Heidi Rice: Beach Bar Baby

Ella sent him a mock pout, but couldn’t disguise her happiness as his gaze settled on her face the way it had been doing all evening—with a gratifying combination of possessiveness and desire.

It was official. Ella’s flirt was now fully operational, and the intoxicating buzz of the Rum Swizzle was nothing compared to the glorious buzz of anticipation.

‘And where exactly would I be walking to?’ She arched her eyebrow, her tone rich with a confidence she’d thought had died inside her a lifetime ago.

His thumb brushed her cheek, his irises a mesmerising moss-green in the bar’s half-light. ‘My beach hut’s down at the other end of the cove. You ready to take a stroll with me in the moonlight?’

The surge of excitement made her giddy. Touching her lips to his, she licked across the seam of the wide sensual mouth that had been driving her wild all day. The shot of power was as stimulating as the pulse of reaction when she heard him drag in a ragged breath.

She let him in, her tongue duelling with his as they sank into a ravenous kiss.

He broke away first, the pants of his breathing as thready as her own. ‘I’m gonna take that as a yes.’

Dear Reader

Who doesn’t love the idea of a wildly romantic, super-sexy holiday fling? You can throw caution to the wind and have the time of your life because the very best thing about it is that he’s not going to follow you home …

Um … unless you’re my heroine, Ella Radley, who ends up with rather more baggage to unpack than she intended when her holiday fling with studly boat captain Cooper Delaney leaves her with a surprise parting gift. And Cooper? Well, beneath that laid-back, relaxed beach bum charm there’s quite a lot of baggage too—but, luckily for him, Ella’s just the girl to unpack it for him … whether he wants it unpacked or not.

Now, Ella was a sunny, slightly kooky secondary character in a book I wrote several years ago called CUPCAKES AND KILLER HEELS (available on www.millsandboon.co.ukas an eBook), and readers since have asked me to write her story—which is frankly why she’s in this predicament. Poor Coop, though, is just an innocent bystander. Luckily he’s not that innocent, so I don’t think any of us need feel the least bit guilty about putting him through the wringer too.

There is a valuable lesson for us all to learn here: next time you spot some irresistible hunk across a crowded beach bar, who’s looking back at you with a matching ‘let’s get naughty’ glint in his eye, just remember that sometimes holiday flings can be too hot to handle!

I love to hear from readers—you can contact me through my website at www.heidi-rice.com

Heidi x

Beach Bar Baby

Heidi Rice

www.millsandboon.co.uk

HEIDI RICEwas born and bred and still lives in London, England. She has two sons who love to bicker, a wonderful husband who, luckily for everyone, has loads of patience, and a supportive and ever-growing British/French/Irish/American family. As much as Heidi adores ‘the Big Smoke’, she also loves America, and every two years or so she and her best friend leave hubby and kids behind and Thelma and Louise it across the States for a couple of weeks (although they always leave out the driving off a cliff bit).

She’s been a film buff since her early teens, and a romance junkie for almost as long. She indulged her first love by being a film reviewer for ten years. Then a few years ago she decided to spice up her life by writing romance. Discovering the fantastic sisterhood of romance writers (both published and unpublished) in Britain and America made it a wild and wonderful journey to her first Mills & Boon ®novel.

Heidi loves to hear from readers—you can e-mail her at heidi@heidi-rice.com, or visit her website: www.heidi-rice.com

Other Modern Tempted™ titles by Heidi Rice:

MAID OF DISHONOUR

This and other titles by Heidi Rice are available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To all those people who asked me when I was going to write Ella’s story.

Now you know.

I hope it lives up to expectations! x

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Extract

ONE

Next time you book a holiday of a lifetime, don’t choose the world’s most popular couples’ destination, you muppet.

Ella Radley adjusted her backpack and flinched as it nudged the raw skin that still stung despite spending yesterday hiding out in her deluxe ocean-view room at the Paradiso Cove Resort in Bermuda—AKA Canoodle Central.

Ella sighed—nothing like getting third-degree sunburn in the one place you couldn’t reach to remind you of your single status. Not that she needed reminding. She stared in dismay at the line of six couples, all in various stages of loved-up togetherness, on the dock ahead of her as she waited to board the motor cruiser at the Royal Naval Dockyards on Ireland Island for what the dive company’s website had promised would be ‘a two-hour snorkel tour of a lifetime’. Unfortunately, she’d booked the tour when she’d first arrived nearly a week ago, before she’d been hit on by a succession of married men and pimply pubescent boys, napalmed all the skin between her shoulder blades and generally lost the will to have anything remotely resembling a lifetime experience.

Her best friend Ruby had once told her she was far too sweet and eager and romantic for her own good. Well, she was so over that. Frankly, paradise and all its charms could get lost. She’d much rather be icing cupcakes in Touch of Frosting’s cosy café kitchen in north London—and laughing about what a nightmare her dream holiday had turned out to be with her business partner and BFF Ruby—than standing in line to take a snorkelling tour of a lifetime that would probably give her a terminal case of seasickness.

Stop being such a grump.

Ella gazed out across the harbour, trying to locate at least a small measure of her usual sunny outlook on life. Yachts and motor boats—dwarfed by the enormous cruise ship anchored across the harbour—bobbed on water so blue and sparkly it hurt her eyes. She recalled the pink sand beach they’d passed on the way in, framed by lush palms and luxury beach bungalows, which looked as if it had been ripped from the pages of a tourist brochure.

She only had one more day to fully appreciate the staggering beauty of this island paradise. Maybe booking this holiday hadn’t been the smartest thing she’d ever done, but she’d needed a distraction... The trickle of panic crawled over her skin, making her aware of the familiar clutching sensation in her belly. She pressed her palm to the thin cotton of her sundress, until it went away again. She needed this day trip—to get her out of her room before the panic overwhelmed her or, worse, she became addicted to US daytime soaps.