CHAPTER ONE

      OF COURSE.

      As soon as the legs appeared at the edge of the bed and the bedsprings creaked under the intruder’s weight, Erin realized who he was. She let out a silent breath as the terrified pounding of her heart slowed. Of course there was no burglar in the house; no psychotic killer or rapist. It was Nathan Chase.

      The intense relief was quickly followed by embarrassed dismay. The fabled Nathan was here, sitting on the bed in the guest room. And here she was, lying under that bed, clad only in a towel, with another one wrapped around her wet hair.

      Erin stifled a sigh, cursing her own stupidity. Her sister-in-law had told her in a hasty last-minute message that her brother would arrive this week and stay overnight. Sally had assured her that she would not even notice him—if true to form, he would arrive around midnight and be gone early the next morning. Erin had hoped that would be true; she had no interest in meeting Sally’s insensitive clod of a brother who didn’t seem to give a damn about his own family.

      Nevertheless, she should have been expecting him, instead of panicking when hearing noises downstairs after coming out of the shower. After briefly cursing her brother—it just had to be the one time she was house-sitting that his house was broken into—she had run into the empty guest room and crawled under the bed. Her instincts told her that the burglar would quickly pass the unused, almost empty room, allowing her to crawl from under the bed and escape to the roof through the window.

      But there was no burglar. It was only Sally’s brother, stopping for the night before he flew to the next corner of the world suffering war, famine or pestilence.

      He still hadn’t moved. Erin stared at his legs: black jeans and black socks. With…She narrowed her eyes. Did the man really have two smiling bunny rabbits on his socks?

      She rolled her eyes when she noticed exactly what those bunny rabbits were doing. How typically juvenile. Her first impressions confirmed her long-established opinion of Nathan Chase, even if first impressions were only of the man’s socks. It was time to end this farce, say hello and goodbye to the man and escape.

      Still she hesitated. The room was silent. She could hardly make out Nathan’s breathing. What was the best way to alert him to her presence? A polite “Excuse me” from under the bed? A tap on his calf?

      Crawling from under the bed, wearing nothing but two skimpy towels and a blanket of dust, would scare the man half to death. Even with her poor opinion of Sally’s brother, she did not want to give him a heart attack. It might not make a great first impression.

      He would take a shower, she suddenly realized. After all, he had just flown halfway across the world. At the very least he would go to the bathroom. That would give her ample time to escape the room. She smiled in relief at this easy solution and settled down for the wait, trying to get comfortable on the wooden floor without making a noise. It wasn’t long until Nathan gave a deep sigh and stood up.

      With a triumphant smile, Erin was on her side, ready to make her escape, when the jeans were suddenly whisked away and thrown over the foot of the bed. A second later the rabbits had also said their goodbyes. Before she got more than a glimpse of the muscular calves, the door was shut and the light went out. The bedsprings sagged dangerously close and peppered her face with dust.

      Erin almost groaned aloud. Nathan was not co-operating. It was just like Sally’s superman brother not to succumb to normal human needs like using the bathroom. She’d have to crawl out, scare the heck out of him and look like a complete idiot in the process. Gone was the opportunity to explain her mistake and escape with some dignity.

      Or was it? How long did it take a person to fall asleep? Someone