LITMIR.BIZ

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yet hot and with just enough of a breeze for him to enjoy an hour’s windsurfing before he dropped his gear back at his house. It had cooled his libido as well.

      Seeing Jade in bed, looking so dishevelled, had made him view her differently and that was wrong. He knew when she was put back together the way she apparently liked to dress, she would not be his type. He liked to spend his time with fun-loving, easygoing women who knew the rules. No strings attached and definitely no schoolmarm attire. He just wanted a good time and he never misled a woman about it. He called it as it was and the women he dated knew he was not husband material.

      There was no chance of Mitchell Forrester being tied down. Long-term relationships always brought responsibility in buckets and he knew he was certain to fail if he was pushed to travel that road again. There was nothing that would convince him otherwise. He was burnt out on that level. He had been bolting at the first sign of responsibility or commitment in his personal life for more than a decade and he had no intention of changing now. And Jade had commitment written all over her conservative self.

      Walking in the front door in his now dry board shorts and sans a top, the house was quiet, just as he’d imagined it would be. Amber was as cute as could be but her high-pitched chatter with a distinct American accent would probably not let him concentrate on the task at hand. He loved children and that was why he had specialised in neonatology and paediatrics but he liked to keep his private life and his professional life separate. He never planned on having children of his own. The title of father did not factor into his future. Uncle was fine but that would be his limit.

      He spied the new sound system that Arthur had purchased lying unopened in the box in the living room. Arthur had no idea of how to actually make it work, and Mitchell had offered to connect it. With an empty house, he knew he would have the job finished quickly. With Maureen around, any job he did for them resembled an instructional video on replay as she asked a barrage of questions with each step he took and then asked him to repeat it again later. So this chore would be a pleasant change. He would have it all done and be gone before they came home, and that sat well with him.

      Leaving before they pulled into the driveway would be best. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Amber, it was more that he didn’t know if he wanted to see Jade. She was a conundrum. The morning before he’d felt positive that he could be around her and not feel at all attracted. But that morning when she’d lain in her crumpled bed, all fresh-faced and messy, she’d suddenly inched a little closer to being his type. And that was a bad thing.

      Maybe that was the real Jade. He wondered if the new Jade was an attempt to be more like Ruby. A woman invented to be what Ruby and David would have wanted.

      But lying in bed she had been exactly what he wanted. He pushed the image from his mind. There was work to do and daydreaming about Jade would not progress anything except his desire to a level requiring a cold shower.

      Mitchell cut open the box and removed the first speaker. All he needed to start was the tool kit from the shed by the pool.

      Jade had finished applying the sunscreen to her body. The mid-morning sun probably wouldn’t burn but she knew that underneath her man-made tan she was still naturally pale and was aware the Australian sun was quite intense. With her skin now glistening from the lotion, she lay back on the sun lounge to enjoy the warm rays. Her oversized sunglasses protected her eyes and her earphones were plugged in. She didn’t have to listen out for Amber for a few hours, so she listened to her favourite southern rock as she lay in the warm sun. She didn’t have to hide as there was no one to see her in the private pool area. Her bikini was still wet and her skin tone was now a perfect match. She was completely unaware that from twenty or more feet away she appeared to be completely naked.

      Mitchell spied Jade from the corner of his eye and dropped the entire contents of the tool kit on the ground. His chiselled jaw fell and his eyes widened as he saw the most stunning vision lying naked beside the pool.

       Jade?

      It couldn’t be her … or could it?

      He hadn’t seen her when he’d walked to the shed and rifled through the contents, looking for a screwdriver and small wrenches. It had been as he’d closed the shed door that he’d seen her body draped across the sun lounge. He had never seen a woman so perfect. And she was naked. That made the vision doubly perfect to him.

      He struggled to pull his eyes away. The desire to admire her stunning body was fighting with the shreds of decency that had survived the shock of seeing her like that. Falling to his knees and not allowing himself to look in her direction, he began gathering the tools now strewn across the pavers leading back to the house. It was obvious she hadn’t seen him so he decided to exit the back yard and go inside without causing her any embarrassment. She had obviously decided to skinny-dip while the family were out, he realised as he fumbled to collect the last tool that had rolled onto the lawn.

       But Jade skinny-dipping?

      That was not in keeping with the persona she was portraying to everyone. She had gone from looking like a missionary to a centrefold. Maybe this was the real Jade. The woman his brother had called the rebel sister was lying naked under the Australian sun. He liked this Jade so much more.

      His heart was pulsing blood around his body at an alarming rate. His mind was spinning with the image that he didn’t want to blink away. The idea that Jade was prim and uptight no longer had any grounds for existence. Jade was so far from what she hid beneath her dowdy clothing. Clothing that he now suspected was a shield from the world or a reaction to what had happened. When his brother had died, he had run further from responsibility and Jade, he now assumed, had stepped up, left the fun behind and donned the sensible clothing. She had morphed into her sensible sister, Ruby.

      Without making another sound or looking back, he left. He had stumbled upon the most beautiful vision but he wasn’t about to take advantage of the situation. Jade thought she was alone and he would respect that assumption and leave the house. There was no need for him to let her know that he had accidentally seen what she hid from the rest of the world. The sound system had to wait until another day. Mitchell needed to take a plunge in the ocean to cool off.

      Jade lowered her sunglasses. Over the music, she thought she heard a noise. It was like a door was being slammed. She pulled the earphones free, wrapped the towel around her damp bikini and headed inside.

      ‘Anyone home?’

      No response came back so, surmising it had probably been a neighbour’s door, she headed upstairs for a warm shower. The swim and the sun had been wonderful beyond belief, but she had calls to make. She needed to let the nursing agency know she had arrived and was ready for work as she needed an income while she was in Adelaide. It was obvious that Amber loved being with her grandparents and they adored being with her, so a weight had lifted from her, and Jade knew she wouldn’t be putting anyone out by working some shifts at a local hospital.

      She was waiting for jet-lag to hit but it hadn’t so she suspected she might be one of the few who didn’t suffer the effects from long-haul flights. So she was ready to start working whenever they called. Her papers were in order, she had been approved by the statutory body and she was ready to take on whatever temporary nursing was available.

      Mitchell dived into the cool waves and intended on swimming until the image of Jade lying naked on the sun lounge began to fade. Around two hundred strokes into his swim he realised that it would never disappear. It was burnt into his memory. And he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to erase it. It was much too stunning a visual to give up that easily. He would just try very hard not to recall it too often.

      And particularly not when she was near him.

      Jade put her damp swimsuit in the laundry to dry and dressed in a calf-length grey-and-white striped skirt and grey knit top then put a call in to the nursing agency. While she was waiting to hear back, she towel-dried her hair as she wandered around the stunning home. There were pictures of David and Mitchell everywhere. As children, teenagers and also their graduation photos complete with caps, gowns and scrolled parchment.

      Maureen was obviously very proud of her sons and

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