need is a towel. I don’t suppose...?’ Her voice trailed off as she saw the expression in his eyes. ‘No, you’re not the type to carry a towel in the car.’
He seemed to struggle to find his voice. ‘I don’t generally need towels when I drive,’ he said finally, and she rubbed her arms to keep warm.
‘Well, you should,’ she told him. ‘They can be very useful. I remember one time when I was driving home from work, I passed this injured sheep—’
He blinked in disbelief. ‘Sheep?’
‘Yes, sheep.’ She gave him an odd look and then shrugged and carried on. ‘Anyway, she’d managed to wriggle her way under the barbed-wire fence and she was totally wedged and every time she moved the wire embedded itself deeper in her wool and— why are you looking at me like that?’
‘I’ve never met anyone that talks as much as you. I’m wondering when you breathe.’
‘I can breathe and talk,’ she assured him. ‘As I was saying, she was stuck, and I’ve tried rescuing sheep with bare hands before and it’s always been a disaster, but luckily I had a towel in my car and so I used that and it was brilliant. I always carry one now. You should too.’
He stared at her for a long time and then finally stirred and cleared his throat. ‘I’ll remember that. In the meantime, I do have a blanket on the back seat. Please feel free to use it.’
‘Oh, thanks.’ Completely unselfconscious, Ellie reached into the back, grabbed the blanket and then shook herself like a drenched kitten. Droplets of water flew from her dark hair and landed on the driver. ‘Gosh, I’m soaked and freezing. Can we turn your heating up?’
‘Be my guest.’
She glanced at him warily as she fiddled with the controls of his fancy car.
‘You’re looking at me in a funny way. I suppose you think I’m very forward, but I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to get hypothermia. I remember once when I got really wet—’
‘Do you always talk this much?’
‘Are you always this tense?’ She peered at him, trying to read his expression in the semi-darkness. ‘Have I made you late or something? It was very kind of you to stop.’
‘You were standing in the middle of the road,’ he reminded her with exaggerated patience. ‘I had no choice but to stop. It was that or run you over.’
‘If you’re trying to convince me that given the choice you would have driven past me and left me there, you won’t succeed,’ she said cheerfully. ‘No one would be that heartless.’
There was a long pause and when he finally spoke his tone was chilly. ‘You have a worrying faith in human nature.’
She frowned. ‘No, I haven’t. Most people are very kind-hearted. Like you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along when you did. You’re my knight in shining armour and I’ll love you forever.’ She snuggled under the blanket and gave him a wide smile which faltered when she saw the look on his face. ‘What? Why are you looking at me like that? What have I done now?’
In the gloom his expression was hard to read but she sensed his exasperation.
‘Are you always this reckless?’
‘Reckless?’ She subdued a yawn and snuggled deeper under the blanket. ‘When was I reckless?’
‘When?’ He lifted one dark eyebrow and his expression was ironic. ‘Well, let’s see—was it when you drove the ford in a car no bigger than a sewing machine, or flagged down a total stranger, climbed into his car, stripped off your clothes and declared undying love—’
‘Not undying love exactly,’ Ellie corrected him with a quick frown. ‘More eternal thanks.’
He gritted his teeth. ‘You’re not safe to be let out alone. Didn’t your father teach you never to accept lifts from strange men?’
For a brief moment Ellie’s smile faltered. ‘Yes,’ she said in a small voice, ‘I suppose he did.’
‘So what were you doing, flagging down a total stranger?’
‘Well, it was that or die of exposure,’ Ellie said logically, pushing away thoughts of her beloved father. ‘Dad may have taught me not to accept lifts from strange men, but he also taught me to use my head in a crisis. And tonight is definitely a crisis.’
‘I could be anyone.’ His voice had a hard edge, but Ellie just smiled trustingly and snuggled further under the blanket.
‘I’m sure you’re a lovely person. In my experience, most people are.’
‘Then you obviously haven’t had much experience,’ he said roughly. ‘How old are you?’
He flicked on the internal light and she blinked.
‘You shouldn’t ask a woman her age. It isn’t polite. And you shouldn’t be influenced by appearances.’ Ellie’s voice tailed off as she saw him properly for the first time.
As their eyes met her breath jammed in her throat and her mouth fell open.
Wow.
The man was stunning. Seriously, breathtakingly good-looking.
She knew she was staring but she couldn’t help it. What woman wouldn’t stare when confronted by a man like this one?
His hair was too long and there was at least two days’ growth of stubble around his jaw, but never in her life had she been faced with a vision of such raw, untamed masculinity. Her eyes feasted slowly on the lean perfection of his face, the bold, dark eyebrows and firm, unsmiling mouth.
A long silence stretched between them and finally he spoke. ‘What’s the matter?’ His tone was rough. ‘Now that you’ve seen me properly, are you finally thinking that you might have been foolish to climb into my car?’
‘No.’ She shook herself and smiled at him, incurably honest. ‘Actually, I was thinking that when women kiss you, they probably keep their eyes open.’
He seemed to have lost his powers of speech and she tilted her head to one side and looked at him curiously.
‘What’s the matter? I’m just saying that you’re so good-looking it would be a terrible waste to close your eyes.’ She gave an impish smile and he shot her a look of pure, undiluted disbelief.
‘Do you always say exactly what’s in your head without any thought for the consequences?’
‘Always,’ she confessed. ‘I can’t stand people who say one thing and mean another. And don’t tell me no one’s ever told you you’re good-looking before. You must have heard it a million times.’
He studied her, not a flicker of expression on his handsome face. ‘Not in these circumstances.’
‘You’re shocked, aren’t you? But I don’t see why. You must know you’re good-looking.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s no big deal.
