I knock again, and after a moment the door opens, and I almost swallow my tongue. Nat is standing there in all his warm, sleepy glory. His olive skin flushed, his wild dark curls rioting all over the place and wearing nothing but a very… very thin pair of sleeping shorts. I swallow slowly, my mouth is actually watering, and I almost reach up to see if I’m drooling.

Just friends…. Just friends… I chant silently.

He blinks slowly, as if he isn’t quite awake enough to focus.

‘Beck?’ he murmurs, and his voice, hoarse from sleep, shoots straight to my balls. He blinks again in confusion. ‘Am I having that dream again?’ he wonders aloud. ‘If I am, where’s your moustache, and why aren’t you fixing the plumbing?’

I snort out loud, and it breaks the tension.

His head tilts as he studies me. ‘What are you doing here?’ He glances back into his room, presumably to look at a clock and scowls. ‘At five thirty in the morning?’

‘The break is perfect this morning, so I thought we could catch some waves.’ I smile.

‘At five thirty in the morning?’ he repeats slowly, and I nod. ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ he says dryly.

‘Nope,’ I pop my lips on the word and grin again.

‘Urgh,’ he grunts in disgust and turns back into the room.

I reach out and slap my hand against the door before it slams in my face and follow him in curiously. He crosses the room and crawls back into bed, flopping down on his stomach like a starfish with his face buried in the pillows and gifting me with a gorgeous view of his round peachy arse.

‘Go away and come back at a more civilized hour,’ he mumbles incoherently into the pillow.

‘Come on, Nat.’ I smile widely as I throw the curtains open and let in the pale rays of dawn.

He grunts again as he grabs a pillow and shoves it over his head.

‘Besides,’ I say brightly. ‘The farmers market is on at the Killacourt, and we need to source some new suppliers for the restaurant.’

‘Then come back and get me in four hours,’ comes the muffled reply from beneath the pillow.

I cross the room slowly, unable to hide how much he delights me, even all sleepy and grumpy. I drop down on my haunches beside the bed.

‘I’ll buy you a coffee,’ I croon in a low teasing voice.

For a moment there’s silence, then the pillow shifts, and his face slowly peeks out, locking those starling baby blues on me, which are framed with sooty black lashes. I’ve never seen him unshaven, but now he has a sexy dark stubble gracing his jaw that I’d love to trace the pads of my fingers over before brushing those soft, bee stung lips.

‘What sort of coffee?’ He pouts in reluctant interest.

‘Only the best for you, Nat.’ I smile slowly. ‘Hand roasted, freshly ground and as dark and bitter as the pits of hell.’