“Seems fine.” I rubbed on the plaster to see if I could feel any pain. “Truthfully, I’m a little embarrassed about last night.”
“You were bitten by a snake and thought you were dying!”
“But I was rather dramatic, wasn’t I?”
He chuckled. “I would have probably acted the same way.”
“You’re just saying that to be nice, meanwhile Bongani is probably going to laugh with the other rangers over this, telling them how I rolled on the deck screaming that I didn’t want to die and I wanted to swim in the Maldives and—” I cut myself off quickly. I should not have gone there, and I knew it the second I saw the look on Max’s face.
“Have you really never had good sex?” he asked, walking round the bed towards me.
“No!” I held out my hand to block his approach. “I didn’t mean it like that at all.”
“Then how did you mean it?”
“Not in the way you think I meant it,” I blasted back.
“I don’t know, Ash. A statement like that doesn’t exactly seem to have another meaning. It’s a pretty clear, definitive statement.”
“I meant lately.Lately. Recently. Not never.Neverwould be ridiculous.” I forced a laugh. It sounded fake and stupid and—why the hell had I done that?I changed tactics.
“Max, I have a lot of work to do today. I’m already seriously behind, so I cannot talk about this now. In fact, I cannot talk about this ever, and especially not with you.” He stopped walking, but didn’t erase that smile from his face.
“I would never want to keep you from your work, Ash.” His words totally contradicted the look in his eyes, just like my words had totally contradicted the feeling that was rising up inside me. This is exactly what I’d come here for at 3 a.m. But in the sober light of morning, after a dramatic snake bite or two, I was not so sure this was a good idea anymore. He continued his approach, walking slowly and deliberately. His walk saidman on a mission. Shit, I knew exactly what mission he was on right now.
“You saidneverlast night.”
“Yes, well, people say strange things when they think they’re dying.”
“Like that they’ve never had an orgasm either?”
“I . . . I . . .” I couldn’t get the words out, because Max had stopped his approach, and was now standing right in front of me. God, why did he have to be so good-looking? I blamed all of this on the fact that he looked the way he did. A man had no right to look this good, ever. It was unfair. Women stood no chance with a man like this, standing there with all those muscles and bare chest and eyes . . . eyes that ate you alive.
“You what?” he asked.
I shook my head, drowning in this cruel and unusual sexual spell he was casting over me. If I didn’t swim to the surface now, I feared I would get sucked right under . . .him.
“I have to work, Max.”
He took a step back, and I had this irrational urge to grab him by his hair and pull him back.
“Fine. But don’t think this conversation is over, Ash.” He took another step back, and with each step, the spell seemed to dissipate ever so slightly.
“Because this is something that we are . . .”
He paused, smiled, and then looked at me with the most sexy, filthy look I think I have ever been looked at with before. My entire body felt like it had been set on fire.
“. . .comingback to this.”
Oh God!
“Uh . . . right.” I scrambled for my slippers on the floor. “I need to find my . . .” I swung my head around, scanning the room, looking anywhere but at him, because if I did, I feared that my clothes might accidentally come off.
Fuck, too much coming.
“I have to go now,” I declared loudly, and then didn’t even bother with things like slippers, and made a run for it.
He gave me a small wave as I went and just as I was about to exit he called after me one last time.
