ANY TIME SHE wanted to ask it?
That meant... Audra’s mind raced. That meant if Finn were running hell for leather, doing laps as if training for a triathlon, risking his neck as if there were no tomorrow, then...then she could ask a question and he’d have to stop and answer her?
Oh, she’d try other stalling tactics first. She wasn’t wasting a perfectly good question if she could get him to slow down in other ways, but...
She tried to stop her internal glee from showing. ‘You have yourself a deal.’
Finn readjusted his stance. ‘So what’s the story with Farquhar? The bit that didn’t make the papers.’
She hiked herself up to sit on a large rock, its top worn smooth, but its sides pitted with the effects of wind and sand. It was warm beneath her hands and thighs.
He settled himself beside her. ‘Is it hard to talk about?’
She sent him what she hoped was a wry glance. ‘It’s never fun to own up to being a fool...or to having made such a big mistake.’
‘Audra—’
She waved him silent. ‘I’m surprised you don’t know the story.’ She’d have thought Rupert would’ve filled him in.
‘I know what was in the paper but not, I suspect, the whole story.’
Dear Rupert. He’d kept his word.
Oddly, though, she didn’t mind Finn knowing the story in its entirety. While they might’ve been friendly adversaries all these years, he was practically family. He’d have her best interests at heart, just as she did his.
‘Right.’ She slapped her hands to her thighs and he glanced down at them. His face went oddly tight and he immediately stared out to sea. A pulse started up in her throat and her heart danced an irregular pattern in her chest.
Stop it. Don’t think of Finn in that way.
But...he’s hot.
And he thinks you’re hot.
Nonsense! He’s just... He just found it hard to not flirt with every woman in his orbit.
She forced herself to bring Thomas’s face to mind and the pulse-jerking and heart-hammering came to a screeching halt. ‘So the part that everyone knows—’ the part that had made the papers ‘—is that Thomas Farquhar and I had been dating for over seven months.’
Wary brown eyes met hers and he gave a nod. ‘What made you fall for him?’
She shrugged. ‘He seemed so...nice. He went out of his way to spend time with me, and do nice things for me. It was just...nice,’ she finished lamely. He’d been so earnest about all the things she was earnest about. He’d made her feel as if she were doing exactly what she ought to be doing with her life. She’d fallen for all of that intoxicating attention and validation hook, line and sinker.
‘But it’s clear now that he was only dating me to steal company secrets.’ A fact the entire world now knew thanks to the tabloids. She shrivelled up a little more inside every time she thought about it.
The Russel Corporation, established by her Swiss grandfather sixty years ago, had originally been founded on a watchmaking dynasty but was now made up of a variety of concerns, including a large charitable arm. Her father was the CEO, though Rupert had been groomed to take over and, to all intents and purposes, was running the day-to-day operations of the corporation.
Her siblings were champions of social justice, each in their own way, just as her parents and grandparents had been in their younger days. Their humanitarian activities were administered by the Russel Corporation, and, as one of the corporation’s chief operation managers, Audra had the role of overseeing a variety of projects—from hiring the expertise needed on different jobs and organising the delivery of necessary equipment and goods, to wrangling with various licences and permissions that needed to be secured, and filling in endless government grant forms. And in her spare time she fundraised. It was hectic, high-powered and high-stakes.
For the last five years her sister, Cora, a scientist, had been working on developing a new breakthrough vaccine for the Ebola virus. While such a vaccine would help untold sufferers of the illness, it also had the potential to make pharmaceutical companies vast sums of money.
She tried to slow the churning of her stomach. ‘Thomas was after Cora’s formulae and research. We know now that he was working for a rival pharmaceutical company. We suspect he deliberately targeted me, and that our meeting at a fundraising dinner wasn’t accidental.’
From the corner of her eye she saw Finn nod. She couldn’t look at him. Instead she twisted her hands together in her lap and watched the progress of a small crab as it moved from one rock pool to another. ‘He obviously worked out my computer password. There were times when we were in bed, when I thought he was asleep, and I’d grab my laptop to log in quickly just to check on something.’
She watched in fascination as his hand clenched and then unclenched. ‘You’d have had to have more than one password to get anywhere near Cora’s data.’
‘Oh, I have multiple passwords. I have one for my laptop, different ones for my desktop computers at home and work. There’s the password for my Russel Corporation account. And each of the projects has its own password.’ There’d been industrial espionage attempts before. She’d been briefed on internet and computer security. ‘But it appears he’d had covert cameras placed around my apartment.’
