Читать книгу Sarah Morgan Summer Collection - Sarah Morgan - Страница 14

THE tunnel was dark and smelt dank and musty.

‘At least we can hear ourselves think in here,’ Ethan murmured, as he flashed the torch downwards to illuminate their feet. ‘I’m beginning to see what you mean about Glenmore and storms.’ His feet made a splashing noise and he shone the torch down. ‘It’s very wet.’

‘The rain pours in here. The whole dungeon floods in the winter. Ouch.’ She’d lost her footing and clutched at his arm, feeling his muscles bunch under her fingers as he took her weight and steadied her.

‘Go slowly. It’s treacherous underfoot.’

‘Let’s try shouting.’ She stopped dead. ‘Fraser? Fraser!’

Her voice bounced and echoed off the walls and then there was nothing except an eerie silence, punctuated by the sound of water trickling and dripping in the darkness around them.

‘This could be a wild-goose chase,’ Kyla said, as they picked and slithered their way further down into the tunnel. ‘He could be sitting at home and—’

‘Be quiet.’ Ethan put a hand on her arm. ‘I heard something.’

Kyla froze. And then she heard something, too.

‘What was that?’

‘I don’t know. But it wasn’t wind and it wasn’t dripping water so it’s worth investigating. How far is the gate that covers the entrance of the dungeons?’

‘I can’t remember. It’s years since I came down here, but I don’t think it can be far now.’ Kyla flashed the torch and nodded. ‘There. Can you see?’

‘Yes. But the gate’s shut. It hasn’t been opened. Hold the torch while I check.’

Kyla shone both torches onto the gate and Ethan ran his fingers over the rusted bars. ‘There’s no way he could have got through here.’

‘No, but he could have got through there.’ Kyla shone the torch to the side and Ethan turned, his eyes on the crack in the wall.

‘It’s not wide enough.’

‘Yes, it is,’ Kyla said wearily, and he lifted an eyebrow.

‘Are you seriously telling me that you once wriggled through that gap?’

‘I was twelve at the time,’ she muttered. ‘I’ve eaten thousands of Evanna’s dinners since then.’

And then they both heard the noise at the same time. And this time it was recognisable.

‘Fraser?’ Kyla yelled his name and moved closer to the gate. ‘Fraser, is that you? Are you down there?’

‘I’m stuck.’ His voice was thin and reedy and Kyla felt her heart turn over.

‘All right. Don’t panic, Fraser. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to get you out.’ She almost laughed as she listened to herself. How? That was the question that flew into her mind. How were they going to get him out? There was a storm brewing, Fraser was trapped underground in an unstable place and no one else knew where they were.

‘We need to—we need to—’ For once her ingenuity failed her and she looked helplessly at Ethan. ‘I don’t know what on earth we need. There’s a drop, Ethan. He must have fallen in. I mean, there are no stairs or anything. Just a drop and then a small cramped room. It’s a bit like being at the bottom of a well. How are we going to get him out of there?’

‘A stage at a time.’ Ethan was calm. ‘First we find a way to get in. Then we find a way to get him out. But we’re going to need help. I’m going to go back up to the top and call Nick. We need a team of people up here and some rope. And we need to call the people who run this place to see if there’s an official way through this gate.’ His quiet confidence gave her courage.

‘Yes, of course you’re right. Nick will arrange everything if you just call him. I’ll stay here and see if I can work anything out.’

‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

‘Kyla?’ Fraser’s voice came from far below her, weak and shaky. ‘Are you still there?’

‘I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere. You’ve chosen a good place to shelter, Fraser, on such a stormy night.’

‘It’s very dark down here.’ She heard the quiver in his voice and her heart twisted with sympathy for him. He must be so scared. For a moment she contemplated dropping the torch down to him but then she realised that the fall would probably just break it and then they’d both be in the dark.

‘How did you get down there, Fraser?’ She slid a hand across the gate, shuddering when she encountered the softness of a spider’s web. She didn’t mind the storm or the dark but she hated spiders.

‘I opened the gate. I only meant to look. And then I fell. I don’t remember anything after that.’

He’d knocked himself out. ‘Do you hurt anywhere, Fraser?’

‘My head. I think it’s bleeding but I dropped my torch when I fell and it broke. I’ve been lying here. I didn’t think anyone would ever find me.’

Kyla closed her eyes for a moment, hardly able to bear thinking about just how frightened he must have felt. ‘Well, we have found you, and we’ll be getting you out in just a moment.’ She glanced back up the tunnel and saw the reassuring flicker of Ethan’s torch. He was on his way back. And then she suddenly realised what the child had said. ‘You opened the gate? Fraser? Did you say that you opened the gate? How? It’s locked.’

