a chance.’ He shuddered to think what she would make him read as a penance. ‘I’ll be ready in twenty.’
‘Suit yourself.’ She moved towards the foyer and the stairs. And the whole time her ponytail swayed in jaunty mockery. She turned when she reached the foyer’s archway. ‘Finn?’
He hoped to God she hadn’t caught him staring. ‘What?’
‘The name’s Audra, not Squirt. That was the deal. Three strikes and you’re out. That’s Strike One.’
She’d kick him out if he... He stared after her and found himself grinning. She wasn’t going to let him push her around and he admired her for it.
* * *
‘I’ll drive,’ Finn said, thirty minutes later.
‘I have the car keys,’ Audra countered, sliding into the driver’s seat of the hybrid Rupert kept on the island for running back and forth to the village.
To be perfectly honest, he didn’t care who drove. He just didn’t want Audra to think him frail or in need of babying. Besides, it was only ten minutes into the village.
One advantage of being passenger, though, was the unencumbered opportunity to admire the views, and out here on the peninsula the views were spectacular. Olive trees interspersed with the odd cypress and ironwood tree ranged down the slopes, along with small scrubby shrubs bursting with flowers—some white and some pink. And beyond it all was the unbelievable, almost magical blue of the Aegean Sea. The air from the open windows was warm and dry, fragrant with salt and rosemary, and something inside him started to unhitch. He rested his head back and breathed it all in.
‘Glorious, isn’t it?’
He glanced across at her profile. She didn’t drive as if she needed to be anywhere in a hurry. Her fingers held the steering wheel in a loose, relaxed grip, and the skin around her eyes and mouth was smooth and unblemished. The last time he’d seen her she’d been in a rush, her knuckles white around her briefcase and her eyes narrowed—no doubt her mind focussed on the million things on her to-do list.
She glanced across. ‘What?’
‘I was just thinking how island life suits you.’
Her brows shot up, and she fixed her attention on the road in front again, her lips twitching. ‘Wow, you must really hate my bun.’
No, he loved that bun.
Not that he had any intention of telling her that.
She flicked him with another of her cool glances. ‘Do you know anyone that this island life wouldn’t suit?’
‘Me...in the long term. I’d go stir-crazy after a while.’ He wasn’t interested in holidaying his whole life away.
What are you interested in doing with the rest of your life, then?
He swallowed and shoved the question away, not ready to face the turmoil it induced, focussed his attention back on Audra.
‘And probably you too,’ he continued. ‘Seems to me you don’t like being away from the office for too long.’
Something in her tensed, though her fingers still remained loose and easy on the wheel. He wanted to turn more fully towards her and study her to find out exactly what had changed, but she’d challenge such a stare, and he couldn’t think of an excuse that wouldn’t put her on the defensive. Getting her to relax and have fun was the remit, not making her tense and edgy. His mention of work had probably just been an unwelcome reminder of Farquhar.
And it was clear she wanted to talk about Farquhar as much as he wanted to talk about his accident.
He cleared his throat. ‘But in terms of a short break, I don’t think anything can beat this island.’
‘Funnily enough, that’s one argument you won’t get from me.’
He didn’t know why, but her words made him laugh.
They descended into the village and her sigh of appreciation burrowed into his chest. ‘It’s such a pretty harbour.’
She steered the car down the narrow street to the parking area in front of the harbour wall. They sat for a moment to admire the scene spread before them. An old-fashioned ferry chugged out of the cove, taking passengers on the two-hour ride to the mainland. Yachts with brightly coloured sails bobbed on their moorings. The local golden stone of the harbour wall provided the perfect foil for the deep blue of the water. To their left houses in the same golden stone, some of them plastered brilliant white, marched up the hillside, the bright blue of their doors and shutters making the place look deliciously Mediterranean.
Audra finally pushed out of the car and he followed. She pulled her hair free of its band simply to capture it again, including the strand that had worked its way loose, and retied it. ‘I was just going to amble along the main shopping strip for a bit.’
She gestured towards the cheerful curve of shops that lined the harbour, the bunting from their awnings fluttering in the breeze. Barrels of gaily coloured flowers stood along the strip at intervals. If there was a more idyllic place on earth, he was yet to find it.
‘Sounds good to me.’ While she was ambling she’d be getting a dose of sun and fresh air. ‘Do you mind if I tag along?’ He asked because he’d called her Squirt earlier to deliberately rub her up the wrong way and he regretted it now.
Cool blue eyes surveyed him and he couldn’t read them at all. ‘I mean to take my time. I won’t be rushed. I do enough rushing in my real life and...’
Her words trailed off and he realised she thought he meant to whisk her through the shopping at speed and...and what? Get to the things he wanted to do? What kind of selfish brute did she think he was? ‘I’m in no rush.’
‘I was going to browse the markets and shops...maybe get some lunch, before buying whatever groceries we needed before heading back.’
‘Sounds like an excellent plan.’
The faintest of frowns marred the perfect skin of her forehead. ‘It does?’
Something vulnerable passed across her features, but it was gone in a flash. From out of nowhere Rupert’s words came back to him: ‘She’s more selfless than the rest of us put together.’ The Russel family came from a privileged background, but they took the associated social responsibility of that position seriously. Each of them had highly honed social consciences. But it struck him then that Audra put her family’s needs before her own. Who put her needs first?
‘Audra, a lazy amble along the harbour, while feeling the sun on my face and breathing in the sea air, sounds pretty darn perfect to me.’
She smiled then—a real smile—and it kicked him in the gut because it was so beautiful. And because he realised he’d so very rarely seen her smile like that.
Why?
He took her arm and led her across the street, releasing her the moment they reached the other side. She still smelled of coconut and peaches, and it made him want to lick her.
Dangerous.
Not to mention totally inappropriate.
He tried to find his equilibrium again, and for once wished he could blame his sense of vertigo, the feeling of the ground shifting beneath his feet, on his recent injuries. Audra had always been able to needle him and then make him laugh, but he had no intention of letting her get under his skin. Not in that way. He’d been out of circulation too long, that was all. He’d be fine again once he’d regained his strength and put the accident behind him.
‘It’s always so cheerful down here,’ she said, pausing beside one of the flower-filled barrels, and dragging a deep breath into her lungs.
He glanced down at the flowers to avoid noticing the way her chest lifted, and touched