The bridesmaid, the best man...

A Christmas wedding they’ll never forget!

A year after being jilted, Ava Keller finds herself forced back up the aisle—as bridesmaid at a beautiful Cape Town wedding. Best man—and Ava’s first crush—Noah Giles is the perfect distraction from her painful memories. But their flirtation turns serious when Ava’s feelings for him resurface! Hurt when Noah left after their kiss years before, will Ava give their chemistry a second chance?

Being an author has always been THERESE BEHARRIE’s dream. But it was only when the corporate world loomed during her final year at university that she realised how soon she wanted that dream to become a reality. So she got serious about her writing, and now writes the kind of books she wants to see in the world, featuring people who look like her, for a living. When she’s not writing she’s spending time with her husband and dogs in Cape Town, South Africa. She admits that this is a perfect life, and is grateful for it.

Also by Therese Beharrie

The Tycoon’s Reluctant Cinderella

A Marriage Worth Saving

The Millionaire’s Redemption

Tempted by the Billionaire Next Door

Surprise Baby, Second Chance

Conveniently Wed, Royally Bound miniseries

United by Their Royal Baby

Falling for His Convenient Queen

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Her Festive Flirtation

Therese Beharrie

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07836-8

HER FESTIVE FLIRTATION

© 2018 Therese Beharrie

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Grant,

who makes every Christmas the best day of the year.

And for my family. I love you.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

‘MA’AM, I CAN’T let you go in there.’

‘But—’

‘No “buts”.’ The man turned back to where smoke obscured the eco-estate where Ava Keller’s home was. ‘There’s no way you’re going into that.’

Ava gritted her teeth. She hated him. Though she’d never met the man before, she hated him.

The rational voice in her head told her she was projecting. That coming home from work to find her home covered in smoke had upset her. That being upset had manifested itself in her short tone and strong emotions. Like hatred.

Yes, the rational voice said. She was definitely projecting. But then, she’d never prized rationality in stressful situations. That was why, when she’d been left at the altar a year before, she’d attended the wedding reception. She’d eaten the cake. She’d gone on her honeymoon.

Rationality wouldn’t make her feel less stressed. Nor would it make her less emotional. And rationality wasn’t going to save one of the only things in her life that was still important to her.

So when an idea occurred to her and the rational voice warned against it, she knew she was going to do it. And though it was a bad idea—a terrible one—she would do it anyway.

Heaven help her.

She turned, walked a few steps away from the wall of men blocking the path to her house, and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

They hurried towards her, and later she would think that they must have made quite a picture. Those huge, muscular men in their official uniforms—some firefighters, some police—hurrying over to her as if they were lions and she were fresh meat.

She would also later think that at least ten men hurrying over to her had been overkill. But right now she was pretending to be a damsel in distress, and she was certain that merely the idea of that caused men to flock.

Really, her duping them was their own fault.

And that of her excellent acting skills.

Unfortunately, being a copywriter for a cybersecurity company didn’t often allow her to illustrate how dramatic she could be.

‘I think... I think I just saw a person.’ She gripped the shirt of the man closest to her. ‘Right there—down the path at that bush.’ Now she injected a layer of panic into her voice. ‘It’s so close to the fire, Sergeant. And it looked like my neighbour. An old man with no teeth.’

There was a beat when she wondered whether she’d gone too far. She had laid it on a little thick. Mr Kinney was barely fifty. He had all his teeth and he wasn’t in danger.

To make it more believable, she let out another tiny little screech. And when the man who’d blocked her from getting near her house moved forward to comfort her she cried, ‘No, no, not me. Help him. Help him!’

If the fire didn’t do the job first, Ava knew she was going to burn in hell.

But it worked, and three of the men ran down the pathway while the others moved forward, bodies tensed, ready to help if necessary.

It was all she needed. Without a second thought for how irrational she was acting, Ava bolted up the incline of the road she’d been blocked from earlier, and didn’t stop until she was so far from the men she’d left behind she could barely see them.

Nor could she see in front of her.

When panic crept up her throat, she ignored it. Told herself to remember all those nights she’d spent unable to sleep and Zorro had comforted her. To remember that it was only when she was looking after him that she felt capable. Able. And not as if some of her personality traits—her honesty, her bluntness—meant she somehow couldn’t be a partner. A wife.

But all thought fled from her mind as her body adjusted to its new environment. The smoke seemed to be stuck in her mouth. Clogging her lungs. Burning her eyes. She pulled off her shirt and tied it around her nose and mouth, trying to keep her eyes open.

It didn’t make much difference. The smoke was so thick she could barely see her hands in front of her. And the more she tried, the more her eyes burned.

So she wasn’t entirely surprised when she walked right into a wall.

The force of it stunned her. But after a moment she realised it wasn’t a wall. Not unless this wall had suddenly grown hands and gripped her arms to keep her from falling.

She was pretty sure she’d walked into a human. A human man.

As opposed to an alien man?

Clearly the smoke was doing more damage than she’d thought.

She heard a muffled sound coming from the man. He was obviously trying to tell her something, but he was wearing a firefighter’s mask and she couldn’t make out a single word. She shook her head and then, deciding that this interaction was taking precious time from her rescue mission, she pushed past him.

But she’d forgotten he had his hands on her arms, and they tightened on her before she could move.

‘What are you doing?’ the man asked now, wrenching off his mask.

She still couldn’t see him. Which, she thought, was probably a good thing, since his voice didn’t indicate that he felt any positive emotion towards her.

‘I have to get to my house.’

‘Ma’am, this area has been evacuated. The fire could reach us at any moment.’

‘So why aren’t you out there, making sure that it doesn’t?’

‘Are you serious?’ The disbelief in his tone made his voice sound familiar. ‘You have to leave, ma’am. Your property is not as important as your life. Or mine.’

‘It isn’t about my property,’ she said, her voice hoarse from smoke and desperation. ‘My cat is in there. I have to... I have to save him.’

Something pulsed in the air after she’d finished talking, and she could have sworn she’d heard him curse.

‘Where’s your house?’

Stunned, she took a moment to respond. ‘It’s not far from here. I can show you.’

‘No. Just tell me the number and I’ll make sure I find the damn cat.’

‘Seventeen.’ She hesitated when he handed her his mask and turned away. ‘Wait! Don’t you need this?’

‘Yes,’ he ground out. ‘But you’re going to need it more. Just put it on and go back to where you came from. I’ll find you.’

It was a few seconds before she realised he wasn’t there any more.

‘Check under the bed!’ she shouted at her loudest, and then she put the mask on and retraced her steps back towards the men—no easy feat with the smoke even thicker now.

She was immediately swarmed, but she ignored them—ignored the complaints and chastisement—and kept her eyes on the clouds of smoke in front of her.

She only realised she hadn’t taken off the mask when someone gently removed it from her. A paramedic, she thought, as it was replaced by an oxygen mask and she was asked to breathe in and out as the woman listened to her heartbeat before gently checking her body for burns.

Rationality won out now. It reminded Ava that she’d put her life in danger. That she’d put someone else’s life in danger, too. And, even though the thought of losing Zorro sent pangs of pain through her body, she couldn’t justify that.

