Living the Charade

Had they ever been lovers?

Not wanting to head down that particular track he concentrated again on the rhythmic sound of their feet hitting the sand and the crystal clear waters of the South Pacific Ocean rolling onto the beach. The coastline reminded him a little of his house on Phillip Island, near Melbourne, although he knew the water there was at least ten degrees cooler and a hundred times rougher.

Miller stopped and started walking, her hands on her hips, and Valentino joined her.

‘You can keep going if you want,’ she panted.

He glanced at her. He could keep going but he didn’t want to. What he wanted was to stop thinking about the past and make her smile. Like she had back in their room. He wondered what she did for fun, and then wondered why he cared.

‘You work out a lot?’ he asked.

She glanced at him, and he tensed when her eyes dropped to his stomach as he used his T-shirt to wipe a line of sweat off his brow. He knew she was attracted to him, maybe even as attracted as he was to her, but he also knew it would be stupid to follow up on that attraction. Not only did she not want it—he didn’t either. And, while his body might have ideas to the contrary, his body was just an instrument for his mind, not the other way around.

‘I go to the gym three times a week and try to go for a run along the Manly foreshore on the weekend.’

She walked in a small circle to ease the lactic acid burn from her legs.

‘You do weights?’

‘Some. Mainly light weights. Although I missed every one of my workouts this week due to work, so no doubt when I start back Monday morning I’ll be a little sore.’

‘Do some now.’

She cast her eyes from the sparkling ocean to the sand dunes behind them. ‘I’m sorry, but if you see a weight machine anywhere around here you’re on your own.’

He laughed. ‘There’s a lot you can do without machines. Trust me. This is part of my day job. Why don’t we start with some ab crunches?’

He lay on his back and started curling his head towards his bent knees. He’d made it to twenty when out of the corner of his eye he saw her reluctantly join him. He wasn’t sure why that pleased him so much.

She kept pace for a minute, then fell back on the sand. ‘I’ve been running for a while but I’m still pretty new at the gym thing,’ she said.

‘Okay, now squats.’

Miller groaned. ‘I really don’t like squats.’

‘No one likes squats except bodybuilders.’

She laughed and the husky sound made his stomach grip.

‘Come on.’ His voice was gruff, unnatural sounding.

She jumped lithely to her feet and he couldn’t look away from the toned muscles in her thighs as she braced her legs slightly apart.

‘Raise your arms overhead as you go down. And keep your chest up.’ He cleared his throat, trying to concentrate on her technique rather than recalling the feel of her peaked nipple pressing eagerly into his palm. ‘Squeeze your glutes and extend through your hips as you come up.’

He’d need to dunk himself in the ocean at this rate, but at least his mind was fully focused on something other than racing again.

‘Am I getting a personal training session now?’ She grinned at him, but didn’t stop.

‘Maybe.’ He returned her smile. ‘I do aim to please.’

‘What’s next?’ She breathed deep and shook out her legs.

Tino could think of a lot of ‘nexts’ that involved her horizontal on the soft sand without the top and shorts, but he shouldn’t even be thinking like that.

He sucked in a litre of air and took her through a couple of other light exercises. ‘Push-ups.’

Miller grimaced. ‘Oh, great. You’re hitting all my favourites.’

She got down on the sand and started pushing herself up, her knees bent.

‘They’re not real push-ups,’ he teased.

‘Yes, they are!’ After twenty she collapsed and rolled onto her back. ‘Okay, that’s it. Those and the bench press are my weakest exercises.’

He absently noted how the sun had turned her hair to burnished copper, with some of the tendrils around her temples darkened with sweat. Her cheeks were pink from exertion, her chest heaving...

Don’t even go there, Ventura.

‘That just means you have to do more of them.’

Miller turned her head towards him and her eyes sparkled as blue as the ocean behind her. ‘Oh, darn. No bench press. What a shame.’

Tino smiled. So she did have a sense of humour.