Читать книгу By Request Collection April-June 2016 - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 18

SAM’S morning chatter roused them, as he tested all the sounds in his vocabulary in one long gabble, then she heard a tell-tale bump on the floor, followed by a squeal. ‘That’s Sam,’ she said unnecessarily, locating her nightie and snatching up her balled-up underwear and a robe and making for the bathroom for a quick pit stop, wanting to ensure she looked maternal rather than wanton when she greeted her son. Not that he was old enough to notice anything amiss, she thought, giving thanks for his innocence.

Sam was hanging onto the rails and bouncing on the mattress and greeted her with a huge grin followed by ‘mumumumumum’, which warmed her heart. Unconditional love. There was nothing like it. She changed him on the table provided and equipped for the task before popping his wriggling body down on the floor. ‘Bear!’ he shouted, gleefully scooping up the toy and running with his wide toddler gait out of the room before her, looking a little bit lost at the new surroundings for just a moment, before running full pelt and colliding with the bed.

Dark eyes blinked up at Leo, openly curious. He blinked back, wondering what one was supposed to say to a child. Sam looked around at his mother, who was pulling milk from the fridge in the small kitchenette and pouring it into a jug. ‘It’s okay, Sam, you remember Leo,’ she said reassuringly as she put the jug in the microwave, and Sam turned and careened straight into his mother’s legs, hiding his face between them.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, hoisting him to her hip in one efficient movement, although it wasn’t so much the efficiency that impressed Leo but the unexpected way the sudden angle of her hip displayed the long line of her legs. His mouth went dry, his blood went south. Strange really, for here she was, dressed in a cheap cotton nightgown, a toweling robe sashed at her waist and with a baby at her hip, and maybe it was her tousled hair, or the jut of that damned hip, or even the fact she’d just blown his world apart in bed—twice—but suddenly he was thinking about a third time.

The microwave pinged.

‘Ping,’ cried Sam, holding his hands out. ‘Ping!’

One-handed, she poured the milk into some kind of cup, fixing on a spout before passing it to the boy. ‘Here’s your ping, Sam.’ Leo watched her, admiring the way she looked so at ease working one-handedly. Sam dropped his bear to clasp the cup in his pudgy hands, gulping deep. ‘Sam’s used to joining me in bed in the morning,’ she said, bending over to retrieve the bear and giving his sex a hell of a jolt in the process. Until, through the fog of rising testosterone, it occurred to him that she was about to bring Sam back to bed.

‘Although, admittedly,’ she added, already on her way, ‘he’s not used to finding someone else there.’

He tucked that piece of information away in a file that came marked with a tick, even as he gladly took her hint and pulled on a robe to vacate the bed. He liked the knowledge she didn’t often entertain at home. Sam was evidence she’d been with someone, and that wasn’t something he wanted to contemplate. He didn’t want to think there had been or were others.

‘I didn’t mean you had to run away,’ she said, settling Sam between the pillows. ‘It’s still early.’

‘I think I’ll go for a run.’

‘You haven’t had that much to do with babies or children, have you?’

‘Does it show?’

‘Blatantly. You might want to do something about that if you want people to believe you’re actually Sam’s father. The fact you’re travelling most of the year is no excuse for not knowing how to deal with the child who’s supposed to be your own.’

He shrugged, knowing he’d handled things badly last night, not even remembering his supposed son’s age, but uncomfortable with where the conversation was headed. ‘What do you suggest?’

‘Maybe you should try holding him from time to time. Even just hold his hand. Engage with him.’

‘Engage with him?’

‘He’s a person, Leo, just like anyone else. Maybe try directing all that animal magnetism you have at him instead of every woman you happen to meet.’

He looked at the child. Looked back at her, not sure who was making him feel more uncomfortable now. ‘But can he even understand what I say?’

She laughed. ‘More than you know.’

He sat down awkwardly on the side of the bed, watching Sam, Sam watching him as he swigged at his milk, his teddy tucked securely once again under his arm.

And Sam guzzled the last of his milk and held out his toy. ‘Bear!’

He looked on uncertainly, not sure what was expected of him, unfamiliar with this role. ‘I’m not sure I can do this.’

‘He’s offering it to you. Try taking it,’ she suggested.

He put out his hand toward the bear and Sam immediately rolled over, giggling madly, the toy wedged tightly beneath him.

He looked over at her. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘It’s a game, Leo. Wait.’ And sure enough the arm shot out again.

‘Bear.’

This time Leo made a grab for it. A slow lunge, and way too slow for Sam, but he loved it anyway, squealing with glee as he hid his teddy.

The next time was nearly a draw, Sam winning by a whisker, and he was in stitches on the bed, his body curved over his prize, and even Leo was finding it amusing. ‘He’s quick,’ he said, and he looked at Evelyn, who was smiling too, although her eyes looked almost sad, almost as if…

‘I’ll go take a shower,’ he said, standing abruptly, not interested in analysing what a look like that might mean. He didn’t do family. He’d told her that. And if the shadowed remnants of last night’s nightmares had reminded him of him anything, it was that he could never do family. He dared not risk it. He was broken, and that was just the way it was.

So she could look at him any damned way and it would make no difference. Because after two more nights with her, he would let her go for ever.

He didn’t want anything more.

And he definitely didn’t want her pity.

They were all meeting after breakfast at the dock, ready for a day’s adventure. A morning sail, and then a helicopter trip over the more far-flung sights of the islands and the reef. Hannah had already collected Sam and taken him up to the main house where there was a large playroom filled with toys and games and all surrounded by secure fences so he couldn’t get into trouble if he wandered off. Which meant Eve had a rare few hours without Sam, not to work but to enjoy her beautiful if temporary surroundings, and the heated attention of a man just as beautiful and temporary, if a lot more complex.

He held her hand as they wended their way along the palm-studded sand toward the dock on the bay, the whispering wind promising a day of seductive warmth, the odd scattered white cloud offering no threat, and the man at her side promising days and nights filled with sinful pleasures.

Now that she had made her decision, and had Leo’s commitment that he wouldn’t abandon her if the worst happened, as Sam’s father had done, she was determined to enjoy every last moment of it. Maybe she was crazy, but she trusted him, at least on that score. And there was no question that he didn’t lack the means to support a child.

The morning sun kissed her bare arms where it infiltrated the foliage, the air fresh with salt and the sweet scent of tropical flowers. Ten whole degrees warmer up here than Melbourne’s showery forecast, Eve had heard when she’d flicked on the weather channel while feeding Sam his breakfast. She could think of worse ways to spend the time waiting for a new hot water service to be installed.

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 with 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.