He nextapproached a stand-up table and placed their suitcases underneathit. Leaning against the wall, he watched her twist off the bottlecap and take a soothing sip of water.
“So, tell me,” he said when she’d safely swallowed. “Whathappened back there?”
“Where? What do you mean?” Caught off guard, she stalled toanswer.
“You know exactly what I mean. I nearly lost you. You wereright behind me and you just froze. Then what? What if you hadgotten left behind? How would I ever find you?” He chuckled as hespoke, purposely ignoring the stab of guilt at such a thing. Forsome reason, her quirky vulnerability had him by the balls and therealization of it irked him to no end. It would have been so easyto simply leave her there and be done with her, yet at the time, itwas the last thing he had wanted to do. Seconds before the traindoors could shut in her face, he hadn’t even thought twice aboutit. He had simply reacted and dragged her in with him at the lastsecond.
Gwen avertedher eyes in shame. She had messed up. She had looked the fool infront of him. As grateful as she was that he hadn’t gotten angry,she still felt like she had failed her part of the deal. Some tourguide she was turning out to be. “I um... I don’t know. I wasoverwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting all the people, so many people, andtrains. It should have been a simple connection. Suddenly, itturned into a nightmare.”
“A nightmare?” Crispin’s voice rose an octave. “Come on, Gwen,shit happens. Train schedules get thrown off all the time. Iwouldn’t exactly call it a nightmare, merely an unfortunateoccurrence.”
“I’m sorry but stuff like that scares me,” she whispered moreto herself but loud enough for him to hear. “Doesn’t it bother you,when things don’t go as planned?”
At herquestion, he all but laughed. Hadn’t she just hijacked his trip?Yet at the sincerity of her question, once again, he reined in thespiteful comment that was on the tip of his tongue. Instead, hesaid, “Not at all.” He took another swig of his beer. “Situations,locations, I can handle. If I were to be suddenly whisked away toland in another place, I know I’d figure it out, I always have.” Hepaused for another drink then added, “People, on the other hand,are fickle and unpredictable, and that, I can’t handle.”
Gwen stayedquiet and reflected on his words. If by people, he meant her, shecouldn’t quite blame him for feeling that way. Unable to address itjust yet she turned her attention to his curious drink.
“What is that?” Gwen asked, watching him take a gulp of thedark liquid into his mouth.
“Guinness,” he explained, holding it out for her to try. “I wasin the mood for something dark.”
Gwen hesitated.“I… I don’t know.” She wasn’t quite sure she should have anyalcohol at that point. She wasn’t much of a drinker and beer wasn’ther beverage of choice but the frothy bit at the top of his drinkhad her more than intrigued.
“Well, it definitely can’t hurt. You’ll need it. It’ll give youstrength for the next part of our journey.” He flashed her adevilish smile. When she only stared at the glass, he took chargeand made the decision for her. “Just drink it. It’ll make you feelbetter.” He couldn’t say exactly what compelled him to do it butsomething about this little lady called to him. When she didn’t sayyes or no, he snaked his arm around her waist, drew her into himand held the cup to her lips. When she automatically opened hermouth, he tipped the drink into her parted pink lips and watchedher. Without resistance, she met his gaze with trusting eyes anddrank, swallowing a mouthful before he rested the cup back on thetable. Expecting her to be a little upset at his use of force, shesurprised him instead, by relaxing into him. She sighed as if theweight of the world were lifted from her shoulders.
“More?” he asked, his body reacting quite readily to hercompliance.
“Yes, please,” she whispered, looking from him to the glassalready poised in his hand.
“Well, isn’t this a pleasant turn of events,” Crispin purredlow in his chest, watching as she easily complied with hisministrations.
“It’s nice. Bitter but nice,” Gwen said it about the beer, butshe meant it for him as well. Whether he understood, didn’t matterso much. All she knew was after the turmoil she’d just experienced,his steely warmth pressed against her was like a salve to her wearymind. Let him be bitter as long as heholds me this way at the end of the day.
Very intently,Crispin watched her as he methodically fed her mouthfuls of hisdrink, taking one for himself in between, until the glass wasempty. He couldn’t say what had him more excited, the sight of herswallowing, or her eyes on him as she did so. Her pink tongue nowtracing her glistening lips was the last straw, though. Unable toresist, he traced his thumb over her upper lip, wiping away theremnants of the froth. Before he could stop himself, he dipped itstip into her warm wet mouth. He sucked in a breath when she closedher eyes and gave it a tentative lick.
“Watch yourself, young miss.” He grabbed her by the back of thehead, tangling his fingers in her hair. He drew her ear to hismouth and growled. “You don’t know who you are dealingwith.”
Chapter 11
Having shakenhimself off of his lusty thoughts, Crispin grabbed for thesuitcases and started off in search of the Buckingham Palace Roadexit. He didn’t stop to look over his shoulder for Gwen since hecould hear her shuffling up close behind him. At this point, all hewanted was to get to the inn. He was tired from the flight andlooked forward to getting a good night’s rest to clear his head.Mostly, he wanted to put some physical space between himself andGwen. As it was, he was having trouble keeping visions of herscreaming his name as he took her good and hard out of hisbrain.
What was itabout her that had
