Page 39 of Emergency Engagement

‘Death by drowning?’

‘Yet here I am.’ He burst out laughing and dipped to kiss her on the mouth until her head was reeling. ‘But just in case I do flounder,’ he murmured, ‘you’d better make sure you don’t take your eyes off me.’

Sammy retreated back to the beach, sat on the towel and watched him. He struck out, lean body cutting through the blue, blue water with powerful, even strokes. Surely he hadn’t learned to swim like that from eavesdropping on a swimming coach at the age of fifteen and then jumping in a lake? But then, he was the guy who would never allow himself to fail. He would neverflounder.

And that included floundering in his private life. She knew his back story, and knew how it had impacted on him and how it channelled all his decisions about relationships. There was no weakness inside him when it came to women. He wouldn’t have any thoughts about this situation between them that had started as a charade and was now...whatever it was. A pleasant distraction for him...and for her, something that was beginning to feel a lot more than that.

She didn’t want to keep thinking about that.

Instead, she got her phone and was playing on it when it buzzed. Sammy was so surprised that she almost didn’t pick up, but her mother’s name flashed on the screen. Why was her mother calling her? She and her mother messaged daily, but phone calls were usually reserved for birthdays andsituations.Situations that often involved her brother and whatever news her mother felt she had to conveyurgently—usually, Colin would later tell Sammy nothing had been truly urgent at all—or else to pass on some gossip about a neighbour that likewise ‘couldn’t wait’.

So she picked up the call with some hesitation. She sat up and gazed blankly out to the horizon, into which Rafael seemed to have vanished in record time. He was now making back for land, swimming back as rhythmically as he had swum out. Her mind was drifting but the minute she heard her mother’s voice she sat up straighter.

‘Sammy, darling, I’m so glad I got hold of you.’

She sat up straighter still, then stood up, because she knew from the tone of her mother’s voice that whatever conversation was about to take place wasn’t going to be a good one.

Rafael was heading back, having resisted the temptation to disappear into the great blue yonder. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told Sammy that he’d learnt to swim by literally throwing himself in at the deep end. It had all been part of his anger at life all those years ago. He’d loved to push the boundaries, never more so than when it came to swimming; he’d bunked off school too many times to count so that he could go down to that lake and freeze his butt off swimming as though his life depended on it.

He’d never stopped enjoying the freedom it afforded him. He had a magnificent indoor swimming pool in the basement of his mansion in London and swimming in it was the best therapy anyone could have. So it had been tempting to push the boat out today, but he knew that Sammy would end up getting worried about him if she lost sight of him.

He didn’t knowhowhe knew that. He just did, and it gave him a warm feeling inside that was pleasurable, if a little confusing. He’d dated women in the past, and spent months with the same woman, and yet had never felt this weird thing he felt with Sammy.

Heknewher. At least, it felt like that to him. It was unsettling but he liked it, even though there was just the merest hint of alarm bells ringing in the distance somewhere.

Now, as he glimpsed her in between strokes, he got the feeling that something was up. For starters, she was on the phone. Who was calling her? He knew that she’d told her mother something vague about staying out on the island for a bit longer, but that everything had been sorted with the work placement. He’d been in the bedroom when she’d made the call. She’d strolled through the room, completely naked, idly pausing to look at something or other and talking in a low, soft, reassuring voice while he’d lain on the bed watching her and making suggestive expressions while she tried not to laugh.

He reached shore just as she was ending the call and the minute he saw her face he knew something was off.

‘Talk to me,’ he said urgently, reaching for a towel and, after a quick dry, slinging it over his shoulders as he walked towards her.

‘I was just on the phone to my mother, Rafael.’

‘And you look as though you need something fortifying. Go sit under that tree in the shade. I’ll bring you some champagne. You’re white as a sheet.’

He felt a sickening jolt of panic as he busied himself with the champagne, which was ice-cold in its frozen sleeve. Whatever was going on, he was going to make sure she knew that she could count on him.

Hell, what if there had been a death in the family? He felt nauseous just thinking about it but, as he approached her with the two glasses and the champagne bottle, his expression was inscrutable.

She was sitting on one of the over-sized towels they had brought with them and had drawn her knees up to her chest. Her short hair was ruffled by the breeze and still dry becauseshe hadn’t actually dived into the water at all. He’d noticed that from the distance, looking back at her when he’d paused for breath, and had absently thought that it might be fun to teach her how to swim. Everyone should know how to swim, and he did have his own private pool, after all.

‘Okay, Sammy. Drink this and then tell me what’s going on with your mother. Is she okay? Colin...is he okay? Has something happened to either of them?’

Sammy leaned towards him, as if sensing his strength and wanting to be supported by it.

‘She’s found out.’

‘Found out what?’

‘About us. Victoria got in touch with her. She phoned really upset because she was told that we’re engaged and that you’re not the kind of guy I should be getting engaged to.’

‘How the hell did Victoria find your mother?’

‘I guess it was just a case of following the clues. In the spiel on my website, I reference my mum quite a bit—that she’s my inspiration. I suppose she got hold of my mum’s name and then just did a little detective work.’

‘So she got to screw me over after all,’ he said grimly. ‘She might not have gone public but going private was just as destructive.’

‘She gave Mum a rundown of your history and the fact that you’ve never committed to anyone, and of course my mother is super-protective when it comes to me. She kind of made it her mission to instil common sense in me when it came to guys. So for her to find out that I’m apparently engaged after five seconds, and to a man who plays the field and is proud of it... She’s devastated.’

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