“You dropped your towel.”

His voice, soft and golden like melted butter, stole into her thoughts, jolting her from her dreamlike state. Andrea, who had been lying on the sun-lounger, letting the sun kiss her bikini-clad body, now opened her eyes and looked up through the brown filter of her sunglasses.

Him again.

She’d noticed him before, and now watched him as he stood beside her with a white towel in his hand.
He was gorgeousness personified and so different from the dark haired Italian men she was used to. This man before her was blue-eyed and golden and hotter than lava; she thanked the god of fitness, for she could see that the gym had been particularly good to him.
Blinking, she became vaguely aware that her own towel lay by her feet and she was just about to reply to the handsome stranger when Caprice beat her to it.

“That’s mine,” her friend purred, leaning over Andrea to take the towel from him and no doubt giving the man a good eyeful in her plunging cherry red bikini. Andrea’s eyes narrowed. Caprice, with her long straight hair and luscious body, had the type of figure and full lips that gave men ideas.

The man glanced at her friend and grinned, and Andrea was grateful for the huge Prada shades that shielded her eyes as her gaze swept easily over his chest and arms. He looked like a tower of strength, standing over her with his tall and taut gym-sculpted body. She felt vulnerable lying down in her bikini and propped herself up to a seated position. Her movement attracted his attention and he looked at her, making her feel self-conscious and excited all at once.

“Are you ladies enjoying your stay here?” His accent was American, she noticed and the more she stared at his electric blue eyes—as blue as the lake which the Villa Costanza overlooked—the more she recalled that she’d seen him yesterday, too.

The pitter-patter of her heart increased and she briefly wondered whether the sun had affected her. She was far too cautious and sensible to believe in insta-love, yet here she was ogling this man as though he was the last of his species.

Her body was reacting to him—even if her mind still sat on the side-lines wondering when to join the game. She tried to think of something to say, so that he would know she had a voice, that she wasn’t mute.
“We are,” said Caprice, wriggling around in her seat. “Someone had a big milestone birthday celebration this weekend.”

“A milestone birthday? A twenty-first?” he asked, all innocent.

“She turned thirty,” replied Andrea, nodding her head at Caprice and finally getting a chance to prove that she could talk.

“Thirty is the new twenty,” Caprice declared as she rubbed sun lotion slowly and suggestively over her upper body. Andrea smiled at the man, more out of embarrassment for her friend who had turned the art of applying sun cream into foreplay.

“I agree. That’s quite a milestone you celebrated in style.” With his attention directed at Caprice, Andrea’s eyes darted to his body. Her gaze lowered to his swim shorts which hung dangerously low on his waist. Rivulets of water trickled down his chest and kept her transfixed as she watched them cling to the light dusting of golden hairs across his chest.
He caught her looking and her throat dried up like a prune. She didn’t know where to look.

“Nice meeting you, ladies,” he said, finally. “Happy belated birthday,” he told Caprice before stealing a look in Andrea’s direction. Then he walked away.

She stared at the perfect V-shape of his back. Caprice made lewd, low moans and licked her lips in pure, unashamed admiration as he stood at the side of the pool, getting ready to make a dive. The glittering water was blue and silver as slivers of sunlight fell and danced upon its gently moving surface. He dove in and disappeared, emerging moments later with his arms raised, thick and corded at the biceps, as he swept back his golden hair.

Andrea’s heart galloped as though she’d just sprinted four hundred meters. She lay back on the sun-lounger, her chest rising and falling.

Hot damn.

“Where did he come from?” Caprice sounded as though she needed an inhaler even though she didn’t suffer from asthma. “If I was single…,” she whispered, adjusting herself on the lounger. “Oh, look,” she cried, almost spilling out of her bikini. “I have my towel here, see.”

“Maybe someone else dropped theirs,” murmured Andrea.

“Or maybe that was his line,” purred Caprice. “I think he was interested.”

“You’re with Luigi.”

“I can still look.” Caprice pouted. “And he’s not here.”

“That makes it alright?” Andrea asked.

“I’m not breaking the law. You can be with one person and still have thoughts for another.”

“That’s called cheating.”

“It’s harmless, Andrea. I love Luigi and I would never do anything silly.” She settled back on the chair.

