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beside Davina and as she kicked off her sandals she burst out laughing at the expression on Rex’s face. He smiled again, however, as with a mocking bow she handed him the glass bearing a dangling tea-bag and a slice of lemon, and a hint of his smile was reflected in her own eyes.
    Rex raised the glass to his lips and with a, ‘When in Rome …' took a sip of the weak beverage. He grimaced as he put it down. ‘Sorry, but even I can’t stomach that. I’ll go and change. Sec you,’ and with a brief salute he strode off to the changing rooms.
    Davina sat back to finish her own tea before she too went to put on the bikini in her bag and join the other swimmers in the pool. She swam two lengths, then turned to find Rex had surfaced quietly beside her.
    At his brusque, ‘That’s enough. Go and rest,’ she spluttered with astonished anger at the high-handed order.
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not tired, and in any case you’re not my keeper.’
    ‘This afternoon I am,’ Rex replied bluntly. ‘I promised your mother on no account would I let you tire yourself out,’ and before Davina could think of an answer she found herself lifted like a child and put down gently on the tiled surround of the pool. As she scrambled to her feet determined to defy him, Rex heaved himself out of the water to stand beside her and Davina looked up, suddenly overwhelmingly aware that her strength was puny as opposed to his.
    The sheer size of the broad shoulders and deeply tanned barrel chest so near it was only inches away from her bare shoulder made her catch her breath. Hastily she turned to where her towel lay and throwing herself down she closed her eyes to try to shut out that extraordinary feeling of helplessness which had washed over her. Rex’s swift and unexpected action in lifting her out of the pool had taken her by surprise and Davina was reluctant to admit even to herself that she had almost succumbed to a reckless impulse to touch him, feel if that brown back of his felt as silky as it looked.
    I must be losing my mind, she thought, to get turned on merely by seeing a man stripped down to swimming trunks, and she tried to concentrate on the sound of the water lapping against the sides of the pool, the sounds of conversation in various European languages and the clink of glasses as the waiters moved around. At last they faded gently into the distance, or seemed to do so, and when at last Davina opened her eyes, she discovered Rex sitting beside her, quietly smoking a cigarette.
    Feeling self-conscious, she sat up and he turned his head to look directly at her. ‘Admit I was right to make you get out when I did. You’ve slept for over an hour. I guess you couldn’t have slept too well last night Got a guilty conscience or something?’
    Davina glanced at him curiously; it seemed a strange question to ask. ‘No. Should I have?’
    He did not answer directly, simply offered to roll her a cigarette and when Davina shook her head said, ‘Then I guess we’d better be getting back. Unless you’d like a drink first.*
    Davina shook her head again as she collected her things and went away to put on her clothes. Was Rex piqued that she had fallen asleep? Had he sensed the sudden desire for physical contact which had swept over her and been disappointed she had resisted the temptation to flirt? Maybe he was unaccustomed to asking a girl out to have her waste half the time in sleeping. But he did not strike her as a conceited man, so the unmistakenly censorious note in his voice was all the more mysterious.
    They arrived back at Davina’s grandmother’s house to find the caterers engaged to provide the refreshments finishing the setting up of long buffet tables with Wilhelm hovering anxiously. ‘He’s like a hawk about to pounce as if the poor things have designs on the family silver,’ Davina remarked laughingly as she and Rex went upstairs together.
    He smiled at her remark, but without replying gave her a wave before