Page 50 of He Loves Me Knot
Callum cut his eyes at her, then popped the pepper in his mouth. He chewed, then made a face of horror before spitting it out. “Holy fuck!” He coughed as if he was choking, then quickly guzzled some beer, his eyes wide. “You know what? Seriously, you don’t have to do this.”
She raised her chin. “If you can do it, I can do it.” With a wink, she tossed the pepper into her mouth.
Heat seared across her tongue like fire a few seconds after the first bite.
Oh my God, what the hell?
As the full weight of the spice filled her, regret clawed up her chest. But she didn’t want to be weak. Didn’t want to prove she couldn’t do it.
She swallowed instead, throat burning, and blinked.
What the hell was I thinking?
Then a wave of dizziness hit her.
She turned toward Callum, suddenly unsteady, her mouth and lips burning as though she’d sipped molten lava. “I don’t . . . feel . . .”
Then the world spun around her, and she tumbled forward into Callum’s arms.
ChapterTwelve
I really needto stop getting into situations like this.
Callum lifted his head as the curtain to the urgent care clinic room opened, and Liddy stepped out. He’d brought her directly here after she’d passed out, but by then, she’d been rousing back to consciousness.
She was embarrassed, but the doctor reassured him she was fine. Fainting was a rare but potential side effect from eating a pepper with the spice level she’d swallowed.
The doctor was steps behind her. He stopped beside Callum, then dropped his voice and whispered in Spanish, “Warn her that it . . . well, you know, what goes in must come out. Could bother her a bit.”
Callum kept his expression blank, his eyes flicking to Liddy. They’d gotten closer over the last day, but she might never look him in the face again if he told her that.
As they left the clinic, Callum held her arm and guided her outside. “How are you feeling?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Liddy said, a trace of humor in her face as she avoided his gaze. “This trip has been a nightmare.”
He tried to hold back a laugh. “To be fair, you swallowed the damn pepper. Why not spit it out next time?”
A wan smile crossed her tired face as she lowered her sunglasses over her eyes. “I always swallow.”
He almost stopped dead in his tracks, but she kept walking toward the car without looking back.
She’s . . . something else.
And he was into it.
I like this woman.
He wasn’t sure how they’d gone from polite, professional discussion to sexual innuendo so quickly, but he appreciated this side of her. And not just because she was sexy as hell.
She made himfeel.
With each moment he was around her, it was as though his heart was thawing in the tropical sun, intoxicatingly and alarmingly.
He helped her into the car, and she muttered a thank you, then he paid the parking attendant and went around to the driver’s side. “You all right?” he asked as he sat. She’d leaned her seat back and rested with her forearm covering her eyes.
“I feel like an idiot, but I’m also exhausted. What time is it in London again?”
“Nine at night.” They’d lost a couple of hours waiting in the clinic for her to be seen, but Callum had insisted they stay there. Her fainting had concerned him.