When Alex neared the beach, he saw the raft where they’d left it, but it looked like a huge, deflated mushroom. He groaned and ran across the sand. He found a gaping hole in the side, and the raft looked irreparably damaged. It had been their one and only form of transportation if they were ever desperate to leave.
He hurled a coconut into the ocean, and then trudged back over the hill toward camp. He didn’t relish the idea of telling Kelly about this latest disaster. They really could be here for the rest of their lives.
Just how long had they been on the island? He calculated four weeks. That made today April 30th. His divorce was final.
He had to tell Kelly. Even the damaged raft couldn’t dampen his relief to be free of Vanessa. Tonight, they’d put aside their differences and celebrate his freedom.
Kelly wasn’t at the hut so he headed toward the lagoon where he spotted her undressing. He stopped dead in his tracks. As he watched, she tossed her bathing suit over a bush. Her shapely backside was bared until she stepped into the water up to her waist. His groin tightened.
Sucking in his breath, he realized these past few days had been merely a temporary distraction. He approached her. “Hello.”
When she whirled around, her full, beautiful breasts, in all their glory, took his breath away.
She gasped and ducked into the water, crimson spreading on her face and up to the roots of her auburn hair. “I thought you went to the other side of the island to check on the raft.”
“I did, but I have bad news. The raft has been damaged. There’s a large hole in one side.”
“Oh, no.”
He shrugged. “I’ll try to repair it.” He wouldn’t worry her by telling her it might be hopeless without the necessary supplies.
He threw down his walking stick and dove into the deepest part of the lagoon, surfacing near her.
“Alex, I’m not dressed.”
“Doesn’t bother me.” He flicked his gaze to the bush on which she’d hung her bathing suit. “I saw you undress.”
Her mouth dropped open. She splashed water on him. “Get out.”
“You should be more careful,” he said in a clipped voice. “But then you never were careful about showing me your body, were you?”
“You don’t think I meant to? It’s just as hard for me to see you wearing practically nothing every day.” She clamped her mouth shut.
“Damn.” They might as well get this mutual suffering over and become lovers. He found that idea pleased him immensely.
“I thought you’d be gone for hours.”
“All right, perhaps we’re both to blame, but I’m here now, and I need to cool off.” He sighed. The temperature had risen about twenty degrees, in his estimation. “I do have some good news to tell you. My divorce is final. I want us to celebrate.”
Her face paled. “Oh, uh, that’s good news.”
At her dismay, he smiled to himself. The last time when he’d kissed her, her one excuse had been he was married, even though he’d been separated from the witch for years.
“Alex, I can’t believe I’m having a conversation with you without anything on.” She made a circular motion with her finger. “Do you mind turning around? If you want to stay, I’ll put on my suit.”
“Why bother? I can see just about everything you’re trying to hide through the clear water, love.”
She followed the direction of his gaze. With a groan, she flipped her hair over her shoulders to cover her breasts. The sexy move did nothing to quench his desire.
Irritation gnawed his gut. “Bloody hell, Kelly, go ahead and get dressed.” He turned to give her the privacy she so desired. She splashed to the shore, however, he wasn’t strong enough to stop himself from stealing a glimpse of her backside as she grabbed her bathing suit and ran behind a bush to dress.
He dove under the water, hoping to cool his simmering ardor. He wearied of this childish game. When he resurfaced, he called out, “I may have to move to the farthest end of the island.”
Through the rustling bushes, she said, “Don’t be ridiculous. We need each other.”
“Exactly. And I find I need you more every day.”
Dressed in her suit, she stepped from behind the bush.
His constant arousal around her caused him great discomfort. “Don’t you understand what you do to me?” He sighed. “Forget it.”
From the kisses they had shared, and the way she looked at him, he had always believed she found him appealing. Sure, there were issues between them, but now, he couldn’t think of one damned reason why they shouldn’t become lovers.
“Why don’t you let me wash your hair?” he asked.
When she picked up the split coconut with a mixture he had made from a variety of plants and fruits and waded toward him, he sucked in his breath. He took the bowl and massaged the concoction onto her scalp and through her hair.
She tensed beneath his hands. “This is by far the stupidest idea I’ve allowed you to talk me into.”
“I’m only washing your hair,” he said as innocently as he could. He scooped more of the creamy mixture onto her tresses. “Let it stay on for a moment.” Then he dropped his hands to her neck and shoulders for a massage.
“And now what are you doing?” she asked, with a tremble in her voice. She obviously wanted him as well. Why did she resist then?
“Kelly, why shouldn’t we take some comfort from our situation? Anyone else would, even your bloody St. Hillyard.” Did she really love her fiancé so much? He scowled. He brushed his fingers over her bare shoulders. “Turn around and look at me.”
She obliged. At the panic in her eyes, concern shot through him. He’d been with many women, but he couldn’t figure Kelly out. One moment, she enticed with those full, red lips. The next, she evaded, ready to run like a frightened deer. He frowned. Had something bad happened to her? Could he help her work through it?
She frowned. “Alex, do you think we could play another game of chess later?” She’d improvised a set by using different shaped stones on a mat she’d woven and stained. She won nearly as many times as he did.
