‘You said you know nothing about art.’ she reminded him, brushing off the unwanted accolade.
‘I said I couldn’t draw a straight line, not that I knew nothing about art.’
‘Please, Jack...give it to me.’ She plucked the sketchbook from his fingers and closed it firmly. ‘It was just a bit of fun, and—and you were the only one on the beach...’
She flung her legs over the side of the lounger, glancing at her watch as she sat up. ‘Is that the time? I’d better fly,’ she gabbled. ‘The police must have been and gone by now and my—my friend could be looking for me.’ She snatched up her beach-bag and scrambled to her feet.
Jack rose too. ‘I could do with another run. I’ll come down to the beach with you...if that’s where you’re heading. You could introduce me to your friend.’
He wanted to meet Diana? Kate was shocked—disgusted—at the flash of pure jealousy that knifed through her. Diana was closer to Jack’s age, and a sophisticated, high-powered woman of the world. Compared with a lowly medical student, not yet twenty...
‘I—I think I’ll head back to the house,’ she gulped out. ‘Di will probably still be there, cleaning up the mess.’ If there was a police car parked outside the house she could always turn back...and hopefully meet up with Jack again down on the beach. Alone...just the two of them. ‘Jack...thank you.’ She turned to face him. ‘I...my eye’s feeling a lot better. Is it still swollen?’
She raised her face for his scrutiny. And felt a tingling weakness in her legs as his gaze scorched over her flushed skin.
‘Not as much,’ Jack assured her. His voice, warm and velvet-soft, brushed over her like a physical caress. ‘But I think you should get a story ready, if you don’t want your friend knowing that a strange man walloped you in the face while you were caught in a dangerous rip.’
She gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘At least—thanks to you turning up, Jack—I won’t have to tell her I went swimming on my own.’ She could hardly hide the fact that she’d been for a swim—one glance at her damp, tangled curls would give her away. ‘I know it’s not quite the truth, but...’ She reached out involuntarily to touch his arm. ‘Thank you, Jack, for—’ she caught her breath at the feel of the smooth, hard flesh under her fingers ‘—for saving my life.’
She felt her gaze swallowed by a blue more brilliant than the sea. ‘The pleasure was all mine.’ He took her uptilted chin in his hand, bent his head and kissed her. Full on the lips.
‘It’s not every day a fellow has the chance to pluck a golden mermaid from the sea,’ he drawled as he drew back.
She couldn’t move or speak for a second. She could feel her face burning, her heart thudding, her lips tingling from the brief, unexpected touch of his lips. Warm, firm, yet deliciously sensual lips, the kind of lips you wanted to go on kissing you for ever.
She saw something in his face, a fleeting glint in his eye, a deepening of the sharp blue, as if he’d surprised himself by kissing her. Or by feeling the same spark of awareness that she’d felt?
‘I thought your eyes were grey,’ he murmured with a slow smile, his voice breaking the spell. ‘But they’re green...as green as the sea on a wintry day.’
Was that what had surprised him? The colour of her eyes? She felt a ripple of disappointment. Maybe he’d felt nothing at all.
‘And as beautiful,’ he added softly, his fingers caressing the soft skin of her throat, his hypnotic eyes still holding hers.
Kate stared back at him, her lips trembling, parting under his gaze. She felt light-headed, breathless, as if she were floating. She couldn’t drag her eyes from his. Didn’t want to.
Caught up in the enchantment of the moment, dazed by a dreamy sense of unreality, she blurted something utterly unexpected, utterly unplanned. And utterly outrageous.
‘You realise, don’t you, Jack, that when you save someone’s life...you’re bound to them for ever?’
She caught her breath as the impetuous words left her lips, wishing she could snatch them back. Bound for ever? What in the world was she saying, thinking of? If there were any words more likely to drive a man away...!
She gave a startled jerk as Jack reached out to slide a hand round her neck under her curls, gently urging her face closer to his, his fingers warm and tinglingly intimate on her skin.
‘Then maybe we ought to seal those bonds between us... with a proper kiss,’ he suggested in a strangely husky voice.
‘Jack, I didn’t—’
His lips stopped her. Those warm, sumptuous lips that she’d tasted a moment ago and longed to taste again. Lips that she couldn’t resist, didn’t want to resist, that caused her own to melt under their gentle, seeking pressure, all thought scattering to the four winds.
Still kissing her, he slid an arm round her waist, pulling her against his muscled warmth, his powerful thighs brushing her bare legs.
Instead of feeling trapped, or in any way alarmed, she clutched at his arms and pressed even closer, elated and intoxicated by the increasing hunger of his kiss and the erratic beat of his heart against hers.
He drew back just far enough to murmur against her lips, ‘You’re not one of those irresistible sirens of the sea, I trust, who lure men to their destruction on the rocks?’
She gave a gurgle of husky laughter. ‘Oh, Jack, I’d never do anything to hurt you...ever. You saved my life!’ Gulping in a much needed breath, she whispered, ‘Maybe we were fated to meet.’
‘Maybe we were.’ His fingers threaded through her mass of golden curls, his eyes a dark glitter above hers. ‘You’re already threatening to turn my life upside-down... do you realise that?’
She was? Kate let out a dreamy sigh as his mouth captured hers again, preventing her from telling him that he was doing the same to her. As if he didn’t know it already!
Her mind spun as his tongue slid between her teeth and began an erotic dance with hers, his lips sucking, tasting, sending a delicious fire through her veins. So this was what a proper kiss was...this was how it felt. Nothing like the arrogant, insensitive assaults or the clumsy, eager smooches that she’d known before...none of which had affected her in the slightest, except to fill her with a mild distaste. This was so different...the way it made her feel...wanting more...far more.
Her breath quickened as she felt his hand brush over the swell of her breast, her body arching involuntarily, her senses reeling at the intimate touch, at the exquisite sensations flaming through her. She didn’t think of protesting, or drawing back. She was paralysed, lost to all reality, conscious only of the heady exhilaration of being in his arms, and the blinding realisation that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
As a shiver of pure excitement quivered through her, Jack wrenched his mouth from hers, almost brutally pushing her back, away from him. ‘My God, what am I doing? What am I letting you do to me?’
The magic spell shattered. Only the hands still holding her arms prevented Kate’s legs from sagging beneath her. Blood rushed to her face, tears of hurt and shame springing to her eyes. He didn’t want her after all. She was too fast, too easy. He was disgusted at himself for succumbing to...her feminine wiles. But not as disgusted as she felt at that moment—with herself.
What was she doing, letting a virtual stranger kiss her like that, touch her like that? As for telling him they were bound together for ever, just because he’d saved her life... She’d only just met him, for pity’s sake! She didn’t even know his full name.
‘I’m sorry,’