by Trish Morey
She glanced up at the man alongside her, his loose white shirt rolled up at the cuffs, with designer stubble adding to his pirate appeal, and with one look the memories of their love-making flooded back, warming her in places the sun did not reach. Oh, no, she would have no trouble enjoying her nights with him either.
‘You look pleased with yourself.’
‘Do I?’ Only then did she realise she’d been smiling. ‘It must be the weather.’
‘Good morning!’ Maureen said, greeting them, looking resort elegant in linen co-ordinates in taupe and coffee colours. ‘How was the bure? Did you all sleep well?’
Eve smiled. ‘It’s just beautiful. I love it here.’
‘Everything is perfect,’ Leo added, slipping an arm around Eve’s shoulders, giving her arm a squeeze. ‘Couldn’t be better.’
‘And Sam’s okay with Hannah? You’re not worried about leaving him, are you?’
Eve shook her head. ‘Hannah’s wonderful. He’s having the time of his life.’
The older woman looked from one to the other and smiled knowingly. ‘I hope you understand why we were so keen to drag you away from Melbourne. And there’s just so much more to share with you.’
‘All aboard!’ called Eric, appropriately wearing a captain’s cap over his silvering hair, and Leo handed both women onto the yacht where Richard and Felicity were already waiting. There was a distinct holiday mood in the air as they set off, the boat slicing through the azure waters, the wind catching in the flapping sails, the magnificent vistas ever-changing, with new wonders revealed around every point, with every new bay. ‘Isn’t it fabulous?’ Felicity said, leaning over the railing, looking glamorous in a short wrap skirt and peasant top, and Eve could’t help but agree, even though she felt decidedly designer dull in her denim shorts and chain-store tank- top. Motherhood in Melbourne, she reflected, didn’t lend itself to a vast resort wardrobe.
Decidedly dull, that was, until Leo slipped an arm around her waist and pressed his mouth to her ear. ‘Did I tell you how much I love your shorts,’ he whispered, ‘and how much I can’t wait to peel them off?’
And she shuddered right there in anticipation of that very act. But first there were other pleasures, other discoveries. They discovered secret bays and tiny coves with sheer cliff walls and crystal-clear waters. They found bays where inlets carved dark blue ribbons through shallow water backed by pure white sand, a thousand shades of blue and green against the stark white beach and the lushly vegetated hills rising above.
They stopped for a swim at that beach, followed by a picnic comprising a large platter of antipasto and cold chicken and prawns, with Vietnamese cold rolls with dipping sauce all washed down with chilled white wine or sparkling water.
After lunch, the Alvarezes went for a stroll along the beach and Maureen took a snooze while Eric and Leo chatted, no doubt about business, a little way away. And Eve was happy to sit right there on the beach in her bikini, taking in the wonders of the scenery around her, the islands and the mountains, the lush foliage and amazing sea and above it all the endless blue sky. And she felt guilty for not sharing it with Sam, even though she knew that if he had come, none of them would have been able to relax for a minute. One day, when he was older, she would love to show him.
Leo dropped down on his knees behind her, picked up her bottle of lotion and squeezed some into his hand, started smoothing it onto her shoulders and neck until she almost purred with pleasure. She didn’t think it necessary to inform him she’d just done that. ‘You look deep in thought.’
‘I was just thinking how much Sam would love this. I’ll have to try to bring him one day.’
His hands stilled for a moment, before they resumed their slippery, sensual massage. ‘Don’t you love it?’ she said. ‘Can you believe the colour of that sea?’
‘I’ve seen it before.’
‘You have?’ But of course he would have. Leo had been everywhere. ‘Where?’
‘In your eyes.’
The shiver arrowed directly down her spine. She snapped her head round. ‘What?’
He squeezed more lotion, spread it down her arms, his fingertips brushing her bikini top as he looked out at the bay. ‘When I first saw them, they reminded me of the Aegean, of the sea around the islands of Santorini and Mykonos, but I was wrong. For every colour in your eyes is right here, in these waters.’
