She’d lost count of how many tequila shots she’d downed by the time he approached her. She’d noticed him watching while she’d been laughing and joking with a group of friends and had liked the look of him. Tall and powerfully built, his hair was thick and dark and from beneath his brows, a pair of sultry dark eyes had stared at her with obvious interest. Even when he raised the bottle of beer in his hand and tipped his head back to drink from it, his eyes never left hers.

Making his way over to her, he said, ‘It’s time we said hello, don’t you think?’

‘I thought you were one of those shy types,’ she’d said, playing along, ‘and didn’t have the nerve.’

He smiled at her with amusement. ‘So, the tricky part over, tell me your name. Mine’s John.’

They danced and chatted and drank some more for the next hour. He told her that he played rugby. ‘You do like rugby players, don’t you?’ he asked. By now the volume of the party had increased and he had to shout in her ear.

‘I do as of tonight,’ she shouted back with a drunken giggle. He was just leaning in to kiss her, when a couple of his mates appeared behind him.

‘Can’t you see I’m perfectly happy right here working my charm on this gorgeous girl,’ he told them with a wink when they suggested they move on to a new club that had opened in town.

She’d been drunk enough to think how sexy he was to claim her like that.

She was still thinking the same when she found herself upstairs with him and he was kissing her, his hands finding their way under her top. He took her into one of the bedrooms and just as he closed the door and turned the key, something clicked inside of her and she knew that she didn’t want to be there. It didn’t feel right.

The only light in the untidy room came from the harsh glare of the street lamp directly outside, and it revealed all too clearly the look of eager expectation on his face.

‘Let’s not hang about then,’ he said, unbuttoning his jeans, ‘there’ll be others who’ll want to use the room.’

Suddenly he didn’t seem so attractive to her, or so sexy. He was just a big sweaty man towering over her. She stepped away from him and moved towards the door. ‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ she said, offering up an apologetic smile. ‘Let’s go back downstairs.’

He stared at her. ‘It doesn’t work that way.’

‘Yes it does,’ she said with more confidence than she felt.

A vein ticked at his neck, a thick neck that now she was seeing him through different eyes, gave him the look of a bulldog. He continued to stare at her and just as she had her hand on the key to unlock the door, he grabbed her and swung her round so he had her in his grasp.