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If she’d met his gaze, it might be a question that was impossible not to ask silently and maybe she didn’t want to know the answer because that might extend that connection she’d felt.
A connection that felt wrong.
Almost like a betrayal of some kind?
Life didn’t get much better than this.
A quiet, late summer evening on Takapuna beach, with a sun-kissed Rangitoto island as a backdrop to a calm blue sea. The long swim had been invigorating and it was still warm enough to sit and be amongst so many people enjoying themselves. There weren’t many people swimming now but there were lots of small boats coming in to the ramp at the end of the beach, paddle-boarders beyond where the gentle waves were breaking and people walking their dogs. A group of young men were having a game of football and family groups were picnicking on the nearby grassed area.
It was the kind of scene that was so much a part of home for Zac he’d missed it with an ache during his years in London. This beach had been his playground for as long as he could remember. He loved it in all its moods—as calm as an oversized swimming pool some days, wild and stormy and leaving a mountain of seaweed on the beach at other times. Little room to walk at high tide but endless sand and rocks to clamber over at low tide. Kite surfers loved it on the windy days and paddleboards reigned on days like this.
Funny that he’d never tried that particular water sport. Maybe because it looked a bit tame. For heaven’s sake—it was so tame, there was somebody out there with a dog sitting behind the person who was standing, paddling the board.
A big dog. A small person. They were attracting attention from some of the walkers and Zac could see the pleasure they were getting from the sight by the way they were pointing and smiling. More than one person was capturing the image with a camera. He took another look himself. The dog was shaggy and black. The paddler was a girl in a bikini and even from this distance she was clearly attractively curvy.
He’d finished rubbing himself down with his towel so there was no reason not to head back to the house for a hot shower but there was still enough warmth in the setting sun to make it pleasant to stand here and that pleasure certainly wasn’t dimmed by watching the girl on the paddleboard for a few more moments as she headed in to shore. How would the dog cope with the challenge of staying on board as they negotiated even small waves?
It didn’t. As soon as the board began to ride the swell, it jumped clear and swam beside its owner, who stayed upright and rode in until the board beached itself on the sand. It was only then that Zac realised who he’d been watching.
What had Monty called her?
Oh, yeah…the queen of the paddleboard.
Who knew that that flight suit had been covering curves that were all the sweeter when there wasn’t an ounce of extra flesh anywhere else on her body? The muscles in her arms and legs had the kind of definition that only peak fitness could maintain and she had a six-pack that put his to shame.
Zac found himself sucking in his stomach just a little as he moved towards where she was dragging the huge board out of the final wash of the waves. He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen her and maybe this was a great opportunity to get past that weird hostility he’d been so aware of today. There’d been a moment when he’d thought it was behind them—when they’d shared that moment of triumph that they no longer needed to try and spot a small body floating in the sea—but it hadn’t lasted. Summer had been immersed in paperwork when he’d signed off for his first shift and she’d barely acknowledged his departure.
He summoned a friendly smile. ‘Need a hand?’
‘Zac…’
He was possibly the last person Summer might have expected to meet here on the beach. The last person she would have wanted to meet? She was having to share yet another patch of her turf. First the base where she worked. Then the emergency department that was also part of her working life. Now this—not exactly her home but a huge part of when she spent her downtime and a place that was very special to her. And he was…he was almost naked.
Oh…my… The board shorts were perfectly respectable attire for the beach but the last time she’d seen him as he left the base that afternoon he’d been wearing real clothes. Clothes that covered up that rather overwhelming expanse of well tanned, smooth, astonishingly male skin. He’d obviously towelled himself off recently but droplets of water were still clinging in places. Caught in the sparse hair, for example, between the dark copper discs of his nipples.
‘I’ve been swimming.’
Oh, help… He’d noticed her looking, hadn’t he? Hastily, Summer dragged her gaze upwards again. His hair was wet and spiky and his expression suggested that he was as disconcerted as she was by their lack of clothing. Suddenly, it struck her as funny and she had to smile.
‘No…really?’
‘I’d offer you my towel but it’s a bit damp.’
‘I’ve been standing up. I’m not actually that wet.’
Just as she spoke, her dog emerged from his frolic in the waves, bounded towards them, stopped and then shook himself vigorously. It was like a short, sharp and rather cold shower.
‘Flint… Oh, sorry about that. My bag’s just over here. I’ve got a dry towel in there.’
‘No worries.’ Zac was laughing. He reached out his hand. ‘Hey, Flint…’
The big dog sniffed the hand cautiously, wagged a shaggy tail politely and then sat on the sand, close enough to lean on Summer’s leg. He looked up and the question might as well have been a bubble in the air over his head.
Friend of yours? Acceptable company?
