didn’t look like the girl he’d picked up this morning. Her dark curls were ruffled in a halo around a face that was reddened either from the wind or exertion or just sheer temper. Her dark eyes shone and her skirt was sadly crumpled. There was a grease stain on her top. But, with her jacket neatly folded on the back seat, she was showing off two neat little scoops of bosom above the tight neckline of her top.
He noticed that her shoes, now caked in mud, had been discarded in the passenger footwell and she had a look of fierce concentration on her face.
She looked exactly the way she had when he’d kissed her, wild and beautiful, and it sharpened his hunger for her.
She pulled out onto the road and took off.
‘You might want to watch your speed,’ he observed, unable to take his eyes off her.
‘You might want to tell me why you thought it was fine to leave me locked in a car in the middle of nowhere.’
‘You weren’t locked in, and I went to find out what we needed to know.’ He eyed her stained clothing. ‘What I can’t work out is why you put on that little show back there about not getting out of the car—’
‘None of your business.’
‘When you’re so clearly capable.’
She glanced at him, a little dumbfounded, then looked back at the road. He was glad she was concentrating on the road.
‘Yes, I am. Capable.’
‘Do you know where we’re going, querida?’
She changed gear and pushed those wild curls out of her eyes in a defiant gesture. ‘Of course I do.’
He noted the sign to Inverary as it flashed past. His gaze dropped to those twin scoops, rising and falling gently above her neckline, to the sensual pout of her lower lip above that jaunty little chin.
She looked so pleased with herself he decided not to inform her that they were going the wrong way. He was in no hurry to get to the castle, to be bored to death by talk of for ever and happy-ever-after. No... He settled back comfortably, folded his arms across his chest and pretended to close his eyes. He was going to let this run a little longer, and then, when she’d run out of steam and learned her lesson, he’d think about taking this chemistry between them to its natural conclusion.
* * *
Lulu peered out at the passing countryside. According to her map, shouldn’t they be approaching the motorway by now? It was growing dark, and it was raining, and she didn’t have a clue where they were.
The ribbon of road had grown narrower and it was impossible to read the signs. The headlights on the car lit up only the road ahead, making everything that lay outside it seem menacing and vaguely supernatural.
Lulu liked the countryside—in the daylight, and from the confines of a car, and preferably not stopping. But she was going to have to pull over. The fuel tank was bobbing close to empty.
She brought the car to a stop on the shoulder of the road. Then reached over and touched Alejandro’s impressive shoulder.
He felt warm and reassuringly powerful beneath her hand.
He didn’t stir.
She gave him a more definite push. ‘Mr du Crozier.’
No response.
‘Alejandro!’
Thick sable lashes lifted and his eyes gleamed speculatively over her in the same way the headlights lit up the road ahead. He was looking at her as if she were naked, which was disconcerting enough, and Lulu had a sudden, completely outrageous thought that he hadn’t been sleeping at all.
‘We appear to be lost,’ she said unwillingly.
‘You don’t say?’
His voice was husky, but not with sleep. Lulu swallowed.
There was something very intimate about their proximity, as if the darkness outside and the quiet within had made the space between them somehow more personal.
Lulu licked her lips. ‘I don’t know where we are.’
‘Fortunate, isn’t it,’ he said in that low, taunting voice, ‘that I do?’
He undid his seatbelt and opened the car door.
‘I’m driving,’ he said unnecessarily.
Lulu released the breath she hadn’t known she was holding and, rather than stepping outside, scrambled nimbly over the gearbox and tucked her skirts around her in the passenger seat.
Alejandro took the wheel and swung the car back out onto the road.
‘How do you know?’ she demanded.
‘I saw the last sign. We’re just outside Inverness.’
Relief swamped her. Then she frowned. ‘But you were asleep.’
‘Let’s just say I’m not a heavy sleeper, querida,’ he responded with a glint in his eyes.
She knew it! Impossible man. But her heart was pounding a little, and she found herself watching him and waiting to see what he’d do next.
Alejandro had them on the motorway within ten short minutes. Lulu discovered she was feeling a little out of sorts now her adventure was over.
She tried to envisage the weekend ahead on her own, and it was so depressing that in her head she found herself shaping sentences she didn’t know if she had the guts to go through with, let alone ask.
I’m on my own this weekend...you’re on your own. I’m maid of honour...you’re best man. Doesn’t it make sense if we pair up? Maybe you could kiss me again?
And that was when a huge gust of wind buffeted the car and all the available light left in the sky dwindled to nothing and the rain came down.
Alejandro slowed them to a crawl, along with the two or three other vehicles on the road.
‘Kilantree...’ she read from the sign ahead under the spray of their headlights. ‘One mile. Is Kilantree near Dunlosie Castle?’ she asked.
‘Not near enough.’
To her surprise, Alejandro eased the car into the turn-off lane.
‘What are you doing?’
‘It’s dark, it’s raining, and I don’t know these roads. We won’t make Dunlosie tonight.’
‘What does that mean?’
Although all of a sudden she did know, and for the first time in years having her routine destroyed didn’t bring on feelings of anxiety. Quite the contrary...
‘We’re spending the night here.’