So when the paramedic told her she needed to sit down, to drink some water, to get her heart-rate down, she obeyed, not voicing any of the protests screaming through her head.

A cat. A freaking cat.

That was what he was risking his life for. That was what he was abandoning all the rules of his training for. He could see the headlines now: Volunteer firefighter Noah Giles dies trying to save a cat. Smoke blurred his eyes, grated in his throat, his lungs, but somehow he made it to number seventeen. Smoke shrouded it, much as it did the other houses on the estate. When he’d been making his final rounds, checking that humans and pets had been evacuated, he hadn’t expected to find anyone.

They’d had the entire day to evacuate the area, and it had been erring on the side of caution, really, just in case the veld fire should spread.

Except now he wasn’t being cautious, he thought, coughing as he pushed open the door—in any other circumstance, he’d probably be annoyed that it had been left unlocked—and leaned against the wall. His head felt light, and it was pure determination that pushed him forward.

Determination spurred on by the emotion in the woman’s voice when she’d told him about the cat. It had been familiar, somehow, and had hit him in a place he hadn’t known existed. As if he cared that someone loved a cat as much as this woman loved hers.

And since he was risking his life for this cat, clearly he did care.

The damn cat had better be the most intelligent cat in the entire world, he thought. He’d be pretty annoyed if he died for any other kind. Just before Christmas, too, when he was planning to tell his father that after seven years of restlessness he was finally ready to put down some roots.

But only in terms of where you live.

He grunted. Then chose to ignore the unhelpful voice in his head and focused on checking the entire house systematically. Being inside protected him from the smoke somewhat, but he knew he couldn’t stick around for long.

When he got to the bedroom, something told him to look under the bed. Beady eyes stared back at him when he did so, and air gushed from his lungs. How could he be this relieved at finding a pet that wasn’t even his own? He shook his head, refusing to think about it, and then belly-crawled under the bed and gently pulled the cat into his arms.

It gave a low meow—a warning, he thought—but he didn’t pay much attention to it. His goal now was to get back to safety.

He was already back at the front door before he realised he couldn’t let the cat go out into the smoke. And shortly afterwards he realised the same thing about himself.

He knew that the cat—which was already wriggling in his arms—would run away the second he put him down. And so, taking a deep breath—and once again rethinking all his decisions in life—Noah stuffed the cat inside his open jacket before buttoning it up.

There was some struggling—and a sharp pain as the cat’s claws stuck into his belly—but eventually the cat stilled. He looked around for something he could use to cover his face before he braved the smoke again, but instead his eyes rested on a picture that stood on the mantelpiece. A picture of all the people he’d cared about growing up.

And among all their faces, his own.

If she’d ever wanted to discover how to upset a paramedic, she’d found out that evening.

‘You have to go to the hospital.’

‘No.’

‘Ma’am—’ The woman cut herself off and hissed out a breath. ‘Look, your heart rate is still high, and one of the things that can happen with smoke inhalation is—’

‘Cardiac arrest. Yeah, I know. I watched that TV show, too.’

‘It’s not from a show.’ The paramedic wasn’t even trying to hide her annoyance now. ‘I’m a medical professional and I know that—’

Ava didn’t hear the rest of the woman’s speech. She’d stopped listening the moment she saw a man emerge from the smoke. Ignoring the now protesting woman, she stood and pushed forward.

And then stopped when she saw who the man was.

‘Noah?’

She watched as he tossed aside a cloth—no, not a cloth; the throw that had once been over her couch—and then bend over and brace himself on his knees.

‘Hey, paramedic lady!’ Ava said, turning around in panic. But the woman was way ahead of her, and brushed past Ava with the oxygen mask and tank Ava had been using minutes before.

Just as they had with her, the men rallied around Noah. Though this time, of course, it was because Noah was their colleague, and not some foolish woman who’d run into the line of fire—literally—to save a cat.

She watched helplessly as they guided Noah towards the ambulance, and then, when they were there, tried to get him out of his suit. But he shook his head and made eye contact with her.

It jolted her heart. Had the poor thing sprinting as if it were in a life-and-death race it had to win.

So, nothing’s changed in the seven years since you’ve seen him, then?

Clearing her throat—her mind—she took a step forward, her legs shaking though her strides were steady.

When she reached him, he pulled the oxygen mask from his face, coughed, and then said, ‘Are we going to have to talk about why you decided to run into a fire to rescue a cat, Avalanche?’

His words were said with a crooked half-smile, and then he began to unbutton the jacket she’d only just noticed was moving to reveal a squirming Zorro.

There had been a pause before she’d even realised it was her cat. And that pause came because she’d been distracted by the muscular chest under the white vest Noah had just uncovered.

No, she thought. It had been years since she’d seen Noah. Years since she’d even thought about the silly crush she’d had on her brother’s best friend. Or about the kisses they’d once shared.

There was no way any remnants of that crush were still there. She’d been in a five-year relationship since then. She’d almost got married.

But you didn’t get married, a voice in her head said enticingly.

So clearly, there was a way.

CHAPTER TWO

AVA REACHED OVER and pulled the cat into her arms. Noah noted the squirming stopped immediately. Go figure.

‘No one calls me Avalanche any more.’

It was exactly the kind of thing he’d expected her to say. And even though he didn’t know what to do about the nostalgia surging in his chest, he smiled.

‘You used to love it.’

‘I never loved it.’

‘Why would I keep calling you that if you didn’t love it?’

‘I’ve asked myself that question for most of my life.’

He smirked. Then heard the next words come out of his mouth before he could stop them. ‘I’ve missed you, Avalanche.’

Her eyes softened, and she reached out and placed the oxygen mask back over his nose and mouth. ‘It’s nice to see you, too, Noah—’

Her voice broke and he frowned, pulling the mask away again.

‘Has someone checked you out?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘I told her she needed to go to the hospital,’ said the paramedic he hadn’t even realised was still there. ‘But she doesn’t believe me.’

‘Why? What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ Ava said with a roll of her eyes. ‘I’m fine.’

‘Elevated heart rate,’ the paramedic told him.

‘She’s at risk for cardiac arrest?’

‘I am a healthy twenty-five-year-old,’ Ava interrupted as the paramedic was about to give an answer. ‘I have a healthy heart. In fact, I had a check-up at the doctor’s last week and she confirmed it.’

Twenty-five. The last time he’d seen her she’d been eighteen. A kid, really. Not that that stopped you from treating her like a woman.

He clenched his jaw. Told himself to ignore the unwelcome voice in his head. But when his eyes moved over her—when they told him she was very much a woman now—the memories that voice evoked became a hell of a lot harder to ignore.

He shook his head. ‘Smoke inhalation is dangerous.’

‘Which is why you should be going to the hospital and not me. I was in there a fraction of the time you were.’

‘But my heart rate is okay.’ The paramedic nodded when he looked over, and he gave Ava a winning smile. ‘See?’

‘Smoke inhalation is dangerous,’ she replied thinly, with a smile of her own, though hers was remarkably more fake than his.

It made nostalgia pulse again, but memories of the way things had been before he’d left made him wonder if nostalgia was really what he was feeling.

