Last Chance Proposal (Entangled Bliss)

by DeLeo, Barbara

  “This zipper’s a bit funny, I’ll do it up for you,” he said. He drew the bottom edges of the jacket together as she watched.

  When he reached her chest his mind flashed to that day on the yacht years ago, how her body responded to him. The memory caused his chest to tighten. His responses had been naive then, rapid and reflex. The way his body awakened now was from knowledge of the way he wanted to make her feel.

  He held his breath as he reached her heart. For a second he fumbled, but still Ellie didn’t look up, and he was afraid that the spell he was under would be broken. Not wanting to finish his task, he rested his hands on her shoulders and Ellie’s gaze drifted up. She stood still, night shadows dancing across her face. Did she feel what he did? His heart squeezed as he reached down and took her hand in his. “Better?”

  “Mm hmm,” she murmured.

  Then he looked over her shoulder. “Wait up, you guys,” he called, while he ordered his heart to slow and his body to regain its equilibrium.

  What had just happened? Had he imagined the thread of electricity dancing between them? Was the spark that had begun a slow-burning fire in his blood nothing more than wishful thinking?

  “Shh! We’re here,” Louis called from up ahead.

  Cy could make out shapes stopped on the track and gave a vote of thanks for the distraction. He pulled alongside Jonty and put a hand on his son’s shoulder and drew the boy to him.

  “Okay, everyone, on the count of three,” Fleur whispered. “Turn off your flashlights and look across to the banks of the stream. Don’t make any noise or their lights will go out.”

  Cy reached for his son’s hand and held it, warm in his own.

  “One, two, three.”

  As they were plunged into darkness, Jonty breathed in sharply and squeezed his hand before burying his face in Cy’s thigh.

  Cy knelt. “It’s okay, J.” And he took in a swift breath of his own as the sight in front of them came into sharp focus. “Look, Jonty, look.” Still the little boy’s face was squashed into his leg as Cy turned and stared at the millions of tiny lights twinkling like diamonds.

  “Wow, Jonty. Isn’t it cool?” Louis whispered.

  Jonty’s hands moved to his face and he slapped his palms over his eyes and began to rock backward and forward. Cold, piercing fear gripped Cy as he reached for his son’s shoulders and pulled him close. “Cy, is he okay?” Ellie was beside him in a second, her voice soft and full of concern.

  Cy turned to face her. “No, he’s not okay. I told you he was scared of the dark. I shouldn’t have let myself be talked into bringing him here.” He scooped up Jonty, turned the flashlight back on, and pointed it up the track. Jonty was stiff in his arms, hands still stuck to his eyes.

  “Cy, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

  Cy rubbed his son’s small, warm body. What the hell had he been thinking? He’d let himself be talked into something because of what he wanted, not what was best for his son. Jonty’s needs were his priority, not his own physical desires.

  Aside from that, if Ellie were to change her mind about marrying him because he couldn’t keep focused on what was important, then he’d never forgive himself. The fact that he’d lost sight of that made him curse quietly under his breath.

  Starting tomorrow there would be no more touching, no more being tempted. From now on he’d be the gentleman he should’ve been all those years ago. He should have grown up in eight years—God knew he’d had plenty of reason to—and now was the time to start acting like it.

  No matter how much his body and heart told him otherwise.

  Chapter Five

  The twenty-third had dawned cool and gray, and Ellie pulled a cardigan around her shoulders as she carried the milk up the beach from the store. New Zealand in December…it could be boiling hot one minute and freezing cold the next. Everything today—the sand, sea, sky—was silver, even the sound of the wind in the enormous macrocarpa trees was sharp and metallic.

  Her heart felt metallic too after last night. Why had she encouraged Jonty to go see the glowworms when Cy had told her he’d be frightened? She was going to be partially responsible for that little boy for the next year and the thought wasn’t getting any easier. Being around children scared her. She didn’t know how Fleur coped when Louis scraped his knees or came home crying because someone had been mean to him at school. What if she made things worse with Jonty’s mutism rather than better?

