Aunt Lucy's Lover

‘What else did Lucy tell you about me?’ she demanded.

‘Nothing much.’ He shrugged. ‘She said you looked and seemed very…efficient. That’s about it. You must appreciate Lucy found out as little about you in your brief meeting as you did about her.’

He was lying. Aunt Lucy had told him something else, something that had made him stare at her when they’d first met. But it was clear he wasn’t going to tell her. She felt quite frustrated with him. And totally frustrated with herself.

Dear God, it was as well he was on the other side of the room, for as she looked at him now, she felt the urge to reach out and touch, to see if his long golden hair was as silky as it seemed, to know if his bronzed skin was as satiny smooth as it looked.

The man was a menace! Why couldn’t he have been rising sixty, with a paunch and a greying beard? she thought irritably. Why did he have to be a golden god with eyes one could drown in and a mouth to tempt even the most frigid virgin?

‘Have you decided which bedroom you want to sleep in?’ he asked abruptly.

Yours, came the wicked thought before she could stop it entering her mind.

Jessica took a deep, steadying breath. ‘No,’ she said. ‘But not Lucy’s. I wouldn’t feel comfortable in Lucy’s room.’

‘Which leaves you four to choose from, since I have no intention of giving you mine.’

‘It’s hard to choose,’ she said. ‘From what I can remember they were all beautiful.’

‘The view is better on the southern side,’ he advised, ‘and you get more breezes in the evening.’

‘Which side is the southern side?’

‘This side. My side. I’ll put your case in the room next to mine, shall I?’

‘Oh, er, all right.’

‘Good.’ He bent to pick up the heavy case, the movement highlighting the sleekly defined muscles in his chest and upper arms.

‘I know you probably promised my aunt you would try to persuade me to stay, Sebastian,’ she burst out, a type of panic invading her at the thought of spending a whole month in the bedroom next to his. ‘But the truth is… I simply could not bear to live permanently on Norfolk Island.’

He straightened and looked at her with suppressed exasperation in his eyes. ‘How do you know that? You haven’t tried it.’

‘You don’t have to climb Mount Everest to know that it’s freezing cold up there,’ she said defensively.

‘Meaning?’

‘Life here is too slow for me. And far too quiet. I’d be bored in no time.’

His eyes locked with hers across the room, and she felt instantly breathless.

‘You think so?’ he said with a taunting softness.

‘I know so.’

‘You know nothing, Jessica,’ he said with an almost weary sigh. ‘Just as I knew nothing when I first came here. But I won’t bore you by telling you about my experience. I can see Evie’s quite wrong. You won’t change your mind. Still, perhaps it’s just as well. You really don’t suit the island any more than it suits you.’

His eyes became cold again as they raked over her. ‘No. You’re much better suited to a career in Sydney. I dare say having to stay here for a whole month has inconvenienced you no end.’

Jessica resented the underlying contempt in his voice. Who was he to judge anyone? ‘Yes, it has, actually,’ she said curtly. ‘I might have risked my job in dropping everything and coming at once.’

‘Pardon me if my heart doesn’t bleed for you. I’m sure your inheritance will more than compensate for any inconvenience. And if you lose your job, then what the hell? You’ll survive till you get the next one.’

‘You still believe all I care about is the money, don’t you?’

‘If the cap fits, wear it, Jessica.’

‘I have not come just for the money!’

‘Whatever you say.’ His expression was distant, as though he didn’t give a damn either way.

‘Lunch in ten minutes!’ Evie called from the depths of the house. ‘I’ll serve it out on the back veranda.’

‘Fine, Evie,’ Sebastian called down the hallway before turning to face Jessica. ‘Let’s get you along to your room,’ he said briskly. ‘You might like to shower and change before lunch. I know I do. I probably smell of fish. I threw away my T-shirt earlier because it was high as a kite, but I think I must still be on the nose a bit. I couldn’t help but notice you run a mile every time I get too close.’

Jessica found some relief that this was what he thought. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she fancied him. My God, the last thing she’d wanted—or expected—was to fancy him at all!

She wasn’t sure why she did, with the way he was treating her. Like she was a cold-hearted, ambitious bitch! Okay, so he was gorgeous looking, in a blond, bronzed surfie fashion, but she’d never been attracted to that type before, not even in her younger days. She’d always gone for dark, intensely passionate types, the ones who couldn’t stop looking at you, who flattered you like mad and were always over you like a rash as soon as they got you alone.

Jessica’s previous lovers had always rushed her into the bedroom before she could draw breath, and silly lonely love-struck fool that she was, she’d never thought to say no, even when the bells didn’t ring and the stars didn’t explode.

She’d long come to terms with the fact that while the men she’d fallen in love with had been passionate types, they hadn’t been the most skilled lovers in the world. They had been impatient for their own pleasure, quick and selfish, takers, not givers.

She stared at Sebastian as she crossed the room and wondered what kind of lover he was. Which led her to the question of whether he had a girlfriend somewhere on the island.

She didn’t like that idea. Not one bit. It was a perversely telling moment.

‘I’ll use the bathroom on the other side of the house,’ he said, ‘if that’s what you’re frowning about.’

Jessica frowned some more till she remembered none of the bedrooms had ensuites. Each side of the house had a bathroom and separate toilet, with a third powder room and toilet coming off the hallway near the living rooms.

‘I think that’s a good idea,’ she said coolly. ‘Perhaps you should always use that bathroom for the duration of my stay here. That way we won’t have to worry about sharing, or running into each other accidentally in the bathroom.’

And I won’t have to worry about drooling over you too much.

He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. ‘Okay. If that’s what you want.’

‘What I want, Sebastian,’ she said as she followed him into the bedroom he’d chosen for her, ‘is for you to tell me the truth.’