‘But it opens on the other side. The hinges are rusted.’

‘They’re on their way.’ Ethan stopped next to her and watched while she ran her hands over the gate. ‘What are you doing?’

‘He didn’t go through the gap in the rock. He went through the gate. The gate opens, Ethan.’ She tugged and pulled and the whole structure came towards her. ‘Ugh. Spiders. I hate spiders.’

‘Kyla?’ Fraser’s voice came from below them. ‘I feel funny.’

‘In what way funny?’ With Ethan’s help, Kyla opened the gate far enough for an adult to pass through. ‘Talk to me, Fraser.’

There was a long silence and for a hideous moment she thought he’d lost consciousness. Then his voice came again, this time much weaker. ‘Sort of swimmy-headed. And sick. Just not well. I wish I’d never come here now. I want Mum.’ The childlike plea for protection went straight to Kyla’s heart but before she could act, Ethan moved her bodily and handed her his torch.

‘Hold on, Fraser.’ His voice was deep and reassuring. ‘I’m coming down to you.’

‘You can’t do that.’ Kyla caught his arm but he shrugged her off.

‘I have to. We don’t know what his injuries are. He’s afraid and on his own. Someone needs to be down there with him.’

‘You can’t just jump, Ethan. It’s too far. You’ll break something.’

‘I’m not jumping.’ He removed his coat. ‘There are enough handholds in this place to climb down.’

‘Are you kidding?’ She eyed him with incredulity. ‘The wall is completely smooth.’

‘No, it isn’t. Stay there for a moment and then hand me the torch when I say so. Fraser?’ He raised his voice and wriggled his body through the gap in the gate. ‘I’m coming down to you. Just hang on.’

There was no answer, only the hollow plop of water, and suddenly Kyla felt sick herself. She ought to stop Ethan doing something so rash but she knew now that Fraser’s life could be at stake. Why wasn’t he answering? Was he unconscious?

Ethan gave a grunt as he anchored himself and held out a hand. ‘Hand me the torch.’

‘But you won’t have any hands to hold on, and—’

‘The torch, Kyla!’

‘All right.’ She bit back the impulse the tell him to be careful. They were all way past the point of being careful.

He took the torch in his mouth and started to descend with a smooth agility that astonished her.

And then she remembered the way he ran in the mornings. He may have been brought up in a city, but there was no doubting his physical fitness. Still, physical fitness was one thing. Climbing down a wall into a long abandoned dungeon was quite another.

Fifteen minutes, Kyla calculated, feeling the thump of her heart and the dampness of her palms. That was how long it would take Nick and a rescue team to reach them. Would that be fifteen minutes too long for Fraser?

They had no idea about the extent of his injuries.

All they knew now was that he wasn’t responding to their questions.

She didn’t dare flash the torch in case she distracted Ethan from his task. Instead she sat and forced herself to breathe steadily, braced to hear the sound of his powerful body crashing to the ground.

‘I’m down, Kyla.’ His voice echoed up to her from the bowels of the dungeon. ‘Can you shine some extra light down here? It’s pitch dark.’

She did as he’d asked, hugely relieved that he’d made it that far without injury to himself. And then she heard noise from above her and realised that the rescue party had arrived. ‘They’re here, Ethan. Have you found him? Is Fraser OK?’ Suddenly she wished she’d been the one to go down the shaft. She felt so helpless, just sitting at the top. If she hadn’t been holding the torch, she would have bitten her nails down to the quick.

‘He has a nasty laceration to his forehead and some bruising, but I don’t think anything is broken. He’s OK. Conscious. Just a bit weak.’

And extremely frightened, Kyla was willing to bet. She could hear Ethan talking to the boy and then there was a crunch of footsteps behind her and she turned to see Logan standing there, along with Nick and two other members of the coastguard.

‘We’ve brought ropes, and there’s more equipment up top.’ A light shone from the helmet on Nick’s head. ‘Give us an update.’

‘Ethan is down there so it shouldn’t be too hard to get him out,’ Kyla said, moving onto her hands and knees so that she could get a better look over the edge. ‘Ethan?’

‘Drop a harness on a rope?’ Logan turned to Ben. ‘We can bring him up that way.’

Ben nodded agreement. ‘That will certainly be the quickest way if the boy is up to it. Is he conscious?’

