Love. He’d tried to deny to himself that he had fallen in love with her. But he’d been kidding himself from the word go. He’d fallen a little in love with her as far back as her wedding rehearsal. That was another reason he’d overreacted to the media interest in them. Deep down, when he’d helped her run away from her wedding, hadn’t part of his heart wished he were running away with her for himself?
That was what all the dreams had been telling him—his subconscious shouting out to him what his conscious mind refused to acknowledge. He loved Nikki Lucas.
He rounded the first headland, scanning the water for her. Nothing. Not even other small craft. Sensible people did not go out in this kind of current. Why had Nikki?
The current got stronger, the water choppier; he had to fight with the steering wheel to keep the boat on course as he rounded the next set of jagged cliffs.
He saw the oar first. A lone paddle floating on the surface, pulled inextricably by the water towards where it would be smashed against the rocks. So close it wasn’t safe for him to retrieve it. In the next split second he saw Nikki. Lying draped across the hull of her capsized kayak. She was very, very still. Injured? Unconscious? Worse? No!
He hit the gas so hard the boat reared up out of the water. ‘Nikki!’ he shouted, the word reverberating around the empty sea.
As he neared her, she lifted her head. ‘Max. Thank heaven,’ she gasped. Her face was pale, which made the blood trickling down her mouth seem shockingly red in contrast.
He manoeuvred the boat as close as he could get to her. Fear strangled his voice. ‘I’m coming for you,’ he choked out.
‘The kayak capsized. I tried to grab the hull to pull it back over to me, like I’ve done a hundred times before.’ A choppy wave broke over the kayak, pushed it forward and splashed into her face, sending her sliding back into the sea. ‘Aargh!’ she spluttered. ‘But that keeps happening.’
His first instinct was to dive overboard and get her. But that would leave them both bobbing in the ocean while Wayan’s boat drifted away. ‘Grab the outrigger,’ he said as he manoeuvred the boat closer.
Nikki was an excellent swimmer. She was wearing a life jacket but she was bleeding. His gut roiled as he watched her wait for a lull in the choppy sea and then push herself forward until she was gripping the outrigger. He reached out to haul her in but she was just out of reach. He cursed. Then remembered the ladder. He quickly put it in place. ‘Swim to the ladder,’ he urged her.
Then he had her in his grasp as he pulled her on board. She was in his arms, wet, shaking, alive. He guided her onto the bench, where he sat next to her. ‘You’re bleeding,’ he said, wiping the blood away from her chin.
‘Am I?’ she said, putting her hand up to her face. ‘Oh. That. Bumped my nose. It’s nothing. I’m fine.’
‘Nothing!’ Anger surged through his relief. ‘I thought you’d drowned. What the hell were you thinking, coming out here by yourself? How many times did you warn me against it? Don’t you ever do something so foolish again.’
Nikki stiffened and shuffled herself along the bench as far away from him as she could without toppling back into the water. As he manoeuvred the boat away from the rocks and back towards the shore, he realised with a chill that went right through to his heart that she wasn’t just putting a physical distance between them.
‘I’m glad you came along,’ she said finally after what felt like hours of silence. They were nearly at the beach when she continued, ‘Appreciate the help. But I don’t owe you an explanation. Not as your ex-girlfriend of less than twenty-four hours’ standing.’
‘You’re my ex-girlfriend before you’ve even had time to be my girlfriend?’
‘Why would I want to be the girlfriend of a guy who calls me a liar, who refuses to listen to me, who can’t act as a boyfriend-girlfriend team, who kicks me out of his room after we’d spent the night making love?’
As he hauled the boat onto the deserted beach, he moored it, finally turning to help her out of the boat. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face splotchy. Not just with salt water. She’d been crying, crying for some time. Her words were tough but he could see the deep level of pain in her eyes. He’d hurt her badly. That was why she’d gone out there by herself. To get as far away from him as possible. He’d lost her.
But Max Conway didn’t easily accept defeat. He waited until she stood beside him on the sand before finding the words he needed to say.
‘Nikki, I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m a rotten boyfriend who doesn’t deserve you. I’ve been an idiot. Not just this morning but since the day I watched you step off that boat at Jungut Batu and wade back into my life. For too many stupid reasons I’ve handled this so badly.’
‘Handled what, Max?’ she said, her chin still held at a mutinous angle but her expression softened into wary anticipation.
‘The fact I’m head over heels in love with you. That nothing else matters but that I’m with you. Not career, not reputation, nothing. That I fell in love with you that first night at the rehearsal of your wedding to another man. I had to deny it then. But I don’t have to deny it now. I love you, Nikki.’
