Island Idyll (2 page)

Sienna’s jaw dropped. Kylie had always enjoyed a healthy romantic life, but three men were a lot for anyone to juggle, even Kylie. “Do they know about one another?”

Kylie’s grin increased. “I would say so, since I’m sleeping with all three of them…
at the same time.
”

Sienna gaped at her friend. “You’re what?”

“There’s something about the air out here,” Kylie said with a carefree chuckle. “The freedom. It’s like magic, intoxicatingly so. It makes you do things you’d never do in Newcastle.”

“Three of them?” Sienna spluttered.

Kylie nodded, her face aglow. “Three of them.”

For the second time in twenty minutes, Sienna squealed. “I want details. Every last, sordid one.”

Kylie blushed. “Uh, mind if we skip the deets for now? I’m still kinda getting used to them myself. But…I could introduce you to all three tonight at the soft opening party at Bar Evoke, if you like?”

“If I like? Sheesh, try keep me away.” Wow. Kylie and three men. “I don’t know if I’m excited for you or just plain shocked out of my skull.”

“I’m still kinda shocked about it myself,” Kylie confessed. “But do me one favor. Give the island a chance to work its magic on you. Experience the freedom. Let the air intoxicate you too. Then you can decided if you’re shocked—” she winked, “—or just plain jealous.”

“Deal.” Sienna laughed and sipped her drink, surprised to find it almost finished. “So you think I’m gonna be jealous?”

“Hon, for the last eight years, you’ve had sex with one man. One. No variety, no choice. Just one ol’ guy,” Kylie teased. “You are gonna be green with envy.”

“Well, how can I argue when you put it like that?” Not that she’d ever had need to complain. As lovers went, Ben was a ten out of ten. Twenty out of ten. Loving, attentive, inventive, adventurous and satisfying. Oh, so satisfying. But since he hadn’t had time for sex in the months leading up to the break-up, there’d been a distinct lack of satisfaction on Sienna’s part.

“Who knows, Si, maybe you’ll meet three men this weekend.”

Sienna snorted. “I’d be happy with one. Well, one at a time anyway.” Any more than that was not a number she’d feel comfortable juggling. Regardless of the magic island air.

Kylie signaled to a waitress and ordered another daiquiri. “It’s for you,” she told Sienna. “I have to run. Have another drink. Enjoy the sunshine, relax and forget about Ben. ’Kay?”

“No worries,” Sienna answered, the combined effects of the rum and the Queensland heat already deliciously numbing her senses. She patted her bag. “I’m good here. Got my book and my sunnies, and I intend to read, drink and ogle hotties until dinner at least.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Kylie stood and straightened her tight manager’s skirt.

Sienna couldn’t let her leave without asking the one question that had been playing on her mind since receiving her beautifully printed invitation. “Hey, Ky?”

“Mm hmm?” Her friend’s gaze was focused on the bar.

“I’m dying to know. Who installed your computer network?”

Kylie turned to her with a glint in her eyes. “If I told you it was a lie, would you believe me?”

“If you told me what was a lie?”

“A lie of epic proportions, I might add.”

Sienna shook her head in confusion. “You lied? There’s no one going to make my eyes pop?”

Kylie turned to the bar again, raised her hand and waved. A man waved back. The same hottie Sienna had noticed a few minutes earlier. Tall with enormous shoulders. He headed towards Kylie.

Kylie watched his approach, then flashed Sienna a wicked smile. “Believe me, Si, this is the only lie you’ve ever wanted.” She checked the man’s approach, checked her watch and smiled again. “Gotta run. Later, babe.”

And she was gone, her heels tap-tapping over the travertine tiles surrounding the pool.

Dazed, Sienna watched her leave. What the…?

“Bloody hell!”

The stunned expletive had Sienna whirling around.

“Sienna James?”

She raised her head to stare up, up, up at the man Kylie had waved to. Hottie for sure. His white T-shirt hugged broad shoulders, and low-slung boardies highlighted trim hips and long muscular legs. Never mind hot. Scorching!

He pulled off a trendy pair of sunnies and stared at her with exquisite green eyes. Familiar eyes. “It really is you. And you still have your freckles.”

Yeah, compliments of the sun. She had a ton of them.

