by Kate Hardy
Nick ignored her valiant protests and checked them in while Rose loitered behind him, savouring the glassy marble flooring and the cool, colonial elegance of the foyer. Were these the perks of working for a rich man? Everything done in style, with no expense spared.
She was shown to her quarters by one of the smiling porters and only when the door closed behind her did she realise how tired she really was.
She closed her eyes on a bedroom that was all ceiling fans and bamboo blinds and soft mosquito nets and rattan furniture, and a bathroom that she would have to devote some time to in the morning as she spied the sunken bath.
And awoke abruptly, it seemed like five minutes later, to the sound of tapping from behind the blinds she had hurriedly pulled down earlier.
When Rose looked at her watch, she saw to her horror that it was already eight-thirty. She had slept for nearly ten hours. And for the first time in weeks her internal alarm system had not woken her up at three in the morning for no better reason than to fill her head with thoughts she didn’t want.
The tapping on the door galvanised her into action. It was probably the cleaning service making her feel like a lazy slob instead of the working woman she was supposed to be. She wasn’t sure what room Nick was in, but she would have to get through to him immediately through the operator and assure him in her crispest voice that she would be ready to start work in fifteen minutes.
No need. Rose pulled up the exquisite bamboo blinds and there he was, standing outside what was, in fact, a glass door that she could now see led to a small wooden patio, along one side of which was a hammock, next to a couple of chairs and a small table, all perfect for relaxing outside and gazing at the scenery. In this case, lush lawns liberally interspersed with coconut trees, which led down to a beach. To the left, she could glimpse the pool, just a slash of bright blue surrounded by turquoise umbrellas and yet more coconut trees in between.
But she took all this in in literally a couple of seconds.
As she had discovered, nothing could compete for her attention when Nick was in the vicinity.
‘It’s you.’ Where was her crisp voice when she needed it? Suddenly conscious of the fact that she was still in just her nightie and the thin bathrobe she had flung on before leaping towards the door in a surge of guilt for having overslept, Rose folded her arms and tried to look composed.
‘Who did you think it was going to be?’
‘The cleaning service. I…I…was actually just about to phone through to you and let you know that I’ll be ready to start work shortly.’
‘No need to phone.’ Nick gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘I’m in the cabin next to yours. In fact, if you go around that flimsy wooden lattice partition, you’ll be at my glass door…’ He had seen her in many guises, from angry to embarrassed to primly correct, but he had never seen her like this, flushed from sleep, her skin satin-smooth, hair tousled.
Nick made no apologies to himself for wanting her. He had recognised that kick of desire and his sole objective now was to sate it. Had she been his full-time employee, he would have done his damnedest to shut the door firmly on all thoughts of seduction, but fortunately she wasn’t.
Rose tried not to look horrified at this piece of information. ‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary. If you want to give me fifteen minutes, Nick, I’ll join you in the foyer.’
‘No need to be so formal.’ He leaned against the frame of the sliding patio door. ‘I’ve ordered breakfast to be brought to my room for both of us. When you’re ready, just skip across. Continental all right for you? Oh, and I thought we might as well appreciate the surroundings today. Enjoy the beach, see what the poolside facilities are…we can start in earnest tomorrow when Lee’s back from KL.’
Several things he had just said converged to send her into a state of mild panic. Sharing breakfast. In his room. Enjoying the facilities.
Rose cleared her throat, wondering how she could pick her way through her objections and emerge on the other side without appearing to overreact, but he was already turning away, only glancing back to give her a nonchalant wave.
She had brought no clothes to cover breakfast with her sexy boss in his room. He had been wearing a pair of khaki Bermuda shorts and a collared tee shirt. In between the confusion of what he had been saying to her, she had managed to notice the elegant, casual ease with which he pulled off an outfit that most men would have looked frightful in.
Rose rummaged through her bags at the speed of light and tried to block out the image of his legs, bronzed and muscular, sprinkled with dark hair.