* * *
Nikki wondered if she’d been knocked unconscious by the edge of the kayak and was hallucinating. Perhaps she was still drifting along in that glorious sea, dreaming of what she wanted most in the world. That Max loved her.
Then she felt the touch of his hand on her arm. Saw the trepidation in his eyes as he waited for her response. Max loved her.
‘Is there a chance you might love me too?’ he said. ‘Or is it only about the hot sex for you?’
Her joyous laughter pealed out across the empty beach. ‘I love you too, Max.’ He kissed her, warm and passionate and tender and loving all at the same time. ‘And I love the hot sex too,’ she murmured against his mouth. They kissed for a long time, each repeating those magical words ‘I love you’ with increasing wonderment and joy.
‘When—?’
‘Did I first fall in love with you?’ she said. ‘I realised I was attracted to you when you carried me away in your arms at the wedding. But here, on this island, on this sea, exploring the underwater paradise together, I realised it was so much more than that. When you kissed me at sunset I knew I was in love.’
‘We wasted so much time,’ he said.
‘Only a few days, though it seems longer,’ she said. ‘Can we truly fall in love so quickly?’
He smiled. ‘Thirty-two years ago my father spotted my mother across the hall at a country dance. He was smitten. Fortunately so was she. They married three months later and are still the happiest couple I know.’
Her breath caught. ‘Do you take after your dad?’
‘Definitely. I don’t need more time. Will you marry me, Nikki?’
Her heart seemed to swell with her love for him. ‘Yes, Max, yes.’
‘I want to give you everything you want, Nikki. Marriage, children when you’re ready. Most of all a husband you can trust to love you and care for you for the rest of our lives.’
‘All I want is you,’ she murmured through a suddenly constricted throat. ‘Everything else will be a bonus.’
He kissed her again for a long time. She couldn’t think of a more perfect proposal on the beautiful empty beach, with the vastness of the ocean stretched out before them, in this magical place where they’d each found their for ever love. That they were both wearing life jackets was something to tell the grandchildren.
He broke away from the kiss. ‘Instead of hiding us from the media, I should have taken out an advert in that dreadful tabloid and screamed it out in tall black headlines: “Best Man Loves Runaway Bride.” Only now I’d add, “And Makes Her His Wife”.’
She laughed. ‘Sounds like a plan,’ she said, as she drew him to her for another kiss.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Three months later, Nus
a Lembongan
THIS WEDDING WASN’T strictly their wedding. Nikki and Max had discovered it was legally more straightforward to actually get married in Australia and have the wedding blessed in Indonesia. But this was the place they’d fallen in love and the place they wanted to make a public declaration of their commitment to each other. With a big party to celebrate.
In Sydney, Nikki and Max had got married in the tiny chapel at her old school with just a handful of guests comprising family and their very closest friends, including Max’s mother and father, who Nikki already adored. She’d had just her sister Kaylie as bridesmaid and Max’s brother had been best man. Her father had given her away and she’d been surprised to see him shed a tear as he’d told her how much he wished her mother could have been here for her special day.
Now here she and Max were on the beach at Frangipani Bay under an arch covered with frangipani and gold-painted ceremonial flowers. She wore a long, white dress trimmed with handmade lace, her feet bare in the sand. Max wore white trousers and shirt, his feet bare too. Kaylie was bridesmaid again, along with Maya and Sammie.
The entire resort had been booked out for the guests they had flown up to the island. They included staff members from the residential tennis training college Max had started to give talented kids from underprivileged backgrounds the same opportunities to excel that he’d had. He’d told Nikki he was enjoying his involvement with it more than he could have imagined. But he got a different kind of satisfaction from his directorship of the sporting goods company. He had a team working on the swimwear for Nikki’s first swim club, which was nearly ready to open its doors—already there’d been a lot of interest and advance bookings.
The wedding was being covered by the same classy magazine that had published the feature on Nikki and Max’s romance to set their story straight, from the ‘cute meet’ as runaway bride and the best man, to the happy coincidence of their meeting again six months later on the island.
As they joyously repeated their vows, Max kept Nikki’s hand firmly held in his. ‘There’s no way you’re running away from this wedding,’ he said.
‘Why would I,’ she said, looking up to his beloved face, ‘when I’m already married to the best man?’
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Kandy Shepherd
Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon
Conveniently Wed to the Greek
Greek Tycoon’s Mistletoe Proposal
The Bridesmaid’s Baby Bump
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Tempted by Her Island Millionaire by Nina Singh.
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Tempted by Her Island Millionaire
by Nina Singh
CHAPTER ONE
HIS SISTER WAS starting to get on his nerves.
He loved her more than anyone else on this earth, but she had been pushing the boundaries of that love ever since she’d gotten engaged.
