by Romy Sommer
Someone fired up a barbecue, and the sizzling aroma of grilling fish filled the air. Kenzie’s stomach started doing flick-flacks.
Rik lazed back in his chair. “So tell me about this man who’s put you off trust funds.”
“It’s not just one man. Actually it’s probably not any men at all. It’s me. I have a tendency to go out with guys who are completely self-absorbed.”
Brett, aka Bad Boy Number Three hadn’t been a trust fund baby. But he hadn’t been a steady job kind of guy either. He’d been a musician, very talented but useless when it came to things like showing up on time or paying bills. She’d ended up supporting him. And bailing him out.
“I’m tired of always being the responsible one and getting nothing in return. From now on I’m going to be selfish. If there’s nothing in it for me, then I’m not interested.”
She didn’t know why she was spilling her guts to Rik. He surely couldn’t be interested. Perhaps she was just trying to remind herself.
He smiled and raised his water glass to her. “I’ll toast to that. Here’s to being selfish and looking out for number one.”
Like that was a surprise. Same as every other man she’d been attracted to, he’d probably spent his whole life looking out for himself.
The calypso music in the background cranked up, and the deck began to fill around them, a rowdy Friday night mix of locals and tourists. Not the well-heeled tourists one saw in Fredrikshafen, but the backpacker kind. The sort of people who came to dive and hike, with natural tans rather than the type that came from a spray can.
Her kind of people. She relaxed a little more.
“So what do you do, when you’re not ferrying damsels in distress around the islands?” she asked.
His expression shut down. “What’s your next assignment?”
Back to playing Mystery Man again. She rolled her eyes. “I have no idea. I fly back to London on Monday evening, and then … who knows?”
“How do you plan ahead?”
“I don’t.”
He frowned. “So what’s your career plan then?”
“There’s no point in making plans, since they never work out. I prefer to live in the moment.” She might have said the earth was flat, the way he looked at her. She hadn’t figured him for a Type A personality.
He raised an eyebrow. “How’s that working out for you?”
She laughed and looked around. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’m in paradise and I’m getting paid to be here. What could be better?”
“Everyone should have a five year plan. It’s the only way to get ahead.”
“So what’s your five year plan?”
For a long moment he didn’t answer. Then he sighed and rubbed his face. “I’m figuring that out. The plan I had … it didn’t work out.” The confession seemed to be wrung from him, and she almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But she wasn’t falling for the poor little rich boy act again.
“Exactly. A lot of plans don’t pan out. But there are always other options. What did you want to be when you were a kid?”
“There’s only one thing I ever wanted to be: what I was. I wanted to work in the family business and I did until … I guess you could call it a hostile take-over.”
“You never wanted to stretch your wings and try something new?” She couldn’t imagine it. Being raised your whole life to do one thing and actually wanting to do it? The earth would be flat before she did what everyone else wanted her to do.
Her parents had tried. They still told her she was being selfish for not moving back home to work in the family bakery. They’d also tried to set her up with their accountant more times than she could count.
She couldn’t think of anything worse. Spending the rest of her life in suburbia, tied to her parents, the business, an accountant … having to work under her can-do-no-wrong big brother …
She gulped down a mouthful of mojito. It hurt that her own family still knew her so little they thought she’d be happy living that life.
Great, now she felt depressed. Another subject change was needed.
“Have you considered taking up piracy?” she suggested.
Rik frowned, not getting it, and she couldn’t blame him. He probably hadn’t looked in a mirror lately.
She tried again. “It’s not a five year plan exactly, but I heard a rumour that this production company has a film lined up with JJ Abrams. If Neil puts in a good word for me, maybe I can get a job on that one.”
“Who is JJ Abrams?”
Her eyes widened. “What rock have you been living under? Mission Impossible III … Star Trek… The new Star Wars? He’s just about the biggest director in Hollywood right now.”
“I don’t really watch films.”
“No kidding. What do you do for fun then? Or does drinking in beach bars just about cover it?”
He grinned, and the cloud that seemed to have descended over him lifted a little. “Just about. That’s something else I’m working out: how to have fun.” His eyes glinted. “You could help me with that.”
There was no misunderstanding that glint in his eye. A cold shiver slid down her back. It felt remarkably like anticipation. Or the thrill of the chase, with her as the naive buck in the leopard’s sights.
She broke eye contact and looked away, wishing she could use her icy mojito glass to cool her cheeks. Except that would give away just how much he was getting to her. And she suspected he might take that as an invitation.
Juan brought two big earthenware platters to their table, filled with huge grilled lobsters, shelled and fresh from the barbecue, served on a bed of rice.
Kenzie licked her lips. “And what are these?” she asked, pointing at her plate.
“Plantain chips. They’re like bananas – sweet.” Rik lifted one off his plate and held it to her lips.
Her gaze held his for a fraction of a second before she opened her mouth and took a bite.
“Are you flirting with me?” she asked, once she’d swallowed it down. He was right, it was sweet. Better than plain old potato chips back home.
