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It was very true—two was company and three a crowd, she thought ruefully. Joan and Anne had met a couple of young German tourists and decided to go with the young men on their very organised three-week walking and camping holiday around the whole island. Jacy couldn't help thinking that it was a very Teutonic trait to divide a beautiful island like Corfu into squares on a map and decide to camp in every one. It certainly wasn't Jacy's idea of a holiday; but then neither was being left on her own in a three-bedroom-apartment for the rest of the month.
She stretched out her long legs and dabbled her feet in the water, putting her hands behind her on the ground to support her lounging position. She was completely unaware of how stunning she looked. Her youthful face glowed with health and vitality, her long golden hair trailed over her shoulders in a mass of glittering curls, and the brief sea-green bikini she wore revealed every line of her curvaceous figure.
Paleokastritsa was perhaps the most beautiful place on Corfu, but today Jacy had walked from the tourist beach across the promontory to a small harbour, with the ferry-boats docked along one side and the glass-bottom boats that ran excursions from the harbour. A few fishing-boats also lay idly at anchor. Jacy had chosen the spot simply because the café only a few yards behind her was much less expensive than the ones around the main beach. She had just finished her lunch, a pizza and a glass of wine, and was wondering how she was going to spend the rest of the day when she'd spotted the lobster prison.
'With your colouring, you should be careful, lady— unless you want to end up looking like my lobsters.' A slightly accented voice broke into Jacy's reverie, and, straightening up, she turned her head to look at the man who had spoken.
She was struck dumb. She'd heard of Greek gods and seen pictures of the same, but the man standing to the left and slightly behind her was over six feet tall and breathtaking. Her eyes lifted up over a pair of long, muscular bronzed legs, parted as he straddled the sharp rocks at his feet. Skimpy denim cut-offs barely covered his essential maleness, and a line of black hair arrowed from beneath the denim over a hard flat belly to branch out over a broad chest in curling splendour. Wide shoulders supported a strong neck and proud head. Thick black curly hair tumbled over a wide brow and beautifully arched black eyebrows framed the deepest brown sparkling eyes Jacy had ever seen. A straight classic nose topped a generously curved mouth that widened in a brilliant smile.
'Your lobsters,' she murmured, and blushed scarlet at the sensual appreciation in his dark eyes. Thank God she hadn't set them free, she thought! He was obviously the fisherman, and she instantly hated the idea of upsetting the gorgeous man in any way.
'Yes, and perhaps I can persuade you to share one with me tonight.' He lowered his large frame down on to the ground beside her, seemingly impervious to the rocky terrain. 'That is if you don't already have a date?' he queried, his handsome face now much closer to her own.
'No-no, I don't,' she hastened to tell him, and found herself explaining her friends' desertion, unconsciously revealing the loneliness she had been feeling for the past two days.
'Friends like that you could do without,' he said shortly.
'Oh, I'm not blaming them,' she said hastily. She didn't want this lovely man to think she was a whingeing kind of girl. 'They...' She had been going to say 'fell in love', but somehow it seemed rather infantile, and not strictly true. She had slowly realised over the past few weeks that Joan and Anne were far more sophisticated and experienced than she herself was. They had dated quite a few men on their travels, sometimes staying away all night, and Jacy had begun to feel like a naive child in comparison.
'They will have my undying gratitude, little girl, if you will just tell me your name and allow me to entertain you for the rest of your holiday.'
Jacy lifted her head and looked at the man now sitting beside her. 'It's Jacy,' she said shyly.
'Jacy—a lovely name for a lovely girl.' And, placing his large tanned hand over hers on the earth, he added, 'I am Leo.' He lifted her hand and without the support she fell sideways against him as he solemnly shook her hand.
The brush of her bare arm against his chest sent quivers tingling down her spine. She blushed hotly at the unfamiliar feeling that his touch aroused but, remembering her manners, with a shy smile she murmured, 'How do you do?'
'So formal. I like that.' His brown eyes twinkled with laughter as he studied her flushed face. His gaze dropped to the gentle curves of her breasts exposed by the tiny green bikini top, then back to her scarlet face. 'And you blush so becomingly,' he teased, then jumping to his feet he dragged her up to stand beside him. 'I'm delighted to make your acquaintance, Jacy, and if you will permit I will show you my beautiful island. I will be your own personal tour guide, hmm?'