  She’d go and see Cy later. She’d apologize for pushing the glowworm visit and hope that they were still planning on coming for Christmas.

  There were a hundred and one things to do in the next two days. Wrap presents, try to make the mock Christmas tree made from driftwood and seaweed stay upright. And through all that she’d try to stop thinking about the near-miss kiss with Cy at the barbecue. She’d replayed the moment their lips had almost touched over and over and the fantasy had grown from a fake attempt at a barbecue to a kiss in a bedroom, to a kiss while tangled in her sheets.

  Before she reached the house, Louis shot down the stairs and out the gate.

  “Louis,” she called. “Where are you going?” She walked more quickly. He had a towel tied around his neck like a cape and something colorful under each arm. He held them high.

  “Going to Jonty’s,” he called out. “Flying kites and boogie boarding. Mum’s gone to town.”

  Fleur had left to go into Papaatawhai, the neighboring town, for last-minute Christmas supplies and Ellie was supposed to be looking after her nephew. He was a great kid, but had the uncanny ability of sneaking off when she wasn’t watching.

  “Why the backpack?” she asked when she finally caught up to him, breath short. Faded jeans trailed from the top and a snorkel stuck out at an angle.

  “Cy said he’d take us out on the yacht to Aroha Island if it was windy. We’re gonna fly kites and maybe snorkel and catch some waves.” He kept walking as he called over his shoulder.

  “When did you organize this?” She struggled to keep up.

  He shrugged. “Last night, before dinner. He said we could do it on the next windy day. Mum said it was okay and Cy said to ask you and Mum if you wanted to come, too.”

  Her heart dropped. “Honey, I don’t think…I mean, after the scare Jonty had last night I’m not sure Cy will want to take him out on the yacht now.”

  “I went to their place this morning to check we were still going and Cy said we could.”

  Surprised, she looked down the beach and saw Cy and Jonty stepping out of their house. Cy looked up and waved and she held up her hand as her chest tightened.

  What would she say about what had happened with Jonty? “I can’t come, sorry,” she said. “I’ve got all sorts of things to get ready for Christmas Day.” She paused, trying to marshal her thoughts. “Did you ask your mum?”

  He shrugged. “She was cool.”

  Ellie rolled her lip through her teeth, indecision cutting deep. She was certain Cy would be careful, but maybe it was too much to look after two children and sail a yacht? What would Fleur say?

  She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone in case there was coverage. The big red cross on the screen said there wasn’t. Maybe they could get better cell coverage out here as part of the renovation.

  Looking out on the waves, she let out a long breath. She was being ridiculous. Louis would be fine. And if Fleur had agreed to it last night, who was she to argue?

  “Okay, you can go, Lou. Have a great time.” She moved toward the Starfish gate as Cy and Jonty walked toward her.

  “Hey,” Cy said, throwing her a skin-tingling grin. A deep blue rash guard pulled tight across his chest, and cut off cargos fringed at his tanned knees. The aviator glasses sat across his face, hiding any change in his eyes. “Coming sailing? Pete’s been maintaining the yacht like you said. I had a look at her yesterday, and I think she’s in better condition than when I left.”

  She concentrated on his face, looking for a sign that he was upset about last night. He
looked exactly the same as he always did. Cool and sure.

  “I’m really sorry about last night,” she said, dropping her voice as she turned to look at Jonty. “Is he okay?”

  Cy ruffled his son’s hair. “I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”

  “Perhaps not. But I shouldn’t have tried to convince you to go to the glowworms, either.”

  “It was a timely reminder that Jonty can’t be pushed too hard, but it was my decision to make, so the fault’s mine.”

  “It’s okay. It can be scary in the dark.”

  Jonty had his face turned to Louis.

  Cy spoke to her, but obviously his words were for his son, too. “I talked to Jonty about what happened last night, and I said that what made me most proud was that he gave it a go. He was more ready than I was to try something new, so my motto for the next few weeks is giving things a go, including taking the boys out on the yacht like I promised. Want to come?”

