When It's Love by Bella Andre, Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online Page A

leaving the island just as soon as he'd finished having his adventures for the TV show. The last kind of man she needed in her life was one who didn't have a prayer of staying in one place.
    “I had assumed you’d only be interested in the waves around the island.”
    “Good waves are definitely a bonus, but often the best parts of my job are the places I get to visit. Thailand, Australia, Brazil.”
    “And now Walker Island,” Rachel said with a smile.
    “Yes,” he agreed with a smile. “Walker Island is definitely one of my new favorite places. And I have to say that staying with your grandmother is a lot of fun. She is such an interesting woman.”
    “What about Emily and Paige?” Rachel asked. “Did you get a chance to spend some time with them last night?”
    She could imagine Paige—lithe and athletic from hours of dancing every day—being the kind of woman Nicholas would go for all too easily. If the two of them did connect, Rachel vowed not to be jealous. Paige was one of the sweetest people on the planet and deserved to be happy. If a fling with a gorgeous surfer would make Paige happy, Rachel would support her sister. No matter what.
    “Actually, no, I haven't met them yet.”
    “Weren’t they home for dinner last night?”
    “I'm not sure. I was out, and by the time I got back, everyone was already asleep.”
    Rachel could easily imagine the kind of activities that might have kept Nicholas out that late. The island had plenty of opportunities for tourists who wanted to have a good time.
    “You never told me what you do for a living,” Nicholas said, breaking the sudden silence.
    “Oh, you don’t want to hear about that,” Rachel insisted. “If I start talking about my work, you’ll be bored in about five seconds flat.”
    “It isn’t ever boring to hear a smart, sexy woman talk about something she’s passionate about.”
    Rachel flushed slightly at the smart, sexy part of his reply. Was he flirting with her? She’d felt the spark between them when they’d met, and part of her wanted to believe that it might be possible to reach out and touch it, but she was too smart—and too wary—to let herself risk getting burned by another gorgeous man who flitted from port to port even faster than her ex had.
    “How do you know that I’m passionate about my work?”
    “Why would anybody spend their time doing something that they aren’t passionate about?”
    Most people lived lives where they had to do whatever was needed to meet their responsibilities. But it occurred to her that Nicholas had probably never even had a normal job, so it was no wonder that he could be so idealistic.
    “I work as an actuary.”
    “That's fascinating.”
    “You're joking, right?”
    He was clearly surprised by her response. “Why are you assuming I’d find that boring?”
    “How can a guy in your line of work not find the idea of sitting in an office, assessing risks and looking at ways of managing them for insurance purposes at least a little bit boring? Especially when everything you do is such an adrenaline rush? And so incredibly dangerous, too.” She was well on a roll now, but couldn't seem to stop herself from adding, “Did you know that in a recent study, 38.4% of a group of surfers had suffered an injury bad enough to keep them out of the water in the year just before the study was done?”
    “That’s the New South Wales report, isn’t it?”
    “You know the report?”
    “Trust me, I know exactly how dangerous the sports I do can be, but just because surfing can be dangerous, it doesn’t have to be. Not if you take the right precautions. When I’m teaching surfing, my students have to learn my safety routines before they get near a board.” He grinned at her as he said, “Handing them my big laundry list of safety checks comes as a shock to some of them.”
    Not as much of a shock as it was to Rachel. Serious safety checks and insurance statistics simply didn’t fit with his daredevil