LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER TWO

      THE next morning Adam sat on his board out to sea with a line of other eager early morning surfers, waiting for the next wave to come in.

      It was probably going to be a while.

      The surf was non-existent. The ocean was flat and glassy, with just an occasional gentle swell bobbing him in the water.

      But for Adam, surfing was about more than the waves. Sure, he liked the exhilaration of riding a monster wave as much as the next guy, but what he enjoyed most was this. The sense of stillness, of the world waking up, of being connected to the planet, in tune with its pulse.

      The sun was rising rapidly in the sky behind him, spreading golden fingers over a still sleepy Coogee. It was already warm on his shoulders, shaping up to be another scorcher no doubt.

      The light murmur of his fellow surfers melded perfectly with the distant sounds of the sea lapping against the beach.

      Everything was as it should be.

      Except for that damn image of Jess in nothing but a towel, with water droplets clinging to her skin, that had lodged itself stubbornly into his grey matter.

      Prior to yesterday Adam had probably never given Jessica Donaldson a second thought. Sure, she was a nice enough kid but he doubted they’d ever said more than a handful of things to each other in the last three years.

      Jess was just a friend of his sister’s who, along with Ellie and Tilly, had helped Ruby with the rent in his Hill St house.

      Why had he never noticed her incredible bone structure before? Or how hot that little pink mouth was?

       Because.

      Adam gave himself a shake.

      Because she was barely out of her teens, that’s why! Twenty-three, for crying out loud.

      The only other time he’d dated a woman in her early twenties, Francine, it had been an unmitigated disaster—one that he had no intention of repeating.

      Once bitten, twice smart.

      Younger women were complicated. They had romantic stars in their eyes. They wanted things. Like declarations of love.

      They were needy. He didn’t do needy.

      He did sophisticated. Worldly. Independent.

      Women. Not girls.

      And he wasn’t about to start just because he’d dreamed about Jess and that mouth all through his marathon eighteen-hour sleep.

      He felt things begin to stir beneath his boardies as they had earlier, prodding him from his slumber, and he looked up at the headlands either side of Coogee bay, determined to distract himself. To focus on something—anything—other than Jess.

      He could see a couple at the monument to the Bali bombing victims and further back towards the front a lone jogger pounded the footpath, the majestic Norfolk pines forming a dramatic backdrop. His gaze lifted higher, to the hilly suburban sprawl behind and the Eastern Beaches Hospital perched atop, dominating it all. He could even see his house from here, his eyes easily locating the double-storey monstrosity badly in need of some TLC.

      His gaze fell on Jess’s window and he found himself wondering if she was still asleep.

      Did she sleep nude, like he did?

      Had it been her plan yesterday to shimmy the towel off her body and just drop straight into bed?

      He closed his eyes as a vision of him brushing his mouth across a bare shoulder blade assailed him. Her skin would be cool from the kiss of the air-con and he could almost feel the tiny hairs feathering her skin brush his mouth as they stood to attention beneath his lips.

      His groin stirred again and he almost groaned out loud. This was madness!

      What he really needed was a date. Obviously it had been too long if he was lusting after a woman—a young woman—twelve years his junior.

      And it’d been a long time since he’d had any female company.

      His time away with Saving Face was always frantic and there was never time for socialising. Long days of operating, often well into the night, followed by travelling on to the next place and repeating it all over again wasn’t conducive to sexual liaisons.

      Frankly, even if he didn’t have a strict no-sleeping-with-colleagues rule, he was too exhausted for anything other than snatching vital hours of sleep whenever he could.

      But when he came home between missions, that was a different story. That was his down time. Time to surf, top up his tan, spend time with Ruby, see his mother, tolerate his father and date pretty women.

      Time for liaisons.

      ‘Wave!’

      Adam looked over his shoulder as the excited cry worked its way down the line. He felt his adrenaline kick in as the mediocre wave emerged from the ocean behind him and he flattened his belly against the board in anticipation.

      He welcomed it. Riding a wave was an all-consuming pastime and he welcomed the break from his internal dialogue. No time for thoughts of Jess and her cute pink mouth.

      Just him and the ocean.

      He felt the drag, could feel the kick in his chest as his pulse picked up a notch. His board started to lift at the back and he paddled frantically to position himself perfectly for when the wave crested.

      He leapt to his feet at just the right moment, bending his legs, cutting across the face as if he’d been born with fins. The wind ruffled his hair and he could taste salt on his tongue.

      It was just him and the wave.

      He whooped out of sheer exhilaration as he conquered the wall of water. He was unstoppable.

      Until the second he wondered if Jess could surf.

      And then he promptly lost his balance and tumbled off his board head first into the ocean.

      ‘Good morning,’ Jess chirped as she flipped over some frying bacon.

      ‘How on earth can you be so damn happy at this ungodly hour of the morning?’ Ruby bitched as she shuffled into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot she knew Jess would have brewing.

      Jess laughed. She didn’t have to tell her friend that back home she would have been up two hours ago. ‘This is the best part of the day.’

      Ruby shook her head. ‘You country chicks are mad.’ But she smiled as she took her first fortifying sip.

      Jess loaded up her plate with the bacon and waited for the eggs to cook. ‘What are you doing up this early anyway?’

      ‘Cort got called in at four. I haven’t been able to get back to sleep since.’

      Jess frowned. ‘Everything okay?’

      ‘‘Course,’ Ruby dismissed. ‘Just can’t sleep without him.’

      ‘Oh,’ Jess murmured. ‘That’s so sweet.’

      She envied Ruby. And Tilly and Ellie. They’d all found love this past year. Oh, she was thrilled for them too but it was a little hard to be the single one in a house full of couples.

      And she wanted what they had. What her parents had. What her grandparents had.

      The fairy-tale.

      Was that so wrong?

      No.

       But who she wanted it with was just plain, never-going-to-happen crazy.

      Jess turned back to the pan. ‘Do you want some bacon?’ she asked as she lifted her eggs onto the plate. ‘I’ve cooked too much.’

      Ruby

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