‘Maybe...’ she whispered, looking down at unknown depths beneath her feet, poised to take a leap. ‘Maybe you’re right...’
CHAPTER SIX
ELLIELOOKEDOVERthe top of her book towards the horizon and James, now just a little dot moving in the blue, blue sea in an apparent bid to reach that invisible point.
Pure bliss.
At a little after four in the afternoon, the sun was still beating down, as golden as honey. The families had started drifting off, but even when the beach had been full, at midday, Ellie and James had still managed to secure a private, quiet spot on the never-ending stretch of powder-white sand. There they had settled down with their lavish picnic, prepared with care by the chefs at the hotel.
What lay round the corner was something she had put on hold, a bridge to be crossed when the time came, and that time wasn’t now. What lay round the corner was a little thing calledreality.
She hadn’t been born yesterday. They were in a bubble. In this bubble James was charmed by the novelty of being with a woman who wasn’t high maintenance, who didn’t come with myriad potential complications and who was fundamentally sensible enough towalk away without kicking up a fuss—unlike his ex.But those were details she had set aside fortomorrow.
Now was...this. A beach, a book, the sun and that disappearing dot... James...Her lover...
Yes, the days were going by, but slowly. This was day three and it felt as though time was standing still, everything moving with a casual lack of urgency. This was an island where no one saw the need to rush, and it was incredible how quickly both of them had adapted. The deal was just about there, going through the last-stage formalities where lawyers swarmed all over documents like flies. But there was no sense of speed because the guys all took the stance of, ‘Hey, it’s going to happen, so why the rush? Enjoy the island first!’
So plans had changed accordingly, with James’s trip to Hawaii being put back by several days to accommodate their easy going business partners. He would be cutting it a bit fine, but he would still have time to spare before the wedding.
Ellie had been overjoyed, but she had concealed it well, because he had made it very clear that this was all about living for the moment and that was a concept she was eager to embrace. ‘Living for the moment’didn’t involve any dangerous, unstable waters, any currents that could drag her under.
‘You understand me,’ he had told her only the day before as they had lain on the deck of the Catamaran, out in the middle of the deep blue sea, with nothing on and pleasurably sated from making love.
The compliment had been a double-edged sword, though, because he had continued, smiling, lying on one side so that he could tease her nipple with a finger. ‘You know I don’t believe in permanence so there’s no chance you would ever get the wrong idea about this, about what we have.’
He’d been lying back, squinting at the azure sky for a few seconds, his hands behind his head. ‘I made a mistake with Naomi,’ he had mused. ‘I believed her when she told me that she was into her career, that she was on the same page as I was, that what we had was fun.’
When he’d looked at her again, his dark blue eyes had been serious and yet lazily appreciative. ‘You and I...’ he’d grinned crookedly ‘...have been together long enough for you to know just where I stand on that subject.’
So, yes, Ellie knew just what the limits of this relationship were. She had realised very quickly that a display ofanythingthat might be interpreted as her looking for more than what was on the table would be a very bad idea indeed.
But was she looking for anything more than what was on the table? She told herselfnot,but was she being completely truthful?
It was a question that had lodged itself at the back of her mind and exploring that would open a Pandora’s box which she might find impossible to shut once the lid had been lifted.
She knew that as instinctively as she knew that he would be able to put this brief distraction behind him without any difficulty. He knew how to compartmentalise. It was what made it impossible for his emotions to take the lead. In so many ways, he had imparted that information to her without her even really realising it.In so many ways, his values were the polar opposite of hers...so wasn’t that protection enough against anything...dangerous?
When they were with their business contacts, James was all business. He didn’t try and pretend that there was nothing going on between them, but she knew that his focus was elsewhere, on the deal finally waiting to be sealed, with signatures on all the right lines. Work was his priority and all else was pushed into the background next to it.
It was why he could operate a constantly revolving door situation with the women he dated. He gave them one hundred percent of his undivided attention while the romance was running hot, but the second he began walking away was the second they became part and parcel of his past.
She was in a different category, because she would still be working with him, but she knew that the same principle would be applied. Once back in London, she would revert to being his PA, and if there was an added dimension to their relationship then that was something he would find amusing but certainly not a distraction.
And for her that worked...didn’t it?
Like he’d said, she thought, with just the faintest stirrings of unease as that distant dot began to head back to shore, once this was out of their system normality would return. The electricity would fizzle out. That was how it had always been for him and for her...
She might have had next to no experience but she certainly knew what her head told her. He fundamentally wasn’t her type, which meant that what she felt was purely lust, and everyone knew that lust and longevity were not things that went hand in hand. Lust wore thin very quickly. The fact that he would set the example by switching off would help their working relationship. She would simply follow his lead and it would be fine.
Of course it would!
She sat up, drawing her knees to her chest, watching as he swam back to shore. Next to her was the camera he had bought at huge cost two days ago. She would never have guessed that he was a spectacularly adventurous photographer, but it was a hobby that somehow fitted his unpredictable, highly creative yet incredibly driven personality.
It also gave an insight into someone who enjoyed a sense of solitude, which no one would ever have guessed, given the charming, extrovert nature of his personality. Those glimpses of his complexities had fired up her curiosity and imagination, but she knew that that too was a dangerous response, because it sucked her in, dismantling the necessary distance she was trying to maintain between them.
But, good heavens, keeping him at arm’s length was tough to maintain when he made her body soar, her mouth run dry and scrambled her brain so that thinking straight felt like an effort demanding huge will power.
She watched as he stood up, shook the water off, raked his fingers through his hair and began walking towards her, every movement poetry in action.
