struck a chord in Nell’s memory, freeing her from the knife—edge of panic. His voice wasn’t the only thing that was familiar. At a more primitive level, so was the clean, masculine scent of his body. She jerked her head up and looked straight into deep—set eyes as black as the night. “Kyle?” she whispered.
“Yeah…it’s okay, Nell. You’re safe.”
“I—I thought you were one of them.”
A note in his voice she hadn’t heard before, he rapped, “Did they hurt you?”
“No—no, they just scared me. I’m all right”
She was shaking in reaction, like aspen leaves in the lightest of breezes, her fingers clutching at his shirt as though she’d never let go. Kyle took her in the circle of his arms, drawing her close, his hands rhythmically stroking her back. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he murmured. “But I didn’t want you screaming your head off so that the whole bunch of them came charging through the woods to the rescue.”
“What are you doing here anyway?”
“I couldn’t sleep. That’s when I saw the lights on the beach. Figured I’d take a look and make sure you were okay.”
With a little sigh, Nell collapsed against his chest. She muttered, “We’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this.”
“You’re right…you pack a punch, lady.”
She slid her arms around him. The curve of his rib cage, the flat belly, the hardness of his breastbone, she remembered them all. “It was nice of you to think about me.”
“Especially after you said you didn’t want to see me again.”
“So I did. Why couldn’t you sleep?”
“Never you mind.”
His cheek was resting on her hair, a state of affairs that she liked very much. She murmured, “You smell nice.”
“So do you,” Kyle said.
Against her face she could feel the roughness of his body hair at the neckline of his shirt; it seemed the most natural thing in the world to nuzzle at it with her lips. Warmth began to spread through her body, her shivering changing its tone so gradually she was scarcely aware of what was happening.
“Don’t do that!” he choked.
Her head reared back. “What’s wrong?”
Easing his hips away from hers, he said grimly, “Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“You mean you…” Nell flushed scarlet, stepped backward, tripped over a tree root and sat down hard on the puffy folds of her sleeping bag. It failed to pad the root. “Ouch!” she said.
Kyle reached down and hauled her to her feet. “What in hell are you doing junketing through the woods with a sleeping bag?”
“I was going to find a dry spot and go back to sleep,” Nell replied with as much dignity as she could muster. “You swear too much.”
“There’s something about you that brings out the worst in me. One aspect of which is swearing. I don’t suppose it’s a two—person sleeping bag?”
“It is not.”
“Too bad. Because I’m not leaving you out in the woods alone while those party animals do their best to tear up the beach. You’ve got two choices. We’ll go to the bungalow where I’m staying—you can have my bed and I’ll bunk down in the living room on the chesterfield. Or else the two of us’ll stay out here for the rest of the night”
It was cold in the woods, and her bottom was still smarting where it had connected with the root “Let’s go to the bed—and—breakfast,” she said meekly. “As long as we won’t disturb the owners.”
“My God—no arguments?”
“Would they do any good?”
“No. Here, take my hand.”
He led the way to the path on the ridge, and within minutes they were walking along the paved road, Kyle favoring his left leg. The beach party was still going full blast “I hope they don’t touch my tent,” Nell said.
“If they do, they’ll have me to reckon with.”
She had never before allowed a man to protect her.
She rather liked it. “How’s your knee?” she asked.
“Fine.”
Nell was light—headed with tiredness, the waning moon was casting a silver sheen on the ocean, and Kyle was still holding her hand even though he didn’t really need to. She said vigorously, “I was scared back there in the woods, right?”
“So you should have been. You notice I haven’t said I told you so?”
“That’s very noble of you. I was scared, I let you see I was scared and I was happy to be rescued. So I don’t think it would hurt you one bit, Kyle Marshall, to tell me that your knee’s sore—sore as hell, as you no doubt would say—and that perhaps we should walk a little slower.”
He stopped dead in the middle of the road. “Maybe you came to Newfoundland because all the eligible men in Europe got together and bought your airline ticket.”
“How’s your knee, Kyle?”
“I bet they even chased you onto the plane.”
“Answer the question!”
“Hurts like hell,” he said cheerfully. “But if we walk any slower, I’ll be tempted to kiss you again. You were dynamite in the daytime. I hate to think what you’d be like by moonlight.”
“That’s only sex,” Nell said testily.
“Nothing wrong with sex.”
How would she know? “One more thing,” she said with considerable determination. “You take the bed, I take the chesterfield.”
“Don’t want to talk about sex, Nell?”
“Do shut up, Kyle!”
“I’ll take the chesterfield. When the owners wake up in the morning I think it would be better if they find me in the living room rather than a woman they’ve never seen before.”
“Breakfast,” she said wryly, “could be a most interesting meal…mmm, smell the roses.”
Kyle had unlatched the gate in a neat white picket fence that was overhung with a tangle of old—fashioned roses. He ushered her in the front door of the bungalow, where she bent and took off her hiking boots. The interior of the house was newly painted, sparklingly clean and decorated with starched lace doilies on every available surface; night—lights were plugged into sockets in the kitchen and hallway. Feeling a little guilty that she would be taking advantage of Kyle’s sore knee, Nell tiptoed into the living room
