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It all felt so different this time, she realised, for all that it was the same. This time she was older and, yes, maybe even wiser. She didn’t have to be afraid of getting drawn in and tied down to Jude. They both knew what this was—an island fling. When it was over they’d go their own ways, still friends, she hoped. It was a better ending than she’d ever hoped for, after she’d left him in London three years before.
And in the meantime...she intended to enjoy every moment they had together. The time limit made everything more intense, in her experience. That was why she kept reliving the night before over and over in her head. Why she couldn’t wait for night to fall again so she could take him to bed...
‘Right. Is that it?’ Jude jumped down from the chair he was standing on and Rosa bit her lip as his loose shirt rode up displaying those tight abs again. Tonight... ‘Are we done?’ Jude asked, dragging her back to the present.
Rosa checked her clipboard for the list Anna had given her, and scanned the area they’d been working on. ‘Believe it or not, I think we are.’
‘In that case, I’m off to take a shower.’ Jude tossed her a smile as he started unbuttoning his shirt halfway to the path. ‘I’d invite you to join me, but there’s no way you’d ever be ready to meet the bridal party then.’
‘Mmm, probably not,’ Rosa agreed, her eyes still fixed on his chest. ‘Tonight, though?’
‘Definitely tonight,’ Jude agreed. ‘I’m hoping you might even show me where that secret door that leads to your bedroom is...’
‘Ha! You should be so lucky.’
In two swift strides, Jude headed back into the courtyard and kissed her. Thoroughly. ‘Oh, I am.’
Rosa smiled after him as he finally left. Then she ran into the villa, through the secret door, and up the twisting wooden stairs to her childhood bedroom in the turret to get ready herself.
* * *
‘It looks good down here,’ Anna said as Rosa appeared. ‘And you look nice, too, actually.’
‘Thanks,’ Rosa said, surprised by the unexpected compliment. She’d dressed in a hot-pink sundress she had a feeling that Jude might enjoy stripping off her later. Her wet hair was piled up in a messy bun, and her make-up was minimal, but she felt beautiful all the same. As if she was glowing.
And she knew that was all down to Jude.
‘Their boat arrived a few minutes ago,’ Anna said, all business again. ‘I’ve got four staff members down there taking their stuff to the bungalows, and another one bringing them straight here for welcome drinks.’ She indicated the table set up with pink champagne in flutes, just inside the courtyard.
Rosa heard a noise further down the path from the villa and stepped forward to the open doorway. ‘Here they come.’
‘Okay.’ Anna took an audible breath.
‘Are you nervous?’ Rosa asked. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that emotion in her sister before.
‘Of course not.’
And then it was too late to press the issue, because the bride—instantly recognised from a million online photos—and her bridesmaids were there, all giggling and talking over each other.
Anna stepped forward and introduced herself to Valentina, who took her hand and pulled her into a hug. ‘The island looks so beautiful! Thank you so much for managing to fit us in here for the wedding. It means so much to me and Todd!’
‘It’s our pleasure,’ Anna said, sidestepping the weeks and weeks of work it had taken to be ready for the wedding.
Mind you, given how much Valentina was paying for the privilege, Rosa supposed that was only fair.
‘This is my sister, Rosa,’ Anna said, and Rosa braced herself for the over-enthusiastic welcome hug from the Internet sensation. ‘Now, if you’d like to come through to the courtyard we have welcome drinks for you all, before we take you down to get settled into your accommodation before tonight’s dinner.’
‘It seems to be going okay,’ Rosa murmured to her sister half an hour later, as waiters topped up the glasses of the bridal party—all except Valentina, who was far too busy opening last-minute wedding-week presents from her friends to hold a glass. So far she’d opened monogrammed slippers, robe, nightdress and underwear. Rosa was almost afraid to see what was in the last packages.
‘It does.’ Anna sounded relieved. ‘And here come our men,’ she added, nodding in the direction of the arch from the villa.
