WHAT WAS SHE getting herself into now? Kimmie wondered as she introduced Kris to her friends. Was her brain so fried after finding two people she had trusted in bed together that she was more than capable of acting out of character to the point of being reckless? There was a sense of unreality about things, of not quite touching base with events that seemed to be floating over her head. Frying pan and fire came to mind. She stared at Kris, who was behaving quite differently to the autocratic tyrant he’d initially seemed on the beach. What had changed him? Why was he being so charming? Did Kris have an angle too?
‘He’s really nice,’ one of her friends said.
‘Look what I found on the beach is a great opener when the flotsam looks like Kris,’ Kimmie admitted.
She’d tried the conventional kind of relationship and look how that had turned out, Kimmie mused as Kris continued to talk easily to her friends. Perhaps it was time to try something different.
What? Now? Get real! And as if she’d get the chance!
But for someone who had spent most of her life dreaming, and putting those dreams down on paper and canvas, there was no harm in looking, as she watched Kris mingle and charm. He wasn’t predatory, and some of her single female friends were very pretty, nor was he condescending with the men. He was just a great guy...or he appeared to be. Perhaps he didn’t have an agenda and she was just being neurotic, but appearances could be deceptive, Kimmie thought as she remembered Mike.
Around half an hour in, Kris was ready to leave. ‘Do we have to go when you go?’ Kimmie asked, concern building as she noticed how much her friends had relaxed since he’d arrived. They’d been distracted from her troubles by something new, and she was grateful for that because now they could really enjoy themselves without forcing the fun for her sake.
‘Your friends don’t have to go,’ he said, ‘but you do.’
‘Me? I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying with my friends.’
‘Then you can all leave,’ Kris said flatly.
His tone was light and conversational, but the expression in his eyes said something different. ‘Come on,’ he prompted with a gesture.
Was she a puppy to be led away? She might be suffering the aftershock of betrayal, but she hadn’t lost her mind completely.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she assured him, digging her feet into the sand.
Of all the reactions she might have expected, an easy smile was not on the list. ‘Don’t you want to come with me?’
A host of forbidden pleasures flew into her mind, but she had the sense to discard all of them. She’d thought Mike was safe, and look what had happened. Kris didn’t even pretend to be the safe option, with that gladiator’s body, tattoos and a single small gold hoop in his ear. He was danger personified.
Wasn’t he exactly the type of distraction she needed right now? It seemed to work for her friends.
Because their emotions weren’t battered and bruised, she reasoned. Standing close enough to Kris to imagine the heat of his sun-warmed body embracing her was warning enough. Warm, clean, spicy—strong white teeth, Hollywood pristine, with the fire of the devil in his eyes? That was everything she didn’t need.
‘I thought you might like to talk some more,’ he said.
She ground her jaw. It wasn’t like her to be indecisive, but it wasn’t like her to take such an almighty risk, either.
‘We’ll just walk somewhere close by and talk,’ he suggested.
Talking was safe, she persuaded herself as they set off down the beach.
Yes, but why would he take the trouble to do that? ‘Where are we going?’
She turned to glance at her friends. They’d noticed her leaving the party, and they’d taken a pretty good look at Kris, who hadn’t even tried to hide himself away, so she felt reasonably confident that she could handle this as they started to climb up the dune.
‘Too fast for you?’ he asked, stopping to wait for her to catch up. With his black stare fixed on her face and his firm mouth curving faintly, Kris was quite a sight, and surely he had to know the havoc he was creating in her fastidiously prepared wedding day body?
She was glad for the chance to catch her breath. Maybe talking to a stranger like Kris would sort things out in her head. There was so much emotion roiling around inside her it was like having a lava plug waiting to blow.
‘Make like Scheherazade,’ Kris suggested, curbing a smile. ‘Keep me entertained and you’ll buy more time on the beach for your friends.’
‘As long as it’s only talking,’ she said warily.
‘Obviously.’
‘Okay then,’ she agreed as they set off again.
‘God, you’re annoying,’ she whispered under her breath as Kris’s smile broke through his reserve. So why was she still here? Because there was annoying and then there was Kris, Kimmie concluded as he held out a hand to haul her up the last few yards of the sand dune.
* * *
Kimmie’s resilience was something else. Stubborn to a fault, he’d never liked a pushover and she would push back. She was out of breath when they reached the top, so he waited before starting down the other side of the dune. Before they disappeared out of sight she shot one last look at her friends, as if to reassure herself they were still close by.
‘Some people might expect a jilted bride to sit at home sobbing,’ he observed, steadying her as she slithered down the slope.
‘But I’m not at home,’ she pointed out, ‘and I’ve got guests to entertain.’
‘You’ve succeeded, as far as I can tell, so stop beating yourself up.’
‘Who says I’m doing that?’
‘I believe I did.’
‘So I can’t hide anything from you?’ she queried with a lift of her finely drawn brow.
‘No,’ he said flatly, ‘so don’t even try.’
He led the way to one of nature’s indentations in the sand. ‘This will do,’ he said. ‘Feel free to unburden yourself.’
‘Just talking,’ she said again with a warning look.
‘There’s nothing else on the table,’ he assured her.
Who are you, just Kimmie? he wondered. And where did you learn to stand up for yourself like this? The unicorn inked on her shoulder backed up her story of being an artist, a creative, a dreamer, and not his type at all. He went for older, more experienced women who knew the score. They used him as he used them, for sex and pleasurable outings, no strings attached on either side.
‘I am going to pull you up on something,’ she said as they settled down in the dip of sand.
‘Only one thing?’ he murmured dryly, starting to get the hang of Kimmie’s thinking.
‘Yes. If you read the small print on the sign, it describes this area as a wildlife reserve accessible only by permission of the owner, so what are you doing here?’
‘I have permission but, unfortunately, not on me at this moment.’
‘As I can see,’ she said, cheeks pinking up as she pointedly avoided looking at his almost naked body. ‘It just doesn’t seem fair that you can come here and we can’t.’
‘Change the subject,’ he said.