Summer touched the dog’s head.
Yes. He’s okay. I’m safe.
Maybe it was the genuine laughter that had made a joke of something many people would have found annoying. Or the way he’d reached out to make friends with Flint. She might not let people too close but she’d always trusted her instincts about their character and there was nothing here to be ringing alarm bells. Quite the opposite, in fact.
‘So, do you need a hand dragging this thing somewhere? It looks heavy.’
‘No. Jay’ll come and get it soon. He’s busy giving someone a lesson at the moment.’ Turning the board sideways on the soft sand close to her brightly coloured beach bag, she sat down on one end. ‘I’ll just look after the board until he’s done.’
‘Jay?’
‘He runs a paddleboard business. I hired one the first time I came to this beach and fell in love with it. I’ve been coming back ever since.’
‘And Flint? He fell in love with it too?’ Zac sat down, uninvited, on the other end of the board but somehow it felt perfectly natural. Welcome, even.
‘He was in love with me.’ The memory made Summer smile. ‘Jay was going to look after him while I went for a ride, the first time I brought him here as a pup, but Flint wasn’t having any of it. He just came after me. Luckily, Jay shouted loud enough for me to hear so I could fish him out of the water before he got so exhausted he sank. He fell asleep on the board coming back in and that’s been his spot ever since.’ She laughed. ‘You’re sitting on it right now. That’s why he’s standing there glaring at you.’
‘Oh…my apologies.’ Zac shuffled closer to Summer and Flint stepped onto the end of the board, turned around and then lay down in a neat ball with his nose on his paws.
Zac was so close to Summer now that she could feel the warmth of his skin. His bare skin. His legs were bent and she could see sand caught in the dusting of dark hair. The legs of his board shorts were loose enough to be exposing skin on his inner thigh that looked paler than the rest of him. Soft…
She cleared her throat as she looked away. Maybe that would clear inappropriate thoughts as well. ‘So why Takapuna? Auckland’s got a lot of beaches to choose from when you need an after-work dip.’
‘It’s been my backyard for ever. That’s my gran’s house up there.’ He was pointing to the prestigious row of houses that had gardens blending into the edge of the beach. Multi-million-dollar houses. ‘The old one, with the boat shed and the anchor set in the gate.’
It was impossible not to be seriously impressed. ‘You live there?’
‘I know…’ Zac pushed his wet hair off his face. ‘It’s a bit weird. I’m thirty-six years old and I’m still living with my gran. But the house is on two levels. Gran’s upstairs and I rent the bottom half and it’s always just worked for both of us. She’d deny it but I think she’s relieved to have me back. I’m relieved too, I have to admit. I worried about her while I was away. She’s a bit old to be living entirely on her own.’
‘A bit old? Didn’t you say she was in her nineties?’
‘Ninety-two. You wouldn’t think so, though, if you met her. She reckons ninety is the new seventy.’ Zac turned his head. ‘She’d love to meet you. Would you like to come in for a drink or something?’
Summer turned her head as well and suddenly their faces were too close. She could see the genuine warmth of that invitation in his eyes. What was the ‘something’ on offer as well as a drink?
Whatever it was, she wanted it. The attraction was as strong as it was unexpected. She could feel the curl of it deep in her belly. A delicious cramp that eased into tendrils that floated right down to her toes.
She’d been fighting this from the moment she’d first seen this man this morning, hadn’t she?
He was—quite simply—gorgeous…
It wasn’t just his looks. It was his enthusiasm for his work. His charm. That smile. The way he loved his grandmother.
She couldn’t look away. Couldn’t find anything to say. All she could do was stare at those dark eyes. Feel the puff of his breath on her face. Notice the dark stubble on his jaw and how soft it made his lips look…
The board beneath her rocked a little as Flint jumped off. Maybe he’d knocked Zac slightly off balance and that was why he leaned even closer to her. It was no excuse, though, was it?
You really shouldn’t kiss somebody you’d only just met. Somebody who you were probably going to be working with on an almost daily basis.
Summer couldn’t deny that she’d been thinking about kissing him. Couldn’t deny that sudden attraction. Had it been contagious?
Who actually moved first or was it just the result of that movement on top of already sitting so close?
Not that it mattered. Nothing seemed to matter for the brief blink of time that Zac’s lips touched her own. The touch was so electric that she jerked back instinctively. She’d never felt anything like that…
Flint’s deep bark couldn’t be ignored. Jay was walking towards them. The random sound of a frog croaking from her beach bag was another alert. She had a text message on her phone.
Real life was demanding her attention but, for a crazy moment, Summer wanted it to just go away. She wanted to sit on the sand as the sun set.
She wanted to kiss Zac again.
