“That requires standing up, finding a swimsuit, putting it on and walking to the beach and I don’t have that in me.”

He kissed her and then stood up and scooped her up.

“Nate! What are you doing?”

“We’re going for a swim.”

“Naked?”

“Why not? We’re the only ones here and the beach is secluded.”

By the time she thought of reasons to argue he was on the terrace and heading down the steps to the beach.

“Are you seriously going to throw me into cold water?”

“We’re going in together.” He strode into the waves and she gasped as the freezing spray hit her bare skin.

“Nate! This is—”

“Fantastic?” Grinning, he dropped her into the water and she clung to him as they both went under, the ocean muffling sound.

When she finally surfaced he was right next to her.

“Remember when we used to swim here?” He pulled her against him and she wrapped her arms and legs around him. His eyes were a smoky blue, his lashes clumped together and droplets of water clung to his jaw. She’d never seen a sexier man in her whole life.

“I remember.” She kissed him, unable to keep her mouth away from his for more than a few minutes at a time. “But we never did it naked.”

“We must have been boring back then.” He smoothed her wet hair away from her face and then they were kissing again and the kissing led to other things and she stopped thinking, her senses swamped. All she could do was feel—the intimate stroke of his fingers, the warmth of his mouth. The hard heat of him. The sea, ice cold. The smoothness of her skin against the roughness of his. The contrasts were dizzying. She clung to his shoulders, digging fingers into hard muscle. Sound was muffled—soft gasps, the call of a gull, the rush of the ocean as it hit the sand.

Afterward he carried her to the beach, set her down on the sand and kissed her again. “I missed you, Joanna.”

It was a simple declaration but it slid inside her and warmed her body from head to toe. “I missed you, too.”

He grinned. “I’m starving. All that sex and swimming. Is the food ruined?”

“No. But I haven’t done any of my preparation because I ignored all the alarms.”

“No worries. We’ll do it together.”

They headed back to the house, showered and retrieved their clothes and then made their way to the kitchen.

“Pine nuts.” She grabbed them and sprinkled them in the pan. “Starter is a salad. Citrus salad with toasted seeds and pine nuts. Why don’t you open the champagne?” She was conscious of him standing close to her, but she focused on the pan, kept the heat low as Ashley had taught her, gave the pan a shake halfway through.