AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Feel like taking a break, having a drink?’ Zac asked.
Definitely. Anything to put some space between them. ‘Good idea.’ She immediately turned for their table.
Waving at a waiter, Zac pulled out a chair. ‘Take the weight off.’
When he sat down beside her his chair was way too close, but she was reluctant to make a show of moving away. Anyway, she didn’t have the strength to resist him at the moment. Glancing at her watch, she sighed. The band was booked for at least another hour. Sneaking off to her room and that huge comfortable-looking bed was not yet an option.
The champagne was cool and delicious. ‘Perfect.’ She settled further into her chair. ‘You keep dancing, if you want. I don’t need babysitting.’
Zac chuckled. ‘Dancing has never been one of my favourite pastimes.’
‘But you’re good at it. You’ve got the moves.’ Ouch. Shouldn’t have said that.
That devastating smile returned briefly. ‘I’d say thanks except you seemed to nearly fall asleep while we were shaking our hips.’
‘I can’t believe how tired I am. Probably won’t go to sleep for hours when I finally make it to my room. My muscles feel like they’re pulled tighter than a tourniquet.’
‘What you need is a few days away somewhere where no one can reach you to talk about work, or fundraising, or anything more stressful than what you’d like for dinner.’ Zac sipped his drink. ‘When did you last take time off?’
She thought about it. Glanced at him. Remembered. ‘It was a while ago.’
‘A little over eighteen months ago maybe?’
‘Maybe.’ Zac had booked three nights at a retreat on Waiheke Island. They’d only managed one night before he’d returned home after his brother had been admitted to hospital with a collapsed lung.
While accepting he had to go, Olivia had been disappointed he’d not returned to the resort later. She sometimes wondered—if they’d had the whole time together would they have got to know each other a little better outside the bedroom?
‘I might as well have stayed with you,’ Zac muttered, as if reading her mind.
Olivia’s stomach flipped. ‘What? Your family needed you.’ So had she, but not as much.
‘No, they didn’t.’
‘But they phoned you.’
He shook his head. ‘My grandfather called to let me know about Mark. Not my parents.’
She wanted to say that made sense if his parents had rushed to be with his brother, but something in his eyes stopped her, told her she was wrong. ‘You don’t get along—’
‘Mind if I join you both for a moment?’ Paul plonked himself down without waiting for an answer.
Relief flicked across Zac’s face. ‘Can I get you a drink, Paul?’
‘No, thanks. I won’t take up much of your time.’ Leaning back in the chair, he studied first Zac then her so thoroughly she began to think she had chocolate mousse on her chin.
The band stopped for a short break and most people were making their way to the tables. And Paul still wasn’t saying anything. She ran her fingers across her chin, came up clean. She glanced at Zac, who shrugged his shoulders.
Finally, Paul pulled an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket and Olivia instantly recognised it as an item that had been auctioned earlier. A trip somewhere. There’d been a few trips auctioned tonight but she thought Paul’s one had been to Fiji.
As he laid the envelope on the table between her and Zac she felt a flutter of trepidation in her stomach. She couldn’t keep her eyes off that large white envelope or the finger tapping it, as though it was beating out her fate.
‘This is for the two of you. Five nights at Tokoriki Island Resort on the west side of Fiji’s mainland.’
No. No, please, no. Tell me Paul didn’t say that. I can’t go anywhere with Zac, and certainly not somewhere as intimate as a resort in Fiji.
Olivia slowly raised her gaze to Zac and saw him looking as stunned as she felt. ‘It’s kind of you, Paul, but I have to say no.’
‘Zac? What do you think?’ Paul looked a little smug.
It didn’t matter what Zac thought. She wasn’t going.
A few days far away from everything and everyone with only Zac for company held a certain appeal. White beaches, warm sea, palm trees bending in the breeze, and… And Zac.
‘It’s a no from me too. Thank you, though.’
Paul wasn’t easily fobbed off. ‘Think before rejecting my offer out of hand, both of you.’
Olivia shook her head. One evening with Zac had her in a state of longing and wonder. She would never cope with being stuck on a tiny island with him for a week.
‘What’s this about?’ Zac asked in a surprisingly level tone, his eyes fixed on the man issuing the challenge.
‘Look at you. You’re exhausted. I know you haven’t had a break all year. You need a holiday. So does Olivia. Why not someplace exotic? This timeshare bure is on an island catering for approximately twenty couples at any one time. No children allowed. All meals provided, massages as well.’ Paul smiled.
Any other time she’d be drooling at the thought of going. But never with the man sitting beside her, looking as perplexed as she felt.
‘It sounds wonderful, but you’re expecting Zac and me to go together?’ Olivia shook her head. Not going to happen. Looking at Zac, she could see the lines at the edges of his mouth. He was tired. It had taken Paul pointing it out for her to notice.
‘You have two weeks to choose between, both in July, so you’ll need to get your heads together quickly.’
Which part of ‘I’m not going’ doesn’t Paul understand? ‘July’s two weeks away. I can’t just pack my bag and leave my patients in the lurch.’
‘Neither can I,’ Zac growled.
Paul hadn’t finished. ‘I’ll cover for you, Zac, and I’m sure we can find someone to pick up the reins in your department for five days, CC.’
‘You still haven’t said why you’re doing this. Us needing a holiday doesn’t cover such generosity.’ Zac sipped his drink, a thoughtful expression on his handsome face.
An expression that worried Olivia. He’d better not be considering this crazy idea. She snapped, ‘It doesn’t matter why. It’s not going to happen.’ Knowing how ungrateful that sounded, and yet annoyed that Paul thought he could m
anipulate them, she added, ‘It’s a lovely offer, Paul, but I’m turning you down.’
The moment the words left her mouth she was regretting the lost opportunity. A holiday would be fabulous right now. Keeping up her usual number of patients and working on this gala fundraiser had finally caught up with her. Throw in her mum’s latest crisis, and heading offshore to somewhere she’d be pampered sounded better and better. A sideways glance at Zac and she couldn’t deny that going away with him didn’t have appeal. Her head snapped up. She was not going anywhere with Zac.
Someone coughed. ‘I’ll cover for you, Olivia.’ A colleague at Auckland Surgical Hospital sat on the other side of the table, looking completely relaxed about the whole scenario. ‘You know you’ve been wanting to get away for a while now. The timing couldn’t be better. Leave it another couple of months and I’ll be on maternity leave.’
Thanks a million. You obviously haven’t heard the whole conversation, especially the bit about Zac going too. But as Olivia glared at the woman she felt herself wavering. This might be working out too easily, but did that mean she shouldn’t be considering it? Should she be grabbing that envelope and rushing home to pack, or was it wiser to continue refusing Paul’s kindness?
Zac was watching her with something akin to an annoying challenge in his eyes. ‘What about it, CC? It could be fun.’
‘It could be a nightmare.’ How would she remain aloof when they were sharing accommodation on an island with very few people around for distraction? How would she be able to control herself with that hot bod so close for days on end?
Pulling her gaze from that infuriating taunt in Zac’s eyes, she looked around the now-crowded table and found everyone watching, waiting for her answer, almost as though they were all challenging her.
You never turn down a dare, remember?
She’d never had one quite like this, though. She could not go on holiday with the man she’d had to walk away from once already. Not when he’d got her in a tangle of emotions within minutes of turning up in the hotel earlier that afternoon. She’d never survive with her heart and her brain functioning normally if she spent five days and nights in the same space as Zac.
