“I planned on sorting through the tools I’ll need tonight, and if I have another piece, I won’t be able to move.”
“I can carry you.” He flexes impressive biceps. “Gives me a chance to show off.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
I throw it out there as a challenge, to see if he’s honest enough to verbalise the intangible buzz between us.
“Because you’re hot, and I like you.”
Kudos to Linc, but it doesn’t change the facts. I’m here to work, not screw around.
“Code for you’ve been stuck on this island for a while and need sex.”
He rears back a little, like I’ve poked him, and his mouth hardens into a thin line.
“For what it’s worth, I live in Brisbane and only spend a few months a year on this island. I returned last week because it’s my turn to run things around here until I can escape again. As for sex, I don’t need it.”
He eyeballs me, and I swallow as I glimpse desire. “But I want it. With you.”
Disconcerted by his blunt intensity, I blurt out the first thing that pops into my head. “How old are you, anyway?”
His eyebrows arch in surprise. “Twenty-six. Is that a problem?”
“It is if I’m forty.”
“You’re forty?” He makes it sound like I’m an octogenarian as he gapes a little, before recovering his wits. “What I meant to say is, you look younger than me.”
“Flattery won’t change my mind about having sex with you.”
But it has a little.
“Then what will?”
For a moment, I’m tempted to say ‘fuck it’ and invite him back to the cottage I’m staying in. But it’s my first night on the island, and I don’t want to set a precedent.
Like you might let loose and have some fun for once in your boring life?
Willing my inner voice of reason to shut the hell up, I say, “I have a job to do here, and that’s it.”
The corners of his mouth kick up, and my heart does an annoying backflip. “But you’re on a tropical island. Surely you can pretend for a night or two that you’re on vacation and I’m the lucky guy you want to have a fling with?”
I roll my eyes, but can’t help but smile. “If it makes you feel any better, if I were inclined to have a fling, I’d choose you.”
His eyes light up, and I mentally kick myself for giving him hope.
“Okay, Vera, have it your way. I’ll let you focus on work for a day, maybe two.” He leans closer, and my skin prickles with his proximity. “But after that? All bets are off.”
As long as my clothes don’t follow.
7
LINCOLN
As promised, I avoid Vera for two days.
It’s hell, because I saw the way she looked at me during our impromptu picnic on the beach on Boxing Day, so I know she wants me as much as I want her.
Whatever my idiotic brothers may say—West, Kai, and Walker have said a lot over the last few days, teasing me about anything and everything from being a boy toy to having blue balls—this thing I have for Vera isn’t going away.
