Page 30 of A Summer Scandal

‘If I kiss you, I won’t be able to stop,’ he said. ‘So you’re not going to kiss me, and I’m not going to kiss you.’

She sighed, disappointment so loud it rumbled out of her. ‘I really want you to.’

He laughed softly, dipping his head to her ear. ‘Go inside.’

Did his mouth brush her ear? Her skin said yes and yearned for more, even as he lowered his hand and stepped backwards.

‘Goodnight Violet,’ he said.

Violet sighed. ‘Will we ever, do you think?’

He was at his door, and she turned away to unlock hers. Stepping inside, they just stood and looked at each other for a long breath across the moonlit landing.

‘Goodnight then,’ she said, forlorn.

He nodded once, then stepped inside and closed his door.

Vi kicked off her boots on her way through the hallway, and then face-planted herself on the couch. What the hell had just happened out there? She’d never behaved like that in her life, she’d practically begged him to throw her over his shoulder and have his way with her. She wouldn’t have stopped him. Maybe Keris was right; there was something about Calvin Dearheart that made him almost irresistible. She’d gone from being concerned about the fact that he had a wife to not giving a stuff if he had a wife in every port, and all because he’d laid his hand on her neck.

‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled into the cushions, unsure if she was apologising to Cal for coming on to him, apologising to Simon even though they were no longer a couple despite what he said, or apologising to herself for jeopardising her chances of truly settling here in Swallow Beach.

Cal leaned his back against the door as he closed it, frustrated as hell. It was one thing making a decision to keep things on a friendship level with Violet. It was another thing altogether having to resist her when she asked him to kiss her. Christ, he’d wanted to. Her mouth was full and warm under his thumb, soft and giving.

He bang his head lightly against the door to knock some sense in, he repeated a simple mantra he could only hope would sink in.I will not mess around with Violet. I will not mess around with Violet. I will not mess around with Violet.

As he got into bed, lonely and still frustrated, he tried and failed not to think about the girl sleeping, or not sleeping, across the hallway.

‘This place is even better than I’ve always imagined,’ Keris said, standing inside the birdcage on the end of the pier the following morning. ‘Our own tiny crystal palace, Grandpa used to call it. He made up stories for me about it, magical fairies and all sorts.’

It touched Violet to think that Keris had grown up with fanciful stories about the pier; she was glad, really, that at least someone had benefited, even if her own childhood had been bereft of Swallow Beach. And how very Barty to bring life to the empty pier via stories. How many other residents of the town included it in their family folklore and history?

‘Am I doing the wrong thing?’ she said suddenly, turning to Keris and Cal. ‘Is everyone going to disapprove?’

Keris shrugged. ‘Does it matter?’

The truth was yes, it did.

Cal threw his more pragmatic opinion into the ring. ‘My mother is going to disapprove. Her bridge club will most likely join in her disapproval. The rest of the town though, I think you’ll find, will just be glad to see the pier come back into use again. Last night’s jokes about it being a strip club aside, I don’t think you’ll run into much opposition.’

Vi nodded, drawing strength from his words. ‘We’re legitimate business people,’ she said.

‘We are,’ Keris said, turning to gaze out at the sea.

‘Just because we cater for the more sensual side of life, it doesn’t make us illegal,’ Cal said, testing the lights. It was an odd juxtaposition – checking the electrics whilst absently talking about sensuality, one that had Violet turning away and leaning her head against the cool glass for a second of clarity.

She and Keris had met Cal at the pier a little after ten, and although she’d woken up feeling slightly mortified about her behaviour and determined to apologise and laugh it off, now she was in close proximity again, one mention of the word ‘sensuality’ and she’d strayed straight down the same path.Reel it in, she told herself,for God’s sake Violet, reel it in. He’s just a man.Granted, a fairly spectacular-looking one, but also one with a lot of baggage. Wife-shaped baggage.

‘… I think this one’s Violet’s.’

She tuned back in, catching the back end of Cal’s sentence to Keris.

‘What was that?’ she said, turning back.

‘We were talking about which of the units to use,’ she said. ‘And Cal said he thought this one had your name on it.’

They were standing in one of the back units with the spectacular three-hundred-and-sixty-degree outlook. Violet’s eyes fell to the floor, however, to the rainbow and her name inscribed on the boards.

She nodded. ‘Yeah. I’ll use this one.’

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