Best Man and the Runaway Bride

by Kandy Shepherd

  Max went to wipe his mouth. ‘Don’t touch!’ Again she stayed his hand with hers, her fingers resting on his wrist. She noticed his pulse accelerated, no doubt from effect of the chilli on his system. ‘Let the milk and the acid of the pineapple do their work. The pain will ease.’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘I come up here for some peace and quiet and get burned. Max Conway, unbeaten champion, felled by a chilli.’

  ‘I saw it too late to warn you. I should have thought—’

  ‘After all those years of never eating anything that might upset my stomach before a tournament and I bite into that. I didn’t know they grew chillies that hot.’

  ‘I feel so bad about it. I wish I’d taken you up on the offer to eat it instead of—’

  Before she could finish her words, Max started to laugh. His blue eyes were lit with humour, his laugh was deep and rumbling and utterly infectious. After a startled pause, Nikki started to laugh too, so hard she bent over from her waist. Her laugh ended in splutters but when she looked up at him again he widened his eyes and it set them both off again.

  Somehow during the laughter her hand on his arm had become her hand in his hand and she was standing close to him. Now his fingers moved to hold her hand firm. ‘If you feel so bad about it, why not share the burn?’ he said.

  Then his lips were on hers. Briefly. Fleetingly. Her lips tingled and her heart raced at the contact. ‘Do you feel it?’ he murmured against her mouth. Shaken, she pulled away. Not from the slight buzz of the chilli on her lips. But from the other sensations coursing through her. Awareness. Excitement. The dizzying impact of his closeness.

  ‘I feel it,’ she said shakily, all laughter dissipated by the heat of that sizzling kiss. Heat that had not been generated by anything as straightforward as the chemical compound capsaicinoid that lurked in the chilli.

  He wasn’t laughing either. ‘So did I,’ he said, his voice unsteady. She wasn’t talking about the chilli. Was he?

  This was too much. The empathy she’d felt when he’d told her about his injury. The pleasure in his company. The flare of awareness at that fleeting touch of his mouth, not intended as a kiss, she felt sure, but as a sort of meaningless game. She found him too attractive to be playing with this kind of emotional fire. She had to stay away from him. Not just because of the need to avoid any kind of publicity and the risk of further scandal. But for the sake of preserving her own hard-won composure.

  She pulled her hand away from his. ‘I have to go,’ she said and fled. The last thing she wanted while she healed from the deep emotional wounds caused by her encounter with a liar and a fraud was any kind of involvement with a well-publicised love cheat.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MAX HADN’T BEEN anywhere near Nikki for a day. To be precise, it had been two long nights and an entire day. A few times he’d seen her in the distance. Once walking head to head in deep discussion with a beautiful young Indonesian woman he assumed was Maya. Another when she was alone and rushing along the wooden pathways that connected the various areas of the resort.

  But her eyes hadn’t made contact with his. Either she hadn’t seen him or she’d pretended not to see him. He couldn’t feel offended because it was what they had agreed. She might very well be angry with him. He had not kept to his side of the bargain with that impulsive kiss. Feel my chilli burn. He cringed at the thought of it. Of all the stupid moves in the book he had to pick that one. With a woman who had made it very clear she had no interest in him. Who was, anyway, out of bounds. He had to keep it that way.

  The resort was proving more than big enough for two people intent on avoiding each other. Not so the proximity of their rooms. Despite those high stone walls, he was aware of her presence in the villa next door. The odd snatch of music. The gentle splish-splash of someone swimming in her lap pool. Did she swim in a bikini? Or nothing at all? The courtyard was secluded enough for the latter. Then there was the shower—open to the sky, and paved with smooth pebbles. In the still of the early morning, he’d heard the splash of water coming from what he thought must be her bathroom and driven himself crazy with imagining her in there as she showered, soaping her lithe body, holding her face up to the water as if for a kiss.

