After lunch, I struggled back into my wetsuit. My energy had returned, and to a small extent, so had my enthusiasm.

Which was a good thing because the afternoon's session was even tougher. We had to remove our masks completely and keep them off for over a minute. It stung to open my eyes, so I kept them closed, though that meant I was totally reliant on Adam to guide me.

On the bright side, I was so worried about the exercise that I completely forgot to go gaga when I touched him. Thank goodness for the small mercies, eh?

I'd almost jacked the whole lot in after this morning's dive, but I felt a lot better when I finally emerged from the water for the day. I was glad I'd kept going.

Kat called as I was packing up my kit. I'd spoken to her last night to let her know I'd be taking a diving course and not to worry if I didn't answer the phone in the daytime.

"Callie, I'm so sorry, but I'm going to have to bail on you tonight. You remember the other windsurfing instructor? The one that I told you didn't turn up last week? Well, she still hasn't, and a bunch of us are heading out to hunt for her."

"Do you need any help?"

"We have enough people, I think, and you don't know the area. Stay at the hotel and enjoy yourself. Have any better men turned up today?"

I glanced across the room at Adam. The jury was still out on him. He'd been a gentleman during the underwater tests, but he'd barely said a word to me since.

"No. Just Gabe." I'd told Kat all about him too.

"Oh, well, enjoy yourself with him."

She sounded distracted, but that was understandable if her colleague was missing. And I couldn't say I was disappointed at the prospect of spending a quiet evening alone.

"Yes, ma'am."

I gave her a mock salute before I hung up, which of course she couldn't see. But Adam could, which earned me a bemused look.

"Been stood up?" Gabe asked, sounding far happier about it than I felt.

I nodded. "But it's fine. I don't mind."

"In that case, you've got no excuses. You're coming out with us tonight."

"Who's 'us?'"

I wasn't going to agree to something without knowing the facts. Not again.

"Only me and a few friends."

"Do you promise you won't try to set me up with anyone?"

"Cross my heart."

"Okay, what time?" I asked, trying to stifle a yawn. It didn't work, and I slapped my hand over my mouth to hide it.

"Pick you up at eight?"

"That late? We're not going to stay for ages, are we? I'm exhausted."

"Of course not."

Why wouldn't he look me in the eye? I gave him a sharp glance.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you awake," Gabe promised. "And I'll save you some energy now."

With that, he swooped in and flung me over his shoulder. My ass bobbed in the air, and I was shrieking as he turned to face Adam.

"You're welcome to join us."

"Thanks, but I'll skip it," he said, as he tried, and failed to keep a straight face. He was laughing as Gabe strode out of the room.

Yes, definitely part-human.

The next morning, I woke up as sunlight glinted through the gap in the curtains.

I had a guy with a jackhammer chiselling away at my brain, and my face was damp from where I'd drooled on the pillow. I lifted the cover and found that I was still wearing the dress I'd put on last night.

The clock said eight thirty-five. I attempted to drag myself out of bed, but my body refused to cooperate, and who was I to argue? I slumped back down again and closed my eyes.

What had happened last night? I remembered Gabe picking me up, then going to some club that was shaped like a giant boat. There was music and dancing and...alcohol. Yes, there'd definitely been alcohol.

I had a vague recollection of Gabe holding my wine while I tried—and failed—to do the splits, but everything after that was a blur. What had I done? Callie Shawcross didn't behave like that. If I'd ever acted that way when I was with Bryce, he'd have had me committed.

I was in the process of passing out again when somebody hammered at the door. If that was Gabe, he could take his early morning and shove it somewhere uncomfortable.

I stomped up to the door and threw it open, ready to give him a piece of my mind, only to find a waiter. With breakfast.

"I didn't order this."

"No, Miss Callie. A man called and ordered it for you." He beamed as he emphasised the word "man."

Okay, so maybe Gabe was partially forgiven. He still had a way to go, though. A long way.

I was only ten minutes late to the dive centre, but Adam looked pointedly at his watch as I stumbled through the door.

"I'm sorry, okay? Somebody decided it would be a good idea to stay out late last night."

"Yeah, I know. I've just been looking through the photos. You want to straighten your legs a little more when you try a handstand," he suggested.

Oh. My. Goodness.

"There are photos?" I asked dumbly. Of course there were photos. Didn't everyone have a smartphone nowadays? I sank onto a chair, head in my hands. "I'm never going out again."

