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CHAPTER ONE

The lock clicked. Instantrelief.

Casildo pushed open Anna Turner’s temporarily vacant apartment door. Vacant being the only word that mattered. He stepped into the fully furnished, light-filled, central Sydney, with carpark, apartment belonging to his best friend Hunter’s newly wedded wife.

“Thank you, Jaddatee.”Cas believed blessings came from his dead grandma, so it seemed only fair to invoke her name.

Anna and Hunter had flown off to their honeymoon destination this morning. Cas hadn’t planned to accept Hunter’s offer to stay in Anna’s apartment. In fact, he’d saidNo thanks. But circumstances and a plea from his older sister had made finding immediate accommodation urgent. He chuckled. Lucky Hunt had given him a key. Tonight he’d brought a hold-all with a few essentials. Tomorrow he’d collect the rest of his gear.

The apartment had been largely empty since Hunt and Anna’s whirlwind romance meant Anna stayed mostly at Hunt’s apartment, so the rich perfume of melted chocolate teasing his nostrils was unexpected. Amazing how scents could linger, or how the olfactory system could play tricks on you. Anna’s go-to comfort drink was hot chocolate.

Cas ambled down the corridor, the scent growing stronger with each step.

At the loungeroom door, he stopped: Beatriz Gomez—but not Beatriz Gomez as he’d ever seen her in the five years since they’d met at an industry function. The scrupulously neat and professional advertising account manager always looked stylish—alluring, rather than conventionally beautiful—but tonight she’d curled up in the corner of a sofa in a multi-coloured, free-flowing, kaftan-type outfit. Her closed eyes and dreamy expression told him her earbuds blocked extraneous noise. Cas’s arrival fell in the category of extraneous noise.

Her hands were wrapped around a cup. Hot chocolate. Good to know his sense of smell was still reliable. This version of Beatriz begged to be touched, cuddled really, but they’d never been on those sorts of terms. Cas had never thought of her in those terms. Until today.

Okay, I’ve had the occasional fantasy.

What guy with a pulse wouldn’t? Beatriz was an appealing combination of lush curves, dark colouring, and charm, although her aura of “not available” had become a silent roar in the last few years. Happy couples, like Hunter and Anna, signalled “not available,” but with Beatriz, he’d never heard a whisper of a boyfriend, girlfriend, lover. And they worked in a field where gossip spread faster than a new virus.

Given I’m not looking, not available works for me.

“Beatriz,” he called.

No reaction. Not by a flicker of an eyelid did she register his presence. He grinned, althoughher presencewas a problem. She was one of Anna’s closest friends. Had she stopped by to check the place was secure, stayed for a hot drink? She looked remarkably settled for a casual drop-in.

He moved directly in front of her and raised his voice. “Beatriz.”

Her eyes shot open, the hand holding her drink jerked, upending the contents; she cried out and shot to her feet simultaneously. Her toenails were rainbow-coloured, as in one yellow, one green, one purple, and so on. He’d never be able to look at her regulation short boots the same way again.

“What the—” She tugged the earbuds from her ears.

“Sorry.” He held his hands up in surrender.

“Is something wrong? Has something happened to Anna and Hunter?” Her expression leapfrogged shock and hurtled toward concern.

“As far as I know, they’re flying off into the wide blue yonder, not a care in the world.”

She was holding her stained, no-longer-floaty garment away from her torso, her forehead crinkling into a frown. “Then why did you break in?”

“I didn’t break in.” He held up his key. “Hunt offered the place to me.”

She shook her head vigorously backward and forward. “Anna gave me first dibs.”

“Ah!” Hunt hadn’t mentioned alternative options for the apartment. To be honest, Cas hadn’t asked if Hunter and Anna had offered the apartment to anyone else when Cas refused it. Just assumed it would be empty.

Her jaw set stubbornly. “So, you’d better go back where you came from.”

“Can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Anna told me you’re staying with your parents.”

Did you ask Anna about my living arrangements?

The idea started an interesting train of thought.

Here and now, Cas.Here and now.