  “Um, no thanks.” She dragged sunglasses from her head to her face. “I’ve got too much to do today. You have fun, though.” She cast a look at the choppy waves. “It’s pretty windy out there.”

  “We’ll have to wait until your mum gets back, Louis. We need two adults on the yacht.” Cy laid his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “We can go another time.”

  Louis scuffed his toe in the sand. “No point waiting for mum, then,” he said with a scowl. “She gets seasick in the tub.”

  All three male faces turned to Ellie and her heart fell. Somewhere inside, her body remembered the gentle sway as she’d stood on the yacht’s deck, the way the teak beneath her feet warmed her whole body, but after the last time on Cy’s yacht…

  “What about the pukeko? Doesn’t someone need to stay and look after him?” she said.

  “We’ve built a makeshift coop,” Cy said, “so it can run on grass instead of getting sore feet in the box.”

  She could hardly say she didn’t know how to sail. Cy knew she could handle a boat as well as he could. But she needed a little more time away from him to get her fantasies under control. If she risked being in close quarters before she had that locked down, she might do something irrevocable, like kiss him for real this time.

  “The turkey!” she said. “The pavlova and shelling the peas. Who’ll get all that ready if I go sailing? We’ll end up eating cereal for Christmas dinner.”

  “It’s early,” Cy said, throwing her a grin. “We can be back by lunchtime. It’d be nice to have you with us.”

  Ellie looked down at Jonty. The little boy’s face was impassive as usual, but for some reason she couldn’t look away. And couldn’t say no.

  “All right,” she said, giving Cy a reluctant grin. “But I need to be back by lunchtime if we want to have any Christmas, okay?”

  Cy clapped his hand on Louis’s shoulder. “Excellent.”

  Half an hour later they were at the jetty where Cy’s uncle would bring the yacht from its mooring. Louis and Jonty explored the beach, while Ellie and Cy brought the last of the gear down from the car. When everything was waiting in a huge pile, Ellie kicked her flip-flops off, dug her toes into the cool sand, and looked out to sea.

  “It’s been so long since I’ve been to the island.” She took off her sunglasses so she could see everything more clearly and put them on the ground, too. The wind had dropped and there was a gentle breeze. The boys were hunting through piles of driftwood at the high tide line. She kicked at the dry sand. “I wonder if that old shipwreck’s still visible off the north side.”

  “I can’t wait to get out there.” Cy was standing, hands on hips, looking out to sea.

  The day stretched in front of them. Relief that there was no lasting damage after last night and the thought that she’d be spending the morning with her oldest friend fizzed through Ellie’s blood. In an unexplainable surge of energy, she threw her hands down on the sand and kicked her legs up in the air in a handstand. But her balance was all wrong and she ended up falling in a heap on the sand, laughing.

  “What in the hell was that?” Cy stood with his hands low on his hips. “You were about the best at handstands I’ve ever seen. What happened?”

  She picked herself off the sand and stood up. “I got old, that’s what happened. And my center of gravity’s probably shifted from all the cream puffs I’ve eaten in the last eight years.”

  She looked up to see Louis and Jonty having a sword fight with two pieces of driftwood, then focused on another spot on the sand, determined to get it right this time. She launched herself forward, flicked her legs in the air, and after wobbling for a few seconds, fell with a thud.

  Getting up again, she tugged her shorts from where they’d ridden up her legs, then smoothed the hair off her face. “I can’t believe it! Must be you that’s putting me off. Turn around.”

  “No way am I turning around,” Cy said, his head tilted to one side and a sexy grin on his face. He pushed his sunglasses up. “This is worth paying good money for. I think you’ve lost your touch.”

  She chuckled and dusted the sand from her shorts. “I have not! Come here and make yourself useful. I might be out of practice, but I’ve still got it. I reckon I could stay up for at least a minute if you help steady me.”

  He took a step closer.

  “Remember the drill? When I’ve flicked my legs up just get me balanced and then I can do the rest on my own.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure. Ready?’

