Chapter Three
Nessa hadn’t expected to see Jace back at her bar, and certainly not so soon, but she was serving lunchtime drinks when he came ambling down off the hiking trail again. He looked a lot better today and better equipped as well, with a small pack slung over his shoulder. She guessed he had a water bottle in it. Too busy to do more than give him a quick nod in greeting as he slid onto a barstool, she took a few minutes to clear the order the waiter had just handed her for a dozen complicated cocktails.
“Hey,” she slid a coaster in front of Jace and smiled. “You look better today. Got some color in your cheeks.”
He smiled back. “I totally had a grandpa nap after breakfast. It was fantastic.”
That made Nessa laugh. “Good for you. What can I get you?”
“Haven’t had lunch yet, so I’d better keep it virgin.” He cocked his head at her. “Something long and cold. I brought water with me today, but it’s still pretty hot walking.”
She nodded and reached for a tall glass, shoveling ice into it before mixing orange, mango, and pineapple juices and topping it off with club soda.
“Looks great,” Jace said enthusiastically as Nessa placed the glass in front of him with a flourish. He took a long drink, eyes closing with pleasure. “Ohhh. Beautiful.”
“You’re welcome.” She set one of the food menus down beside his glass. “If you want to order lunch, I can put your order through here and the kitchen will send it out shortly.”
“Oh, you do bar food here?” He picked up the menu and looked through it with interest, seeing a wide variety of dishes, from pizza and sandwiches to Asian dishes and Spanish tapas.
“One of the resort’s restaurants is right over there,” she gestured to a large hedge to one side of the pool. “The kitchen’s just behind the bar. You can go in there for lunch, if you’d prefer.”
“No, I think I’d like to eat here,” Jace said thoughtfully. “Turkey and cheese focaccia with cranberry sauce sounds good, please.”
Nessa put the order through, poured two more drinks as her waiter returned, and then found herself leaning with her elbows on the bar. “Have you been here on Sunfish long?”
“A few days, but I didn’t really venture out until yesterday.” He smiled at her. “I’m planning to remedy that, though, and do some exploring. This place really is like paradise.”
Nessa smiled as she looked around, at the laughing patrons in the shimmering pool, the beautifully landscaped tropical gardens. “It really is. I get a bit blasé about it sometimes, but then someone like you comes along and makes me look at it through fresh eyes.”
Jace nodded, taking another sip of his drink.
“Do you snorkel, or dive?” Nessa asked then. “If so, you should, while you’re here. We’re right in the middle of the World Heritage part of the Barrier Reef; there’s no better diving anywhere in the world.”
“I haven’t for a long time, but I’d love to.” He hesitated, remembering her quick refusal of his invitation the previous afternoon. “Do you get much chance to?”
“I haven’t been in ages.” She looked a bit wistful. “I really should. It’s still fairly quiet this time of year, I could get a spot on one of the trips easily enough. In the high season, we’re supposed to leave them for paying customers, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Jace agreed, nodding. It was a sensible policy. He fiddled with the straw in his drink for a moment. Go on, bite the bullet. The worst she can say is no. “I was thinking of maybe going up to the main resort and booking onto one of the trips. If you’ve got a day off coming up, maybe you’d like to come with me?”
He hadn’t felt so shy asking a girl out in years. Nessa’s light amber eyes were serious as she gazed at him, and then her dimpled smile broke out, wide and startlingly white in her brown face.
“I’d really like that. I’ve got the day off tomorrow, actually, if there are any spots available on one of the tours.”
Jace had to suppress an inappropriate urge to punch the sky and whoop with victory. Play it cool. “Any preferences, snorkel or dive?”
“Snorkel. I’ve never been much of a diver, I admit. I get a bit claustrophobic.”
He nodded, perfectly happy with that. “Sounds good. I’ll walk over after lunch and check out what’s available.”
Nessa smiled and turned away to serve another customer. She couldn’t keep her lips from quirking upward, she found; the thought of going snorkeling with Jace had a squirmy, excited feeling building in the pit of her stomach. It’s a date, she thought, giving him a quick sideways glance under her lashes. His sandwich had just been delivered and he was thanking the waitress who’d brought it with a charming smile. The girl looked a bit dazed as she turned away; she caught Nessa’s eye and grinned, miming fanning herself with a backward glance at Jace.
He’s sexy enough to raise any girl’s internal temperature, Nessa thought. Add his physical attractiveness, charm, and money–at least, she assumed he was reasonably well off. Enough to move in the rarefied circles where a friend owned a private villa on Sunfish Island, at any rate. Although she supposed it could be a friend with rich parents; there weren’t many folks Jace’s age who had that kind of money.
Everything about Jace added up to the kind of man women threw themselves at. And he’d chosen to ask her out, not once but twice, making a second attempt when she’d turned him down the first time. It was flattering as hell, Nessa acknowledged, glancing at him again, taking in his clean-cut, preppy good looks. He’d shaved since yesterday, removing the scraggly beard, and though he could still use a haircut, he looked even more handsome than she’d originally thought.
