Page 47 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

‘I don’t know exactly what they said...’ She looked at him. ‘But you didn’t have to do that, you know.’

‘I wanted to,’ he responded. ‘Actually, I would like to do a whole lot more...’

And with that he swam off, far more expertly than her school swimming lessons would allow her to do, so instead she lay back and let the ocean support her.

The sky was the bluest she had ever seen, and the sun by far too bright to look directly at. So she squinted, and through her lashes saw the golden fire and its haze shining down on her. And then it was blocked out by the figure of Sebastián Romero. He stood there, dripping wet and looking down at her.

It was more dangerous to look directly at him than at the sun, she thought.

Yet she did.

And she floated there, recalling another time when he had looked down on her, and she knew he was remembering the same.

‘Please don’t...’ she said.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Don’t look at me like that.’

It was odd to say it out loud. She felt uncomfortable addressing openly the warm flood of feelings his look had generated.

‘As if we might...’

‘Might...?’ he checked, offering his hand and saving her from inelegantly trying to stand up on the sandy bottom.

He did not remove his hand.

The sand was soft, yet firm beneath her feet, the water waist-high, and his gaze drifted down her pinkening body, eventually coming to rest on the nipples that poked against her flimsy bikini.

He touched her neck where the skin was pink, and the shoulder that she must have missed with the sunblock.

‘We could go back inside,’ he said, and his low, throaty voice told her it was not simply to save her from burning that he made the suggestion.

Right now, standing barely dressed and facing each other, felt challenging enough to Anna.

She was unused to wanting. Naively, she’d thought that night-time was the danger zone—that walking back from dinner would be when her resolve might weaken.

When she’d said yes to the beach, it had been because surely it would be easier to keep her head at midday?

‘You should stop that,’ he said, as he caressed her cheek.

‘Stop what?’

‘Looking at me as if you want me to kiss you.’

She wanted to retort quickly,In your dreams.But she did not. She could feel his fingers in her hair, smoothing it back from her face as he’d wanted to last night, then sliding to the back of her head to grasp the silken strands more firmly. The sun beat down on them, and on the glistening water, and there was no place to hide.

So she stared back at him instead, and when his face came down towards hers, she closed her eyes in utter bliss at the feel of his mouth, soft and firm and capable of making her shiver on a blazing day... Her hands went to his shoulders, to the warm sun-heated skin there. She liked the noises they made as they kissed, and how hot their skin felt where it touched. Then his hand moved down to her waist, and only then did she pull back.

‘I don’t think...’ She was trying to be honest, to thrash out a deal with the devil while there was still a chance. ‘This can’t go anywhere...’

‘Agreed,’ Sebastián said.

Clearly he did not make promises he had no intention of keeping, and she could only admire him for that.

‘You don’t want a relationship and...’ she took a breath ‘...I’m in no position to have one.’

‘Yes.’

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