Evie's Bombshell - By Amy Andrews Page 0,19

was going to be a bruise there tomorrow—but now they were safe he wanted to throttle her for scaring ten years off his life. He sat up. ‘Let’s go.’

Evie groaned. Despite how cold she was, she just wanted to lie there and shut her eyes for a moment. ‘Just a sec.’

‘No,’ he said standing up. ‘Now. You’re hypothermic. Walking will help.’

And if he stayed here with her he was going to let the adrenaline that had surged through him have free rein and it was not going to be pretty. His brain was already crowded with a hundred not-so-nice things to say to her and given that he’d already dumped on her earlier, she probably didn’t need another dressing down.

He crouched beside her and grabbed her arm, pulling firmly. ‘Now, Evie!’

Evie opened her eyes at the distinct crack in his tone—like a whip. She knew she should be grateful, she knew she should apologise for calling him a coward when the man had jumped into a rip to help her, but she wasn’t feeling rational. She wanted a hot shower and a warm bed.

Normally she’d fantasise about snuggling into him in that bed too but he was being too crabby and today was not a normal day.

‘Okay, okay,’ she said, letting him drag her into a sitting position and going on autopilot as she assisted him in getting her fully upright. She leaned heavily against him as her legs almost gave out.

He cursed. ‘You’re freezing.’

Evie frowned at his language but nodded anyway, her teeth chattering for good measure. ‘Cold,’ she agreed. ‘Tired.’

‘Right,’ he said briskly. ‘Let’s go. Quick march. Up and over the rocks then onto the sand then up the stairs.’

Evie groaned as her legs moved, feeling stiff and uncoordinated as if they’d had robotic implants. ‘Oh, God, those bloody stairs,’ she complained as Finn dragged her along.

‘You’ll have warmed up by then,’ he said confidently.

‘Oh, yes,’ she mocked. ‘I’ll be able to sprint right up them.’

It was on the tip of Finn’s tongue to snap that she’d made her own trouble but he was afraid that once he started, the fear that had gripped his gut as he’d raced down those stairs would bubble out and he’d say more stuff that he regretted, like he had earlier today.

So he didn’t say anything, just coaxed, bullied and cajoled her every step over the headland, gratified to see her become more co-ordinated and less irrational as her body warmed up. When they reached sand he jogged ahead of her to where her bag had been discarded on the beach, took out her fluffy dry towel and jogged back to her, wrapping her in it.

‘You must be cold too,’ Evie protested as she sank into its warm folds.

‘I’m fine,’ he dismissed.

Somehow they made it to the top of the stairs and into the homestead and Finn was pushing Evie into the bathroom and turning the hot shower on and ordering her in. She’d never been more grateful for Finn being his bossy, crabby self.

Thirty minutes later Evie was tucked up in her bed and drifting off to sleep on a blissfully warm cloud when Finn barged in, carrying a tray.

‘Drink this,’ he ordered plonking a steaming mug of something on her bedside table along with a huge slab of chocolate cake on a delicate plate with a floral border. ‘Reginald insists,’ he said.

Evie struggled to sit up, every muscle in her body protesting the movement. ‘Well, if Reginald insists …’

She propped herself against the headrest, drawing her knees up as she reached for the mug. The aroma of chocolate seduced her, making her stomach growl and her mouth fill with saliva, and she was suddenly ravenous.

She sighed as her first sip of the hot sweet milk coated the inside of her mouth and sent her taste buds into rapture. Finn, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, prowled around the end of her bed, slapping the tray against his legs, and she tried her best to ignore him as she reached for the cake.

Finn paced as Evie ate, reliving their moments in the ocean, still feeling edgy from the hit of adrenaline. He’d tried not to think of the hundred things that could have gone wrong when he’d been in the water and trying to get her back to the house, but the minute the bathroom door had shut and he’d known she was truly safe, reaction had well and truly set in.

They’d been lucky. She’d been lucky. He wondered if she