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‘You’ve always swum?’ Lame, but it was a beginning. He couldn’t dive straight into all the intense, personal questions that were simmering within him.
‘Since I started travelling,’ she replied distantly. ‘Most places have nice pools somewhere.’
Penny answered his light chat completely uselessly, her brain still barely processing that she was trapped in the pool room all night. With Carter. It was the ‘with Carter’ bit that really had her reeling. That and the extreme throbbing still going on in some sensitive parts of her body. Staying in control of the next eight hours was going to take serious concentration and she needed to stay in control. The avalanche of sensation he’d triggered in her had taken her by surprise—despite the warning signals she’d had from his earlier kisses.
Too much emotion—even just lust—led to fallout, not fun. She couldn’t deal with fallout. Mind you, she might not have to, because he wasn’t exactly busting his moves now. In fact he was quite carefully keeping a distance while she grew colder by the second.
He wasn’t even looking at her any more. And now the last of the light let in by the high windows was fading so she couldn’t hope to read his expression. But he did seem inclined to talk. And she was definitely inclined to ask.
‘So your family’s in Melbourne.’ She’d picked up that nugget at dinner last night.
‘Dad is. My mum died when I was fourteen.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay. Dad’s on his third marriage now.’
She clamped her lips to stop her ‘oh’.
‘He remarried within a year,’ Carter continued bluntly. ‘Twenty years younger than him, gold-digger. The whole cliché you can imagine, only worse.’
‘Oh.’ Couldn’t stop it that time.
‘Eventually he got out of it but went straight into the next marriage. Another much younger woman—Lucinda. They had a baby last year.’
‘Really?’ That was big.
‘Yeah, Nick.’
‘You have a baby half-brother,’ she processed. ‘And you’re okay with it?’
‘Actually, he’s quite a little dude. Why, you don’t like kids?’
‘It’s not that I don’t like them …’
He twisted to face her. ‘You don’t want them?’
‘Definitely not,’ she answered immediately.
‘Not now, or not ever?’
‘Ever.’
‘Really?’ He sounded surprised. ‘Me either.’ He started to laugh. ‘That’s what’s so great about Nick. He’s the new generation Dodds boy to take over from me. No pressure on me to procreate now, Dad’s done it.’
‘Do you think they’ll have more?’ Penny couldn’t imagine having a sibling she was old enough to be the mother of.
‘I don’t know. Lucinda probably doesn’t want to risk her figure again. She has the new heir now—she has Dad round her little finger as tight as she can.’
‘Maybe she loves him.’ Penny just had to throw in that possibility because she suspected Carter might have his bitter eyes on.
‘She loves his money and status.’
Yeah, bitter. ‘Gee, not down on her at all, are you?’
‘I’ve met her type before. The first stepmother—remember?’
‘So you’re not close to your dad.’ She figured his scathing attitude might get in the way of that.
‘Actually we are pretty close. He retired from the companies completely a few years ago—mainly to be with her. And part of me hopes their marriage will last because, I think it’d kill him to lose the kid, but it won’t. Then he’ll undoubtedly find someone else. I try to treat Lucinda with respect. But he knows I don’t trust her. He tells me time will take care of that and I guess it will. They’ll either break up or last the distance.’
‘You don’t think it’s kind of romantic?’
‘I don’t believe anything is romantic.’
Ah. Penny sat up and repositioned her towel, her interest totally piqued. ‘Who taught you not to?’
Even in the gloom she could see the devilish spark light up his eyes. ‘My stepmother’s yoga instructor.’
‘You’re kidding.’ She couldn’t help but smile. He was so naughty. ‘A yoga instructor.’ Giggles bubbled then. ‘No wonder you won’t settle for one woman—she gave you unrealistic expectations.’
‘You think she set the bar too high?’ he asked, all wickedness.
‘A cougar who taught you hot yoga sex? Way too high.’ And no wonder he’d shot her through the roof with a mere touch, probably some Tantric trick.
‘My stepmother was only eight years older than me,’ he pointed out sarcastically. ‘And Renee was only six.’
Her name was Renee? Penny maintained her grin, but her teeth gritted. ‘But you were how old?’
‘Sixteen. What?’ His grin broadened. ‘Too young?’
‘Too young to have your heart broken.’
He laughed. ‘That wasn’t what happened. It was just sex.’
‘Your first time is never just sex,’ she said with feeling. ‘So what happened?’
‘She had a fiancé I didn’t know about. She wanted to play around on her man for the power trip. And she wanted to break me in.’
Penny had the distinct impression no woman had ever broken Carter, and none ever would. But he’d definitely been bruised. ‘What happens with your first can really leave a mark.’ She knew that for a fact.
‘You think?’ He laughed. ‘Renee was just about fun. It was the next one who really tried to do me over.’
‘Oh? How old was she?’
He chuckled. ‘Three months younger than me, honey. She was Head Girl of the school, I was Head Boy. The perfect match—on paper.’
‘You were Head Boy?’
He shrugged, looked a bit sheepish. ‘Good all-rounder.’
She knew what it took to be appointed the head of one of those elite schools—excellent grades, good sporting or musical achievement, community spirit. The golden boy going with the golden girl. Yeah, she knew all about that. ‘So you were King and Queen of the prom. Then what happened?’
‘We went to university. She switched to be at the same as me.’
‘Oh.’ Penny smiled wryly. ‘Her first mistake.’
‘We were only eighteen, you know? I wasn’t looking to settle down.’
She understood that too. And a decade or so later, Carter still wasn’t looking to settle. ‘So it turned to custard?’
‘She started getting serious about us getting married. Lots of pressure and angst. Eventually she used another guy to try to push me into it.’
‘She tried to make you jealous?’
‘Yeah, but I don’t get jealous. Frankly, I didn’t care that much—as bad as that sounds. So it didn’t work. I just realised I couldn’t trust any of your fair sex.’
He didn’t trust women at all. But then who could blame him? His mother had left—okay, she’d died, but it was being left in a sense. His first lover had used him, his