“Of course. Isn’t that what one does when on a date with a beautiful woman?”
She choked on the plantain chip. “This isn’t a date!”
“It isn’t?” His eyes held that dangerous glitter again. “Dinner, moonlight, pretty woman … sure looks like a date to me.”
“Yeah, but I’m leaving in three days.”
He grinned. “What difference does that make? It’s just a date, not a lifelong commitment.” The way his face pulled at that thought, she could guess what he thought of lifelong commitments.
“I don’t do one-night stands,” she said, as haughtily as she could muster.
No, she had a tendency to throw herself into long, complicated relationships and lose her heart and a piece of herself in the process. And pick up a reputation.
She concentrated on her lobster and pretended that the idea of getting down and dirty with Rik wasn’t giving her hot flushes.
He leaned back in his seat and eyed her. “I’ve never had a one-night stand either, but there’s always a first time for everything.”
A man who’d never had a one-night stand? Yeah right, and pull the other leg.
Her mojito glass was empty. She chased down the last of the lobster with Rik’s untouched drink.
Perhaps it would be different if she just indulged her body for a change, and kept her heart out of it. Perhaps a one-night stand was exactly what she needed.
Three days … that wasn’t enough time to lose her heart. Right?
The hot flush headed south. She pressed her thighs together, but that only made it worse.
No, she couldn’t. She’d sworn a vow. And that mischief in Rik’s eyes definitely put him in the ‘off limits, avoid-at-all-costs’ category.
“I think you should take me home,” she said. Her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat.
“That was easier than I expected.”
She choked again. “I mean
… I need to work tomorrow … ”
He grinned and rose. “I know what you meant.”
Rik dropped cash on the table, then moved to hold her seat for her to stand. Such old-fashioned manners did nothing to ease her erratic pulse. Why couldn’t he be a straight-forward idiot and make it easy on her?
Juan waved them out the restaurant with another beaming smile, and then they were back on the boat which suddenly seemed even more intimate than their table at the restaurant had been.
While Rik guided the boat out of the harbour, Kenzie lounged back on the bench, no longer caring that her dress rode up and flashed way too much thigh. She was rewarded by his lingering gaze on her legs.
Good. She hoped his pulse was just as affected as hers. She hoped she drove him just as crazy as he drove her.
The coastline of Los Pajaros shimmered with magic in the dark, tiny fairy lights glittering between the trees, the beaches edged with dancing phosphorescence.
But the real magic show was above. She leaned back on her elbows and looked up. She’d lived close enough to London all her life that the sight of the Milky Way was still a treat. That was one of the best perks of her job – it took her to places where she could escape the light and noise pollution and actually see the stars.
This night sky was a hundred times better than any she’d seen, and she’d travelled enough to have seen a lot of impressive nights.
A balmy breeze stroked over her bare limbs. Her skin felt more alive, almost electric.
Los Pajaros had awakened her senses. Every colour seemed brighter, every experience deeper. The lazy heat that caressed her skin, the rich scents, the tastes…sweet and tart melting together.
And she definitely felt hungry for more. Of everything.
It was as if she’d been only half alive before, and here she was awakened, a new person, a better person.
This sense of possibility was familiar, it was that feeling she’d had as a child, that sense that she could have anything, do anything, be anything. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. She wasn’t a screw up. She was a young woman with the world at her feet, and a future, not just a past.
Today could be the beginning of a whole new life.
She sighed, contentment infusing her. Right here in this moment, this was who she was meant to be. And who she was meant to be didn’t feel civilised at all. She wanted to throw caution to the wind and live in the moment. She wanted to be wild.
Her stomach knotted in delicious anticipation. She wanted to be wild with Rik.
She and Lee had vowed not to get involved with any man who might be dangerous to their sanity or their heart. But a quick island fling wouldn’t constitute involved, would it? It wasn’t as though she’d see him again after she flew home.
The resort pier emerged out of the darkness too soon. Rik slid the boat in beside the pier and helped her down from the deck. They stood on the shadowy marina, close enough that the heat throbbed between them.
“Thank you for today,” she said, still entranced by that heat and unable to step away.
His gaze held hers, sending shivers of anticipation through her. He bent his head, and her breath froze. He was going to kiss her. Yes!
She closed her eyes and tilted her face.
But when his touch came, it wasn’t the expected brush of lips across hers. He kissed her cheek. “Good night, Kenzie.”
Thank heavens for the dark. He couldn’t see her blush, her embarrassment, her disappointment. Damn those mojitos, but she’d wanted him to kiss her.
And he hadn’t.
Back to being the girl who just couldn’t catch a break when it came to men.
“Good night.” She forced as much fake cheer into her voice as she could muster. “Same time, same place tomorrow?”
He nodded and climbed back on the boat, effectively turning his back on her and dismissing her. For a few hours she’d forgotten who he was. What he was.
Clearly they didn’t teach manners at Prince Academy. Or how to take advantage of willing damsels in distress. Because right now she was definitely in distress. The kind that even a cold shower wasn’t going to fix.
