‘I’m sorry,’ she said quickly, keeping her head down so as to avoid his gaze.

‘What for?’ he asked, concerned.

‘You know …’ she started, flapping a hand around and shrivelling a little inside. Surely he wasn’t going to make her spell it out. ‘For … well … what just happened,’ she finished quickly. Oh God, she wanted to run right back into the bathroom. Instead she swallowed and got a grip. ‘For kissing you. I’m very sorry and it will never, ever happen again. You have my word. And please tell Jennifer I was completely out of order. A moment of madness. That’s all. She has absolutely nothing to worry about.’ And she glanced up to see Ellis with his eyebrows dipped. ‘Actually, on second thoughts, don’t say anything to her. She doesn’t need to know that an over-emotional English woman snogged her fiancé-to-be on a hotel balcony and liked it, a lot! No, it will only spoil the engagement for her.’

‘What?’ Ellis shook his head. ‘What are you going on about? What I do is my own business. If I want to kiss a woman then I will. And I will like it. A lot too, if I want to,’ he countered, his eyebrows dipping in the middle even more.

‘But you can’t say that,’ she said.

‘Why not?’

‘Well, what about Jennifer for starters? Your girlfriend. Or have you forgotten about her?’ Grace became conscious of her voice being far too loud and her left index finger whirling right in front of his face. She jerked her arm back down by her side and huffed out a long breath before folding her arms instead like a petulant teenager.

‘Whoa.’ Ellis held up his palms in defence. ‘Hang on a minute. Let’s just rewind things here.’ He stared at her and Grace wasn’t sure if he was cross, confused or amused as he shook his head as if to gain some clarity. ‘What’s going on here?’

‘Why don’t you tell me?’ she said, sounding far more accusatory than she had intended.

‘Jennifer isn’t my girlfriend!’

‘What?’

‘Is that what you think? Is that why you ran off after kissing me?’ He had his hands on his hips now.

‘Well, yes … sort of.’ Grace fidgeted, bobbing from one foot to the other wishing he wouldn’t be so damn matter-of-fact about it all. Couldn’t he see she was cringing on the inside? And what did he mean, Jennifer wasn’t his girlfriend? She had heard her with her own ears on the phone, talking about the engagement.

‘Sort of?’ he laughed. ‘What do you mean, sort of?’