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.He strode out of the restaurant, aware of the amused glances of the other diners as he passed by them, half-naked and standing out like a sore thumb, with Jess hot on his heels.He gave them all a salute as he reached the door and ushered Jess outside.She ran over to the car and he unlocked the doors so she could get straight in.He swung himself into the driving seat and burst out laughing, turning to look at her and share the joke, but she was staring straight ahead, her back ramrod-straight and her hands clutched tightly in her lap.‘Jess?’She turned to look at him, her expression wild and her face flaming red.‘Can we go?’ It came out as a hushed gasp.She flapped the front of the shirt, clearly trying to cool herself down.He frowned at her extreme reaction.It was warm in the car, but not sweltering.He started up the engine and drove out of the car park, heading back to the villa.‘You okay?’ he asked.‘I’m fine.Just hot.Is it hot in here?’ She wafted the shirt forward and back creating a slight draught of air, staring hard at the dashboard.‘Not really.’ He put a hand on her arm and felt the heat of her skin sear through the cotton of the shirt.‘Jess, what’s going on?’She wouldn’t look at him.‘I don’t like showing people my body.I’m not comfortable with it.Never have been.I get a bit.panicked.’He frowned, baffled.‘How long have you felt like that?’She took a deep breath before she answered him.‘Since my early teens.I’ve struggled with a kind of body dysmorphia and an eating disorder since then.Bulimia.’ She screwed up her face in disgust.‘But I haven’t let it.you know.get hold of me since my late teens.’Memories from the last couple of days connected together in his brain like jigsaw pieces.So that explained the baggy, unflattering clothes and her apparent discomfort when eating in front of him.He leant back in the seat and rubbed a hand over his face.‘I’m surprised.’‘Why?’‘Because you seem so together.’‘It’s all a front,’ she said quietly.‘Takes one to know one,’ he murmured to himself.She didn’t seem to have heard him, trapped miles away in her own thoughts.They reached the villa a minute later and he parked back under the awning and shut off the engine.He turned to look at her and waited until she looked back at him.‘Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re easily the most intriguing woman I’ve met in a long time.’She snorted, then screwed her eyes shut in embarrassment.‘Mostly because you’re smart and funny and passionate,’ he said, ‘but I wouldn’t kick you out of bed either.’She seemed to swallow hard.‘What?’ Her voice was raspy and appeared to barely make it out of her throat.She stared at him hard, as if she was trying to root out a lie using only the power of her cynicism.He looked back at her, unblinking.She wouldn’t win this one.Mainly because he was telling the truth.Jess broke eye contact first and he gave himself a mental high five, feeling inordinately pleased with himself, until she turned her head and stared out of the window instead of acknowledging his proposition.Was she turning him down?The thought rattled through him like a cold wind.A woman hadn’t rejected him like that in a very long time and it didn’t feel good.‘Jess?’She turned back to look at him, her expression confused, but wary, and he instinctively leant forward and cupped the side of her jaw with one hand, his thumb catching against the soft fullness of her bottom lip.He wanted to kiss her.So badly.It was an undeniable instinct, driven by a mixture of need and curiosity and a determination to not allow her to reject him, and frustration twisted in his gut when he realised she was fighting him and pulling away.Releasing his grip on her, he reluctantly drew back.‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, holding up an open-palmed hand.She opened her mouth, as if to respond, then shook her head hard, her long bob of hair swinging round her face, before reaching for the handle to open the door.He watched her scramble out of the car, banging her arm on the door in her rush to get away from him.He slumped back in the chair, staring out into the darkness, hot with anger at himself.What the hell was he thinking, coming on to her like that after what she’d just told him? God, how inappropriate.He needed to straighten himself out—fast.Getting close to Jess was going to take more than chucking a few artless, throwaway platitudes her way before steaming in full force.He got out of the car and followed her into the villa, a little way behind to give her the space she obviously needed.She turned before she got to the staircase and gave him a strained smile.‘See you tomorrow.’ It was a statement, not a question and he knew for sure there would be no invitation to visit her room that night.Perhaps it was for the best considering how ineptly he seemed to be acting around her.The best.The best, he chanted inside his head in an attempt to convince himself of it.‘Goodnight, Jess, sleep well,’ he called after her, knowing full well a good night’s sleep was the last thing he’d be getting.FIVEJess couldn’t sleep.Again.Her body hummed with unsettling sensations after spending the most sexually charged day of her life with the most disquieting man in the world—who she was pretty sure would have kissed her in the car if she hadn’t freaked out and run away from him like that.The trouble with being around Xander was that he was such a tactile person she wasn’t sure whether she’d read his intentions all wrong.Maybe he meant nothing by it.The memory of the humiliating jumper incident in the restaurant made her whole body flush hot with embarrassment.Xander had been so cool to whip off his own shirt like that to protect her modesty and then she’d been cold and weird with him in the car afterwards.He must think she was a total loon.And what the hell had possessed her to tell him about her bulimia? It felt now as if she’d opened up the most delicate part of herself and there was a cold draught blowing in, chilling her to the bone.Not that he hadn’t been sensitive about it.In fact, he’d been lovely about that, too, which only made her want him more.Because she did want him.More than she’d wanted anyone in her entire life.And the idea terrified her.She knew deep in her bones it would be a disaster for her to get emotionally involved with him.He was too wild for her, too.What was the phrase? Too hot to handle.She’d get badly burned; she knew it.The most sensible thing to do would be to keep it strictly business for the rest of her time here in case she made even more of a fool of herself.But she didn’t want to be sensible.Not this time [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]