sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight, blindingly white against the brilliant blue of the sky. Luci shone just as brightly in the foreground.
She was sublime. She’d taken her hat off for the photo and her golden hair glowed. The sun was on her face, the tip of her nose was going slightly pink and her cheeks were flushed from the breeze. Her eyes were hidden behind sunglasses but she was laughing as he pressed the shutter. Her sundress framed her diamond-shaped freckles. He checked the photo, wishing he’d thought to take it on his phone. That way he would have had a copy to keep.
He tried to ignore the stirrings of lust as he put the boat into gear and cruised between Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and Fort Denison and headed for Milk Beach. Luci was like a breath of fresh air in his stale world but his world was no place for her. She was gorgeous but she seemed far too delightful and pure for someone as jaded and disillusioned as he was. Too innocent. The women he’d chosen of late had been just as disheartened by life as he was. There had been no agenda other than short-term, mutual satisfaction, no danger of him damaging anyone’s fragile psyche. Girls like Luci were not for him. Or, more specifically, he was no good for girls like her.
He cut through the wake of dozens of other boats, powering through the churned-up water that crisscrossed the blue of the ocean with white foam. The harbour looked magnificent and as they rounded Shark Island the mansions of Point Piper and Rose Bay clung to the hills on their right, adding to the picture-perfect view they had from his boat.
Milk Beach came into sight ahead of them and he pulled back on the throttle as he eased the cabin cruiser into the bay. He cut the engine and dropped anchor a hundred metres off the beach. From this spot they could look back towards the Sydney skyline and, as the boat swung around so her bow faced the city, he heard Luci’s intake of breath.
‘Wow!’ She turned to him and smiled. ‘Did you park here deliberately?’
The Harbour Bridge rose majestically across their bow.
‘I did.’ He was pleased with the reaction he’d elicited, it was just what he’d hoped for. ‘The view’s pretty good, isn’t it?’
‘It’s incredible.’
It was, he thought. Luci was looking across the water to the bridge but he was watching her. ‘I thought we could stop here for lunch and a swim,’ he said. The small beach was busy with day trippers but he had been careful to anchor his boat away from the few others that were also enjoying a day out, in order to give them some privacy.
He grabbed the ice box and some cushions from the bench seat and took Luci around to the bow of the boat, where there was room to stretch out. He dropped the cushions on the deck, they would need some padding as the fibreglass hull of the boat could get a little uncomfortable after a while.
Luci spread her towel over the cushions and pulled her sundress over her head, revealing a very tiny bikini. Four triangles of black fabric tied together with black ties. His eyes were drawn to the diamond freckles that nestled between the swell of her breasts.
She pulled a tube of sunscreen from her bag and rubbed it into her shoulders and chest. Seb’s brain pounded in his head and his heart raced, sending blood rushing through his body into all five of his extremities. He squatted down and took the lid off the ice box, giving himself a minute to regain his composure. He breathed deeply. He could smell the sea air and sunscreen. He thought he could also smell Luci. Fresh and floral. This girl was doing his head in. She was quite unselfconscious, apparently quite comfortable stripping off in front of him. He guessed there was no reason why she should worry. She had no reason to think he wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes off her and people showed just as much flesh on Bondi Beach. But seeing her in a tiny bikini was sending his hormones wild. Not that it was her fault.
He was worried now, worried that she might prove irresistible, worried that he could find himself in hot water. She was down to earth, gorgeous, funny and she smelt sensational. And now she was stretched out beside him wearing nothing but a string bikini. He wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to keep his hands to himself.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to.
Actually, he knew he definitely didn’t want to but he had no idea what she thought. Maybe she was looking for some fun, maybe she was disillusioned after her divorce and was looking for some short-term satisfaction, but he suspected it was just wishful thinking on his part. He didn’t even know how long she’d been divorced. It could be five minutes or five months. She could have sworn off men altogether.
He offered to rub sunscreen onto her back. That was a legitimate way of not keeping his hands to himself and was possibly the best idea he’d had in a long time, along with inviting her out for the day. Her skin was soft and velvety smooth under his fingers. She lifted her hair away from the nape of her neck, getting it out of his way, and he was sorely tempted to press his lips to the knobbly bone at the base of her neck where it met her shoulders.
Instead, he stepped back, opened the ice box and offered her a drink. God knew, he needed something to help him cool off. He passed her a bottle of water. She sipped her water and then lay back, lifting her face to the sun and closing her eyes.
Seb turned back to the ice box and began to assemble a small plate of cheese, crackers and fruit. He was trying to keep busy, to keep his mind on mundane things and off the fact that a very attractive and semi-naked woman was lying inches away from him. He was unaccustomed to feeling this nervous, and to make matters worse Luci appeared completely at ease and unaware of the effect she was having on him. Which was probably just as well.
He could probably learn a thing or two from her. She was relaxed, easygoing and she didn’t appear to have let her failed marriage stop her from having fun. She certainly hadn’t shut herself off from others, like he had. He knew he had laughed more often and smiled more frequently in the past three days than he had in the past three years. And the only thing that had changed was that Luci had come into his life. He had separated himself socially, his focus had been on his work and his boat for the past three years, and he had kept any interaction with others to a minimum. His chosen response to any invitation was to decline it politely and yet Luci hadn’t hesitated to say yes to all three of his invitations—an after-work drink, a lift home on his bike and now a day on his boat.
For a man who had knocked back most opportunities to spend time with other people over the past three years he didn’t want to think about why he was suddenly inviting someone into his life. He must be crazy. Maybe his solitary lifestyle was slowly driving him mad.
What was it about Luci that made him feel the need to spend time with her?
He knew what it was. It was the way she made him feel.
Three years ago he’d lost everything, including a large chunk of his heart and soul, but Luci was waking him up again. He’d been holding his breath, marking time, treading water, and now he felt like he could breathe again.
He put the fruit platter into the shade and ran his eyes over her still figure. Her skin was already turning golden in the sun, her breasts were round and firm, her stomach flat, her legs were toned and athletic, and her toenails were painted pale pink.
Luci sat up. Had she felt him staring at her? Maybe, but she didn’t seem perturbed.
‘This is much more fun than studying,’ she said as she sliced a piece of cheese and popped it onto a biscuit. ‘I have never spent a day like this before. All the boat trips I’ve ever been on involved fishing with my dad in the Gulf of St Vincent in a little tinny, much like the one you rowed before. Nothing nearly as fancy as this.’
‘Wait
