to know.
‘If he hurts you, Squirt, I’ll no longer consider him a friend.’
She straightened from her slouch, air whistling between her teeth. Rupert and Finn were best friends, and had been ever since they’d attended their international boarding school in Geneva as fresh-faced twelve-year-olds.
She made herself swallow. ‘I’ve no intention of doing anything so daft.’ She’d never do anything to ruin her brother’s most important friendship.
‘Finn has a brilliant mind, he’s built a successful company and is an amazing guy, but...’
‘But what?’ She frowned, when her brother remained silent. ‘What are you worried about?’
‘His past holds him back.’
By his past she guessed he meant Finn’s parents’ high-octane lifestyle, followed by their untimely deaths. It had to have had an impact on Finn, had to have left scars and wounds that would never heal.
‘I worry he could end up like his father.’
She had to swallow the bile that rose through her.
‘I’m not sure he’ll ever settle down.’
She’d worked that much out for herself. And she wasn’t a masochist. Men like Finn were pretty to look at, but you didn’t build a life around them.
Women had flings with men like Finn...and she suspected they enjoyed every moment of them. A squirrel of curiosity wriggled through her, but she ruthlessly cut it off. One disastrous romantic liaison was enough for the year. She wasn’t adding another one to the tally. She suppressed a shudder. The very thought made her want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over her head.
She forced her spine to straighten. She had no intention of falling for Finn, but she could get him to slow down for a bit—just for a week or two, right?
‘YOU HAD BREAKFAST YET, Squirt?’
Audra almost jumped out of her skin at the deep male voice and the hard-muscled body that materialised directly in front of her. She bit back a yelp and pressed a hand to her heart. After sitting here waiting for him to emerge, she couldn’t believe she’d been taken off guard.
He chuckled. ‘You never used to be jumpy.’
Yeah, well, that was before Thomas Farquhar had locked her in a cupboard. The laughter in his warm brown eyes faded as they narrowed. Not that she had any intention of telling him that. She didn’t want his pity. ‘Broken sleep never leaves me at my best,’ she said in as tart a voice as she could muster. Which was, admittedly, pretty tart.
He just grinned. ‘I find it depends on the reasons for the broken sleep.’ And then he sent her a broad wink.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Glass shattering and having to call the police doesn’t fall into the fun category, Finn.’
‘Do you want me to apologise again? Do the full grovel?’ He waggled his eyebrows. ‘I’m very good at a comprehensive grovel.’
‘No, thank you.’ She pressed her lips together. She bet he was good at a lot of things.
She realised she still held her phone. She recalled the conversation she’d just had with Rupert and set it to the table, heat flushing through her cheeks.
Finn glanced at her and at the phone before cracking eggs into the waiting frying pan. ‘So... Rupe rang to warn you off, huh?’
Her jaw dropped. How on earth...? Ah. ‘He rang you too.’
‘You want a couple of these?’ He lifted an egg in her direction.
‘No...thank you,’ she added as a belated afterthought. It struck her that she always found it hard to remember her manners around Finn.
‘Technically, I called him.’ The frying pan spat and sizzled. ‘But he seems to think I have some magic ability to make women swoon at my feet, whereby I pick them off at my leisure and have my wicked way with them before discarding them as is my wont.’
She frowned. Had she imagined the bitterness behind the lightness?
‘He read me the Riot Act where you’re concerned.’ He sent her a mock serious look. ‘So, Squirt, while I know it’ll be hard for you to contain your disappointment, I’m afraid I’m not allowed to let a single one of my love rays loose in your direction.’
She couldn’t help it, his nonsense made her laugh.
With an answering grin, he set a plate of eggs and toast in front of her and slid into the seat opposite.
‘But I said I didn’t want any.’
Her stomach rumbled, making a liar of her. Rather than tease her, though, he shrugged. ‘Sorry, I must’ve misheard.’
Finn never misheard anything, but the smell of butter on toast made her mouth water. She picked up her knife and fork. It’d be wasteful not to eat it. ‘Did Rupert order you to feed me up?’ she grumbled.
He shook his head, and shaggy hair—damp from the shower—fell into his eyes and curled about his neck and some pulse inside her flared to life before she brutally strangled it.
‘Nope. Rupe’s only dictum was to keep my love rays well and truly away from his little sister. All uttered in his most stern of tones.’
She did her best not to choke on her toast and eggs. ‘Doesn’t Rupert know me at all?’ She tossed the words back at him with what she hoped was a matching carelessness.
‘See? That’s what I told him. I said, Audra’s too smart to fall for a guy like me.’
Fall for? Absolutely not. Sleep with...?
What on earth...? She frowned and forced the thought away. She didn’t think of Finn in those terms.
Really?
She rolled her shoulders. So what if she’d always thought him too good-looking for his own good? That didn’t mean anything. In idle moments she might find herself thinking he’d be an exciting lover. If she were the kind of person who did flings with devil-may-care men. But she wasn’t. And that didn’t mean anything either.
‘So...?’
She glanced up at the question in his voice.
‘How long have you been down here?’
‘Two days.’
‘And how long are you here for?’
She didn’t really know. ‘A fortnight, maybe. I’ve taken some annual leave.’
He sent her a sharp glance from beneath brows so perfectly shaped they made her the tiniest bit jealous. ‘If you took all the leave accrued by you, I bet you could stay here until the middle of next year.’
Which would be heaven—absolute heaven.
‘What about you? How long are you staying?’
‘I was thinking a week or two. Do some training...get some condition back.’
He was going to overdo it. Well, not on her watch!
‘But if my being here is intruding on your privacy, I can shoot off to my uncle’s place.’
‘No need for that. It’ll be nice to have some company.’
His eyes narrowed and she realised she’d overplayed her hand. It wasn’t her usual sentiment where Finn was concerned. Normally she acted utterly disdainful and scornful. They sparred. They didn’t buddy up.
She lifted her fork and pointed it at him. ‘As long as you stop