place and repeating it all over again wasn’t conducive to sexual liaisons.
Frankly, even if he didn’t have a strict no-sleeping-with-colleagues rule, he was too exhausted for anything other than snatching vital hours of sleep whenever he could.
But when he came home between missions, that was a different story. That was his down time. Time to surf, top up his tan, spend time with Ruby, see his mother, tolerate his father and date pretty women.
Time for liaisons.
‘Wave!’
Adam looked over his shoulder as the excited cry worked its way down the line. He felt his adrenaline kick in as the mediocre wave emerged from the ocean behind him and he flattened his belly against the board in anticipation.
He welcomed it. Riding a wave was an all-consuming pastime and he welcomed the break from his internal dialogue. No time for thoughts of Jess and her cute pink mouth.
Just him and the ocean.
He felt the drag, could feel the kick in his chest as his pulse picked up a notch. His board started to lift at the back and he paddled frantically to position himself perfectly for when the wave crested.
He leapt to his feet at just the right moment, bending his legs, cutting across the face as if he’d been born with fins. The wind ruffled his hair and he could taste salt on his tongue.
It was just him and the wave.
He whooped out of sheer exhilaration as he conquered the wall of water. He was unstoppable.
Until the second he wondered if Jess could surf.
And then he promptly lost his balance and tumbled off his board head first into the ocean.
‘Good morning,’ Jess chirped as she flipped over some frying bacon.
‘How on earth can you be so damn happy at this ungodly hour of the morning?’ Ruby bitched as she shuffled into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot she knew Jess would have brewing.
Jess laughed. She didn’t have to tell her friend that back home she would have been up two hours ago. ‘This is the best part of the day.’
Ruby shook her head. ‘You country chicks are mad.’ But she smiled as she took her first fortifying sip.
Jess loaded up her plate with the bacon and waited for the eggs to cook. ‘What are you doing up this early anyway?’
‘Cort got called in at four. I haven’t been able to get back to sleep since.’
Jess frowned. ‘Everything okay?’
‘‘Course,’ Ruby dismissed. ‘Just can’t sleep without him.’
‘Oh,’ Jess murmured. ‘That’s so sweet.’
She envied Ruby. And Tilly and Ellie. They’d all found love this past year. Oh, she was thrilled for them too but it was a little hard to be the single one in a house full of couples.
And she wanted what they had. What her parents had. What her grandparents had.
The fairy-tale.
Was that so wrong?
No.
But who she wanted it with was just plain, never-going-to-happen crazy.
Jess turned back to the pan. ‘Do you want some bacon?’ she asked as she lifted her eggs onto the plate. ‘I’ve cooked too much.’
Ruby shook her head. ‘I don’t know how you have a greasy cooked breakfast every morning and manage to stay so skinny.’
Jess grinned. ‘Good metabolism.’
The door that led from the side of the house into the kitchen was pushed open and Jess swung around in time to see all her happily-ever-after fantasies in all his six-foot-two glory entering the house.
His wet boardies, riding low on his belly, barely hung onto his hips as they clung to meaty quads. Great slabs of muscular flesh—shoulders, pectorals, abs—were exposed to her view as they had been yesterday.
A tantalising trail of hair drew her eyes down from his belly button.
Down, down, down.
‘That smells amazing,’ Adam said. ‘Don’t suppose there’s any extra?’
Jess dragged her gaze up, up up and nodded dumbly. ‘Bacon.’
‘Great.’ Adam smiled. ‘I’ll have a quick shower and throw on some eggs.’ He ruffled Ruby’s hair as he went past and earned a grumpy glare.
Jess stood in the middle of the kitchen, staring after his straight tanned back as it disappeared from view.
Tilly passed Adam and entered the kitchen dressed in a strappy little beach-dress thrown over her bikini, ready for her regular morning dip in the bay. She shook her head. ‘It should be illegal for your brother to go shirtless, Ruby.’
Jess couldn’t have agreed more.
She plonked her plate on the bench and went to the fridge for eggs.
‘What are you doing?’ Ruby frowned.
‘I might as well do his eggs,’ Jess said. ‘It won’t take a jiffy.’
Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘He’s a thirty-five-year-old man whose skill with a scalpel has given countless people all around the world a better life. I’m pretty sure he can handle an egg flip. Sit and eat before your breakfast gets cold.’
‘But—’
‘No buts,’ Ruby said crankily, thinking how their mother had waited on their father hand and foot all their married life and how he’d let her.
She and Adam hated him for it. And they hated how their mother had allowed herself to be completely absorbed by him, totally losing herself in the process.
He doubted Adam would thank Jess for her ministrations.
‘Sit,’ Ruby said when it looked like Jess was about to object again.
Jess raised an eyebrow at Tilly, who turned to Ruby. ‘More coffee,’ she suggested, sweeping Ruby’s cup up as Jess placed her meal on the table and sat. A few minutes later they were chatting about their rare day off together when Adam swaggered back into the kitchen. He was wearing dry boardies and a snug T-shirt and Jess’s throat suddenly felt as dry as the toast she was eating.
‘These are yours, I believe,’ he said, handing Jess her two cushions as he passed her by.
Jess, aware of the speculative gaze of her friends, blushed furiously. The thought of just where those cushions had been deepened the colour to scarlet as she dropped her gaze to her plate.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured.
‘So,’ Ruby,
