Australian and Vietnamese kids—they all loved soccer.
Tom enjoyed keeping possession of the ball and his height gave him a great advantage. Undeterred, the children’s legs powered through the sand, their arms pulling at his shirt, trying to take him down.
She tried to imagine what he would have looked like as a kid playing sport, although he would have played Aussie backyard cricket.
He turned to find her, his eyes seeking hers.
Almond-shaped eyes.
Eyes the identical shape of the kids’ he was playing against.
Realisation thudded into place. She consciously had to breathe. Some Vietnamese blood ran in his veins. Somewhere in Tom’s past he had a Vietnamese relation. How had she missed it before?
She’d spent three weeks with the man. You’ve been too busy admiring his other assets.
She shushed the voice in her head. Anyone could have missed the connection. His height, his Western nose and quintessential Australian manner gave scant clues. So why had he not mentioned it to her?
The game swirled around them but the ball didn’t come near Bec or her buddy as most of the action was down the other end of the makeshift field.
The young goalie shuffled his feet in the sand.
Bec understood. Not only was being goalie a big responsibility, it was often downright boring.
Suddenly the ball hurtled towards them, high in the sky.
The young boy jumped valiantly and missed.
Bec threw herself sideways, arms outstretched. The skin on her palms burned as the ball hurtled into her hands. She rolled on the sand, clutching the precious trophy.
Cheers surrounded her. Small hands touched her back as she sat up. This was what she believed in. Children having a childhood, being able to play even when other things in their life were tough.
Larger hands hauled her to her feet as smaller hands continued to pat her. Golden arms hooked around her waist and suddenly she was airborne.
‘Now, that’s what I call a spectacular save.’
She looked down into dancing eyes, alive with exhilaration and the wonder of life. Happiness rushed through her. ‘It was pretty special, wasn’t it?’
He laughed as he set her feet back on the ground, his arm still holding her body against his. ‘We can’t have you getting too puffed up about it. I’ll get the next one past you.’ He ducked his head, his lips sweeping across hers with a feather-light touch. Almost imperceptible.
Battering every protective defence.
Desire thudded through her, sucking the breath from her lungs, stripping the strength from her legs.
And then he was running back down the beach.
Bec stood immobilised, her body tingling from head to toe, catapulted into sensory overload from the lightest touch she’d ever known. Her tongue darted out, tracing her lips. Tasting him. Tasting Tom.
Heat mingled with salt and spice and she savoured it, needing to memorise his scent and flavour. Keeping it with her, making it part of her.
She’d never been kissed like that before.
Kisses had always been demanding or threatening—taking, never giving. This had been neither of those things. This had been … Wonderful. Amazing. Terrifying.
She didn’t want to feel like this.
She refused to feel like this. Feelings like this meant danger. She knew that. It was why she didn’t get involved with anyone.
That was hardly a kiss, Bec. It was a dare.
She glanced over a sea of black-haired boys to the tall black-haired man, whose face was streaked with wiliness and who was aiming a ball straight at her.
It had just been a dare. Of course it had. Everything was the same as it had ever been between them. Colleagues who respected each other and got along well.
Then he grinned at her.
Part of her protective wall melted.
The ball shot straight past her, into the goal.
‘WHAT’S ON THE agenda today, boss?’
Tom looked up from reading the letter from his mother that Health For Life had couriered to him from Hanoi.
Bec sat down opposite him and bit into a croissant, the buttery flakes clinging to the edge of her lips.
He clenched his fist under the table to silence his fingers, that screamed to be allowed to brush the crumbs away. His lips tingled, demanding to kiss the crumbs away.
That was not going to happen.
He’d stolen a kiss at the soccer game two days ago. The memory of the softness of her lips against his had stayed with him, revisiting at regular intervals. He hadn’t planned to kiss her, but when she’d looked at him with her eyes shining like sun-kissed water, with her warm body pressed in against his own and her hidden curves fitting against his body, a kiss had seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
But that didn’t mean it had been the right thing to do or that he should repeat it.
He refilled his coffee cup with the strong, fragrant brew the Vietnamese specialised in. An early-morning heart starter. ‘You can have a day off today and visit China Beach. It’s Vietnam’s premier surf beach. It’s gorgeous and it was made really famous by a TV show.’ His chatty tone sounded forced even to his own ears.
She narrowed her gaze, her face sceptical. ‘Hmm, and are you taking the day off?’
He squirmed under her penetrating gaze. ‘I have some paperwork to do.’
She sipped her coffee. ‘Hin mentioned something about going to an orphanage.’
Hell. He’d wanted to go to this orphanage on his own. It was one of four left on his list to visit. He needed to study the records, the lists of children who had been housed there. He was looking for clues, a needle in a haystack. Hoping for some tiny piece of information that might send him to his biological mother and end his two-year search. ‘I’m visiting the orphanage.’
She set her cup down very carefully. ‘Is that code for “You can’t come, Bec?"’
Guilt twisted inside him. ‘Anyone can visit an orphanage and, heaven knows, there are plenty of them.’
A flash of irritation rippled across her vibrant eyes, chased away by curiosity. ‘But you would prefer to go on your own?’
Damn it. She was too perceptive. Nothing got past