Clint held the cell phone to his ear, only partially listening to her latest panic-stricken rant. He knew better than to try and say anything to calm her down. The last time he’d tried that, he’d gotten an earful of colorful curse words streamed through the line that would have made his construction contractors blush.
He understood, or he was trying hard to anyway. She had a lot on her mind with the wedding fast approaching. In fact, his town car was dropping him off at the airport at this very moment on his way to sunny Maui where Lizzie and her fiancé would be tying the knot in a few short days. Only now she had some sort of pressing issue with a last-minute change, something to do with the catering. An issue she seemed to be taking way out of proportion. He’d simply learn who he had to pay to fix it once he got there. What was one more expense when it came to this wedding?
He’d be sure to take care of it after arrival. Again, he wasn’t going to tell her that. Right now, Lizzie just needed to vent.
His sister had always been a bit overly dramatic. But this wedding was taking that penchant to a whole new level and making him wonder, for that matter, exactly how many women had been put on this earth simply to irritate him?
“Anyway, how are you doing? Anything new?” Lizzie surprised him by asking. Rant over somehow. Not that he wasn’t grateful.
Did he dare tell her? That he was unexpectedly attending her wedding solo since the huge fallout with Maxine the other day. After she’d finally made one ultimatum too many.
He decided not to risk it. Lizzie would no doubt want the distraction and try to probe for all the details. Not something he wanted to get into right now. He’d tell her once he arrived at the resort.
“I’m doing fine,” he answered honestly. In truth, it was a relief to have finally severed the relationship with the up-and-coming actress. Maxine had grown increasingly demanding and pouty over the past several months. The only frustration now was that he’d already paid for all her flights, excursions and accommodations. Not to mention a hefty spa-and-beauty package at the resort. Shameful waste. Though part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it was worth it. “About to go check in for my flight as a matter of fact.”
“I’ll let you go then, big brother.” She paused but didn’t hang up. He knew what was coming and he appreciated it. But it still made him uneasy every time she did it. “And you know how much it means that you’re doing all this for me,” she said, her voice nearly breaking. “I mean it. Thank you.”
So unnecessary. She was the only family he had. He’d been solely responsible for her since they were both barely teens, so of course, he would take care of her wedding. And anything else that would make up for the unfair lot they’d been dealt growing up. She didn’t need to thank him for that. The wedding was just one more thing he considered his duty.
Unfortunately, so was having to listen to her mini breakdowns every time a snag occurred.
“You’re welcome, Lizzie,” he answered simply, then disconnected.
The morning didn’t get any better after he’d checked in for his flight. With precision, he’d arrived with just enough time to answer any urgent emails and go over a new bid, then comfortably board without having to rush. The airline announced a delay before he’d even gotten a chance to pull his tablet out and log on to his company intranet.
Clint cursed under his breath. An hour, at least. As luck would have it, his private jet was being serviced. The timing was beyond inconvenient. Well, he wasn’t going to sit here in this loud, crowded
gate area. He’d go kill the time at the private executive suite the airport provided for certain clientele. Maybe he’d even get a chance to read a paper in some peace and quiet.
He swiped his card to get past the secure glass door to the exclusive suite and realized quickly that peace and quiet were not in the equation this morning.
* * *
This was, without question, one of the most embarrassing experiences of her whole life. Rita wanted to sink into the ground as she stammered to answer the airport employee who was very politely and professionally interrogating her. Not only had the other three people in the suite started to stare, she noticed from the corner of her vision that someone else had just walked in—a tall dark man with a leather briefcase. Wonderful. Yet one more person to witness her abject humiliation.
“I’m terribly sorry, miss. But there’s no record of anyone sponsoring you to be in this room,” the well-heeled, highly polished attendant repeated. Sheila, according to the gold name tag on her uniform. “I’m afraid you’ll have to pay for your breakfast and then leave.”
“Oh, um... I don’t understand... I was told by my friend who’s a member that I’d be allowed to hang out here if I wanted, and the flight was delayed. I just thought—” Her words were an incoherent mess. She’d never been good under pressure. And this haughty woman was making her feel like a piece of mud she was trying to brush off her Louboutins.
The attendant remained silent. Rita couldn’t detect one iota of sympathy in her eyes.
Oh, what the hell. The mushroom omelet and mimosa weren’t worth the trouble. Though it had to be the most delicious breakfast she’d ever been served.
“Fine, what do I owe you for the breakfast?” She reached for her wallet.
“With the drink, it will be seventy-five dollars.”
She nearly dropped her purse when she heard the figure. “Seventy-five dollars?” How could that be? Had they personally flown in the mushrooms straight from Japan and had a master chef prepare the meal?
Best Man and the Runaway Bride Page 16