I met Kat in town for dinner that evening. She had a pass out as Mo was going to watch the Egypt versus Tunisia football match at a bar down the road. We found a quirky Thai place above a jewellery store and snagged a table where we could look out over the bay.

"Still no sign of Irina?" I asked, nibbling on a spring roll.

Kat had dark grey smudges under her eyes. The additional workload was clearly taking its toll.

"No, nothing. It's as if everyone's starting to forget her. This town has such a transient population, people are always coming and going. The newcomers have no idea she ever existed and the older residents... Well, if they don't think about a problem, it doesn't exist, right?"

"What else can you do?"

"Nothing. That's what's so frustrating. And even if there was something, I wouldn't have time because I'm teaching from dawn till dusk."

"Are they going to hire a replacement for her?"

"Eid's father already has. But she's coming from Slovakia, and she won't get here until next week." Kat sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm being an awful friend. I've barely seen you since you arrived."

"Don't worry, I've been busy too."

"With the diving course?"

"Yup. Tomorrow afternoon will be the first bit of free time I've had in ages."

She brightened. "Why don't you come to the sports club? You could join in one of my lessons."

I put down my fork. Picked it up again. Should I tell her or not? I had to, didn't I?

"Don't read anything into this, but I already have plans. With a guy."

Who was I kidding? This was Kat. Of course she'd read something into it. She squealed in delight, and half the diners in the restaurant swung their heads in our direction.

"Ooh Callie, you didn't hang around, did you? That's great! Your mum'll be so pleased our efforts weren't in vain." Kat clapped a hand over her mouth. "Could you forget I said that last bit?"

"You knew about her meddling?" I gave her a sharp look. "You were in on it, weren't you?"

"I just want you to be happy. To help you forget Bryce."

I should have been mad at Kat, but I couldn't be. She only wanted what was best for me, even if she'd gone about it in a way that set my teeth on edge.

"I'm trying to forget Bryce. He called me late last night, though."

"Seriously? I wouldn't have thought he'd have the nerve, the little rat-bag."

"He wanted to know why he couldn't get into my flat."

Kat snorted. "Because your mother changed the locks, that's why."

"What? Why didn't she tell me?"

"She did. Once when you were crying on the couch, and again in the car on the way to the airport."

I rifled through my thoughts. I didn't even recall riding to the airport, although logically I must have.

"I don't remember that."

"Your expression was kind of glazed. I hope you didn't try to help him."

"I don't know what I could have done. He wanted me to fly home and open the door for him. I told him I couldn't."

Kat cracked up. "The guy's so selfish it's unreal. He thinks the world revolves around him. What did he say when you refused?"

"Not a lot. He heard Adam in the background and got all cross, and then I hung up."

"Hang on... Adam was there? Last night?"

"We were studying together. In his room."

"Studying? Oh, that old chestnut."

The look on her face showed exactly what she thought had gone on.

"No, honestly, we really were studying."

"What, and at eight o'clock you just trotted off back to your room?"

"I'm not totally sure. I was drunk."

"Oh, this gets better and better."

"Kat! Nothing happened."

"Okay, okay. Fine, nothing happened. But you want it to, right? He could be your rebound guy. Is he hot?"

"Kind of, in a scruffy sort of way. I'm not keen on beards though. But even if he was interested, which is a massive 'if,' I'm not sure I want a fling. I've never had one before."

"All the more reason to go for it. Just have some wild, uncomplicated sex and enjoy yourself."

"You make it sound so easy."

"It is, Callie. It is."

To Kat, maybe, but this was me. I wasn't sure I could set my emotions aside that easily.

It weighed on my mind the whole way back to the hotel, and as I lay there, trying to sleep, I still didn't know what to do. Was Adam even interested? I was terrible at reading people—I'd proved that with Bryce. I'd just have to see what the next day brought.

The morning dawned bright and clear. Not a cloud in the sky. No surprises there, then.