Was he hairy all over? she wondered feverishly.
Yet another thought to try and dispel as she flung on a baggy tee shirt, all the better to hide her figure, and a pair of trousers that would probably reduce her to a puddle of perspiration by the middle of the day but which would have to do. At least until she gained a little colour and her confidence grew.
She arrived, flustered, to find him sitting on his veranda sipping a cup of coffee, legs stretched out on one of the chairs, leaving her to sit closer to him than she had bargained for.
‘Gorgeous, isn’t it?’ was the first thing he said as she sat down and poured herself some orange juice. She could feel her heart beating madly in her chest.
‘Stunning.’
He slid his eyes over to where she was staring pointedly away from him and across to the pool area. ‘You really shouldn’t wear trousers, Rose. Too hot.’
‘I…I haven’t unpacked as yet. I just grabbed these from the top of the suitcase.’
‘Well, no matter. I suggest we take to the beach after this so you’ll have to change into a swimsuit anyway. We can get whatever beach towels we need from Reception.’ Nick relished the thought of seeing her in a swimsuit. It was hard to get any idea of her shape under the loose-fitting clothes she seemed to favour and he fancied she was more curvy than the magazines currently deemed fashionable.
‘But aren’t we here to…work?’ Rose asked desperately. She crumbled a croissant in half as he did the same and tried to focus nonchalantly on the fact that he would have seen thousands of women in swimsuits. He wouldn’t look twice at her.
‘Lateral thinking.’ Nick demolished one half of his croissant in a single bite and wiped his mouth with his serviette. The breeze was light and warm and very, very inviting. Yes, work was on the agenda, but he had to admit to himself that he felt very relaxed, more relaxed than he had in years.
‘Lateral thinking,’ Rose repeated and he nodded sagely at her.
‘We have a few possible locations to have a look at and we’ll do that tomorrow with Lee, but basically the rest of the time here will be…investigative work…’
‘I thought we had meetings lined up. Don’t we have to go over plans with your architects? What about the buildings inspector?’ She had envisaged days packed with meetings and the gritty business of getting the ball rolling on foreign soil. Of course, they might share the occasional meal together, but on the hop so to speak. And he knew people in the area. Evenings, she had reckoned, he would spend with them, catching up on old times. It was what any normal human being would do.
Investigative work did not fit into her overall picture of their ten days on the island.
‘There’s a hell of a lot to see here. Coffee? Another croissant? Yes, as I was saying, there’s a lot to see.’ He relaxed back and clasped his hands together behind his head. ‘Did you know, for example, that Borneo is the world’s third largest island? That Sabah, the proposed site for my venture, has some of the oldest rainforests in the world? Oh, yes. There’s a lot more to this place than the beach you see down there…and naturally, we have to check it all out so that we can decide where the ideal location would be. Beach or forest? Should we cater for the lazy traveller or the adventurous one? One person may be content to sit in the sun by a pool or stroll down to the beach and while away the day in a deckchair with a constant supply of cocktails on tap. Another may want to trek through the jun
gle in search of an orang-utan or two. Did you know that over here the orang-utan is known as the “wild man of Borneo”?’
‘We’re going to see orang-utans?’
‘Not until we’ve checked out that pool and, of course, the beach.’ He stood up and stretched, then stuck his hands in his pockets and stared out towards the sea. ‘Fascinating place this…where else can you find rainforests and white beaches sharing the same space? You’ll see for yourself, but all in good time. For now…’ he nodded towards the beach ‘…a lazy day checking out the competition.’
And sitting in front of a lukewarm cup of coffee and a half-eaten croissant was no longer an option. It was a glorious day, the sun was hot and she had absolutely no excuse to wriggle out of a swim in the sea.
Anyway, Nick’s suggestions were often thinly veiled commands. And she was being paid generously by him. Some might well say that being paid to swim in the clear South China Sea was a pretty good deal.