But she was right about the smoke inhalation, and because of it—and because he knew his team wouldn’t let him work unless he got checked out—he agreed.

‘Fine. But if I’m going, you’re going, too.’

She opened her mouth, but he shot her a look and she nodded.

‘Okay. But we’re stopping at the veterinary hospital first. I need to make sure Zorro’s okay.’

The fierceness of her voice softened as she said the cat’s name, and he watched as she pressed a kiss into its fur. It stumped him—one, that she could show more affection to a cat than she could to a man she’d basically grown up with and, two, that she could show affection to that cat.

It was the ugliest cat he’d ever seen.

He assumed Ava had named him Zorro because of the black, almost mask-like patches on his face. And he supposed in some way those patches were cute. But he couldn’t say the same for the rest of the cat’s body. The orange, brown and white splotches looked as if the cat was the result of a scientific experiment gone wrong.

He’d never really been one for cats, and perhaps he was just biased against them. But, he thought, eyeing the cat again, he didn’t think so.

He would never have said the cat was ugly as he looked at Ava, though. Her brown eyes were filled with emotion—love, affection, he couldn’t quite tell—and her tall frame had relaxed.

And he realised that if he wanted her to get checked out he was going to have to agree to take the ugly cat to the veterinary hospital.

‘He’s sitting in the back.’

Five hours later they’d both been checked out. Noah had been put on oxygen for a portion of that time, while they ran tests, and when he’d met Ava in the waiting room later she’d told him the same thing had happened with her.

Though the test results had shown nothing alarming, they’d been given strict instructions to rest, and to return if any potentially dangerous symptoms emerged.

‘You didn’t have to wait for me,’ Noah told her as she got up and joined him.

‘I know. But I... I wanted to know that you were okay.’ She ran a hand over the curls at the top of her head. ‘I’m pretty sure Jaden would kill me if I were responsible for the death of his best man.’

‘That’s all I am to you?’ he teased, though it came out a little more seriously than he’d intended.

‘No, of course not.’ She paused. ‘You’re also my only way to call the vet and ask about Zorro. My phone’s died.’

He laughed, and it turned into a cough.

‘You’re sure you’re okay?’

‘Fine.’ He waved a hand. ‘Just normal after-effects.’

She bit her lip. ‘I really am sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get dragged into this.’

‘I’m glad I was the one who did get dragged into it,’ he retorted. ‘At least I have training.’

‘Ah, yes—one of the thousands of things you can do when you have family money.’

He winced. ‘How did you go from apologising to insulting me?’

She grinned, and his mind scrambled to figure out why his body was responding. He’d given himself a stern talking-to when he’d left all those years ago. Hadn’t spoken to Ava since then. His body had no business reacting to her smile.

‘It’s one of my unique talents.’

What are the others?

Now his mind froze, and when Ava didn’t say anything else, he wondered whether he’d said it out loud. But her expression didn’t change, and he put down the strange thought to the after-effects of inhaling smoke. There could be no other explanation.

Sure, keep telling yourself that.

‘So, can I call the vet?’ she asked after a moment.

He blinked, then handed her his phone and took the seat she’d vacated as she made the call.

He watched as she spoke to the vet. Watched as she set a hand on her hip and then lifted it, toying with her curls again. She’d cut her hair into a tapered style that somehow made the oval shape of her face seem both classic and modern.

He supposed those terms would work to describe her entire appearance. He’d always thought her beautiful—with an innocent kind of beauty that was much too pure for him—but with the haircut, and the clothes she wore that suited that cut, she was an enticing mix of classic and modern that made him want—

He stopped himself. Frowned at the direction of his thoughts. He couldn’t think of his best friend’s kid sister as enticing. He couldn’t think about wanting anything when it came to her.

She was just Ava. Little Avalanche. The girl who’d run in circles around him just for the fun of it when she was six. Who’d snorted if she laughed hard enough up until she was fourteen. Who’d asked him to be her first kiss so she could practise, and who’d eagerly responded when he’d kissed her a second time—

Nope. No. That line of thinking was going to get him nowhere.

But when she turned and smiled at him—and his body yearned to get somewhere—he realised that Jaden’s wedding was going to be more complicated than he’d expected.

CHAPTER THREE

HE HADN’T CHANGED one bit.

No, Ava thought as Noah stood, her eyes flitting over him. He had changed. Though she now remembered how greedily she’d taken in his muscles earlier, she’d forgotten about them between then and now.

Possibly because he was wearing one of his colleague’s ill-fitting T-shirts.

Probably because she’d been too distracted by his face.

It had happened before, too many times to count. And Ava didn’t even blame herself for it. How could she? Objectively, Noah had the prettiest face she’d ever seen. And though the word didn’t seem to fit with the rest of him—not any more, since the strong, muscular body he had now was more rugged than the lithe one he’d had when they were younger—she couldn’t deny the perfect lines and angles of his face were pretty.

But just because she couldn’t blame herself for it didn’t mean she didn’t find it annoying. It was. Because if he hadn’t been so pretty she might not have found herself still having this absurd crush. Years later.

And then he walked towards her, rubbed a hand down her arm, and said something in that deliciously deep voice of his. And the voice in her head that had called her a liar when she’d put her crush down to just his looks laughed and laughed.

Damn it.

‘Avalanche?’

‘Hmm?’ She shook her head. ‘Oh. You said something?’ If only she could remember what. ‘Yes.’

‘Yes?’ His hand dropped. ‘What do you mean, yes?’

Double damn it. Clearly her guess had been wrong.

‘I mean, yes—’ She exhaled sharply when she couldn’t think of an appropriate cover-up. ‘Yes, I have no idea what you said and my attempt at hiding it has failed miserably.’

He stared at her, and then he laughed. ‘Clearly you’re the same old Ava. Honest even when it doesn’t benefit you.’

‘Would it kill you to not be so blunt? No one needs you to be this honest.’

‘Yes, that’s me,’ she said brightly, hoping it would banish the darkness of Milo’s voice in her head. The memories that voice inevitably evoked. The pretence of the rest of her wedding day. The weeks after, when she’d looked in the mirror and asked herself why she couldn’t be different. Better. Easier. ‘Would you repeat what you said?’

‘I asked where you’ll be staying tonight?’

‘Jaden’s,’ she said automatically. But then she shook her head. ‘No, Jaden isn’t here. He and Leela are staying over at the vineyard their wedding is going to be at. They want a better idea of what their wedding will feel like.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘As if it will change anything. The wedding’s two weeks away. What are they going to do if it doesn’t “feel” right?’ She sighed. ‘I guess I’ll be staying at a hotel.’

‘Why not your mom and dad’s?’

‘They’re with Jaden and Leela at the wedding venue.’

‘Sounds horrific.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed with a small smile. ‘I can’t imagine anything worse than a wedding at Christmastime.’

She knew that because her wedding had been at Christmastime. And not only had her day been spoiled, but her entire festive season. She was still not prepared to spend the first anniversary of her being jilted at another wedding. With the same guests. And the same whispers.

But she had no choice. Her brother was getting married.

