“Alex?”
    “Quit moving.” Alex was awake again. Very awake. God, this night was going on forever.
    The low growl slithered down her spine. His lips were just beside her ear. She turned her head to apologise, but even that slight twist bought their pelvises together again, causing a delightful friction.
    “Damn it, Isobella, don’t do that.”
    He was just flesh and blood. Didn’t she realise what kind of fire she was playing with? Her body was loose and relaxed for a change, and the way the cheeks of her bottom cradled him was as sinful as the waft of her perfume. Her head was tucked firmly beneath his chin, and the urge of bury his face in her neck, to kiss her there, was overwhelming. He removed his arm and rolled on to his back, putting temptation out of reach. Sort of.
    Isobella noted the strain in his voice even as she lamented the loss of contact. He sounded annoyed. And of course he had a right to be. This must be his worst nightmare. Having to babysit an employee who had become a screaming nutter on him, and then being put in a position where his normal bodily functions embarrassed him.
    She silently cringed. She had to make this better. They had to work together, for crying out loud. She opened her eyes, staring into the dark abyss, and rolled over towards him, propping herself up on her elbow.
    “I’m sorry, Alex. This isn’t your fault. I understand. You don’t have to worry. I know that men have...urges that come upon them with no real control a lot of the time. It’s okay, we both have medical backgrounds and we’re both adults. I know you’re...you’re...just experiencing normal night-time activity. You’re a healthy male with...normal male appetites, and this...this...problem has nothing to do with me personally but...”
    Alex listened to her stuttering and stammering through her speech, making as much of a wreck of it as Cyclone Mary was to Piccolo. What the hell was she going on about? “Isobella, what are you talking about?”
    “I’m just saying...I don’t want you to feel awkward about this. I’m not going to get any...fancy ideas about you...you...desiring me...I know this is just a normal male response...a physiological occurrence...”
    Isobella was pleased for the darkness for the first time tonight as her cheeks heated up. She was making a total hash of it.
    Alex frowned. What the - ? Physiological occurrence?  Normal night-time activity? Did she seriously think his hard on was anything other than pure male lust for the woman in his bed, plastered to his side? The woman who’d been driving him crazy for the last week? She’d been hiding behind those clothes for too long.
    “Isobella,” he said patiently, barely making out her face in the inky night. “I can assure you this has nothing to do with male rhythms.”
    Isobella wasn’t sure if it was the erotic scrape of his words on her skin, the latent electricity from the storm outside or what he’d said, but suddenly there was a hum in her blood, prickling at her skin.
    “Of course it is,” she babbled nervously. Because what if it wasn’t? She didn’t want to think about what if it wasn’t...
    She’d had a crush on this man forever. The last man who’d desired her had run away at a very crucial moment, and even though she was safe from that humiliation in the blackened room the mere thought that Alex might desire her back was beyond her conception.
    “No. It’s not.”
    Isobella swallowed at the gravelly denial, trying to talk and breathe and think double-time to convince him he was only experiencing a natural phenomena. “I can see why you might be confused. I mean, I read this study once –”
    “Isobella.”
    “No, no,” she insisted. “It was really very interesting. They were looking at male arousal patterns and did these studies on monkey’s and – ”
    Alex raised his head in the general direction of her voice, found her lips and kissed her. Hard.
    Isobella was too stunned to pull away. Too stunned to even join in. Her brain activity froze as a surge of undiluted desire turned everything to sludge.
    No, no, no. Pull back, pull back, pull back.
    With super human effort Isobella broke away. She was breathing hard, still fighting through the fog in her brain. She could hear Alex’s breathing too. His face was still close, she could feel his warm breath on her cheek.
    “Look, Alex, r...really this is normal male behaviour.” Isobella finally broke the silence, her voice almost as husky as his. “You don’t have to pretend it’s anything else. That study said – ”
    He kissed her again. Quick and hard. “Shut up, Isobella.” He ran his thumb over the swollen contours of her mouth and was gratified to hear a faint whimper somewhere in the back of her throat. “This isn’t about male arousal patterns or physiology or monkey’s. This is about me wanting you.” He kissed her again briefly, for good measure, pleased to feel the almost slavish way she responded. “And you wanting me.”
    His voice coming out at her from the inky night seemed even more sinful. Like a whisper in the dark. He wanted her. And he knew she wanted him.
    “So what are we going to do about it?”.