He looked her over, his eyes stripping off a layer of skin with their silver-bright possessive blast. Then he swung himself off the bed, turned, and pressed Eve up against his chest so that her eyes were level with his and her thighs were clinging to his narrow waist. ‘Your grandfather,’ he said, ‘should have locked you away years ago.’
She grinned; her eyes began to shine; she had the audacity to put out her tongue and lick the shape of his mock-stern mouth. ‘Jack Banning said the very same thing,’ she informed him. Then before he could respond, she kissed him—hell, did she kiss him! She kissed him all the way into the adjoining bathroom, then the shower and, as promised, beyond.
Eve was in the kitchen and was humming to herself as she waited for the toast to pop up from the toaster. Sunlight was pouring in through the open door which led onto the terrace and behind her lay the remnants of the meal they’d eaten in here the night before—though for the life of her she couldn’t remember what that meal had consisted of.
It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, other than for the huggable knowledge that she had spent the night in Ethan’s home, in Ethan’s bed, in Ethan’s arms, making wonderful love. She was now wearing Ethan’s shirt as she prepared his breakfast, while his voice filtered into her from out on the terrace where he was sounding very smooth, very slick, very informed as he spoke in fluent Spanish to some authoritative body. She loved his voice; she loved its rich deep texture and what it did to her tummy muscles as she listened to him. She loved this feeling of complete contentment as she prepared breakfast for him.
He stopped talking as the toast popped up, his footsteps sounding on pale blue tiling as they brought him into the kitchen to look for her. She smiled as his hands came to cup her hips, crushing fine cotton against her cool flesh. ‘Mmm, that smells good,’ he said, then buried his mouth in the side of her throat.
It really was quite sinful the way she responded, turning round in his grasp to demand that mouth for her own. His hands shaped her body and hers stroked the smooth clean surface of his freshly shaved face. Things would have moved onto something else if the telephone hadn’t started ringing.
He was reluctant to let her go, Eve equally so. But she liked the evidence of frustration in his eyes as he dug his mobile out of his pocket and placed it to his ear.
‘Ethan Hayes,’ he announced in that deep smooth drawl that made her toes curl into the floor. He was wearing a light grey suit, white shirt and grey tie and was looking dynamic, again, she noticed with a wry little smile as she turned back to the toast while he discussed local by-laws.
The call ended just as she finished slotting triangles of toast into a toast rack. There was a short sharp silence that alerted her before she even turned round and saw his face.
He was gazing ruefully at the breakfast tray she had prepared ready to take out onto the terrace. ‘You’re going to be angry with me for this,’ he warned her. ‘But I’m afraid I’ll have to miss breakfast. I have a meeting in ten minutes down at the yacht club.’
Disappointment curled inside her tummy but she kept it from showing on her face by hiding it behind an understanding smile. It was what he had rushed back here to Spain for, after all. ‘So much for my display of domesticity,’ she mocked.
‘I shouldn’t be long,’ he assured her. ‘You’ll be all right here on your own until I get back?’
‘I’ll try my best not to go into too deep a decline while you’re gone,’ she promised.
‘What about my decline?’ he countered quizzically.
It was nice of him to say it, but he was in no danger of wasting away from not having her within touching distance. He was already pumped up and eager to go and take on the whole Spanish government.
Folding her arms beneath her breasts, Eve leaned against the worktop and sent him a dry look. ‘Go,’ she said.
‘Right,’ he said, but still didn’t move. Instead he looked at her, really looked at her, with a slight tilt to his head and a slight frown to his brow, as if he was trying to work something out about her but couldn’t quite grasp what that something was. Then he seemed to give up on it and, with a brief smile, he brushed a kiss across her cheek. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ he said.
Then he was gone, striding out of the kitchen and away from her with his car keys jangling in his hand as he made for the rear courtyard, where she’d noticed the set of four garages when they’d arrived the afternoon before.
Left on her own, breakfast lost some of its appeal, though the aroma of fresh coffee was too inviting to ignore. So she carried the tray out onto the terrace and sat at one of the tables there to drink it and watch San Estéban glitter with the early morning crystal-clarity that came with the promise of a perfect summer’s day. After that she spent some time tidying the kitchen, then decided to take a long shower and dress before exploring the rest of the villa, since she hadn’t bothered to notice anything much the day before.
She took the terrace route to her bedroom, noticed she hadn’t even got around to unpacking her suitcase, and wondered if Ethan had unpacked his? A quick shower and she was just slipping into