'Yes please,' she said breathlessly, completely bewitched by the glint in his dark eyes and the warm smile lighting his handsome face. 'But what about your work?' she asked, glancing down at the lobster cage.
'What do you know about my work?' he demanded.
Jacy looked up into his now unsmiling face, surprised at the sudden harshness in his tone. It hit her forcibly; the laughing young man suddenly looked older, more mature, and she wondered just how old he was. 'Well... noth... nothing,' she stammered. Perhaps he felt she was belittling his job as a simple fisherman? Hastily she reassured him, 'I think being a fisherman must be very hard work—I only meant, can you take time off whenever you like?' She watched as his harsh face relaxed once more into a friendly smile.
'Let me worry about that, Jacy.' And, once more catching her hand in his, he led her along the shore to the pier. 'Come and I'll show you my boat, and if you're very good I'll teach you how to fish...'
/> For Jacy, the next two weeks turned into a dream. Leo's boat was her first surprise: a very modern motor-boat fitted out with a galley and large comfortable cabin and shower-room; and on deck all the fittings for big-game fishing. Leo briefly explained that he sometimes took people out shark-fishing. She automatically thought he meant tourists; it was only much later that she realised her mistake.
Their first dinner-date was spent on board the boat, sitting on the deck sharing succulently cooked lobster with a simple salad and a bottle of wine. The night sky was a mass of glittering stars and the moon on the dark water a perfect back-drop for the romantic meal. When after midnight he drove her back to her apartment in a rather beaten-up jeep, he kissed her lightly on the lips and murmured a husky goodnight, promising to call for her early the next morning. In bed she had gone over every minute of the evening in her mind. She'd learned that he was twenty-nine, and had been born in Corfu. Later when she looked back she realised how clever he had been. That was about all she had ever found out about him.
They spent long hot days sailing, swimming, laughing and joking, sharing almost every meal; it was paradise to Jacy, and day by day her fascination with Leo grew until she finally admitted to herself that she was for the first time in her young life in love.
The sight of Leo standing on the bow of the boat dressed in brief black Spandex trunks ready to dive into the deep blue of the Ionian Sea was enough to stop the breath in her throat. He was so male, a glorious golden-brown god, and she couldn't believe her luck that he had chosen her from all the lovely girls staying around Paleokastritsa.
'Come on, lazybones, join me!' Leo shouted from the water.
Jacy needed no further urging and, running to the side of the boat, she dived into the welcoming depths. 'Race you to the shore,' she shouted, and set off at a fast crawl for the small beach some two hundred yards away. They had dropped anchor at a small cove that Leo assured her was inaccessible from the land and completely private.
Suddenly something hard fastened around her slender ankle and she felt herself pulled beneath the surface of the water. Two strong arms wrapped around her bikini-clad body and a firm mouth closed over hers. She clung to his broad shoulders, the water around them doing nothing to cool the searing heat inside her as the kiss went on and on. She wrapped her long legs around his and their limbs became entwined. Finally, they floated to the surface and, breaking the kiss, both gasped lung-fulls of fresh air.
Still clinging to her, Leo looked into her dazed golden eyes. 'God, but I want you, Jacy!' His feet found the sea-bed, but Jacy was still out of her depth—in more ways than one.
'And I want you,' she sighed, her small hands curving around his neck and ruffling the long dark curls plastered to his proud head by the warm water. He was everything she had ever wanted, she realised; nothing else in the world mattered to her as much as this man. For a second her golden eyes shadowed. Was it wise to be so obsessed with one person? But then Leo's lips once more found hers and all her doubts vanished.
'Open your mouth for me,' he husked against her lips, and willingly she complied. His tongue explored the moist dark cavern and she reciprocated in kind. Her heart pounded in her chest as Leo slipped one hand around her neck and removed the halter-top of her bikini before sliding to cup one perfectly formed breast in the palm of his hand. His thumb stroked lightly over the rosy nipple, and she gasped into his mouth as her breast hardened with his touch. Her head fell back as he trailed a row of soft kisses down her throat to the now pouting peak of her breast, then his mouth closed over the rigid tip and a small cry escaped her parted lips. Her slender legs gripped his muscular thighs even tighter and she heard him groan low in his throat as he reluctantly lifted his head from her breast.
She felt the heated pulse of his arousal hard against the most sensitive part of her; only two tiny fragments of cloth separated them from the completion they both ached for. The gentle lapping of the water around them did nothing to assuage the burning desire reflected in the black eyes that met her dazed golden ones.
