Chapter 2

SUN BEAT DOWN FROM another almost cloudless sky. The breeze made it deceptively temperate. I knew sun was going to burn Weather.

Over the last two weeks I had slowly fallen under Weather's spell. It was hard not to. She was perfectly charming. Alexis had done a spectacular job at raising her. I found myself enjoying her company like no other person I'd ever met. Weather had a fascinating mix of innocent naïveté and worldly awareness, probably because of Alexis. At fourteen, Weather still exuded a rambunctiousness I associated with childhood, a joie de vivre, a contagious enjoyment of the simplest of things. Yet she had a developing maturity, a deeper side. I'd spot it in her behaviour, how she moved, tilted her head, or ran her hand through her short silky hair. I experienced it with her sharply insightful questions as we watched the International news every night, sitting side-by-side on the couch. I was really quite taken with her. She was going to be a devastating woman one day; she was already a pretty devastating girl.

Watching her at the bow of my once-fishing boat, a thirty-two foot wooden Greek trawler-style boat painted white with a blue hull, the wind fluffing her short hair, I had to smile. In a white polo shirt and light blue cargo-style shorts she looked as if she was supporting the Greek colours. It wouldn't take much for her skin to darken and tan, either, if it didn't burn first.

"Put more sun block on," I yelled through open portholes from inside the pilothouse.

Weather waved back at me, smiled and started applying sunscreen lotion to her exposed arms and legs, bending to rub it over slender thighs and down her calves.

One hand shot out to steady herself against a raised cargo-hold cover when we crested a wave, the boat quartering and moving in a slight corkscrew motion as we rounded the headland of Therasia. I'd offered to take her out to see some of the outlying islands and packed a picnic. We planned to anchor in the cove of a small island, Nisida Stroglio, and swim in the deep cool waters if she wanted.

I was so preoccupied with watching Weather I failed to anticipate the complex crossing waves. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it approach, too late for me to take corrective action. The rogue wave hit the side of our bow at an odd angle, the boat shuddering before shaking it off. Spray was tossed into the air and a curtain of salty seawater cascaded over the bow. I watched it slap into Weather, knocking her back a few steps and drenching her from head to foot. She screamed at the unexpected cold dousing. Dripping, looking drowned, she turned towards me, shock and indignation on her pretty face.

I was hit, a mallet smashing into my chest stealing my breath away. Weather's white Polo shirt had become translucent; a delicate little lace bra had appeared underneath. Plastered to her body as it was, the Polo shirt accentuated perfect small breasts rising from her slender chest. The outline of her lacy bra added a sexiness to her that I reacted to on a visceral level, my penis awakening at the alluring sight. Her shorts were plastered to her, hugging her crotch, outlining a very full pubis and what looked like the elastic of her panties. I gulped trying to draw oxygen back into my lungs.

When I looked at her expression of shock, I had to grin. Damn she looked so cute I wanted to go and hug her. And then, when she saw my grin, she frowned at my apparent amusement and that made her look even cuter. It was like falling off a cliff, the ground under me disappearing. A sense of vertigo hit. I found Weather more attractive than anyone I had ever met, ever! I felt the attraction in my pants and my chest, a yearning ache.

Then she looked down and saw her condition. Arms immediately crossed her chest hiding her bra. She glared at me as I laughed. Just too cute for words! A gorgeous drowned rat.

"It's not funny!"

"Yes it is."

"No it's not! And it's frigging cold!"

Another wave took us both by surprise, rocking the boat violently. Weather, arms wind-milling trying to retain her balance, went flying with a screech. Shocked, I watched her tumble over the side and disappear from view.

Panic hit. Shoving the throttle to off and cutting the engine and spinning the helm, I raced to the gunwale. She was flopping around eight feet away and drifting. I didn't hesitate. I didn't even think. I dived in. Fuck, it was shockingly cold after the radiant heat of the sun.

Swimming fast I reached her. She was treading water, watching me with a puzzled expression, eyebrows knit.

"What did you do that for?" she asked.

"I didn't. The wave just hit," I replied, confused and surprised to see her quite calm. "I didn't even see it."

"No. Not the wave. Why did you dive in?"

