Page 3 of One Forbidden Night In Paradise (Hot Winter Escapes)

Welcome to my home! Use whatever you want. I made up the bed fresh and the towels are brand new.

Just a heads-up, my axe packed up yesterday and I didn’t have time to get it fixed but you can hire one in Hamilton.

Have fun,

Joan x

Joan sounded so nice, she thought, staring wistfully down at the note. It was a pity she was never going to meet her. She frowned. Why would she need an axe though? And why would she need to hire one? She turned towards where Sam was putting her bags by the door.

‘Sam, do I have to chop wood for something? Only Joan says the axe is broken.’

He laughed. ‘Axe is slang. She means her moped. That how you planning on getting around?’

Truthfully she hadn’t got that far. It was one of the many things she hadn’t had time to plan for. ‘I suppose so. But don’t I need to have a licence?’

He shook his head. ‘Not if you’re hiring one. The Cycle Shack is the place to go. It’s down by the harbour. I’ll drop you there on my way back to the airport.’

The Cycle Shack clearly did a whole lot more than hire out bikes and mopeds. It also sold hardware, fresh coffees and acted as a collection and drop-off point for post and parcels. And judging by the people milling around chatting and greeting one another, it was also a popular place just to hang out.

There was a meandering queue weaving round the store. Finally she reached the front. The woman behind the counter smiled. ‘Good morning, how can I help you today?’

‘I need to hire a moped. Or at least I think I do. I should probably try one first.’

‘Okay. Let me get someone to come and help you.’

As she disappeared out the back, still smiling, Jem heard her phone ping and, pulling it out of her bag, she saw that in response to her photo Holly had sent her a GIF of a coconut falling on someone’s head.

Predictably, Ed had left her unread.

Sighing, she looked up just as a man wearing a red baseball cap wandered into the room, clutching a cardboard box. He slid the box onto the counter, glanced up briefly, just long enough for her to catch a flash of green as her eyes bumped into his, and then picked up a clipboard and turned away.

Her pulse twitched, and she felt heat spill over her face. He had clearly seen her, and she waited for him to look up and greet her, noticing in the meantime and almost against her will how his white T-shirt clung to the contoured muscles of his shoulders, but he didn’t turn and finally she cleared her throat.

He still didn’t turn, and she felt a flicker of irritation. ‘Excuse me. Do you think you could help me?’

Now he turned and straightened up, and she felt her pulse jerk forward as eyes the colour of uncut emeralds met hers. Beneath the cap, he was astonishingly, shockingly beautiful. Hard, high cheekbones; a straight jaw and a curving, sensuous mouth that was edged by a dusting of stubble. He might not have noticed her but his looks and height basically commanded attention. ‘Help you?’ His voice was deep and husky. She liked it.

And she was not the only one, she realised, as the woman standing behind her murmured, ‘You sure can, baby.’

A smile tugged at his mouth as his gaze flickered towards the woman, and then he was moving towards Jem with the careless grace of a pirate swaggering across the deck of his ship.

The careless what?

Slightly disconcerted by that mental image, and hoping her face wasn’t as hot-looking as it felt, she nodded stiffly. ‘Yes, please. If you’re not too busy.’

Oh, great.For some reason she couldn’t explain, she was using what Holly and Ed called her ‘headmistress’ voice.

As he came to a stop directly in front of her, her stomach tightened and she felt a prickle beneath her skin like pins and needles.

‘How can I be of help?’ he said softly.

Her ribs squeezed around her lungs. Up close his eyes were not just green. There were flecks of blue and brown and gold so that it was like looking into a kaleidoscope. And yet there was something raw about him, something irrefutably male that didn’t go with those rainbow eyes.

It was impossible to look away.

He knew it too. But then on an island this small he probably had the pick of the women.

‘I need some way to get around the island,’ she began a little breathlessly, ‘so if I could get some advice...’

---