Page 36 of Emergency Engagement

When Clement had said that they should take a few days’ break on the island to enjoy themselves, having spent the week catering to the needs of clients in their various ways, she had waited to take the lead from Rafael. She’d wondered how he would react to that suggestion. He hadn’t said a word about what would happen next with them and their situation. They’d been ensconced in a bubble, in which the sizzling excitement of touching one another for show had exploded into the real thing, and she’d been carried away to cloud nine.

But she wasn’t an idiot. He was only in it for a bit of passing fun. He wasn’t going to take things any further, and over her dead body was she going to give any hint that the thought of walking away from this fantastic experience made her feel sick. It wasn’t as though she’d invested feelings in him, was it? She’d known the rules of the game from day one and she wasn’t stupid.

If she wanted more of him than a few days out here, then it was just because he’d opened a door in her and she was enjoying the experience. She’d committed to having fun with her eyes wide open, and she wasn’t going to suddenly turn into a martyr and start feeling angst about her decision. He might not fit the bill of her ‘for ever’ guy, but he was making her see that there was no crime when it came to having a bit of fun.

So she’d made a show of thinking carefully when that suggestion had been made before slowly nodding and agreeing, yes, why not stay on a while longer? She wasn’t playing hard to get because there was nothing to get. She was looking after herself because she knew what he was like, and she wasn’t going to end up as another of his casualties.

‘You have things to do in England.’

‘I know.’ She opened her eyes and peered at him from behind the safety of her sunglasses. ‘But you’ve shown me that taking a walk on the wild side can be a good thing.’

‘How so?’

‘Well...’ Sammy sat up so that they were at eye level with each other, and she tilted the sunglasses on her forehead to meet his gaze squarely. ‘When I first saw you again, you were the sort of guy I instantly disliked.’

‘Thank you straight away for the compliment.’

‘You can’t blame me. You’d swiped the rug from under my feet.’

‘Not to mention having spent some of my youth making sure your brother hopped on the bandwagon.’

‘Actually,’ Sammy mused, briefly shading her eyes and staring off at the ocean, ‘I thought about what you said and I think you’re right. You didn’t so much lead Colin astray as allowed his rebellion to find a voice, which was probably a good thing for him in the end.’ She sighed. ‘He may have skipped a year,but it was the best thing that could have happened, because he returned in a better place.’

‘That’s a generous admission from you,’ Rafael said truthfully.

‘You’re a considerate person offering to rub sunblock on my back, and I’m a generous person admitting that you were right about Colin. What saints the pair of us are.’

Rafael grinned, then looked at her in a slightly different way, his eyes lazy and appreciative.

His hands were nowhere near her but her whole body shivered, as though he’d physically touched her. Her nipples tightened and there was a wave of intense sensation that washed through her, making her mouth dry and her pupils dilate. She felt hot and sluggish.

The pull of lust was something she had massively underestimated—that was something she was very quickly realising. Right now, she just wanted to dump the serious conversation, lean into him, feel the coolness of his mouth against hers and put his hands where she wanted them to be. But she could feel the urge to say something that would paper over that cracks of apprehension that he was beginning tomatter.Not just as a guy she was having fun with, but as a guy who was complex and three-dimensional, demanding more than just a romp in the sack.

‘You were telling me how much you disliked me at first sight.’ Rafael returned her to the present and to what she wanted to get across to him—that she was as casual about what was happening between them as he was. ‘Or maybe I should saysecondsight, because you weren’t exactly a member of my fan club back in the day.’

‘The waiting list was long for that particular role,’ Sammy said drily. ‘From what I remember.’

‘And would you have joined the waiting list if it hadn’t been as long?’

‘No.’

He burst out laughing. ‘I like the way you tell it like it is without any consideration for a man’s fragile ego.’

‘You have the ego of a steel vault.’

‘But moving on from the compliments...’

‘I learnt a lot from what my mother went through,’ Sammy told him thoughtfully. ‘She had such a rough ride of it after Dad died and after she married that awful man. She married in haste and repented at leisure. It gave me time to work out that love was something you should never rush into. That you might think a guy is going to be good for you but, unless you really know what you’re looking for, you can so easily end up making a big mistake.’

‘You’re going round the houses here, Sammy.’

He reached forward to stroke a lazy finger over her mouth and then along her shoulders, taking his time. ‘You have amazing shoulders.’

‘Stop distracting me, Rafael.’

‘Why? I like distracting you. In fact, I think I could make a career choice out of doing that.’

‘I’m trying to explain...’

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