One Night with Morelli(31)

                                      CHAPTER SIX

                IF HER MUM had been around this wouldn’t be happening because Eve knew that Sarah would have taken one look at her daughter’s face and said, ‘No way are you driving, my girl—you’re in no fit state.’

                It wouldn’t have mattered what Eve said because that was what mothers did: they stopped their daughters driving even if they were perfectly capable—or she would have done if she’d been there and not off on her honeymoon with her new husband.

                Eve gave a self-pitying sniff as she trudged on, finding it easy to lay her present predicament at the door of Charlie Latimer. She decided to give it until that next bend, because how frustrating would it be if she turned back only to later realise that she had actually been within a few hundred yards of the main road and hopefully some help or at least some place with a phone signal?

                She was trying her phone again when she heard the car in the distance and felt a stab of relief. But by the time the distant light had become dazzling the relief had morphed into apprehension; if this were a crime drama she’d be the body in the first scene, the one that normally made her want to shout at the screen, How could you be so stupid?

                She took a deep breath. This was real life, most people were not homicidal maniacs and she was not about to get into a car with a stranger. She just wanted to ask if they could contact a local garage to come and pick her and her car up…yes, that was definitely the sensible option.

                The big low car slowed and, heart beating hard, Eve carried on walking, though more slowly, projecting as much confidence as possible as you should when you were alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere… For goodness’ sake, Eve, Surrey is hardly the last wilderness! she scorned.

                ‘Are you totally insane?’

                It was not the conversational comment that made her spin around directing her wide-eyed stare at the driver of the car, but the deep voice with that tactile ‘once heard never ever forgotten’ quality. Her stomach reacted by going into a deep dive while simultaneously every square inch of her skin prickled with an appalling awareness that was painful in its intensity.

                Her head was immediately filled with thoughts of his mouth crashing down on hers, his warm lips teasing, tormenting… With a massive effort she reined in her imagination and her indiscriminate hormones, managing to focus on the here and now.

                The painful truth here was that in some ways a homicidal maniac might have been easier to cope with.

                The engine was still running as she took a deep breath, lifting a hand to her face against the glare of the headlights as the driver’s door was flung open and the occupant vaulted out.

                It was impossible to read his expression, but his body language was less of a struggle. His tall, lean frame was rigid, projecting none of the languid, mocking attitude that got under her skin, but something that approached anger.

                She squared her shoulders. Some people might conclude it was a sort of cosmic conspiracy or fate that kept on throwing her into this man’s path. Eve, who believed a person was in charge of their own fate, thought it was more of a bad day getting worse!

                A lot worse.

                ‘What are you doing here?’ Not your loud voice, Eve, warned the critic in her head. As he took a step closer and she fought the urge to mirror his action with several back she got sucked in once again by the entire in-your-face physical thing he had going on. If his voice was hard to forget the rest of him was…she released a tight fractured sigh and thought…stupendous.