‘I…I…well, it sure makes me want to know more about him. I mean, what drives him, Alanna? What happened during his own childhood to make him the way he is? Do you know?’

‘No. He never talks about it. Not even to Reece or Richard.’

‘Must have been pretty bad.’

‘Very bad, I’d say. Why don’t you ask him one day, when he’s…shall we say…vulnerable to a bit of pillow talk?’

‘Mike’s not into pillow talk.’

‘Maybe you should ask him straight out?’ Alanna suggested. ‘After all, you will need to know something about his past before your stay on that yacht. Mr Helsinger or his wife might ask you about Mike’s background, and it would look funny if you knew nothing.’

‘Yes, I guess it would,’ Natalie agreed, sounding calm whilst inside she was anything but.

Alanna was beginning to agitate her. And to make her think too deeply about Mike, plus her feelings for him.

Natalie refused to start acting as she had in the past, always thinking she was in love, always wanting more than the current man in her life was prepared to give. Common sense told her to settle for enjoying whatever time she had with Mike, especially this coming week.

Meanwhile, she didn’t want to talk to Alanna any more. Or anyone else, for that matter.

Natalie felt infinitely relieved that she’d told her mother she was going away on a week’s driving holiday down the coast and was turning her mobile off. She’d emailed the same thing to all her clients at Wives Wanted.

‘I must go, Alanna,’ she said. ‘Mike’ll be back any moment. Look, I won’t ring again till next weekend. I’m not taking my mobile on the yacht with me and I’ll be with Mike all the time. It could be awkward.’

‘That’s all right. You have a good time, now. Can I tell Holly about you and Mike?’

‘Only if you don’t romanticise the situation.’

‘But it is romantic, Natalie. You just can’t see it yet.’

‘No, it’s you who can’t see it, Alanna. I’m not in love with Mike. It’s just sex. Okay?’

‘If you say so,’ Alanna trilled whilst Natalie rolled her eyes. Some people just wouldn’t listen.

‘Goodbye, Alanna.’

‘Bye, sweetie.’

Natalie hung up with an exasperated sigh. ‘That girl,’ she muttered.

‘Alanna trying to do your trick, is she?’

Natalie whirled to find Mike standing in the doorway of the kitchen, his dark eyes watchful and wary.

‘I didn’t hear you come in,’ she said before realising that she wouldn’t have. The penthouse was huge and the kitchen quite a way from the front door.

On top of that, Mike’s feet were bare.

A good lot of him was bare this morning, his only clothing a pair of bone cargo shorts, slung low on his hips.