‘How...?’
How did he get access? ‘I gave him a key.’ She kept her voice flat and unemotional. She’d given an industrial spy unhampered access to her flat—what an idiot! ‘I can tell you now, though, that all those romantic dinners he made for us—’ his pretext for needing a key ‘—have taken on an entirely different complexion.’ It’d seemed mean-spirited not to give him a key at the time, especially as he’d given her one to his flat.
He swore. ‘Did he have cameras in the bedroom?’
‘No.’ He’d not sunk that low. But it didn’t leave her feeling any less violated. ‘But...but he must’ve seen me do some stupid, ugly, unfeminine things on those cameras. And I know it’s nothing on the grand scale, but...it irks me!’
‘What kind of things?’
She slashed a hand through the air. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Like picking my teeth or hiking my knickers out from uncomfortable places, or... Have you ever seen a woman put on a pair of brand-new sixty-denier opaque tights?’
He shook his head.
‘Well, it’s not sexy. It looks ludicrous and contortionist and it probably looks hilarious and... And I feel like enough of a laughing stock without him having footage of that too.’
A strong arm came about her shoulder and pulled her in close. Just for a moment she let herself sink against him to soak up the warmth and the comfort. ‘He played me to perfection,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t suspect a damn thing. I thought—’ She faltered. ‘I thought he liked me.’
His arm tightened about her. ‘He was a damn fool. The man has to be a certifiable idiot to choose money over you, sweetheart.’
He pressed his lips to her hair and she felt an unaccountable urge to cry.
She didn’t want to cry!
‘Stop it.’ She pushed him away and leapt down from the rock. ‘Don’t be nice to me. My stupidity nearly cost Cora all of the hard work she’s put in for the last five years.’
‘But it didn’t.’
No, it hadn’t. And it was hard to work up an outraged stomp in flip-flops, and with the Aegean spread before her in twinkling blue perfection and the sun shining down as if the world was full of good things. The files Thomas had stolen were old, and, while to an outsider the formulae and hypotheses looked impressive, the work was neither new nor ground-breaking. Audra didn’t have access to the information Thomas had been so anxious to get his hands on for the simple fact that she didn’t need it. The results of Cora’s research had nothing to do with Audra’s role at work.
But Thomas didn’t know that yet. And there was a court case pending. ‘So...’ She squinted into the sun at him. ‘Rupert told you that much, huh?’
‘I didn’t know about the hidden cameras, but as for the rest...’ He nodded.
‘You know that’s all classified, right?’
He nodded again. ‘What hasn’t Rupert told me?’ He dragged in a breath, his hands clenching. ‘Did Farquhar break your heart?’
She huffed out a laugh. ‘Which of those questions do you want me to answer first?’ When he didn’t answer, she moved back to lean against the rock. ‘I’ll answer the second first because that’ll move us on nicely to the first.’ She winced at the bitterness that laced her nicely. ‘No, he didn’t break my heart. In fact I was starting to feel smothered by him so I...uh...’
‘You...?’
‘I told him I wanted to break up.’
He stared at her for a long moment. The muscles in his jaw tensed. ‘What did he do?’
She swallowed. ‘He pushed me into the hall closet and locked me in.’
He swore and the ferocity of his curse made her blink. He landed beside her, his expression black.
‘I... I think he panicked when I demanded my key back. So he locked me in, stole my computer and high-tailed it out of there.’
‘How long were you in there?’
‘All night.’ And it’d been the longest night of her life.
‘How...?’
He clenched his fists so hard he started to shake. In a weird way his outrage helped.
‘How did you get out?’
‘He made the mistake of using my access code to get into the office early the next morning. Very early when he didn’t think anyone else would be around. But Rupert, who had jet lag, had decided to put in a few hours. He saw the light on in my office, and came to drag me off to breakfast.’ She shrugged. ‘He found Thomas rifling through my filing cabinets instead. The first thing he did was to call Security. The second was to call my home phone and then my mobile. Neither of which I could answer. He has a key to my flat, so...’
‘So he raced over and let you out.’
‘Yep.’
She’d never been happier to see her older brother in her life. Her lips twisted. ‘It was only then, though, that I learned of the extent of Thomas’s double-dealing. And all I wanted to do was crawl back in the closet and hide from the world.’
