Flirting with Danger by Bev Hardy (digital e reader TXT) 📖

She became aware of his scrutiny and for some reason suddenly felt self-conscious. Again she tried to smooth the wayward tendrils of hair back from her face as she stood.
"This isn't my best look," she laughed.
He rose with her, placing a hand in his pocket as he continued to watch her, his eyes sparkling in the darkness.
"You look great to me Charlie," he smiled.
She gave a small laugh.
"Here," he said suddenly, unbuttoning his tuxedo jacket, "you gotta be cold." He shrugged it off and moved behind her to place it around her shoulders.
"Such a gentleman Luke," she teased. "Thank you."
"No problem," he replied, observing the way her hair had begun to curl with the rain water. There was something he liked about this dishevelled, natural sight of Charlie.
From behind her, he moved then decisively to wrap his arms around her body, holding her to him around her middle.
She glanced back at him dubiously.
"I'm kinda cold myself now Charlie," he said. "it's survival techniques."
"Oh really," she answered.
"Sure," he came back. "Brrr," he shivered, tightening his hold on her.
She rolled her eyes but a smile developed across her face.
They stood like that for a few moments, looking out across the dark deserted field.
"Ya know, I never really saw much of the country when I was livin' here," Luke said. "I kinda like it. Makes a change from New York anyway."
"I bet," she replied.
"It's peaceful," he observed.
She sighed, deep down touched that he liked her beloved countryside, but wary as always of the future. "Luke, it might be peaceful now but… aren't you afraid, about the body you buried and the consequences of that? Because I am. I'm afraid for you," she admitted.
He laughed softly. "Nah, I've been through worse. I aint doin' so bad right now, not bad at all," he replied, resting his head against hers.
She didn't know whether to give in and believe him, or be doubly worried about his lack of concern.
"The rain has died down now, we should go," she said, pulling slowly away from him.
He let her go reluctantly.
She moved forward then but paused at the edge of the concrete, her foot hovering above the mud as it tried to figure out the best way forward.
Then, before she knew what was happening, she felt an arm clamp around her waist, and her legs lift off the floor as Luke swept her up off the ground, his other arm under her knees.
She gave a small shout in shock and grabbed onto his neck for support. "This really isn't necessary," she laughed.
"What, are you kiddin'? Can't have my princess covered in mud," he smiled, wading out into the field again.
They made it back to the road without incident, and he lowered her to the ground gently.
She smiled coyly at him. "Thank you."
It was a good ten minutes later when they reached Charlie's house, by which time both of them were frozen to the bone.
She turned to him at her door and was about to say goodnight when the vision of his soaking face and shirt made her hesitate. She felt torn between what she knew to be appropriate, and how she felt about sending Luke back out into the cold night again.
"Err," she scratched her head. "Would you like a hot drink before you go back?" she offered.
"Well, I am kinda cold," he admitted. Chapter 24

 "Damn it Luke," she said suddenly in frustration, "I feel bad leaving you to sleep on that chair! Are you warm enough?" she asked.
His eyes flew open then. He had been attempting sleep, but was too aware of her tossing and turning to achieve it.
"Hmm, I aint exactly hot here," he admitted, suddenly full of hope.
She growled, throwing the duvet back from her. "Right, if you want to, you can sleep in here with me…

