A Marriage In The Making

by Natalie Fox

  ‘Yes, us,’ she said brightly, resolving to make the very best of it, for Daniel’s sake.

  ‘To us, then,’ Daniel agreed, his tone so low and seductive that she wished with all her heart that the world would disappear from around them and leave them isolated in this pocket of warm sensuality.

  ‘Oh, I nearly forgot,’ Daniel leapt up and Karis watched in astonishment as he hauled a portable cassette player from the shadows and snapped it on. The theme from a romantic film softly filled the air and Karis’s heart raced.

  ‘Don’t you think you are going over the top?’ she said with a teasing smile.

  ‘I went over the top the day I set foot on this island, Karis,’ he told her. ‘Now eat before your steak spoils.’

  And Karis did. The food was wonderful and the champagne superb and she wanted time to stand still. They talked softly about mundane things like food and wine. They steered clear of children talk, past lives, the future. Later, when the moon hung low and silvery in the sky, Daniel took her in his arms and they danced.

  The champagne had gone to Karis’s head and she floated in his arms, he holding her so tenderly as if never to let her go. She didn’t want him to, not ever. She didn’t want to think. She wanted this delicious numbness to be with her for ever, this living for the moment with senses dulled. Then her senses were awakened as his mouth sought hers and she was past reasoning any more.

  His lips parted hers and she clung to him, swaying slightly to the music, moving with him as his hands moved over her silk dress, smoothing the fine fabric against her skin. A delicious erotic sensation engulfed her at the pressure of the silk grazing her fiery skin, the silk being moved by him a seduction, a temptation.

  ‘Karis,’ he murmured adoringly as he nuzzled her hair. ‘You can’t escape me now.’

  The words came through a haze, sobering her slightly. Her eyelids were heavy with desire but she struggled to lift the weight from them. Escape. This island had been her refuge. A place where she could re-evaluate her life, forget the past and make a new start. She didn’t want to have to do it again, not ever. It had been too hard a struggle to throw it all away for…for a night of magic.

  She drew back from him, and was suddenly very afraid. Love was fearful and should be fearless. Daniel made her feel wanted but could she give herself to him when there was doubt? He had admitted he didn’t know what love was about He knew what seduction was about, though. This was seduction. This night of stars and wine and dining on the beach.

  ‘Oh, Daniel,’ she cried sorrowfully, her eyes filling with tears. How could he have done this to her? It was cruel.

  Her eyes, widened by those trapped tears, could scarcely focus on his face as she backed away from him. Her head was light and woozy and she wanted to run but her legs were heavy and the sand dragged at her bare feet so that it was more like a scramble for freedom than a dash for it.

  He caught her at the water’s edge, just as a ripple of warm water whooshed over her toes, sobering her completely. She had meant to run to the safety of the cottage but the night had disorientated her. He drew her back, back onto damp, warm sand. His eyes glinted angrily as he spun her round to face him.

  ‘I said no escape, Karis. Face me, face us,’ he growled.

  ‘I am facing us,’ Karis cried tears flooding her eyes. ‘And not liking what I see. This is turning into a pantomime—a pantomime of seduction. The stars, the moon, and then…then the earth moving for us…and then…then what, Daniel? The cold reality of day. Disappointment, failure, guilt—all…all the horrible things that we both know so much about…’

  She sobbed uncontrollably now and stepped back, stumbling in the ripples of sand. He reached for her and they fell together, sprawled on the shore. With a groan of despair Daniel held her tightly, trembling in his arms.

  ‘My poor darling. Life has blinded you, Karis. You can’t see any more. All this tonight was done from the heart, not to hurt you. Never that. Everything was done to please you. I want you in my life, Karis; can’t you see that?’

  His mouth sought hers, promising so much and confusing her reasoning. He wanted her in his life. And she wanted it more than anything she had ever desired. His kisses powered the last festering doubt from her mind. She clung to him, breathing his name when their lips parted, seeking them again when he slid his hands into her hair. She felt the weight of him against her, his power and his desire refusing to be denied. The sound of the sea rushed in her ears and the damp sand soaked into her dress but nothing mattered as desire flooded her.

