Read Online Hot Island Nights by Sarah Mayberry - Free Book Online

way she’d chased after him. The way she’d propositioned him. The way—she pressed her hands over her face as the memory rushed up at her—the way she’d begged him to do her from behind.
    She was shameless. Utterly shameless.
    And the worst thing was, she didn’t have it in her to regret any of it. It had been wonderful. She’d felt so free, so alive. And he’d been so amazing—generous and passionate and intuitive. He hadn’t questioned anything, or made her feel silly or dirty or wrong, he’d simply thrown himself wholeheartedly into the moment. Just thinking about it made her want to—
    She gave a shriek as an offshore breeze danced around her legs and her skirt kicked upward. She clamped her hands down on either side of her skirt. There was an older woman walking her dog down by the tide line and two joggers pounding the sand. She was sure they had all taken one look at her smudged makeup and mussed hair and understood that she’d just crawled out of bed. She didn’t need to expose her naked nether regions to them to confirm the fact.
    Which brought her to an important point she could no longer avoid: she had no idea where her panties were. The last time she could remember wearing them had been when Nathan had led her along the beach to find some privacy. She couldn’t remember if she’d put them back on again for the walk to his place or not. She’d been so blown away after what had happened, so enamored of him, it was impossible to remember clearly.
    A horrible thought hit her. What if she’d left them on the beach? The thought of her abandoned knickers being discovered by someone was enough to make her feel distinctly queasy. So very, very refined. If Grandmama could see her now…
    Elizabeth pushed the thought away. She refused to feel guilty about last night. Yes, she’d had sex with an almost-stranger. The first one-night stand of her life. But it had been wild and sexy and sensual and she would not regret it. It was her private business and no one need ever know about it. What happened on Phillip Island stayed on Phillip Island.
    Still, she kept an eye out for her knickers all the way back to the pub. She even backtracked a little, exploring the dry sand past the high-tide mark. She found nothing. She told herself that most likely they’d been swept out to sea and very badly wanted to believe it.
    No one was stirring inside and she slunk up to her room gratefully. It was one thing to be determined not to feel regret and another thing entirely to do the walk of shame.
    She showered and fell into bed for another couple of hours, waking when the temperature began to climb again and the room became too stuffy for comfort. Sitting up in bed, she crossed her legs and pushed her hair back from her face and made some decisions.
    Nate had offered to put her in contact with her father, even if it wasn’t exactly in the manner of her choosing. She would wait until he heard something, then she would make her decision. There was nothing for her to rush home to, after all. She’d been working as a substitute teacher all year and the term was already over for her. Workwise, she could extend her stay in Australia until at least mid-January if she had to.
    And—coward though it made her—maybe it would be better for herself and her grandparents to have a little breathing room before they came face-to-face again. Give tempers and ruffled feathers a chance to calm down.
    And in the meantime, she would stretch her wings a little. Explore Cowes and the nearby beaches, get to know the locals a little. Find out what it was that Elizabeth Mason wanted in life if it wasn’t marriage to a perfectly nice, perfectly perfect Englishman.
    That ought to be enough to fill up her days. As for the nights…
    A dozen hot and sweaty memories flitted across her mind. She pushed them away. Best not to think about the nights. She might be woefully naive in the world of casual sex, but she knew that looking for anything more