She made her way back along the well-lit path towards the main hotel building. Once her heartbeat returned to normal, or as normal as it had been since Rik slid out of the shadows in the beach bar into full, glorious view, she sighed.
Who the hell was Rik anyway? One minute he was a courteous gentleman, the next a brooding bad boy, then a haughty prince. And don’t forget the Type A control freak who thought everyone should have a plan for their lives. Like that had worked for him.
Was Rik a man who would break her heart? Or was he the solid, dependable type?
It didn’t matter. This could go nowhere.
But still she wanted him to kiss her. Actually, a whole lot more than kiss her.
She was so screwed. And she certainly wanted to be.
Chapter Six
@KenzieCole101: A new day and a fresh start. God knows I need one of those.
“Did you sleep well?” Rik held out his hand to help her up on deck.
“Like a baby.” If she could have crossed her fingers behind her back without him seeing, she would have. It wasn’t exactly a lie though. Babies were famous for waking up throughout the night, weren’t they?
Mind you, babies probably didn’t do their tossing and turning as they wondered if they’d just imagined the undercurrents or whether Rik was toying with her. Or whether his plan was to make her beg for it. Right now, she was a heartbeat away from begging.
She gathered her dignity and headed for the cabin. “I have work to do today.”
It was cooler beneath the deck. Though it was barely mid-morning it might as well be midday, the air was so sultry.
She sat at a desk so neat and tidy that it had clearly been arranged by someone with an obsessive compulsive disorder, and pulled her iPad from her rucksack. It would be easier to forget last night’s abysmal anti-climax if she kept busy and away from Rik. It would also be easier to keep her rampaging libido under control if she didn’t have to actually look at him.
Besides, today she was starting afresh. No more throwing herself at dark, brooding men. No more humiliation. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it, without getting side-tracked.
If another scout pipped her to the post, she’d be nothing more than another name scrolling in the film credits, one among hundreds of other names. Only the glory that went with successfully pulling off a near impossible feat would be enough to take her from the minor leagues to the majors and establish her as something more than the rich man’s arm candy she’d been nearly a decade ago.
“Hey – you have wireless on board!”
She didn’t get an answer so she clicked open her inbox.
. After half an hour of wondering what Rik was doing, she’d accomplished nothing more than a few tweets. So much for not getting sidetracked.
She powered down the iPad and emerged from the cabin with bottles of water from the fridge. “I brought you something to-”
Rik had removed his shirt. He wore nothing but jeans, and that glistening torso …
The last time she’d seen him shirtless she hadn’t fully appreciated the beauty of his tattoo. The artistry was phenomenal.
Her mouth watered.
“It’s the dragon of Westerwald.” Then she bit her tongue. Obviously he knew what it was.
“I was raised there.” He hunched his shoulders, almost as though he wanted to shrug the tattoo away. “The wind’s up today. We’re nearly there.”
She cleared her throat and handed him a bottle of water. “I’ve got great news. The director loves the pictures I sent last night and he wants today’s pictures as a matter of urgency. If he likes these too, he and the producer will fly out tomorrow to take a look for themselves.”
She was so close to success she could smell it.
“They’ll need a boat and a skipper,” he said, pouring some of the bottled water over his h
ead and neck. It was like a David Gandy advert coming to breathtaking life right before her eyes.
She had to swallow before she could speak. “Neil has his skipper’s licence so they’ll hire their own boat. You’ll be free to go back to whatever you were doing before I intruded on your life.”
He grinned, eyes twinkling. “It’s been a very pleasant diversion … so far.”
As if she wasn’t confused enough. Why did he keep doing that? Making suggestions? Making it sound as though he wanted something more? Last night he’d had more on a platter and hadn’t taken it.
Rik drifted the boat in on the tide into a different bay from before, where the forest almost seemed to meet the water. While he anchored the sailboat and prepared the dinghy, she retrieved her rucksack and camera, and scanned her checklist one last time. When she returned to the deck, he was re-buttoning his shirt. She swallowed her disappointment.
He closed the last button. “We can return to the boat for lunch, and you can upload your pictures then. What do you still need to photograph?”
“I need a forested area that’s penetrable enough for a crew to work in, and a space where they can build a ruin.” She climbed down into the waiting dinghy.
“You won’t need to build a ruin, there’s one already.” Rik gunned the outboard motor. “This island wasn’t always uninhabited.”
It was cooler beneath the trees, and quieter as the constant surge of the ocean receded behind them. Kenzie took off her hat, but wished she could take off more than that. She loved the heat, and had seriously contemplated emigrating somewhere warmer at least a dozen times in her life, but this heat, the kind that burned from the inside out, was seriously uncomfortable.
They tramped through the forest, Rik a few steps ahead as he forged a path through the ferny undergrowth. Kenzie scurried behind, pausing every now and then to snap pictures, but mostly just concentrating on not tripping over the tangled roots at her feet.
Their makeshift path was uphill all the way and her calves were starting to feel it. She almost wished she’d made it to gym any time these last six months.
