“Not so much outside, but I’m not awfully keen on sharing.”
No, spoilt princesses probably weren’t keen on having to slum in makeshift tents with countless other volunteers but that was all they had to offer. She’d have to like it or fly home. She turned back towards him. She was too close. Lucas took a step backward along the rocky path.
His thoughts jumbled together. He needed sleep. He wanted to smell her hair, which made him a borderline weirdo. She didn’t want to share her sleeping quarters with anyone whilst he wanted to find private sleeping arrangements—for the two of them.
He jammed one hand through his hair, holding the other out his palm out to prevent her coming any closer. “We all share, princess.”
“Don’t.” Her voice was low, but the thread of determination easily discernible.
“You don’t like to be called princess?” he goaded her.
“No. It’s not who I am.”
“You’re out here complaining your luggage is lost and you don’t want to sleep in camp with the other volunteers. That’s definite princess behaviour from where I’m standing.”
She moved forward. “Well, stand somewhere else, then.”
Lucas moved further back to avoid her touch. The quick movement, lack of sleep, and unstable path all conspired together and he tripped. Being sprawled out on the still-warm concrete was not cool. Not cool at all. “What the hell?”
She knelt next to him and leaned over, the ends of her ponytail tickling his cheek. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry.”
“I’m fine.” Well, he would be when he moved and wasn’t laid flat on rubble.
She reached out and laid a cool hand across his forehead. “Are you hurt?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why are you still laying on the floor?”
It was a good question. One he’d answer as soon as he commanded his sense of smell to block out her scent, because it made him want to haul her into his arms and kiss her until he couldn’t think any more of his awful tiredness or the broken bodies that kept arriving for him to fix.
“I’m so tired, I could just sleep here.” That sounded feeble, even to himself.
“Right.” She drew the word out and made it into at least three syllables. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?”
He was fairly certain he hadn’t, though that would explain his stupid behaviour. Out here in the dark, he could almost forget he wasn’t a millionaire footballer, or that he hadn’t showered or shaved for the last twenty-four hours.
Certainly there was no way she’d be able to discern the scars that marked the left side of his face—a permanent reminder of the result of bad choices—but bad lighting was hardly going to make him attractive to her, someone used to the best in life.
He sat forward and shoved himself to his feet. Not that he wanted her to find him attractive, because that would never work. He didn’t do relationships and he certainly didn’t deserve them. Then, of course, there was Joey—the man she was engaged to marry. He definitely didn’t mess around with women who were committed to other men.
“Come on, let’s get ourselves to bed.”
She snorted. Actually snort-laughed. “Are you propositioning me?”
“No.” Lucas shook his head for extra emphasis. “I meant let’s find a space in one of the tents. Separately. Totally separately. Untogether.”
She laughed, the sound reminding him of things he couldn’t have. Things he’d denied himself. “Lighten up, I knew what you meant.”
She didn’t. His words had been a slip of the tongue, but they were exactly what he wanted. It had been a hell of a day and his body wanted her in the worst way—or the very best way.
Lucas resisted the urge to reach out for her hand as they made their way back to the front entrance of the hospital. “The tents are around the back. Luckily, there was a garden there before the earthquake hit. We’ve been able to pitch tents far enough away from the building so that if it falls, we won’t be crushed.”
“Crushed?”
“The aftershocks could bring what’s left of the hospital down.”
She swatted his arm. The lights at the front of the building shone on her too-pale face. “You didn’t think to tell me that before I worked inside all day?”
“You could surely see when you arrived that the hospital is nothing better than a ruin.” The lights seemed to snap him out of his seduction obsessed funk. “I didn’t think I’d need to explain a thing to you. You were pretty determined to prove you could do the job.”
“I could’ve been squashed today and…” Her voice broke. Oh, great, there were going to be tears. Her anger he could cope with, but not tears. “…someone has stolen everything. I don’t even have any clean underwear.”