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Concentrate Flora!
“I’m really sorry but I’m afraid I have to kiss you,” she whispered in his ear, aware of how close their bodies were. “I promise you I’ll go away immediately afterwards.”
Then she sent her inhibitions flying and went for it, meaning to kiss his cheek and sod what Tash said but instead BlackBerry man turned his head and kissed her fully on the lips. Before she could register the feel of his lips on hers he was tasting her and teasing her and her lips responded to him, obediently, unthinkingly… it felt like she was falling down into another world – Flora in Wonderland.
Christ, she really was actually falling. The guy had dipped her backwards, firmly supporting her back as he leant in for a deeper kiss. Her parted her lips with his tongue and her mouth welcomed him instinctively, wanting to say yes to whatever he asked.
It felt strange. Strange and wonderful.
Not to mention that this was a hell of a lot more than she bargained for. Her skin fizzed and the attraction hit her like a body blow. She’d thought these kinds of kisses only existed in the movies. Something deep inside her melted, mellowing her, her inner romantic responding to this stranger against her conscious will, issuing him an invitation.
Her inner romantic was clearly a tart.
In her dim awareness of what was going on in the background she heard wolf whistles. One of them sounded very much like Tash. It hauled her back to reality with a sudden lurch.
Bloody hell. I’m in a ski resort bar with an audience. This has to stop.
She tried to struggle upright. Instantly he helped her up, drawing back a little but his face remained close to hers, dark blue eyes locked on her in a way that sent darts of anticipatory desire zinging through her body. The air between them fairly crackled with sexual electricity. Every nerve ending tingled.
Wow.
Six months without sex could clearly send a girl a bit loopy.
“Hi, I’m Zac Hengler, and you are?” His tone was as cool as though they’d simply bumped into each other, not shared that kiss, the kiss she was still reeling from.
“Um, Flora,” she replied, feeling dazed and disorientated.
“Umflora?” He grinned wolfishly. “Unusual name.”
“Umflora Lyndon.” Despite her mortification Flora’s lips creased into an automatic smile, joining in his joke, her body determined to give this guy the green light no matter what she did.
“I don’t usually do this, honestly. I’m sorry.” She shrugged, wishing she couldn’t still inhale the clean, citrus scent of his aftershave, that it didn’t make her want to bury her head against his chest.
Down girl!
“No need to apologise. So you’re English? Only an English girl would do that and then apologise.” Zac grinned.
“I’m not, I just had to…” Everything was coming out wrong, her tongue not connecting properly to her brain. “We’re playing Truth or Dare. Really silly I know. It wasn’t my idea.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I think it sounds like fun. Can I play?” Zac smiled a slow sexy smile and Flora’s insides gave a delicious lurch as though she’d been thrown into the air by a fairground ride – the Supersonic Swooner.
Who needs a fairground ride with Zac around?
Her cheeks flamed even hotter and she became intensely aware of Zac’s hand still resting on the small of her back. What would it feel like if those fingers dipped lower, stroking and touching… She took a tentative step back, confused, her desire to run battling her inner hussy’s craving to offer herself up to Zac on a plate.
Don’t you dare! Single for a year remember? You’ve got to stop handing control over to men.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me,” she said, not even sure what the ‘right idea’ was. Her physical reaction to Zac shocked her.
“And what would that be? That you’re attracted to me?” His eyes held her gaze, challenging her. “So, tell me the truth, what made you pick me?”
There was more than a hint of arrogance in his sexy smile and it stirred Flora’s fighting spirit. She’d had her fill of arrogant men and had no compunction about putting them in their place.
“You looked bored,” she replied, shrugging. “And I thought maybe you’d been stood up from the way you keep checking your phone, so I felt sorry for you. Er, at least I assume you’re here alone. Oh God, you haven’t got a wife or girlfriend have you? I really should have thought…”
She bit her lip, how could she have been so stupid.
I’m never drinking Mojitos ever again.
“Relax.” He laid a hand on her bare arm and another bolt of sexual electricity shot through her. Her eyes widened and she stifled a gasp.
How does he do that?