  “On the count of three. One…two…three…” This time when she threw herself forward and kicked her legs high into the air Cy was ready to catch her, his palms warm and firm on her ankles as he held her steady. As soon as she could feel her center of gravity shifting, she yelled, “Okay, you can let go now.”

  And when he let go she was balanced in a perfect line. Looking back, she could only see his strong legs with a dusting of hair and then the fringed edge of his cutoffs. Her hair was hot against her face but she was determined to hold out.

  “Bet you can’t stay there very long,” he teased.

  “Are you watching the boys?” She took a couple of steps with her hands to balance.

  “They’re fine.” He twisted a little. “They’re still playing with the driftwood. Hey, that’s pretty good going. Reckon you can do fifteen more seconds?”

  Blood was pumping at her temples. As she adjusted one hand, her T-shirt started to ride down. In only a matter of seconds her bra would be exposed but their old competitiveness—the need to prove she could make the minute—outweighed modesty.

  “Ten more seconds,” Cy called. “Are you getting dizzy? Your T-shirt’s slipping. You won’t be able to see anything soon. And wow, is that red lace?”

  Determined to stay the distance, Ellie started to pant, her T-shirt was now over her face and she was starting to overbalance with her hands.

  “Four, three, two…!”

  “You rat!”

  “One!”

  She collapsed on the sand and gulped in fat lungfuls of air.

  Cy took a step toward her and held out a hand. “I take it all back,” he said with a heart-stopping grin. “You’ve still got it.”

  Her breath was heavy in her chest and the air seemed to still around them as she looked up at Cy’s broad palm. She reached out, and when her hand was enclosed in his sure grip, he gently pulled her to her feet. But she didn’t pull back, didn’t step away, instead she felt herself start to come under his spell, imagining the touch and taste of his mouth on hers.

  She flicked her gaze away, determined not to succumb, to resist touching those strong shoulders, that broad chest, because she knew when she did there’d be no going back.

  Cy reached out with his other hand to cradle her cheek, and when he stepped closer, her heart began to race. Slowly, she turned to look up at him as he cupped her whole face with both his hands and whispered, “Just go with it.” Then his lips were pressed against hers, his breath feathering across her
face, and she wound her hands around his neck.

  With her blood fizzing everywhere Cy touched, her lips succumbing as he teased them with his tongue, she knew for sure that the connection she’d felt with Cy last night hadn’t been imagined. When he lifted his mouth from hers and pulled her into a hug, she could feel the speeding of his heart against hers and she drew in a breath.

  “Hey, you two,” Cy said to someone behind them.

  Ellie twisted around.

  “Don’t stop on our account.” It was Callum Brown, Cy’s old surfing buddy, and his wife, hand in hand with a small brown dog on a leash. They’d obviously been walking up the beach and Cy must have seen them before Ellie did. Just go with it. That was the reason he’d kissed her.

  “Hey, Callum; hey, Lyn.” Ellie hoped no one else noticed how fast she was speaking or that her breath was tight in her lungs. She slid her arm around Cy’s back and pulled him closer, determined he wouldn’t sense what a fool she’d just made of herself. “Sorry about the PDA!”

  Lyn laughed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. “We had a little snog on the beach a little while ago too, didn’t we, hon?” She stroked her husband’s arm. “Something about this sort of weather that makes all those hormones start racing, right?”

  “Yeah, weather seems to be what does it for me.” Cy chuckled. “Rain, sun, typhoon. Any weather, I’m not fussy.”

  They all laughed then made small talk about what they were doing for Christmas and how great the fishing was off Aroha Island. When Lyn and Callum said good-bye and carried on with their walk, Cy turned to Ellie. “Hey, I’m sorry about that. I saw them coming toward us and thought it was a good opportunity to show a bit of spontaneous love. I hope I didn’t take you by surprise?”

  “Surprise?” She bent down to brush sand off her flip-flops, anything to avoid looking in his eyes. “No, of course not. I saw them coming, too, which was why I held your hand so long.” She stood and smiled up at him. I think we had them convinced.”