Alex smiled, his blue eyes reassuring. ‘She’ll be fine with us and I need that sea water. Would you mind?’

Staring into his handsome face, the woman suddenly stopped crying and gave a self-conscious smile. ‘I—If that’s what you want, I’ll go and fetch the bucket.’

‘That’s great,’ Alex said smoothly, and Jenny resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.

What was it about her sex that made them behave like such idiots in the presence of a good-looking man?

She watched while the woman hurried away across the sand and then realised that Alex had turned his attention back to the little girl who was still crying quietly.

‘What’s your name, sweetheart?’

The little girl gulped. ‘Amy. Are you really a doctor?’

Alex grinned. ‘I’m really a doctor, Amy. Don’t I look like a doctor?’

The girl stopped crying and her eyes were suddenly huge. ‘You don’t wear clothes and most doctors wear clothes. My doctor at home wears a tie.’

Alex laughed. ‘I wear clothes when I’m at work, but at the moment I’m not working. I’m wearing my beach clothes. Just like you. And ties look silly with swimming trunks, don’t you agree?’

Amy giggled but Jenny felt her face heat at yet another reminder of his decidedly disturbing state of undress.

Alex seemed supremely indifferent to the fact that he was wearing virtually nothing.

‘Well, Amy…’ he treated the little girl to another one of those smiles that seemed to knock women sideways ‘…as soon as your mummy comes back, we’re going to rinse this foot of yours.’ He glanced at Jenny. ‘We need some vinegar.’

‘I’ll go and get some from the house,’ she said immediately, and then hesitated and looked at Daisy.

Alex intercepted her glance. ‘I’ll keep an eye on her. But don’t read anything into it.’

She ran back to the house, flinging open cupboards in the kitchen until she found the vinegar.

On impulse she sprinted up the stairs, pushed open the door to Alex’s bedroom and grabbed a shirt that she saw lying on the bed.

She returned to find Alex bathing the foot in sea water while the mother stared at him in ill-concealed admiration.

Gritting her teeth, Jenny thrust the shirt in his direction. ‘I thought you might like to put this on.’

‘Thank you.’ He took the shirt without further comment but something gleamed in his blue eyes and she coloured slightly.

Bother.

She hoped he didn’t realised that seeing him naked was making her uncomfortable.

Satisfied that there were no more tentacles stuck to the little foot, Alex reached for the vinegar. ‘This should help,’ he said. ‘Do you have paracetamol syrup at home?’

‘We’re on holiday,’ the woman said, looking at him meaningfully. ‘We’re staying at the Cliffside Hotel.’

Alex calmly ignored the blatant invitation. ‘That’s near a chemist so you should be able to pick some up. They stay open late at this time of year.’

Finally he was satisfied and he dressed the foot and lifted the little girl into his arms.