“After you soundly beat me the last time? You think I’m crazy?”
“Well, my dad did teach me well, and you beat me the time before that—”
He cupped her cheek. “I’ll take the challenge, Kelly, but that’s not really what I want to do with you at the moment.”
And the truth was, he didn’t care to fight his attraction to her anymore. The desire had burned too long. They weren’t going anywhere, and no amount of reasoning could change how much he wanted her. “Kiss me, Kelly. I know you want to.”
“I do, but I’m not sure about all the rest that goes with it.”
He sighed with relief when her arms encircled his neck. He captured her lips with his, softly at first. She tasted like papaya. While her fingers played with the hair at his nape, he deepened the kiss. She had to feel how hard he pressed against her.
Unable to take any more, he tore his lips from hers. “Kelly, I can’t just kiss you and not do anything more. Let’s not deny ourselves any longer.”
“Why do you want me? Is it because I’m the only woman on the island?”
“That’s not true. I’d choose you if there were a thousand ladies here.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You know I was attracted to you from the first time we met.” He touched her hair and pulled a wavy strand to his lips. “‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright,’” he said, quoting Shakespeare. “Kelly, your hair is like a flame. Your eyes are the bluest of sapphires. . .” He placed his finger on her lips. “You’re so beautiful, you don’t even need makeup. But that’s your outward beauty. Inwardly, you’re strong, resourceful and—”
“What about Robert? I can’t hurt him. He’s done everything for me.”
Her engagement to Hillyard grated like stones in Alex’s stomach. He pressed his lips to her temple. “Don’t think of him. Right now, we’re all we have.”
He tightened his hands on her waist and pulled her close. “I won’t lie to you. I won’t get married again. But at this moment, you want me as much as I want you.”
“I do,” she said, in a shaky voice. “But I can’t give in to it.”
“Sweetheart, you can’t say you want me and then expect me not to try.” He cradled her face in his palms, his thumbs caressing her jaw. “You’ll have to tell me to stop because I’ve tried to keep my hands off you. I can’t do it on my own anymore.”
Trailing his fingers over her shoulders, he lowered his mouth to hers in a long, possessive kiss.
She tore her lips from his. “This isn’t right.”
“Why not?” He could hear the anguish in his own voice. With the last shred of self-control he possessed, he loosened his hold.
She slipped out of his embrace and hurried from the water. “Because you don’t love me. That’s what it will take. Can you give me that?”
His heart pounded as if it would burst, but he wouldn’t lie to her. He shook his head.
She left him and ran through the trees, her auburn hair flying behind her as if she fled for her life.
For one fleeting second, he had a primitive urge to go after her, to drag her down into the grass and prove she wanted him as much as he wanted her, and to do what was driving them both crazy—and to hell with calling it love. At that insane thought, he rubbed his forehead wearily.
Bloody hell, you are losing it.
* * *
The next day, at the hut, Alex sat at the table and reached for a chunk of coconut. His fingers accidentally brushed Kelly’s hand as she reached out at the same time. They both sprang back.
Her eyes widened in accusation. “You care so little for me that you would use me?”
He flicked his gaze over her. “You know, I hate this damnable and unwanted attraction between us.”
She gasped. “Now, you’ve said it.”
Gone was the easy companionship they had developed. In frustration, he stalked out of camp only to return later to sleep outside the hut. When rain pelted him, he grabbed his bedding and stepped inside. He shook off the water that had fallen on him.
Kelly sat up on her bed. “What do you want, Alex?” The air sizzled between them.
“Don’t think I’ve come to ravish you, love. It’s raining. I have to sleep in here tonight.”
On his side of the thin partition, he punched his makeshift pillow before he lay his head down. Their relationship had come to this—nerves stretched to the breaking point.
Trying to get comfortable, he rolled around on the pallet, but he couldn’t forget Kelly lounged soft and warm on the other side. He throbbed with the need to pull her into his arms, which swept away his common sense to avoid her.
“Do you think I like this any more than you do?” he whispered. “Do you think I want to complicate our lives by getting involved with you? You don’t know how much I wish we could go home.”
He had plenty of time over the sleepless night to decide he’d somehow repair the hole in the raft. Come hell or high water, as the old saying went, he’d find a way off this damned island—and soon. He just didn’t know which would happen first.
* * *
Kelly followed Alex’s long strides toward the crest of the hill, the shortest route to where they’d landed. This past week, she had not needed to avoid him because he had stayed away from camp. He claimed he worked on various projects, but refused any offers of help. However, he always returned to sleep outside the hut at night.
He wouldn’t even sit with her to eat anymore, but opted to take his food on the run, to wherever it was he would go.
With heaviness in her heart, she realized how much she missed his company, how much he meant to her, and now, how much he wanted to avoid her. But she also knew she was too attracted to him.
When he had approached her that morning, he seemed perturbed to have to ask for her assistance to drag the raft back to their camp. “I would do this alone, but I can’t. I need your help.”
“Okay.”
