Thankfully, he seemed to have more sense than her and she had joked with him on the way to the restaurant that at least one of them was faring well in the reputation stakes out of their pretend union , but the truth was, she didn’t want to have a negative impact on Aidan.
The realisation had given her pause because no matter how hard she tried to pretend that he was just another man who would pass through her life, a part of her knew that wasn’t true.
A part of her knew that if they had made love the other night it would have been unforgettable. That he would have been unforgettable. Which was a problem because life had taught Cara that she was infinitely forgettable to those she cared about the most.
A splash sounded in the nearby infinity pool and Cara returned her attention to Kate.
‘I mean, I love it on you,’ Kate continued, ‘but I don’t think I’d ever be game to do it myself.’
‘It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,’ Cara admitted. Like most things in her life, she mused, completely unplanned.
‘Sometimes they’re the best decisions. And—’ Kate leaned her elbows on the linen tablecloth ‘—speaking of spur-of-the-moment things, I’m dying to know how you and Aidan met.’
Cara felt her mouth open and close as her mind whirred for something to say. ‘I …’ Foolishly she hadn’t expected anyone to ask her this kind of question on the island and she was completely unprepared.
‘Oh, I’ve embarrassed you.’ Kate grimaced. ‘Please don’t mind my brashness. I’m the mother of a toddler—my life is officially boring.’
From what Cara had seen of Kate and Ben’s love for their daughter earlier she very much doubted that. But who was she to judge? Her own mother had obviously found motherhood a trial.
‘You don’t like being a mother?’
Kate looked startled. ‘No. I mean, yes.’ She laughed. ‘I’ve given you the wrong impression. I love being a mother. No, I’m just so curious. I’ve never seen Aidan so off-stride and I think you and I are going to be firm friends in the future.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Did you really meet when Aidan bet on you in a poker game?’ She shivered. ‘I know the papers played it up as sordid, but secretly I found the whole thing terribly romantic.’
If only, Cara thought. Then she remembered Aidan’s earlier reaction about her behaving as his ‘partner’ for the time she was on the island and Cara wondered if he would want her to pretend that their relationship was something it wasn’t to Kate.
On some level it felt wrong to lie, and yet if she told Kate the truth she would know that all the times Aidan had refilled her water glass for her over lunch without asking and ordered her coffee just the way she liked it while she had been in the bathroom had been nothing but a sham.
Glancing over at Aidan deep in conversation with a small group of men she was instantly taken by how tall and sexy he was in another superbly cut suit, his strong thighs and wide shoulders accentuated rather than diminished by his clothing. She had a brief moment of wondering what he would look like naked and her breath caught. Would he have hair on his chest, or not? Would his abdominal muscles really be as defined as they had felt the other night on the sofa?
The almost-kiss they’d shared outside jumped to the front of her mind. The way he’d looked at her. For a moment she had sensed that he had wanted her as much as she wanted him and the realisation had made her want to throw caution to the wind and forget that their values weren’t aligned. Forget that he would never want her after he’d slept with her.
As if sensing her gaze he glanced over at her and raised his chin ever so slightly as if asking if she was okay. She knew her face had flushed as if she’d just been caught with her hand in the silver drawer and she ducked her head, deciding that she would keep her story to Kate as close to the truth as she could.
‘No, we didn’t actually meet then,’ she informed Kate slowly. ‘We sort of met when we ran into each other at the airport.’
Kate leaned her elbows on the table. ‘Do tell.’
‘It’s not that exciting. I was trying to find my phone in my bag and stepped into Aidan’s path and then my shoe broke.’
‘And he stopped to help you.’
‘Yes. We, ah, talked.’ He thought I was a hooker. I thought he was horrible. ‘And then he gave me a lift into town.’ Kind of. ‘And it just sort of went from there…. ’ And please don’t ask me about the time frame because then you’ll know this is all just a ruse.
But Kate didn’t ask. She just sat back in the teak dining chair and sighed. ‘It sounds very romantic. Ben and I met by chance, as well. He was a guest lecturer at the university I was studying at and I had decided not to go to the lecture—imagining that this corporate ass was coming to patronise the little people—and at the last minute I turned up. It was love at first sight for us, too.’