Читать книгу Temptation in Paradise - Joanna Neil, Joanna Neil - Страница 8

LATER THAT SAME DAY, José turned his open-topped car onto the winding coast road, heading towards the harbour. It wasn’t a long journey, but Jessie found herself loving every minute of it, watching the landscape change from the town with its pleasant market squares shaded by tamarind trees and palms, through forest-clad slopes and the gentle, undulating hills that led down to the clear blue waters of the marina. The sun was warm on her face and the soft breeze lifted her hair.

‘Is it far to the reef?’ she asked, after they’d reached their destination and he’d parked the car.

‘Just a few minutes once we’re on the boat,’ he murmured. He lifted a case from the boot and they started to walk along the quayside. There were boats of all sizes in the yacht basin, their paintwork gleaming in the bright afternoon sunshine.

They followed a wooden mooring platform until José came to a halt by a large yacht, the Bella Rosa, white painted, with glittering steel guard rails all around the deck. Jessie stared at it. She was stunned.

‘Is this yours?’

He nodded. ‘I bought it about three years ago so that I could cruise around the islands and travel to the reef whenever I wanted. She’s beautifully kitted out. I think you’ll like her. I hope you do. Come on board and see what you think.’ He opened up the deck gate and put out a hand to help her on board.

His grasp was strong and firm as he drew her along the ramp, keeping her close to him. He was long and lean, full of lithe energy, and as he helped her onto the deck, he was so near her that she could feel the warmth coming from his body. She felt the brush of his thigh against hers and her pulse quickened, heat rising in her. When he finally released her she felt almost disappointed.

She did her best to shake off those feelings. He was her boss and there was trouble between him and her brother—surely it was extremely unwise to be seduced into having such a strong awareness of him? She had to stop herself from being enticed into any kind of emotional attachment—she’d been hurt before, and who was to say José wouldn’t turn out to be exactly the same kind of man?

Now, though, she looked around the yacht in openmouthed wonder. Sun glinted on the polished, golden timbers of the deck, and glazed doors opened into a spacious salon that had been fitted out with sleek upholstered sofas and a low table. Wide, deep windows provided a panoramic view of the harbour.

Everything here was perfection, and she could imagine sitting here, taking in the air with an aperitif in hand. ‘Wow,’ she said, and couldn’t resist smiling. ‘Just … wow!’

He chuckled at her bemused expression. ‘Let me show you around below deck.’

They went down into the galley, where pale oak exteriors housed a variety of equipment. ‘There’s a cooker, microwave, fridge and freezer,’ he told her. ‘Pretty much everything you might need.’

The boat housed two cabins as well as the master suite, each one beautifully fitted out with the same pale oak that was the recurring theme throughout the boat. This was repeated in the main salon, where the woodwork gleamed faintly and luxurious fabrics added to the feeling of opulence. The room opened out into a dining area, and light poured in through windows all around.

‘It’s fantastic,’ she said. ‘I’m very impressed. I must say, this is a novel way to travel to work.’

He smiled. ‘I guess it’s the best there is.’

He took a bottle from the fridge in the galley before they went back on to the upper deck, and once there he produced a couple of long-stemmed glasses from a glazed unit in the cockpit.

‘This isn’t alcoholic, I’m afraid,’ he murmured, pouring sparkling wine into the champagne flutes, ‘as I have to pilot the boat and then be fit for work, but it’s refreshing … and you can drink as much of it as you like.’ He handed her a glass, then lifted his to hers with a gentle clink. His smoky gaze met hers over the rim. ‘Salud!’

‘Salud!’ she echoed in a quiet voice, and then began to waver under that intense, heated stare. She sipped her drink slowly, breaking off that eye contact.

He didn’t say anything more but downed his wine and then, almost reluctantly, turned his attention to setting the boat in motion. She was relieved the moment had passed.

They sped across the water, heading towards a green outcrop some half a mile away, and after a few minutes José brought the boat to a halt at the dive site. Several men milled about on board another boat that was moored there. They were wearing wetsuits or shorts, and they were helping each other with equipment, compressed air tanks and masks and so on.

