Page 32 of One Cornish Summer With You

She planted her hands on her hips. ‘You didn’t think you were here to watch me do all the work? Come on, I’ll show you.’

Ruan took the rake. Obviously, he’d raked up plenty ofleaves in his parents’ garden, but creating a piece of art? He felt completely nonplussed and didn’t want to look a fool.

‘No need to look so worried. It’s only a rake. Here. Hold your hands like this.’

Standing next to him, she positioned his hands on the rake and showed him how to move it across the sand with varying pressure to achieve different marks and tones. Her closeness unsettled him and made him want to kiss her again, but they had work to do. And how …

Soon, he was sweating and his lower back muscles were aching, though he’d never admit it. His kitesurfing had tired him out, especially since his injury and long layoff, but this was different.

He had to keep stopping and asking if his ‘help’ was OK and in the time it took for him to do his small area of work, she’d completed three times as much.

The rake hit a stone at one point and slipped from his hands. He groaned. ‘Feels like I’m always dropping things when you’re here.’

Smiling, Tammy came over. ‘I’m not sure whether to be flattered or not.’

Ruan looked into her eyes. ‘Be flattered.’

Quickly, she fixed her eyes back on her design as if she needed to avoid his gaze and any distraction. ‘Let’s have a break. We’ve almost finished but I also need to step back and see how it’s going.’

She produced water and energy bars from her backpack, and they ate and drank.

‘Thanks,’ Ruan said. ‘I’m thirsty and starving. This is hard work and it really gets the endorphins pumping.’

‘Like kitesurfing?’ she said.

He laughed. ‘Not quite. In a different way. Unexpected ways.’

She pulled the claw clip from her hair, retwisted it into a knot and clipped it back in place.

‘Glad you think it’s good exercise,’ she said briskly. ‘Now, the tide is turning. We have to get on.’

Ten minutes later, Tammy called a halt to the work and declared the design, ‘As finished as it would ever be.’

‘Let’s go back up top and take some pictures,’ she said.

Ruan scrambled up the path behind her and stood beside her on the cliff.

When he looked down, the results took his breath away. He had no words for the dolphin leaping across the expanse of sand.

‘That is – I’d no idea it would turn out like that.’

‘Neither had I,’ Tammy said, taking pictures with her phone. ‘It’s not quite right and obviously, the festival is a different beach, but it’s better than I’d hoped, given the time available.’

‘It’s incredible. I can’t believe you created it with a rake.’

‘We created it,’ she corrected. ‘You and me.’

‘I only did what I was told.’

‘You’re still part of it. Part of the creation, part of the landscape. Doesn’t it feel great?’ Her eyes were lit with fire, not only from the setting sun but with passion and joy. Her art wasn’t a job: it was part of her and she was part of it.

Ruan’s pulse skittered when Tammy held out her hand and took his. That small gesture was so innocent yet so erotic, it sent him off into the stratosphere. His stomach tightened low down with exquisite pain. Never had he wanted someone more. Never had he felt as if he’d do anything for someone, abandon everything, gamble it all.

He reached for her and gathered her into his arms. He pushed his hand under her hair, his fingers supporting her neck as he kissed her, tasting the salt on her lips before the vanilla and honey of her lip balm.

She kissed him in return, holding on to him, bunching his T-shirt in her hand, exploring his muscles and pressing tighter against him. His body responded, predictably yet to the max. The need was so intense, it scared him. He didn’t want her to know how badly he wanted her, or the way she was scrambling his brain, his nerves, his responses … it made him too vulnerable.

The waves pounded the beach in the distance yet Ruan didn’t care if they broke over him and dragged him under. He wasn’t going to end this kiss for anyone.

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