  That he heard evidence of Nikki being in residence so close by had nothing to do with the fact he’d pushed the outdoor tables and chairs nearer to the common wall. That was just to take advantage of the shade as he worked through the despatches from his manager. Or the moonlight as he drank a solitary beer by his pool.

  Then there was that darn dream.

  He’d had it again last night. The same but different. This time his lips actually brushed hers before he woke, seething with the same mixed emotions the dream always aroused. It didn’t take much thought to link the progression of the dream to that real-time kiss they’d shared. That impulsive ill-thought-out move had generated heat that had nothing to do with the chilli and everything to do with Nikki’s sweet laughter, the scent of flowers in her hair, her slender warm body close to his. The realisation that not only did he find her very attractive—a given since the moment he’d met her on the eve of her wedding to another man—but also he found her so easy to talk to.

  He wasn’t a guy who easily shared confidences and yet he’d found himself opening up to her. In truth, he hadn’t enjoyed a woman’s company as much for a very long time. But he was also a man who did not let his life run on impulse. This time on the island was scheduled for serious career planning. Not distraction by a woman. Especially one who, if he was seen with her, could drive his name back into those hideous headlines. The kiss had been a bad idea. It couldn’t happen again.

  Because of all those very serious reasons, he found it difficult to admit to himself that it was driving him crazy not being able to see her. Even though it made utter sense not to. Just because he enjoyed her company didn’t make the fact that further scandal, if he were to be linked to her, could be any less disastrous. The directorship he’d been offered was with a very conservative company. People could speculate all they liked about his role in the ‘runaway bride’ scandal but the truth was he had had no relationship with the bride. To appear ethical, he had to keep it that way.

  As he stood beneath his own outdoor shower, he reflected that so far his time on Lembongan was working out as he’d intended. He was getting all the privacy he needed. All the quiet time to reflect. But he was on edge, restless. Since when had private become lonely?

  After a lifetime of extreme activity he was already going a little stir crazy. He was used to his life being timetabled to the max. In years past, he’d had so little chance to relax he didn’t really know how to do it. The word had never been part of his lexicon. He wasn’t dealing well with ‘civilian’ life after the regimented life his tennis career had demanded. No wonder he was spending too much time thinking about Nikki. It might be an idea to return to a timetable allocating time for exercise, eating, time at the computer, sleeping.

  As a start, he’d booked a snorkelling trip for this morning. He’d told the guy at the desk yesterday afternoon he wasn’t interested in being one of a boatload of tourists. The guy had suggested he engage a small traditional fishing boat, known as a jukung, manned by a fisherman who knew the local tides and currents. He’d also need to hire a guide.

  Max had refused a guide until it had been gently pointed out that the currents were notoriously unpredictable around the island and could be very dangerous. That local knowledge was required to find the reefs with the best coral and tropical fish. And that, for safety reasons, the hotel could never recommend that a guest snorkel alone. Reluctantly Max had agreed.

  He had always enjoyed the water. He’d grown up swimming in creeks and billabongs in the country town where he grew up. The annual family vacation had involved the long trek to the coast, usually Sydney but sometimes Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. Until the family vacation had no longer included him because
he’d been playing tennis. He now realised how narrow the focus of his life had become—the process starting when he was scarcely out of his teens.

  At school, he’d been encouraged to compete in the pool but tennis had already taken a hold of him and his competitive efforts had been directed there. Later, swimming had been relegated to part of his training regime. Backstroke and freestyle helped build muscular endurance and strengthened the upper body and shoulders, which powered his serve.

  In recent years there hadn’t been much chance to swim for pleasure. Let alone snorkel at leisure in warm, tropical waters.

  He’d bought himself some fins, a mask and snorkel in a small dive shop not far from the hotel. No need for a wetsuit in these warm waters. He ate the breakfast he’d had delivered to the room and headed down to the bay for an early start. He felt truly excited for the first time since he’d been on the island. Except for when he’d given beautiful Nikki that red-hot-chilli kiss. But that was a very different kind of excitement.