I'd been dreading the classroom session, and most especially the exam. But after a couple of cheesy videos starring people with bad hair and considerably more scuba ability than me, plus a bit of help from Adam, I managed to pass the test. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"We'll celebrate tonight," Adam told me.

"Not with wine, though. I'm never drinking again."

"Not even champagne?"

Champagne was different, wasn't it? It was fizzy. Practically a soft drink.

"I'll think about it. What are we doing after this, anyway?"

"This afternoon, we're chilling on the beach. I've got something planned for later, but it's a surprise."

I'd always loved surprises. At least until Bryce had sprung that last horrible one on me. It began as such an innocuous conversation—he'd started by saying he wasn't able to take my bicycle to get its puncture repaired and finished by telling me our wedding was off.

I had hope that Adam's surprise would be a little nicer than that.

A few hours on the beach would be good too. I'd spent so much time in a wetsuit that I was only a shade or two past pasty white, and at this rate, I'd have to plaster myself with fake tan in the toilet at Luton airport before I caught a taxi home.

"Ace! I'll just scoot off and change. Meet you down there?"

He smiled and nodded, and I ran out of the dive centre. Well, walked quickly. Flip-flops and running weren't really compatible.

I was within spitting distance of my door when Eid popped out of nowhere.

"Callie, I'm so glad I found you. I've told my mother all about you, and she's invited you over for dinner tonight so you can meet the family."

Meet the family? What? I'd barely even met him.

"I'm going to have to take a rain check on that."

"A rain what? We do not have rain here. It's very dry."

"A rain check. A pass. I have other plans tonight."

"But my mother is cooking stew. It's delicious."

"Maybe another time. I really am busy."

"Another night is not possible. My cousins are coming as well. There are so many of them that it's difficult to get them all together in one place."

How many times did I have to say no?

"It's kind of you to think of me, but..." I gasped as an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me tight up against a hard body.

"Babe, there you are. Did you find the sunscreen?"

Adam reached past me and stuck out his hand. Eid shook it, but with the reluctance of a man forced to touch rotting meat.

"Adam. Nice to meet you. I see you've met Callie. She's a doll, isn't she?"

"I am Eid." He turned to me. "Is this what your plans are tonight?"

I nodded, not daring to speak. Five fingers were sending shivers through me, and my stomach clenched.

"Well, if that's the kind of woman you are, I can see that my mother would not like you. She wants me to marry somebody with class."

He stalked off, nose in the air.

For a second, I was speechless, then Adam and I looked at each other and fell about laughing.

He touched his finger to the end of my nose in a gesture I wasn't quite sure how to interpret. It wasn't exactly intimate, but my body sure reacted that way. Heat rushed south.

"Don't worry, I'll take you and your lack of class any day."

I swallowed hard. The implications of that made me very nervous.

Thankfully, I made it into the villa without further incident, and while I changed in the bathroom, Adam stood guard at the door just in case Eid decided to make a reappearance. I'd never had a man get protective of me before, and twice now he'd helped me to get rid of unwanted suitors. Whatever the future held, I had to be grateful for his presence

Bikini or one-piece? Bikini or one-piece? I stared at the array of beachwear I'd laid out on the bathroom vanity. How brave was I feeling? Oh, screw it—I threw caution to the wind, and before I could change my mind, I put on a bikini and strode outside.

With a cover-up over the top, of course. I mean there's brave and there's stupid, and I wasn't about to parade through the resort half-naked. The waiters would probably have photos of me on match.com within twenty minutes.

We picked two sunloungers at the edge of the beach and draped our towels on them. Adam strode off to get some drinks while I whipped off my cover-up and slathered on sunscreen.

I'd asked for fruit juice, but when he returned, he was holding two multicoloured concoctions decorated with umbrellas and sliced melon, orange, and grapes.

"This was what they gave me. I was almost embarrassed to be seen carrying them." Then, more quietly, "Do you want me to do your back?"

