and getting locked in at work she was surprised she hadn’t picked up a gun and started firing wildly into the walls. Max tilted his head, listening for rodents, and Julia was almost relieved when a rat scrabbled nearby. “Ha! I’m not insane, therearerats.”
Max yawned. “I believe you, although I’m pretty sure they’re mice. Do you want me to try and find them?"
“No, but—”
Max stretched his arms over his head and parts of a man’s chest Julia hadn’t knowncouldflex did. Everything about him, from the scary-looking ridges of his stomach to the black hair in his underarms was so bizarrely compelling she could barely remember why she’d been angry with him before.
“Jules, do you want me to find the mice?” Max asked. He soundedamused. The prick.
Focus, Bennett. Take your eyes off the man’s abs and concentrate.“I don’t know if youcan. There’s so much stuff everywhere.”
“So what do you want me to do? Why did you wake me up?”
Julia winced. “I don’t know, it was Satan’s hour and I got really scared. I hate rats. And mice. And all crawling things…"
Max closed his eyes and sighed. He patted the carpet beside him. “Come here.”
Julia’s heart raced. “Are you sure? I don’t want to bother you…”
“Just come lie down. It’s goddamn freezing in here.”
Something inside her danced for joy and she shoved it away. This was about survival andmaybebeing scared of rats. Nothing else. She placed the torch on a nearby shelf and lay down, wrapping her hair to the side so it wouldn’t get in his face.
Max tucked his towel around her waist. “Warm enough?”
“No,” Julia said, feeling rather evil.
“D’you think that’s because you aren’t wearing pants?”