‘Yes, I think so.’ Kyla supplied the information they needed, and Ben frowned.

‘How the hell did Ethan get down there?’

‘He climbed down.’ And Kyla was still wondering how a man who dressed in suits costing thousands of pounds could so skilfully negotiate a sheer and slippery face.

‘Without a rope?’

Kyla heard the disapproval in Ben’s voice and threw him an impatient glance. ‘Fraser stopped talking. We were worried about him. If you were the one sitting here, would you have waited for a rope?’

‘Probably not.’ Ben gave a faint smile of apology. ‘Good decision, then. Brave guy. That’s another free pint I owe him. All right. Let’s get on with this. The weather’s getting worse and if he needs a lift to the mainland, it’s going to have to be soon.’

Logan was shouting down to Ethan, trying to assess the medical situation and how best to extract Fraser. ‘I still think the best way is to drop a harness. He’s conscious and Ethan has dressed the wound on his head. He can use his feet to keep away from the side. We’ll have him out in minutes that way.’

‘Let’s do it.’

After that everything happened quickly. They lowered the rope to Ethan and minutes later Kyla saw the top of Fraser’s head appear over the lip of the dungeon. She breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly realised that her hands were shaking.

She’d been so afraid for him.

His face was streaked with dirt and blood and although he had a sheepish smile on his face, she sensed that he was struggling with tears.

Logan lifted him clear of the gate and sat him carefully down on the damp floor of the tunnel.

‘You are such a brave boy.’ Kyla took one look at him and wrapped her arms around him. ‘If the Celts had had you on their side, those Vikings never would have stood a chance.’ She could feel him quivering and cuddled him close.

His teeth were chattering. ‘My mum’s going to kill me.’

Ben nodded as he slipped some warm layers over the boy. ‘Very probably. But then she’ll be relieved you’re OK. He’s bleeding through that pad. Logan? Kyla?’

‘I’ve got it.’ Kyla gently lifted the pad on the boy’s forehead and studied the wound under the torchlight. She could see that it was deep and the edges were jagged. ‘I’ll put a firm dressing on it for now just so that we can get you out of here, Fraser. Then one of the doctors is going to take a closer look at that.’ It was obvious to her that he was going to need stitches and she glanced towards Logan, who gave a swift nod of understanding.

‘I want you to answer a couple of questions for me, Fraser,’ he said casually, shining a light into the boy’s eyes to check the reaction of his pupils. ‘What day is it today?’

Fraser answered correctly and Logan slipped the penlight back into his pocket.

‘What’s your mum’s name?’

‘Aisla. And she’s definitely going to kill me.’

Logan grinned. ‘I’ll protect you. How’s the headache?’

‘Better than it was.’

‘Do you feel sick?’

Fraser shook his head and at that moment Ethan joined them. ‘He thinks he lost consciousness when he fell, but his GCS was fifteen when I checked it down there.’

Kyla looked at them. ‘Will you transfer him to the mainland for a CT scan?’

‘I wouldn’t go down that route yet,’ Ethan said easily, glancing towards Logan. ‘It’s true that he was knocked out, but he’s not showing any clinical signs of a skull fracture. I’d suggest we just observe him and see how he goes.’

Logan nodded agreement. ‘Let’s get him to the surgery,’ he said quietly, ‘and then we can take a proper look at him under some decent lights. I’ll stitch him up, check him out and then see what’s needed. He can stay the night with me and then I can watch him.’

‘Is Evanna with you?’ Kyla was still holding Fraser and her brother nodded.

‘Yes. She came over to stay with Kirsty when I got the call about Fraser. So she can keep an eye on him, too.’ He put a hand on Fraser’s shoulder and squeezed. ‘You’re going to have plenty of attention.’

‘Will Nurse Duncan make one of her cakes? I’ve been down here since lunchtime and I’m starving.’

Logan looked amused. ‘At this time of night? I doubt it. But I expect she’ll whip you up something good to eat if you play your cards right.’

Kyla looked at Ethan. ‘You never told me you could climb.’

‘You never asked.’

Was it all about questions for him? ‘You never reveal anything about yourself unless it’s prised out of you?’

He wiped the mud from his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket. ‘I’m not much of a talker, you know that.’ He reached out a hand and touched Fraser’s head. ‘You did well. How are you feeling now?’

‘OK.’ Fraser looked at him and something passed between them. An understanding. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Ethan said, a glimmer of a smile touching his usually serious face.