Rosa didn’t correct her. Just the sight of Jude standing beside Leo on the edge of the courtyard, pale where the other man was tan, but both tall and broad and gorgeous.
Except neither of them were looking at her or Anna.
Leo, understandably, headed straight for his sister, embracing her warmly. Seeing them together actually made Rosa feel a little brighter about the possibilities for her own sister’s relationship. Maybe there was more to Leo than the gossip websites would have her believe.
But when she watched Jude, her optimism for their own fling took a little knock.
How had she forgotten, even in her happy haze of lust, that his ex-girlfriend would be here? She scanned the gaggle of bridesmaids and picked out the only redhead. Sylvie Rockwell-Smythe, even more beautiful in real life than she was in her photos.
Why hadn’t she prepared herself better for this? Because she didn’t want to imagine it, Rosa admitted to herself. And because her time together with Jude here felt like such an escape from the real world, she didn’t want any of it to intrude on it.
But when the tall, willowy redhead squealed with delight and ran across to embrace Jude, Rosa was pretty sure reality had come to find them.
‘Jude!’ Valentina broke off from opening presents to welcome him, too, the redhead still hanging off his arm. ‘Sylvie didn’t tell me you were coming! How wonderful!’
‘I didn’t know!’ Sylvie gushed. She batted Jude on the arm. ‘He must have flown out here to surprise me.’
Rosa winced, thankful that Anna had headed inside to deal with the catering staff and wasn’t there to see this.
‘Not exactly,’ Jude said, his voice cool.
‘Sorry?’ Sylvie’s brows knitted together without wrinkling her forehead at all.
Suddenly Rosa looked up to find Jude’s gaze on her, his eyes beckoning her over as he disentangled himself from Sylvie’s hands. ‘Sylvie, Valentina, have you met Rosa Gray?’
CHAPTER NINE
THE FIRST THING that struck Jude as he reached the courtyard was the noise—the high, excited voices of Valentina and her bridesmaids, so different from Rosa’s warm, low, laughing tones. And then he saw her—Sylvie—her bright red hair and perfect body shining in the Spanish sunlight.
He’d thought he might love her, once, he remembered, but somehow it no longer felt real. Nothing from that world did—not when compared to swimming naked in the ocean with Rosa, with holding Rosa in his arms.
That was real. Rosa was real.
But it was Sylvie throwing herself into his arms, believing he’d arrived on the island just to surprise her.
Well, that was a misunderstanding he could clear up right away.
‘Sylvie, Valentina, have you met Rosa Gray?’ He gazed at Rosa, loving how she knew what he wanted, was almost halfway across the courtyard before he said her name.
He just hoped she’d play along a little longer.
‘We have,’ Valentina said, smiling happily, as a bride-to-be should. ‘So, is she what brought you to this beautiful island—if you’re not here for my wedding?’
‘Jude and I are old friends,’ Rosa said, returning an equally warm smile as she took his arm, pressing close in a way that showed everyone exactly what sort of friends they were. Jude’s heart seemed to settle back into a rhythm he hadn’t known it had lost as she touched him.
‘I thought I’d come spend a few weeks here visiting with Rosa this summer,’ Jude said, lightly. ‘It seemed l
ike a good time to be out of New York.’
Sylvie’s cheeks flushed a little at that, and Valentina gave them both a knowing look.
‘I heard about the book,’ she said. ‘I didn’t read it, of course. But it does seem to be everywhere at the moment.’
Strange to think that Valentina had built an entire career out of letting people see into her life—every moment, photographed and filtered and shared.
‘How do you cope with it?’ he asked, suddenly. ‘Everyone knowing every single thing that happens in your life, I mean?’
Valentina laughed. ‘Oh, Jude. They know what I want them to know. That’s the joy of controlling your own brand, the way I do. They never see more than I’m willing to show them.’
‘You show them a lot, though,’ Rosa pointed out.
Valentina shrugged her slim shoulders. ‘I owe them a lot. It’s only fair that I share plenty in return. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get to keep a few of my own secrets.’
