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He held her huge, stunned eyes with his. ‘I take full responsibility.’
Her mouth twisted. ‘I kissed you.’
‘And I kissed you back. But I shouldn’t have done. I wouldn’t have done it, but you were upset.’
‘Upset!’ She stared at him and frowned. ‘Are you saying you felt sorry for me?’
Before he could answer, her lip began curling up in shock and fury.
‘Thanks, but I don’t need your pity.’ She was trembling.
‘That’s not what I meant. It’s been a difficult few days. Your emotions are running high...’
‘So now you’re blaming me?’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘What happened to “I take full responsibility”?’
‘Leave it, Dora,’ he ordered.
Watching her chin jerk up, he knew his tone had been too sharp, but he didn’t need to make a bad situation worse by engaging in some futile post-mortem on her impulsiveness and his lack of restraint.
‘Just go back to the house and check on Archie.’
For a pregnant moment she stared at him in silence, and then she turned and stalked back the way she’d come.
He didn’t watch her leave. Instead he took a breath and began walking in the other direction, before he could do anything else that might ruin his chances of keeping his promise to his father.
Like following her.
CHAPTER FIVE
IT WAS A beautiful day.
Shielding her eyes from the sun, Dora shifted lower on her lounger. In front of her, the mirror-smooth surface of the oval-shaped swimming pool beckoned like an oasis in the desert. Beside her chair, the ice was melting in a tall glass of mango-and-coconut smoothie.
In another lifetime this would be a near-perfect afternoon, she thought, looking up into the cloudless blue sky.
Unfortunately every silver lining had a cloud. And in this case the cloud was about six feet tall, with intense dark eyes and a jawline you could lathe wood on.
She glanced furtively over to where Charlie stood in the pool, holding Archie. She felt her heart contract. The baby was pounding the water with his fists, his little face rapt with excitement beneath his sun hat.
He looked adorable. She must get a photo, she thought, picking up her phone. But as she gazed at the screen she felt the muscles in her back tense.
All through breakfast and for most of the morning she had studiously avoided looking at Charlie. Now, though, thanks to the magic of modern technology, she could see him unfiltered and close up, and her fingers twitched against the phone, moving of their own accord to zoom in on him.
Her mouth dried. Yesterday she had imagined what he’d look like naked. Now she knew.
Her eyes drifted hungrily over the smooth skin of his back and the sweeping muscles of his shoulders. He looked as good as he’d felt. Her heartbeat accelerated, and before she had a chance to edit her thoughts she was back in that clearing, with her body pressed against the solid wall of his chest, the pulse between her thighs pounding in time to the ocean waves.
Remembering her hunger, her eagerness, she breathed out unsteadily, a flush of heat rising up over her throat and face.
It would have been so easy to surrender to that hunger. She had been lost in the moment...her pulse chasing his fingers as they’d slid over her body, shaping and sharpening her desire.
She had kissed men before, but she had never remembered any of those kisses. Not like this. Not like with Charlie.
She felt as if she was at one of those art installations where a video played on a loop, so that she could watch and re-watch every single second from that moment she had leaned into him right up to when he had called a halt.
She felt a prickling sensation and, refocusing on her phone screen, she felt her stomach flip. Charlie was staring over at her, his dark eyes magnified so that for a moment it was as though he was right there in front of her.
‘Can you turn Archie towards me?’ she managed. ‘He’s looking the wrong way.’ Cheeks burning, she made a show of framing the shot. ‘Thanks.’
