wasn’t in a good headspace.
And she was too chatty, too pushy.
Too young.
He didn’t have a right to screw with that.
What he needed to do was get back to what he was good at—taking pictures. Use his art as therapy. As a way back to the rest of his life. Then he could worry about the Sadie Blisses of the world.
He heard the taps shut off.
Pictured her reaching for her towel...
He sat up and pulled his shirt off. The room was stuffy and he suddenly felt very hot. He wondered over to the air-con panel and flicked it on. Then he picked up the phone on his bedside table and placed an order with the woman at the desk. He prowled to the bar fridge, pulled out a bottle of beer, parked his butt against the cabinet, cracked the lid and took a fortifying gulp.
The harsh metallic rattle from the shower curtain being pulled back rang like chimes of doom around the room.
Lord. Just how thin were these walls?
And then came a blood-curdling scream.
Sadie had never seen a spider so huge in all her life. She saw the odd tiny creature scurrying around her flat but she was pretty adept at wielding a can of insect spray, and it seemed the local population of creepy crawlies had put the word out to avoid Sadie’s abode at all costs.
But this thing, hanging on the back of the door as if it were the mother ship, was a monster. It was big, and hairy and very, very ugly.
There was a belting on the door followed by, ‘Sadie!’
The spider didn’t even move at the noise so near its epicentre—yes, it was big enough to have an epicentre—and nor did Sadie. ‘Kent!’
‘Are you okay?’ he demanded through the door.
‘Big, big, big spider,’ she called.
Kent looked at the door in disbelief. A spider? Her horror-flick scream had scared ten years off his life. Did she have a clue how very trivial a spider was in the grand scheme of things?
Now, some of the things he’d seen—they were worth screaming about.
‘Bloody hell Sadie, I thought you were being murdered.’
‘If this thing gets hold of me, I’m sure it’ll have a good go,’ she yelled.
‘It can’t be that big.’
‘It is,’ she said, anchoring the towel more securely under her arm.
And it was between her and her clothes.
She eyed her pyjamas hanging on the back of the door. Had the spider crawled over them? She shuddered at the thought.
Just how long had it been in here watching her?
‘I think it’s one of those bird eating suckers,’ she announced.
‘The ones that are only found in South America?’
Sadie shook her head. ‘Not any more.’
‘Sadie...’
‘Okay, I know, I’m sorry. I’m a horrible girly, city-chick cliché. But truly it’s huge and spiders just plain creep me out.’
Kent leaned his forehead against the door. He’d been landed with a car-sick, celery-eating, arachnophobe.
Who’d have thought that would come in such a fine package?
‘What do you want me to do?’
Even through the door Sadie could hear his exasperation. Could sense his impatience with her girly theatrics. But it was easy to judge when you were on the other side of the door—the safe side. ‘I want you to come in here and kill it!’
Kent sighed. The fact that she was being held captive in the bathroom by a spider didn’t bother him a bit—eventually she’d have to figure it out herself. And if he only had faith she’d do it silently he’d leave her to it.
But a day in a car with Sadie Bliss had told him she didn’t really do quiet contemplation. ‘Are you decent?’
Sadie rolled her eyes. ‘Why? Do you think the spider cares?’ she yelled.
He took a breath. ‘I’m coming in.’
‘Easy, very easy,’ Sadie ordered. ‘It’s on the back of the door and I do not want to see how far that thing can jump.’
Kent opened the door slowly whilst Sadie watched his progress, her eyes peeking out over the edge of the shower curtain she’d pulled around herself for extra protection as if it were an invisibility cloak.
Kent glanced her way, two doe eyes and the top of her head the only things visible as she eyeballed the back of the door. ‘You know it’s more scared of you than you are of it, right?’ he murmured as he slowly opened the door further.
Sadie didn’t take her eyes off the terrifying arachnid. ‘I doubt it.’ It looked like something from an ancient Roman arena.
Once the door was almost all the way open and Sadie could no longer see the hairy critter she relaxed slightly. She looked at Kent, realising for the first time he was shirtless. His broad chest and flat abdomen, complete with a light smattering of hair that arrowed down behind the band of his low-slung jeans, filled her vision.
It was truly a sight to behold.
Why was it again she’d never been into buff men?
For a moment she almost forgot she was being terrorised by a mutant spider.
Almost.
‘Right,’ she whispered, dragging her gaze off his chest to the other terrifying object in the room. ‘I’m going to climb out of the bath and walk very slowly towards you. Once I’m safely out of the room you can do your he-man thing.’
Kent wasn’t entirely sure he was ready for Sadie to come out from behind the curtain. But he sure as hell wanted to see the creature that had Little-Miss-Curves all het up.
‘Okay,’ he whispered dramatically back, her dirty look bouncing easily off his shoulders.
Sadie quietly pushed back the curtain and gingerly stepped out of the bath. She could feel Kent’s gaze on her and couldn’t figure out which animal to keep her eye on the most.
She gripped the towel more firmly to her body.
Slowly she sidled along the wall furthest from the door, edged around the vanity basin where her toiletry bag sat. When she drew level with Kent she realised they were just one hotel towel and a pair of Levi’s from being naked. His bare, broad shoulders and his spare stubbled face filled her vision. He smelled of Twisties and beer.
Who’d have ever thought that could be such a potent combination?
‘Thank