  His kisses covered her face and throat and shoulders. She arched against him, fire eating at her very soul. Dazed with passion, she was scarcely aware he was tearing her dress from her, his own shirt from his back. And then there was calm—a delicious calm that soothed her body and mind. His lips ran over her damp skin—over her breasts, down over the smooth planes of her stomach, her thighs. Then came the fire again—a need that had her crying out his name.

  Soft, tantalising strokes of temptation passed over her thighs, sending her heart wild with desire. His arousal touched her and she shivered with pleasure and clung to him even more tightly, ravaging his throat with kisses of fire. He pressed into her and she flowered for him and he groaned passionately and thrust further, deeper into her, claiming her in a ritual of rhythm that trapped her breath in her throat.

  Overwhelmed with desire, she matched his every movement of thrusting passion, only aware of her love firing her, of the need to please him and forever claim him as her own. And then came sweet pleasure as the ache inside her built to an overpowering desire to let go. He knew and held her suspended in time, prolonging her pleasure, enhancing it till she thrashed wildly under him, crying out for release.

  It flooded them as the swell of the sea rose with them, carrying them to some mysterious far-off world where fire soothed, where senses spun, where dreams were promised and fulfilled. Sensation after delicious sensation thrummed through their bodies as, exhausted, they lay in each other’s arms, the warm, frothy water lapping around them, balming their skin.

  He lifted her then, effortlessly, as if she were weightless, and kissing her wet lips, he deposited her on dry sand. Wordlessly he moved back to the water’s edge and rescued their discarded clothes and she watched in awe as, silhouetted against a silver sea, he came back to her, his body so powerful and sleek like some beautiful mythical god stepping out from the depths of the sea.

  Neither spoke as he flung the bundle of sopping wet clothes on the dry shore and then took her in his arms, both naked, both uncaring because there was no one to witness them but the moon. His kiss was as full of promise as his lovemaking had been, a promise not to hurt her but to cherish her for evermore.

  Back at the cottage Daniel showered them both and they laughed softly. Still dazed by the depth of their union, neither uttered a word. Karis let him dry her and lead her to her bedroom. From a distance the faint rhythmic thrum of a steel band at the party melded with the croak of tree frogs in the hot Caribbean night air but Karis wouldn’t allow the sounds to encroach the euphoria of the night. The outside world didn’t exist, not yet

  They lay together on the bed and Daniel took her in his arms and made love to her again and again. They were insatiable together, wanting and wanting till exhaustion overcame them and their strength was spent, leaving them sated and languorous, sleep claiming them at last.

  Karis awoke, instinctively knowing it was late. There were sounds, ones she wasn’t familiar with because she was always the first to rise and tend to the children.

  The children! Guilt spurred her up from the bed. Saffron had said she would bed the children down at her sister’s if the party ran too late. If they showed any signs of objecting she would bring them back to the cottage. Why hadn’t she considered that last night? Saffron could have brought the children back to the cottage and found her and Daniel…

  She sat on the edge of the bed and held her head in her hands. She felt shame and guilt and just abo
ut every other negative emotion flood punishingly through her.

  He’d bewitched her. Daniel Kennedy had bewitched her, cast some spurious spell over her, making her feel free and wanted and loved, and she’d given no thought to her responsibilities.

  ‘Oh, God,’ she moaned, a delicious ache swamping her as she got to her feet, a reminder of the most wonderful night of her life. But the day, the cold light of day…except it wasn’t cold, it was heavy with a cloying heat.

  ‘Oh, Daniel,’ she breathed happily as she noticed a small glass vase of hibiscus flowers and jasmine at her bedside. There was no sign of him but he had left his mark—a beautifully fragrant start to the day. Karis lowered her mouth to the cool blooms and kissed them lightly.

  Josh leapt on her as she joined Saffron and the children for breakfast on the verandah as usual.

