He knew he’d let his eyes linger on her for a few seconds too long to be considered polite. Had she noticed?
Her eyes had watched him carefully. Her face was round with a heart-shaped chin and she had lips like a ripe peach. She was thin but not skinny and she had firm, round breasts that it was impossible not to notice. He’d seen them rise and fall under the sheet as she’d panicked. He could have happily watched her breathing all night.
His eyes had been drawn to four small, dark freckles that made a diamond shape against the pale skin on her chest. One sat about an inch below her collarbone, another on the swell of her right breast with a matching one on the left, and the fourth one, the one that formed the bottom of the diamond, was tucked into her cleavage. The pattern was stamped on his memory.
He should have given her some privacy, backed out of the room, but he’d been transfixed.
He closed his eyes now and floated on his back but he could still see Luci’s pale skin decorated with the perfect diamond imprinted on the backs of his eyelids. It was late and he was physically exhausted but he knew there was no way he’d be able to sleep. Not yet.
He flipped onto his front and swam further into the harbour. In the pale starlight he could see the outline of his boat tied to its mooring. With long, fluid strokes he passed several other boats floating on the water as he swam out to his cabin cruiser.
His hands gripped the ladder at the stern and he pulled himself up onto the small ledge at the rear. He ran his hand over the smooth, sleek lines of the cabin as he made his way round to the large, flat bow. He stretched, resting his back against the windscreen. This boat was his sanctuary. He’d bought it almost three years ago as a project. It had good lines and plenty of potential and had been advertised as needing some TLC or a handyman’s touch. He was no builder but he was good with his hands and he’d figured the learning curve would keep his mind occupied, which was just what he’d needed at the time. He had needed a project, a focus, something to keep him busy, so he could avoid dealing with his alternate reality.
Three years down the track he had made good progress emotionally but he couldn’t say the same about the boat. It was still far from finished, although he had managed to get it to the stage where he could enjoy a day out. The engine worked, as did the toilet, but the kitchen and sleeping berths still needed serious attention. That was his current project, one he intended to finish while he was back in Sydney this time. He had an appointment scheduled for tomorrow evening to meet a cabinet-maker who was, hopefully, going to make new cupboards for the kitchen. While it was far from perfect, it didn’t matter. It was perfect for him.
The boat represented freedom.
Seb didn’t want to be tied down and the boat gave him a sense of having a place in the world without commitment. Eventually, when the renovation was completed, he planned to live aboard. Having a boat as his place of residence appealed immensely as he could close it up and leave or take it with him. It would be a fluid living arrangement, transient enough that he didn’t have to think of living aboard as settling down. It wasn’t a big commitment.
He wasn’t ready for commitment. He’d tried it once, with disastrous results.
Luckily for him Callum didn’t show any signs of settling down either, which meant he always had a place to crash. It was reassuring to know that he had a place to stay that didn’t require any commitment from him. Was that immature behaviour? Perhaps. Irresponsible? Maybe. He hadn’t thought about what he’d do if Callum ever did settle down. At least he hadn’t until tonight.
Seeing someone else in his room—he always thought of it as his, even though he was an infrequent visitor—seeing Luci in his bed, made him wonder what he would do if Callum ever wanted to make changes. What if he wanted to rent out that room or live with a girlfriend? Either one would put him out on the street.
Was he being selfish? Taking advantage of Callum’s generosity? Was it time he grew up and stopped relying on his big brother?
But no matter what Cal’s intentions were, being tossed out onto the street by Luci was still a possibility if she was uncomfortable about having him share her space. He’d told her he would stick with Callum’s plan but what if she decided she didn’t want him there?
One thing at a time, he decided. He’d only been back for five minutes. It wasn’t worth wasting time worrying about things that might not happen. It was far more enjoyable to spend his time thinking about a pretty blonde who was curled up in his bed.
Seb laced his fingers together and rested his hands behind his head as he looked up at the sky. There were no clouds, the sky was dark and clear, the stars bright against the inky blackness. He picked out the Southern Cross, its familiar diamond shape marking the sky reminding him of the other diamond he’d seen earlier.
Things were about to become interesting.
* * *
Luci was up early. She showered and grabbed a piece of fruit for breakfast, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. There was no sound from Seb’s room and she didn’t want to disturb him. She hadn’t heard him come back in last night but his motorbike helmet, jacket and boots were still piled on the living room floor so she assumed he was sleeping. She stuffed her laptop into her bag and slung it across her body, biting into her apple as she walked out the front door.
Today was her last full day of lectures. Tomorrow she and the other nineteen registered and enrolled nurses would have orientation at whichever child and family health centre they had been assigned to for their placements, and the course would then become a mixture of theory and practice. Luci was looking forward to getting out of the lecture room and dipping her toe into the world of family and community health.
The lectures had been interesting but she wasn’t used to sitting down all day. The training room was an internal one in the hospital. It was small and windowless and by the end of the day Luci was itching to get outside into the fresh air. She was planning on taking a walk along Manly beach to clear the cobwebs from her mind. She stretched her arms and back and rolled her shoulders as the group waited for the final lecturer of the day. The topic for the last session was indigenous health, which had the potential to be interesting, but Luci didn’t envy the lecturer their four o’clock timeslot. She doubted she was the only one who was thinking ahead to the end of the day.
Luci heard the sound of the door click open and swing shut. It was followed by a murmur from the back of the room that intensified in volume as it swept down the stairs. The room had half a dozen rows of tiered seating and she was sitting near the front. The room was buzzing and Luci turned her head to see what had got everyone so excited.
Seb was at the end of her row, about to step down to the front of the room. What on earth was he doing here?
He shrugged out of his leather jacket and dropped his motorbike helmet on a chair. He was dressed casually in sand-coloured cotton trousers and a chambray blue shirt that brought out the colour of his eyes.
He looked seriously hot.
He pulled a USB stick from his shirt pocket and plugged it into the computer. He was the lecturer?
He looked up, ready to address the room, and his eyes scanned the group, running over the twenty or so attendees. Luci’s stomach was churning with nerves and her palms were sweaty as she waited for him to pick her out in the room. It didn’t take long.
He spotted her in the front row and smiled. His blue eyes were intensely bright in his ridiculously handsome face and Luci swore the entire room, including the two male nurses, caught their collective breath. Her knees wobbled and she was glad she was already sitting down.
‘Hello.’ He was looking straight at her and everything around her dissolved in a haze as she melted into his gaze. ‘I am Dr Seb Hollingsworth.’
Dr! Did he just say Dr? The motorbike-riding, leather-jacketed, living, breathing