‘How will you feed them? Bath them? Where will they sleep?’ Thadie demanded.
Micah rolled his eyes at her. ‘Jabu is coming along too, along with a couple of staff members who’ll set up the tents and cook for us.’
Thadie smiled at him. ‘Ah, you’re glamping...’
Micah grinned. ‘Yeah. Anyway, we’ll barbecue on the beach tonight, the kids will love it. It’ll be an adventure.’
‘Dodi and Ella?’
‘They are staying here. They both want a quiet evening.’
Thadie looked over to Jago, who was reading his book, one hand resting on Dodi’s baby bump. ‘You’re really good with the twins, Micah, but we both know Jago finds them overwhelming.’
‘Theyareoverwhelming but he’s having a baby soon and he needs practice,’ Micah told her, his voice firm. He nodded at Angus. ‘And he needs a break.’
‘And maybe,’ Micah added, tapping his beer bottle on his thigh, ‘by the time we come back you could give us the truth why Angus gatecrashed our family holiday?’
Maybe, Thadie thought as he walked away. But probably not.
CHAPTER SIX
ANGUSSTEPPEDONTOthe deck of the villa—the building was bookended by two huge granite rocks—and walked over to where Thadie sat by the pool, her book in her lap.
The twins had left in a flurry of excitement, and Angus watched the two powerful speedboats—one driven by Jago and containing Micah, his boys and Jabu and the other containing two Petit Frère staff members, and their food and equipment—disappear around the side of the island. Then he showered and sat at the desk in the study to pick up his emails. He’d expected to skim through his work—Heath could make most of the day-to-day decisions—but it was nearly an hour and a half before he joined Thadie on the deck, carrying a beer in one hand and the icy mojito he’d whipped up in the other.
He handed her the big glass and sat down on the lounger next to her.
‘Peace,’ he muttered, stretching out his long legs and closing his eyes. He opened one to look at Thadie, who still wore her brightly patterned sarong over her bright green bikini. She’d pulled her blonde braids into a high tail and, because she wore no make-up, he could count the dainty freckles on her cheeks and nose.
Despite being at Gus and Finn’s command for the last forty-eight hours—he now knew SAS training wasn’t as demanding as looking after those two—he’d spent a lot of his time watching her and he more than liked what he saw. Oh, she was stunning, and she heated his blood, but there was more to her than her long body and gorgeous face. She was an attentive mother, fullypresent. She was also a very sexy woman, someone who had no idea of the impact she made.
‘Are you regretting your offer to look after the boys?’ Thadie asked, amusement in her voice. He had to force himself to stop imagining how she’d taste with the mint-and-rum drink flavouring her mouth. Fantastic, he had no doubt.
He looked at her, her sexy lips wrapped around the straw of her drink. ‘Regretting it? No. Just recovering...’
‘There are rather full-on, aren’t they?’ Thadie grinned.
‘I can easily cope with the physicality required, running up and down the beach, swimming, kicking a ball around,’ Angus answered. ‘It’s the questions that threw me. Why is the sky blue? How many grains of sand are on the beach? How do birds stay up in the air? And my favourite...what does food think when we eat it? I mean, how am I supposed to answer that?’
Thadie’s laugh sounded like a spring racing over baby rocks. ‘My favourite is still whether God likes marshmallows.’
‘Finn,’ Angus stated, thinking that question could only come from his more serious son.
‘Finn,’ Thadie agreed. The look she sent him made him feel ten feet tall. ‘How did you know that? You’ve spent so little time with them, but you seem to have sussed them out. Clyde knew them for nearly a year, but he still mixed up their names.’
The boys looked alike but they weren’t identical. Their differences were easy to spot. And the more he heard about her ex, the more he wanted to rearrange his face. But he was out of her and the boys’ life, so there was no point in discussing the waste of oxygen.
‘You’re good with them, Angus,’ Thadie told him. ‘And thank you for giving me a break. I needed it.’
‘I know.’
It would be so easy to take her mouth in a hot kiss, to slide his hands over her, but he didn’t want to push, didn’t want to spoilthis moment of connection between them. They’d get there, very soon, but for the next few minutes, he just wanted to bask in the warmth of her eyes and enjoy the softness of her smile.
Besides, the anticipation was awesome.
Angus forced his gaze off her face and looked at the ocean, thinking of his boys being on the boat with Jago and Micah. He’d personally put them into their life vests, and had watched them speed out of sight, fighting the urge to call them back.
‘Will they be okay with your brothers?’ he asked, despite knowing that Thadie would never let them go if she weren’t fully confident that they’d be safe.