  ‘I danced all night, Kari. Tara too; she fell over a lot but she didn’t cry, just laughed. Then we slept, all in a big bed with Didi and Marcus.’

  ‘We had such a good time.’ Saffron laughed, pouring coffee for Karis as she hugged Josh.

  Sleepily Tara tottered to Karis and she pulled her up into her arms. Josh shifted to make room for her, bubbling over with excitement, telling her all about the singing and dancing and the games they had played.

  Karis thought she had never been happier but at the same time she felt an enormous dragging weight around her heart. Was it possible to be happy and desperate in the same wash of emotion?

  ‘Where’s Daniel?’ Karis asked Saffron when Josh had calmed down and led Tara away to their bedrooms to play.

  Saffron shrugged. ‘Said something about having to do what a man’s gotta do.’

  Karis smiled secretly. Obviously clearing up the beach after last night. She sat back and drank her coffee. Their clothes, freshly washed, waved in the breeze on the line from the verandah to a tree in the garden and the sight of them flushed Karis’s heart with happiness.

  ‘That dress, you ruined it swimming in it last night Silk don’t like salt water,’ Saffron told her disapprovingly as she busied herself clearing the breakfast things from the table. ‘And that Fiesta, she ain’t gonna be happy her best chairs was out all night on the beach, nor her best silver and crystal.’

  She paused and in that pause Karis shifted uncomfortably, unable to meet her gaze. Saffron was cross with them, worried in case it came back on her if Fiesta found out. The mention of the dress had sounded censorious, as if it was all right to hint at love but to act on it was a crime. Saffron’s mood acted on Karis’s emotions immediately, bringing them crashing down. They had been irresponsible last night, in so many ways. Yes, it was the cold light of day and it wasn’t a nice feeling at all.

  ‘But I guess she need never know,’ Saffron added, and then, hands on hips, she started to laugh, a low, infectious laugh that rocked her body to and fro.

  In relief Karis laughed with her. ‘Saffron, you are incorrigible,’ she stated as she ran barefoot down the verandah steps.

  She slowed her pace as she went through the gardens towards the beach. Ferns and lush drooping hibiscus flowers brushed at her thin cotton skirt and a tiny hummingbird narrowly missed her tousled hair but Karis couldn’t fully appreciate the beauty of it all. The prospect of facing Daniel this morning filled her with foreboding but it was best to get it over with without the children around. After last night there should be no doubt but…but there was, just a small creeping doubt that it might not be the same this morning.

  She stood back from the beach, hidden behind oleander, and watched him. Barefoot and in shorts, no shirt, he was piling the silver and china into a box. His features looked set and her heart pulsed nervously. Was he regretting it all, inwardly chastising himself for allowing the magic of the night to run away with them?

  Boldly she stepped forward and Daniel’s head came up and he gave her such a warm smile that she felt the doubt slide away from her.

  ‘Clearing up the scene of the crime,’ he told her with a wide grin.

  Karis stopped where she was, her blood running cold, her heart crashing in her chest. A crime. She had thought the same in connection with Saffron’s attitude. It had been a crime—exactly what sort she couldn’t begin to analyse, but it had been wrong all the same, something they should never have allowed to happen.

  ‘You should have heard Saffron this morning, wailing that Fiesta would go crazy if she found out. She made me feel like a criminal…Karis, darling, what’s wrong?’

  Suddenly he was there, holding her shoulders, so tenderly, so lovingly.

  ‘Karis,’ he whispered with concern. ‘What is it?’

  She couldn’t answer. Her throat was dry, her heartbeat irregular, her very bones crumbling.

  He pulled her into his arms and let out a groan. ‘I know, I know,’ he murmured into her hair.

  ‘You don’t,’ she uttered weakly against him. ‘Oh, Daniel, what have we done? I mean, it was wrong and now—’

  ‘Don’t say you regret it.’

  He pushed her back from him to look down into her pinched face. ‘Listen, darling, I don’t regret it, not any of it. It was what we both wanted.’ He lifted her downturned chin and looked deep into her eyes. ‘Talk about it, sweetheart I want to know what is troubling you.’

