Miles picked it up and ruefully studied the smashed screen.
“Look, this is entirely my fault. I’ll replace it for you. It’s the least I can do.”
Chloe didn’t quite know what to say. She felt like she ought to protest, but she certainly couldn’t afford to buy a new phone right now.
“I—” she started, but Miles cut across her protest before she could fully form the words.
“Ms. Fitzgerald, allow me to replace your phone. Believe me, it’s no bother.”
There was something in the way he said the words that rankled. It was a combination of the expectation that she wouldn’t dare to refuse, blended with the fact that the purchase of a new device for her would hardly be a blip in his budget. She swallowed the bitter retort that immediately sprang to mind and forced herself to smile.
“Please, call me Chloe. And, thank you. I wouldn’t normally accept such a generous gift but I’m totally lost without my phone.”
“As are we all,” he said with another drop-dead gorgeous smile.
Like an idiot, she felt herself automatically smiling back again. Oh, he was too much. Too good-looking, too polite—just too everything! And every cell in her body that wasn’t currently throbbing in pain was reacting to him in ways she hadn’t anticipated.
“Where are you parked?” Miles asked, oblivious to the turmoil she was going through.
Chloe mentioned where she’d left her car, and together they walked along the paths.
“Do you run here often?” Miles asked after a few steps.
Chloe giggled.
“What? What’s funny about that?”
“Oh, just a new take on an old line, don’t you think?” she quipped, looking up at him.
Doing so, unfortunately meant she wasn’t fully looking where she was going and her foot caught on an uneven section of pavement. Miles was quick to reach out and steady her and, she noted with reluctance, just as quick to let her go again. Even so, the warmth of his hand and the gentleness of his touch had left her wanting more.
Ridiculous, she told herself. She’d only just met him. She wasn’t the kind of girl who reacted like this to anyone. Her mostly tame relationships to date had been few and far between. Juggling the responsibilities of teaching with supporting her mom, who was prone to depression, Chloe usually didn’t feel as though there was much of her own self left to go around. Most men didn’t understand her relationship with her mother and, until that one special guy did, she was happy to wait. Besides, being in a relationship would complicate her plans for vengeance.
A shiver of apprehension prickled along her spine. Vengeance. It was such a deliberate and often cruel word. Did she have what it took to go through with it?
Two
Miles walked beside the slender woman he’d sent flying. How could he have been so careless? He wasn’t in the habit of bowling over blue-eyed petite blondes any day of the week. At least not literally. And she was definitely the kind of woman he would normally notice. Even now he was deeply aware of the lightly sunkissed tone of her skin, the gentle curves of her body beneath her running clothes and the way her lips parted slightly on a sharply indrawn breath. Not that he should be looking, he silently castigated himself, nor reacting he realized, as he felt his own physical awareness of her sharpen. He really felt he owed her a great deal more than a new phone—and he wasn’t too pleased with how her wrist was looking now, either.
“This is me,” she said.
She’d stopped by an old model sedan that looked as though it had seen better days. He peered inside, noting the stick shift.
“Are you going to be okay with that?” he asked, pointing to the gear lever.
“Oh. I didn’t think of that.”
“The pain is getting worse, isn’t it?” he pressed.
She looked reluctant to admit it but eventually nodded.
“I’ll drive you to get it checked out. Last thing you need is another accident today.”
“I don’t want to impose. I’m sure you have better things to do.”
“Better than rescuing a damsel in distress?”
She laughed, just as he’d intended.