‘Of course, the fact that this isn’t exactly a romantic weekend for Jaden and Leela sucks, too. My parents and Leela’s parents are there, so Jaden and Leela probably had to get separate bedrooms.’

It hadn’t occurred to her before, but it amused her now.

‘Oh, no,’ Noah said with a frown. ‘Your parents can’t think—?’ He broke off when she gave him a look. ‘Apparently they can.’

‘Unfortunately, my parents can and will believe whatever they want of their children.’

Like the way they thought the collapse of Ava’s wedding had been because of Milo’s faults and not Ava’s. And how they still didn’t see anything wrong with how grumpy she was—or wonder how much easier she could have been—even after a broken engagement.

‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘no one’s there. And my access to all those places are locked in the drawer next to my bed.’ She closed her eyes briefly. ‘So, yes, a hotel.’

‘What about Zorro?’

She lifted a brow. ‘Are you still looking out for him?’

‘I’m looking out for you.’

She thought she saw him hesitate before he continued.

‘You’re my best friend’s sister. There’s an unspoken moral code that requires me to help you when your brother can’t.’

‘I’d like to think that moral code comes from the fact that you and I were friends once, too,’ she said slowly. ‘It doesn’t matter anyway,’ she added, when the thought had her stomach twisting. ‘The vet wants to keep Zorro overnight. He wants to make sure he’s okay.’

‘Are you okay with that?’

‘Of course I am.’

‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘So there’s no part of you that’s worried about him?’

When her spoken agreement got caught by the emotion in her throat, she sighed. ‘There’s a big part of me that’s worried about him. But he’s in the best place to make sure he’s okay.’

He studied her. ‘He’ll be okay,’ he said quietly, and then, as if he understood that she wouldn’t be able to hold back the tears if they kept on talking about it, he said, ‘You should stay with me.’

She stared him. ‘What?’

‘You should stay with me,’ he said again. ‘At my place.’

‘What place? Your dad’s?’

‘I’m a big boy, Ava,’ he said dryly. ‘I have a place of my own.’

‘I meant,’ she said deliberately, when his words sent thrills down her spine, ‘that you’ve been away for seven years. How do you have a place of your own?’

‘I invested in property.’

‘Of course you did,’ she muttered. ‘No, thanks, Noah. I think I’ll just get a hotel room.’

‘You don’t know how long it’ll be before you’ll be able to go home.’ He paused. ‘You might have to spend a couple of nights there.’

‘I’ll survive.’

‘What about Zorro?’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘I told you—’

‘Yes, he’s staying at the vet’s tonight. But what happens tomorrow, when they call you to tell you he’s fine? That he can come home?’

‘I’m sure I’ll be back in my own house by then.’

‘But what if you’re not?’ He waited a beat. ‘I have a pet-friendly home.’

‘Noah—’

‘Ava.’

Their gazes locked. Her brain said, No, Ava; her body said, Yes, please. The juxtaposition fluttered on her skin, and she blamed her gooseflesh on that and not on how sexy and serious Noah’s eyes looked. Or on the memory of how that was exactly how they’d looked before he’d kissed her all those years ago...

‘No, Noah.’

She said it with a sigh of regret. She hoped he wouldn’t hear that, but her filter wasn’t working properly. She was too tired. Her throat ached. Her lungs pained. Her body reminded her that she’d done a full day of work before she’d arrived home to find the place full of smoke. Not to mention the swirling in her head at the unwelcome feelings and memories being in Noah’s presence evoked.

‘I’ve already put you out way too much tonight. I’m the reason you’re here. You should go home by yourself—’ Had she really just said that? ‘—and get some rest. Besides, I have to call my family now, before they hear about the evacuation, freak out and start driving back here in the middle of the night. And I do not want to tell them—specifically, Jaden—that I’m staying at your place tonight.’

‘Ava...’ he said softly, and walked closer to her.

Something pressed into the backs of her legs, and she realised it was one of the seats in the waiting room. Because when he’d moved closer to her she’d moved back.

Stay.

She straightened. ‘Noah—’

‘Let me speak,’ he interrupted, and the tone of his voice—seductive, commanding—silenced her. ‘It’s been a difficult night. We’re both exhausted, and it’s going to take more energy than either of us has to find you a hotel. I’m not leaving you alone to arrange all this,’ he said when she opened her mouth. ‘And I’m not even mentioning clean clothes, proper toiletries, a warm meal. Stay with me.’

‘What do I tell my family?’

‘Whatever you like. It’s the easiest option,’ he said with a smile, as if he knew she was already starting to formulate the lie she was going to tell them. ‘You’d do the same thing for me, Ava. We’re family, too.’

She nearly laughed. ‘I haven’t seen you in seven years, Noah.’

‘Doesn’t change anything.’ He paused. ‘I’ve only seen Jaden three times during those seven years. All three times it was because he’d come to see me. Because he considered me to be family.’

‘You’re his best friend.’

‘Family,’ he said firmly. ‘Friends come and go. And I went. If we weren’t family I wouldn’t be back here at Christmas, preparing to be best man at your brother’s wedding.’

‘You’re...stubborn,’ she said, when defeat washed over her.

‘I like to think of it as persistent.’

‘Well, you better hope persistence will help us if Jaden ever discovers the truth about the lie I’m about to tell him and our parents.’

‘Noah, you know I appreciate you offering me a place to stay, but—’ Ava broke off, wondering how to tell him. But then she remembered that he already knew she was honest. ‘But it looks like Father Christmas and the elves threw up in here.’

Noah chuckled. ‘That’s not a bad description, actually.’

He stood next to her and she held her breath, as if somehow it would make her less aware of him.

‘I had a company come in and decorate for Christmas before I got here. They got a bit...carried away.’

She took in the tinsel that hung on every flat surface, the Christmas stockings that accompanied it. The Christmas lights that were draped around pieces of furniture that should not have lights around them. And, of course, the gigantic Christmas tree next to the fireplace.

‘I think that’s an understatement.’

‘Probably.’

He took the handbag and coat that been draped over her shoulder and arm respectively, and hung them on a coat rack she hadn’t noticed.

‘I’ve been meaning to do something to make it less...this—’ he nodded his head at the decorations ‘—but I haven’t had the time.’

‘Christmas season is fire season in Cape Town.’

‘Yeah. And this season’s been particularly bad. Hence the fact that I—a mere volunteer—have been fighting fires for pretty much the entire two weeks since I’ve been here.’

She took a seat at the counter in his kitchen, accepting the glass of water he offered her. ‘Is that why I didn’t even know you were back here?’

‘I told Jaden. It must have slipped his mind.’

‘Must have,’ she said softly.

But she didn’t think that was it. Jaden hadn’t been entirely forthcoming with her since he and his fiancée had announced that their wedding would be at the same time of year hers had been, almost one year later to the day. In fact, he was avoiding her. More so since Leela had asked her to be a bridesmaid.

So she would put down Jaden’s neglect in telling her Noah was back to that, and not to the fact that he hadn’t wanted her to know. Things had moved on since Jaden had caught them kissing that one time. It probably had nothing to do with the anger he’d felt towards both of them back then.

Probably.