Charlie turned and unlocked her front door, saying,
"I'm afraid we will have to search for seats; everything is rather topsy-turvy in here while I'm redecorating."
As she entered her house, she shrugged off Luke's jacket and reached to flick the light switch near to the front door. She was surprised, however, to find that no light was produced.
"That's odd," she commented, utilizing the light from the outside of her house to find her way to a nearby table lamp, only to realize that it was also failing to turn on. "I don't believe this; I seem to have no power."
Luke walked through the hallway to check the light switch in the kitchen ahead.
"No, you definitely aint got power. Where's your fuse box?" he asked, "I'll take a look."
She closed the front door to keep the rain and cold out, but found that this only made the house darker. Having moved halfway across the hallway by then though, finding her way back seemed as difficult as forging forward.
"It's in the garage," she replied, now unable to see Luke at all though the darkness.
"Luke, where are you?" she asked.
"In the kitchen," he shouted back, having moved since they last spoke.
"Wait there for a minute," she replied, feeling her way to the kitchen door. "I'll come with you. My electrics have been a little temperamental lately." She strained to pick out any light in the Kitchen but couldn't work out where anything was at all. "Where are you?" she asked, fumbling through her bag for her mobile phone.
"Here," he said, taking hold of her shoulder and frightening the living daylights out of her.
"You okay?" he asked.
"You startled me," she said, taking hold of his hand.
"D'ya have a torch or somethin'?"
"Somewhere, but I can't remember where I put it," she replied. "We can use the light from my phone though," she said, pulling it out of her bag and holding it up ahead of them. It didn't help very much, but at least they could now see enough to avoid obstacles. "The garage is through here," she said, leading Luke across the kitchen to a door which connected it with the garage.
Luke and Charlie didn't take long to realize that, not only did they not really have enough light to figure out the electrics, but the problem didn't seem to be a simple one.
"I'll take another look tomorrow for ya, if you like, when it's light, but ya might need to get in an electrician," he informed her.
"Could anything else go wrong tonight?" she sighed, heading back into the kitchen, mobile phone still in hand. Luke followed, locking the connecting garage door behind him. "Don't answer that," she added, not wanting to tempt fate. "Well," she said, turning to him and glancing around the half lit kitchen, "I'm not going to be able to offer you that hot drink after all, sorry."
He shrugged.
"But... I could offer you a towel at least to dry off," she went on, holding up her phone again to move out of the kitchen and into the hallway. "Maybe the rain is dying off."
He followed her careful progress up the stairs and paused at the top when the light from her phone suddenly disappeared as it turned itself onto standby. She opened a door however, and the outside streetlight, which was shining in through the window of the room, provided him with some sense of orientation.
He moved to the doorway, recognizing the room immediately from earlier; it was her bedroom. As she searched through one of the cupboards for towels, his mind was immediately thrown back to their encounter earlier that day in that same room... he watched her reaching up into the cupboard, his eyes hovering on the bare expanse of her back and the outline of her figure in that black evening dress. His thoughts then returned to the events of the evening: the intimacy of their dance, the secret foot play under the table, the glances and flirting. Nights like that shouldn't end, not with two people apart anyhow.
Finally, she closed the cupboard door and held out a towel for him. He stepped into the room to take it from her.
Charlie took her own towel and began to dry her hair, her heart thudding at the look on Luke's face when he had stepped into the room. They both stood there for a while in silence, drying off, with Charlie wondering what to do next. Could she really send him back out again? But then again, she doubted the wisdom of allowing him to stay.
Luke was very tempted to make some kind of suggestion at that point; he really didn't want to go back to the guest house, and it had nothing to do with the rain. Damn, it had been so hot between them earlier; it was arousing him then just at the thought of it. And by the way Charlie's eyes had darted away from his, he was certain that she too was thinking about what had happened between them in there that afternoon.
"Is it still raining?" she finally said, walking to the window to glance outside. Oh no, it was indeed still pouring down. She gazed thoughtfully out at the night sky for a moment before turning decisively at last and saying,
"Luke I've been thinking, if it's dangerous for me to be walking around tonight, it must be twice as dangerous for you. The last thing I need is to wake up to your dead body in my car!"
He liked the way this conversation was going. Luke was getting more excited by the second.
"We have a problem though," she went on.
Damn.
"I don't really have anywhere for you to sleep. The spare room is empty now and the lounge furniture is all piled up in the middle of the room ready for when we decorate…"
Oooh, that's a problem that can easily be sorted. Luke glanced around the half lit room, his eyes hovering on Charlie's bed.
"I suppose we could try to move everything off the sofa for you."
Nah, that was a bad idea, a real bad idea.
Before Charlie set her mind on that decision, Luke decided to cut his losses and settled for,
"I'll take the chair." He gestured to a soft seated arm chair in the corner of the room.
She frowned. "It won't be very comfortable."
"Are you kiddin'? When I was in New York, I fell asleep most nights on my office chair. It was probably a lot less comfortable that that," he pointed out.
"Did you ever get any sleep in New York, Luke?"
"Not much," he replied.
She tutted. "I have a blanket somewhere, I'll find it for you," she said, returning to her bedroom cupboards.
Well, if he was in the same room as her, there was at least a minute shred of hope.
"Here," she said, handing him a blanket, "I'm going to use the bathroom."
She turned then and began fumbling in one of the cupboards again before having found what she was looking for and leaving the room.
Luke threw the blanket on the bed and stripped out of his damp shirt and trousers, grateful to shed the uncomfortably wet clothes. Retrieving the blanket, he unfolded it and settled himself on the chair, covering his frozen body.
As he waited for Charlie to return, he heard her voice from the other room and strained to hear what she was saying.
"…It's Charlie. Where are you and why is your phone off? I'm worried about you. I'll phone you tomorrow. Take care…"
Hmm, she must have been