Page 19 of One Forbidden Night In Paradise (Hot Winter Escapes)

‘Are you hungry?’ he asked, breaking the taut silence.

Yes: but not for food.

The knots inside her tightened. It was a small consolation that she hadn’t said it out loud but something in his eyes made her think that he had heard her unspoken thoughts.

She shook her head. ‘No, I’m actually quite tired. It’s been a long day. I might call it a night.’

Night.

The word whispered between them, conjuring up darkness and the white heat of his skin in the moonlight, and for a moment neither of them spoke, and then he nodded. ‘Good idea. I need to speak to Robyn and then I’ll be heading back to the boat. Enjoy the rest of your holiday. I’ll get someone to let you know when you can get back into the beach house.’ He hesitated, a muscle flickering in his jaw, and she felt a tremor ripple through her as his green gaze roamed her face.

‘Get some sleep, Jemima,’ he said softly, and then he turned and strode back the way they had come.

Was that it?

She stared around the empty bathroom feeling oddly disappointed by his sudden departure. Which was ridiculous as she’d not even said goodbye to him this morning.

Her heartbeat stalled against her ribs. Was it only this morning? It felt like a lifetime ago. No wonder she was feeling so thrown. But it wasn’t just the timescale that was messing with her head. Less than twenty-four hours ago they had been tearing each other’s clothes off in a frenzy of passion and need. Now he was talking to her as if she were a guest at his hotel. The distance between them was putting her teeth on edge.

In the bathroom, she glanced at the bath, then the shower. But she could wait until tomorrow. For some reason she felt oddly shy about getting undressed when Chase was in the house, which was also ridiculous given that he had already seen her naked. And not just seen her. He had touched her too.

She screwed up her face, irritated to find Chase Farrar back in her head again. He wasn’t supposed to be there but, probably because she was in his house, every thought she had seemed to lead inexorably to him.

But only if you let it, she told herself crossly. She brushed her teeth without looking in the mirror and then forced herself to undress slowly. Pulling on an oversized T-shirt, she climbed into bed.

It was like climbing onto a cloud. Or what she imagined it might feel like climbing onto a cloud. Soft and cocooning yet also inexplicably light. And yet she couldn’t fall asleep.

Shifting onto her side, she shivered all the way through. She knew why. Being here in Chase’s house was obviously going to be unsettling. But if she wasn’t going to let him back into bed with her, she was damned if she was going to let him back into her head. It must be the waves keeping her awake, she told herself firmly. She could hear them through the window and they sounded louder than last night, heavier almost. But perhaps this particular island was more exposed.

She must have fallen asleep at some point because she woke with a jolt, her heart hammering against her ribs. Rolling over, she found her phone and clicked on the screen. It was not even ten o’clock. She lay there in the darkness for a few moments, but this had happened so many times in the past she knew there was no point in just lying there.

It was better to get up and get a cup of camomile tea and read a book than watch the clock mark the hour and half-hour until dawn. And if Robyn wasn’t up, she could easily sort herself out.

The house itself was silent but the sound of the wind and the waves accompanied her as she made her way downstairs. She was using the torch on her phone to guide her but everything felt different in the darkness and the sound of her feet moving lightly across the smooth floorboards made her feel like an intruder, not a guest.

Wishing she could switch on the lights, she tiptoed into the living room only to realise that it wasn’t necessary. Eyes widening, she stopped to gaze through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that covered three sides of the room.

There was a storm out at sea. High above the white-capped waves the lightning was criss-crossing the night sky, flickering between the dark, scudding clouds like a strobe light at a rock concert.

‘Impressive, isn’t it?’

The voice caught her by surprise, and, startled, she spun round. Her stomach did a tiny, clumsy somersault. Chase was sprawled out on the sofa, his green eyes gleaming catlike in the shadows, a laptop half open on the coffee table beside him.

‘It’s amazing,’ she agreed, pressing her hand against a nearby armchair to steady herself. What was he doing up? Why did he have to be here now?

His gaze skimmed lightly across her oversized T-shirt, and her body reacted, the hair on her arms prickling to attention, her breasts suddenly heavy against the light cotton fabric. He had changed clothes too. Now he was wearing grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt, and his hair looked tousled as if he’d been sleeping. Actually he looked like an invitation to sin, she thought, her heart jumping in her throat as he sat up and stretched, his T-shirt tightening around his contoured chest.

But just because she’d played with fire and not got burnt, didn’t mean that she should stir the embers, and, hoping that none of what she was thinking was visible on her face, she said, ‘I thought you were going back to your boat.’

He shrugged. ‘Storm came in bigger and closer and faster than predicted so I decided to wait until morning and catch up on my emails instead.’ He gestured towards the laptop. ‘That’s the great thing about the modern world: someone’s always at work somewhere.’

His green eyes found hers and, needing distance from that too intense gaze, she took a step backwards. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.’

Chase stared at Jemima in silence, his whole body tensing.

It was a bit late for that, he thought. The storm might have stopped him from getting back to theMiranda, but Jemima was the reason he was wide awake, lying on this sofa, pretending to read his emails. Apparently knowing that she was lying in bed in the same house as him was a green light for his imagination so that his head was full to bursting with feverish images of her.

And that was before she’d come tiptoeing into the living room wearing nothing but a T-shirt. It was shapeless and so oversized that it would be impossible to guess at what lay beneath. Unfortunately, he didn’t need to guess.

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