And that battle scarred never-say-die, foolish, foolish creature inside her lumbered back into life and prepared for take-off once more. ‘Leo…’
He looked down at her upturned face, touched one hand to the side of her face. ‘I don’t know how I’m ever going to forget those eyes.’
Then don’t! she almost blurted, surprising herself with her vehement reaction, but he angled her shoulders and invited her into his kiss, a heart-wrenching bittersweet kiss that spoke of something lost before it had even been found, and she cursed a man with a stone for a heart, cursed her own foolish heart for caring.
‘Come on, you two lovebirds,’ Eric yelled along the beach. ‘We’ve got a seaplane to catch!’ If the Whitsundays had been spectacular from the boat, they were breathtaking from the air in the clear afternoon light. Island after island could be explored from the air in the tiny plane, each island a brilliant green gem in a sapphire sea. And just when Eve thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, they headed out over the Coral Sea to the Great Barrier Reef. The sheer scale of the reefs took everyone’s breath away, the colours vivid and bright, like someone had painted pictures upon the sea, random shapes bordered in snowy white splashed with everything from emerald green and palest blue to muted shades of mocha.
And then they landed on the water and transferred to a glass-bottomed boat so they could see the amazing Technicolor world under the sea together with its rich sea life. ‘I am definitely coming back one day to show Sam,’ she told Maureen as they boarded the seaplane for the journey back to Mina. ‘Thank you so much for today. I know I’ll treasure these memories for ever.’
And from the back seat Eric piped up, ‘You just wait. We saved the best till last!’
They had. They were heading back over a section he identified as Hardy Reef, one part of a network of reefs that extended more than two thousand kilometres up the north Queensland coastline, when she saw something that didn’t fit with the randomness of the coral structures.
She pointed out the window. ‘That looks like… Is that what I think it is?’ Eric laughed and had the pilot circle around so they could all see.
‘That’s it. What do you think of that?’
It was incredible and for a moment her brain had refused to believe what her eyes were telling her. For in the middle of a kind of lagoon in the midst of a coral reef where everything appeared random, there sat a reef grown in the shape of a heart, its outline made from coral that looked from above like milk chocolate sprinkles on a cake, the inside like it was covered in a soft cream-cheese frosting, all surrounded by a sea of brilliant blue.
And little wonder she thought in terms of frostings and cakes, because it reminded her so much of the cake she’d made for Sam for his first birthday, knowing that as he got older he’d want bears or trains or some cartoon character or other. She figured that for his first, before he had a say, she could choose, and she’d made a heart shape, because that was what Sam meant to her.
‘Look, Richard,’ Felicity said, clasping his hand as they circled around. ‘It’s a heart. Isn’t that amazing?’
‘It magical,’ Eve said, gazing down in wonder at the unique formation below. ‘This entire place is just magical. Thank you.’ The Culshaws laughed, delighted with the reactions of their guests as Leo took her hand and pressed it to his lips. She turned to him, surprised at the tenderness of the gesture, finding his eyes softly sad, feeling that sense of loss again, for something she had not yet quite gained. ‘What is it?’ she asked, confused.
‘You are magical,’ he told her, and his words shimmied down her spine and left her infused wit
h a warm, golden glow and a question mark over her earlier accusation. A heart of stone? she wondered.
But there was definitely something magical in the air.
They dined alfresco that evening, an informal barbecue held early enough that Sam could join them, happily showing off his new toy collection to anyone who displayed an interest. Luckily nobody seemed to mind and Sam was in his element, lapping up the attention. When he yawned, there was general consensus amongst the couples. It had been a fabulous day, but exhausting, and tomorrow there was serious work to be done, an agreement to finally be hammered out between the men, a morning at the spa on a neighbouring island for the women.
And before that a night of explosive sex. Eve felt the tension change in the man alongside her, the barely restrained desire bubbling away so close to the surface she could just about smell the pheromones on the fresh night air. She sensed the changes in her own body, the prickling awareness, the mounting heat. It distracted her.
