A Doctor, A Fling & A Wedding Ring

A little devil of satisfaction made her fingers curl more tightly into his arm and his skin warmed her fingers. He must have felt her approval because he looked down at her and smiled.

She hurried into speech in case he read too much into her involuntary action. ‘Maybe I could get used to forgetting the world on a cruise ship because it’s all an illusion that only lasts twelve days.’

He tilted his head and studied her. ‘Not everything is an illusion.’

That was a laugh. ‘What’s not an illusion?’

She watched him search for an example that was amusing and backed up her statement. This guy’s life was an illusion. Which was why she liked him.

‘I imagine the person with the broken arm is steeped in reality at the moment.’

She dug in her chin, refused to be deflected from her common-sense aide memoire that they had no future. Light, frivolous, she reminded herself again. ‘I prescribed decent analgesia. Checked the cast wasn’t too tight. I’d say she’s floating along quite nicely despite it.’

She felt his glance brush over her again, felt it physically because her skin prickled, and she hurried into speech. ‘You were going to tell how you became the world cocktail champion.’

‘Well, I boasted a little. There were two of us. And we had an idea for a drink that resembled a boat and tasted like an island. To be sipped, as I said, at sunset.’ He grinned. ‘Lots of rum.’

He stopped beside a little tuck in the deck that created an alcove and she stopped beside him. The waves were quietly relentless, insistently slapping the side of the ship as the big white hull sliced its way through the swell. The breeze was cool and laden with the tang of salt as they sped to their next port.

At the bow of the ship, to the side, the wheelhouse hung out over the sea and she could just discern figures on duty.

They both turned to look out over the ocean as they leant on the cool lacquered rail and the intensity of the moment that had sprung from nowhere eased. The tension she’d picked up slowly dissipated from her neck as, in the distance, tiny flickers of light twinkled on the horizon from the nearest land.

‘Gotta love the Italian coastline.’ His hand swept along the land mass.

‘Where do you think that is?’

He shrugged. ‘There’s so many cliff hewn townships plastered onto the side of Italy, I’d be guessing.’ Then he moved his hip until it was firm alongside hers and she forgot the lights as his solid thigh imparted insidious heat like a warm current through a cold sea.