  She knew then that she couldn’t tell him anything about this pain she felt deep inside, this fear that she might be hurt again. The guilt she hadn’t given a thought to last night when she was allowing herself to be bewitched by him. She had succumbed to temptation, had allowed all thoughts of Simone to be spiralled away on a whirlwind of desire. She’d believed that his relationship with Simone was an arrangement easily dealt with but hadn’t she been just too gullible? They had come here together and Simone was still here, out on a fishing trip but nevertheless still involved.

  She smiled through the mist of tears she was trying not to let betray her. She took a deep breath.

  ‘It…it’s a woman’s thing, Daniel,’ she breathed. ‘Insecurity and all that. I awoke this morning and wanted you to be there because that would make it easier, you know, lying together in bed. I got up and the children—’

  ‘You feel guilty because of the children?’

  Yes, that was it—not all of it but it would do.

  ‘Yes,’ she admitted quietly.

  He laughed softly and held her close again and squeezed her eyes shut and breathed the delicious warm fragrance of his skin, the side of her face pressed to his chest.

  ‘Silly girl, they are both too young to know what is going on. Last night was beautiful and nothing has changed this morning. It’s all as it was so you have no need to be afraid. No insecurity, Karis.’ He lifted her head and pressed a warm, adoring kiss to her lips and she clung to him till he eased her back from him. ‘Now, sweetheart, are you going to let me clear all this evidence or would you rather see me suffer the wrath of Saffron?’

  With a smile Karis teased, ‘I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I have to get back to the cottage anyway.’

  ‘See you later,’ he murmured, and kissed her forehead before she turned away.

  No, nothing had changed since last night, Karis thought, her heart tearing painfully. The children, Simone, they were nothing to what was really bothering her. It was all as it had been last night. He hadn’t said he loved her then and he hadn’t said it just now and she knew that was troubling her more than anything else in the world.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  EUPHORIC days passed in which Karis urged unwanted thoughts from her head, sometimes quite successfully. It was easy to keep her emotions at bay during the days because of the presence of the children. The nights gave Karis the heartache but were tempered with joy too.

  Once the children were in bed, both sleeping soundly because of spent energy, the time was hers and Daniel’s. There was supper on the verandah watching fireflies, talking about Josh’s progress, which was going from good to better, even Tara’s new teeth were discussed, as if…as if they were a family. T
hen later Daniel would take her in his arms and they would make love and always but always Karis would wake in her bed alone. It was never questioned, just accepted by them both that it was necessary for the children, and Saffron, of course.

  ‘Just us, Josh. No one else, I promise you.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ Karis asked as she stepped into the kitchen.

  Daniel looked up at her and smiled. He and Josh were having breakfast, Saffron had fed Tara and was clearing up the debris and Tara was playing out on the verandah.

  ‘I’ve just suggested a boat trip, not a fishing trip with other people, just the four of us.’

  ‘To that island Saffron just told you about?’ Josh quizzed, nearly convinced it was a good idea.

  ‘What island?’ Karis asked, leaning across them for the coffee-pot.

  ‘San Pierre,’ Saffron told her, though the question hadn’t been directed at her. ‘A little island east of here. No one there. You can stay over. There’s an old hut there the fishermen use if the weather cuts up rough, but they won’t be there now and…’

  Talk of fishermen and fishing trips alerted Karis to the fact that today was when Fiesta’s fishing cruise was due back. And with its return would come a certain Simone who undoubtedly would want to see Daniel and if they were away on a trip of their own he wouldn’t be here.

  Karis sank into a chair and poured coffee for herself, her heart thudding painfully. Daniel had suggested his trip with that in mind, obviously. So he had a guilty conscience after all. He couldn’t face her and when Karis came to think of it she didn’t think she could face her either. Simone was one of the unwanted thoughts she’d managed to banish from her mind these past few wonderful days, and now it crowded her head with cloying possession.

  ‘What do you say, then, Karis? It would be great fun,’ Daniel said.