Logan looked at Kyla and then back at Ethan. ‘You two are filthy. Anyone would think you’d spent the evening scrabbling around in a dark tunnel. You’re a bad advert for the surgery. I’m the one on call so go home and have a shower. I’ll take over here but keep your phone switched on. If I need you, I’ll call.’

The storm struck at dawn.

Hearing a consistent hammering, Ethan woke from a restless sleep, wondering whether the wind was rattling the windows. Then he realised that the hammering was coming from the back door.

Trouble with Fraser?

He’d rung Logan before going to bed and his colleague had assured him that Fraser was sleeping and seemed comfortable. He’d been sick once but that was to be expected after a head injury and Logan hadn’t been unduly concerned. All his other signs were fine and they had been going to monitor him.

The hammering came again, louder this time, and Ethan forced himself out of bed.

Wondering what new crisis he was about to face, he tugged on a pair of jeans, jerked open the door and felt his entire body tense.

Kyla stood there, her face alight with excitement. ‘Come with me. There’s something I want to show you.’

Ethan pushed away the claws of sleep that were threatening to drag him down. ‘Something’s happened to Fraser? He was OK when I rang.’

‘As far as I know, he’s still OK. This isn’t about Fraser. It’s nothing to do with work.’ She held out a hand. ‘Come with me.’

‘Now?’

She smiled. ‘Now is the best time.’

‘It’s the middle of the night. There’s a storm building. It’s wild outside.’

‘It hasn’t even begun yet, and it’s dawn. There’s plenty of light.’ There was a strange gleam in her eyes. ‘Are you afraid, Ethan?’

Everything about her seemed vivid and full of life, and Ethan realised that the answer to her question should be yes. He was afraid.

But not of the storm. He was afraid of her. Of his feelings for her. Of where this wild, crazy chemistry was going to take them.

He still hadn’t told her the truth about himself.

‘There won’t be anything to see in this weather. It’s raining and the visibility is zero.’

‘Now you’re talking like an Englishman.’ She thrust his coat into his hands and opened the front door. The wind tried to slam it shut again but Kyla leaned against it with her shoulders and zipped up her jacket. ‘I hope you’re feeling fit, Ethan.’

‘Where are we going?’ They were outside now and he had to shout to make himself heard above the screaming, howling wind. It slammed into them as they left the cottage, as if fiercely angry that anyone should dare to venture into its territory.

‘Back up to the castle. Only this time we’re walking.’

‘Sorry?’ He shot her an incredulous look, wondering what had happened to her. ‘Kyla, we just came from there.’

‘This is different. You said that you hadn’t seen the ruins.’

‘There’s a storm and it’s not even fully light yet.’

‘It’s the best time. Trust me.’

This time she ignored the car and crossed the road towards the grassy hill that led to the ruins, her hair blowing across her face.

The jagged outline of the castle was barely visible through the driving rain, and Ethan grimaced and wiped the water from his eyes as the spray of the sea mixed with the rain. He tasted salt, felt the air sting his cheeks and looked at Kyla in disbelief.

Being out in this weather was crazy, but she didn’t seem to see anything odd in it.

The rain had turned her soft honey-coloured hair to sleek, dark gold and droplets of water clung to her lashes and her cheeks, but she didn’t seem to care. In fact, he would have said that she relished being so close to the elements. He’d never seen her happier.

And her response intrigued him because he knew no other woman who would have been so comfortable in such filthy weather conditions.

She was half-wild, he thought to himself, watching as she scrambled over a gate and started up the grassy slope. The wind crashed across her path, trying to turn her, but she was graceful and sure-footed as she ran, and Ethan could do nothing but follow, exhilaration mingling with exasperation.

She scrambled over the outer walls of the castle that were now no more than a few ruined rocks, and climbed across some uneven ground that led to the ancient, crumbling fort.

‘We have to climb up.’ She raised her voice to be heard above the wind and he followed her and then stopped, suddenly understanding why she’d brought him here.

Furious red streaks were splashed across the sky, as if an artist had just taken a brush and angrily thrown paint at a canvas. The grey, threatening outline of the ruins loomed from the rain and mist and beyond that stretched the sea, boiling and foaming with fury as the wind and the currents fought for supremacy.

‘You can imagine it, can’t you? The Vikings landing there?’ She steadied herself, pointed down to the beach, and then lifted her hand to anchor her hair, which was blowing wildly. With a shift of her feet she balanced herself against the wind as she stared across the west of the island. ‘They must have looked up and seen this castle and been afraid. They must have wondered whether to turn home and give up. When I stand up here in a storm I can feel the history of the place so strongly.’