The man knew her, of that there was no question. But damned if she could place him. She looked at him questioningly, taking in the silky hair that casually curled around his neck, as though he hadn’t had a chance to cut it in months. Once it must have been pure brown, but the island sun had kissed it, leaving blond streaks woven through the russet strands.

His skin was tanned gold, confirming her assessment of the time he’d spent in the sun, and his lips—full, gorgeous and ruby-red—were curved in a bewildered smile. At least a week’s worth of stubble shadowed his jaw and upper lip.

“Hell, Si, you look better now than you did twelve years ago. And man, you looked good then.”

Recognition hit, the force enough to take her breath away. Suddenly Kylie’s words made perfect sense.

It wasn’t a lie she’d been referring to. It was a Lye. Or, to be more specific, a Joshua Lye.

A heart-stoppingly gorgeous, all grown-up Joshua Lye.

“Josh?” she asked tentatively.

He nodded. “In the flesh.”

And, oh, dear Lord, what flesh it was. If the teenage Josh had made her blush like a fool, the very adult version made every nerve ending stand to attention. At sixteen, he’d been cute. At thirty, he was full-blown sex on a stick.

He sat with a
thunk
on the deck chair Kylie had just vacated and shook his head in wonder. “Christ, if you weren’t the star feature in every wet dream I ever had…”

Her eyes popped open. “If I wasn’t
what
?”

“My wet dream every night for years,” he said, his gaze roaming over her face. “How are you, Si?”

She blinked several times, processing his words, his presence leaving her staggered.

Josh was here. On the island. Josh Lye. Or, as she, Mack and Kylie had called him, Josh
Lie-With-Me.
Hmm, nope, hang on. She was the only one who’d called him that, and only when he wasn’t anywhere near. Ky and Mack had called him Josh
Lie-With-Si
.

Sienna had only had a crush on him the entire way through high school. She’d have shed her good-girl image in a second if even once he’d shown her any interest. Hell, she’d have tossed her much-cherished virginity aside in a heartbeat for just five minutes with him.

God, she hadn’t seen him in…twelve years.

“I…I’m okay.” She finally found the presence of mind to answer his question. “You?”

His gaze dropped to her chest and then slowly made its way down to her thighs. A grin tugged at his lips. “Good. Never better.”

Sienna frowned. “You know, you have some kind of cheek, mister.”

He cast her a questioning look. “I do?”

“Where do you get off making me the center of your wet dreams, anyway?”

“Where do I get off?” His lips twitched, as though he tried to repress a bark of laughter. “Uh, you really need me to answer?”

Sienna resisted the urge to drop her head in her hands and cover the blush she knew blossomed on her cheeks. Shit, that was so not what she’d meant. “Listen up, mate, I haven’t seen you in forever, and you greet me with an explicit insight into your teenage fantasies. Nice. Real nice.” Oh, yeah, real nice. It would have been nicer to know when she was a teenager too. When
he’d
been the main feature of every one of
her
adolescent dreams.

Josh’s gaze dropped to her chest again, the exact place where her cleavage spilled over the top, and he let out a low wolf whistle. “Not just a teenage fantasy. I strongly suspect you’re gonna be the center of a full-blown adult wet dream tonight as well. Mine.”

She gaped at him. “You didn’t just say that.”

His eyes twinkled as he winked. “I always did like the way you blushed in school. How quickly those cheeks filled with color. Seems like nothing’s changed.”

Apparently nothing had changed. She’d blushed as a teenager every time Josh had walked into a room, and she was blushing again now. It was like her body couldn’t deny her attraction to him.

Josh eyed her sexily. “I still like how you look when you blush. Like a mixture of a Penthouse centerfold and an innocent kid.”

She snorted. “I’m thirty years old. Hardly an innocent kid.”

“Which leaves just the Penthouse centerfold.”

She opened her mouth to retort and realized she was struck speechless.

A rumble of laughter filled the air. “There it is again. The trademark Sienna James blush.”

“Damn it, you’re doing this on purpose. You haven’t changed one bit, have you?”

Josh shook his head. “Nope, I was crazy about you in school, and after spending two minutes with you now, I’m crazy about you all over again.”

“Pffft.” She dismissed his comment with a flick of her wrist, although she couldn’t hide her smile. Or deny the tug of awareness that flickered through her belly and lower. It was the first tug she’d felt for anyone other than Ben in a seriously long time. “What are you doing on the island?”

“Time.” He grimaced. “Two months hard labor.”

