“Oh, shit. Sorry, Alex, I didn’t mean to! I was just thinking…” God, how much should she tell him? Their holiday was supposed to be about chilling out and enjoying themselves, not worrying about things like this. No, she’d keep her concerns to herself for now. She might not be able to stop her brain from thinking them, but it didn’t mean she had to let what was going on inside her head affect the others.

“Thinking what?” he prompted, gripping the edge of the decking on which they sat and squeezing until his knuckles went white.

“I was thinking how awesome it would be to have a key to your place. Obviously it’s for convenience, not cohabitation, but it still represents a certain amount of commitment…” My God, that’s it! Excitement flooded her veins as she realised she may have, however inadvertently, come up with the solution to her problem. I can give them all keys to the house. Despite the excitement of her brainwave, she still didn’t want to burden Alex with it yet, so she continued hurriedly, “and I’m absolutely thrilled at the idea. It would be amazing to be able to pop in and see you, or maybe even wait for you to get home from work, if that’s not too much of an imposition?”
Alex shook his head. “Not at all. It’d be fantastic not to walk into an empty flat—even if it’s only once in a while. Nothing would make me happier than seeing your beautiful face as soon as I got home.”

“That settles it then, I guess. I’d love to have a key—thank you.”

“I will put that at the very top of my to-do list when we get home.” His face transformed into a heart-melting grin, which had that precise effect on Mia, and he took her hand. Then he leaned in and kissed her. It was light at first—and possibly that was all he’d intended it to be—but the moment she slipped her free hand around the back of his neck and responded, things quickly heated up. They opened their mouths, and their tongues entered the fray, briefly slipping against each other, then beginning to tease and explore. Within seconds her nipples had peaked and were pressing against her bikini top, and the dampness between her thighs was nothing to do with the balmy air temperature.

Mia rolled her eyes, then gave him a gentle smile. “Alex,” she kissed his stubbled cheek—she didn’t think he’d shaved since the morning of the wedding, and she really liked his more casual appearance, “I’m not saying I want to sit around watching TV or reading all the time, but I understand that if you’re exhausted, you’re exhausted, and the last thing you want after a busy day is to go out again. That’s absolutely fine. What I do want is to figure out a way to spend more time with you. If that means chilling out indoors, that’s not a problem. I’d be perfectly content snuggled up on the sofa with you. I’d much rather do that than not see you at all. I thought we could see how things go. I’ll stay at my place in Holland Park more often, and we’ll play it by ear. If you’re free, you’re free, and if you’re not, you’re not. If that’s okay with you, that is? I don’t want to force my company on you.”

He chuckled. “Are you kidding? I really would love to spend more time with you—I just don’t want to bore you to tears, that’s all. If you can find a way to come to London more often that’s not too inconvenient for you, then I would be delighted. We’ll have to be careful if we go out in public—since as far as the outside world is concerned you’re Elias’s wife—but I’m sure we can find some fun stuff to do. Elias said something about you wanting to do more touristy things in London. I’m definitely up for that. Just to warn you, it probably won’t work out all the time in terms of my shifts at the hospital—but even snatched moments with you are better than nothing.” He paused, then shifted his gaze out to the horizon, as though thinking. After a moment, he bit his lip, then turned back to her. “I, uh, could give you a key to my place, if you like, so you can let yourself in.”

Mia’s heart skipped. She wasn’t sure why, but Alex’s offer came across as both incredibly important and a big commitment. And she couldn’t have been more delighted about it. She’d been looking for a way to deepen their bond, and this appeared to be it. It didn’t come close to the level of commitment she and Elias had signed up for, and there was no legal way of replicating that with him or any of the others anyway, but she was eager to cement her relationships with all her men so nobody felt more or less important than anyone else, or worried she might have favourites. Each of them brought something different to her life, and she couldn’t imagine a future without all of them in it. But at the moment, she had no idea how to get them onto an equal footing.

“Mia?”

