When a biker ventures where no man has gone before, Maria Eckhart freezes…

Just a simple question for directions to a farmhouse miles down leaves Maria at a loss for words… Hair dryer going awry in her hand, she mumbles something…

He holds her hand gently but firmly as if to calm her.

His head close to hers, his hot breath on her neck causing tiny hair to stand on end, he whispers:

Could you go with me? I’m lost

I’m lost too, she thinks, and her mind is already quickly spinning images of what would happen next…

Excerpt

In the city, she knew people, lawyers and politicians. She’d armed herself like a battlement against the chaos of her past. But here, she was a crab by the light of the moon, without her shell, swept up helplessly in the tide and battered in the waves. She put a hand to her forehead, feeling dizzy.

“Are you okay?” She looked up, cursing herself for letting him in on her apprehension. Even a split-second of weakness was more than she afford to show in front of one of them. “Hold on.”

In a minute, he had disappeared and returned, holding her half-drunk Diet Coke in his hand awkwardly, with two fingers, as if he didn’t want anybody to see him holding it. It would have been cute if the whole situation weren’t so bizarre. She swiped it out of his hand and took a long sip, more for something to do than out of thirst. She didn’t answer, or deign to give him the satisfaction of thinking he’d tricked her into believing he cared.

“Look,” he said after a second. ”I didn’t steal it.”

“I don’t believe you,” she murmured. “Why should I?”

“Because,” he said, inching closer.

It was only one step, but it took her body from a tingled interest to an all-over shiver. An alarm in her head screamed, Danger. However, it also alternated with, Come closer.