Wild and Willing! Read Free Page B

aromatherapy.’
    ‘How…enterprising.’
    Nasty, narrow-minded, patronising toad, she thought as she silently noted the faint, contemptuous smile. ‘I take it you’re not an advocate of alternative treatments?’ She bristled with antagonism.
    ‘Treatment—that implies that some benefit is gained?’
    ‘I told you you had a lot in common.’ Beth beamed with pleasure. ‘I’ll leave you children to talk shop.’
    Anna noted how Adam’s startled gaze followed her parent’s retreat.
    ‘No, she isn’t guileless, or stupid,’ she told him. Cunning would be nearer the mark, she thought affectionately. ‘She keeps trying to set me up with eligible males, and I suppose she’s decided you fit into that category. I’ve told her if she’s that desperate for my room I’ll move out, but nothing will do for her but to try and get me married off. It’s very unfair; she doesn’t interferewith Lindy and Hope, though that might have something to do with the fact they’re not around.’
    ‘You live at home?’ He sounded incredulous.
    ‘When I’m not having sex with every male in a fifty-mile radius. Mind you, I did have a wild couple of years in London before I started nursing. I didn’t actually finish my training.’
    ‘Some people find it hard to finish anything they start.’
    She wasn’t fooled by his neutral expression. ‘We don’t have your rock-solid respectability, darling,’ Anna purred, aching to slap his smug, superior face.
    ‘It wasn’t a criticism, just an observation.’
    ‘Everything you say is a criticism.’ The man was aggravation incarnate!
    ‘This is a great party. There. Is that complimentary enough for you? I believe you organised it?’ At that moment a young man spun off the dance floor and hit Anna in the back, sending her straight towards Adam.
    His arms opened automatically to prevent her falling. The nearly finished drink in her hand spilled down his shirt-front, and she found her cheek pressed against the damp fabric as his arms came up to steady her. A spicy, masculine aroma, the heavy thud of his heart and the tension that tautened the rock-hard muscles all made her head spin. The enforced intimacy only lasted a moment, but the light-headed sensation made her miss the cheerful enquiry from the instigator of the accident.
    ‘It’s only lemonade,’ she heard herself babble, seeing the damp patch spreading across his chest. ‘No permanent damage.’ She lifted her eyes and met the steady, cold regard of his. ‘For God’s sake, I didn’t do it on purpose,’ she snapped, seeing the wariness in his expression. ‘It wasn’t a further ploy in my attempts to have your body, so you can relax.’ Her breath still came in turbulent gasps as she tried to steady her racing pulses.
    Adam wished he could follow her advice and relax, but tension had his spine in knots and all his anatomicalknowledge wasn’t going to help him unwind them. Getting the warm, womanly scent of her skin out of his nostrils might help.
    ‘Have I done something to disturb you?’ he asked, watching the colour ebb and flow in the small, vivid face of the young woman beside him. He was fascinated that anyone could have their emotions so close to the surface. Was she really as transparent as she appeared? he wondered.
    ‘Beyond the odd grope in the undergrowth?’ she asked, privately trying to analyse just what it was about this man that disturbed her so very much.
    She liked open, straightforward people, and he had the sort of reticence that made a clam seem garrulous. His green eyes were secretive and mysterious and for some inexplicable reason made the pit of her stomach disintegrate. In the space where it should be was a cold and empty ache.
    ‘I had no right to do that.’ His face tightened with anger at the memory still fresh in his mind. Other parts of his body responded to the memory too!
    ‘But you enjoyed it,’ she said intuitively.
    ‘Yes!’ The stark admission seemed wrenched from