you?’
He had been infinitely gentle, and he knew it. It was that she no longer trusted herself to be any sort of judge of character. Yesterday she had thought him a nice man who was genuinely interested in her, until he had shown her that his appointment, which by the odour in this room had been with a beer bottle, was more important than listening to the woeful tale of some unknown English girl, and now he had pulled her down on to his bed, in which he was obviously naked.
‘Erin?’ he prompted.
At least he remembered her name! ‘No,’ she moved away from that caressing hand, ‘you didn’t hurt me. I’ll come back when you’ve gone,’ and she stood up, trying to pull her wrist out of his grasp.
He was completely alert now, the last blanket of sleep—or hangover—pushed to the background. ‘Did you eat last night?’ he asked suddenly, refusing to let her go.
He completely threw her with the unexpectedness of the question. ‘No,’ she answered huskily.
His face darkened with anger. ‘Why?’
‘I—I forgot.’
‘You forgot!’ he repeated in disgust. ‘How can you forget to eat?’
Erin moved uncomfortably. ‘I don’t know how, I just do it all the time.’
He gave an angry sigh. ‘Because you’re too damn tired to think straight. What time did you finish here last night?’
‘About six-thirty.’
‘Plenty of time for you to have met me for dinner.’
Her nose wrinkled. ‘I’d rather have no dinner at all than one that consisted mainly of beer.’
For a moment Joshua Hawke looked incredulous, then his eyes glittered with anger. ‘You little——!’ He broke off, pulling her roughly down beside him to bend over her, his mouth coming down savagely on hers.
Erin was shocked into acquiescence, lying quietly beneath him as he plundered her mouth with ruthless insistence, holding her arms at her sides as she began to fight him. She was suffocating, unable to breathe, and her frightened groans of distress finally seemed to reach him as he lifted his head to look down at her.
She couldn’t have known the vulnerable figure she looked, with her wide frightened eyes and trembling lower lip. Joshua Hawke’s expression softened as he looked down at her. ‘Your accusations were unfounded, little one,’ he said softly. ‘But I don’t think you deserved that,’ he touched her slightly swollen lips. ‘Do you accept my apology?’
She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. ‘I—I——’
‘You’re babbling again,’ he taunted.
Her eyes flashed. ‘Of course I’m babbling!’ She pushed against him, the warmth of his skin seeming to burn her hand, bringing her to an awareness of the fact that only a thin cotton sheet separated her from his nakedness. She sat up, scrambling hastily off the bed. ‘You shouldn’t have kissed me,’ she accused.
He leant back against the headboard. ‘I agree, I shouldn’t. But then you shouldn’t have accused me of having a drinking dinner. I had a couple of beers with some friends of mine, but I certainly wasn’t drunk.’
‘No?’ She picked a pair of crumpled denims up from the floor, giving him a pointed look before putting them on the chair.
‘Don’t do that!’ He threw back the sheet and got out of bed, wearing a pair of navy blue briefs, his legs as tanned as the rest of him. He put the denims back on the floor. ‘They happen to reek of beer.’ He unzipped the holdall and pulled out another pair of denims.
Erin looked down at the floor, never having seen a man almost naked before, especially one who was so unconcerned by the fact. She daren’t look up, her embarrassment was so acute.
‘And it wasn’t beer I intended drinking.’ He pulled on the denims and zipped them up. ‘Dave tipped a whole glassful of his beer over me—accidentally. You can look up now,’ he drawled mockingly.
She looked up and then looked hastily away again. His chest was still bare, covered with a fine mat of black hair, his stomach taut and flat, the dark hair passing over his stomach, and lower. He had a magnificent body, lean and tautly muscled, and just to look at him made her blush.
His hand came up under her chin to tilt her face up to him, forcing her to look at him. ‘Hey, no one is that shy,’ he teased.
‘I am!’ she snapped. ‘Put it down to my prissy English background,’ she added bitchily.
He laughed. ‘I’m not to be forgiven for that either, hmm?’
She sighed. ‘I just wish you wouldn’t tease me.’
His thumb slowly caressed her bottom lip. ‘Who says I was teasing?’
Her eyes flew open, deeply blue, her lashes long and thick, naturally so. ‘I—You must have been,’ she fluttered.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Must I?’
‘Yes…’
Josh Hawke shook his head. ‘I never tease when I make love to a woman. But you’re such a baby, I probably scared the hell out of you, hmm?’
She licked her lips nervously. ‘A—a bit.’
He nodded. ‘I thought so. Well, this time I’m forewarning you. You have two seconds to move away, otherwise I’m going to kiss you again.’
She couldn’t move; she tried, but something held her back. Maybe it was the warmth of his breath against her cheek, or the mesmerism of his deep green eyes, whatever the reason she hadn’t moved when his head lowered to claim her lips for the second time.
His shoulders felt firm beneath her touch as he curved her slender body against the hardness of his, almost lifting her off the ground as he held her to him. His mouth moved druggingly against her, his hands moving down her back, his fingertips running lightly up and down her spine.
Erin was starving for affection, crying out for someone to love her. It had been so long since anyone had held her, kissed her, and she fell a victim of her own weakness for affection, her arms entwining about his neck as she stood on tiptoe to increase the pressure of his mouth on hers.
He pulled back with a gasp. ‘Erin——’
‘Yes—Erin,’ drawled a sarcastic voice from the doorway.
She turned a guilt-stricken face to Frances Johnston as she stood in the doorway, pulling out of Josh Hawke’s arms to run to the door, brushing past Frances and out of the room.
‘Erin——’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ Frances softly interrupted Josh as he came after Erin, and her hand glided up his chest, her long nails painted a deep dark red, ‘Erin tends to be a little—emotional,’ she added huskily. ‘Youth has a way of looking at these things differently.’
Erin turned just in time to see Frances
