Page 48 of Strictly Friends
‘Oh, come on! That was never going anywhere,’ Griffin protested. ‘She expected a proposal after our third date! Besides, she’s a lovely girl but—’
‘But what?’
He suddenly looked sheepish. ‘Rubes, you never saw her feet.’
‘Herfeet?’ Ruby frowned in confusion.
‘Yeah, they’re kind of— Well, she has this really long second toe.’
‘Are you fuc—’ She broke off and took a deep breath. ‘Are youkiddingme? Do you seriously mean to tell me that you stopped seeing Shirlee because she’s got a long second toe?’
He looked at her silently, and Ruby shook her head in disbelief. ‘Griffin!Loads of people have that.’ She stretched out her leg. ‘Look!I’vegot a longer second toe. You’ve never calledmyfeet deformed.’
Griffin peered at her foot and then looked at her curiously. ‘That’s really weird. How come I never noticed?’
They stared at each other for a moment and then Ruby dissolved into helpless laughter.
‘You areimpossible!’ She rested her head against his shoulder, and they sat in companiable silence watching the waves rolling in and dispersing into foam on the sand.
‘I still think it’s a shame you can’t take advantage of this setting with some beautiful island girl,’ Ruby said softly, turning to him with a mischievous smile. ‘You were seriously turning heads in the bar when you went up on stage.’
‘Iamwith a beautiful island girl,’ Griffin murmured. ‘No-one in there tonight could hold a candle to you.’
Their eyes locked, and Ruby’s stomach plummeted as if she’d fallen from a great height. She could feel her pulse racing and, unable to tear her gaze away from his, she panicked, blurting out the first random thought that came to mind. ‘So says the man who chases any petite blonde who crosses his path.’
She felt Griffin’s sharp intake of breath and winced, instantly berating herself for the chastising note in her voice.Shut up, Ruby!
After a moment’s silence, Griffin said lightly, ‘Listen, don’t hate me simply because you’re not my type.’
When she didn’t reply, he glanced at her just as she was frantically trying to blink back the tears inexplicably flooding her eyes.
‘Ruby?What’s wrong?’
His face darkened with concern as he reached for her, and she shook her head, too afraid to speak in case she burst into tears.What the helliswrong with you, Rubes?She and Griffin always teased each other, so why had the banter cut her to the quick this time?
Griffin pulled her close with a muffled groan, wrapping an arm around her so tightly she could feel the hard strength of his chest. ‘I was only kidding, you know that.’
She pulled away enough to smile up at him weakly. ‘I know, I’m just being an idiot. Neither of us is the other’s type.’
Instead of laughing with her, Griffin sighed so deeply that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face. ‘No, you’re not being an idiot,’ he said softly.
Gazing into his eyes, what had always seemed impossible was suddenly inevitable. Before Ruby could speak, Griffin lowered his head and kissed her. Her mind was reeling as she felt his lips on hers and, at first, confused and scared, she froze. But after a moment, she relaxed into his arms and wound her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as the kiss deepened. His hands slid down her back, caressing her bare skin and drawing her so closely to him she thought she would explode with longing.
It was as if she was outside her body watching herself in Griffin’s arms as he kissed her feverishly, and she kissed him back. This time, there was no awkward knocking of teeth and no painful braces.
This time, every single kiss was pure magic.
34
Ruby stretched languorously and rolled over, pulling the thin coverlet over her head. After crawling exhausted into her bed, she had lain awake reliving the previous night. The soles of her feet were on fire after the hours on the dance floor, but while every muscle in her body ached, the delicious soreness proved she hadn’t imagined what had happened at the beach bar or afterwards. The events on the beach had aroused feelings neither she nor Griffin could control and the passionate kissing in the back of the taxi had continued in Griffin’s room, where they had made love until falling into an exhausted sleep with their arms wrapped around each other. Waking at dawn, Ruby had slipped on her dress and crept back to her room before Jake returned. Now, just thinking of Griffin, she shivered like an infatuated teenager with her first crush.
Too restless to lie still, Ruby bunched up her pillow and propped it against the slatted wood headboard. Lying back, she stared at the ceiling with a smile so wide her cheeks hurt. Jake would be back soon from his night in MissIda’s private quarters and before he burst through the door, she wanted to replay everything in her mind – from the moment on the beach when Griffin’s lips met hers, to kissing in the taxi all the way back home, only coming up for air when the car lurched over the rough stretch of road leading to Paradise Inn. Making love had been a revelation and any shynessshe had felt had fallen away as their bodies instinctively found each other. Exploring every inch of her, Griffin’s touch, sensual and assured, had unleashed a passion she had never experienced before, and she had given herself to him with abandon, holding nothing back.
How quick she had been to scorn the women who fell for him so easily, Ruby mused with a slight pang of guilt, and yet after only one night here she was, unable to get him out of her mind and craving the sensation of his arms around her. What was he doing now? she wondered dreamily. For one wild moment she was tempted to run to his room to find out and then she remembered Jake and sighed. Another memory poked itself into her daydreams just as her phone pinged with a text message. Sticking her head out from under the covers, she squinted at the screen and squealed. Today was her last sitting for Mac, and she had promised to meet him at the clearing. Already late, she yawned widely and reluctantly hauled herself out of bed.
As she stumbled to the bathroom, Ruby stopped in front of the full-length mirror on the wardrobe door and smiled dreamily at her reflection. Although her braids were tangled and every step taken on her sore feet made her wince, the eyes looking back at her were shining, and her face glowed. Even the throbbing in her skull, courtesy of more rum cocktails than she could count, couldn’t change the fact that she was blissfully happy.
Looking distinctly unhappy, Mac pushed the box of pencils into the bulging holdall and tugged the zip across. The carefully rolled-up portrait was now safely inside a long steel tube and his expression was dark as he dismantled the easel and packed it into a waterproof bag, along with the folding canvas stool. With Ruby distracted, andMac scheduled to leave the island the next day, their last sitting had been subdued. Now, except for some patches of flattened grass, Mac’s makeshift studio had reverted to a natural clearing amid thick green foliage and flowering bushes.
