‘If you carry on thinking like that you are going to die lonely. He met her when she cooked him her special moussaka to try and tempt him to eat. I love that he doesn’t care what she does.’
‘He should care. She stands to gain an enormous amount financially from this wedding.’
‘That’s horrible.’
‘It is truly horrible. Finally we find something we agree on.’
‘I wasn’t agreeing with you! It’s your attitude that’s horrible, not this wedding. You’re not only a judgemental cynic, you’re also a raging snob.’
Nik breathed deeply. ‘I am not a raging snob, but I am realistic.’
‘No, what you are is damaged. Not everything has a price, Nik, and there are things in life that are far more important than money. Your father is trying to make a family and I think that’s admirable.’ She fumbled with the seat belt. ‘Get me out of this car before I’m contaminated by you. Your thundercloud is about to rain all over my sunny patch of life.’
Your father is trying to make a family.
Nik thought about everything that had gone before.
He’d buried the pain and hurt deep and it was something he had never talked about with anyone, especially not his father, who had his own pain to deal with. What would happen when this relationship collapsed?
‘If my father entered relationships with some degree of caution and objective contemplation then I would be less concerned, but he makes the same mistake you make. He confuses physical intimacy with love.’ He saw the colour streak across her cheeks.
‘I’m not confused. Have I spun fairy tales about the night we spent together? Have I fallen in love with you? No. I know exactly what it was and what we did. You’re in a little compartment in my brain labelled “Once in a Lifetime Experiences” along with skydiving and a helicopter flight over the New York skyline. It was amazing by the way.’
‘The helicopter flight was amazing?’
‘No, I haven’t done that yet. I was talking about the night with you, although there were moments that felt as nerve-racking as skydiving.’ Her mouth tilted into a self-conscious smile. ‘Of course it’s also a little embarrassing looking at you in daylight after all those things we did in the dark, but I’m trying not to think about it. Now stop being annoying. In fact, stop talking for a while. That way I’m less likely to kill you before we arrive.’
Nik refrained from pointing out she’d been the only one in the dark. He’d had perfect vision and he’d used it to his own shameless advantage. There wasn’t a single corner of her body he hadn’t explored and the memory of every delicious curve was welded in his brain.
He tried to work out what it was about her that was so appealing. Innocence wasn’t a quality he generally admired in a person so he had to assume the power of the attraction stemmed from the sheer novelty of being with someone who had managed to retain such an untarnished view of the world.
‘Are you embarrassed about the night we spent together?’
‘I would be if I thought about it, so I’m not thinking about it. I’m living in the moment.’ Having offered that simple solution to the problem, she reached into the back of the car for her hat. ‘You could take the same approach to the wedding. You’re not here to fix it or protect anyone. You’re here as a guest and your only responsibility is to smile and look happy. Is this it? Are we here? Because I don’t see an island. Maybe your father might have changed the venue when he saw the black cloud of your presence approaching over the horizon.’
Nik dragged his gaze from her mouth to the jetty. ‘This is it. From here, we go by boat.’
* * *
Lily stood in the prow of the boat feeling the cool brush of the wind on her face and tasting the salty air. The boat skimmed and bounced over the sparkling ocean towards the large island in the distance, sending a light spray over her face and tangling her hair.
Nik stood behind the wheel, legs braced, eyes hidden behind a pair of dark glasses. Despite the unsmiling set of his mouth, he looked more approachable and less the hard-headed businessman.
‘This is so much fun. I think I might love it more than your Ferrari.’
He gave a smile that turned him from insanely good-looking to devastating, and she felt the intensity of the a
ttraction like a physical punch.
It was true he didn’t seem to display any of the family values that were so important to her, but that didn’t do anything to diminish the sexual attraction.
As far as she could tell, he couldn’t be more perfect for a short-term relationship.
For the whole trip in the car she’d been aware of him. As he’d shifted gear his hand had brushed against her bare thigh and she’d discovered that being with him was an exciting, exhilarating experience that was like nothing she’d experienced before.
There had been a brief moment when they’d pulled into the car park that she’d thought he might be about to kiss her. He’d looked at her mouth the way a panther looked at its prey before it devoured it, but just when she’d been about to close her eyes and take a fast ride to bliss, he’d sprung from the car, leaving her to wonder if she’d imagined it.
She’d followed him to the jetty, watching in fascination as the group of people gathered there sprang to attention. If she needed any more evidence of the power he wielded, she had only to observe the way people responded to him. He behaved with an authority that was instinctive, his air of command unmistakable even in this apparently casual setting.