‘Oh, to . . . admire the view,’ he replied, but something in the way he glanced at her suggested he didn’t mean the commanding panorama over their shoulders. Quite suddenly, she felt their close proximity, their aloneness, birds flapping around them in a whirling white confetti. On this ledge, they were hidden from the entire island. ‘Although, I can’t tell if you feel the same. About the view.’

She didn’t respond immediately. She sensed he was playing word games – saying one thing, meaning another. ‘The view is . . . beautiful.’

‘I think so. It’s taken my breath away. I never imagined it could be so lovely.’

Was he saying what she thought he was? No one had ever flirted with her before. Could he hear her heart pounding?

‘I saw you last night!’ The words burst from her before she could stop them.

He paused. ‘Last night?’

‘You were swimming.’

‘. . . Yes. I couldn’t sleep and the water looked so inviting.’ He glanced down. ‘I hope I didn’t disturb you. If I had known there was any chance of meeting anyone, much less you . . .’ A small flicker of memory passed through his eyes and she knew what he was thinking. Had she seen him get out? He had been swimming nude after all.

Her cheeks burned at the memory. ‘And after?’ She couldn’t stop herself from asking. She had to know. What did it mean?

‘After?’

‘When you stood outside, staring at my house?’

His eyebrow twitched the way she was learning it always did when he was concealing his impulses behind manners. ‘Your house? Was it?’

‘You know it was.’

He didn’t respond immediately. ‘What makes you think I was staring at your house – and not past it, up to the mountains?’ he asked nonchalantly. ‘It was almost a full moon last night. The moon glow was quite wonderful.’

She stared back at him, her heart beating dully. Had she been wrong, then?

‘Although—’

Although?

‘—there’d be nothing wrong with a fellow admiring the home of a girl who intrigues him, would there?’

A sound of disbelief escaped her. ‘I don’t intrigue you.’

‘Au contraire: your climbing skills and bravery, your prodigious knowledge of the natural world, your forthright spirit, the way you meet me as an equal, your utter lack of awareness of your beauty . . . I’d say there’s an awful lot about you that intrigues me, Miss Gillies. I’ve never met anyone quite like you.’