‘I wasn’t going to.’ He was scanning the straggle of houses tucked into the trees behind the low dunes and then out to sea. ‘Ah…’ He pointed to a lone female figure lying up in the dunes, nestled into a hollow by a log, protecting the pages of her book against the ruffle of the light breeze.
‘I hope she’s paying more attention to the children than she is to her book,’ worried Kate. ‘Young children can drown very quickly in only a few centimetres of water.’
She went over to talk to the trio about their endeavours and felt better when she saw the woman instantly put her book aside and sit up, responding to a reassuring wave by relaxing back on her elbows, but not resuming her reading until Kate moved away, hurrying to join the man who had dawdled on ahead.
‘Can’t be one of my books—or she wouldn’t have been able to put it down so easily,’ jibed Drake as Kate fell into step beside him.
‘Why didn’t you come down and say hello? They would have liked a man to admire their work.’
‘No, thanks. I told you, kids aren’t my thing. Why do you think I always come back to town during school holidays?’
‘I thought it was to avoid all their parents. It’s not as if the little ones know or care that you’re the great Drake Daniels. They’re completely unpretentious. That toddler was so cute the way he tried to copy his brothers—’
‘A total pain in the neck, if you ask me,’ he said tersely.
‘How can you say that?’
‘Drop it, Kate,’ he ordered, but then he was the one unable to leave it alone. ‘Since when were you so keen on ankle-biters, anyway? I thought you agreed with me that they don’t fit in with a career-orientated lifestyle.’
‘But lifestyles don’t always stay the same throughout people’s lives,’ she argued. ‘They’re constantly being modified by changing circumstances, like having children…’
‘If people want to change. Some people should never have children,’ he said flatly. ‘Especially when they don’t have the time or inclination to care for them, or because social pressures and vanity or self-interest—or simply pure carelessness—come into play.’
Kate’s heart staggered. ‘At that rate neither of us would have been born,’ she said, desperately trying to put a positive spin on his words, ‘and think what the world would have missed…’
He didn’t respond to the opportunity to use his usual amusing wit. ‘And think of all those parents who buy into the perfect baby fantasy and then find the day-to-day reality turns them into abusive monsters!’ he grated. ‘Call me a heartless bastard, but I don’t ever want to add any kids to the list of my mistakes.’
No, not heartless—but maybe one who cared too much, thought Kate shakily. In spite of what he said, she didn’t believe it was solely a matter of preserving his highly enjoyable lifestyle. Drake seemed convinced that he would not be a good parent. He was an intelligent man—he must know that he wasn’t doomed to perpetuating his parents’ weaknesses and failures, yet it appeared that he wasn’t prepared to put himself to the touch.
Kate had far more trust in him than he did in himself. She knew that, whatever happened, he would never punish an innocent child for an adult’s mistakes. Although cynicism ran strongly through his books, they were essentially heroic stories of men who found personal redemption in a worthy cause. She only hoped that Drake would find it worth redeeming himself for the sake of his own child.
She could have let herself be depressed by his vow to eternally shun fatherhood, but by the end of the stroll her natural resilience had reasserted itself, boosted by Drake’s relentless flirting. Because she had fallen eagerly into bed with him the first time they had met, she realised that she had missed out on the seductive excitement that she was now experiencing as with a look, a word or a touch Drake attempted to evoke reminders of the powerful physical attraction that existed between them. She had deprived herself of the delicious torment of the should she/shouldn’t she nervousness and the romantic thrill of the chase the first time around, so why shouldn’t she enjoy it to the full in the precious little time she had left?
Her only previous serious relationship had been with a newly qualified lawyer who had sought her out at a party just after her nineteenth birthday, and laid gentle siege to her reserve. Brett had been flatteringly devoted for long enough to make her start to wonder if they might get engaged, but when she had finally been persuaded to reluctantly introduce him to her mother he had been off like a shot, resurfacing a few weeks later as one of Jane Crawford’s new crop of hotshot legal protégés.
At the time she had thought Brett the height of romance, but he had never made her bones melt and her flesh quicken, as Drake could do with a single, smouldering look.
It was slightly disconcerting to discover in herself a streak of cruelty that took pleasure in his frustration as she continued to keep him at arm’s length.
When he offhandedly suggested on their Friday walk that Kate might like to come to the planned pool game that evening after all, he clearly expected her to be instantly charmed by the idea.
‘Will the others be bringing women, too?’
‘Not that I know of—what’s that got to do with it?’
She lowered her eyelashes demurely. ‘Well, I wouldn’t want to start a fight.’
He snorted.
‘I thought I was supposed to stay away from Steve Marlow in case he dragged me into a life of degradation and crime.’
‘Maybe I over-stated the case a bit,’ he admitted.
‘Are you going to win?’
His diffidence disappeared. ‘Of course! They’re rank amateurs—they just like to think they’re hustlers!’ he said, oozing male hubris.
‘And you want me along to provide the applause for your victory?’ she teased, touched by the notion that he wanted her to see him as the conquering hero. Or maybe he just wanted to prove to them both that he wasn’t jealous. ‘Do I get to pin my favour to your sleeve?’