Brave words. In reality, she honestly wouldn’t care whether the bat was popping over to make friends with a cup of tea and some scones; just thinking about it appearing again made her shiver.
‘For the record, despite the fact that the hotel is set in a forest, there are remarkably few venomous creatures.’ He stood up, flexed his muscles and dragged the chair by the dressing table over to where she was sitting.
Erin watched him warily. If anything, his presence felt more suffocating now, with him leaning into her, forearms resting on his thighs, knees practically touching hers.
‘Is that right?’ she asked faintly.
‘There are snakes but most are harmless. They’ll slither away in fear if they hear you coming.’
‘What about the less harmless varieties?’
‘Don’t worry. You won’t come across them. We won’t be doing any deep-jungle exploring and actually, even if we chose to, I don’t think there have been any tales of deadly snake bites on this island in living memory. Anyway,’ he said and grinned, ‘I’m here.’
‘And you have a lot of experience in dealing with venomous snakes?’
‘None, but as you can see, I’m good at dealing with the unexpected. The fruit bat won’t be bothering you again.’
‘No, it won’t.’ Erin clung to politeness but her heart was thumping as she looked at him, remembering way too clearly how he had looked in his boxers and nothing else, ‘because I’ll make sure all the windows are shut when I go to bed.’
‘Wise precaution.’ He stood up, headed to the bedroom door but then he turned to look back at her over his shoulder. ‘Now, before you protest, I’m going to settle down in the chair outside and make sure you’re okay before I head back to my cabin.’
‘Raffaele!’
‘Tut, tut, what did I say?’ He reached out and before she could pull back, his finger was on her lips in a silencing motion. She felt the blood rush to her face. ‘No protests or you might find that I stay for the rest of the morning. Understood?’
Erin didn’t protest. She physically couldn’t. Her vocal cords had tightened up because all she could imagine was this big, powerful, sexy guy in the room outside keeping watch over her while she slept.
She nodded silently. Even after he’d let himself out of the bedroom, she could still feel where his finger had briefly been on her lips.
But, weirdly, within ten minutes she was fast asleep.
Chapter Five
IN THE LIGHT OF DAY, Erin’s panic the night before seemed like a massive over reaction. She cringed when she thought of the way she’d raced over to Raffaele’s cabin like—fittingly—a bat out of hell and flung herself at him, trusting him to deal with the situation with just the sort of helpless, stereotypically feminine reaction she honestly had never had time for.
She could change the washer in a tap, hang a heavy picture and put up shelves! So why had a bit of wing flapping sent her shrieking with terror straight into the arms of her boss? How did this tally with the woman who had privately scorned the many women who’d fallen under his spell and treated him like an Action Man hero every time they were within smelling distance of him?
She also cringed knowing that he had checked on her before he’d left her cabin. She knew he had, because the socks she’d worn to bed just in case she stepped on something in the dark had been slipped off her feet and neatly placed on the chair, and she’d been covered with the cotton blanket which had been folded at the foot of the bed. He had placed it over the thin sheet she had fallen asleep under, knowing that at some point the cold from the air conditioning unit would probably wake her up.
She decided that she would face the day and the upcoming week without dwelling on any of that. It was the only way she would be able to get through their confinement together and work the way she had always worked—professionally and efficiently.
It was a perfect day and jet lag had not yet put in an appearance. At a little after eight, the sky was already a cloudless blue and as she headed out of the cabin, the scenery that had been shrouded in darkness when they’d arrived was spectacular in all its Technicolor glory.
It was hot but the clearing beneath the towering canopy of trees was cool and shady and there was nothing sinister in the gentle rustle of the breeze through the leaves.
The paths they had followed through the forest to their cabins had seemed bewildering when the only light had been from the lanterns strung between the trees but now, in the bright light of a sun filled day, the winding pathways were all visible between the borders of bright tropical flowers and giant, oversized ferns.
She headed straight to Raffaele’s cabin and banked down the nerves as she raised her hand.
He opened the door on the first knock.
‘Erin.’
‘Good morning.’ Erin smiled distantly and he grinned.
‘It certainly is. Come in, come in. Don’t stand there hovering by the door. First meeting isn’t until eleven so we have time to brief and grab breakfast.’
He turned on his heels and Erin reluctantly followed him in. He was dressed casually. Navy blue collared T-shirt and a pair of light cream linen trousers and flip-flops.
