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Finding a selection of cereals in one of the cabinets, she poured herself a bowlful and sat down to eat. But as she swallowed the muesli she imagined Mac sitting at the table and eating his breakfast alone every morning and wondered how he dealt with the suffocating silence.
The wave of sympathy was quickly quashed as she tidied both their bowls away into the dishwasher. Don’t be daft, the silence was probably what attracted him to this place. Peace and quiet was no doubt a precious commodity to a man who made his living surrounded by people. And who said he ate alone here? He probably had a string of women he could invite to sleep over.
The minute the thought entered her head, a vision of all the women he’d shared breakfast with in his luxurious kitchen popped up to illustrate it. And every one of them looked a thousand times more at home here than she did.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Don’t even go there.
It was way too late to start panicking about Mac Brody’s other women. She was here now, not them, and that had to count for something.
She opened her eyes. Maybe a bit of sea air would help keep the nerves at bay.
As she ventured through the sliding glass door onto the terrace the stone tiles warmed the soles of her bare feet. The outdoor temperature had to be a good twenty degrees hotter than London. Despite the salt-scented breeze, her dress stuck to her skin moments after she’d left the air-conditioned cool of the house. She shielded her eyes against the glare from the sun, and spied a movement on the beach below.
A tall, tanned and painfully familiar figure st
rolled out of the surf and bent to take a T-shirt from the sand. As he rubbed it across his torso Juno’s eyes dipped to the lighter strip of flesh across his bare buttocks and the temperature shot up another twenty degrees.
Sweat dampened her armpits and her breathing stopped.
He tugged on a pair of jogging shorts and she managed a shallow breath. Picking up his sneakers, he crossed the beach in long strides, his short hair moulded to his head, the dark locks glistening in the sunshine. She wrapped her arms around her waist in a vain attempt to control the throb of arousal.
Oh, my, the man was at least as impressive as his home.
He stepped onto the terrace and his head came up, almost as if he’d scented her presence. A pair of feral blue eyes locked on her face.
He looked magnificent, the water beading on his chest and running in rivulets down the lean slopes and valleys of his abdomen. Her gaze followed the trickles that dripped from his shorts onto powerful thighs. He looked like a rampant male animal.
And he was all hers, for a little while at least.
She gulped, giddy from lack of oxygen.
‘You woke up?’ The gruff question had her eyes lifting to his face.
Had she? She was beginning to think this was all some extremely vivid and rather scary erotic dream. She nodded. ‘I helped myself to some cereal. I hope you don’t mind?’
One dark eyebrow lifted sardonically and a slow, seductive smile spread across his face. ‘Juno, you’ve my permission to help yourself to anything that takes your fancy.’
Her nipples peaked painfully and she took a jerky breath.
She might be a novice at this sort of thing, but she definitely didn’t think he was referring to his low-fat, fake-sugar, Swiss-style muesli any more. ‘Are you sure about that?’ she heard herself say.
His teeth flashed white and his eyes gleamed. ‘Absolutely.’
Her heart jumped into her throat and sweat pooled between her breasts. It was a dare, plain and simple, now all she had to do was prove she was up to the challenge.
She took a tentative step towards him, not taking her eyes from his face. Placing her fingertip against her own lips, she took a deep breath and then reached towards him.
He quivered, like a tiger ready to pounce, as her fingertip touched his pectoral muscle, but he didn’t move, giving her the sharp burst of courage she so desperately needed.
Her short, neatly trimmed fingernail trailed across his chest and traced the line of hair down his six-pack. But then she spotted the powerful erection already stretching his jogging shorts and gasped.
He swore softly and hauled her against him. ‘Enough of that, you little tease.’
His wet chest dampened the front of her dress, and she shivered despite the heat coursing through her body.
‘It’s my turn now,’ he rasped.
Before she could guess his intent, he stepped back, bent over and hoisted her onto his shoulder.
