Kate Hardy - British Bachelors - Delicious & Dangerous

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Of course I’ll wash your hair. Do you have any preference as to what shampoo I should use?’ It hadn’t escaped her attention how laden with men’s grooming products his bathroom shelves were, but once again he shrugged his shoulders as if the choice hardly signified.

‘I don’t have a preference. All I want is for you to wash my hair and help me feel halfway human again.’

‘Okay. I’ll just nip into the kitchen and get a jug so I can rinse the shampoo off. Won’t be a minute.’

In the kitchen Kit found a suitable jug and gulped down a glass of cool water to help steady her nerves before returning to the steamy bathroom and the prospect of washing Hal Treverne’s luxuriant dark hair...

Without a doubt Kit Blessington had a sinful touch, Hal reflected as her long graceful fingers massaged his scalp. It made him long for her to massage the rest of his battered and bruised body As well as giving him his broken femur and damaged knee, the accident hadn’t spared him all the other aches and pains commensurate with a heavy fall.

Remembering the sight of her bending over the bath to run the water earlier, he noted that her fitted corduroy jeans couldn’t help but emphasise her surprisingly lush curves. She had a derrière that resembled the most perfectly ripe peach. How could a healthy male specimen not fantasise about kissing it and perhaps taking a little nibble? It was only natural that his red-blooded imagination should start to linger irresistibly on the idea of making love to her. After all, he was only human, and having not had a woman in his bed for at least six months because of his killing work schedule and extra-curricular sporting pursuits he found his healthy libido was seriously starting to protest at the sexual drought he’d imposed on it. Just because he had a broken leg it didn’t mean that his need and desire for sex was broken too.

Yet it didn’t sit well with Hal that the sudden heated attraction he seemed to have developed towards Kit might compromise her in any way. Somehow he intuited that she wasn’t a woman to take a sexual fling lightly...particularly not one with a man who had hired her to help him as he recuperated from an accident. So, no matter how tempting the alluring redhead was, he should leave well alone...for both their sakes, he decided.

Instead, he would carry out the intention he’d had earlier, to get to know her a little and engage her in conversation. He would encourage her to tell him a bit about her life rather than just talk about himself. God knew there was enough about his career and sporting exploits in the tabloids and magazines if she had a mind to read them... And it didn’t stop there. There were plenty of unwelcome salacious reports about him too... Past associations with models and actresses, for instance, were embellished and exaggerated to the hilt. For some reason the thought of Kit reading about those made him wince...

‘I’ll rinse off the shampoo now,’ she announced cheerfully. ‘Then I’ll get you some warm towels to dry yourself with. You can put your bathrobe on in the meantime.’

‘Thanks, but just before you dash off there’s something I have to do.’ Spying a tiny bubble of foam on the tip of Kit’s nose, where she had unthinkingly wiped the back of her hand across her face after washing his hair, Hal couldn’t help staring.

‘What’s that?’ she wanted to know. Her lips curved in an unknowingly sweet smile.

Unable to resist, he ordered huskily, ‘Come here.’

‘Why? What for?’

But even as she asked the question Kit was bending down towards him, to bring her face nearer to his, and the air between them thrummed with the kind of internal turbulence that was usually felt just before a lightning strike. Even though he might be dicing with danger, Hal couldn’t ignore the irresistible impulse that had been building up inside him ever since she had helped him into the bath.

‘You’ve got some foam on your nose,’ he breathed, gently obliterating the tiny soap bubble with the pad of his thumb.

As soon as he’d seen to that he curved his hand round the back of her neck and brought her face down even closer to his. Her surprised breath fanned him softly just before he helplessly touched his mouth to hers for the briefest of seconds. He’d been longing to experience the taste of her, and it was a Herculean task not to surrender completely to the idea of kissing her more passionately, because everything about Kit Blessington had started to arouse him, Hal realised. Perhaps even more than it should, because in truth she should be strictly out of bounds to him.

Their association was nothing more than a professional one. She was the woman he’d hired as a home help. But, oh, her cherry lips were sweet...

Reluctantly he came to his senses and hastily withdrew. But he couldn’t so easily escape the desire that burned in him as brightly and hotly as a flame that would not go out...

‘You—we—we shouldn’t have done that!’ With her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright Kit self-consciously smoothed her hand down over her hip and reached for the jug of clean water she’d left on the bath side. ‘I’d better rinse off your hair and then get those warm bathtowels for you.’

After rinsing the shampoo from his hair Kit grimly adhered to her task of helping Hal get out of the bath. She was careful not to meet his eyes so he wouldn’t see that she was desperately struggling to maintain her composure. There was no hiding the fact that his naked physical form had deluged her with an uncomfortably primal awareness. That brief but inflammatory kiss he’d delivered had effectively turned her previously ‘safe’ little world upside down, and she didn’t know how she was going to right it again.

Silently helping him into his bathrobe, Kit couldn’t disguise her need to escape for a while. ‘Will you be okay for a couple of minutes while I fetch those towels?’

‘Of course. But don’t be gone too long, will you? I might start to think you’re trying to pretend that chaste little kiss we just shared didn’t happen.’

Forcing herself to meet the undoubtedly mocking glance on Hal’s face, she lifted her chin and delivered a deliberately droll reply of her own.

‘I hate to dent your ego—I really do—but I’ve already forgotten about it. My focus is entirely on your welfare, just as it should be. When I return, I’ll stay and help you dress, if you’d like? I’m aware you’ve already expended quite a bit of energy today, and you need to rest that leg.’

Hal predictably scowled. ‘I don’t need help dressing. Just bring me the towels. After that, rather than have you stay and help me, I’d prefer it if you just went and made me a hot drink.’

‘Your wish is my command.’

‘I wouldn’t push your luck if I were you.’

‘I wouldn’t dare,’ Kit murmured softly, and quickly exited the room...

She came back soon afterwards with the promised towels, then disappeared again to make his drink. Hal couldn’t help feeling a little sombre. He’d told her that rather than staying to help him he’d prefer her to go and make him a hot drink, but it was a lie. He didn’t prefer that she’d done that at all. His assertion that he didn’t want her help because he hated being so reliant on her, and also because everything about her was arousing him...almost to the point of pain.

Hefting a heavy sigh, he glared down at his inanimate broken limb with a feeling that was very close to despair. Being left with too much time on his hands in which to berate himself for creating such a horrendous situation was hardly helpful. He hated being left alone with his thoughts. He’d rather go sky-diving or climb a glacial mountain without a guide rope any day. At least when he was doing that there wasn’t any time for painful brooding—not when his attention had to be absolutely focused on the exhilarating and dangerous task in hand if he wanted to stay alive.