‘Adam. Gan said you’d be here.’
‘Saru. How are you doing? Where’s your dad?’
The young man beamed. ‘He’s semi-retired now. He’s away. On a cruise, would you believe? How long you here for?’
‘A week or so.’ Adam gestured to Olivia. ‘This is Olivia.’
Saru shook her hand with a wide smile and then moseyed along to greet an arriving family, his hands beating a jaunty tune as he walked.
‘Saru’s a mean drummer,’ Adam said. ‘He and I used to busk in the old town together.’
An image of a bare-chested Adam with a drum around his muscular waist, busking on the dusky streets, sun glinting in his hair, filled her mind. So real, so vivid she felt she could reach out and touch him.
‘You can play reggae? You busked?’
Adam grinned. ‘I’m hot stuff.’
Didn’t she know it? Olivia picked up her glass, welcoming the cold against her heated flesh. She drank, the strong taste puckering her lips even as the temperature refreshed her.
‘It’s beautiful here,’ she said as she absorbed the sight of the sea, watched the mesh of different blues blend into an endless aquamarine expanse. ‘I can see why you come here so often.’ And, heaven help her, in this moment she wished she was here as one of his women.
‘It’s a great place to relax,’ Adam continued. ‘So relax, Olivia.’
‘I am relaxed.’
A smile tugged his lips and her tummy back-flipped as her toes crunched into the warm sand.
‘No, you aren’t. Your leg is jigging up and down, your hand is clenched around your glass way too hard, and you have a perma-frown creasing your forehead.’
Well, no way was she about to explain that her lack of relaxation was to do with her escalating panic as to how she could spend a week in his company without losing her already tenuous grip on control.
She glared at him. ‘OK. So I’m not relaxed. I was psyched up to meet Zeb and now he’s not here—won’t be here for days.’
Adam stretched his long legs out. ‘Exactly.’
Desire and irritation jangled her nerves at his sheer carefree attitude and she took another gulp of beer. ‘Exactly what?’
‘There is nothing we can do except wait, so why not make the best of it? When’s the last time you had a holiday?’
Olivia opened her mouth and closed it again. Surely she must have had a holiday at some point? There’d been that weekend away with her best friend, Suzi, but she didn’t think that was what Adam meant. Even that had been a year ago.
She shrugged. ‘Time goes so fast,’ she said finally. ‘And I suppose I don’t want to waste money. I’ve got a mortgage and bills, and my mum’s—’ Olivia broke off.
‘And your mum’s what?’
Why shouldn’t she tell him? It was nothing to be ashamed of. ‘Allowance. I give my mum an allowance. She went through a lot to support me as a child—now it’s my turn to look after her.’
Adam raised his eyebrows. ‘So your mum holidays in Hawaii and you stay at home?’
‘I’m happy with it that way.’
For a moment she thought he’d say more but then he shook his head. ‘The point is you can’t remember the last time you had a holiday. So here you are. In Thailand. Perfect weather. No work. So let go. Relax. Have a holiday.’
‘A holiday?’ she echoed. ‘I’m here to find Zeb. Not loll about on a beach.’
‘But Zeb isn’t here and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
‘There must be something. Can’t we radio him?’
‘Gan tried that. No response.’
Broad shoulders hitched, his blue T stretched over the breadth of his chest and Olivia gulped.
‘Accept it, Olivia. I know it’s tough, but we’re stuck on this beautiful island.’
‘Yes, well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?’ Olivia tried to gulp the words down but it was too late; she’d been so busy gawping at his display of muscle she’d spoken without thought.
‘What is?’
‘The “we” bit of it. You. Me. I’m sure that if I was stuck on this island by myself relaxation wouldn’t be an issue. But you...you make me edgy.’
‘No need. We’re both agreed that we aren’t going to act on our attraction, so surely we can get past it and enjoy some chill-out time? Have some fun? You can do that, right?’
The look he cast her was so full of challenge tempered by a glint of mischief that she was torn between the desire to slap him or sample him.
‘Of course I can,’ she said through clenched teeth.