‘You okay?’

She looked up to see Noah’s eyes steady on her. ‘Perfect. This place is amazing.’

She looked around at the light green walls, the large windows that offered an incredible view of the mountains and the hills, the stone-coloured furniture. She took in the marble countertops, the sleek, top-of-the-line appliances, the white and yellow palette that brightened the kitchen.

And then her eyes rested on the sexy man who looked so at home in all of it. And although her heart did unwanted cartwheels in her chest, she forced calm into her voice.

‘I mean, what I can actually see underneath all this tinsel is amazing.’

‘Oh, ha-ha.’

She grinned. ‘So, how about you show me to the shower, Mr Festive?’

CHAPTER FOUR

WHEN HE’D STUDIED photography after school it had been because he’d had a passion for it. He’d enjoyed the challenge of seeing things in new ways. In ways others didn’t. He’d created a website to show off his work, and when he’d received that first enquiry to use one of his pictures he’d realised he could use his passion to make money.

Soon his photos had garnered more attention. And then a photo editor for a popular nature magazine had reached out to him about a job in Namibia. And suddenly he’d realised he could use his passion to give in to his wanderlust.

He supposed his surname had given him a push that most twenty-year-olds didn’t get. The Giles name was still synonymous with the media empire his great-great-uncle had created. The empire that had been passed down to his grandfather, when his great-great-uncle had died childless, and then down to his father.

Having an empire and money behind him had meant he could take only the jobs that interested him. That he’d been able to use his skill and passion for jobs that meant something to the world. That he’d been able to use the money he didn’t need to invest in properties back home in South Africa and wherever else his heart desired.

All while avoiding the pitfalls of settling down. The trap he’d seen his father fall into over and over again since his mother had died. But he couldn’t deny that it felt good to have a place of his own. Not somewhere he just stayed, but somewhere he lived.

He’d only been back in Cape Town for a fortnight, but it was a source of pride for him. And never more than at this moment, as he showed Ava to his spare bedroom.

When she’d disappeared into the bathroom he went to his own room and put some of the spare clothing he had there in hers. And then he went back to the kitchen, to start on the meal he’d promised her. Which, he thought even before he reached the kitchen, was a stupid idea. On his best days he could manage to fry an egg. And it would usually end up deformed. Edible, but deformed.

It would definitely not be the kind of warm meal he’d promised Ava, so he called the twenty-four-hour deli up the road. He was almost out through the door to go and fetch the food, too, before he realised he looked like crap. He’d changed out of his firefighter’s uniform before going to the hospital, but he was still sweaty and grimy. And fairly certain he would not have wanted to meet himself, let alone hand over food to someone looking like he did at that moment.

He went to his room, threw off his clothes and headed to the shower. He heaved a sigh when the water hit his body. It kneaded muscles he hadn’t realised were tight and painful. It also reminded him that he’d stuffed a cat into his jacket and the cat had not appreciated it.

He washed his hair, his body and then, feeling faintly human again, put on clean clothes. But before he put on his top he realised he should probably put something on the scratches on his stomach. They were deeper than he’d first realised. So he grabbed his top, heading to the kitchen where he kept the first-aid kit.

‘I thought they fixed everything at the hospital.’

He was halfway through putting salve on the scratches when she spoke. He glanced back, and his throat dried when he saw her in his clothes.

They were too big for her, but they looked better on her than they ever had on him.

‘Uh...they did. But they also took me at my word when I told them I had no external injuries. I forgot about these.’

She walked around the counter and he got a whiff of the fruity scent of the shower gel he’d put in his spare bathroom. It smelled a hell of a lot sexier on her than it did in the bottle.

Oh, boy.

‘Which external injuries?’ she said, and then, though he tried to angle his body away from her, she sucked in her breath. ‘Oh, crap,’ she said on an exhale. ‘Did Zorro do this to you?’

‘No,’ he said dryly, struggling for normality. ‘It was some other cat I put next to my stomach.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and then she took the salve from him and began to smear it gently on his scratches. He felt his torso tremble—saw it, too, though he tried to ignore it—and hoped Ava wouldn’t notice.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said again. ‘Is it painful? It’s a lot more enthusiastic than I’d expect from Zorro.’

‘It’s fine.’ He gritted his teeth as her hand moved lower, down to the scratches near the waistband of his pants.

‘Clearly it isn’t.’

Her touch was still light, still gentle, but when she moved lower still he grabbed her wrist.

‘It’s fine, Ava.’

The words were said in a harsher voice than he’d intended, and her eyes widened. But that was better than having her move any lower and having his body respond in an unpredictable way—or a very predictable way. He was only just clinging to his control as it was.

‘I’m—I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be.’

He was still holding on to her hand, but he softened his voice. And then she looked at him and his world tilted.

Uh-oh.

What the hell was she doing?

She’d acted without thinking. Or she had been thinking, but not about how it would feel to be touching Noah’s bare torso. No, she’d been thinking about how her cat had hurt him. How her cat had hurt him because of her. Because Noah had gone back to save Zorro so she wouldn’t have to.

But she wasn’t thinking about that now either.

In fact, she couldn’t be sure that she was thinking at all. Because now she was caught in Noah’s gaze when she was pretty sure she shouldn’t be. He was so close she could see the grey flecks in his blue eyes. She could see the emotions there, too.

The caution. The interest. The desire.

It had her remembering that he still had her wrist in his hand. And that realisation sent a heady heat slithering from the contact, up and around her arm, settling much too close to her chest. To her heart.

Her other hand was still braced on the lower half of his body. Much too close to his—

‘Um...’ she said, pulling her hands from his body and stepping back. ‘It’s probably okay now.’

‘Yeah,’ he replied in a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat. ‘It was fine before you came in.’

‘Of course.’

There was an awkward beat of silence, but Ava took solace in the fact that it came from both of them. She hadn’t been the only one acting stupidly. She hadn’t been the only one affected.

But thinking about it like that didn’t comfort her as much as she’d hoped.

‘Could you pass me my top?’ Noah asked after a few moments.

‘Yeah, sure.’ She paused. ‘Where is it?’

‘Behind you.’

When she turned back to hand it to him there was a slight smile on his face.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘Nothing,’ he said, pulling on his top.

Disappointment sailed through her as she said goodbye to his abs.

‘I was just thinking it’s going to be an interesting wedding.’

‘That’s one way to put it.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘I think that I need to get through it in any way that I can. Which,’ she said, considering, ‘might involve alcohol.’

‘Ah. You’re old enough to drink now, aren’t you?’

She cocked an eyebrow. ‘You say that as if you weren’t the one who handed me my first beer.’

His smile widened. ‘See—interesting.’

‘You and I have very different definitions of that,’ she replied, and walked back around the counter. Her breath came out a little more easily now that there was space between them.

‘Probably. But I think it might have the same results.’

Which was precisely what she was worried about. Because after the short, but very eye-opening interaction they’d just had, she was beginning to think her crush was no longer a secret.

Or perhaps she was more concerned that this unexpected flare-up of her crush was no longer a secret. Because if she’d managed to keep it secret after she’d asked him to kiss her for the first time, she certainly hadn’t after she’d thrown herself into their second kiss.