Rose wasn’t precisely thinking along those lines as she flung clothes hurriedly into drawers while deciding which of her three black swimsuits she would wear. She was thinking that there was safety in nursing her attraction under the respectable cloak of their professional relationship. Even if that professional relationship was a little more unorthodox than most. Indeed, the fact that she worked for him in his house probably accounted for her inconvenient attraction. Made sense. After all, she had previously felt exactly the opposite sentiment before she had found herself cooped up under his roof.
She had a brief feeling of triumph, as though she had managed to solve a complex maths problem.
Then she looked at herself in the long standing mirror by the wall. As swimsuits went, this one was modest. But yet there was cleavage to be seen, far too much for her liking, and legs and shoulders and the generous proportions that always made her want to cringe…
And on a beach…with his body on display…not just snatched glimpses of bare chest where the top two buttons of his shirt were undone…where was her protection going to be?
CHAPTER SIX
THE beach was uncrowded. Too early, Rose guessed, for most of the guests. The same large canopied umbrellas that adorned the sides of the pool were in evidence along the beach, dotted here and there, and closer to the glassy, lake-like sea similar-coloured padded deckchairs were interspersed. Further along, she could see that a thin finger of land projected into the sea and from a distance might have passed for a jetty were it not for the coconut trees growing along it.
It was a breathtaking sight. Really a vision of paradise, from the white powdery sand dappled with shadows cast by the overhanging coconut trees, to the still, dazzling azure of the sea.
Rose paused and savoured the scene through the protective lenses of her very dark sunglasses. She had decided to maintain her inclination to conceal her shape by wearing a knee-length, flimsy beach dress and she could already feel the rising sun burning through it.
Along the beach, a couple of the deckchairs were occupied by early risers who were mostly reading and wearing sensible large straw hats.
Typically, Nick was nowhere to be seen and Rose was peering into the distance when she felt a hand on her shoulder and he said, with a thread of amusement in his voice, ‘Why are you wearing a sheet?’
Rose swung around and glared at him from behind her sunglasses. ‘I’m trying to protect myself from the sun,’ she snapped. ‘It’s fine for you. You can tan easily but I’m a lot fairer. In fact, coming out into the sun at this hour is not a very good idea at all for someone of my complexion.’
Which, she admitted to herself, was something of a slight overstatement given it was still quite early in the day.
He, of course, was bare-backed but for the towel swung casually over his shoulders. As promised, he had brought hers with him and he reached out to give it to her, still grinning.
‘You should have brought a sombrero with you…like those practical people further along.’
Rose snatched the towel and began walking away, but slowed down at the notion that he might be sniggering as he watched her wobbly, none-too-toned rear.
She took heart from the comforting thought that this was not a holiday, this was work.
They seemed to be walking away from the scattering of people on the beach and she immediately set that particular situation right by heading towards one of the lounging chairs not far from an elderly lady who was napping with her book over her face.
‘Are you going to remove that garment of yours? Because I warn you—the sun here is very hot. Much hotter than in England.’
‘I’ve brought a notebook. I thought we might start jotting down a few things in connection with work.’ She felt pleasantly secure behind the sunglasses and half watched as he spread his towel on the sand, ignoring the sun lounger, and lay flat on it. As if that weren’t distracting enough, he began to rub sun cream haphazardly over his body.
‘Even I burn,’ he assured her. He could feel her watching him. She did that. Watched him. Nick was used to women watching him, but the concealed way she did it had become a powerful turn-on. He wanted her, but he wasn’t going to get her through outrageous flirting or expensive gifts. He settled back, closed his eyes and waited for the prolonged silence to have the desired effect.
Eventually, Rose spoke, keeping her treacherous eyes away from the tempting sight of his practically naked, bronzed body. ‘What made you decide to go into…well…hotels?’
‘You sound like an interviewer.’
‘It’s only polite curiosity,’ Rose said. ‘Everyone has a reason for doing what they do.’
‘And you went into computing because…?’
