Behind him, the backdrop of crystalline, azure water and the deepening blue of the late-afternoon sky was so picture-perfect that she wanted to grab the camera and capture it before it was lost to time and memory.
His wet swimming trunks clung to his muscular thighs and dipped down below his belly button, perfectly emphasising his six pack. Hiding behind her sunglasses, Ellie watched, mesmerised by his sheer animal beauty.
He was grinning when he stopped in front of her and held out his hand for her to grab.
‘I can’t see the expression on your face when you’re hiding behind those things,’ he teased. ‘But I’m hoping that it’s unfettered joy at the thought of us heading back to the bedroom...’
Ellie shielded her face and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.
The modest black swimsuit she had brought with her had been replaced with a racier number in the sort of bright colours she would previously have avoided.
Shopping for non-essentials, that enjoyable leisure activity beloved by most twenty-somethings, was something she’d had neither the time nor the inclination to indulge. Here in this lazy heat, and basking in the open appreciation of the least suitable guy on the planet, she had discovered that it was something she rather enjoyed.
She glanced down at his long fingers entwined with hers and shivered, because there was something so intimate about the simple gesture. It was as though they were two lovers holding hands, maybe with a future stretching out in front of them.
She quickly whipped her straying thoughts away from any such cosy notion. There was no ‘maybe’ future for them on any romantic level. What they had was the here and now, and that was a good thing, because he could break a girl’s heart.Her heart, were she to be foolish enough to give it to him.
‘I forgot to mention,’ he said, scooping up the remains of their picnic and stuffing it all into the basket provided by the hotel. ‘I had a text from Izzy.’
‘Your sister?’ Ellie had met Izzy in passing a couple of times and had liked what she had seen. She was a stunning blonde girl who clearly adored her slightly older brother.
‘She doesn’t want to ruin Max and Mia’s big day, but she said she couldn’t keep the secret to herself any longer...’
‘She’s getting married?’
‘To the guy of her dreams, it would seem,’ James drawled, eyebrows raised with amusement. ‘It seems my family are falling like ninepins.’
‘Are they waiting for it to be your turn next?’ Ellie said lightly. Staring straight ahead, with swaying coconut trees on one side and the gently rolling blue water on the other, her bare feet leaving footprints on the powdery, pale sand, she wondered what it would feel like to have the love of the guy holding her hand.
‘Not if they’re in their right minds,’ he returned wryly.
‘I’ve only met your brother once, but he didn’t strike me as the sort who was keen to walk down the aisle...’ She remembered a striking, dark-haired guy with scarily forbidding features, as tough as James, but without the easy charm that made his brother so accessible.
‘I hope this isn’t the sound of you thinking that I’m the sort of guy to be seduced by family peer pressure...’
His voice was still teasing but there was an undercurrent of coolness running through it that set off a warning bell in Ellie’s head.
‘I hope you’re not,’ she returned swiftly, and she felt his sidelong glance, although he didn’t break stride.
‘Intriguing remark. Want to expand?’
Ellie felt the hot tingle of perspiration on her face. This was a forceful reminder of the limits of what they had, and he was reminding her that that was something she would do well not to forget.
Pride stiffened her. The last thing she needed was for him to get the idea that she was somehow morphing into one of those women who ended up hanging onto his every word, weeping, wailing and falling apart when he decided that it was time to move on.
He laid down parameters. Well, she, for one, would be following them!
‘You don’t have to worry that I would ever get the wrong idea about...this...’ she said, with an equal amount of coolness in her voice. ‘I won’t. What we have stays here, and that suits me very well, not just because anything else would interfere with my working relationship with you but because you’re the last kind of guy I would go for. In fact, I would say that you’ve done me a favour...’
‘How so?’
‘You’ve reminded me that I’m still young,’ Ellie told him, and that was the truth. ‘That there are guys out there, and that falling in love is still something that is waiting for me. You’ve given me back my confidence.’
‘I’m very glad to be of service,’ James murmured.
Everything she had just said should be exactly what he wanted to hear because it all made sense.
For a second, when she’d hinted that he might be inclined to follow in his siblings’ footsteps, he had thought she might be dropping hints.
