Chapter 6

　　Smooth move mister! Asshole. God, You’re Hot!

　　Rose had only just seemed to notice this little fact, now that she was inches from him.

　　His whole shocked manner seemed to do a sudden flip into smiling, good humoured, if not a little embarrassed, but Rose was beyond oblivious in her mental state.

　　‘You!... Sorry, it’s just... Pink car... Pink dress... Fiery little lady who comes out like a bat out of hell, like she’s about to rip my head off...’ The handsome stranger stood with hands up defensively, smiling at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world to everyone except her. Rose stood motionless. Cluelessness and confusion all over her face, which only added to her internal irritation at his far too good-looking smugness.

　　‘Penelope Pitstop from wacky races?’ He tried again to get her brain to connect to whatever the hell he was talking about. ‘Look never mind. It’s just, that’s what I thought when I opened your door.’ He was laughing now, in a rather deep and husky way which only enraged her more and brought out another bought of fury.

　　‘Screw you and your stupid wacky whatever’s! Next time watch where you’re going, asshole! Or next time I won’t swerve!’ She turned and threw herself back into her car in the most unladylike manner, attempting to grab her door, so she could dramatically slam it. All previous ounces of rage reconnected with her inner diva, but he grabbed it first.

　　‘Allow me.’ He slammed it shut with the force of a guy who had reconnected with anger. The humour absent from his face and replaced with ‘I’m pissed off, lady.’ Their eyes glinted at one another angrily, fire meeting fire. Sparks igniting in the air around them and almost crackling with the collision.

　　Rose didn’t wait for any further conversation, putting metal to the floor she sped off without any hesitation, almost taking him out with her wing mirror in the process and giving zero cares about it.

　　Rose wasn’t sure why this guy had invoked such a furious response, but all she wanted was to put a huge sea of distance between her and that smug laugh and get rid of the ball of internal anger writhing inside of her. She could see the arrogant sod in her mirror, shaking his head after her, watching her drive off before walking back to his flashy black car and sliding back in with the grace of a cougar.

　　‘Asshole!’ She screeched loudly, angered at the sheer effortless grace the idiot was displaying.

　　Muffin was looking at her with his wide, wise eyes, almost telling her she had simply lost the plot.

　　‘Well, he is! Mr, I’m so good looking with my big muscles and sports car and expensive clothes. So Mr smooth that I think I can give you a cute pet name and you forget I almost killed you!’ She slapped her wheel, eyes darting from the road to rear view mirror manically as she tried not to cause further accident with stupid driving.

　　‘Fuck you! ...Ow, that actually hurt.’ She lifted her fingers to her mouth and blew them gently in a bid to soothe the burning self-inflicted pain, releasing some of her tension as she did so. That ‘almost’ crash had given her a massive fright and her reactions since had been some sort of delayed mental breakdown, brought on by a near death experience. Being confronted by a guy who was far too handsome for an early morning rural drive had just added to her extreme reaction.

　　I mean who the hell was he? Wearing designer clothes and a flashy car and looking a little too suave for the highlands. Men like him were normally arrogant Londoners, and she had met enough of them to last a lifetime.

　　Pushing that irritatingly flawless face out of her mind’s eye, she suddenly felt remorseful for swearing angrily in front of Muffin and sat back in her chair, trying to release the tightness of her muscles. Flexing her shoulders and tilting her head from side to side to flex her neck. Slow steady and calming breaths and internal chanting to cool her jets.

　　The black sports car appeared in her rear-view mirror, coming up behind her fast and she instantly tensed back up, teeth gritting and eyes narrowing angrily. Putting the foot down, she sped away from him before reaching the sign for the town and slowing back down again as she passed it. Completely pointless, but satisfying to say the least, riled by the way this man made her feel. Throwing daggers from her eyes in the mirror, she slowed to thirty and meandered through town looking for a car park as the car behind her turned off at the huge museum; she sighed with relief at his departure.