‘We’re not discussing me.’ The sun was beginning to make her feel lazy and peaceful. She didn’t want an argument. She wanted to close her eyes and let her chattering thoughts slip away. ‘I bet you don’t even stay in many hotels.’
‘On the contrary. I’m rarely out of them.’
‘I meant for pleasure as opposed to business.’ She glanced down at him and realised that he was barely listening to her. His eyes were closed and she was pretty sure that his thoughts were a million miles away. She carefully inched the flimsy beach robe off and began applying a generous layer of sunblock to her exposed skin, keeping a careful eye on him because lying flat she felt a whole lot more confident about her body than when she was sitting up, where her stomach, smooth as it might be, still seemed to have the last laugh at her for having spent years guiltily avoiding the gym.
Or maybe she was simply comparing herself to Lily who had a washboard abdomen even when she was slouching and breathing out.
Job done, Rose lay back down and shaded her face with the magazine she had brought from her room.
‘Hotels for pleasure…hmm…well, maybe it’s the pull of the challenge, to boldly embark on a project of which I have zero experience. There’s nothing like the possibility of failure to get the adrenaline going.’
She was aware that he had half turned towards her and she kept her eyes firmly shielded behind her magazine.
‘I’ve conquered the money markets,’ Nick said casually. ‘Or rather, I’ve made enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life, even if I decided never to lift a finger again. Very comfortably. What does a man do when he reaches that position?’
‘Retire and enjoy what life has to offer,’ Rose said, surprised. ‘But then, who would you enjoy it with?’
Nick sat up and lifted the magazine from her face, which immediately brought her shooting up so that they were staring at each other fully.
‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘That remark just sort of slipped out.’
‘Working with computers, Rose, might not have been the best career move for you.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning you have no tact.’ Nick would have left any other woman in no doubt that overstepping the boundaries was tantamount to a still-born relationship. However there was, he reminded himself, no relationship with this woman and
, anyway, she was already bristling. Of course, he wasn’t about to back down and allow a woman, any woman, to invade his private space, but was he really ready for a fight? When the sun was beating down on his back and the sea glimmered invitingly?
‘You mean that sometimes I don’t agree with you.’
‘I’m going for a swim.’ Nick stood up, a profile of one-hundred-per-cent masculine beauty, and glanced back over his shoulder to her. ‘Coming?’
‘I think I’ll just stay here, thanks, and carry on sunbathing,’ Rose flounced back onto her lounger and stuck the magazine back into position.
The notebook that she had packed to remind herself that work was the reason for her lazing on a lounger on a beach remained unopened in her bag. She had a moment of brief despair as she contemplated the remainder of their stay, then she turned her thoughts to his high-handed attitude, telling her she was lacking tact. It felt a lot better to fulminate.
By the time she had worked herself up some healthy self-righteous anger, the sun was beginning its ascent and pleasantly warm was turning into baking hot.
Rose reluctantly shelved her thoughts, sat up and glanced at her watch to discover, with shock, that Nick had now been swimming for over forty minutes, and when she peered towards the horizon, there was no sign of him.
Panic slammed into her and she shot to her feet and hurried down to the water line, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun. The beach was more crowded now, although still relatively deserted. People were in the water. A quick glance told her that Nick was not among their number.
She obeyed her instinct and forged into the sea, which was so warm that her body barely needed to adjust to the temperature.
The one continuity in her life had been her swimming lessons. Tony and Flora had nurtured a vague, hippie-like notion that swimming was akin to being at one with nature, and, with that in mind, they had insisted on swimming lessons wherever they had happened to be. The Education of Life was more important than the education of the classroom, but swimming was something they had insisted upon. And Rose had enjoyed it so much that she had continued even when classes had no longer been necessary and long after Lily had packed it in because it ruined her hair. Rose, never one to spend time agonising over the state of her hair, had found the silence and privacy of swimming a soothing balm to a tumultuous adolescence.