A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,67

started the Wave Watchers and you hold down your job at the college. I admire your spirit, Marina.’

‘You’ll find your own equivalent of the Wave Watchers.’

‘Only if I go looking for it. Right now, I just want to keep a low profile.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘Also known as hiding away from the world.’

‘Yet you came to the station to apologise.’ And he had chosen her – and tonight – to unburden himself, she thought.

‘Aye, you’re right – but that’s because it’s you. Not everyone and anyone. There’s a world of difference.’

She laughed. ‘You hardly know me.’

‘Not yet … that’s why I asked you here this evening.’ He put his empty glass down and leaned forward. ‘My instincts are telling me that it was a good idea.’

Marina smiled. ‘Mine too …’

She was pleased he felt able to open up to her, but she would have to be patient if she wanted to know more.

Her phone pinged with a WhatsApp message and, while Lachlan was in the kitchen, she glanced at it. It was Tiff.

How are you getting on with Rob Roy? I have had *the* most intriguing time with Mr Dirk ’n’ Stormy. Tell you more tomorrow.

Marina was surprised to see that it was eleven o’clock.

‘Lachlan. I’ve realised the time. I need to be up early for college in the morning,’ she said, getting up as he walked in from the kitchen.

‘Eleven?’ He glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘I’d no idea. I’ll not keep you from your bed any longer,’ he said.

What a shame, thought Marina, unable to banish the image of Lachlan keeping her in his own bed.

‘I’ve a meeting in Truro first thing too. I’m sorry to have kept you out so late,’ he said.

She hoped he’d put her rosy cheeks down to the whisky and the sun. ‘You haven’t. I’ve really enjoyed it.’

‘Me too. It won’t be the last time, I hope?’

‘I hope not,’ she said, and threw a smile at him as he stood in the doorway to see her off with a promise to call her to arrange ‘the next time’. She was buoyed by the optimism of his final statement.

What a day this had been. For the first time, she’d truly begun to understand Lachlan, and, for the first time, she’d seriously begun to think of a man who wasn’t Nate as something more than a friend. It felt as if they’d both taken a step forward into a brave new world.

Chapter Twenty

Tiff woke up in Dirk’s bed – again. Since their gallery encounter, they’d made up for lost time by spending almost every night together and there was no sign of the passion wearing off. She thought about him in every spare moment she had and many that she didn’t.

Tiff walked her fingers up his torso and rested them on his chest. He really was magnificent – honed but not in a cover model way, with the perfect amount of chest hair. She could even forgive the nipple ring. In fact, it had become a key feature in her fantasies about him, which were extensive and detailed.

Not that he was ever going to know that, of course.

He kissed her. ‘You’re a health and safety hazard. I dropped a wrench the other day, thinking about what I wanted to do to you this evening.’

She laughed. ‘I thought about you while I was having a tour of a clotted-cream factory.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’ Dirk gave her a long deep kiss.

‘It was hard to keep a straight face …’ Her stomach fluttered. ‘It’s a shame we can’t stay here forever.’

‘I’d probably drop dead with exhaustion if we did.’

‘Yes.’

He groaned and shifted. ‘I have to get up. We open the lifeboat station every Saturday in the summer to get the tourists in …’

‘I’ll come with you, if you like?’

‘To the station? You’d be so bored.’

‘Try me. I can help. Make tea or something …’ The truth was she wanted to spend more time with him and if she had to go down to the lifeboat station to do it, she would.

He thought for a few seconds. ‘Well, we always need people to help in the shop while we show visitors round the station.’

‘The shop? That sounds easy. I can do that if someone shows me how to work the till.’

‘You might regret it,’ Dirk said with an arch of the brows.

Tiff laughed. ‘I might regret a lot of things, but I really don’t mind. Plus, I’m sure it’ll be more fun than last time