‘Sweetheart—’
She waved him quiet again. ‘I know all the things you’re going to say, Finn, but don’t. Rupert’s already said them. None of this is my fault. Anyone can be taken in by a conman... Blah-blah-blah.’
She moved to the edge of the rock shelf and stared out at the sea, but its beauty couldn’t soothe her. She’d been taken in by a man whose interest and undivided attention had turned her head—a man who’d seemed not only interested but invested in hearing about her hopes and dreams...and supporting her in those dreams. She hadn’t felt the focus of somebody’s world like that since her mother had died.
She folded her arms, gripped her elbows tight. But it’d all been a lie, and in her hunger for that attention she’d let her guard down. It’d had the potential to cause untold damage to Cora’s career, not to mention the Russel Corporation’s reputation. She’d been such an idiot!
And to add insult to injury she’d spent the best part of six weeks trying to talk herself out of breaking up with him because he’d seemed so darn perfect.
Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!
‘So now you feel like a gullible fool who’s let the family down, and you look at every new person you meet through the tainted lens of suspicion—wondering if they can be trusted or if they’re just out for whatever they can get.’
Exactly. She wanted to dive into the sea and power through the water until she was too tired to think about any of this any more. It was a decent swim from here back to the beach, but one that was within her powers. Only...if she did that Finn would follow and five laps out to the buoy and back was enough for him for one day.
She swung around to meet his gaze. ‘That sounds like the voice of experience.’
He shrugged and moved to stand beside her, his lips tightening as he viewed the horizon. ‘It’s how I’d feel in your shoes.’
‘Except you’d never be so stupid.’ She turned and started to pick her way back along the rock pools towards the beach.
‘I’ve done stupider things with far less cause.’
He had? She turned to find him staring at her with eyes as turbulent as the Aegean in a storm. She didn’t press him, but filed the information away. She might ask him about that some day.
‘And even Rupert isn’t mistake free. Getting his heart broken by Brooke Manning didn’t show a great deal of foresight.’
‘He was young,’ she immediately defended. ‘And we all thought she was as into him as he was into her.’
He raised an eyebrow, and she lifted her hands. ‘Okay, okay. I know. It’s just... Rupert’s mistake didn’t hurt anyone but himself. My mistake had the potential to ruin Cora’s life’s work to date and impact on the entire Russel Corporation, and—’
Warm hands descended to her shoulders. ‘But it didn’t. Stop focussing on what could have happened and deal with what actually did happen. And the positives that can be found there.’
‘Positives?’ she spluttered.
‘Sure.’
‘Oh, I can’t wait to hear this. C’mon, wise guy, name me one positive.’
He rubbed his chin. ‘Well, for starters, you’d worked out Farquhar was a jerk and had kicked his sorry butt to the kerb.’
Not exactly true. She’d just been feeling suffocated, and hadn’t been able to hide from that fact any more.
‘And don’t forget that’s been caught on camera too.’
She stared up at him. And a slow smile built through her. ‘Oh, my God.’
He cocked an eyebrow.
‘He argued about us breaking up. He wanted me to reconsider and give him another chance.’
‘Not an unusual reaction.’
‘I told him we could still see each other as friends.’
Finn clutched his chest as if he’d been shot through the heart. ‘Ouch!’
‘And then he ranted and paced for a bit, and when he had his back to me a few times I, uh, rolled my eyes and...’
‘And?’
‘Checked my watch because there was a programme on television I was hoping to catch.’
He barked out a laugh.
‘And this is embarrassing, for him, so I shouldn’t tell it.’
‘Yes, you should. You really should.’
‘Well, he cried. Obviously they were crocodile tears, but I wasn’t to know that at the time. I went to fetch the box of tissues, and while my back was to him I pulled this horrible kind of “God help me” face at the wall.’
She gave him a demonstration and he bent at the waist and roared. ‘Crocodile tears or not, that’s going to leave his ego in shreds. I’m sorry, sweetheart, but getting caught picking your nose suddenly doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.’
‘I do not pick my nose.’ She stuck that particular appendage in the air. But Finn was right. She found she didn’t care quite so much if Thomas had seen her pigging out on chocolate or dancing to pop music in her knickers. Now whenever she thought about any of those things she’d recall her hilarious grimace—probably straight at some hidden camera—and would feel partially vindicated.
She swung to Finn. ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
They reached the beach and shook sand off their towels, started the five-minute climb back up the hill to the villa. ‘Audra?’