She was still busy serving customers when he finished eating and headed off, though he did catch her eye to give her a little wave. Her heart sank unaccountably, but leapt right back up again twenty minutes later when he ambled back to the bar, waving a slip of paper.
“We’re booked on the all-day snorkel tour going out at eight-thirty,” Jace said cheerfully as Nessa gave him one of her blinding smiles.
“Sounds terrific. I’ll meet you at the dock?”
“Sure. They said the boat is equipped with everything we need, so all you need to bring is your beautiful self and your swim gear.”
“You’d better wear a T-shirt.” She pointed at him. “And we’ll slather you in sunscreen, or that pasty skin of yours is gonna go lobster-red.”
“Gotcha,” Jace agreed. “Well, I’d better head on back. See you in the morning, then!”
“See you,” Nessa said, and told herself not to be silly. It was ridiculous to be disappointed he hadn’t repeated his dinner invitation. She’d be spending the whole day with him tomorrow. That’d be plenty of time to get to know him better.
* * *
Nessa woke early the following morning. Butterflies churned in her stomach. She told herself sternly not to be ridiculous; she was hardly a teenager on her first date with a boy she liked! Still, she couldn’t quite tamp down the welling bubble of excitement as she headed to the staff cafeteria to get breakfast.
“Hey!” Her friend Olivia slid into the seat opposite her. “You’re up and about early. Don’t usually see you in here at this hour.”
“I’m going out on a snorkeling trip today,” Nessa explained. “Figured I should get in a good breakfast first; I’ll need the energy.”
Olivia shuddered dramatically. “You don’t get seasick? I never dare eat if I’m going out on one of the boats, in case I wind up feeding the fish!”
“…Thanks for that image.” Nessa looked down at the stack of waffles she’d selected, having second thoughts.
“Whoops, never mind me!” Olivia laughed, a blush staining her cheeks. “Shouldn’t have mentioned it. You just have a good day!” Nessa couldn’t keep the goofy grin off her face, and Olivia gave her a narrow-eyed look. “Why do I have the feeling this isn’t just a fun day off for you? Wait. You met someone!”
“What are you, a mind-reader?” Nessa dug back into her waffles. “Yes, I met someone,” she mumbled when Olivia prodded her.
“A resort guest?” Olivia’s eyes widened.
“No! Come on, you know me better than that. He’s staying at one of the private villas. It belongs to a friend of his.”
“Oh, okay.” Olivia nodded. “Is he cute?” Her grin widened cheekily.
“Well, I think so.” Nessa grinned back. “But paws off. You’re taken.” She pointed her fork at Olivia sternly.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m more than satisfied with my catch.” Olivia looked like a cat licking cream off her whiskers.
“And where is Cory this morning?” she asked, referring to the resort’s activities manager.
“Oh, he’s taking the snorkeling trip out. He already ate and went down to help prep the boat. So don’t tell me, if you don’t want to, but be warned I’ll get all the juicy details out of Cory later. Can’t escape the gossip network, darling.”
Nessa wrinkled her nose with disgust and sighed. “Well, it’s a first date. So there won’t be much to tell.”
“Apart from the fact that your date will no doubt be eating you up with his eyes. Are you wearing your red bikini? You’ll knock his socks off.”
She already had it on underneath her light sundress. Living on a tropical island, she owned half a dozen bikinis, but she never considered wearing any of the others when she opened the drawer this morning. The red bikini was a halter-neck, framing and lifting her breasts, the fiery color a great contrast to her dark skin. Ties at the sides of the brief bikini bottoms were a wicked temptation, luring a man’s attention to her hips, making him think about tugging on the ties to pull them free.
Nessa wanted that kind of attention from Jace. She’d done a fair bit of soul-searching after impulsively agreeing to go on the snorkeling date with him. She wasn’t an impulsive person by nature, but in the end she’d had to conclude her subconscious had already decided. Jace was an attractive man. He wasn’t the only one to show interest in her recently, but he was the only one in a long time who’d provoked a matching response from her. She’d spend the day with him and see how things panned out, but at the moment she provisionally intended on taking him back to her place that evening. Or going back to the villa where he was staying, if he invited her. She’d never been in any of the fancy private villas and found herself curious about what they’d be like.
“Earth to Nessa!”
She blinked, startled back to herself. She’d drifted off into a daydream thinking about Jace. About letting him pull the ties on her bikini. He had nice hands, she’d noticed when he was at the bar, with long, capable fingers. She’d had more than a few thoughts about those fingers caressing her skin, finding her most sensitive spots.
“Sorry, I was somewhere else.”
“I could see that.” Olivia smirked over the rim of her coffee cup. “You’d better get moving, sugar, or you’re literally gonna miss that boat.”
“Argh!” A quick glance at her watch and Nessa abandoned the remnants of her breakfast, scrabbling under her chair for the beach bag she’d brought with her.
“Have fun!” Olivia called after her as she hurried for the exit. Nessa waved hastily and set off for the boat dock at a fast trot.