Page 51 of One Bed

Gib sucked in his cheeks to keep from laughing. Hell, he’d never been so entertained by a random conversation before. Jacqui didn’t drop her eyes from Reena’s. ‘Shall I get the strimmer out of the shed for you?’

Bea rolled her eyes at Gib.

Jacqui and Reena argued, Jack popped a piece of croissant in his mouth and wiped his carefully trimmed moustache with a linen serviette. ‘And what are you wearing, Bea-darling?’

Bea sent him a quick, naughty glance. ‘I’ve been frantic, so Jacqui kindly went shopping for me and sent me a few outfits. I finally decided on a white trouser suit with a Halston neckline and some sort of slit up the leg.’

Gib knew she was lying. He lifted an eyebrow at her, calling her out and her grin was wide. And naughty. She didn’t want him to know what she was wearing…

That was …hot. It shouldn’t be but it was.

‘You’re not going to be boring and stay in the cottage all alone, are you, Gibson?’ Golly demanded.

He hated being put on the spot, but he’d known for a few days, since he first kissed Bea, that he’d be attending Golly’s party. He wanted to be anywhere Bea was, and if that meant him being at Golly’s big bash, he’d put on his suit and socialise.

‘I’ll be there,’ he told Golly and saw relief shoot across Bea’s face. She wanted him there, with her. He shouldn’t feel happy about that, as this was, at most, a brief fling. Nothing serious. Nothing to get excited about.

Reena interrupted Jacqui’s lecture about how it was important for women to take pride in their appearance. ‘How come Bea gets to wear a trouser suit and I don’t?’ she demanded.

‘For the love of God, Reena, you are making my headache worse,’ Jacqui whimpered. ‘Nadia, do you have any painkillers?’

‘You can’t mix painkillers and booze, Jacqui,’ Nadia told her, sounding uncharacteristically bossy. Now that she felt secure around Golly and Bea, her maternal side was starting to emerge.

‘Pfft! Take a few pills, and have another drink, Jacqui,’ Golly told her friend. Gib thought abstaining, a few glasses of water and a nap might be a better idea, but what did he know?

Golly pushed away from the table and Bea raised her head to see her put her hands together in front of her chest as if she intended to pray. ‘I’m going to meditate before my big day of adulation tomorrow.Namaste.’

Golly drifted away singing Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ off-key. Gib looked at Bea, who met his gaze, laughter and ‘do you see what I have to deal with?’ in her eyes.

‘Ready to go?’ he asked, holding out his hand. She nodded and slipped hers into his, and behind them, he heard a collective sigh, followed by a couple of ‘aws’.

He looked down at Bea, who looked unfazed. ‘I think they know about us,’ he deadpanned.

She faked her surprise, her eyes wide and her gasp unnaturally loud. ‘Really? What makes you think that?’

Gib laughed and tugged her toward his Jeep, resisting the urge to take her back to bed. They’d made love twice this morning and then indulged in some heavy petting in the shower afterwards. She had to be sore, and he desperately needed food.

They’d have lunch, and then they could come back for an afternoonnon-nap.

ChapterEleven

After lunch at one of her favourite restaurants, Bea and Gib wandered through the twisty alleys of Oia and stopped when they approached a bookshop. Gib scanned the books on the long trestle table outside the store. The books were all second-hand, a mixture of English and other languages, including, obviously, Greek. Bea dragged her fingers across the spines of a row of romances, thinking she shouldn’t buy any as she had at least fifty on her TBR pile on her Kindle, and paperbacks she’d ordered and not read at home. But the urge to splurge was strong.

She glanced at Gib and her heart nearly stopped when she recognised the book in his hand, the second of herUrban Explorerbooks. She looked down and saw the first and the third book on the table.Shit.

‘What have you got there?’ she asked, internally wincing at her squeakier-than-normal voice. She took the book from him, turned it over and pretended to read the back-cover copy. ‘I think this is a little young for you,’ she told him, handing it back.

‘Haha,’ he said, picking up book number one in the series. ‘This is the author Navy has his eye on. I want to see what he thinks is so special about her.’

Firstly, Bea still found it a little shocking that Navy Caddell liked her books enough to want to represent her. Secondly, and for the love of God, Bea couldn’t cope with Gib reading her books. What if he hated them? What if he thought her premise silly, her characters unbelievable? Would he think her books were boring? Would he see himself in Pip?

‘It’s a kid’s book, Gibson.’

‘So are JK Rowling’s and those are awesome,’ he told her, handing over some cash. He nodded at the paperback in her hand. ‘Want me to get that for you?’

She looked at the book and shook her head. ‘No. I’m good.’ She bit the inside of her cheek and sent another look at the three-book set. ‘I wouldn’t waste your money.’

‘Spending money on books is never a waste,’ he told her. True. ‘Besides, I don’t think this purchase is going to put me into debt.’

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