Sam, sensing the party winding up around him, found his second wind and made a dash for the toy room. Eve was too slow, caught unawares, and surprised when it was Felicity who snatched up the squirming child. ‘Gotcha!’ she said, swinging him in the air and tickling his tummy before, breathless and red cheeked, she passed him to his mother.
He was asleep before they reached the bure. She put Sam down, emerging from his small room to a darkened bedroom, lit only by the moonlight filtering through the glass windows. Leo had left the blinds open. She liked that; liked the way the shadows of the palms swayed on the breeze; liked the way the room glowed silver.
‘Come to bed,’ came the velvet-clad invitation.
And that was the part she liked best of all.
She was screaming again, crying out in pain as the blows rained down, as the bad words continued. ‘Stomato to!’ he cried from his bed. ‘Stop it!’ But it didn’t stop, and in fear and desperation he crept to the door, tears streaming down his face, afraid to move, afraid not to move, afraid of what he would find when he opened the door. So he did nothing, just curled up into a ball behind the door and covered his ears and prayed for it to stop.
‘Leo, it’s okay.’
He sat bolt upright in bed, panting, desperate for air, burning up. He put his hands to his head, bent over his knees.
‘You had a nightmare again.’
God, it wasn’t a nightmare. It was his life. He swept the sheet aside, stormed from the bed, pacing the floor, circuit after circuit.
Twenty years ago he had escaped. Twenty years ago he had made his own way. But he had always known it was there, always known it was lurking. Waiting.
But it had never been this close. This real.
He felt cool hands on his back. ‘What is it?’
He flinched, jumping away. ‘Don’t touch me! You shouldn’t touch me!’
‘Leo?’
‘I have to go for a walk.’ He pulled open a drawer, pulled out a pair of cotton pants and shoved his legs into them.
‘It’s two o’clock in the morning.’
‘Let me go!’
The night air fanned around him, warming against his burning skin, the shallows sucking at his feet. There was a reason he didn’t get close to anyone. Good reason. He was broken. Twisted. Made to be alone.
Couldn’t she see that?
And yet she kept looking at him that way with those damned blue eyes and even had him wishing for things that could never be. It was his fault. When had he stopped acting a part? When had he forgotten that this weekend was about pretence, that it wasn’t real?
When she’d bucked underneath him in bed, her body writhing in its sweat-slicked release? Or when she’d talked about her parents and made him want to reach out and soothe her pain?
He stopped where the beach turned to rock, looked out over the sea to the looming dark shapes of the nearest islands.
One more day. One more night. And he would take her home before he could hurt her and there would be no more dreams.
It was as easy and as hard as that.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SHE needed this. Eve lay on the massage table, scented candles perfuming the air, skilful hands working the knots out of her back and neck. She only wished someone would work out the knots in her mind, but that was impossible while Leo Zamos was at their core.
He’d been so desperate to get away, bursting from the bure this morning like the devil himself was after him. She’d watched him go, lit by moonlight as he’d moved through the trees towards the beach. Watched him and waited for him to come back. But eventually she’d gone back to bed and when she’d woken, he’d been sitting, having coffee on the deck.
She didn’t know what it was, only that something was terribly, desperately wrong and that if he only opened up and shared what was troubling him, maybe she could help.
She sighed, a mixture of muscular bliss and frustrated mind, as the masseuse had her roll over, readying her for her facial. What was the point of wanting to help? He didn’t want it and tomorrow she would go home, and all of this would be nothing more than a memory.
She couldn’t afford to care. She mustn’t, even when he told her she was magical. Even when he tugged on her heart and her soul with his kiss.
Even though she so very much wanted to believe it.
Thoroughly pampered after their hours at the spa, the three women enjoyed a late lunch at the big house, on the terrace overlooking the pool. The men were still in conference apparently, although Maureen suggested that might just mean they’d popped out in the boat for a spot of fishing while the women weren’t looking. Not that it mattered. After they’d been massaged until their bones had just about melted, they were more than content to sit and chat in the warm, balmy air of tropical North Queensland. After all, they were going home tomorrow. Soon enough real life would intrude.
