For a brief moment Ellie’s smile faltered. ‘Yes,’ she said in a small voice, ‘I suppose he did.’
‘So what were you doing, flagging down a total stranger?’
‘Well, it was that or die of exposure,’ Ellie said logically, pushing away thoughts of her beloved father. ‘Dad may have taught me not to accept lifts from strange men, but he also taught me to use my head in a crisis. And tonight is definitely a crisis.’
‘I could be anyone.’ His voice had a hard edge, but Ellie just smiled trustingly and snuggled further under the blanket.
‘I’m sure you’re a lovely person. In my experience, most people are.’
‘Then you obviously haven’t had much experience,’ he said roughly. ‘How old are you?’
He flicked on the internal light and she blinked.
‘You shouldn’t ask a woman her age. It isn’t polite. And you shouldn’t be influenced by appearances.’ Ellie’s voice tailed off as she saw him properly for the first time.
As their eyes met her breath jammed in her throat and her mouth fell open.
Wow.
The man was stunning. Seriously, breathtakingly good-looking.
She knew she was staring but she couldn’t help it. What woman wouldn’t stare when confronted by a man like this one?
His hair was too long and there was at least two days’ growth of stubble around his jaw, but never in her life had she been faced with a vision of such raw, untamed masculinity. Her eyes feasted slowly on the lean perfection of his face, the bold, dark eyebrows and firm, unsmiling mouth.
A long silence stretched between them and finally he spoke. ‘What’s the matter?’ His tone was rough. ‘Now that you’ve seen me properly, are you finally thinking that you might have been foolish to climb into my car?’
‘No.’ She shook herself and smiled at him, incurably honest. ‘Actually, I was thinking that when women kiss you, they probably keep their eyes open.’
He seemed to have lost his powers of speech and she tilted her head to one side and looked at him curiously.
‘What’s the matter? I’m just saying that you’re so good-looking it would be a terrible waste to close your eyes.’ She gave an impish smile and he shot her a look of pure, undiluted disbelief.
‘Do you always say exactly what’s in your head without any thought for the consequences?’
‘Always,’ she confessed. ‘I can’t stand people who say one thing and mean another. And don’t tell me no one’s ever told you you’re good-looking before. You must have heard it a million times.’
He studied her, not a flicker of expression on his handsome face. ‘Not in these circumstances.’
‘You’re shocked, aren’t you? But I don’t see why. You must know you’re good-looking.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s no big deal. Just a statement of fact. Like saying it’s raining.’
‘Raining...’ He gave her an odd look. ‘Right.’
‘Well, at the end of the day looks aren’t important, are they?’ she said simply. ‘Being with a person is about loving them for what’s inside, not for what’s outside.’
His dark eyes gleamed strangely in the darkness. ‘Absolutely.’
Ellie wriggled down in the seat and placed her feet on the heater to warm them. ‘I mean, someone can be rich and good-looking but what use is that if they’re no fun to be with?’
‘What use indeed?’ His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her antics from his side of the car. ‘Are you sure you’re quite comfortable?’
‘Perfectly, thank you.’ She beamed at him happily, ignoring the sarcasm in his tone. ‘I’m still pretty cold but this is a great car. Your heater is very efficient.’
‘I’m glad you approve.’ His tone was dry. ‘And now are you going to tell me what you were doing, risking your neck driving around on a night like this?’
Ellie gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. For a brief few moments she’d totally forgotten about Lindsay. ‘Oh, heavens. Lindsay! You have to drive me to the top of the lane, quickly. We can’t spend any more time chatting.’
‘We?’
‘All right.’ She blushed prettily. ‘So I’m the one that did the chatting, but now can we make a move? Please! We’ve wasted so much time already. It’s an emergency.’
He didn’t shift in his seat. ‘What sort of an emergency? Don’t tell me—another sheep?’
‘Not a sheep. It’s my cousin. She thinks she’s in labour,’ Ellie explained quickly, and he lifted a dark brow.
‘She thinks she’s in labour?’
Ellie shrugged helplessly. ‘Well, it’s her first baby and it’s four weeks early so we’re hoping she’s wrong.’
‘And you’re a midwife?’
‘Sadly, no. I’m a nurse.’ She swallowed and secured the blanket more firmly around her shoulders. ‘The midwife is trapped on the other side of the valley—the wrong side of the floods. I don’t think she’s had much experience of driving through fords.’
‘Clearly a sensible woman,’ he observed, and Ellie pulled a face.
‘A bit pathetic, actually, but there we are. She’s coming the long way round, which is going to take her ages. Fortunately she didn’t sound that worried on the phone. It’s Lindsay’s first baby, and she doesn’t think it will come for a while yet, but I’m not so sure...’ She broke off and he lifted an eyebrow.
‘And why is that?’
‘Because I’ve got one of my feelings.’ She wrinkled her nose anxiously. ‘Which is a problem because I didn’t even get a chance to consult my textbook before I came out.’
‘And are your—er—feelings usually reliable?’
‘Always,’ Ellie said firmly, cuddling the blanket more tightly around her. Her teeth were starting to chatter and she’d never felt so cold in her life. ‘And on top of that her husband is away so, you see, I absolutely have to get to her.’
‘Right.’ His long fingers tapped the steering-wheel. ‘But it wouldn’t exactly have improved the situation if you’d drowned yourself and all the rescue services had been forced to come out to extricate you from the river.’
‘They wouldn’t have been able to. There’s been a pile-up on the motorway, which is why they weren’t any use to Lindsay.’ She twisted in her seat and looked at him with concern. ‘Are you hungry?’
‘Hungry?’ He was clearly taken aback by the question. ‘What on earth makes you ask that?’
‘Because you’re very cross,’ Ellie pointed out gently, her tone sympathetic. ‘You needn’t worry. I get cross when I’m hungry, too. You should eat something straight away to get your blood sugar up.’
There was a long pause and when he spoke his voice wasn’t quite steady. ‘I’m not hungry.’
‘Tired, then?’
‘Not tired.’ He looked at her and shook his head slowly, exasperation glittering in his dark eyes. ‘I’ve just never met anyone quite like you before.’
‘Well, I haven’t met anyone like you before either,’ Ellie confessed, frowning slightly as she looked at him. ‘You may be gorgeous to look at but you’re very tense and you don’t show your feelings. It’s impossible to know what you’re