Page 6 of Her Fake Island Wedding

Chapter Four

Walking away from the bio centre twenty minutes later, Bryce whistled tunelessly to himself. His skin still tingled from the feel of Lucy’s small hand held in his. The scent of her apple shampoo still teased his nostrils from the unexpected hug she’d given him when he said he had to go. She was small and slight, but there was a surprising strength in her arms as she hugged on around his waist, and after a startled moment he’d folded his arms around her shoulders to hug her back.

“Thanks for everything, Bryce,” she whispered. “You’re a good friend.”

Stuck in the friend zone. He hated himself for resenting the unpalatable fact; it was Lucy’s absolute right to just want to be friends, and he really didn’t want to be a petulant man-child about it. She didn’t owe him anything, and he vowed to himself that he wasn’t going to use the opportunity she’d given him to be a creeper. Whatever she asked him for, he would do, but he wasn’t going to be pushy. Even asking her to hold his hand had felt as though he was coercing her into something she might not want, though she’d accepted willingly enough. He could still feel the soft warmth of her delicate fingers in his.

“Bryce!” a voice called his name, and he turned to see Rosie, the staff manager, hurrying towards him. The grin on her face confirmed that the gossip had already reached her. “Is it true? Are you and Lucy faking a romance to put the wind up her mother?”

“Not just a romance,” he confirmed. “We’re faking a full-on wedding.”

“That’s what Nessa gabbled at me before she ran off to start her shift, but I didn’t quite believe it. Are you sure this is a good idea?” Rosie tilted her head and looked at him knowingly. “I wouldn’t want you to get your heart broken.”

“Does everyone but Lucy know about my crush?” Bryce asked despairingly.

“Hmm… I’d say yes, pretty much?” Rosie pretended to think before smirking at him. “You never know. She might realise for herself what a catch you are.”

“In my dreams.”

“Hey, that’s not like you. Where’s that positive attitude?” She nudged him lightly, and he smiled despite himself.

“I’m just thinking that Lucy’s my friend, whether or not she ever wants anything more, and she needs this to feel better about herself and her relationship with her mum. That’s what friends do, right? Help when you need something?”

“That’s a good way to look at it,” Rosie said encouragingly.

“Plus, Lucy’s mother sounds like a bit of a bitch, and I know all about difficult, demanding parents. Maybe if mine come to visit, she’ll return the favour and pretend to be my girlfriend… they’d be super impressed to see me with such a beautiful, smart woman.” The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. His parents were probably due for a visit sometime this year; he was sure Lucy would happily help him out.

“Okay. Just… if there’s anything you need a friendly ear for, I’m here, all right? And confidentiality applies. Lucy doesn’t work for the resort anyway, so she doesn’t fall under my authority. There’s no conflict of interest.”

“Thanks, Rosie,” Bryce said, genuinely touched. Knowing how touchy-feel Rosie was, he stopped walking and extended his arms to invite a hug, which she happily dished out. “I promise I’ll come to you if I’m getting out of my depth.”

“Good.” She patted his shoulder and let him go; with a quick glance at his dive watch, he broke into a jog. He’d need to hustle to get back to his cabin, get changed and get to the pool for the dive lesson on time. And he needed to start on time because when he finished, he’d have to hurry back to his cabin in order to have time to fill in the forms Luke had given him and Lucy to get back by the end of the business day at five. He should probably have asked Rosie for help with them, actually, she knew all about his dyslexia. Well, he’d just have to manage. He’d ask Luke to check it over anyway to make sure he hadn’t made any egregious errors.

* * *

Throughout his beginners’ lesson,, Bryce couldn’t stop thinking about Lucy. Standing waist-deep in the pool explaining the proper usage of a regulator, he couldn’t help but think about the first time he’d met her. She’d been on the island a couple of days and, as was standard procedure for the incoming marine biologists, had to go out on a dive with Bryce in order for him to sign her off as competent to operate without supervision with the island’s equipment.

She’d almost danced her way onto the dive boat, wearing a bright red bikini which wasn’t much more than a few triangles of cloth tied together with string. Bryce, turning to greet her, almost swallowed his tongue.

“Hi!” Lucy said brightly. “You must be Bryce! Excuse me not showing up in my wet suit but it’s so damn hot I couldn’t bear to put it on yet.”

Somehow, he managed to find his voice, though he was pretty sure it came out an octave or two higher than normal as he returned her greeting and told her it was fine, they’d be taking a twenty-minute boat ride out to the dive site anyway.

Watching her wiggle and shimmy her way into the wet suit was one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen, though he was sure she wasn’t doing it to give him a show intentionally. She was just utterly unaware of how gorgeous she was, he thought, as she turned back to him with another of those wide, cheerful grins. With the skin-tight suit only half-zipped up, his eyes were inevitably drawn to her breasts, and the way the suit almost popped them right out of that tiny red bikini.

Eyes on her eyes, Bryce told himself sternly, wondering why she affected him so strongly. He’d dived with plenty of beautiful women before, he lived on a tropical resort island where stunners in bikinis were pretty much everywhere, and yet somehow this small Englishwoman with the mouth that was slightly too wide, and a spatter of freckles across her nose that confirmed she wore not a scrap of makeup, had him completely off balance.

Lucy spent the whole boat ride to the dive site chattering away about how excited she was to dive on the Great Barrier Reef for the first time. “And the fact that I’m actually getting paid to be here, I can’t believe I’m this lucky!” She turned shining eyes to Bryce who was just utterly enchanted. He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone with such zest, such passion for life, and couldn’t help wondering if she’d show a similar passion in bed.

Telling himself to stop being such a lecher, Bryce settled his eyes on Lucy’s face and determined to keep them there. She was the kind of person who made even a sunny day seem dull in comparison, so it was hardly a hardship.

And that was where he’d kept them ever since, on her face and not her breasts, or that beautiful bottom, ridiculously curvaceous in her wet suit.

* * *

“Hey, Bryce. Bryce!”

A voice calling his name brought him back to his present reality, waist-deep in a swimming pool with four beginner divers who would be going on their first reef dive in the morning. Sternly castigating himself for losing focus, he smiled at the young woman who’d been trying to get his attention.

---