But in the seven years since they’d last seen one another—years during which she hadn’t even heard from him—she had managed to hide her feelings. And if what had just happened between them meant that Noah shared those feelings—

Noah? Sharing her feelings?

She nearly laughed aloud at the ludicrousness of it. She’d always known the reason he’d kissed her the first time had been out of pity. And the second kiss had just happened because he’d been heartbroken and hadn’t known what he was feeling.

Anything they’d shared was in her imagination. Back then and now. No one wanted Ava. No one wanted someone who spoke before she thought. Who was prickly for most of the time and defensive for the rest.

Just because Milo said it doesn’t make it true.

But it does, she corrected the voice in her head.

Milo hadn’t wanted to marry her after being with her for five years. He was the best person to know the truth. And if he hadn’t wanted her Noah sure as hell wouldn’t either.

The sooner she realised that, the better.

He was back from the deli in less than fifteen minutes. Ava had graciously allowed him to leave without commenting on the fact that he was buying their food. But maybe it wasn’t grace. Maybe she just needed space to deal with what had happened between them, just as he had.

It was a natural reaction to being around a beautiful woman, he’d told himself on the way to the deli. He hadn’t dated in so long he couldn’t remember. His body had just been reminding him that he had needs; his mind just responding as any person who had needs would.

But when he returned and saw Ava sitting on his balcony, staring out over the mountains visible to most residents of Somerset West, he faltered. Had she looked this forlorn before? This defenceless?

Now she seemed nothing like the spitfire who had tried to save her cat from a blaze and everything like that little girl he’d once saved from being bullied. And when his heart turned in his chest and his arms ached to pull her into his arms, Noah worried that his reaction to her earlier hadn’t just been natural. That it had been...more.

It didn’t help that when her eyes met his—brown and steady—he instinctively knew she wasn’t that little girl who’d needed saving. Her gaze wasn’t as innocent, as trusting, as that little girl’s had been. It was weary, cautious—as if she were ready to defend herself at any moment.

‘This place is just as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside,’ she said into the silence.

Grateful for the distraction—his thoughts bothered him more than he’d thought they should—he nodded. ‘This particular view sealed the deal for me.’

‘I can imagine.’ She pushed out from the table she’d been sitting at. ‘I’d love to enjoy it some more, but I’m hungry. Like, really hungry. What do you have in there?’

He swung the deli bags out of her reach when she tried to peek inside them, and thought about how similar this was to how they’d been before he’d left. How similar it was to how she’d been before. And how it didn’t make him feel like he needed to protect her.

‘You’ll find out when I serve it.’

‘Spoilsport.’ She followed him to the kitchen. ‘Can I help?’

‘No.’

‘Excuse me?’

He smiled at the disbelief in her voice, and then took his time removing the takeaway dishes from the plastic bag and placing them on the kitchen counter.

When he saw her hovering, he said, ‘Have a seat.’

‘You’re really refusing my help?’

‘Yes.’ He opened his fridge, showing her different drinks one by one until she eventually nodded at the fruit juice he took out. ‘I didn’t ask you here so you could help me cook, Ava.’

‘I think you’re using the word cook wrong,’ she commented dryly, and then took the glass he offered her and went to the couch.

He could almost see her body sag into its softness. He was glad he’d refused her help.

‘You know, the last time I was at your house—and this was when you still lived with your father—you didn’t know what “cook” meant then either. I think you gave me and Jaden leftovers from the night before.’

‘How do you know I didn’t cook the night before?’

‘Because it was delicious.’ She smiled brightly at the look he gave her. ‘And because your father’s made me a few more of those pasta dishes since you left and it was definitely not your cooking.’

His hands paused. ‘You’ve seen my father since I’ve been away?’

He saw her cheeks pinken. ‘Yeah... I mean, occasionally...’ She cleared her throat. ‘I’ve been helping him with some stuff. We’re...friends.’

The pink turned into a deep red, and if Noah hadn’t been so perplexed by the whole thing—if his heart hadn’t been racing in his chest—he’d have found it charming.

‘So, just to check that I’ve heard you correctly,’ he said slowly, when his brain refused to process what she’d told him, ‘you say you’re friends with my father?’

‘Don’t make it sound so outlandish, Noah,’ she said with a roll of her eyes. Her embarrassment seemed to have worn off. ‘Your father is incredibly interesting. And he’s young for his age. I can barely tell he’s in his sixties.’ She sipped her juice. ‘And, while we’re at it, I might as well tell you that by “occasionally” I actually mean at least every two weeks. More often if my schedule—and his—can manage it.’ She lifted her shoulders at the look on his face. ‘We enjoy each other’s company, Noah. There’s nothing wrong with that.’

All the blood seemed to drain from his body.

‘Ava,’ he said, his voice strangled. ‘Are you trying... Are you trying to tell me that you’re in a relationship with my father?’

CHAPTER FIVE

AVA STARED AT him for what felt like for ever. And then she choked back a laugh and used the opportunity.

‘I’m sorry, Noah,’ she said solemnly. ‘We didn’t want you to find out this way.’

His jaw dropped, and it took every bit of her self-control not to show her enjoyment.

‘But...but...how? Why?’

‘I don’t think I have to explain how,’ she said matter-of-factly. Man, she was really getting to use her acting skills today. ‘I mean, I know for a fact that you know how to kiss. And, sure, there’s some other stuff which I’d be happy to—’

‘Ava.’

His voice had taken on a quality Ava had never heard before.

‘Please do not allude to your sex life with my father.’

She bit her lip so hard she was afraid she’d draw blood. ‘We’re all adults, Noah.’

‘No, we’re not. You’re still a kid.’

He was angry now, and Ava tried not to let him thinking of her as a kid bother her.

‘You’ve been gone for a long time, Noah. I’m not a kid any more.’

‘My father,’ he repeated in a daze. ‘My father.’

‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘You asked me why earlier. I’ve already told you some of it. He’s interesting. And kind. And he’s got such a sweet heart. And an impressive—’

‘Do not finish that sentence.’

‘Why not?’ she asked innocently. ‘I was only going to say he has an impressive...’ she dragged out the pause for as long as she could ‘...personality.’

He stared at her. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’

She contemplated whether she should just say yes, she was kidding him. But there was one more thing she wanted to say first...

‘You know, Noah, you not being at home has been really hard on your father. And, as your possible stepmother, I wanted—’

‘Ava!’ he barked, his expression stricken.

And, because she’d done what she wanted to, she grinned at him. ‘You are such a sucker, Giles.’

There was a long silence before his features relaxed. Only slightly though, she noted.

‘You were joking.’

‘I was.’

Another stretch of silence. ‘What made you think that joke would be funny?’

She laughed. ‘The entire time I kept it going?’

She laughed harder when he threw the empty juice bottle at her, and she caught it triumphantly.

‘You’re going to have to try better than that.’

‘Yeah, well, let me first get over the heart attack I’ve just had.’

She chuckled to herself as he prepared their food, still muttering, but when he brought over her plate—chicken, a portion of lasagne, potato salad, coleslaw—she gaped.