  As he walked down to the bay through the hotel’s lush, tropical gardens, Max marvelled at the colour of the sea glistening in every shade of aquamarine interspersed with darker blues. At nine a.m. the sun was already hot, burning down from a blue sky. He was glad he’d worn the hat Nikki had suggested he buy.

  His spirits lifted even further when he saw the small traditional outrigger fishing boat, powered by an outboard motor, moored near the beach. It was painted bright yellow and red. He thought it looked like a water spider floating on the calm turquoise surface of the bay. As he made his way down the sand, the boatman waved him over with a cheerful greeting.

  The guide seemed to be already in the boat, with his back to Max, wearing a black top and leaning over to rummage under the seat in the front of the boat. The boat was small, no more than five metres long by his estimation, and Max wondered if there would be enough room for him and two other men.

  But as Max neared the boat the guide turned. Not a man but Nikki, wearing a black swim shirt over a red swimsuit, pulling out a life jacket from where it had been stored under the wide slat that formed a seat. She looked ready to call a greeting but her eyes widened in alarm and she dropped the life jacket when she saw him.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she said at the same time he spoke.

  ‘What are you doing on my boat?’ he said.

  ‘Your boat? It’s not your boat. It’s booked for...’ She straightened up to face him, her eyes narrowed. ‘You must be James.’

  ‘Mister James,’ he said.

  ‘The desk told me I was guiding for a man named James.’ The drawing together of her eyebrows said I didn’t expect it to be you.

  Max was aware they had an audience of the boatman and the people already basking in the sun on the beach. They had an agreement to act in public as though they didn’t know each other. ‘And you are?’ he said.

  She cleared her throat. Obviously not a natural-born liar or used to pretence. ‘Nikki,’ she choked out. ‘Your snorkelling guide.’

  He decided to give her an ‘out’. ‘Pleased to meet you, Nikki,’ he said. ‘But I don’t need a guide. I’m a strong swimmer and I’ve snorkelled before.’

  She shook her head. ‘You have to have a guide. These beautiful waters can be deceptively dangerous to people who don’t know them. Wild, spinning undercurrents can come from nowhere. You cannot go out alone.’ She indicated the boatman. ‘Wayan grew up around here. He knows how to read the waters, be aware of changes in weather. If he thought it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t be going out today. But he stays on the boat. You need someone with you in the water.’

  ‘And that would be you.’ He tried to keep the sudden surge of pleasure at the thought out of his voice.

  ‘Yes. But I can try and find someone else for you if you’d rather not go with me as your guide.’ Now she was giving him an out.

  ‘That won’t be necessary... Nikki,’ he said. ‘If I’m going to have a guide I’m happy for it to be you.’

  Happier than he should be considering their agreement to stay out of each other’s way, considering the awkwardness he felt that the last time they’d met he’d kissed her and she’d turned and run from him.

  He couldn’t tell whether she was glad or annoyed that he hadn’t chosen to have another guide. She nodded. ‘I’m a certified dive instructor and though I’m not a local I have extensive experience of diving and snorkelling here. Between me and Wayan, you’ll be in good hands.’

  Max thought about that. ‘I surrender myself to your hands,’ he said. She flushed high on her cheekbones and glared at him. ‘And Wayan’s hands, of course,’ he added.

  ‘With pleasure, Mr James,’ she said coolly.

  Max put his waterproof bag containing his snorkelling gear and a bottle of water onto the boat, then stepped over the outrigger to climb on board. With his added weight, the boat rocked from side to side. Nikki put her hand on his arm to steady him. He didn’t really need it—good balance was a skill that served a tennis player well—but he left it there because he liked it.

  She took the opportunity to lean in towards him to whisper, ‘How did this happen?’ Today she smelled of salt and fresh air and the lemongrass shampoo provided in their bathrooms.

