Audra handed over her things, dreading watching them fall to the water below, but Jay didn't drop them.
"Now your turn." He held out his hand.
It's just like Point Peron when she was a kid. Her brothers would jump but a girl couldn't possibly...ha, she'd showed them. Point Peron was only a couple of metres into shallow water, though. Not a ten-metre drop with rocks and sharks in the water. Wouldn't be a problem if she didn't fall. Just like Point Peron. As long as she didn't look down...
Audra shook her head, backing up a few steps as she'd seen Jay do. Every bit of her body screamed at her to keep retreating until she returned to the villas, but Audra was determined. Just like Point Peron.
"One, two..."
She didn't wait for three. She broke into a sprint and leaped, smacking into Jay as she hit the other side. His own fault for getting in the way. Warm arms surrounded her and her eyes snapped open. "Let go of me."
With what looked like reluctance, Jay released her and gestured toward her belongings. "Not far now."
Audra nodded and shouldered her bag and the towels. Jay squeezed between two rocks and even Audra found it a tight fit, though not for long. The rocks hid a perfect white beach beside the lagoon, curving invitingly around a rock pool. Lagoon water splashed over the side of the pool, and Audra caught a glimpse of purple coral before the rippled surface hid it from sight.
"Next time we come here, we should bring snorkelling gear."
Audra found herself agreeing with him, but then reality hit her. There wouldn't be a next time. By tomorrow evening, Jay wouldn't need a babysitter and she'd be back in her room, focussed on her job application. Her future lay far from here and even further away from him. She spread a towel out at one end of the beach and laid the other one in the shade of a palm tree at the other end. Several metres of sand separated them, and an ocean of life and experience, too. "Do you want your book?" Audra dug out the library books and held out his.
Jay grabbed it and tapped the title. "Sure. If nothing else, I want to find out how it's possible to steal a tattoo."
Audra knew the title was the band's name in the book, but she didn't bother telling him. Let him find out for himself. Throwing herself down on the shaded towel, she cracked open her own paperback and settled into a fantasy that didn't involve rock stars.
THIRTY-NINE
A shell landed on her page. Audra brushed it off, looking for the source.
Jay stood beside her. She had to twist around to squint up at him. "What?"
"Didn't you hear me calling you?"
Audra shook her head. She'd been engrossed in her book. Too engrossed, she realised, when she should have been keeping an eye on Jay. "Sorry."
"I'm having a drink. Want me to get you one?" He didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he dragged the basket over beside her towel and settled in the sand next to her. No, not the sand – he'd shifted his towel over already. Within arm's reach of her. So much for separation distance. "Okay, morning tea is...iced coffee and cake." He pulled out a thermos and cups, then reached into the basket for the cakes. Peering into the box, he added, "They look like tarts. Wonder if they were made by the blowjob chef or his tart?"
Audra laughed. "Penny told me she trained to be a chef, but I think she gave that up around the time she poisoned her housemate. I hope neither of them made our food." She took the tart and bit into it. "Well, it tastes all right and it isn't burned. Patel tends to burn stuff when he's preoccupied with Penny. Sometimes he burns the guest dishes and they make it to the staff dining room instead of the restaurant buffet."
Jay stared at her. "They make the staff eat burned food?"
"No! They don't make us eat anything, but our dining room has a buffet, so sometimes we get stuff that's a little overcooked or singed around the edges. Anything that's deemed not fit for guests. Patel's speciality is mango chicken. Even when he burns it, it's good. That's why I haven't reported him and Penny before – because that's the dish that usually suffers, and it's my favourite."
"You like your mango. Chicken and beer," Jay said, stretching out on his side, facing her. He twisted the squeaky cap of the thermos until it popped open. He poured, then waited until Audra had her mouth full of iced coffee before he added, "But you don't like me."
She swallowed. "Of course I like you, Jay. I like all hotel guests who don't make me clean blood off the ceiling or chocolate out of the carpet."
His eyes widened. "Blood on the ceiling? How the fuck did someone get blood up there? Now I know I could never do your job. I don't even want to ask..."
Audra shrugged. Telling him the story about the bloodbath in the gym beat confessing that she liked him a lot more than she was willing to admit. So she told him about Serge's surprise, warming to her tale as Jay laughed in all the right places.
