Tamed By The Renegade. Emily Forbes

but you’ll have to hold this for me,’ she said, as she handed him her lunch.

      He took her food, balancing it in his lap along with his own cup and stabilising it all with his left hand and forearm.

      Ruby bent down to release the wheelchair brakes, a co-conspirator to his escape. She could smell the coffee in his cup as she flicked off the right brake. As she leaned behind him and flicked off the left one her hair brushed over his shoulder—she was close enough now to smell him too. His hair smelt faintly of limes. He smelt fresh and far better than he should considering he’d spent the past couple of days in a hospital bed. Ruby knew from looking at his leg that he wouldn’t have been able to shower himself and she wondered which nurse had volunteered to wash his hair and give him a sponge bath.

      She felt her temperature rise as the thought of sponging him down took hold. She ran her eyes over the muscles in his left leg as her mind wandered. She forced herself to straighten up before she was tempted to reach out and run a hand down his thigh, only to find herself, once again, under the scrutiny of his blue-eyed gaze. She wondered if he could guess what she was thinking. She hoped not.

      She stood behind him and gripped the handles of the wheelchair, glad of a reason to break eye contact. She gathered her errant thoughts together and pushed him out through the kiosk doors.

      Outside several picnic tables and benches were scattered around a paved courtyard and shaded by a couple of large elm trees. It was late in the morning, well before a regular lunchtime, and the courtyard was virtually deserted. Ruby pushed the wheelchair towards a picnic bench.