‘Who do you think you’re feeding? The South African army?’

‘You said you were hungry.’

‘Yeah, but I meant for a normal human-sized person.’ She dug into the meal anyway, almost hearing the food echo as it dropped into her empty stomach. ‘Thank you,’ she said gratefully.

‘Yeah, no problem.’

A companionable silence fell over them as they ate, and for the first time Ava realised how tired—and hungry—Noah must be. She saw the dark tint under his eyes, the slight creases around them.

‘You should go to bed,’ she said softly. ‘You look exhausted.’

‘Thanks.’

He gave her a small smile that had her heart flipping over.

‘You don’t look too great yourself.’

‘Ah, I’ve missed this insult-for-insult thing we’ve always had.’

‘Hmm...’ he said, non-committal, and took another bite of lasagne, watching her all the time.

She refused to shift in her seat. Refused to look away. Even though she desperately wanted to do both. Tension ticked up.

‘You didn’t say it before,’ he said after he’d swallowed.

‘What?’

‘That you missed me.’

‘What do you mean?’ Now she did shift. ‘It’s not just something you say when you see someone after a long time.’

‘It’s exactly the kind of thing you say when you see someone after a long time.’

‘Yes, well...’

She left it at that, unsure of what else to say. The conversation was wading into dangerous waters and she, for one, had no interest in swimming. She just wanted to stand safely in the sand and frolic on the beach. She just wanted to feel the sun on her skin and maybe put her toes in the water.

But swimming held no appeal to her.

‘Is it because—’

‘Noah,’ she interrupted with a half-smile. ‘We’ve been through enough today. I think we should probably leave this conversation for another time.’

He studied her, and again she refused to let him see how uncomfortable it made her.

‘Sure,’ he said, and then he nodded at her plate. ‘Are you done with that?’

Noah woke to a house that was significantly less festive than the one he’d gone to sleep in. But, he thought, as he took in the tinsel that now hung only over his fireplace—along with the stockings and the lights—and the significantly fewer Christmas-related items around the house, it was perfect.

He didn’t know what to say when he found Ava by his Christmas tree. She had tinsel over each shoulder, draped around her neck, too, and was taking some of the ornaments off the ridiculously overdone tree.

Just as he had the night before, he watched her. She was muttering to herself, occasionally bopping her head as if she were listening to music only she could hear. It was so homely it was almost enticing, and he had to step back, out of her range of view, to deal with how that made him feel.

He wasn’t interested in homely. He’d thought he’d once had homely—until he’d been old enough to realise the man he’d seen in his parents’ bedroom when he was younger hadn’t been his mother’s friend. It hadn’t been his father either. But by the time he’d been old enough to realise that his mother had passed away and his anger had seemed pointless.

Not that that had stopped the anger from finding a home, he thought, as he remembered the women who had come in and out of his life—of his father’s life—after his mother’s death. The women who’d never stayed long but had always left his father with that sad look on his face.

The same look his father had had when he’d confirmed that Noah’s mother had cheated on him the one time they’d spoken about it.

If that hadn’t put Noah off homely, his own attempt at it had taught him a lesson. A lesson his heart and his mind still hadn’t forgiven him for.

So what was wrong with him now? Why did he feel drawn to the image Ava was creating by that Christmas tree?

He’d been back all of two weeks. He’d been reunited with her all of twenty-four hours. Barely that. Maybe that was why he felt as if something were wrong. Because it was. There was no possible way he could want something he’d never wanted before after only two weeks. There was no possible way he could want it with a woman he’d only been back in touch with for barely twenty-four hours after seven years.

What about the eighteen years before that? And what about that kiss?

His spine stiffened. Ava had told him last night that she didn’t want to talk about the kiss. Not explicitly, but he’d got the picture. And he couldn’t blame her. The only reason he’d even brought it up was because he’d thought she’d want to talk about it.

But, no. It seemed they were going to pretend it hadn’t happened.

He took a moment to compose himself—it took longer than he would have liked—and then strolled into the living room.

‘Mrs Claus?’ He forced a cheer he didn’t feel into his voice. ‘Is that you?’

‘Why, yes, little elf, it is.’

She turned to him, eyes twinkling, and he was immediately drawn back into the memory he’d just tried to suppress...

‘Jaden is taking for ever.’

‘His speciality,’ Noah replied. ‘He and Monica are probably making out somewhere.’

Ava’s face twisted in disgust. ‘Why would you put that image in my head? I’m perfectly happy thinking about my brother as a monk.’

Noah snorted. ‘Jaden is not a monk.’

‘Stop it.’

‘You’re an adult now, Ava,’ he said with a smirk. ‘At least, almost.’

‘I’m eighteen.’

‘Like I said—almost an adult.’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Just because I don’t want to hear about my brother’s sex habits doesn’t mean I’m not an adult.’

‘You’re eighteen.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, and you were such a kid when you were eighteen.’

He had been, he thought. He’d made all kinds of stupid decisions between the age of eighteen and now. Most notably falling hard and fast for a woman who had no intention of committing to him. Worse yet, a woman who had shown him he was at risk of following in his father’s footsteps.

‘We should probably head to the pools without him,’ Noah said after a few more minutes. ‘We don’t want to get there and have them turn us away.’

Ava nodded and walked ahead of him along the path to the pools. It was going to be thirty-eight degrees Celsius that day, and they’d decided—Noah, Jaden, Monica and Ava—to survive the heat by going to the natural rock pools near Noah’s house.

They weren’t private pools, but because they were situated in an ecologically sensitive area that the government only allowed twelve people access to per day. There were already four of them, so they’d got up extra early to take the short hike to the rock pools.

Or at least that had been the plan before Jaden hadn’t shown up.

‘You’d have thought he’d have told you he’d be late,’ Noah commented.

‘He doesn’t do things just because we think he should,’ Ava said with a sigh. ‘He told me last night that he’d meet us at the starting point. His excuse then was that he needed to fetch Monica.’

‘Why didn’t you go with him?’

‘Because he was meant to be spending the night at your house.’ She gave him a look. ‘Even though my brother is two years older than me, he still isn’t an adult.’

‘That lie was more for your parents,’ Noah said, automatically defending his friend, even though Jaden was the reason Ava had taken that jibe at him.

‘Yeah, well, he could have at least had the decency to pitch up on time.’

They didn’t speak for the rest of the trip. In fact the only communication they had with one another was when Ava missed a step on an incline and called out, and he pushed forward to help steady her.

His hands rested on her hips, just above her butt, and long after he’d let go his fingers could still feel the softness—the plumpness—of her there. It made him want her—which was ridiculous. She was Jaden’s sister. And he’d just dodged a massive bullet with Tiff. The last thing on his mind was wanting anyone—let alone the girl he’d once seen smell her armpits to test whether she needed to start wearing deodorant.

It was ridiculous, he thought again. Except his eyes dipped to the rounded curve of her butt in her cotton shorts. To her thighs, which were thick and strong and made him think things he shouldn’t be thinking about his best friend’s little sister.

It put him in a mood, which kept him silent until they reached the entrance of the pools and were told they were the first there.

‘Yes!’

