Miss Prim's Greek Island Fling

‘If you are, the best remedy will be a run along the beach followed by another swim.’

She tossed her head. ‘In your dreams, cabana boy.’

He grinned. It was good to see her old spark return. ‘This is for fun, Audra, and no other reason. Just fun.’

He saw something in her mind still and then click. ‘I guess I haven’t been doing a whole lot of that recently.’

She could say that again.

‘Okay, well...where do we sign up?’

There were seven of them who took the lesson, and while Finn expected to chafe during the hour-long session, he didn’t. It was too much fun watching Audra and her cheeky ponytail as she concentrated on learning how to manoeuvre her jetski. They had a further hour to putter around the bay afterwards to test out her new-found skills. He didn’t go racing off on his own. He didn’t want her trying to copy him and coming to grief. They’d practised what to do in case of capsizing, but he didn’t want them to have to put it into practice. Besides, her laughter and the way her eyes sparkled were too much fun to miss out on.

‘Oh, my God!’ She practically danced on the dock when they returned their jetskis. ‘That was the best fun ever. I’m definitely doing that again. Soon!’

He tried to stop staring at her, tried to drag his gaze from admiring the shape of her lips, the length of her legs, the bounce of her hair. An evening spent alone with her in Rupert’s enormous villa rose in his mind, making him sweat. ‘Beer?’ Hanging out in a crowd for as long as they could suddenly struck him as a sound strategy.

‘Yes, please.’

They strode along the wooden dock and he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. The transformation from two days ago was amazing. She looked full of energy and so...alive.

He scrubbed both hands back through his hair. Why was she hell-bent on keeping herself on such a tight leash? Why didn’t she let her hair down once in a while? Why...?

The questions pounded at him. He pressed both hands to the crown of his head in an effort to tamp them down, to counter the impulse to ask her outright. The thing was, even if he did break his protocol on asking personal questions and getting dragged into complicated emotional dilemmas, there was no guarantee Audra would confide in him. She’d never seen him as that kind of guy.

What if she needs to talk? What if she has no one else to confide in?

He wanted to swear.

He wanted to run.

He also wanted to see her filled with vitality and enthusiasm and joy, as she was now.

They ordered beers from a beachside bar and sat at a table in the shade of a jasmine vine to drink them.

‘Today has been a really good day, Finn. Thank you.’

Audra wasn’t like the women he dated. If she needed someone to confide in, he could be there for her, couldn’t he? He took a long pull on his beer. ‘Even the running?’

‘Ugh, no, the running was awful.’ She sipped her drink. ‘I can’t see I’m ever going to enjoy that, even with the right gear. Though I didn’t mind the swimming. There’s bound to be a local gym at home that has a pool.’

She was going to keep up the exercise when she returned home? Excellent.

He leaned back, a plan solidifying in his gut. ‘You haven’t asked your question yet.’

‘I already told you—I don’t want to hear about your woman in Nice. If you want to brag or grumble about her go right ahead. But I’m not wasting a perfectly good question on it.’

He wondered if he should just tell her about Trixie, but dismissed the idea. Trixie had no idea where he was. She wouldn’t be able to cause any trouble here for him, for Joachim or for Audra. And he wanted to keep the smile, the sense of exhilaration, on Audra’s face.

He stretched back, practically daring Audra to ask him a question. ‘Isn’t there anything personal you want to ask me?’

CHAPTER SIX

DID FINN HAVE any clue how utterly mouth-wateringly gorgeous he looked stretched out like that, as if for her express delectation? Audra knew he didn’t mean anything by it. Flirting was as natural to him as breathing. If he thought for a moment she’d taken him seriously, he’d backtrack so fast it’d almost be funny.

Almost.

And she wasn’t an idiot. Yet she couldn’t get out of her mind the idea of striding around the table and—

No, not striding, sashaying around the table to plant herself in his lap, gently because she couldn’t forget his injuries, and running her hand across the stubble of his jaw before drawing his lips down to hers.

Her mouth went dry and her heart pounded so hard she felt winded...dizzy. Maybe she was an idiot after all.

It was the romance of this idyllic Greek island combined with the euphoria of having whizzed across the water on a jetski. It’d left her feeling wild and reckless. She folded her hands together in her lap. She didn’t do wild and reckless. If she went down that path it’d lead to things she couldn’t undo. She’d let her family down enough as it was.