Properly, this time…
‘So…’ Zac had noticed Flint’s enthusiastic greeting and must have guessed that it was Jay coming to collect the board. ‘How ‘bout that drink?’
Summer was also getting to her feet. She’d scooped up her bag and was checking her phone. It could be an emergency call-out.
Except it wasn’t. It was a text from Kate.
It’s driving me nuts trying to guess. You don’t mean Zac M, do you? OMG. If it is, stay AWAY.
Somehow Summer managed a friendly introduction between Jay and her new work colleague despite the chaos in the back of her mind as memories forced themselves to the surface.
Driving Kate up to Auckland late that night because Shelley had been hospitalised after an attempted suicide. Listening to the hysterical account of the man she’d been abandoned by. The father of her baby. The monster who’d tried to push her down a staircase when he’d learned that she was pregnant…
So many buttons could be pushed by memories that could never be erased.
And she’d actually wanted to kiss him again?
‘I’ll give you a hand closing up,’ she heard herself saying to Jay as he picked up her board. She barely glanced over her shoulder. ‘See you later, Zac.’
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_a51930f4-aa7e-5786-bfbc-b673606b67dd)
HE HAD NO one to blame other than himself.
How stupid had he been?
Even now, a good twenty hours after the incident, the realisation that he’d kissed Summer Pearson was enough to make him cringe inwardly. Or maybe it was an echo of the flinch his current patient had just made.
‘Sorry, mate. It’s just the local going in. It’s a deep wound.’
‘Tell me about it. As if it wasn’t bad enough getting bitten by the damn dog, I had to rip half my leg open on the barbed wire fence getting away from it. Bled like a stuck pig, I did.’
‘I’ll bet.’ Zac reached for the next syringe of local that Mandy had drawn up for him. ‘Almost there. We can start stitching you up in a minute.’
‘You won’t feel a thing,’ Mandy assured him. ‘You’ve got the best doctor in the house.’
‘At least he’s a bloke. D’you know, there were two girls on the ambulance that came to get me?’
‘Hadn’t you heard, Mr Sanders?’ Mandy’s tone was amused. ‘Girls can do anything these days. Can’t we, Zac?’
‘Absolutely. I’d say you were a lucky man, Mr Sanders. Can you pass me the saline flush, please, Mandy? I’d like to give this a good clean-out before we start putting things back together.’
He took his time flushing out the deep laceration. He’d do the deep muscle suturing here but he had every intention of handing over to Mandy to finish the task. It might do his patient good to realise that girls could be trusted to do all sorts of things these days.
Like fly around in helicopters and save people’s lives. Not that he’d seen Summer do anything that required a high level of skill yesterday but he was quite confident that she had the capability to impress him. He was looking forward to a job that would challenge them both.
At least, he had been looking forward to it.
What had he been thinking on the beach yesterday evening? That because she seemed to be thawing towards him he’d make a move and ensure that she actually had a good reason to hate working with him?
Idiot…
Except it hadn’t been like that, had it?
Zac reached for the curved needle with the length of absorbable suture material attached. He touched the base of the wound at one side.
‘Can you feel that?’
‘Nope.’
‘Okay. Let me know if you do feel anything.’
‘Sure will.’
Zac inserted the needle at the base of the wound and then brought it out halfway up the other side. Pulling it through, he inserted it in the opposite side at the same level and then pulled it through at the base again. This meant he could tie it at the bottom and bury the knots to reduce tissue traction, which would give a better cosmetic result.
His patient was happy to lie back on his pillow, his hands behind his head, smiling at Mandy, who was happy to keep him distracted while Zac focused on his task.
‘What sort of dog was it, Mr Sanders?’
‘No idea. Horrible big black thing. Bit of Rottweiler in it, I reckon, judging by the size of those teeth.’
Zac tried to tune out from the chat. Tried not to think about big black dogs. But the suturing was a skill that was automatic and it left his mind free to circle back yet again to how things had gone so bottom-up on the beach.
He’d been enjoying himself. Taking pleasure in sitting beside an attractive young woman, sharing his favourite place with someone who loved it as much as he did. Feeling as if he was making real progress in forging a new professional relationship because of the way Summer had been telling him about part of her personal life. Loving the idea of such a faithful bond between owner and dog that a bit of ocean wasn’t about to separate them.
And suddenly something had changed dramatically. He’d been shoved sideways by the dog and Summer had been looking at him and it felt as if he was seeing who she really was for the first time and he’d liked what he was seeing.
Really liked it.
But he didn’t go around kissing women just because he found them attractive. No way. He would never force himself on a woman, either. Ever. Being made to feel as if he had done that stirred feelings that were a lot less than pleasant.