Gabe sat down beside me. "Don't worry, I've deleted the worst of them. And the one of you getting a piggyback from the hunky Dutch barman is cute."

I might as well give up, I decided. While some women swanned around elegantly, had their gorgeous boyfriends wrapped around their little fingers, and spent their spare time lunching with their equally fashionable friends, I was destined to be a klutz.

Why fight against fate?

Rather than ask to see the photos, which were undoubtedly worse than I could ever imagine, I spoke through gritted teeth.

"Shall we get on with the diving?"

"We've actually got another fun-filled, action-packed video first."

Adam and I both groaned.

"Has anybody got an aspirin before we start?" I asked.

Gabe tossed me a packet. It was the least he could do.

The video and pre-dive briefing told me that today's dives would be even more challenging than yesterday's. If I could have turned back the clock, I'd have stayed in bed with a nice cup of cocoa yesterday evening.

At least I was getting the hang of putting my wetsuit on. I hopped around like a pro, grabbed a door handle just before I overbalanced, then turned around for Gabe to zip me up. I did of course spoil the effect by screwing my regulator onto my air tank upside down, but you live and learn, don't you?

Gabe helped me rectify things while The Ass stood by, looking bored. Then we were off to the bay again. I managed to quell my disgust at having to spit in my mask, mainly by imagining it was Bryce's face. Take that, you twit. See? I was learning.

"Right, guys. Instead of me putting your fins on for you today, you're going to do it yourselves with your buddy helping. Breathe through your snorkel while you look down to see what you're doing, and your buddy can support you by holding onto your air tank."

"Do you want to go first, or shall I?" Adam asked me.

"You go."

I wanted to see how the heck I was supposed to do this.

Well, I got ahold of the strap on his air cylinder, blinked, and missed it. Good going. Next it was my turn.

I leaned back, put my face under the water, realised I'd forgotten to put my snorkel in my mouth, came back up, went back down again, fiddled around a lot, and finally got my feet jammed into my flippers. Fins.

Hurrah.

Then Gabe dove under to check I'd done it properly, and it was good to know he had every confidence in me.

"Okay, first exercise," he said when he bobbed back up to the surface. "Switching between our regulator and snorkel. We're going to lie face down on the surface, and practise taking one out and putting the other in."

Now, this one I could do. It was almost like yesterday, when we'd had to take the regulator out and put it back in again. I completed the exercise and started watching the fish. There was a really pretty one with a checkerboard pattern on its side that kept staring at me.

Gabe made me jump by tapping me on the shoulder. Through his mask, I saw him roll his eyes.

Slave driver.

He motioned us both deeper into the sea. The view got bluer and the water colder as we swam down the sandy slope to a point where a rope was anchored. It was time for the Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent. One at a time, we took out our regulators and swam in line with the rope up to the surface, breathing out tiny bubbles as we did so. Gabe had comfortingly told us that if we forgot to breathe out, our lungs would explode. That was a pretty important health and safety point.

Once we were on the surface, we inflated our BCDs and bobbed around like corks in the ocean. Except slightly bigger. It was the part I'd been dreading, the tired-diver tow. I wasn't looking forward to it for two reasons. Firstly, because I'd have to tow Adam and he was much bigger than me, and secondly, because I'd have to get up close and personal with him.

For some reason, my heart sped up the nearer I got, and I didn't even understand why. A primordial reaction to a tight ass, perhaps? It certainly wasn't because he'd gone out of his way to be nice to me.

Adam went first. I lay back in the water, although I didn't relax. In fact, every nerve ending felt as if it was on fire as his arm hooked around my chest, just below, well, you know. He pulled me along without even breathing hard. It was me who had to stop myself from panting.

Then it was my turn. I gingerly held onto him and kicked my legs. Nothing happened. It was like a shrimp trying to tow an oil tanker. He was at least four inches taller than me and a heck of a lot wider.

Gabe swam up alongside us, took out his regulator, and shouted encouragement.

"Come on, kick your legs."

What did he think I was doing?

Slowly, slowly, we started to move, but by the time we neared the shore, it was me who needed another tow. When we got out, I staggered up the beach with one man gripping each of my arms.

Gabe sat me down on the bench. The Ass crouched in front of me, seemingly oblivious to the amount of weight he was carrying on his back.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I managed a weak nod.

