Page 13 of Her Fake Island Wedding

“The staff accommodations are pretty sparse,” Lucy said, suddenly realising they hadn’t thought of that. Of course her mother would want to see where she lived, and there wasn’t a single thing in there to indicate it was occupied by two people.

Rosie had come back out of the boat’s main cabin and caught the exchange; she locked eyes with Lucy now and gave her a reassuring smile. “I got it,” she mouthed, and Lucy knew by the time she’d settled Justine in her suite, at least half of Bryce’s belongings would have been relocated to her room and arranged to make it look as though he’d been living there for weeks.

“Welcome to Sunfish Island Resort!” Jill announced as Bryce leaped across to the dock to tie off the mooring lines. “If you’ll follow me, we’ll head up to Reception to get you all checked in so you can start enjoying your holiday straight away.”

“Not you,” Lucy said to Justine, “I already checked you in.” She held up a key card with a smile. “No need to queue with thehoi polloi.”

“Oh, that was thoughtful, darling. Thank you. Goodness me, it’s hot!”

Now that the boat had stopped moving, the oppressive tropical heat descended on them. Lucy was slowly getting used to it, but particularly humid days still got to her, her skin feeling constantly damp and her hair frizzing heavily. She’d taken to braiding it and coiling it atop her head to keep the weight of it off her neck; a lot of the women on the staff kept their hair short but Lucy was a little vain about her hair and didn’t want to cut it.

“There’ll be a storm later this afternoon,” she predicted. “We get them most days in the summer, but it doesn’t really cool things down anyway. I did warn you that you were coming during the hot season. Apparently midwinter here is much nicer - like the really good bits of an English summer.”

“Yes, but midwinter here is the same time as the English summer,” Justine pointed out.

“Which is quite likely to be rainy and wet anyway,” Lucy riposted. “Anyway, the heat takes some getting used to. You need to drink alotof water — I had a permanent headache for the first couple of weeks until I figured out I was constantly a bit dehydrated. Now I carry a water bottle with me everywhere and refill it whenever I get the chance.”

“Hm.” Justine claimed her suitcase from the pile the deckhand was unloading onto the dock. “I was rather thinking I’d be drinking a lot of piña coladas and strawberry daiquiris, actually.”

Lucy snickered. “Yeah, well, I set you up a bar tab for your room. You’ll get staff rates on all food and drinks at the resort restaurants and bars.”

“Such a considerate daughter!” Justine smiled warmly at her.

“Do let me get that for you, Justine,” Bryce said cheerfully, gesturing at her suitcase as they came up alongside him on the dock.

“And such a nice considerate man you’ve found. Thank you, Bryce.” Justine gave him the handle and she and Lucy followed him as he strode off towards the main resort.

“Well,” Justine murmured, lowering her sunglasses to take a good look over them at Bryce’s retreating back. “Nowthat’swhat I call an ass worth chasing.”

Lucy choked.

Justine glanced sideways at her. “Oh come on, darling. I was beginning to wonder if you were interested in sex at all. Frankly, I’m relieved to discover your libido is alive and well, and that you not only have good taste, but the initiative to act on it once you see something you want. I’m not sure you need to marry him to get what you want, though.”

“Is this some sort of strange reverse ‘why buy the cow if you’re getting the milk for free’ speech?” Lucy asked after a moment of stunned silence. “Because my relationship with Bryce isn’t just about sex.” She’d almost said she wasn’t even having sex with Bryce, but managed to stop herself in time.

Justine laughed. “An amusing role reversal, isn’t it?” She said no more as they approached the main resort building, leaving Lucy silently fuming. Even when Justine gave a compliment, there would be a sting in the tail. She was like a jellyfish; beautiful but agonisingly painful if you got caught in its tendrils.

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