Andrea welcomed the silence and the feel of the sun as it licked her skin. This weekend had been the tonic she’d needed. The Villa Costanza nestled high above Lake Como and was set in a small wooded peninsula. An enchanting and luxurious hotel, it was tucked away in a quiet corner of Bellagio with only the view of the lake and surrounding greenery around. This magical paradise had enabled her to unwind completely during the long weekend.

It might have explained why her pulse had rocketed the moment she’d set eyes on the golden haired stranger. She didn’t usually notice men, not as easily as her friends Talia and Caprice did. They seemed to have been born with some sort of heat seeking device which locked onto all the hottest guys within a short range.

Yet she’d noticed him.

“It’s been a great weekend, huh?” Caprice asked.

“It’s been amazing. I so needed this,” Andrea replied, dreamily. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“You are welcome, my darling. I wanted to celebrate with two of my best friends but now I wish I didn’t have to leave so soon. Why didn’t we make it longer?”

 

Because it would have cost a fortune, Andrea thought, wishing her friend would lie down and keep quiet for more than a minute.
“Make sure you plan at least a week for your thirtieth birthday celebrations.” Caprice could talk for the world, and Andrea realized that she wasn’t going to get the peace and quiet she desired. She sat up and tied her thick dark curls into a ponytail.

“I was thirty last year,” she said quietly.

“You didn’t invite me!”

“I didn’t do anything.” Andrea opened her bottle of sun screen lotion and rubbed it over her shoulders. “I think I might have had takeout pizza.”

Caprice snorted. “That’s tragic! I hope your thirty-first birthday is more exciting. I hope you’ve found a man by then, at least.”

Andrea’s smile slowly faded and she shook her head. “I don’t think I’m too good in that department.” She’d messed up a few months ago with one of her best friends, Nico Cazale. He was now a reformed man who only had eyes for one woman—a woman who had recently become one of her good friends. Andrea hadn’t shared any of this with Caprice and Talia though.

“You don’t give yourself a chance. You’re always too busy working in that warehouse of yours.”

“I happen to love my business and what I do.”

“A business isn’t going to keep you warm in bed at night. You need someone to share it with. You need to live a little.”

“I’m lousy when it comes to reading men.” Andrea replied and didn’t like the way Caprice nodded her head eagerly.

“Am I that bad?” she asked but Caprice seemed to have dropped out of the conversation completely.

“I think he’s interested,” her friend said, speaking low as though she had no air in her lungs.

Andrea turned to look just as Caprice hissed, “Don’t look now—”

But it was too late; she already had. He’d slipped on a baseball cap and pulled it down low over his forehead as he slid down his recliner. The white wires of his headphones hung down his chest and her eyes once more scanned the full length of his body.
She turned back to Caprice, her insides vibrating like jelly. His sun-lounger was three spaces away. Had he been here before them this morning? Or had he only now picked his spot? It wouldn’t surprise her if he’d picked this spot so that he could take a better look at Caprice, she guessed. Men flocked to her as though she was giving away free money. Andrea had seen it all her life, from their college days onwards.

“I think he’s more interested in you,” said Caprice carefully.

Not one to raise her hopes, Andrea balked at the suggestion.

“You don’t think he’s hot?” Caprice, shocked at Andrea’s cool reaction lifted herself to a seated position and sat facing Andrea. She snuck another look at the man.

“Will you stop eyeballing him?” hissed Andrea, embarrassed that he would discover they were talking about him.

“You don’t think he’s hot?”

“He’s … okay.” Andrea drew her words out begrudgingly. If she admitted to finding him even remotely interesting her friend would goad her into making a move. They were desperate, both her and Talia, to pair Andrea up.

“Okay? If I wasn’t engaged,” Caprice paused to admire her huge solitaire diamond ring, “I might be interested. But I think he’s into you. He keeps looking this way.”

Andrea exhaled loudly. “Please, can you drop this?” She begged. For the past four days her friends, both in relationships, had been interrogating her about her single status. Talia was in a new relationship with a man she’d met at a court case and Caprice was engaged to her boyfriend of eighteen months. Because it had been a few years since Andrea had been in a meaningful relationship, her friends had been trying to ‘figure out what was wrong with her’ and had proceeded to carry out an analysis of her condition.

“What’s wrong?” Caprice looked at her as if she’d had a nosebleed. “Why are you so uptight about a drop-dead hunk who keeps looking at you?”

“I’m not interested in having a relationship at the moment. I don’t have the time and energy to go for it.”