Sam was once again more than happy to provide the entertainment if they weren’t up to it. He tottered between the three women, perfectly at ease with them all now, sharing around building blocks he’d taken a shine to, taking them back and redistributing them as if this was all part of some grand plan, happily chattering the whole time. Eve watched him, so proud of her little man, knowing that at least when Leo walked out of her life, she would still have Sam. He’d surprised her too. Instead of providing a disruptive force, as she’d expected, it seemed that, at least in some part, he seemed to pull them together. He definitely kept them amused.
And Felicity surprised her again, playing his games, picking him up when he passed, giving him hugs and raspberry kisses on his cheek to his squeals and giggles of delight before he scampered off on his toddler legs.
‘I always wanted a child,’ she said wistfully, her eyes following his escape. ‘In fact, I always imagined myself surrounded by children. And when I met Richard and thought he was the one, I thought it might happen, even though it was already getting late…’ Then she blinked and looked around. ‘I guess things sometimes turn out differently to what we expect.’
And the other two women nodded, each wrapped in their own separate thoughts and experiences.
‘It seemed easier to give up and pretend it didn’t matter. But meeting you and seeing you with Sam makes me realise how much it means to me. I want to try again. At least one more time.’ Tears made her eyes glassy. ‘You’re so lucky to be able to give Leo a child, Evelyn. I really wish I could do the same for Richard.’ Her voice hitched. ‘Damn! I’m so sorry.’ She fled inside.
Eve felt sick, a hand instinctively going to her mouth. And all the good feelings, all the positive goodwill she’d been stashing away in her memory while she was determined to enjoy this weekend were for nothing. They meant nothing if her deceit led someone else to want what she was having. A wish based on a lie.
She rose to follow and tell her exactly that when Maureen stopped her. ‘Let her go.’
‘But she thinks—’
Maureen nodded. ‘I know what she thinks.’
‘But you don’t understand.’ S
he slumped back in her chair, feeling the weight of the lie crushing down on her, feeling her heart squeezed tight, knowing she couldn’t go home without admitting the truth. ‘I hate this! I hate the pretence. I’m so sorry, Maureen.’ She shook her head, and still couldn’t find a nice way to say it. ‘Look, Leo’s not really Sam’s father.’
She heard a sharp intake of air, followed by an equally sharp exhalation. But then, instead of the censure she’d expected, or the outrage, she felt a gentling hand over her own. ‘I wondered when you were going to feel able to share that.’
Warily, feeling sicker than ever, Eve looked up. ‘You knew?’
‘From the moment I met you in that bar in Melbourne. Of course, Sam could have passed for Leo’s son, but it was crystal clear to anyone who had ever been a mother that Leo had no idea about being a father. And then his awkwardness at dinner, not knowing his own son’s birthday, only reinforced that impression, at least to me.’ She shrugged. ‘Though when it comes down to it, does Sam’s parentage really matter?’
‘But you don’t understand. It’s not that simple—’
‘Of course it’s that simple.’ Maureen said, cutting her off. ‘I saw you and Leo out there yesterday in the boat and on the beach. It’s clear to everyone that you love him and he loves you, so why should it matter one bit who Sam’s father really is?’ she insisted. ‘Why should a silly detail like that matter when you are going to marry a man who clearly worships the ground you walk on? Now, I’ll go check on Felicity and you stop worrying.’
How could Maureen know so much and yet be so wrong? Eve sat on the sand with Sam, watching him busily digging holes. All those hours of massaging and jet baths and a relaxing facial, all that pampering and all for nothing. Not even the magic of the island itself, the rustle of the palms and the vivid colours, none of it could dispel the tightness in her gut.
She didn’t love Leo.
Sure, she was worried about him and whatever it was that plagued his dreams and turned his skin cold with sweat, and she certainly had an unhealthy obsession with the man, one that had started that fateful day three years ago, and which had only gathered momentum after mind-blowing nights of sex.