‘Hmm?’
‘I’m sorry I scared you when I arrived the other night. I’m sorry I scared you with my boo out there.’ He waved towards the water.
She shrugged. ‘You didn’t mean to.’
‘No, I didn’t mean to.’
And his voice told her he’d be careful it wouldn’t happen again. Rather than being irked at being treated with kid gloves, she felt strangely cared for.
‘I guess I owe you an answer now to your question about the woman in Nice who I’m avoiding.’
‘No, thank you very much. I mean, you do owe me an answer to a question—that was the deal. But I’m not wasting it getting the skinny on some love affair gone wrong.’
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. ‘What’s your question, then?’
‘I don’t know yet. When I do know I’ll ask it.’ And then he’d have to stop whatever he was doing and take a timeout to answer it. Perfect.
Finn studied Audra across the breakfast table the next morning. Actually, their breakfast table had become the picnic table that sat on the stone terrace outside, where they could drink in the glorious view. She’d turned down the bacon and eggs, choosing cereal instead. He made a mental note to buy croissants the next time they were in the village.
‘What are you staring at, Finn?’
He wanted to make sure she was eating enough. But he knew exactly how well that’d go down if he admitted as much. ‘I’m just trying to decide if that puny body of yours is up to today’s challenge, Russel.’
A spark lit the ice-blue depths of her eyes, but then she shook her head as if realising he was trying to goad her into some kind of reaction. ‘This puny body is up for a whole lot more lazing on a beach and a little bobbing about in the sea.’
‘Nice try, sweetheart.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘What horrors do you have planned?’
‘You’ll see.’ He was determined that by the time she left the island she’d feel fitter, healthier and more empowered than she had when she’d arrived.
She harrumphed and slouched over her muesli, but her gaze wandered out towards the light gleaming on the water and it made her lips lift and her eyes dance. Being here—taking a break—had already been good for her.
But he wanted her to have fun too. A workout this morning followed by play this afternoon. That seemed like a decent balance.
‘You want us to what?’
An hour later Audra stared at him with such undisguised horror it was all he could do not to laugh. If he laughed, though, it’d rile her and he didn’t want her riled. Unless it was the only way to win her cooperation.
‘I want us to jog the length of the beach.’
Her mouth opened and closed. ‘But...why? How can this be fun?’
‘Exercise improves my mood.’ It always had. As a teenager it’d also been a way to exorcise his demons. Now it just helped to keep him fit and strong. He liked feeling fit and strong.
He waited for her to make some crack about being in favour of anything that improved his mood. Instead she planted her hands on her hips and stared at him. She wore a silky caftan thing over her swimsuit and the action made it ride higher on her thighs. He tried not to notice.
‘Your mood has been fine since you’ve been here. Apart from your foul temper when you first arrived.’
‘You mean when the police had me in handcuffs?’
She nodded.
‘I’d like to see how silver-tongued you’d be in that situation!’
She smirked and he realised she’d got the rise out of him that she’d wanted, and he silently cursed himself. He fell for it every single time.
‘But apart from that blip your mood has been fine.’
She was right. It had been. Which was strange because he’d been an absolute bear in Nice. He’d been a bear since the accident.
He shook that thought off. ‘And we want to keep it that way.’
‘But—’ she gestured ‘—that has to be nearly a mile.’
‘Yep.’ He stared at her downturned mouth, imagined again that mongrel Farquhar shoving her in a cupboard, and wanted to smash something. He didn’t want to bully her. If she really hated the idea... ‘Is there any medical reason why you shouldn’t run?’
She eyed him over the top of her sunglasses. ‘No. You?’
‘None. Running ten miles is out of the question, but one mile at a gentle pace will be fine.’ He’d checked with his doctors.
‘I haven’t run since I was a kid. I work in an office...sit behind a desk all day. I’m not sure I can run that far.’
He realised then that her resistance came from a sense of inadequacy.
‘I mean, even banged up you’re probably super fit and—’
‘We’ll take it slow. And if you can’t jog all the way, we’ll walk the last part of it.’
‘And you won’t get grumpy at me for holding you back?’
‘I promise.’
‘No snark?’
He snorted. ‘I’m not promising that.’
That spark flashed in her eyes again. ‘Slow, you said?’
‘Slow,’ he promised.
She hauled in a breath. ‘Well, here goes nothing...’