Caprice made a dismissive noise “It’s not an exercise class!” she snorted. “With the right guy, you’ll make the time. All your work ethic will go out of the window, you’ll probably spend your time in bed doing more fun things.”

Andrea glared at her friend and wished she would drop the talk. Besides, the man behind her was way out of her league and she wasn’t going to put herself out there. Not yet. She’d been humiliated enough to discover that she’d gotten things so wrong with Nico. These days her ego was fragile and she preferred to focus her attention on her business for now. Dealing with baby and children’s nursery furniture, toys and accessories was easier than dealing with relationships.

“Can’t we make the most of the time we have left and stop talking about men for a change?” Talia had left first thing in the morning and in a few hours Caprice would be going, too. Andrea had extended her trip to stay for one extra day because she had plans to check out a new crib manufacturer on her return journey.

“What else is there to talk about?” asked Caprice, retying the bow of her bikini top and hauling her breasts higher. Andrea watched in envy. There were times when she wished for a fuller figure like her friend’s. “And how can you go without sex for so many years?”
Andrea nearly choked on her breath. “Ssssshhhhhhhhhhh.” If Blue Eyes over there hadn’t been wearing his headphones, she would have died of embarrassment.

“It hasn’t been years,” Andrea retorted. Caprice was making it sound like it had been a decade.

“Your Rabbit doesn’t count. That’s not sex that’s—”

“Will you stop it?” This was the problem with her friends. Because they were so loved up, they were constantly fixated by relationships—whether it was the latest celebrity pairing or someone they knew. This weekend they had been trying to find out what Andrea’s problem was.

“But don’t you miss it?” Caprice insisted, obviously desperate to unravel the mystery of her celibacy.

“Having someone?”

“The sex. Don’t you miss the sex?”

Andrea thought about it. “I miss having someone to talk to, someone to go to dinner with, someone to spend a day like this with.”

“And the sex?” Caprice refused to let the matter settle.

Andrea squirmed. “I miss intimacy,” she whispered. Even though she had her back to him, she could feel Blue Eyes. It was a good thing there were a few sun-loungers between them. “But right now I have other stuff going on.”

“I don’t get why you’re not putting yourself out there more and working harder to find someone.”

“Because I’m busy working hard on my business and I want to expand, find bigger premises, maybe get a second warehouse in years to come.”

Caprice dismissed her words with a wave of her hand. “It’s always about your business. It takes over your life and it’s not a good thing,

Andrea. It’s not right.”

“What’s not right?”

“Spending your life alone.”

Andrea set the bottle of lotion on the ground. “I like my business. I like being my own boss and having my own hours. I don’t have to return home today in order to prep for work tomorrow.” She pulled a face at her friend. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound like a dig.”

“Luigi says he doesn’t mind whether I work or not.”

“He’s your boss. He only wants you at work so that he can keep an eye on you.”

“And other things,” said Caprice mischievously. “Sex on his desk knowing that his secretary was sitting outside his office was the biggest thrill. Have you ever—”

“No!” returned Andrea emphatically. She tried unsuccessfully to erase the image that Caprice had conjured up.

“One time I got under his desk and gave him a blow—”

“I get the picture! No wonder you can’t keep away from work,” muttered Andrea. Caprice hadn’t changed one bit. She’d had more boyfriends back in college than she and Talia had combined.

“Sex is more thrilling than ever,” she cooed.

“I bet it is.”

Your work is secondary, thought Andrea. This was where she had a lot more in common with Ava. Both were independent, strong minded women who ran their own businesses. For her friends their jobs were something that sucked up five days out of the week. Talia loved her work; she’d studied hard to earn her law degree and seemed to enjoy her career. Caprice was well taken care of, and work for her was a hobby, or a sex playground, mused Andrea.

It was different for Andrea. She worked seven days a week, maybe not the whole week at the warehouse but she often took work home. She never had a day when she didn’t do anything related to her business. It consumed her life.

“Let’s relax for another hour, then maybe grab lunch?” she suggested.

“That would work. Luigi wants to take me to dinner at eight so if I get the train by four at the latest, I’ll have plenty of time to get ready.”

With Blue Eyes not too far away, Andrea’s body was buzzing with excitement. She tried to remember when she’d first seen him; was it only yesterday? Or had he been here a few days before that?

What with their lunches, brunches, cocktails and a good few days of girlie fun, time had melted into one long, lazy stretch of memories and she’d stopped living by her watch for a change.