He dumped off his equipment and returned to give me a hand with mine. It was the first time he'd done anything to help. Shame it took me nearly dying to get him to assist. He pulled my wetsuit off, hung it up for me, then stripped out of his. I was too knackered to even ogle his backside. A second later, he disappeared into the locker room and came back with my towel.

"Here." He draped it over my shoulders. "Better?"

Much to my surprise, I was. "A little."

He held out a hand and I took it, trying to ignore the zing that came from his fingertips as we walked into the office.

Straight away, Gabe glanced down at our joined hands. I hurriedly let go and backed away a few paces until I tripped over a plant pot and nearly hit the deck. I say nearly, because The Ass leapt forward and caught me.

He set me on my feet, and I stepped back again, more carefully this time, mumbling, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"She's like Calamity Jane, isn't she?" Gabe put in cheerfully.

Thanks, Gabe.

He carried on, oblivious, "We'll take lunch, then we've got a fun dive in the afternoon."

Really? Gabe's idea of fun and mine had already proven to be wildly different.

"Fun in what way?" I asked suspiciously.

"We're going to make our first open-water dive. We'll take the truck out to a different dive site, and yes, Callie, we can look at the fish."

It was only my second time in a vehicle in Egypt, and in daylight when I could see all the stuff we almost hit, it was even more terrifying. When the driver screeched to a halt just centimetres from a dog that was having a snooze in the middle of the road, I grabbed at Adam's hand and squeezed it hard.

"Easy, I want to have some bones left intact."

I looked around and realised he was wincing.

"Sorry!" I quickly transferred my grip to the edge of the seat.

When the pickup pulled up next to the pile of rocks on the beach that Gabe informed us marked the Turtle Cove dive site, I was amazed I had any teeth left. If I'd had fillings, they would have rattled out for sure.

"Is there a real turtle here?" I asked.

"Yes. We might see her if we're lucky."

We got dressed on a plastic mat by the side of the truck. It was there that I discovered there was something worse than putting on a dry wetsuit in the shade of the dive centre, and that was attempting to put on a damp wetsuit in the hot sun. I was again reliant on the efforts of Adam and Gabe.

The fact that I was sweating buckets under the thick neoprene did provide me with a certain impetus to get the rest of my kit on quickly though, and by the time I lowered myself gratefully into the sea, I was certain I must be suffering from heatstroke. I almost relished the chill of the water seeping in.

If I'd been impressed by the reef at the hotel, this one took my breath away. Well, not literally, because that would have led to several impressive manoeuvres from Adam and Gabe and a lot of panic from me.

We kicked through a narrow channel as coral pinnacles rose skyward on either side of us, each one surrounded by more colourful fish than the last. I saw more Nemos, which Gabe had explained were actually clownfish. They always lived together in a pair, each claiming their own anemone.

To my left, a huge, multicoloured fish scraped at the coral with a beak-like mouth. If I stopped breathing for a second, I could hear the scraping noise as it chipped away. Everything was so breathtaking, it was a wonder I managed to inhale any air at all. And then, on the way back, the turtle swam right across in front of me, slowly, not a care in the world.

Wow.

Back in the truck, I couldn't stop babbling. "Did you see the turtle? And that huge shoal of tiny orange fish? What was the long thin one that swam in front of us at the beginning? Do those big coloured fish hurt if they bite?"

Gabe started laughing at me, and even Adam didn't look totally pissed off.

"This is where I try to encourage you to take the follow-on course. There's a fish identification module you can do where you'll learn all that."

"Okay, yeah, that sounds great. Will we see more turtles?"

"If we're lucky."

Tiredness came back in waves as the thrill of the sea life wore off and I realised I still had to clean my kit. I was weaving from side to side when Adam guided me back into the dive centre.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Adam asked.

"Bright and early. And thanks for helping me this morning."

He gave me a smile as he walked out of the door. It was the first genuine one I'd seen from him, and it started a butterfly dance-off in my stomach. Or maybe the nausea was just the after-effects of the boat-bar party, coming back to get me?

Even though I wanted my bed, I waited around until Gabe got off the phone. Mum had brought me up to be polite, so I couldn't leave without thanking him for breakfast.

"Breakfast?" he said.

"You sent it to my room?"

"Wasn't me, sweetie. Seems as if you've picked up another admirer."

Huh? Who could it be? I racked my brains as I walked back to the villa. Eid? I'd seen him from a distance on the beach today, watching me.

I shivered even though it was thirty degrees.

If it was Eid, I wasn't going to seek him out and show my gratitude, no matter what my mother might think.