His gaze swept over her. “I’m going to find a plant to make glue and use the tarp to make a patch. If that doesn’t work, I’ll build a raft out of fallen trees and fashion a sail out of the canvas. I’ll get us off this island somehow.”
As she followed him under the canopy of thick trees, his pace was too fast for her to keep up. It was slippery underfoot from the recent rains and her feet skidded in a few places on the wet ground. Once she nearly wrenched her ankle, so she took careful steps as they climbed up the steep hill. Occasionally, he would stop and turn, give her a cool assessing look, and wait for her to catch up to him. Then he was off again. Clearly, he didn’t want to be in her presence for too long.
When they reached the crest of the hill, Kelly sucked in her breath at the view below. Banks of clouds drifted over an ocean of endless blue. She stared at the ends of the earth, reminding herself of just how alone they were, and how much they depended on each other for everything.
Hating this distance between them, she wanted to make amends. She hurried to catch up, wanted to take his hand and walk the rest of the way—with him.
Without warning, the earth shook like a dynamite blast and then it crumbled before her feet. She fell backwards into the dirt. Dust spewed. Rocks tumbled into a mudslide. Alex slipped over the edge of the newly made cliff.
“Alex,” she screamed, her heart pounding. She waited for the ground to collapse beneath her, but the earth remained solid.
With tears streaming down her cheeks and rocks cutting into her hands and knees, she crawled near the edge. Her head swam with horror. He couldn’t have survived the fall. Her tears flowed as her body and mind were racked with the pain of losing him.
Chapter Nine
How would she survive without Alex? She lay in the dirt, with her head hanging over the edge and scanned the base of the cliff. Tears slid down her cheeks as she cried out, “Alex, Alex! Please answer me.” She hadn’t been immobilized with such searing pain since her parents had died.
“Kelly,” Alex shouted.
Choking back a sob, she lifted her head. “Alex?”
She leaned farther. Twenty feet below, he dangled from a tree barely rooted there. His foot had wedged in a tenuous ledge on the cliff face.
“Get something I can climb,” he yelled. “Hurry. This tree won’t last long.”
Her thoughts spun. Their rope was at the camp, at least an hour away. She scanned the forest where thick vines hung from the trees.
“Hang on.” She took her knife and hacked through a few, then trailed them back to the ledge. After wrapping and tying them around a sturdy looking tree, she yanked to test their strength.
“Here I come.” Carefully, she crawled to the edge and tossed the ends to Alex. Though the vines chafed her hands, she clung tightly. When her engagement ring slipped from her finger, she didn’t care. The diamond flashed in the sunlight before bouncing over the cliff.
“Dear God, please, don’t let him fall.”
Alex tugged on the vines and shouted, “I’ve got them.”
The seconds dragged and her heart pounded as he slowly climbed. When he neared the top of the cliff, she grasped his t-shirt and helped him scramble to safety.
His breathing came in heavy gasps as he sank to his knees. He ran his hand down his dirt-streaked face. His shirt and shorts were ripped. A layer of dust coated his body.
He exhaled a deep breath and collapsed next to her. “My thanks, Kelly.”
The enormity of how close he’d come to death shook her. While tears blinded her, she threw her arms around him and sobbed into his chest.
“I thought you were dead,” she sobbed.
Trembling as badly as she did, he held her close. “Let’s get out of here. It could still be dangerous,” he said, hi
s breath heating the curve of her shoulder.
Clinging to each other, they descended the hill heading toward camp, with him limping and her arm draped around his waist. Something warm and sticky dripped on her hand. Frowning, she glanced at his side. Blood seeped through his torn clothing.
“You’re hurt,” she said in a choked voice. Would he be okay?
When they reached the lagoon, she helped him peel off his clothes that stuck to his injuries.
Naked, he limped toward the water. After this brush with death, she wasn’t embarrassed. Nothing mattered anymore. On this island, he had become her entire world.
After washing off her own dust, she settled on the grassy bank to watch him. He winced as he washed off the dirt and blood on his ribs. She glanced at the abrasion on his left hip and then stared, mesmerized by how beautiful he was.
“Are you all right?” she called out to him in a shaky voice. “Your ribs?”
“Nothing’s broken, only bruised and scraped, I think.” When he glanced toward her, his eyes flared with awareness that she watched him.
Her cheeks warmed as she stood. “I think I’ll just run to the hut for the first aid kit.”
He nodded and turned to splash more water on his wounds.
When she returned with the kit and a towel in hand, he stepped out of the lagoon. His gaze enveloped her with an intensity that nearly buckled her knees.
Gratitude shone in his eyes. He took the towel she offered and dried his tanned body. “You saved my life.”
“Then we’re even,” she quipped. Her attempt at humor failed because this moment between them was fraught with too much emotion.
“Let me see how badly you’ve been hurt.” She smeared the antibiotic ointment on his ribs and he sucked in his breath. “Sorry. You have some cuts and that must hurt.”
“It stings a little.”
However, now that the danger and fear had abated, his nakedness impacted every one of her senses. Her hand shook as she applied medicine to the abrasion on his bare hip. Beneath her fingertips, a shudder rippled through him, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with pain.
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