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‘Yes,’ Georgie said. ‘I’m a bit of a soft touch when it comes to little kids.’
‘So you want to have some of your own?’
Georgie poked her painted toenails into the sand. ‘Yes, but I want to finish my fellowship first.’
‘But that’s four years away and Ben will be nearly forty!’ Hannah gasped.
Georgie swung her gaze to Hannah’s. ‘I’m your brother’s current registrar, not the future mother of his children,’ she said with as much force as she could muster. ‘Besides,’ she added for effect, ‘I’ve been told by a clairvoyant I’m going to marry a blond man.’
Hannah gave her a scathing look. ‘You don’t believe in all that nonsense, do you?’
Georgie hitched up one brow. ‘Who was asking me what my star sign was an hour or so ago?’
Hannah gave her a sheepish smile. ‘Sorry, but I really like you and I want Ben to find someone who won’t let him down, like Leila did. You’d make a fantastic sister-in-law, and think of the fun we could have, shopping and doing our hair and make-up.’
Georgie smiled back. ‘You’re a real sweetie, Hannah. But I don’t want you to get your hopes up when life might have other plans.’
A tall shadow blocked out the glare of the sun and some droplets of sea water landed on Georgie’s shoulders. She looked up into Ben’s dark blue gaze and her stomach did a funny little dance-like shuffle that sent aftershocks down her legs to her toes.
‘Have you both got sunscreen on?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Georgie and Hannah answered in unison.
‘Good,’ he said. He reached for the bottle and handed it to his sister. ‘Can you do my back, Hannah?’
‘I’m just off to the loo,’ she said, leaping to her feet and thrusting the bottle into Georgie’s hands. ‘Georgie will do it, won’t you, Georgie?’
Georgie took the bottle. ‘Er … yes …’
‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to,’ Ben said when Hannah had scampered off.
‘It’s fine,’ she said with a tight little smile. ‘I wouldn’t want you to blame me some time in the future for getting a melanoma.’
Ben could hardly concentrate on her words as her soft little hands began to smooth the lotion over his back. He could feel his whole body spring to life under her exquisite touch, the stroke and glide of her hands and fingers making his blood surge away from his brain where he most needed it to remind himself of how dumb it would be to get involved with her. She had only been on the unit a week and the rumours were already flying. And now Hannah was actively encouraging a liaison between them. Sure, it felt good to have his kid sister’s instant approval but that didn’t mean he had to dive head first into a relationship with the daughter of a man who had done his best to sabotage his career before it had even got off the ground.
He suppressed a sigh of pleasure as her hands skated over his shoulder blades. He wanted her to do his front and not just his chest but lower where he was aching to feel the satin softness of her fingers.
Georgie couldn’t believe the way Ben felt under her fingertips. She had been dreaming of doing this, running her hands over him, feeling the hard-muscled smoothness of his skin, sensing the inherent strength and power of him just beneath the surface. She wished she had the courage to push him down on the towel on his back and do his front, lingering over his taut pectoral muscles, circling the indentation of his belly button before going lower where a trail of dark masculine hair disappeared tantalisingly into his board shorts, over a well-formed six-pack.
She had hung around gyms ever since her late teenage years but in all that time she hadn’t seen anyone with the spectacular build he had. It wasn’t grotesquely overdone, as some male gym junkies aspired to. Instead, it spoke of a man who loved his sport but knew how to maximise its benefits without compromising his health and vigour.
‘Do you want me to do yours?’ Ben asked into the silence.
‘I—I’m fine …’
He took the bottle from her hands and squirted some of the contents out into the palm of his hand. ‘Turn around,’ he commanded. ‘You’ve been in the water so what you put on earlier would have washed off by now.’
She wriggled away from the temptation of his touch. ‘It’s waterproof for four hours.’
His eyes clashed with hers. ‘You rubbed my back so it’s only fair that I rub yours, right?’
Georgie turned around rather than have that blue gaze see too much. ‘Um … right …’
She tried to disguise her sucked-in breath as his hands ran over her in long slow movements that sent a shockwave of reaction across the floor of her belly. Her traitorous thoughts started to drift away from her control. How would it be to have his hands on her in other more intimate places? Her body was already tingling with sensations she had never felt before. It was as if he had cast a spell on her or something. He had only to look at her with those dark eyes of his and she felt like rolling over and playing bed.
‘Ben! Georgie! Come quickly.’ Hannah rushed up to them, her feet kicking sand in all directions in her haste. ‘Someone’s been injured by a surfboard.’
Ben dropped the bottle of sunscreen and sprang to his feet as he saw the lifeguards bringing in a surfer with blood seeping from a gash on his forehead. As far as he could tell, the young man was unconscious as the lifeguards placed him on the mat under the shade of the surf club tent and rolled him onto his side into the coma position.