‘Holà! Is everyone all right?’ José called out, and they nodded. ‘That’s good. Permission to come aboard?’

‘Aye, come on over.’ The skipper grinned.

José retrieved his case and pulled out a large medical bag from one of the storage units on board, and then helped Jessie off the yacht and onto the dive boat. ‘Let’s hope the dive goes smoothly,’ he said.

They stood on the open deck and watched as the men took to the water. ‘What are they looking for down there?’ Jessie asked. ‘I mean, this is a conservation project—so what does that involve?’

‘A few of the reefs in the Caribbean have been damaged over the years, for a number of reasons,’ José explained. ‘If the sea warms up too much because of climate changes, for instance, it can cause the coral to die off, or certain species of fish can cause problems by overfeeding. In time, algae and seaweed cover the reefs and block out the light.’

‘Can something be done about that?’

He nodded. ‘We reseed the reef with fast-growing coral species—we’re having some success out here, and with luck we’ve managed to turn things around.’

He waved her to a chair on the deck by the guardrail. ‘Please, sit down.’ He took a seat next to her and opened the case he had brought with him, revealing a hamper full of mouth-watering food. ‘I thought you might be getting hungry by now,’ he said, ‘so I stopped off at the restaurant and put together a hamper. Help yourself.’ He handed her a plate and serviette, along with some cutlery.

‘That was very thoughtful of you,’ she said. It was totally unexpected, too, and she warmed to him even more. She’d been wondering when she might get to eat again. ‘It looks delicious.’ Her eyes widened at the variety of the contents—tortilla wraps filled with chicken, peppers, red onion and salad greens, along with potato salad and what turned out to be spicy corn bread. ‘Mmm, this is good,’ she murmured appreciatively, biting into a tortilla a moment later. ‘I didn’t realize I was quite so hungry.’

He opened a bottle of wine, filled a glass with the sparkling liquid and then passed it to her. ‘There’s coleslaw, as well,’ he said, searching in the case and bringing out a container. ‘And a tropical fruit salad for afterwards, as well as some fruit tarts.’

‘You’ve thought of everything,’ she said, smiling. ‘This is wonderful.’ She sent him an impish look. ‘Is this how you spend all your working days out at the reef?’

He laughed. ‘Not exactly. But today is rather different.’ He looked her over, smiling. ‘Today you are here.’ The look he gave her made her insides tingle.

She blinked and swallowed hard. To bring things back on to an even keel, she asked quietly, ‘So what does the work involve?’

He spooned black bean and rice salad onto his plate. ‘I have to check the general health of the divers on a regular basis, and sort out any problems they might have. I need to keep up-to-date records, and I have to be here in case they get into difficulties. Mostly, the problems we see are to do with ear troubles and pressure injuries, as well as the occasional graze or scrape. These men are experienced divers, so on the whole they know how to avoid trouble. Even so, diving is a dangerous activity and we have to be constantly alert to things that might go wrong.’

She sipped her wine and looked out over the glittering blue water. A glint of silver caught her eye and she gave a small gasp of excitement as a flying fish leaped from the water and glided through the air on wing-like fins for a few moments before descending once more.

‘That’s one way to avoid being caught by underwater prey, I suppose,’ José said with a smile.

‘It’s amazing, so sleek and graceful. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’

She peered into the clear water and was rewarded by the passing of a shoal of exotic, brightly coloured parrotfish. She could see how they got their name—the external teeth formed what looked like a beak.

‘Ben tells me about his dives sometimes,’ she said, animated by everything around her. ‘He says there are pinnacles down there, draped in seaweed, that look like trees and sway about in the water. And he showed me an underwater video he’d made of the reef, where you can see giant clams, sea anemones and sea fans—there was even a turtle trying to eat a sponge. It made it look as though diving down there is a wonderful experience.’

‘It is. You could try a dive yourself one day, or maybe look at the reef by spending some time on a glass-bottomed boat.’

‘Yes, I might do that.’ She picked up an apricot-glazed fruit tart and bit into it, savouring the sweet taste on her tongue. ‘Oh, I think I’m in heaven,’ she murmured, closing her eyes briefly.