Raffaele appeared decently clad in some grey jogging bottoms and a loose T-shirt and flip-flops.
Their eyes met and he smiled reassuringly.
‘I shouldn’t have rushed over here at this ungodly hour,’ Erin said jerkily.
‘Why not? Something obviously petrified you and naturally I’m here to help. I can’t have you cowering under the blankets until you get rescued by room service in the morning. I’m being serious here, Erin. Want me to carry you back to your cabin? Because I will.’
‘Just get rid of whatever’s flying around inside the room.’ She cleared her throat, eyes darting between his cabin and hers in expectation of just about anything that might lunge out at them. There was a myriad of noises coming from the trees and the bushes all around them. ‘Please.’
‘Your wish…my command.’
She led the way to her cabin. It was literally seconds away from his. She could feel the blades of grass on the ground brush against her flip-flops and fronds from the ferns tickle her legs. They both heard the sound of furious flapping the second she pushed open the door.
Raffaele didn’t give her time to protest. He swept her off her feet, kicked the door shut behind him and carried her straight through to the bedroom.
‘Stay here.’
‘What are you going to do? What is it making that racket?’
‘I’ll find out soon enough.’
‘Are you scared? Should we call the manager?’
‘At this hour in the morning?’ Raffaele laughed. ‘No and no. By which I mean no manager, and no, I’m not scared.’
He headed out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him, and Erin curled herself into a ball in the chair by the window and tried her best to block out the muffled sounds outside.
It had been a mistake coming here. She should have made up some excuse and dug her heels in and stayed put in the safety of her office in London. If she had, she wouldn’t be here now, trembling at the thought of whatever was out there, not to mention all the otherwhateversthat might be lurking in the bushes and the trees and the rivers, waiting for some unsuspecting English girl with zero experience of the tropics to wander along.
And if she had dug her heels in her boss wouldn’t be playing knight in shining armour at her request, and wasn’t that the bigger problem?
How had the dynamic between them changed so suddenly? How had one stray confidence turned into…intothis?
She was only aware of Raffaele’s return to the room when he was standing in front of her, casting a long shadow.
She looked up at him with a sigh of resignation, resentful that she was now the damsel in distress.
‘What was it?’
He squatted down on his haunches so that they were on eye level.
‘It was a fruit bat. Harmless and more scared of you than you were of it. One of the windows was open behind the curtains and it must have got in either accidentally or because it was attracted to the fruit in the bowl on the table. You were really scared, weren’t you?’
‘I overreacted. I’m sorry. I should never have run over to your cabin and banged on your door.’
‘Why not? You were scared and I could help.’
‘Raffaele…this isn’t me.’
‘It is now,’ he returned with a crooked smile. ‘I like this new Erin Fisher. I like the fact that you can drop the mask now and again. It’s definitely an improvement.’
Erin met his eyes. She felt the thrill of her illicit attraction fighting against theneedfor her to return to the person she had been, safe and controlled and in charge of her emotions.
She just couldn’t allow a childish crush to overwhelm common sense. She would never make another mistake with a man again. Finding love didn’t lie down that road. She’d made one mistake.She was wiser now.
But Raffaele was so close to her. She could smell him, breathe him in, reach out and touch him.
She balled her hands into fists. ‘I was temporarily thrown off balance. Like I said, I have no experience of what it’s like in this part of the world. Tomorrow, once I begin to find my feet, believe me, I won’t be a shaking wreck at the sound of a silly bat flapping around in the living room.’