“No girlfriend, no wife,” he confirmed. “Since you’re asking.”
“Good.” She exhaled loudly with relief. “I mean I’m glad I haven’t caused any problems, not…I wasn’t asking because of…”
Shut up Flora!
She fell silent and shrugged, shaking her head at her ineptness.
“And you?” Zac’s eyes shone with amusement but beneath that she sensed something more serious - a magnetic tug, pulling her towards him. Pulling her into him. Part of her wanted to plunge right in, to jump instead of tentatively dipping her toe in at the edge of the shore.
Sod paddling, she wanted to swim.
“No boyfriend, no husband,” she confirmed, looking him directly in the eye. “And I’m not looking for either.”
Zac raised his eyebrows and grinned cockily. She narrowed her eyes at him.
Great, Flora, what did you have to give him a challenge for? Everyone knows there’s nothing like being unavailable to increase your attractiveness.
His dark blue eyes shone with an intensity that made her shiver. It was desire, she recognised it in him because she felt it too. Its re-emergence after so long shocked her. It had evolved; this new, ravenous desire was nothing like the old.
It had grown up, and so had she.
“But you didn’t answer my question,” he reminded her.
Question? What question?
“I don’t remember…” It was hard enough remembering her own name right now, never mind keeping track of the conversation.
At any rate the words passing between them didn’t seem to matter a whole lot. Hundreds of messages had already flashed between them, in their eyes, their body language, the skin on skin touch of his fingers lightly holding her wrist and in the current of sexual electricity she couldn’t ignore.
Why am I fighting this? Why should I ignore it?
This was a near perfect set up if she wanted sex but no commitment - a foreign country with a gorgeous man she might never have to see again after tonight. Wasn’t it about time? Verbier was about breaking free, kicking back and having some fun.
Right now she had the power to say yes or to walk away. She was in control and that felt good after all the crap she’d had to deal with back home.
If I can’t be bold now when can I be? It’s time Flora. Just go for it…
She was aware of the hen party girls closing in en masse behind her. The drunken giggling was a bit of a giveaway. They’d obviously decided she’d had enough space for one evening.
Please piss off!
She sent them furious telepathic signals but they weren’t picking up. Great.
“Hi Flora, if you want to stay that’s fine but we thought we’d head back to Chalet Repos.” Holly touched her lightly on the elbow. “Pippa’s worried that Scott and Steve will’ve dropped baby Lexie in the Jacuzzi or something. Hey Zac, you look in better shape than Scott after the Stag Do. I heard last night got pretty wild.”
Flora realised she was still in physical contact with Zac and pulled her hand away swiftly. So Scott and Holly knew Zac? While reassured on one level he wasn’t an axe-wielding psycho, part of her wanted Zac to be a total stranger, to stay a total stranger. That he was friends with her bosses made her a little…uneasy.
“Perhaps I should come back with you.” Flora wavered, her fingers tightening on the velvet bag strap, the sensible part of her trying to control her inner hussy. This wasn’t exactly something she’d done before. Getting it together with a random stranger in a bar was what other people did, not her. But so much had changed recently. How could she even be sure who she was or what she wanted? After years of Tom telling her what to do, the freedom to make her own choices felt…weird.
It was a nice kind of weird, though.
Verbier was a start over, a blank page just waiting for her to write in it. She couldn’t sit around waiting for someone else to come along and write her story for her. She’d already been there and done that in the first volume of ‘Flora’s Life.’
Volume two was going to be very different.
There’s nothing wrong with having sex for pleasure. It’s about time you bloody got some!
“Hey, you stay. It’s fine, you’re on leave until the wedding remember, no guests to get up for in the morning. I’d make the most of it if I were you!” Holly smiled, linking arms with an anxious-looking Pippa as they walked to the exit. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
If I were you… So that’s pretty much the green light from my boss then.
“That doesn’t leave much,” Tash shouted back to Holly, winking at Flora in an exaggerated way. The girls fell about laughing and Flora waited for the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Well why not? It felt like the kind of evening where anything might happen.