He started them slowly as promised. It felt good to be running again, even if it was at half his usual pace. Audra started a bit awkwardly, a trifle stiffly, as if the action were unfamiliar, but within two minutes she’d found a steady rhythm and he couldn’t help but admire her poise and balance.
That damn ponytail, though, threatened his balance every time he glanced her way, bobbing with a cheeky nonchalance that made things inside him clench up...made him lose his tempo and stray from his course and have to check himself and readjust his line.
At the five-minute mark she was covered in a fine sheen of perspiration, and he suddenly flashed to a forbidden image of what she might look like during an athletic session of lovemaking. He stumbled and broke out into a cold sweat.
Audra seemed to lose her rhythm then too. Her elbows came in tight at her sides...she started to grimace...
And then her hands lifted to her breasts and he nearly fell over. She pulled to a halt and he did too. He glanced at her hands. She reefed them back to her sides and shot him a dark glare. ‘Look, you didn’t warn me that this is what we’d be doing before we hit the beach.’
Because he hadn’t wanted her sniping at him the entire time they descended the hill.
‘But they created exercise gear for a reason, you know? If I’m going to jog I need to wear a sports bra.’
He stared at her, not comprehending.
‘It hurts to run without one,’ she said through gritted teeth.
He blinked. Hell. He hadn’t thought about that. She wasn’t exactly big-breasted, but she was curvy where it mattered and...
‘And while we’re at it,’ she ground out, ‘I’d prefer to wear jogging shoes than run barefoot. This is darn hard on the ankles.’ Her hands went to her hips. ‘For heaven’s sake, Finn, you have to give a girl some warning so she can prepare the appropriate outfit.’
He felt like an idiot. ‘Well, let’s just walk the rest of the way.’
It was hell walking beside her. Every breath he took was scented with peaches and coconut. And from the corner of his eye he couldn’t help but track the perky progress of her ponytail. In his mind’s eye all he could see was the way she’d cupped her breasts, to help take their weight while running, and things inside him twisted and grew hot.
When they reached the tall cliff at the beach’s far end, Audra slapped a hand to it in a ‘we made it’ gesture. ‘My mood doesn’t feel improved.’
She sounded peeved, which made him want to laugh. But those lips...that ponytail... He needed a timeout, a little distance. Now.
She straightened and gave him the once-over. ‘You’re not even sweating the tiniest little bit!’
Not where she could see, at least. For which he gave thanks. But he needed to get waist-deep in water soon before she saw the effect she was having on him.
He gestured back the way they’d come. ‘We’re going to swim back.’ Cold water suddenly seemed like an excellent plan.
Her face fell. ‘Why didn’t you say so before? I don’t want to get my caftan wet. I could’ve left it behind.’
He was glad she hadn’t. The less on show where she was concerned, the better.
‘It’ll take no time at all to dry off at the other end.’
‘It’s not designed to be swum in. It’ll fall off my shoulder and probably get tangled in my legs.’
He clenched his jaw tight. Not an image he needed in his mind.
‘I won’t be able to swim properly.’
He couldn’t utter a damn word.
Her chin shot up. ‘You think I’m trying to wriggle my way out, don’t you? You think I’m just making up excuses.’
It was probably wiser to let her misinterpret his silence than tell her the truth.
‘Well, fine, I’ll show you!’
She pulled the caftan over her head and tossed it to him. He did his best not to notice the flare of her hips, the long length of her legs, or the gentle swell of her breasts.
‘I’ll swim while you keep my caftan dry, cabana boy.’
Her, in the water way over there? Him, on the beach way over here? Worked for him.
‘But when we reach the other end it’s nothing but lazing on the beach and reading books till lunchtime.’
‘Deal.’ He was looking forward to another session with his book.
He kept pace with her on the shore, just in case she got a cramp or into some kind of trouble. She alternated freestyle with breaststroke and backstroke. And the slow easy pace suited him. It helped him find his equilibrium again. It gave him the time to remind himself in detail of all the ways he owed Rupert.
He nodded. He owed Rupert big-time—and that meant Audra was off limits and out of bounds. It might be different if Finn were looking to settle down, but settling down and Finn were barely on terms of acquaintance. And while he might feel as if he were at a crossroads in his life, that didn’t mean anything. The after-effects of his accident would disappear soon enough. When they did, life would return to normal. He’d be looking for his next adrenaline rush and...and he’d be content again.