He couldn’t take his eyes off her profile. ‘You’re as bad as Fraser.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with being interested in your heritage.’ She turned to face him and smiled. ‘Was it worth the climb?’

He dragged his eyes away from her and stared at the ruins and then at the sea. He’d never seen a wilder, more atmospheric place. ‘It was worth the climb.’

‘This place is at its best when the weather is bad.’

He laughed and shook his head. ‘You’re crazy, do you know that?’

‘Am I?’ The wind gusted and she grabbed his arm for support. ‘If we drop down to just below the ruined tower, it’s sheltered. We can sit there and watch the sun come up.’

Ethan stared at the sky. ‘I don’t think there’s going to be any sun,’ he muttered, but he followed her across the patch of grass, over some stones and down again until they were sheltered by a large wall.

‘Do you have any idea how old this place is? They reckon it’s one of the earliest castles, although it’s been built on over the centuries, of course.’ She ran her hands over the grey, uneven bricks and looked through the tiny slit window. ‘When I was a child I used to come up here with Logan and play warriors. He used to be the invading army and I used to be the one defending the castle.’

He could imagine her doing exactly that, with her hair streaming down her back, her chin lifted and her eyes blazing as she and Logan argued over who was in charge.

‘Did you cover him in boiling oil?’

‘No. Buckets of ice-cold water. My aim was brilliant. He used to complain like mad.’ She stepped towards him and took the front of his jacket in her hands. ‘You were brave last night with Fraser. You acted like an islander.’

Her face was so close that her cheek almost brushed against his. Ethan clenched his jaw and kept his eyes ahead because he knew that to look at her now would be too great a test of his self-control. And then she moved her head fractionally and he felt her touch her lips to his, and he just couldn’t help himself. He was drawn to her in the same way that he’d been drawn to her on that very first day. He looked. And fell. Deep, deep into her stormy blue eyes that held both warning and invitation.

He issued his own warning. ‘I’m not an islander.’ There was so much that he still had to tell her and yet suddenly he couldn’t remember any of it with the heat and awareness devouring them both like a greedy animal.

Her mouth was so close to his that he could feel her breath mingling with his. ‘But you could be, Ethan. You could be.’

He was surrounded by her. The scent of her. The sound of her. The feel of her. His insides locked with lust. And in those tense, sexually charged few moments they both knew what was going to happen.

He was seeing it in her eyes and he knew that she was seeing it in his. And suddenly all the reasons that he shouldn’t be doing this were eclipsed by all the reasons that he should.

He lifted his hand and cupped the back of her head, drawing her face towards his. ‘It’s got to be here,’ he growled hoarsely, ‘and now.’ He was driven by an urgency that he didn’t understand and she obviously felt it, too, because she pressed closer and lifted her face.

‘Yes. Now.’ She met the hot burn of his kiss and struggled with the zip of his coat just as he reached for her clothes. There was no gentle fumbling. No smiles or laughter. Each was deadly serious, intent on the other, eyes clinging and hands brushing in a feverish determination to discover flesh and be together. His mouth still on hers, he stripped her of her coat and then grabbed the hem of her strap top and slid it upwards.

She lifted her arms in acquiescence and he broke the kiss just long enough to jerk the top over her head. He looked, just for a moment—saw high, firm breasts and nipples darkening to a peak—and then looking just wasn’t enough and he touched.

This time his hands were on bare, warm flesh and he held her against him, feeling the perfection of her slender body against his.

‘Ethan … Ethan …’ She murmured his name against his lips, pressing forward, boldly encouraging him. He felt her quiver under his hands—felt her skin sleek and soft as his fingers explored and discovered. She gasped against the relentless assault of his mouth and then he felt the scratch of her nails over the bare flesh of his chest and the nip of her teeth on his jaw. Only then did he realise that she’d ripped at his clothes with the same feverish desperation that he’d stripped her. His shirt hung open and her hands were on his chest.

And then she kissed and nipped and licked her way from his jaw to his neck and from his neck to his chest, touching, tasting and breathing in the scent of him until he was so aroused that his body ached with it.

And when he felt her fingers on the waistband of his jeans he sucked in a breath and clamped his hands over hers, his teeth gritted.

‘Wait.’ He held her away from him, struggling to find a control that had never eluded him before. ‘You have to wait.’

‘I can’t wait. And neither can you.’ She was on her toes, seeking his mouth with hers. ‘Why wait?’

‘Because I want you so badly.’

