Кристина Холлис – The Hot-Headed Virgin: The Virgin's Price / The Greek's Virgin / The Italian Billionaire's Virgin (страница 21)

He turned to look at her and asked, ‘What would you like to do today?’

‘I don’t know…sun-bake and stuff…What did you have in mind?’

‘If I told you what I had in mind you might slap my face.’

Mia stared at the piece of kiwi fruit she’d just speared with her plastic fork, her skin prickling all over as she felt the weight of his studied gaze. ‘Don’t you ever think of anything else besides satisfying your bodily urges?’

He leaned on one elbow, his long, tanned legs stretched out beside hers, his expression teasing. ‘Is that why you’re an obsessive exerciser? To control your own bodily urges?’

She gave him a chilly little glance. ‘I happen to believe in living healthily. The human heart is a muscle like any other. Daily exercise is essential to keep it in good working order.’

‘There are other ways of exercising the heart,’ he pointed out. ‘I could show you if you like.’

‘No, thank you.’

He laughed and, picking up a handful of fine sand, began to trickle it over her up-bent thigh.

‘Stop that!’ She slapped his hand away and began dusting off the grains from between her legs.

‘Come in and rinse it off with me,’ he suggested, springing to his feet and holding out a hand.

Mia scowled at him but her hand slipped into his regardless. He pulled her to her feet and, releasing her hand, issued her an irresistible challenge. ‘I’ll race you to the water.’

‘You’re on,’ she said and took off at full speed for the ocean. She had to skirt around a toddler and his mother at the water’s edge, which cost her valuable seconds, but she made it to the first breaker and would have beaten him convincingly except he grabbed one of her ankles and tugged her backwards.

She came up spluttering and in revenge scooped a handful of water up and tossed it at his face. ‘You cheated!’

He ducked her liquid missile and caught both of her hands in his, pulling her towards him. ‘I warned you once before, sweetheart, I don’t always play by the rules.’

A gentle wave at her back pushed her even closer to him and he steadied her with his hands on her waist, his eyes, even bluer than the water around them, locking on hers. She moistened her mouth as his head came down, her eyes closing on her soft sigh as his lips found hers. It was a deeply sensual kiss, made all the more alluring because they were skin on skin in the warm water. Mia had never felt so aware of her body before. She could feel the tightening of her breasts and the melting of her bones as he deepened the kiss. The waves rocked against them, leaving her in no doubt of Bryn’s thickening erection pressed so tantalisingly against the naked flesh of her lower belly. She writhed against him, wanting more of his burning heat but lower, where a hollow ache pulsed for him to fill.

After a few breathless minutes Bryn lifted his mouth from hers and looked down at her with a mocking glint in his eyes. ‘I can only assume that your rather convincing performance was for the benefit of the crowd on the beach.’

Mia was temporarily lost for words. She hadn’t given the crowd a single thought. All she had thought about was how he made her feel and how much she wanted him.

‘That’s what you’re paying me to do, isn’t it?’ she said at last, her tone sounding terse and embittered as she pulled herself from his hold and stalked back through the waist-deep water to the sand.

Bryn turned to watch her make her way through the foamy wash and frowned. ‘Yes…’ he said but the words were lost on the waves as they rushed to follow her to the shore. ‘Yes, it is.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MIA gathered up her things and waited on the promenade for Bryn, who had stopped to help a small child who had tumbled over close to the water’s edge. She watched as he crouched down and gently set the toddler back on his feet, handing him his tiny plastic bucket and spade, his warm smile doing something all mushy and wobbly to Mia’s insides.

The child’s mother rushed up to thank him and after exchanging a few words he picked up his sports shoes off the sand and walked over to where Mia was waiting.

‘Your boy-scout deed done for the day?’ she queried with an arched brow.

He frowned at her tone. ‘I happen to like kids. Is there a law against it?’

‘I thought playboys avoided them like the plague.’

He sent her an inscrutable sideways glance as he bent to tie his trainers. ‘But I’m not a playboy now, am I? I’m a married man.’

