Right—there was only one way to get through this, she thought. Keep calm. Play it cool. Act your socks off. After raising two boys she was a master at putting on a ‘happy face’ to get through any awkward or emotional situation.
She put on a fake smile and met his brilliant eyes. ‘So, that was fun. Thanks. I’ll just get dressed and get out of your hair.’
Lu forced the words out and held her breath when he placed his hands on hips covered in black low-slung boxers. He topped six feet by a couple of inches and, because the navy T-shirt and boxers left little to the imagination, he radiated physical power. Why did he seem so familiar?
Heavy brows lifted before dropping into a frown. ‘Fun?’
Oh, good Lord! Hadn’t he enjoyed it? Was she that out of practice? Lu felt heat creep up her neck and into her cheeks. ‘I’m sorry, I’m not very experienced at...’ she waved her hand at the crumpled sheets ‘...this. Look, let me just get out of here and we can both pretend it didn’t happen.’
Laughter flashed in his eyes and the corners of his mouth twitched. Lu felt the heat on her cheeks intensify. ‘What do you think happened last night?’
Lu stared at her bare knees. ‘I’m presuming that we had bad sex.’
‘You don’t remember?’
‘Hence the word presuming,’ Lu snapped. ‘Did we sleep together?’
‘Uh, not in the biblical sense.’ He crossed his arms across his chest and those spectacular biceps bulged. His mouth flirted with a smile. ‘And, for the record, men don’t ever have bad sex. There’s OK sex, blow-your-head-off hot sex and everything in between. But bad sex? Not so much.’
‘Thanks for the update,’ Lu muttered. ‘So, nothing happened?’
‘No, nothing happened...sex-wise.’
Damn, was that disappointment she felt? OK, even if she couldn’t remember it, re-losing her virginity—and after so long she was pretty sure that she could be reclassified—to such a wonderful-looking man could only have been a fabulous thing.
A headache she hadn’t been aware of started pulsing behind her eyes as confusion swirled around her head. ‘So, if I didn’t sleep with you then why am I half undressed and in your bed? Bra less? Did I say I would and then pass out? Should I start feeling scared?’ But she didn’t. Not yet. Weird, yes. Confused, definitely. Scared? Not so much.
‘I promise that you are safe.’ He must have sensed her confusion.
Lu looked into his sincere eyes and nodded. She wasn’t sure why but her gut was saying that she could trust him—that despite his size he wouldn’t lay a finger on her.
He sat down in the chair to one side of the bed and rested his forearms on his knees. After a short silence he spoke again. ‘I’m Will Scott, by the way.’
Will Scott! She’d thought he looked familiar. What on earth was she doing in the hotel room of the new—crackling hot—coach of Durban’s super-starry rugby team?
‘Ah...’
‘Do you want coffee? I need coffee. Actually, I need a drink. But coffee will have to do.’ Will stood up and walked over to the phone next to the bed, placed the order with Room Service.
Lu pulled up the neck of the T-shirt that had fallen halfway down her shoulder. His shirt, obviously. Which meant...what? Had he undressed her? And if they hadn’t slept together why was she out of her clothes?
‘Where are my clothes?’ she asked, unable to forget that she wasn’t wearing a bra.
‘Bathroom. Disgusting,’ Will replied. ‘You vomited all over yourself.’
Lu winced. OK, gross. Gross to the factor of four hundred. This story just kept getting better...not!
‘Why did I vomit? I never drink enough to vomit. I don’t understand.’
Lu dropped her legs and swung them off the side of the bed. For a moment she thought she saw Will’s eyes on them, but when she looked at him again he was staring at the beige carpet beneath his bare feet.
‘What happened to me?’ Lu questioned as she stood up and his shirt fell to just above her knees. Of course it still revealed most of her shoulder, but better that than her naked breasts...though she suspected he’d already seen those since he’d undressed her.
‘I saw you in the club and you looked sober. The next time I saw you—Lu—you looked spaced...high. You were also in the arms of a man I hadn’t seen you with and he agreed that your name was Flora.’
‘Flora? Who is Flora?’ Lu demanded. ‘And if we’ve never met before how do you know my name?’
‘Oh, you have some business cards in your wallet. After I got you settled I went through it to try and find someone I could contact for you.’
That made sense. She did have business cards in her wallet that she occasionally handed out to promote her photography.
‘So, you saw me with this guy...?’ Lu prompted.
‘I pulled the name Flora out of the air and he went along with it. That was a pretty big clue that something wasn’t right. So I grabbed hold of you and tried to figure out a way to attract a bouncer’s attention. Then you puked all over him. And yourself. And my shoes,’ Will added ruefully.
Lu closed her eyes. ‘Oh...hell. Seriously?’
Will nodded. ‘Thank God you did. Puking probably saved your life. You got all the rest of that undigested date-rape drug out of your system.’
Lu blinked and held up her hand. ‘Whoa! Date-rape drug? What date rape drug? What?’
‘It’s the only reason why a stone-cold sober person would be reduced to a high, spaced-out, unresponsive robot in fifteen minutes,’ Will explained.
Lu felt the pounding in her head increase, followed by an unpleasant whirling sensation. Date-rape drug? Lu staggered to the edge of the bed, dropped down and felt nausea building in her throat. She could have been held hostage, raped repeatedly, subjected to indescribably disgusting acts...
In her head she was screaming, panic was bubbling, and she bit down hard on her bottom lip to keep from whimpering. She would not cry. She would not lose control, she thought as stark images conjured up by her imagination—hard and cruel—slapped her again and again.
She couldn’t get any air...she needed air.
Will crouched in front of her, his arm resting on his knee. ‘That’s quite an impressive show of control. Most girls would be hysterical by now. Right—now, breathe. The important point is to remember that nothing happened. I took you away after you threw up. So just breathe, slow and deep.’ It was the voice from her dreams, calm, steady. In control. The images disappeared.
‘But...’
‘Nothing happened, Lu.’
Will hooked her chin and made her look into his calm face. She could see hot rage bubbling in his eyes...for her? She grabbed his wrist and held onto to him, needing his steadiness, needing the contact, needing to lean, just for a minute, on his strength.
She sucked in more air. ‘OK, nothing happened. You’re sure?’
‘Very sure. A thousand percent sure. You were in my sight the entire time, apart from the fifteen minutes just after your drink was spiked. You’ve only been alone with me the entire time. Believe me?’
She did.
‘Your mobile is dead, so I couldn’t contact anyone, but I took you to the closest hospital, they pumped your stomach and you stayed there the night.’
‘What? I stayed the night in hospital?’
Will nodded, his face grim.
‘So today