Anna sighed as she took a firmer grip on the heavy carrier bags. She would have dearly loved to have taken a taxi but she simply didn’t have the money for that kind of luxury. It looked as though she was going to get very, very wet!
She was halfway home when the heavens opened and the rain started to fall with a vengeance. She stopped and looked around for somewhere to shelter. She spotted the entrance to the park and wondered fleetingly if there might be somewhere there where she could wait out the storm. However, she soon decided that it would be a waste of time going to take a look when she saw a jogger running briskly out of the gates. Surely even the most ardent keep-fit fanatic wouldn’t choose to run round in a torrential downpour if there was anywhere to shelter!
She had set off again, moving closer to the wall, when she heard footsteps pounding along the pavement behind her. Having her head bowed against the rain, she didn’t notice the runner drawing alongside her. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a familiar voice spoke in her ear.
‘Here, give me some of those bags. It will be quicker if we both carry them.’
She swung round, unable to hide her surprise when she saw who it was. ‘Ben! What are you doing here?’
‘I certainly wasn’t following you, if that’s what you’re wondering. I happened to see you as I came out of the park.’ He gave her a grim smile and she felt herself flush.
‘I never thought you were following me,’ she denied hotly, glaring at him, then felt her anger get hijacked along the way when she suddenly realised what he was wearing, which was remarkably little, quite frankly.
Anna took a deep breath but it was impossible to control the sudden lurch her pulse gave as her eyes swept down the length of his body. The outfit that Ben had on was perfectly appropriate for what he had been doing. However, there was little doubt in her mind that the sight of his muscular body clad only in those brief, black running shorts and vest would have had an effect on even the sternest female heart!
She quickly averted her gaze, terrified that he would guess what was going through her mind. She wasn’t a prude by any means, but was it really right to have been dwelling on the length and shape of his powerful legs with such enjoyment? Should she have been deriving such pleasure from studying the narrowness of his hips and waist? Or gaining so much satisfaction from gazing at those gleaming wet pectoral muscles? She didn’t think so!
‘Come on, Anna. Do you want a hand with those bags or not? It’s up to you.’
She blinked when she heard the impatience in his voice. ‘I…hum…’
It was on the tip of her tongue to refuse when Ben took the decision from her. ‘We’ll both end up with pneumonia if we stand here much longer while you try to decide if you can trust me,’ he snapped, taking most of the shopping bags from her.
‘Trust you?’ she said uncertainly.
‘Uh-huh.’ He held up his hand as though he were swearing an oath. ‘I promise on my honour that this isn’t a ploy to get you back to your flat and have my wicked way with you. I just wanted to help you, although I’m beginning to wish that I’d curbed my Boy Scout instincts.’
Anna blushed hotly. The worst thing was that she couldn’t think of a word to say in her own defence. Fortunately, Ben didn’t wait around to hear her reply. He set off up the road at a fast lope, leaving her to trail after him, miserably aware that she had made a fool of herself. Even though she hadn’t imagined for a second that he had been planning to have his ‘wicked way’ with her, there was no way on earth that she could have explained what had been going through her mind!
They walked back to the flat in total silence. Ben kept a couple of steps ahead of her all the way, giving her no opportunity to say anything even if she’d wanted to. He paused at the bottom of the steps leading up to the flat. ‘Leave the shopping here and I’ll bring it up. You go and unlock the door.’
Anna just managed to stop herself saluting when she heard the imperious note in his voice. However, it didn’t seem worth promoting an argument. She ran up the steps and opened the door, moving aside so that he could carry the shopping bags inside.
He plonked them on the kitchen table then turned to leave. ‘That’s it, then. I’ll see you on Monday.’
‘Wait!’ Anna didn’t know where that word had sprung from. She certainly hadn’t been intending to say it. She shrugged when he looked at her, seeing the chill in his dark eyes, and couldn’t help wishing that she could do something to repair the damage that she had caused the previous Saturday, but she didn’t know how to go about it.
‘Thank you for helping me,’ she said instead, falling back on good manners when all else had failed. ‘I really appreciate it.’
‘You’re welcome.’ There was slightly less coolness in his voice now but she couldn’t decide if it was due to her apology or to the shiver that had racked him. She frowned when she saw the goose-bumps that had broken out all over his skin.
‘You’re absolutely freezing!’ she exclaimed in concern.
‘I’ll live.’ He turned towards the door once again but Anna knew that she couldn’t let him leave. It was pouring down with rain and, from the look of the sky, likely to keep on doing so for some time to come. She couldn’t in all conscience let him go home in weather like that.
‘Look, why don’t you wait here until the rain slackens off a bit? It’s stupid getting soaked when you don’t have to.’
‘I doubt if I could get any wetter,’ he observed so wryly that she laughed.
Her gaze whizzed down his body and she felt a ripple of pure sexual awareness run through her when she saw how the wet clothes were clinging to his muscular body.
‘Maybe not,’ she said quickly, hoping that he couldn’t tell how shocked she felt. She wasn’t totally naïve. She’d been in a relationship before she’d left London and had enjoyed the physical side as much as the companionship, but she’d never expected to feel this kind of sexual awareness towards any man in her condition. ‘But it’s silly to go back out into that storm when there’s no need. How about if I make some coffee to warm us both up? I’m sure you could do with a cup as much as I could.’
‘Well, if you’re sure….’ He hesitated a moment then shrugged. ‘Fine. Coffee sounds good. I must confess that I could do with something to take the chill out of my bones.’
He shivered again and she sighed. ‘It’s going to take more than a cup of coffee to do that. You need to get out of those wet clothes for a start.’
She hurried on when she sensed that he was going to object, knowing that she would never forgive herself if he ended up making himself ill when he had been trying to help her. ‘Why don’t you have a hot shower while the coffee’s brewing? I’ve got an old tracksuit somewhere about that’s way too big for me. It might just fit you. I can put your clothes in the dryer while we wait for the rain to stop.’
‘That’s kind of you, Anna, but I don’t want to be a nuisance,’ he said levelly. But she knew what he’d really meant. Ben didn’t want to overstep the boundaries she had set in place, and her heart ached because she couldn’t help wishing that it hadn’t been necessary to instigate them in the first place.
‘It’s no trouble,’ she assured him quietly. She turned away to plug in the kettle, afraid that he would see that she was upset. ‘You go and take that shower. I’ll leave the tracksuit outside the bathroom door for you.’
She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard him leaving the room. Maybe it was silly but Ben disturbed her. She didn’t know why, she just knew that he did. He made her feel things that she hadn’t expected to feel and she wasn’t sure how to deal with them.
Anna closed her mind to that