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“Go on then, I’ll wait.”
She sniffed. “There’s no need. I can manage on my own.”
“I saw your phone drop onto that rock. Is it broken?”
Her lips parted and she wanted to deny it. Having been caught out in the lie, her cheeks flushed with heat.
“Not only can you not make the call, even if you were able, and believe me, I would hand you my cell phone if I thought it would make a difference, there is no way anyone can get to you tonight. The road has been cut off by fallen power lines, and besides this, there will be dozens of calls tonight. I am your best chance. So stop being so damned proud and let me help you.”
“I’d be more inclined to let you help me if you’d stop being such a know-it-all jerk.”
His eyes sparked to hers. “In this instance, I do know it all. And I am a jerk; I make no apologies for it. Fortunately for both of us, I’m not asking you to marry me, I’m telling you that unless you want to die of hypothermia or starvation, you’ll come to my house until the storm passes.”
Her lips parted and she stared at him as though he’d just suggested they take hands and jump off the cliff.
“No.” It was an intuitive response. Something about this man, his villa, threatened her, and she’d learned to listen to her instincts.
“Fine, have it your way,” he muttered. “I’m done trying to save you.” He turned and began to stalk away, so her pulse accelerated and she knew that her best chance of rescue was disappearing. She thought longingly of being somewhere warm and dry, with a warm drink and maybe even a crackling fire. Of being able to put her ankle up and rest it for a while.
“Okay, okay,” she shouted out. But he kept walking, his back ramrod straight, so she wondered if he hadn’t heard her above the howling wind. “I said okay!” She shouted, louder.
He spun around, fury conveyed by the tense lines of his body. “Okay, what?”
“Okay, you can help me.”
“How magnanimous of you,” he replied, sarcasm in his voice, but to Georgia’s relief, he began to walk back towards her, his jaw set firmly, his eyes sparking with hers, so she shivered. She waited for him to come to her side and put an arm around her for support as she walked but instead, he picked her up and cradled her against his chest as though she weighed nothing. And she supposed, comparatively, she didn’t, for she was naturally short and slight and he was the opposite—tall, and broad chested, strong and athletic in a very different way to her. She hadn’t been joking about his gladiatorial presence.
“I can walk,” she felt compelled to say, but he only ground his teeth and kept striding onwards, covering uneven ground as though it were a perfectly stable footpath.
“Would you please slow down,” she said after a few minutes. “Or you’ll sprain an ankle too and then where will be?” He didn’t say anything. “Unless your plan is actually to drop me over the cliff after all,” she said, moments later. “But then, I guess you could have done that earlier. And why would you?”
She was babbling because she could tell it annoyed him and for a reason Georgia couldn’t fathom, she enjoyed pressing his buttons. It was childish and rude, given that he was inconveniencing himself to save her, but it was a small piece of brightness in an afternoon that had quickly gone south.
“To stop you making inane conversation?” He said, sometime later, so she’d half-forgotten what he was even replying to.
To Georgia’s surprise, it brought a smile to her lips; she quickly flattened it.
But when they were both silent, something inside Georgia shifted. She stopped being aware of his size academically and became aware of it in a far more visceral way. She could feel his strength and breadth and command, she could feel his overpowering masculinity, and two opposing sensations arose in direct contradiction of each other.
She wanted to stop time and stay exactly where she was. Being held by a pair of strong arms was something she’d never known. Not like this. As a little girl, when she’d fallen asleep in the car, her father had carried her inside, and she’d always felt loved and protected by the gesture. But this was different. This wasn’t a reassuring feeling, it was terrifying, because she was aware of this man in every cell of her body. And in contradiction of a desire to stay pressed to his chest for as long as she could, she wanted him to put her down so she could run, sprained ankle be damned, as far away from him as possible. It was terrifying to feel like this, out of nowhere, and for someone she didn’t even know. She had no idea what his name was, for goodness' sake.
“You can put me down, if you need to rest,” she felt compelled to offer, after ten minutes of fast walking.
He paused, tilting a look at her. “I’ve carried heavier grocery bags.”
At that, she laughed. “What are you buying? Concrete?”
“You weigh nothing,” he responded. “I’m fine.”
A shiver ran down her spine, and though it was an internal feeling, Georgia was sure that somehow, he’d felt it anyway, because he shot her a look that was ninety percent warning and ten percent curious. It was the latter that was her undoing. She jerked her gaze away, breath hitching in her throat, as now she was aware of every single step he took, and her body jiggled in response, shifting against him, her skin covered in goosebumps that made her so much more sensitive to his nearness.
Ten minutes later, lights came into view and she expelled a long, soft breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She’d never been happier to see a home in her life.
Only, this was no ordinary home.
She knew that Lake Como was a ritzy area, and she’d passed some beautiful villas on the walk today, but this was something else. “Stop a second,” she said, her voice mesmerized and commanding, so the man did stop, allowing Georgia to take in the view with eyes that were wide like saucers.
“You actually live here?”