“You work here?” Would surprises never cease?

He nodded. “It’s been hell, I tell you. Hell. I’m forced to swim every morning, sail a cat at sunset, dive on weekends and run barefoot along the beach every lunch hour. It’s killing me.”

She gave him a commiserative nod. “I can see the toll it’s taken. You look awful.” Awful good. He looked downright lickable. Sienna could only thank her lucky stars the waitress arrived with her daiquiri at that moment. Otherwise, she would, without a doubt, have licked him.

Not all over. Just a little sample of his neck. And maybe his lips. And, if she could just get that T-shirt out of the way, then maybe a nipple as well.

Sienna. Concentrate!

She took a very long sip of daiquiri and shoved all thoughts of licks, lips and nipples aside. “So, what hard labor have you been sentenced to?”

“Installing the computer network.” He shook his head and scowled. “Wanna know the worst part of all? They may make it a life sentence. The hotel needs a permanent IT person on staff, twenty-four seven.”

He grinned then. An outrageously sexy grin. A grin that made her want to lick him all over again. Everywhere.

“What did I do to deserve this kind of punishment?” he asked her. “What?”

“I’m sorry. You must have been a very bad boy.” She laid her hand over his in mock comfort and jerked as a jolt of heat shot through her palm.

“I was a very bad boy.” His eyes danced. “And I grew into a very bad man. Want to see proof?”

Yes!
Every instinct she possessed yelled in her head. She’d wanted proof when she was a teenager, and she wanted proof now. Hell, proof with Josh would be a fantastic way of taking that final step away from Ben.

She suppressed her base needs and clung to her common sense instead, taking another sip of her drink for fortification. “I’d rather see proof of your sailing skills,” she told him. “I saw the cats out on the beach earlier. I’d have taken one out on my own, but since I have no idea how to sail and would probably flip the Hobie and drown myself, I figured I’d better not take a chance.”

“Fair dinkum? You wanna go sailing with me?” He turned his hand palm up, and Sienna belatedly realized she’d forgotten to move her arm away. Before she could motivate herself to do just that, Josh clasped her hand in his.

She bit her cheek, refusing to focus on the warmth of his skin as it wrapped around her hand. “That depends.”

He raised an eyebrow. “On what?”

“You gonna talk any more about those wet dreams you used to have?”

Josh shook his head almost immediately, the epitome of a well-behaved kid—which he’d never been. “Hell, no. I promise.”

Ah. Well, darn.
“And you don’t have to work?”

“I’m done for the week. Unless there’s an emergency, this afternoon and the entire weekend are all mine.”

She smiled. “Then if you’d be willing to take me, I’d love to go sailing with you.”

He stood and was tugging her up along with him before she’d finished talking. “Ace. Let’s go.”

“Now?” What if she hadn’t given him a choice? What if he didn’t really want to go sailing and she’d just forced herself on him?

He nodded. “Right now.”

“Wh-what’s the rush?”

He met her gaze with his emerald green one. “You know how I promised not to talk about my teenage wet dreams?”

“Uh, yeah.” Why, oh why did she feel like she was walking into a well-planned trap?

His face lit up like a damned Christmas tree. “Well, I made no such promises about my adult ones. And believe me, Si, you don’t want anyone within ear distance when I tell you about those.”

Chapter Three

Sienna gaped at Josh. Again. Hell, she didn’t think she’d stopped gaping since he’d surprised her by the pool. But seriously, the words that came out of the man’s mouth were enough to make anyone gawk. And blush.

He sat beside her on the Hobie’s trampoline, his legs stretched in front of him, one ankle propped over the other and the tiller caught under his arm. Wind whipped hair around his face, making him look wild, untamed and absolutely beautiful. Mirth and merriment glinted in his eyes like the rays of the afternoon sun glinted on the water.

“You’re just saying all of that to make me blush again,” she told him accusingly.

He shrugged, looking ridiculously adorable. “I’m saying it because it’s the truth.”

Sienna straightened her shoulders and decided to call his bluff. She was no longer the tongue-tied kid. She was a mature, experienced adult, and she could give as good as she got.

And if she got good, she gave good.

Suppressing a smile, she glanced pointedly at his groin then ran her hand over the boom beneath the sail, trailing her fingers down the smooth metal. “This hard, huh?”

“That hard.” He grinned at her. “But thicker."