They high-fived each other, and then Ava turned to the guard. ‘Is it okay for us to keep places for my brother and his girlfriend? They’re slower than us, so we went ahead to could get spots for all of us.’

She smiled widely at the man, and Noah watched as he blinked and then nodded. Sympathy pooled in his stomach. He didn’t think he’d be able to resist that smile either. It was the kind that could make anyone feel blinded. Combined with Ava’s naturally husky voice, its effect was potent.

But he had resisted that smile, he told himself. And he still did. All the time. In fact he barely noticed that it made her eyes crinkle. Or that it softened her features, making her look like some kind of mythical creature.

Man, what had Tiff done to him?

‘Noah?’

He blinked, his gaze zooming in on her.

‘You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?’

‘Er...yeah, of course I did.’

‘Liar.’

His lips curved. ‘You want to know whether this is a good spot to sit in.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘That’s a logical deduction. It’s not because you were listening to me.’ She tossed her head back. ‘So, is it?’

His smile widened. ‘It’s perfect.’

They set up the blankets and umbrellas they’d brought, but by the time they were done Jaden and Monica still hadn’t arrived. Neither had anyone else.

‘Screw this,’ Ava said after a moment. ‘I’m hot, I’ve walked further than I generally do most days, and I deserve a swim.’

She was pulling off her top and wriggling off her shorts before he could say anything to stop her. And by the time he could he found that his voice was gone. Stolen by how beautiful her body was.

She’s off-limits...she’s off-limits...she’s off-limits.

He repeated the words inside his head, over and over again, hoping it would drown out the other voice in his head pointing out how beautiful the brown skin of her body was against the white of her bikini. How the rounding of her breasts, her hips, was the stuff of fantasies. How they would be the stuff of his fantasies in the future.

She’s off-limits...she’s off-limits...she’s-off limits.

She gave him a smile he didn’t understand, and then she threw her clothes at him. The pile landed against his chest, his hands barely lifting in time to keep everything from falling to the ground. And then she turned and his heart hammered, his body tightening as he got a better view of the butt he’d been admiring earlier.

With one sly look over her shoulder, Ava ran and dived into the water.

It took all the time she was under the water for him to realise that she’d been trying to seduce him. But his mind rejected that explanation even as it pointed out all the ways her actions had been an attempt at seduction.

Before he knew it he was pulling off his T-shirt and following her into the water. When he emerged, he found himself a short distance from her.

‘Cooler now?’ he asked, surprised at how steady his voice was.

‘Never been cooler.’

Her eyes were twinkling, her expression teasing, but there was a seriousness there, too, somehow, and he wondered if that could be more seduction.

‘This isn’t in my head, is it?’ she asked him softly.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

She gave him a small smile. ‘So maybe we should keep it like that, then. We’ll pretend like you aren’t looking at me the way you are now. That I didn’t say anything about it—about us—at all.’ She paused. ‘We can pretend it didn’t happen—just like after the first time we kissed.’

‘You asked me—’

‘You could have said no,’ she interrupted him. ‘In fact, you should have said no. I’m your best friend’s sister. You had no business kissing me.’

‘I know.’ Somehow he found himself even closer to her.

‘Why would you want to be my first kiss, Noah?’

‘You asked me to be.’

‘And now I’ll always have the story of how my brother’s best friend kissed me for the first time.’

‘You were sixteen. Too old not to have been kissed.’

She laughed—low, husky—and it vibrated through his body. ‘Is there a timeline for that I don’t know about?’

‘Yes.’

‘Like the rules about who your first kiss should be with?’

‘Honestly, I don’t care.’ And in that moment Noah thought he’d lost his mind. ‘I don’t care about the rules and the ages.’

‘Because you wanted to kiss me.’

‘Yes.’

‘Just like you do now.’

He didn’t answer her. Only slid a hand around her waist and pulled her against him as their lips met.

CHAPTER SIX

‘WHAT?’ AVA ASKED, when the silence extended much too long for her liking. When the expression on Noah’s face went from easy to tight and the emotion rippling across his features made her stomach tremble.

‘Nothing.’ His voice was hoarse.

‘Are you okay?’ She dropped the ornament she held in her hands to the couch and moved forward. ‘Should I take you to the doctor? Back to the hospital?’

‘No.’ His voice was stronger now. ‘No,’ he said again. ‘I’m fine. I just got a little...distracted.’

The air moved more easily into her lungs. ‘By what? I thought you were about to have a heart attack.’

‘Sorry,’ he said. Still, she heard the strain. ‘This looks great, by the way. You didn’t have to do it.’

‘I know,’ she said, and picked up the ornament she’d dropped, putting it with the others. ‘But it was the least I could do after you took such great care of me and Zorro yesterday.’

He studied her, and as the seconds ticked by Ava tried not to wriggle under his gaze.

‘You couldn’t sleep, huh?’

She laughed, but the words jolted her. How had he known? ‘I slept fine.’

He arched a brow.

She hissed out a breath. ‘Fine. I slept okay for the first bit, and then I woke up and my mind started thinking about everything that happened and everything that’s going to happen and I couldn’t go back to sleep.’ She forced a smile. ‘At least it’s the weekend.’

‘Hell of a time to have to think about your house burning down.’

She shrugged, though sadness wove through her. ‘I haven’t had the heart to check.’

‘I’ll call the station.’

Ava continued removing the ornaments from the Christmas tree while he went outside to make the call. As she did so, she wondered why she hadn’t told him that her house had been at the bottom of the list of things she was worried about. At the top of the list was whether Noah was okay and whether Zorro was.

Because early that morning she’d realised again how much danger she’d put him in by having him go back for Zorro. The smoke could have had a worse effect than she’d imagined. Because, of course, as that thought had occurred to her she’d done an internet search on smoke inhalation and found out the most horrific things. Things even that TV show hadn’t prepared her for.

Which had got her thinking about Zorro. And how, though she hated it that she’d put Noah in danger, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. She’d thought about all the times she’d cried and Zorro had curled up near her. Not anywhere close to her body—he was still a cat—but close enough that she’d understood he was offering her as much comfort as a cat could.

She’d thought about how he’d helped her stave off loneliness when it had threatened to overwhelm her. When thoughts of how much she needed to change had kept her up at night. When the hopelessness that she wouldn’t be able to change had done the same. As had the fear that no one would ever love her. Zorro had kept her calm through it all.

And then, of course, she’d thought about the wedding. And the fact that she was being forced to participate in it when it was the last thing—the very last thing—in the entire world she wanted to do.

She was fully aware of the resentment that had come along with that thought. Fully aware that it had spilled over too many times during the planning of Leela’s bachelorette party, which—thankfully—was now behind her. She had worried that during these last two weeks her resentment would spill over in ways she wouldn’t know how to clean up.

‘Well, the fire is still ongoing,’ Noah said as he walked back into the room. ‘But the wind’s shifted, which means the direction of the fire has changed.’

‘Away from the estate?’

‘Yes,’ he said, and started helping her remove more decorations from the tree. ‘They’re waiting for the smoke to subside and then they’ll check everything out. It might still be a while before you can move back in, though.’

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