When she was done, he lay back, staring up at the sky, and said, "So that's why you don't like me. You're dating the personal trainer."
"No. Serge and I aren't like that at all. We're just friends. His family, they – " Audra swallowed. Serge's secrets weren't hers to tell. "He's someone to talk to who understands, that's all." She drained her iced coffee and threw the cup on the sand.
"I bet he'll listen to you talk about almost anything if he gets to stare at your tits while you're talking." His eyes hardened. "I bet he's thinking of fucking you all night and doesn't hear a word you say."
Her fingers itched to pick up the cup and slam it into his sneering face. "Screw you, Jay. That's the last time I tell you anything. You turn everything into a suggestion about sex. I'm here to do my job and make sure you don't have brain damage, but it's damn hard to work that out when you keep saying stupid things like that. Do your millions of fangirls care that you're an arsehole?" She bit her lip, trying to stem the flow, but since she'd started, she might as well finish. In for a penny, in for a pound. "They don't care, do they? They think you're allowed to be because you're a rock star. Well, news flash, arsehole. If you're having trouble finding a girl for more than a passing fuck, that's why. Maybe your band breaking up is a good thing, because you'll have to learn a few manners and a bit of respect or the only sex you'll get is what you pay for." Breathing hard, she lay on her towel, staring fixedly at the palm frond above. He was going to report her and she'd lose her job, because the whole tirade would be recorded on her ID for all the world to hear...
"You don't like me because you think I'm an arsehole. Figures. I'm not, you know." Jay didn't sound pissed off at all.
"Yes, you are. And you're delusional if you don't think so."
"If I were as bad as you say, I'd have fucked you already. Kissed you senseless, sucked those nipples raw as I fondled those perfect tits until you spread your legs and begged me to fuck you. I want to. I've told you that. An arsehole wouldn't listen when you say no. He'd take what he wants and to hell with the consequences. If I had no respect for you, I'd take you now."
Audra shot to her feet. "If you touch me, I'm going to–"
Jay didn't move. He just kept staring at the sky. "Like I said, you don't like me. Go on, get it all off that gorgeous chest. It looks sexy as sin when it's heaving in fury."
"I used to like you," she hissed. "Loved your music and the band. I had posters of you in my room. Shit, I even bought tickets to your last concert. Spent half my paycheck on them. But you know what? I'm putting them on eBay when I get home. A dickhead like you isn't getting another cent of my hard-earned money."
"Sell 'em. I don't care. I'll give you VIP ones with backstage passes instead. You should've said you wanted to go."
Audra's mouth gaped, but she couldn't seem to form words. Finally, she found one that framed the tangle of questions in her head. "Why?"
"Because whatever you think of me, I like you, Audra. And I want to see you again when you're not working or angry at me."
Delusional. Not going to happen.
Audra dragged her towel to the other end of the beach and did her best to ignore everything Jay said for the rest of the day. It was her job to keep him alive. Beating him to death with a palm frond would make her lose her job as readily as sleeping with him, so she forced herself to resist. Some parts of her job were so much harder than the others.
FORTY
Audra lost count of the number of times she checked the time on her wristband. Counting down the seconds until her forty-eight-hour stint in hell was over. She'd read two books and said exactly twelve words to Jay in that time, but now she had five minutes left and she'd be free. She drummed her fingers on the kitchen counter, counting down the seconds until she could leave Maxima and Jay.
The crack and fizz of a bottle opening startled her. "We made it. Want a beer to celebrate?" Jay grinned as he held out the drink.
Audra almost didn't take it, then changed her mind and snatched it out of his hand. Five minutes and he could die for all she cared. No, four minutes and thirty seconds.
"Upset that I didn't die on your watch?" he asked cheerfully, taking a deep draught of his own beer.
She shook her head.
"Right. Because you'd have had to clean up the mess."
She met his eyes. "I'm not the arsehole here. I care when people are hurt or if they die. I worried when you weren't back that first night, gave up my days off to be here for you when the resort couldn't spare anyone else, and I would've done my damnedest to save you if you'd collapsed. Even though you threatened me with sexual assault. I have it all recorded on this." She tapped her ID. "Every damn word."