If college rumours were to be believed, Pete lived on his own, his dad having died, and his mum having gone off with a new bloke in Penryn. Whether this was true or not, there was something a bit damaged about him anyway, a bit broken. You could see it in his eyes. Takes one to know one, Olivia’s wise old Devonshire gran would have said and, indeed, she did feel a connection between them, an understanding that she could never feel with Aidan, who had his comfortable home and such kind, loving parents. One thing had led to another that day anyway, and she and Pete had ended up drinking beer and setting the world to rights in the sunny little courtyard of a pub full of tourists. Several hours later, the sun and alcohol having gone completely to her head, Olivia hugged him as they said goodbye, just in the way that she would have hugged Nina or Spencer or any of her friends. The difference this time was that suddenly she and Pete were kissing and it was so passionate, so sexy, she felt her stomach turn over like a flipped pancake.

Stop! she wanted to protest.

Don’t stop! she wanted to beg.

‘Listen, a few of us are off inter-railing in August,’ he murmured, his arms still slotted around her waist as they eventually drew apart. ‘Why don’t you come with us?’ His hip ground against hers. ‘With me.’

‘Oh!’ she had said, taken aback. Didn’t he know? ‘I’m going out with Aidan. I mean . . .’

He’d raised an eyebrow as her words trailed away. He had very expressive eyebrows, she remembered, and this one seemed to hint at disbelief and all sorts of badness with a single lift. ‘Still?’ He’d laughed. ‘Didn’t feel like that to me just now.’

There was a wildness about Pete that made her shiver even now, years later, to recall him. He reminded her of a hunting animal, bold and impulsive, eyeing her with a predatory air. Somehow the effect was seductive, though. Magnetic. By contrast, Aidan seemed more like a domestic pet: a soppy Labrador or Golden Retriever, who would lick your face and sit when told. Pets were overrated, in Olivia’s opinion.

‘It didn’t feel like that to me, either,’ she found herself replying huskily.

He’d laughed approvingly, the night air full of danger and temptations, and she’d just about had the wherewithal to get herself home then, before anything else happened. All the same, the encounter had left her whirling. Excited.