a known stranger

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Darien collapsed on his couch after hanging up on Mike. He fell asleep. He wakes up two hours later, and was stunned to see the time, it was close to dinner time, he came out of the study, he heard a sound in the kitchen. He goes in to find Ashley chopping up vegetables, and he rubs his face, " I'll go and wash up,". He goes out of the kitchen and to his room, He shaves, and has a quick wash. He comes down, joins her in the kitchen. Taking the knife away from her, he continued chopping the vegetables. She looked at him, "what? Afraid I might use the knife on you?"

He smiled and looked at her, "Are you sure?"

She looked away, he knew her better than she knew herself, it is not in her nature to be violent, and so the thought never crossed her mind.

He said, "Will you help me to set the table? I will finish the cooking. You have started the pasta cooking, I see. She shrugged and moved away to get the cutlery. Later as they sat down and ate,

"Just because I am forced to stay here, I thought I would cook, and since it looks like we  are going to share meals, it doesn't mean we will be sharing anything else," she said with force.

He gave a casual shrug and reached for his wine. "There are plenty of women who would jump at the chance to share my bed and my body."

"And I'm quite sure legions of them have, but you can forget about putting my name in your little black book. I'm not interested."

"I promise to keep my hands to myself as long as you promise the same."

She sent him a frosty look. "You seem very confident I'll be tempted by you."

He smiles wickedly. "You have been so far. Every time we've kissed you've got all hot and bothered."

Err..she could not say anything against that, he was right. She looked away from his mocking eyes.

Darien smiled at her brooding expression. "Come now, Ashley. Admit it. You might not like me all that much but you are very definitely attracted to me."

She rolled her eyes heavenwards. "You'd have to try a whole lot harder to get me to agree to a physical relationship with you. You should not even bother trying...No one's managed it so far and...." She stopped when she realized what she'd inadvertently revealed.

He frowned at her in puzzlement. "No one's managed what so far?"

"Um..." her cheeks flared with heat and she had to look away from his probing gaze.

Darien leaned forward a fraction, his expression becoming incredulous as realization dawned. "You mean you've never actually had sex?"

She didn't answer.

"You're what..twenty-four years old and you've never-?"

"So...what?" She said between gritted teeth.

He sat back in his chair and shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe it." He gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I kidnapped a virgin to be my sex slave."

She gave him a resentful scowl. "Well now that you know I'm not that type of girl, will you let me go?'" she asked hope flaring in her eyes.

"Huh? All the more, you need my help my dear", he said gently.

"I do know what goes on, you know," she said defensively. "I'm not totally clueless."

His sky-blue gaze twinkled. "So you've gone south solo a few times to see how things work?"

Hot colour flooded her face but she forced herself to hold his gaze. "That's none of your business."

He gave a soft laugh at her discomfiture. "Don't be embarrassed. I think it's delightful. It shows you're not a total prude." There's nothing prudish about being selective with whom you share your body, especially these days. You don't know what you might catch."

"No, indeed there isn't, but you surely can't have had a lack of opportunity. You're a beautiful-looking young woman with a great body. You must have been fighting men off for years.'

Ashley berated herself for reacting to his compliments but she just couldn't help feeling a glow of warmth as his words washed over her. She disguised her reaction by saying airily, "I've had a few boyfriends."

"But no one has ever tempted you to sleep with them?"

She met his eyes once more. "No one so far."

He gave her an unreadable smile as he got up and started clearing the table. "Then I guess the road is wide open to me."