When she wasn’t magically transported away from the scene Flora risked catching Zac’s eye and a lurch of desire jolted her, her insides performing a loop the loop, leaving her physically shaken. But as powerful as the desire was, a little niggle buzzed at the back of her mind like an annoying insect.
“Excuse me for a moment Zac.”
She took a few steps towards Tash, reaching her before she got to the exit.
“Did you set me up?” she whispered furiously in Tash’s ear. She could feel Zac’s eyes on her from where he stood at the bar. They trailed over her body, over the fabric cupping her breasts, lingering on her legs…she didn’t know how she could sense it but the sexual chemistry in the air felt palpable.
It feels like magic.
She shivered again, half with desire and half with fear. She had a choice – go back to the chalet and get ribbed by the girls for being a coward, not to mention spending a sleepless night burning with frustration. Or she could stay here with Zac and let this go further.
Her body screamed an instant ‘Stay!’
“You haven’t been laid in six months Flora,” Tash hissed back, a little too loudly in Flora’s opinion.
“Great, shout it a little louder would you, I think there was a guy over in the far corner who didn’t quite catch that,” Flora muttered, her jaw clenching and molars grinding. “Thanks a bundle for making me sound desperate.”
Breaking up with Tom had been so bloody traumatic, especially with all the hassle she’d been given afterwards about calling off their wedding. Leaping into bed with someone else hadn’t been top of her to-do list given she’d suddenly had nowhere to live, no job and oh yes, had been the most hated girl in town.
“Let me see the Dare bag,” Flora asked, a suspicion occurring to her. She made a lunge for the bag and managed to grab it. She opened card after card.
Each one read ‘Kiss the sexiest man in the room’
“Did you switch the bag?”
Tash shrugged unrepentantly. “That’s what friends are for. I made some spare cards in case you needed a little push to get back out there. These ones were for you. So what? Have fun, you deserve it and you’ll be thanking me in the morning.”
Sophie lurched in the direction of the barman and Tash grabbed her arm, knocking the cards out of Flora’s hands in the process.
“Amelia and I will get her back safe safely. Seriously Flora you need some fun, it’s way overdue.” Tash put on her stern, ‘don’t mess with me face’ that worked so well on the chalet guests who thought it was funny to pinch her bum.
That was true at least.
Could I?
As the possibilities fluttered into her mind her attitude softened towards Tash. Tash knew how hard her last relationship had been, how traumatic ending it had been for her. She didn’t know all the details, but she knew enough. They’d all talked long into the night about their love lives on more than one occasion.
If I can’t have fun here in Verbier when is it going to happen?
It’s time.
Zac bent down for one of the cards that’d fallen to the ground before Flora could stop him.
Shit.
His eyebrows shot up and he grinned. “So, I’m the sexiest man in the room am I?”
Flora’s face flamed again. She cursed her inability to stop blushing, really she should have grown out of the habit by now, she was twenty-four for frick’s sake.
“Well, the bar’s a bit short of talent tonight,” she replied stiffly.
There was nothing worse than a gorgeous man who knew exactly how sexy he was. That knowing smile was irritating and annoyingly…attractive.
Damn.
He laughed and took her hand, tugging her back towards the bar. She went unresistingly, aware of the gentle but insistent pressure of his other hand at the small of her back. The force of his will seemed sufficient to drive her but a part of her rebelled against this assumption of control.
After all, Tom had assumed control so slowly, so subtly at first that she’d thought she was imagining it and over-reacting.
These kinds of charms often acted as a mask and who knew what lay beneath?
I’ll just have to be careful.
“I’m all for you doing what the card says.” He lowered his mouth to hers and before she knew it they were kissing again. Her body pressed so firmly against his it was as though they were magnetised, relentlessly and ferociously drawn to each other.
She forgot the girls, even forgot she was angry as her fears melted away with the heat of his kisses. When he eventually pulled away the room seemed to spin a little. Her mouth opened but no words came out.
“Shall we get some fresh air?” he asked.
She nodded and averted her gaze from the smug smile of the barman. She had to see where this might take her. And she really, really needed to have sex. It’d been too long and her wakening senses demanded satisfaction.
