Page 38 of The Wedding Pact

He refolds his arms, but I can tell from the way a smile is pushing at his lips that I’ve persuaded him. ‘If it really is only an hour. And it’ll have to be this afternoon, so you’ll need to entertain yourself for a bit while I work.’

I hold out my hand for him to shake. ‘Deal. I wanted to do some sunbathing and maybe swim in our pool for a bit today anyway.’

He puts his hand in mine and my whole body gives a little shiver of joy as the warm skin of his palm presses firmly into mine.

How can I find a handshake sexy, for goodness’ sake?

I really need to pull myself together or things here are going to spin completely out of my control.

7

RAFFA

So, seabobbing is a blast.

I had no idea this activity even existed, but here I am, holding on to the handles of a large bullet-shaped water-scooter as it powers me through the ocean at what feels like thirty miles an hour, though our instructor tells us we’ll only be able to do about twelve miles an hour tops with it.

We’re heading for a nearby coral reef where we’re going to do some shallow diving and check out the fish and other sea creatures that live around it.

It definitely beats staring at a laptop screen, that’s for sure.

The sun is warm on my back – the water isn’t exactly cold either – and adrenaline fills my blood, rushing a pleasant high through my body.

It also helps that I’m doing this with Ida.

She was completely focussed as our instructor gave us a fifteen-minute run-down of how to work the seabob and what to expect, both on the journey with it and when we were diving down to see the marine life once we were at the coral.

There was something of a coiled-spring about her body language, like she couldn’t wait to get going with this adventure. It made my heart beat faster to see it.

I think she’s determined to do this better than me, after I won our dance-off last night. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting as she drives her seabob through the water at top speed.

She’s a quick study. It’s impressive.

Her determination to be the best at this only fuels my own, of course, and I lock-in and concentrate hard on my technique in order to keep up with her – the main aim being to beat her to the reef.

Not that we’ve openly discussed any kind of competition.

But the unspoken challenge is there anyway, I can feel it. Pulsing between us.

It’s exhilarating.

And a real turn-on.

Forcing my thoughts back to the seabob, I will the thing to speed up, even though I’ve pressed the accelerator button to the max.

Ida beats me there, though I’m still ahead of our instructor who’s come along with us to guide us towards the best parts of the reef to explore.

We wait, bobbing in the water, still clutching the seabobs until he catches us up a minute later.

‘You both did great,’ the guy says, giving us a nod of respect.

‘Thanks, man,’ I say.

‘That was so fun,’ Ida says.

We grin at each other and my heart does a slow flip at how cool she looks with her hair slicked back, her visor temporarily pushed onto her head to see better whilst out of the water, and her skin glistening with seawater in the bright sunlight.

Like some kind of siren.