CHARLOTTE LAMB - Wild Hunger

‘He is simply gorgeous, isn’t he?’ Sara sighed. ‘If I wasn’t madly in love with Rashid I would flip over him.’

Keira didn’t say anything. She was too busy feeling sick. Her skin was prickling, her stomach clenching; even the hairs on her head had seemed to react to the man moving about between the cottage next door and the street.

She had always liked him on TV, but in real life he was far sexier. The small screen diminished him. When you saw him crouching down behind ruined houses, or talking against a background of such devastation that it overwhelmed the man doing the commentary, you didn’t realise how tall he was, how powerfully built. He was more intensely coloured too, his hair a midnight-black, with the sheen of a raven’s wing, his skin tanned to a smooth gold, his eyes a dark, glittering grey. Staring at him that first morning, she felt an attraction so strong she was terrified.

She had been in love only once before; she never wanted to feel like that again. She had fallen too hard, become desperate with love; he had been frightened off. She had known it was happening but been unable to stop the need welling up inside her, or even hide it. All her life she had been looking for love, and she’d thought she had finally found it, but she had picked the wrong man to love that much. He had not been an all-or-nothing type. He’d found her need alarming. He’d stopped asking her out and started dating someone else; Keira had gone through a hell of pain and humiliation, because everyone knew, all their friends, and she had been so distressed that she hadn’t done a very good job of hiding how she felt.

Two years had gone by since it happened, but it still had the power to sting her when she remembered it.

If she ever fell in love again she was going to do so slowly, and let the man fall in love first, make sure she was safe before she let herself care.

‘Let’s go round and invite him in for a cup of tea,’ Sara said.

Keira shook her head and said, ‘You would have to invite all those removal men too, and I’m not in the mood to talk to a lot of strangers.’

‘You’re crazy,’ Sara said, but in the end she took a tray of tea and hastily made sandwiches next door, and came back after being there for ages, laughing and pink, well pleased with herself. She had found out all she could about Gerard, no doubt asked endless questions.

‘He’s not married, not even divorced; he just broke up with his latest girlfriend…’

‘I don’t care; stop talking about him!’

‘I took a lot of trouble checking him out for you!’ teased Sara, her eyes dancing. ‘He’s your type, more so than mine.’

Keira reacted furiously, giving her a glare. ‘I don’t want any of your matchmaking. If I want a man I’ll find my own.’

But Sara persisted in trying to bring them together. ‘You’ll change your mind when you meet him,’ she said, and went round to invite him to their next party. Keira fought to stay indifferent, but by the time the party began she was in a very hyper state. She kept busy pouring drinks, handing around food, but she looked round every time someone arrived, her heart skipping a beat.

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