She pulled herself out of her thoughts to find Alex staring at her, his eyes wide with concern. “For God’s sake, sweetheart, would you say something? You look happy, but you haven’t answered me. You’re seriously leaving me hanging here.”

“Oh, I dunno,” she said breezily, trying hard to suppress a smile, “I think there’s probably room for a couple more in my harem.”

They stared at each other, and Mia couldn’t hold back her mirth any longer as she spotted the flicker of surprise that crossed Alex’s face. She laughed, then took his hand, pulled it to her mouth, and kissed it. “Full disclosure—if any of the aforementioned gentlemen turn up at my door demanding to be let into the group, I will have to give it careful consideration. You lot will have to budge up and make room. But otherwise, I’m perfectly happy with things the way they are. I don’t see enough of you all as it is.” A thought occurred to her, something she’d wanted to discuss with Alex for a while. No time like the present. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You did? I’m all ears.”

She nodded. “I know because of your job it’s not always possible to keep commitments, and you sometimes don’t get much free time. So I was wondering how you felt about me coming into London more often? It’ll put me closer to you, and Elias of course—even Arjun, to an extent—so if it gives you and I the opportunity to spend more time together, I’m more than happy to do it. I can easily reorganise my workload to make it happen. As long as everything gets dealt with, it doesn’t matter if it’s done on a Monday or a Saturday, at 9 a.m. or 8 p.m. Seeing you is more important to me than keeping regular office hours.”

Smiling softly, he put his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug, then kissed the top of her head. “I like the sound of that, but…”
She frowned and stiffened in his embrace. “But what?”

He released her and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding ungrateful or upsetting you.”

Her heart thumped. “Say what?”

“It’s just… most of the time, I get home from work and I’m totally knackered. I often get in, take a shower, grab something quick to eat, and veg out in front of the TV, or with a book if I think I’ll be able to concentrate on it. God,” he gave a wry chuckle, “the amount of times I’ve fallen asleep with a book on my face doesn’t bear thinking about.”

“And what’s wrong with that? The getting home knackered part, I mean, not the book on your face.”

Now it was Alex’s turn to frown. “Well, it’s not very exciting, is it? I’d really like to show you a good time, not force you to sit around watching TV or reading books.”

Mia didn’t turn; the staff had disappeared after clearing away their breakfast things, so it could only be one of her men, and she honestly didn’t mind which. Half the fun of having them all in the same place at the same time was not knowing what was going to happen next, or with whom. Her new life was unpredictable, but in a safe way, a status quo which suited Mia’s personality perfectly—she liked adventure and excitement, but not too much. If controlled chaos was a thing, that was what she was aiming for.

A moment later she sensed a person right behind her, felt their body heat, and then gentle hands covered her eyes. A whiff of cologne reached her nostrils, telling her exactly who it was, but she kept quiet—she didn’t want to ruin the game.

“Guess who?” came a voice, confirming it was indeed, Alex.

“Err… I don’t know,” she played along. “Let me think. Is it… George Clooney? Brad Pitt? Johnny Depp?”

Alex chuckled. “Younger. Much younger.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” She smiled, the lift of her cheeks making them push against Alex’s warm hands. “Maybe… Aidan Turner? Tom Hardy? Michael B. Jordan? Sam Heughan? Charlie Hunnam?”

He snatched his hands away and sat down beside her, shaking his head, a glint of amusement in his blue-green eyes.

She took the opportunity to drink in the sight of him, barefoot and clad in nothing but a pair of deep blue swimming shorts. A pair of sunglasses sat on top of his head, and his long legs dangled beside hers. He looked as relaxed as she felt. He also looked mouth-wateringly sexy, and she reluctantly dragged her gaze from his body back up to his face before she was tempted to spirit him away into her bungalow so they could mess up the sheets on her queen-sized bed.

“All right, all right,” he said with mock irritation, “no need to list all your celebrity crushes. We could be here all year. I haven’t even heard of most of them. Besides,” he leaned in and gave her a playful nudge with his shoulder, “isn’t four men enough for you?”