‘Jetskiing?’
Audra stared at him with... Well, it wasn’t horror at least. Consternation maybe? ‘We had a laze on the beach, read our books, had a slow leisurely lunch...and now it’s time for some fun.’
She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘But aren’t jetskis like motorbikes? And motorbikes are dangerous.’
He shook his head. ‘Unlike a motorbike, it doesn’t hurt if you fall off a jetski.’ At least, not at the speeds they’d be going. ‘They’re only dangerous if we don’t use them right...if we’re stupid.’
‘But we’re going to be smart and use them right?’
He nodded. ‘We’re even going to have a lesson first.’ He could teach her all she needed to know, but he’d come to the conclusion it might be wiser to not be so hands-on where Audra was concerned.
She stared at the jetskiers who were currently buzzing about on the bay. ‘A lesson?’ She pursed her lips. ‘And...and it doesn’t look as if it involves an awful lot of strength or stamina,’ she said, almost to herself. And then she started and jutted her chin. ‘Call me a wimp if you want, but I have a feeling I’m going to be sore enough tomorrow as it is.’
‘If you are, the best remedy will be a run along the beach followed by another swim.’
She tossed her head. ‘In your dreams, cabana boy.’
He grinned. It was good to see her old spark return. ‘This is for fun, Audra, and no other reason. Just fun.’
He saw something in her mind still and then click. ‘I guess I haven’t been doing a whole lot of that recently.’
She could say that again.
‘Okay, well...where do we sign up?’
There were seven of them who took the lesson, and while Finn expected to chafe during the hour-long session, he didn’t. It was too much fun watching Audra and her cheeky ponytail as she concentrated on learning how to manoeuvre her jetski. They had a further hour to putter around the bay afterwards to test out her new-found skills. He didn’t go racing off on his own. He didn’t want her trying to copy him and coming to grief. They’d practised what to do in case of capsizing, but he didn’t want them to have to put it into practice. Besides, her laughter and the way her eyes sparkled were too much fun to miss out on.
‘Oh, my God!’ She practically danced on the dock when they returned their jetskis. ‘That was the best fun ever. I’m definitely doing that again. Soon!’
He tried to stop staring at her, tried to drag his gaze from admiring the shape of her lips, the length of her legs, the bounce of her hair. An evening spent alone with her in Rupert’s enormous villa rose in his mind, making him sweat. ‘Beer?’ Hanging out in a crowd for as long as they could suddenly struck him as a sound strategy.
‘Yes, please.’
They strode along the wooden dock and he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. The transformation from two days ago was amazing. She looked full of energy and so...alive.
He scrubbed both hands back through his hair. Why was she hell-bent on keeping herself on such a tight leash? Why didn’t she let her hair down once in a while? Why...?
The questions pounded at him. He pressed both hands to the crown of his head in an effort to tamp them down, to counter the impulse to ask her outright. The thing was, even if he did break his protocol on asking personal questions and getting dragged into complicated emotional dilemmas, there was no guarantee Audra would confide in him. She’d never seen him as that kind of guy.
What if she needs to talk? What if she has no one else to confide in?
He wanted to swear.
He wanted to run.
He also wanted to see her filled with vitality and enthusiasm and joy, as she was now.
They ordered beers from a beachside bar and sat at a table in the shade of a jasmine vine to drink them.
‘Today has been a really good day, Finn. Thank you.’
Audra wasn’t like the women he dated. If she needed someone to confide in, he could be there for her, couldn’t he? He took a long pull on his beer. ‘Even the running?’
‘Ugh, no, the running was awful.’ She sipped her drink. ‘I can’t see I’m ever going to enjoy that, even with the right gear. Though I didn’t mind the swimming. There’s bound to be a local gym at home that has a pool.’
She was going to keep up the exercise when she returned home? Excellent.
He leaned back, a plan solidifying in his gut. ‘You haven’t asked your question yet.’
‘I already told you—I don’t want to hear about your woman in Nice. If you want to brag or grumble about her go right ahead. But I’m not wasting a perfectly good question on it.’
He wondered if he should just tell her about Trixie, but dismissed the idea. Trixie had no idea where he was. She wouldn’t be able to cause any trouble here for him, for Joachim or for Audra. And he wanted to keep the smile, the sense of exhilaration, on Audra’s face.
He stretched back, practically daring Audra to ask him a question. ‘Isn’t there anything personal you want to ask me?’