‘That’s the way I want you to want me, Ethan. What other way is there?’ Her voice soft, she moved her face against his and he felt the soft brush of her lashes against his cheek before her mouth found his again. Her tongue teased his lower lip and then the corner of his mouth, accelerating the excitement between them to such a pitch that the very idea of control became laughable.

His mind and vision blurred, Ethan dispensed with the barrier of her shorts and panties and slid his hands down over her bottom. And this time when he felt her fingers at his zip, he didn’t stop her but neither did he hesitate in his own quest to know all of her. He slid his fingers deep inside her and she was so wet and so hot that he cursed softly and buried his face in her neck.

‘Now, Ethan.’ She was almost sobbing as she freed him from his jeans and closed her hand around him. ‘Please, now.’

And afterwards when he thought about this moment, he realised that he’d never really had a choice.

From that first moment on the ferry, this had been inevitable. Not here, perhaps, and not in this way. This frantic, greedy, desperate coupling that was almost primitive in its intensity. But it had always been there, waiting for both of them.

And when he pushed her back against the ancient stone wall and lifted her, he wondered how many other such acts of such sensual desperation this castle had seen over the centuries.

And then thinking became impossible because it was all about feeling and acting on the most basic of human instincts. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he moved his hand down and guided himself into her tight, silken heat, driven by a devouring, dangerous force beyond his control. His need was primitive and he deepened his possession, his hands supporting her as he held her still for his most intimate invasion. Dimly he registered her cry and tried to pause, wondering whether he’d hurt her, and then he felt the frantic movement of her hips, encouraging him, and gave himself up to his body’s instinctive need to thrust into her.

The fire between them burned and licked as they moved and gasped and greedily devoured each other. And then the explosion came. Powerful and deadly, it took both of them with it and Ethan ground into her one last time, driven past control by the rhythmic contractions of her own body.

And then the storm left, as if satisfied that it had done its work.

Still breathing heavily, Ethan lowered her gently to the ground and tried to clear his head, still too stunned to form a coherent sentence. Would he ever be able to speak?

What was there to say? After sharing something so perfect, what was there to say?

She was shaking in his arms, her hair tangled and loose, her body deliciously naked.

And suddenly he wanted her again. And he knew that he’d want her again after that. And again.

He cupped her face in his hands, needing to communicate the way he felt but silenced by his natural reticence. ‘Kyla—’

‘Don’t say anything,’ she said shakily, her eyes shy as she looked at him. ‘Don’t say anything at all.’

And he knew that she understood and felt the same way.

There were no words that could possibly do justice to what they’d just shared.

He gently stroked her hair away from her face, noticing things that he’d never noticed before. Like the fact that her blue eyes were darker than he’d first thought and she had a few tiny freckles over her nose. He dragged his thumb slowly over her full mouth and she nipped at it, the look in her eyes reflecting his own thoughts.

He wanted her again.

But not here.

‘The sun is coming up.’ He spoke softly, even though there was no one around to hear them. ‘The storm is over.’

‘Let’s watch. I’ll show you where.’ She stooped and retrieved her clothes, dressing quickly in a series of graceful movements that he watched with masculine hunger. Then she reached forward and started to fasten the buttons on his shirt. ‘If I don’t do this, I won’t be able to leave you alone. I love your body—have I told you that?’

No. And he hadn’t told her that he loved hers, although their frantic love-making should surely have left her in no doubt. But her observation that intimate conversations hadn’t been part of their interaction to date was a sharp, uncomfortable reminder that this relationship was built on shaky, dangerous ground.

She took his hand and led him across a low stone wall and then sank to the grass and dragged him down next to her. ‘This is the best view on the whole island. And this is the best weather in which to see it. Just watch.’

Ethan sat, silenced by the beauty of the scene unfolding in front of him. And as he sat there, watching the sun come up over an angry, boiling sea, he suddenly understood.

Kyla reached for his hand and curled her fingers around his. ‘Do you think things happen for a reason, Ethan?’

‘What do you mean?’

Perhaps she heard the wariness in his voice because she smiled. ‘I mean that some things are just meant to happen. You came out of nowhere. Serendipity. You could have chosen to escape anywhere but you came here.’

Ethan felt coldness pour through his body.

It hadn’t been serendipity.

And he hadn’t come out of nowhere.

Her words were like a hammer blow to his conscience and the perfection of the moment was soured. ‘Kyla—’

She covered his lips with her finger, preventing him from finishing his sentence. ‘Not now. Now I just want you to kiss me again. And then we’ll go home and do everything again in slow motion.’