Did I want him to touch me? Have his strong, smooth, hands rubbing over me? My brain screamed no, but the parts of me that hadn't seen any action in weeks overrode it.

"Yes, please." I handed him the bottle.

He squirted some of the lotion out, warming it in his hands before he gently rubbed it into my back. When he got to my shoulders, his thumbs dug in and he started massaging. A low moan escaped before I could stop it.

Oops.

It was answered by a groan from him. "I'd better stop now."

What? Why?

He handed me the bottle. "Would you mind returning the favour?"

Oh, okay. That seemed fair.

His skin was silky under my fingers, and the lotion was long soaked in before I was able to tear my hands away. My nether regions were hotter than the sun. I flopped back onto my lounger to try and compose myself while Adam lay back on his and picked up a book. I recognised the cover of a story I'd read a couple of months ago. It was a great thriller.

I fished my own novel out of my bag. The title was Confessions of a Wedding Planner—secretly, I still hadn't given up on the dream.

I snuck a glance over at Adam. What would he look like in a tux?

Good grief, Callie! I gave myself a mental slap. I'd barely touched the guy, and I was already imagining what it would be like to take his surname. Whatever it was.

Beside me, he put down his book, stretched, and rolled over. Now I had a view of his perfect ass instead of his abs. The Ass. I couldn't complain.

But I could daydream. I imagined we were on a secluded island, just the two of us and the waves crashing on the shore. The quiet chatter of the other holidaymakers and the occasional hum of Mo's boat as it pulled wakeboarders around the bay all faded away. Adam picked up the bottle of sunscreen again, but this time, he straddled me and tugged off my bikini top before he ran those hands over my back again. Neither of us said a word. We didn't need to. We both knew exactly what we wanted.

Didn't we?

Back in the real world, I snuck a glance at Adam, but he was still reading. What would he say if he could read my thoughts?

And more worrying, why was the waiter from the beach bar gesticulating between me and a guy at least twenty years older? Ouch. Those Donald Duck Bermuda shorts weren't flattering in the slightest.

Donald appeared to win the argument and marched over to me, waving a piece of paper.

I sat up as he approached, squinting into the sun.

"I'm putting in a complaint," he announced.

"I'm sorry?"

"This pamphlet distinctly says you are single and unattached, but now I've wasted my time finding you. You're clearly with another man. I don't do threesomes."

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

They didn't have to. Adam was on his feet beside me in an instant, staring the man down. For an unemployed beach bum, he sure possessed an air of authority. Helped, no doubt, by him being a head taller than Donald, who had to tilt his neck to look up at him.

"Apologise and leave."

"W-w-what?"

"You don't walk up to a beautiful lady on the beach and start yelling at her."

Adam thought I was beautiful? I melted back onto the sunlounger.

For a moment, Donald looked as if he was about to argue, but Adam took another step forward and he thought the better of it.

"Sorry," he bit out before marching back from whence he came.

Adam sat beside me and took my hand in his. "I'm sorry too. That was a shitty thing to happen. I'll have a word with the hotel manager. They shouldn't still be giving out those leaflets."

"They shouldn't have been giving them out in the first place."

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he grinned at me. "I don't know. How else would I know that your chocolate fudge cake won first prize in a bake-off last year? That's a very valuable piece of information."

"I'll make you a cake one day," I blurted. "You know, as a thank you for saving me from all these unsuitable suitors. You're my knight in shining...swimming trunks?"

Adam chuckled, then leaned over and kissed me on the forehead.

"I've got an ulterior motive," he whispered.

I was frozen to the spot as he got to his feet.

"But I wouldn't say no to a cake." He held out his hand, and I took it and let him help me to my feet. "We may as well leave. It's almost time for your surprise, and we need to get changed first."

As I pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater, as per Adam's instructions, my mind was in a spin. The bottom of my belly fluttered. The butterflies were back. At this rate, I could take up lepidoptery.

What had he meant by having an ulterior motive?

And was it what I found myself hoping it would be?