Mediterranean Mavericks: Greeks. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ she snapped, ‘it’s dangerous to fight in the water.’

      ‘Who’s fighting?’ He flicked his head in the direction of the promontory she had noticed earlier on. ‘In case you were wondering how come you couldn’t find me…I was on that strip of land. I saw you swimming out and decided to meet you.’

      ‘Just in case I ran into problems?’

      ‘Can’t have my employee drowning on my watch, can I?’

      ‘I happen to be a very strong swimmer.’

      ‘I noticed.’

      Rose wasn’t sure that she liked the thought of him looking at her while she had been swimming.

      ‘So…joining me? We could always swim back to shore and walk across, but better exercise this way.’

      She didn’t think he needed the exercise. Unlike her. But she was enjoying the water and she suddenly wanted to prove just how good a swimmer she was. She nodded and then headed strongly away towards the strip of land, invigorated as he swam up behind her, then alongside and finally in front, easily making it to land before her so that she found herself coming out of the water, dripping wet, with no protective outer layer of baggy clothing, while he sat on the sand and surveyed her at his leisure.

      Self-consciousness kicked in along with all the insecurities she had always had about her body, ones which should have been put to bed a long time ago because, really, what did looks matter?

      Everything about her was unfashionably big. Her breasts were not the pert, small bumps beloved by fashionistas, her hair was too uncontrollable, her frame was just too short and stocky and she was sure that her rear could have done with several thousand more trips to the local swimming pool.

      And there he was. A study in casual male beauty, sitting lazily on the trunk of a fallen coconut tree.

      Her modest swimsuit suddenly felt like a handkerchief tied together with a few bits of string and Rose wrapped her arms around her body in a show of feeling cold.

      ‘I really never thought that this would be part of a working trip over here,’ she said crossly, all too aware that he was sizing her up and finding her wanting in every department.

      She had, he noticed, made sure to sit as far away from him as was humanly possible without it looking glaringly obvious. Coy, he thought, not for the first time, was not a word in her vocabulary. Neither were the words flirting or teasing. If she had had her notebook to hand, he was pretty certain that she would have brandished it just to make sure that he got her hands-off message.

      Once upon a time, he might have been amused by that because his hands would not have wanted to be on her, but not so now.

      Next to her, the women he had dated in the past were stick insects, devoid of personality and sex appeal. He wanted to tell her that instead of huddling next to him, arms wrapped around her body in an attempt to hide the glorious abundance of her body, she should revel in her womanly curves.

      However he acknowledged that she would probably hit him if he did that, so he dragged his eyes reluctantly away from her and resigned himself to the prospect of a slow seduction via harmless small talk, not a route he had ever favoured.

      ‘What do you think of this spot?’

      Rose inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. She had been half expecting something sarcastic along the lines of her resemblance to a beached whale. Scenery, she figured, she could expound upon, and she did, asking him a million questions about Borneo. Whenever there appeared to be a pause in the conversation, in she jumped to carry on the subject while the sun continued to rise in the sky. Eventually, Nick turned to her and raised his eyebrows.

      ‘So, do you think we have exhausted the tourist angle?’

      ‘I’m interested.’

      ‘You’re sunburnt.’

      ‘What?’ Rose automatically raised her hands to her face, allowing Nick a bird’s-eye view of her luscious breasts, which her severely cut swimsuit was having a hard time concealing.

      ‘Right there.’ He ran his finger quickly along the strip of her nose and Rose pulled back with a little yelp of shock. ‘We need to get you back to our towels and bags.’

      ‘Oh, no. I’ve only just thought—were they safe being left on the beach?’

      ‘As houses.’ Nick stood up and held out his hand for her to take.

      Flustered, Rose grasped it and he pulled her neatly to her feet, covertly watching her breasts bounce as she gathered her balance. Since when, he wondered, had he become a dirty old man, covertly watching a woman’s body and getting turned on?

      ‘You never did tell me…’ Rose said as they strolled back towards their possessions, which, as he had predicted, were exactly where they had been left.

      ‘What?’ Nick enquired, staring straight ahead of him and trying to subdue his overactive imagination.

      ‘Why you chose to branch out into the hotel business. You said that you no longer felt challenged by making money, but why hotels?’

      ‘You mean considering I’m a sad and lonely old man still searching for the perfect woman?’

      ‘I never said you were sad and lonely,’ Rose objected, flushing.

      ‘Just someone who had no experience of staying in a hotel for fun, an all-work-and-no-play kind of guy…’

      ‘I’m sure you have lots of fun,’ Rose stumbled, wondering how they had managed to swim out of safe waters into the perilous seas of personal conversation. It wouldn’t bother him, she was certain, but it bothered her.

      ‘Had,’ Nick amended guilelessly. ‘I haven’t actually been out with a woman since I met your sister…’

      For a few seconds Rose felt completely disoriented by that admission. He had told her that his relationship with Lily had been platonic and she had believed him. She hadn’t stopped to wonder whether that had not been of his choosing and, at the thought that he might actually fancy her sister, she felt a sudden coldness in the pit of her stomach.

      ‘Lily has been known to have that effect on men,’ she said brightly, clearing her throat.

      ‘What effect is that?’

      Rose shrugged. ‘Being worshipped from afar.’

      ‘Whoever mentioned anything about worshipping her from afar?’ Nick asked incredulously. ‘I meant, my darling, that the night I met your sister happened to be the night I broke up with a woman and ever since then I’ve stayed away from the fair sex. All men need a break from complications.’

      Had he just called her ‘my darling’? Well, yes, not as an endearment, but for a few wild seconds her heart soared, then she registered the rest of his sentence and realised that, for whatever reason, he had decided to fill her in on a slice of his private life. He was practising celibacy.

      ‘They do,’ Rose said approvingly. ‘And it’s a mistake to think that sex is the answer to everything.’

      Nick felt СКАЧАТЬ