There was a reason, she thought, striking out for the point behind Reka and Kate, that she’d dated actors for so many years. They understood each other, not just the job, but what it was like to live in the public eye. But being an actor, no matter how well known, was nothing like the pressure and expectations on an All Black, and she had a feeling that Hugh and his mates knew all about the effort it sometimes took to make strangers walk away talking about how “natural and friendly” you were, when you’d actually been feeling unnaturally cross. She suspected that Koti James could teach her a thing or two about being a sex object, too. The calm spread through her, the pleasant, faint languor filling her as they swam on. Nobody seemed in a hurry to get out of the water, so deliciously cool against their heated skin, such a pleasure to know that there was no need to rush, to get to the next thing. Finally, though, they emerged from the sea, back where they’d started.