‘Only temporarily,’ she reminded him, ‘and only on paper,’

‘That paper is already starting to burn at the edges,’ he said as he straightened to look at her. ‘Could be it’s a pile of ashes by morning.’

Mia didn’t answer but she felt a sensation of something hot and liquid flood her lower body at his arrogantly confident statement. She had never met a more sexually compelling man in her entire life and she knew it would take every single gram of her will-power to resist him.

She swung away and began to walk at a brisk pace but within two strides he was alongside her, his beach towel rolled up under one arm.

‘Do you fancy a walk through the park or have you had enough exercise for the day?’ he asked as they came to the Noosa Heads Surf Life-Saving Club building.

Mia would have loved a cool shower but the thought of going back to the house with him where they would be on their own was a lot more disturbing than a walk through the national park, where at least there would be others about.

‘I’d love to,’ she said. ‘I cut my run short. I only ran as far as Winch Cove as I was getting so hot. I came back through the bush.’

‘We can walk to Alexandria Bay for a swim if you like. There are usually less people there, as it’s a bit further along the circuit.’

‘That sounds good.’

‘Wait here while I get us some water to carry,’ he said as they came to a shop.

Mia waited as he purchased some bottled water and they were soon on their way, walking in silence under the shade of the eucalypts that fringed the walkway to the national park.

They were not far from Boiling Pot when Bryn took her arm to stall her. ‘Look,’ he said, pointing above their heads.

She looked up and saw a mother koala perched in the fork of a eucalypt, a tiny baby clutching at her back.

‘Oh, wow!’ she said excitedly. ‘Aren’t they adorable?’

Bryn smiled at her. ‘This is a natural habitat for them. I occasionally see them in my garden but they generally avoid suburbia if there are dogs about.’

‘It’s so wonderful to see them out in the wild instead of behind bars at the zoo,’ she said as they continued walking along the path.

‘Zoos have their place,’ he said. ‘Think about all the breeding programmes that have been set up specifically to protect endangered species.’

‘I know but it seems so sad that animals can’t run free as they are meant to do. My sister Ellie is a bit of an animalrights campaigner. She’s told me horror stories of what some people do to animals for financial gain. I had no idea people could be so cruel. I wonder if their conscience ever bothers them at night.’

‘It takes all types, I guess,’ he agreed, suppressing an inward frown.

They walked on a bit further until they came to Dolphin Point. Mia joined some other tourists who were peering over the cliff to see if there were any dolphins about, but as far as she could tell there was no sign of any in amongst the rolling waves.

‘Have you seen any there before?’ she asked Bryn as they continued on.

‘Sometimes—that’s why it’s called Dolphin Point. There are several whale-watching tours you can take on the Sunshine Coast, and you often can see dolphins on them as well as humpback whales.’

‘I went on one of those the last time I came here,’ she said with a wry grimace. ‘I was seasick the whole time. I had to be taken to hospital to be rehydrated. Ellie was totally disgusted with me for spoiling the trip.’

‘Well, I guess I’d better strike that off the entertainment list for this week.’

‘Oh, I’m much better now,’ she said. ‘I’ve been out sailing with friends lots of times and haven’t had any trouble.’

‘You sound like you have a very busy social life.’

She sent him a reproachful little glance from beneath her brows. ‘Yes, well, I used to.’

‘Just because we are married doesn’t mean you can’t have friends.’

‘But no male friends, right?’

He stopped walking, snagging her arm before she could go on without him. He turned her around to face him, his fingers sliding down to the slender bones of her wrist. ‘Male friends are fine if they remain platonic, although I still find it hard to believe any man could look at you without thinking how it would feel to make love to you.’

Mia felt her skin lift as his dark eyes ran over her, all her senses going on full alert at the feel of his long fingers around her wrist, where she was sure he could feel her pulses already leaping.

‘Not all men have an insatiable appetite for sex,’ she said. ‘And the ones I associate with would never dream of tainting our friendship with repeated attempts to get me into bed.’

He gave a little grunt of cynicism. ‘That’s only because they’re probably gay or already involved with someone else. Anyone else would have to be dead from the waist down not to notice you and want to have you as soon as they could.’