"To save you. Why do you think?"

"But ... I can swim."

"Well, I didn't know that," I exclaimed, treading water, foot-high swells lifting and lowering us. "If I had, I would have stayed in the boat."

Weather stared at me. A grin appeared. She nodded. "Maybe you should have. Look."

I turned and just about had a heart attack. My boat had drifted about forty feet away and was moving further with each passing swell, caught in the current. Fuck me!

I started swimming, a hard crawl, my heart pounding.

Eventually I overhauled the wayward boat. Eventually I steered it over to haul Weather out of the sea. She was laughing at me. I was not impressed. It could have easily been a complete disaster. I glared at her, frowning. "Where the hell was your life jacket?" I asked, now I was thinking again.

She grinned at me. "There." A regal finger pointed. "Where the hell was yours?" she asked cheekily. Then, when she caught me staring at her lacy bra, her arm quickly covered herself again. "Stop staring!"

"I wasn't."

"Yes you were!"

"I wasn't! Okay, I was." I smiled. "You've got boobs!"

Her peal of laughter was a pure delight, making me feel warm inside.

WEATHER LAUGHED AND FELT her nipples tighten up even more. Aidan's staring, while at first embarrassing, suddenly felt good. His eyes seemed to grow so wide and his smile took her breath away. He was soaked head to foot, light brown, sun-bleached hair plastered to his forehead, polo shirt plastered to his chest and sexy eyes glittering with pleasure. In that moment Aidan was sexy! Her uncle was sexy!

She shivered, but not from cold. He'd ogled her boobs! Aidan had ogled her boobs! How nice was that?

He suddenly turned and yanked out a blanket from a storage locker in the pilothouse, handing it to her.

"You're cold," he said, watching her from inside the pilothouse.

She didn't bother telling him that wasn't why she was shivering, or why her nipples were so hard. Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders she sat down on a bench. Now, with the warmth of the blanket, she started feeling cold.

"I need to change out of these wet things," she said.

"Okay. Good idea."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

Weather grinned. "You've got to leave the pilothouse so I can change. Or would you rather I change in the open?" When he didn't immediately respond, she giggled, blushing. Damn! Why did she blush so much around him?

"Okay."

AS MUCH AS I suddenly wanted Weather to change on the open deck, I tied the helm down so we'd putter along in a circle and stepped out, closing the pilothouse door behind me.

Watching the horizon, lost in thought, I didn't hear Weather emerge. I was consumed with how, from an accident, my complete perspective had changed. I knew I'd found Weather charmingly attractive as a young girl. But I had no idea I'd find her sexy and desirable. A fourteen-year-old sexy? Why? Yet, it was an uncontrollable, visceral attraction. I could still feel my partially erect penis heavy in my shorts. I could still picture every tiny detail of her lacy bra. I could still feel the amazement at how shapely her small breasts were. I could still see the very strong resemblance to Alexis in her face. I had no control at all, no say in how I was reacting, and that made it quite unnerving. It was, in fact, slightly terrifying finding Weather sexually attractive.

"All done," Weather announced, opening the pilothouse door.

"Hmm?"

She laughed. "I'm changed. Thanks."

I turned. Fuck me! Weather had put on a bikini, a blue bikini, a small bikini, little strings holding bits of blue cloth, strings knotted into bows on naked hips, and at the nape of her neck, and behind her back. I ogled expanses of smooth, naked young skin without realising it until she giggled. I shut my mouth.

"You're staring," she said.

Damn right I was. That little thing should have been illegal! "No I'm not. I'm observing. That's different."

"Nope. Staring. That's definitely a stare," she responded with a tinkle of pleased laughter.

When I realised what I was doing, carefully absorbing every surprisingly sexy curve and swell of her adolescent beauty, I had to mentally shake myself. Tearing my eyes away from a spectacularly gorgeous, slender body, I looked at her. The grin and blush on her was beautiful, beautiful. I felt the ground below me fall away again. For some reason I wanted to hug her, draw her close. I had some very adult thoughts tumble through my mind unbidden, especially thoughts involving those little bows and my lips, before sanity returned. Weather's charm and allure was a storm assaulting me.