Miss Prim's Greek Island Fling

He’d risen to survey the beach below. She moved to stand beside him, and was greeted with the now familiar pink and blue sail. ‘It looks like they’re coming ashore.’

Heat burned her cheeks when she recalled her earlier musings about the honeymooners who might be on board. She hoped they weren’t planning to have hot sex on her beach. Not that it was hers per se, but... She turned her back on the view, careful not to look at Finn. ‘Do you want any more of these olives or cheese?’

He swung back and planted himself at the table again. ‘Don’t take the olives! They’re the best I’ve ever eaten.’

She tried to laugh, rather than sigh, at the way he savoured one.

He helped himself to another slice of a Greek hard cheese called kefalotiri. ‘Whose turn is it to choose the activities for the day?’

She helped herself to a tiny bunch of grapes. ‘I’ve no idea.’ She’d lost count. Besides, the day was half over.

‘Then I vote that a long lazy lunch is the order of the day.’

She laughed for real this time. ‘It’s already been long and lazy.’

‘We could make it longer and lazier.’

Sounded good to her.

‘We could open a bottle of wine...grab our books...’

Okay, it sounded perfect. ‘Count me in.’

‘We could head down to the beach if you want...’

She shook her head. ‘Let the visitors enjoy it in privacy. I’m stuffed too full of good food to swim.’

He grinned. ‘I’ll grab the wine.’

‘I’ll grab our books.’

But before either of them could move, the sound of voices and crackling undergrowth had them looking towards the track. Audra blinked when Rupert, accompanied by a woman she didn’t know, emerged.

A smile swept through her—he should’ve let them know he was coming! Before she could leap up, however, Finn’s low, savage curse had her senses immediately going on high alert. She glanced at him, and her stomach nosedived at the expression on his face.

Finn rose.

Rupert and the woman halted when they saw him. The air grew thick with a tension Audra didn’t understand. Nobody spoke.

She forced herself to stand too. ‘What’s going on, Finn?’

He glanced down at her and she recognised regret and guilt swirling in his eyes, and something else she couldn’t decipher. ‘I really should’ve told you about that woman in Nice I’d been trying to avoid. I’m sorry, Princess.’

Audra stared at the woman standing beside Rupert—a tall, leggy brunette whose eyes were hidden behind a large pair of sunglasses—and her mouth went dry. That gorgeous woman was Finn’s latest girlfriend? Her stomach shrivelled to the size of a small hard pebble. Why had Rupert brought her to the island? She recalled his warnings about Finn and closed her eyes.

‘Trust me!’

Her eyes flew open at Finn’s words. She wasn’t sure if they were a command or a plea.

His eyes burned into hers. ‘I promise I will not allow anything she does to hurt you.’

What on earth...?

‘You’re going to make damn sure of it,’ Rupert snarled, striding forwards. He kissed her cheek with a clipped, ‘Squirt.’ But the glare he shot Finn filled her stomach with foreboding. And it turned Finn grey. ‘Audra, this is Trixie McGraw.’

The woman held out her hand. Audra shook it. Trixie? She hated that name. It took all her strength to stop her lips from twisting.

‘What Rupert has left out of his introduction,’ Finn drawled, ‘is that Ms McGraw here is an investigative journalist. Not an ex-girlfriend, not an ex-lover.’

She wasn’t...

She was a journalist!

Audra swung to Rupert, aghast. ‘You’ve brought the press to the island?’

Rupert opened his mouth, but Finn cut in. ‘She’s not here for you, Audra. She wants to interview me.’

‘Why?’

If possible, Finn turned even greyer and she wanted to take his hand and offer him whatever silent support she could, but Rupert watched them both with such intensity she didn’t want to do anything he could misinterpret. She didn’t want to do anything that would damage their friendship.

‘My recent accident—the ski-jump disaster—it happened on a resort owned by a friend, Joachim Firrelli. Trixie here was Joachim’s girlfriend before they had an ugly bust-up. She’s now trying to prove that his facilities are substandard—that he’s to blame for my accident. Except I’m not interested in being a pawn in her little game of revenge.’

‘It doesn’t sound little to me. It sounds bitter and a lot twisted.’

Trixie didn’t bat so much as an eyelid. Rupert’s mouth tightened.