He chuckled, the sound rough, as he pulled up a chair and began piling the food onto their plates. He listed the different dishes Inez had prepared, reeled off some suggested activities she might like to try in the next couple of days, and neatly sidestepped a couple of questions about the snorkel tour. And Sonny.
To stay focused on eating the food and not her, he kept in mind that, while tonight would be torture, downtime now would be rewarded by lots of uptime from tomorrow morning onwards.
He quizzed her about her business and as many other generic topics as he could think of before her eyelids began to droop. He showed her back up to the guest bed after supper, and kissed her on the cheek—and had to be grateful that she was too exhausted to do more than smile sleepily back. Especially when her scent invaded his nostrils, and it took every last ounce of his will power to step back and close the door after her. Just before the door clicked shut, he heard the soft sound of her flopping onto the bed they’d shared less than an hour ago—and his knuckles whitened on the door handle.
It took a couple of seconds but he finally let go.
Tucking his clenched fists into his pockets, he headed down the hall to the library at the other end of the house, feeling more noble than Sir Galahad.
Booting up the computer on his desktop, he ran a search on the effects of pregnancy on a woman’s body in the first and second trimester. Might be good to do some research—Ella said sex in pregnancy was safe, but, considering how much sex they were likely to want, he didn’t want to be making any demands on her she couldn’t handle.
But he couldn’t concentrate on the information, his impatience for the night to be over growing as the endless minutes ticked by. The thought that every one of those minutes shortened the time they had left together only irritated him more.
What was up with that?
They had as much time as they needed. She’d agreed to buy an open ticket. And very few women had kept his interest for more than a couple of dates. So it stood to reason that, no matter how cute and fascinating and hot he found her, or how much baggage they had to sort out with the baby, having her in his home would get old soon enough.
So why the heck was he was already worrying about her departure?
TEN
‘Wow, that was a-mazing!’ Ella shoved up her mask and hit the release button on her tanks. She laughed, her mind still reeling from all the images she’d seen and absorbed in the last thirty minutes. She’d thought snorkelling on the reef had been a lifetime experience, but her first scuba-dive had topped it.
Darting fish, waving coral, the dappled sunlight shining through the waves and the pure white sand sparkling unde
r her flippers.
‘Here. Let me.’ Coop grabbed the air tanks and set them on the boat’s deck before shrugging off his own equipment.
‘I almost had a cow when I saw that shark.’ She shuddered, the laugh breathless at the memory of the majestic creature gliding by beneath them. ‘What kind was it? It looked enormous.’
She unzipped the snug wetsuit, struggled out of the top half.
‘Tiger shark, about seven feet.’ Cooper sent her a mocking smile as he climbed out of his own suit. Water glistened on his tanned chest, diverting her gaze. ‘Not much more than a baby. Nothing to freak out about.’
‘You’re joking—that was no baby,’ she replied, indignant. ‘And I didn’t freak out.’ Much.
He chuckled and grabbed her wrist, to pull her into his embrace. ‘I guess you handled yourself pretty well.’
His palm touched her cheek and she felt the giddy rush of pleasure from the intense study. ‘For a rookie,’ he whispered, before his lips covered hers and she forgot to be mad.
They were both breathless when they came up for air. Her heart beat in an even more irregular rhythm than when she’d spotted the tiger shark.
‘So, you want to do that again some time?’ His hands settled on her waist, his thumbs brushing her hips above the half-off wetsuit. ‘Sharks notwithstanding.’
‘Yes, please. And I loved the shark.’ He chuckled at her enthusiasm. ‘It was so beautiful and exciting.’
But not as beautiful and exciting as you, she almost added, but stopped herself just in time. She’d been on the island ten days now, and it was getting harder and harder not to let her feelings run away with themselves. With his damp hair falling across his brow, those handsome features gilded by sunlight, and the lean muscles of his six-pack rigid against her palms it was even harder to remember why she shouldn’t let them.
She’d had an incredible time so far. When she’d been here in April, she’d stayed almost exclusively at the resort. And had no idea that she’d missed so much of what the island had to offer. The colonial elegance of the pastel-shaded houses and cobblestoned streets in St George, the exhilaration of a motorbike ride to a secluded cove, the luxury of an impromptu picnic lunch at a beach café.
But best of all had been Coop’s attention and his willingness to spend so much time with her. Every day he’d laid on a new adventure to experience. And apart from a few hours spent in his study each day to deal with his business, he’d hardly left her side.
She hadn’t expected him to be this enthusiastic about showing her around—or how much she would enjoy his company. She felt young and carefree and bold, excited at the prospect of trying out new things that she might have been too cautious to try out before.
Yesterday morning he’d announced she was learning to scuba-dive. Then he’d devoted most of the day to teaching her. Fitting her out while demonstrating all the equipment, giving her endless lessons in how to breathe through the regulator in the pool, running through all the safety routines, and the intricacies of buddy breathing.
They’d managed a short training dive yesterday from the beach, but today he’d taken her out on the motor cruiser.