Her Festive Flirtation. Therese Beharrie

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.