But he scared the bejesus out of her. Not him so much; the swiftness of her attraction to him. It was fierce. And kind of wild. And she was the woman who calmed the waters. Not the kind who ever went chasing storms.
Even while she knew she was about to admit she understood exactly what Jonah meant, she said, “I told you—I’m interested in someone else.” Considering becoming interested, anyway.
Then, as if it just didn’t matter, he said, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Because it’s a ridiculous question!”
“You brought it up.”
So she had. How had this suddenly gone so wrong?
Avery risked a glance to find Jonah’s eyes back on her mouth. His jaw was tight, his breaths slow and deep. And his deep grey eyes made their way back to hers.
“Good Lord, Jonah, first the girls at the hotel were all swoony over you—”
“You noticed?” The smile was back. And a sheen of perspiration prickled all over her skin.
She held up a hand to block his face from sight. “Then Claude mentions in passing that she thinks you’re a ‘supreme example of Australian manhood—’”
His laughter at that echoed through the tiny space till her toes curled. But still she forged on.
“You really need me to be in the line-up too? Are you really that egotistical?”
“No, Avery. I’m really that interested. I want to hear you admit you’re as attracted to me as I think you are,” he said, and not for a second did he take his eyes from hers.
If she hadn’t been strapped up like a Thanksgiving turkey she’d have been on him like cranberry sauce. But she was, and she couldn’t. And the conversation had become such a hot mess, Avery wished she could go back in time. Perhaps to the very beginning when all that mattered in life was sleep, food, and a safe place in which to hide from pesky dinosaurs.
“You want to know what I want?” she asked, proud of the fact that her voice wasn’t quavering all over the place. “What I want is for you to keep your eyes on the sky! No matter what you think of my survival skills, I have no intention of dying today.”
She waited, all air stuck in her lungs, for him to say something like I’d rather keep my eyes on you. But he merely smiled. As if he knew that she was a big fat liar. Deep down in the dark places inside her that she avoided at all costs. The place where Pollyanna had been born: always positive, not a bother, things would get better, they would! No wonder she worked in PR.
When Jonah’s smile only grew, she muttered, “Oh, shut up.”
“I didn’t say a thing.”
“Well, stop thinking. It doesn’t suit you.”
The smile turned into a laugh—huh-huh-huh. Then, easy as you please, he shifted eyes front and left her alone for the rest of the flight.
Disappointment and temptation rode her in equal measure, so much so she clenched her fists and let herself have a good internal scream. Because she didn’t need this, feeling all breathless and weightless with all the hot flushes and the like. Avery wasn’t looking for sparks. Sparks were incendiary. Their sole purpose was to start fires. And fire burned.
She couldn’t have been more relieved when the helicopter finally came to rest on a helipad at the end of a jetty belonging to one of the bigger resorts just north of Crescent Cove.
Even better when she saw Claudia waving as if Avery had been rescued from some deserted island.
And, bless his shiny black shoes, there was Luke, leaning against the Tropicana Nights shuttle bus in the car park at the far end of the jetty. Tall, and handsome, with half an eye on his phone.
Hull was there too. The beast sat apart, upright on a cluster of rocks in the shadow of a tilting palm tree at the end of the jetty. Not Jonah’s dog? Maybe somebody should tell the dog that.
Avery managed to get herself unstrapped without help. But getting down was another matter.
Strong hands at her waist, Jonah dropped her to the ground. She didn’t dare breathe as all that hard muscle and sun-drenched skin imprinted itself upon her and good. The second her feet hit terra firma, she peeled herself away.
“Here’s hoping that’s the last time you feel the need to come to my salvation.”
Jonah didn’t second that thought. In fact, even as he stood there, like some big hot, muscly statue, the look in his eyes told her he wasn’t on the same page at all. With a shake of her head, she turned and walked away.
“Avery,” he called.
She scrunched her eyes tight a second, held her breath. And when she looked back, she saw he was holding out her missing shoes.
Meaning at some point after he’d dropped her at the Tea Tree he must have gone looking for them. Which was actually...really...nice.
She walked to him, hating every second of it. And when she slid her fingers into the straps, her fingers brushed his. And there was the spark. Hard, fast, debilitating.
Their eyes met. One corner of his sexy mouth lifted. Deny that, he said without saying anything at all. And her heart thumped so hard against her ribs she dared not look down in case it was leaving a mark.
“Aaaaaveryyyy!” Claudia’s voice carried on the air.
Jonah’s eyes followed the sound, and lit up with an easygoing smile, one not fuelled with sex appeal and intent. When his eyes once again found hers, he caught her staring. And the next smile was all sex, all intent, all for her.
“Don’t say it,” she said, walking backwards, using her dangly sandals as a shield. “Don’t even think it. The end.”
And then she turned, looped her arm through Claudia’s and swung her away from the crazy-making guy at her back.
“You okay?” Claude asked. “You looked all flushed.”
“Sunburn,” Avery deadpanned. Then bumped shoulders with her friend. “Now did you guys really drive out here just to get me?”
“Of course we did. When Jonah rang to say you’d nearly been eaten by a giant squid I had to find out the real story!”
“Funny man,” she mumbled, “that friend of yours.”
“Seems he’s becoming quite the friend of yours. I’ve never been on his chopper before. Not once.”
Avery turned back to find Jonah leaning on his helicopter watching her. The big wolf dog now sitting at his heels was watching her too.
“What is with the dog anyway?” she asked, distracting Claudia. “Jonah says it’s not his.”
“And yet there they are, their own private little wolf pack. It’s kind of romantic really, in a tragic, Heathcliffian loner-type way.”
“Except instead of cold, wet, English moors he wanders a sunny Aussie beach?”
“Exactly.”
“Not quite so tragic, then.”
Claude grinned. “If you’re going to wander anywhere the rest of your days, might as well be here.”
Avery opened her mouth to ask if there’d been a “Catherine” to send him wandering the moors/beach in the first place. Then snapped it shut tight. Jonah North was none of her business. Hopefully she could get through the rest of her holiday without tripping over the guy or she’d go back home even more tightly wound than when she left.
They neared the end of the jetty and Avery looked up and saw Luke watching them from his position at the shuttle bus. She stood straighter, smiled big, and lifted her hand in a cheery wave.
Luke shot her a nod. A smile. Just looking