A Night of Scandal

‘If nothing fits, then you can walk around naked.’

‘You’re still not funny.’ Lifting her chin, Katie walked across the terrace and back into the villa. ‘I presume the bedrooms are this way?’

‘That’s the master suite. Unless you want to share it with me, you need to turn left.’

Katie turned left so sharply she almost fell over.

The door to another bedroom suite was open and she escaped inside, her eyebrows lifting as she saw the rose petals sprinkled on the white silk bedcover and the candles clustered around bowls of scented flowers.

It was a room for romance. A room for loving.

‘Miss Katie?’ A smiling woman ambled slowly into the room carrying soft fluffy towels. ‘I’m Rosa, and if there’s anything you need during your stay, you just have to ask.’

Katie frowned, confused. ‘I thought—He said we were on our own.’

Rosa laughed, her smooth brown face alight with amusement. ‘Bless you. This place has a staff of twenty. But we all live on the mainland. We arrive in time to make breakfast and leave after supper. So you have the best of both worlds. I arranged for some clothes for you, but if they’re not right just let me know.’

They were going to be too tight, all the wrong colours and it was going to be hideously embarrassing. But Katie was too polite to complain. ‘I’m sure they’ll be perfect. Thanks very much.’

Perfect or not, it was a relief to peel off her jeans. After a deliciously cool shower in a luxurious bathroom with one side open to the beach, she wrapped herself in a soft fluffy white towel and wandered into the walk-in closet. Oh, to live like this. An array of colourful bikinis had been spread out for her and she gave them a single horrified glance and reached for a primrose sundress. Yellow was too bold a colour for her, but it was better than squeezing into a bikini in front of Nathaniel Wolfe.

She slipped on the dress, relieved to find it fitted perfectly. It was extremely pretty—in fact, the only thing wrong with it was the colour. It was so bright. And she never wore bright clothes. She preferred to blend into the background.

With a short laugh, Katie looked in the mirror and shook her head.

No chance of blending in dressed in yellow. Slipping her feet into a pair of pretty flip-flops, she walked back onto the terrace feeling as conspicuous as a sunflower in a vegetable patch.

Nathaniel had stripped off his shirt and was sprawled unselfconsciously on the white sun lounger in nothing but a pair of low-slung board shorts that showed off his rippling abs. ‘It’s going to be hard to swim in a dress, wardrobe.’

Feeling about as appetising as a piece of uncooked pasta, Katie sat down neatly on the sun lounger furthest away from him. ‘I?

?m not swimming.’ Strip almost naked and parade in front of a man who was fed a daily diet of size-zero women? Please.

He glanced up from his phone. ‘You can’t swim?’

‘I can swim if I want to. I don’t want to.’

‘Why not? Swimming is the only way to stay cool.’

Katie slid off her sandals. ‘Actually, I’m not hot.’ A sardonic smile touched the corners of his mouth. ‘You look hot to me.’ Leaving that ambiguous com ment floating in the air, he leaned across and passed her a glass of chilled lemonade. ‘What was wrong with the selection of bikinis Rosa bought you?’

‘Nothing was wrong with them.’

‘Then why aren’t you wearing one of them?’ Abandoning subtlety in favour of honesty, Katie glared at him. ‘Because there is no way I’m wearing a bikini in front of you!’

‘Why not?’

‘Is that a serious question?’ Judging from his blank expression, she decided it was. ‘Nathaniel, there are basically two types of women—the padded version and the unpadded version. You hang out with the unpadded version. I’m the padded version. You’ve probably never met one of me before.’

‘The padded version?’

‘I’m designed with extra cushioning,’ she muttered, ‘built for comfort, not speed. And now can we please talk about something else?’

‘That’s why you won’t wear the bikini?’ A slow smile spread across his face. ‘Because you’re worried about your body?’

‘Call me vain, but I don’t want to spend the whole day sucking in my stomach.’

‘So don’t.’ Smiling, he leaned back against the lounger and closed his eyes. ‘Women have such a distorted view of what a guy finds sexy. If the rest of you is anything to go by, I’m sure you have a very sexy stomach. Put the bikini on, and I’ll give you my verdict.’