Miss Prim's Greek Island Fling
‘Hungry yet?’
‘Famished!’ She glanced at her watch and did a double take when she saw it was nearly two o’clock. ‘We haven’t done the bakery, the butcher, the delicatessen or the wine merchant yet.’
‘We have time.’
She lifted her face to the sun and closed her eyes to relish it even more. ‘We do.’
They chose a restaurant that had a terrace overlooking the harbour and ordered a shared platter of warm olives, cured meats and local cheeses accompanied with bread warm from the oven and a cold crisp carafe of retsina. While they ate they browsed their book purchases.
Audra surreptitiously watched Finn as he sampled the opening page of the fantasy novel...and then the next page...and the one after that.
He glanced up and caught her staring. He hesitated and then shrugged. ‘You know, this might be halfway decent.’
She refrained from saying I told you so. ‘Good.’
‘If I hadn’t seen you choose me those first two books I’d have not given this one a chance. I’d have written it off as a joke like the self-help book. And as I suspect I’ll enjoy both these other books...’
If he stayed still long enough to read them.
He frowned.
She folded her arms. ‘Why does that make you frown?’
‘I’m wishing I’d known about this book when I was laid up in hospital with nothing to do.’
The shadows in his eyes told her how stir-crazy he’d gone. ‘What did you do to pass the time?’
‘Crosswords. And I watched lots of movies.’
‘And chafed.’
‘Pretty much.’
‘I almost sent you a book, but I thought...’
‘You thought I’d misinterpret the gesture? Think you were rubbing salt into the wound?’
Something like that.
He smiled. ‘I appreciated the puzzle books.’ And then he scowled. ‘I didn’t appreciate the grapes, though. Grapes are for invalids.’
She stiffened. ‘It was supposed to be an entire basket of fruit!’ Not just grapes.
‘Whatever. I’d have preferred a bottle of tequila. I gave the fruit to the nurses.’
But his eyes danced as he feigned indignation and it was hard to contain a grin. ‘I’ll keep that in mind for next time.’
He gave a visible shudder and she grimaced in sympathy. ‘Don’t have a next time.’ She raised her glass. ‘To no more accidents and a full and speedy recovery.’
‘I’ll drink to that.’
He lifted his glass to hers and then sipped it with an abandoned enjoyment she envied. ‘Who knew you’d be such fun to shop with?’
The words shot out of her impulsively, and she found herself speared on the end of a keen-edged glance. ‘You thought I’d chafe?’
‘A bit,’ she conceded. ‘I mean, Rupert and Justin will put up with it when Cora or I want to window-shop, but they don’t enjoy it.’
‘I wouldn’t want to do it every day.’
Neither would she.
‘But today has been fun.’ He stared at her for a beat too long. ‘It was a revelation watching you in the bookstore.’
She swallowed. Revelation, how?
‘It’s been a long time since I saw you enjoy yourself so much, Squirt, and—’ He shot back in his seat. ‘Audra! I meant to say Audra. Don’t make that Strike Two. I...’
He gazed at her helplessly and she forgave him instantly. He hadn’t said it to needle her the way he had with his earlier Squirt. She shook herself. ‘Sorry, what were you saying? I was miles away.’
He smiled his thanks, but then leaned across the table towards her, and that smile and his closeness made her breath catch. ‘You should do things you enjoy more often, Miss Conscientiousness.’
Hmm, she’d preferred Squirt.
‘There’s more to life than boardrooms and spreadsheets.’
‘That’s what holidays are for,’ she agreed. The boardrooms and spreadsheets would be waiting for her at the end of it, though, and the thought made her feel tired to the soles of her feet.
CHAPTER FOUR
AUDRA GLANCED ACROSS at Finn, who looked utterly content lying on his towel on the sand of this ridiculously beautiful curve of beach, reading his book. It seemed ironic, then, that she couldn’t lose herself in her own book.
She blamed it on the half-remembered dreams that’d given her a restless night. Scraps had been playing through her mind all morning—sexy times moving to the surreal and the scary; Finn’s and Thomas’s faces merging and then separating—leaving her feeling restless and strung tight.
One of those sexy-time moments played through her mind again now and she bit her lip against the warmth that wanted to spread through her. The fact that this beach was so ridiculously private didn’t help. She didn’t want the words private and Finn—or sexy times—to appear in the same thought with such tempting symmetry. It was crazy. She’d always done her best to not look at Finn in that way. And she had no intention of letting her guard down now.