face. However, after a fierce internal struggle, she took a deep breath and managed to pull herself together.
‘OK… let me explain the situation in words of one syllable,’ she ground out. “If you haven’t paid to join this tour, you’ve got no right to be here with us.’
‘Well, I don’t know about that…’ he drawled slowly. ‘You clearly have very little knowledge about the City of London. In fact, since I’ve been doing your job for the past half-hour, maybe you should pay me, hmm?’ he murmured, moving closer to the rigidly angry figure.
‘Me? Pay you…?’ She gave a strangled, incredulous laugh. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’
‘It’s no more ridiculous than taking money under false pretences—which is exactly what you’ve been doing,’ he pointed out coolly. ‘If I hadn’t come along to rescue you, this tour would have been a complete shambles.’
‘Rubbish’ Angelica retorted defiantly, raising her chin and refusing to be intimidated by the tall, handsome figure looming over her in the dark corner of the church. ‘I may not be a walking encyclopaedia, but I was getting along fine until you turned up.’
‘Now who’s talking rubbish?’ He gave a low, mocking laugh. ‘In fact, I’m not sure it isn’t my duty—as a moral and upright citizen—to report you to the authorities.’
‘I don’t care what you do!’ she stormed. ‘Just as long as you get out of my hair, out of this church, and that I never, ever have to see you again!’
Quite why she thought that she was strong enough to push the handsome, dark stranger away from her, and out of the church, Angelica had no idea. But of course there was no rational thought process behind her total loss of temper.
It was only when the fiery red mist in front of her eyes had begun to clear that she realised her hands were being gripped by firm, hard fingers, tightening about her wrists like bands of steel. Prevented from hitting the awful man, she instinctively resorted to the use of her feet. But, although he gave a slight grunt of pain when her shoe connected with his shin, he didn’t allow her to inflict any more damage. A brief moment or two later, Angelica found herself being pushed roughly backwards; the man’s angry, determined momentum only halted as she felt her spine jar against cold stone, with his tall figure pinning her to a buttress in a dark corner of the church.
Shocked and severely shaken by the speed with which he’d reacted to her assault, she gazed fearfully up at the man glaring down at her, his face only inches away from her own. Despite the dim light, she was able to see a pulse beating furiously at his temple, the tightly clenched jaw and glittering, cold gleam in his deeply hooded grey eyes.
‘Let me go!’ she gasped helplessly. ‘You can’t do this to me.’
‘No? Well, it seems that I can—and I have!’ he growled savagely.
Badly frightened by the situation in which she now found herself—which was solely due, she realised with a sinking heart, to her own totally foolish loss of temper—Angelica desperately tried to free herself from the man’s fierce grip.
‘Let—me—go!’ she panted, frantically redoubling her efforts to escape, and wincing with pain as his iron-like fingers tightened about her wrists.
‘I’ve had quite enough of this nonsense,’ he told her softly, the silky ruthlessness in his voice sending a shudder of fright through her trembling figure. ‘I have every intention of letting you go. But not until you’ve calmed down,’ he added, the dark anger in his face slowly subsiding as he gazed down at the struggling girl with an expression of guarded amusement.
‘You…you can’t keep me here!’ she lashed back angrily, almost weeping with frustration, and an overpowering sense of her own folly in attempting to confront this apparently invincible man. ‘If you don’t let me go, I’ll call the police! I’ll scream and—’
‘Oh, no, you won’t!’ he retorted, responding to her wild threats by swiftly raising his arm, whose wrist bore a wafer-thin gold watch, and placing a large, tanned hand over her mouth.
‘I don’t know what you think you’re doing,’ he added grimly over her muffled protests, ‘but I’m not prepared to have my picture on the front page of the gutter press. Nor to have my career in the City ruined by some crazy, hysterical girl!’
Totally confused by the swift turn of events, Angelica glared up at the man looming over her. Effectively prevented from saying anything by the large, warm hand firmly clamped over her trembling lips, she could do nothing to combat his height and superior strength, which was keeping her immobile and silent until he chose to let her go. And where were the rest of the group? Why hadn’t someone come to her rescue? she wondered, her eyes desperately probing the darkness behind the man’s tall, menacing figure.
‘Are you going to be sensible?’ he drawled quietly, gazing down at the girl’s flushed cheeks, her wide blue eyes brimming with unshed tears of acute frustration. ‘There’s no reason why we can’t discuss any problems you might have like two perfectly calm, responsible adults. So, if I take my hand away, will you promise not to scream the place down?’ he added, waiting until she gave a reluctant nod before slowly lowering his arm.
With hindsight, Angelica might have been prepared to admit that maybe the man wasn’t entirely to blame for what happened next. It was, after all, just possible that he misunderstood the loud gasp of relief which she gave on the removal of his hand. But as she opened her mouth to take a deep gulp of air, he appeared to assume that she was about to break her promise.
As he ground out, ‘Oh, no, you don’t!’ she found herself crushed tightly to his chest, the fingers of one hand burying themselves in her blonde hair, holding her head firmly against him. She barely had time to register the grim warning in his glittering grey eyes before he swiftly lowered his dark head towards her, preventing her from saying or doing anything as his mouth closed firmly over her lips.
It was a savage, ruthless kiss, clearly intended to stifle any sound or cry for help. Attempting to move her head or to escape proved useless. Becoming almost faint beneath the force of his lips and her own exertion, she drummed her fists against his broad shoulders in a vain and hopeless attempt to free herself from his tight embrace.
The next few minutes seemed somehow blurred in her mind. Shocked and totally disoriented by the speed with which she’d been assaulted, Angelica only dimly realised that the mouth which had so firmly possessed her own was no longer burning like a firebrand on her lips. Dazed and confused, she fluttered her eyelids open, to see him gazing down at her with a tense, strained expression on his hard features. The hands which had been gripping her so fiercely were now gently holding her face as his fingers moving softly over the contours of her pale cheeks.
‘I don’t know what the hell’s going on. I must be out of my mind!’ he breathed huskily as she continued to stare blindly up at him, her dazed brain unable to comprehend what was happening to her.
It seemed as though she was viewing the scene from afar—almost as if it was happening to someone else—her senses beguiled by the musky scent of his cologne, and the hard strength of the body pressed closely to her own. Her whole world seemed encompassed by the darkening glitter in the grey eyes, now staring down at her so intently.
Since she was mentally paralysed, there seemed nothing she could do as he lowered his head to brush his lips softly over her mouth. By the time she had begun to comprehend the almost impossible fact that he was intending to kiss her—yet
