quite still as she started to hum the tune of the old song about Jesse’s girl that had tormented him for so many years. But in her slightly tuneless hum, it was the most melodious music he’d ever heard. And her particular version of the words echoed in his heart as she murmured them.
He smoothed her hair back from her face, cupped her face in his hands. ‘Do you really want to be Jesse’s girl?’
Her eyes were luminous in the moonlight. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said.
* * *
Lizzie pulled Jesse back for another kiss. She couldn’t bear to spend a minute out of his arms on this magical evening where her own Prince Charming was dancing her along an enchanted beach. Only too soon her prince might have to go across those waters to the badlands to fight his own battles and maybe never come back to her.
She’d not been one for fairy tales. As a mother, she’d tried to steer Amy in the direction of feminist tales of hard-working women who met men on an equal footing, who had no room for Prince Charmings riding to their rescue on white chargers when they could rescue themselves perfectly well, thank you very much.
But tonight with Jesse she felt differently. Whether it was indeed the magic of the full moon or because she was falling in love with him, she wanted Jesse to be her prince, sweep her up into his arms and carry her away to make her his.
Even if it was only for tonight she wanted this, wanted him. She lost herself in his kisses, yielding to his lips, to his tongue as his mouth claimed hers, trembled with pleasure at the sensation of his hands on her bare shoulders.
‘It’s about at this stage Prince Charming sweeps the princess off to his fairy tale castle,’ she murmured against his mouth.
Jesse lifted his head to meet her gaze. ‘To make her his?’
He had never looked more handsome than at this moment. His hair raven’s wing black in the moonlight, his eyes reflecting the indigo of the deep night sea.
‘Yes,’ she breathed. ‘To make her his in every sense of the word.’
‘Are you sure?’ His voice was deep, husky with a slight hitch that betrayed his fear she might say no.
There was no risk of that. She nodded. ‘My Cinderella garret above the café is all mine right now. On Wednesday the junior princess will be in residence. You might find I turn back into a pumpkin then.’
Jesse laughed, his perfect white teeth gleaming in the moonlight. ‘I think you’re getting your analogies mixed. Even I know it was the carriage that got turned back into a pumpkin. You’ve left your shoes on the beach. It will be the prince doing the rounds of every house in the magical town of Dolphin Bay trying to find whose foot fits the silver stiletto.’
She smiled. ‘So, not a pumpkin. But it’s true that at five a.m. I’ll turn back into a servant wearing rags and clogs as I stoke the fires of the café kitchen. Well, maybe not rags but—’
He dropped a kiss on her nose. ‘The clock is ticking.’
‘My castle or yours?’ she said.
‘As I’m staying in the boathouse, your garret might be more private.’
‘My garret it is,’ she said.
Laughing, kissing, Jesse danced her over the sand and back up to where they had stashed their shoes. He knelt in the sand and helped her wipe off the sand from her feet. Then he kissed the arch of each foot before he slipped on her silver stilettos.
‘I had to stop myself from doing that the night I massaged your feet,’ he said.
Delicious ripples of pleasure shimmered through her. ‘No need to stop now,’ she whispered.
Totally engrossed in the magic of being with Jesse, Lizzie didn’t care who might see them make their way hand in hand towards her apartment. There, in true fairy tale prince fashion, he gathered her into his arms and carried her up the stairs and into the magical kingdom of her bedroom.
JESSE HAD AGREED with Lizzie to keep secret the new turn their relationship had taken. In the three days since their dance on the beach they’d managed not to arouse suspicion. Neither of them wanted to be subject to the inevitable teasing the revelation they were dating would bring. To him, Lizzie was not just one in a stream of ‘Jesse’s girls’. As far as he was concerned, she was the one and only Jesse’s girl.
This wasn’t something short-term. He was convinced of that. Lizzie wasn’t underhand and dishonest like Camilla had been. He trusted her.
He intended to talk to her today about the proposition he had discussed in depth with Ben. His brother had suggested they pool some of the land they each owned around Dolphin Bay and form a property development company.
Jesse had been involved in the building of the Hotel Harbourside and was a part-owner of the new spa resort Ben was building. At the back of his mind he’d always wanted to go into business for himself; he came from a long line of entrepreneurs. It was a logical—and exciting—next step.
Relocating back to Dolphin Bay would also knock down the major barrier that remained between him and Lizzie—that they lived in different countries. It was a move that checked all the boxes. Importantly, it would give them time to really get to know each other.
He’d arranged to meet Lizzie after the café closed for the day. The young waitress Nikki had responded so well to his training and confidence-boosting, he’d done himself out of his job as a barista. His role at Bay Bites now comprised helping out for a few hours over lunchtime—and that was only an excuse to be with Lizzie. His two-hour time limit? Twenty hours of Lizzie’s company a day wouldn’t be enough.
She was already there when he got to the lookout, a block away from the café, with the best view in Dolphin Bay of the harbour. It was a perfect afternoon, the water sparkling aquamarine under a cloudless sky. Fishing boats and pleasure craft of all shapes and sizes bobbed on the water and the melodic chime of rigging against masts carried across to where he stood.
Lizzie wore a pink sundress that bared her shoulders and arms. Fine tendrils of her pale blonde hair had escaped from the band that held it back from her face and wafted in the slight breeze. There was no reason for her to be anything but happy and relaxed. But he could see straight away that something was bothering her—he’d learned to read the way anxiety tightened her face and dimmed the light in her eyes.
They greeted each other with a discreet kiss on the cheek—as friends, colleagues and family connections would. After a night of lovemaking, he’d left her warm and satisfied in her bed when he’d exited before dawn. It had been difficult to leave her but they both wanted to keep their new intimacy a secret.
‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘How do you always know?’ she asked with the shadow of a smile.
‘Just observant,’ he said.
But it was more than that. The connection between them grew stronger with each minute they spent together. It was a bond he’d never had before. But it also brought fear of the inevitable pain if that connection was ever severed. Wussy
