arms a vice around her waist. ‘Then hang on, baby.’
Callie managed to push herself away just enough to look into his eyes. She touched his mouth with the tips of her fingers. ‘Finn?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Come for me. Now.’
And, with a roar that was as wild as the bush around them, Finn did exactly as she commanded.
‘In the nineteenth century the local tribe in the area knew it as Mosi-oa-Tunya. Translated, that means the smoke that thunders.’
Callie stood gripped the railing in front of her and watched, utterly fascinated, as millions and millions of gallons of water thundered over the edge of the falls into a gorge over one hundred metres below them.
‘The Victoria Falls is known as the greatest curtain of falling water in the world,’ Finn told her, his face wet from the droplets of spray. ‘The spray can be seen from miles away at the height of the rainy season. Apparently more than five hundred million cubic metres of water per minute plummet over the edge, over a width of nearly two kilometres.’
‘Thank you, guidebook Finn,’ Callie said dryly.
Finn pushed his wet hair off his forehead. ‘It is an incredible sight, though, isn’t it?
‘It so is,’ Callie agreed.
Finn placed his forearms on the railing and lifted his head to squint up at her. ‘I wish we were here in winter,’ he said, with a pensive look on his face.
‘Why? Apart from the fact that it would be about a hundred degrees cooler than at the height of summer?’
Callie felt as if she was walking around in hot soup and she was melting from the inside out. Africa in late summer, early autumn, was still furnace-hot, she thought. And the towns of Livingstone and Victoria Falls, situated next to the massive river, had killer humidity as well. They were, she’d decided, minutes after landing in Livingstone, Zambia, three hours ago, after a chartered flight from the Baobab and Buffalo, standing above the devil’s boiler house.
‘Well, in winter, when the water levels are low, you can walk along the lip of the falls. There are rock pools there, and one is called the Devil’s Pool.’
That made sense, Callie thought. After stoking the fires of hell, Satan would want to cool down.
Then Finn’s words sank in and her eyes widened. ‘You can walk across….’ she waved at the massive falls behind her ‘… that?’
‘Well, there’d be a lot less water.’
‘That’s insane! People do this?’ Callie cried, her stomach clenching at the thought.
‘Sure. You walk across the rocks, swim through some pools, and then there’s this other pool, right at the lip of the falls. The rock lip stops you from going over.’
‘And you’d do that?’ Callie asked in a squeaky voice.
Finn shrugged. ‘Sure. It would be a kick.’
Callie closed her eyes. ‘That’s insane. It’s official: I’m sleeping with a mad man.’
Finn straightened and pushed a long wet strand of hair out of her eyes, tucked it behind her ear. ‘Talking of sleeping … This morning was so rushed we haven’t had a moment alone for me to ask—are you okay?’
Callie frowned. ‘Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘You said that it had been a while, and we did it a couple of times last night. You’re not sore or tired or—?’
Callie grinned, touched by his concern. She was a little stiff, a little uncomfortable, but she wasn’t about to admit that. ‘Finn, I’m twenty-eight—not a hundred and eight.’
‘Just checkin’.’ Finn rubbed his thumb over her cheekbone. ‘I had fun.’
Hoo-boy. So had she. ‘Me too.’
‘Want to do it again?’
Callie made sure that her tone was flippant, carefree. ‘Sure—since you’re marginally good at it.’
She put her tongue in her cheek to make sure that he knew that she was teasing.
In a flash Finn scooped her up into his arms and swung her towards the railing. ‘Can you swim?’ he asked, grinning down at her.
Callie wound her arms around his neck in a chokehold as she squealed hysterically. ‘Put me down, you jerk!’
Finn swung her towards the railing again. ‘Tell me I’m the greatest you’ve ever had.’
‘The best ever!’ Callie shouted in his ear, tightening her arms. ‘I promise!’
Finn finally allowed her legs to drop to the ground, but Callie kept her arms around his neck, peeking out from over his arm. His hands were running up and down her spine.
‘You were pretty spectacular yourself, Cal.’
Callie dropped her head back to look into his face. His eyes looked warm and tender, and his mouth—that wonderful mouth—was heading towards hers. She allowed him one brush, two, then a quick taste of her tongue before pulling back and stepping away. Sleeping with him was one thing, but the banter, the teasing, the outright affection had to be curtailed—or at the very least controlled. Or else they’d forget that their fake relationship was … well, fake, and they’d end up in all sorts of emotional trouble.
‘I don’t want a relationship,’ she stated baldly.
He met her eyes. ‘Me neither.’
She wanted to tell him that she really didn’t. She couldn’t allow her feelings to be engaged, couldn’t hand her heart over and trust its well-being to the hands of another person. As a little girl she’d done that. Her mum had been her entire world and she’d left. Just left.
I can’t and won’t allow myself to break the habit of a lifetime and fall for you in any way, shape or form, she told him silently.
She made herself smile at him. ‘Just so that you know: I am going to use you and abuse you, then callously toss you aside at the end of three weeks.’ I’m going to treat you like just another short-term prospect … some bed-based fun, she added silently. And that means no digging into the past, sharing secrets or stories. It means being sensible and unemotional and playing it super-cool.
Finn nodded. ‘Use, abuse and toss away. Got it.’ The corners of his eyes crinkled with laughter. ‘You are the most honest woman I’ve ever met, angel.’
He’d called her that before, and it sounded so natural that she wondered if he even knew he was doing it. Short-term lovers shouldn’t have nicknames, but she didn’t have the guts to ask him to stop. She rather liked it.
Callie looked down the gorge to the river, to what looked like a tiny speck on the water. Her attention captivated, she leaned forward and immediately felt Finn’s
