Blame It on the Bikini by Natalie Anderson Page B

didn’t want to wake you.’
    ‘How are you planning on getting home?’
    ‘I can walk.’
    ‘It’s after two in the morning.’
    ‘I walk home from the bar all the time. I have a safety alarm. I walk along well-lit streets. I’m not stupid.’
    His jaw clenched. ‘Take my car.’
    Could he make it worse for her? ‘No, that’s okay. I’m fine walking.’
    ‘It’s not fine for anyone to walk home alone this time of night. Take my car.’
    She sighed. ‘That’s very kind of you, but I can’t.’
    ‘You have a real issue accepting help, don’t you?’ he growled.
    Possibly. Okay, yes, particularly from him. His whole ‘friendly’ act was confusing her hormones more. ‘I can’tdrive,’ she admitted in a low voice. ‘I’ve never got my licence. I’ve never learned to drive.’
    For a second his mouth hung open. ‘Everyone learns to drive. It’s a life skill. Didn’t your dad teach you?’
    Her dad didn’t drive either. That was because the accident at the factory years ago had left him with a limp and unable to use his right arm. He’d been a sickness beneficiary ever since. Living in a house that was damp, in a hideous part of town that was getting rougher by the day. She was determined to get her parents out of there. She owed it to them. ‘You’re assuming we had a car,’ she said bluntly. They couldn’t afford many things most people would consider basic necessities, like a car and petrol or even their power bill most of the time.
    ‘Okay.’ He turned and strode back to his bedroom. ‘I’ll drive you.’
    ‘You don’t have to do that,’ she called after him, beyond frustrated and embarrassed and frankly miserable.
    ‘Yes, I do.’
    ‘I didn’t want to disturb you.’
    ‘It’s way too late for that.’ He returned, jeans on, tee in hand. ‘I’ll drop you home.’
    She needed him to put the tee on, and she really needed him too. She’d had such sensual thoughts in the past hour she was almost insane with it.
    But he read her fierce expression wrong. ‘Don’t you dare argue with me any more.’
    He opened the front door and waited for her.
    To her horror her eyes filled and she quickly walked out. She was too strung out to argue. She’d not admitted to anyone the struggle she’d been having. Not even to Lauren. But she was so tired. The relentless shifts, the constant pressure of squeezing in assignment after assignment, of fitting in lectures around work, of desperatelytrying to get the highest of grades every time, of never, ever getting enough sleep. But it was something she alone had to deal with. And she certainly couldn’t lose more time or sleep fantasising about him.

CHAPTER SIX
    B RAD ’ S tension didn’t ease as he unlocked the car and opened the passenger door in the middle of the night for her. For someone so independent, her inability to drive threw him. They lived in New Zealand. Everyone drove here. And she shouldn’t be walking home alone night after night after work at the bar. She was so pale; the amount of work she had on bothered him. It didn’t help that he’d lumbered her with this party as well. He was thoughtless. And, yes, selfish.
    Because all it had been about was him stealing time with her. He’d wanted her—and any excuse would do to get that time. But now? Now he really was concerned.
    ‘I’ll teach you to drive,’ he said, putting his car in gear and pulling out into the quiet, dark street.
    ‘Thanks all the same but it’s not necessary. I live centrally. I walk to work. I use public transport—it’s better for the environment.’
    ‘You’re happy to learn bar tricks from Jonny,’ he pointed out, annoyance biting at her refusal.
    ‘I wouldn’t want to damage your car.’
    His body tautened to a ridiculous degree, urging him to pull over and kiss her into silence. Into saying yes—to this, to anything, to everything. He wanted her morethan he’d ever wanted a woman. Who’d have thought that a picture could have affected him