  ‘I have no idea,’ he replied in a hushed undertone. ‘I inquired about snorkelling at the desk at Big Blue and the guy suggested hiring Wayan’s boat. He also stressed the unpredictable currents and insisted he book me a guide. He didn’t say who it would be and I didn’t ask.’

  ‘He wasn’t to know we knew each other, or how. Only Maya and Kadek know we’re acquainted.’

  He didn’t want to get off that boat. ‘Perhaps it’s not such a big deal. No one is likely to see us out at sea. And a mask and snorkel would be a good disguise.’

  ‘We still need to be careful,’ she cautioned. ‘There are quite a lot of people on the beach. There will be other boats out there too, though you make a good point about the mask.’

  ‘It’s agreed we’ll be careful,’ he said, tugging his hat down further over his face.

  Nikki pulled away from him, as far as she could in the very confined space of the narrow boat. ‘So, let’s enjoy our time snorkelling,’ she said out loud, speaking as impersonally as if she were, indeed, a total stranger to him. ‘I’ll need to get you a larger life jacket.’ She reached back under the seat and handed him an orange life jacket. Then strapped herself into a smaller one. She spoke a few words to Wayan in Indonesian and within minutes the boat headed out of Frangipani Bay.

  Max sat next to her on the wooden bench that spanned the boat. It was just wide enough so they could sit without touching, even with their torsos bulked up by the life jackets. She didn’t talk, just looked straight ahead, calm, unconcerned. But she betrayed herself by the way she nervously twisted the strap of her life jacket.

  Max looked straight ahead too. ‘I...uh...must apologise about the incident with the chilli.’ He couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘kiss’ to her.

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t prevent it.’ Did she mean the kiss? ‘I mean, sorry I didn’t warn you to be careful of the food until you got used to it.’

  ‘I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry that I—’

  ‘Played that trick on me about the burn?’ She still looked straight ahead, her voice pitched higher than usual, as if it took an effort for her to control it. ‘Don’t worry about that. It was funny. Something my sister and I might have played on each other when we were young. You have a younger brother, don’t you? Perhaps you and your brother did something similar. Though maybe not. Boys wouldn’t ki—Do that.’

  ‘No. They wouldn’t. My brother and I were more for rough and tumble games. The farm was our playground.’ No surprise when his brother had grown up wanting nothing more than to take over the family farm. As his father had taken over from his father, Max’s grandfather.

  So the kiss wou
ld be ignored? She obviously hadn’t felt what he’d felt when he’d held her close. To her it had been a silly game of no consequence. ‘No need for any further apologies, then,’ he said. ‘On either side.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said. Finally she turned to him. He drank in the sight of her face, make-up free, cheeks flushed pink, utterly lovely. How had he thought her eyes were plain brown? Those green flecks seemed to make them appear a different colour each time he saw her. Or maybe that was because he was looking more closely. ‘I did enjoy the laughter though,’ she said with, he thought, a touch of wistfulness.

  ‘As did I,’ he said.

  She smiled.

  ‘So we’re good, then?’ he asked, relieved. He’d felt uncomfortable with her initial chilliness.

  ‘All good. Now hold on, the water gets choppy once we get out past the reef that surrounds the island and onto the open sea.’

  The ride did become bumpy with water spurting over them as the boat increased speed. ‘This is fun,’ he said, exhilarated by the splash of the spray, the thump as the boat rode the crest of the wave then slapped back onto the water. He gave up holding onto his hat and squashed it under the bench. Nikki had tied her hair back off her face but a few stray wisps waved wildly around her head in the wind.

  ‘Better than a fairground ride,’ she said, laughing.

  Her laughter. It was warm and melodic and engaging. More than anything, he thought, that was what had prompted the chilli kiss. There was something very sensual about shared laughter with a beautiful woman. With this beautiful woman.

  ‘Where is this wild ride taking us?’ he asked.