by Joanna Neil
‘Of course. I’ll help you.’
Martyn shook his head. ‘It’s all right. Molly and Ben are here. They’ll see to everything. You take Amber along to her place and make sure that she settles in all right.’
Molly opened the door and greeted him with an expansive smile. ‘Oh, it’s good to have you back,’ she said. She was a woman of around fifty years of age, Amber guessed. She had the honey-bronzed skin of a native Hawaiian, and she introduced the man alongside her as Ben, her husband.
‘You leave everything to us,’ Molly reassured Martyn. ‘Ben will take your cases upstairs and unpack for you, and I’ll lay out your things ready for bed.’
Martyn greeted both of them in turn, and then he turned to Amber and gave her a hug. ‘You should have everything you need at the bungalow. If there’s anything missing, just let Ethan know, and he’ll put it right. If you don’t mind, I’ll show you around in the morning. I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day.’
She returned the embrace. ‘Of course I don’t mind. That will be great. You go and get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.’
He nodded. ‘Come and have breakfast with me.’
‘I’ll do that.’
The bungalow was just a short walk along a winding path through overhanging trees and shrubs. Martyn showed her the way, helping her with her cases, and waiting while she put the key into the lock. It was a neat house, white painted, with soft green wooden shutters at the windows and the all-important veranda going all the way round the building.
‘You’ll be able to sit out on the sundeck,’ Ethan said. ‘From the back of the house you can look out over the seashore. It’s really beautiful first thing in the morning.’
He carried her bags inside. ‘You want these put anywhere in particular?’ he asked. ‘The bedroom is through there.’
‘That will do fine,’ she murmured. She peered in through the doorway and saw a pastel-coloured room with pale carpets and filmy drapes at the windows. The bed was large, covered with a beautiful, floral-print duvet that picked out the colours in the drapes and in various ornaments around the room. There was a builtin dressing table and several glass-fronted wardrobes with drapes that matched the window curtains. In all, it was a beautiful room.
‘You have your own sitting-room through there,’ Ethan pointed out, dropping off the cases and showing her into a light, airy living space with glass doors opening out onto a terrace. ‘There is your sea view,’ he said indicating the area beyond the doors.
Amber gave a soft gasp. ‘It’s incredible,’ she said softly. ‘I think I must have died and gone to heaven.’ Through the doors, she could see the vast sweep of a bay, with rocky promontories pushing out into the ocean, and as the sun was setting the sky was lit with orange flame, throwing up silhouettes of the coconut palms and broad-leaved ironwood trees that grew along the shore. Close by the doors was a mango tree, heavy with fruit that were beginning to turn from yellow to red. All she had to do was reach out and pick one.
‘I knew I would find everything so different out here, but I don’t think I ever imagined it would be as lovely as this…right on my doorstep.’
He gave a faint smile. ‘I suppose we get used to it, living here. Perhaps we take it for granted.’ He turned around to look at the room. ‘Do you think you’ll be okay here? You have a writing desk, TV and music centre, and of course there’s a computer.’
She was nodding, still too bemused to answer properly. The furnishings were beautifully upholstered in soft, warm colours that were easy on the eye. ‘I can’t think of anything else I could possibly need.’
He started to walk towards the door. ‘That’s good. Through here is your kitchen. It’s not tremendously big, but there’s enough room for a small table and chairs, and of course you have a cooker and a microwave. The fridge has been stocked for you, along with the freezer, but if there’s anything you’re short of, I can fix that for you. I’m only next door, so you only have to give me a shout.’
‘Next door? You mean, up at the house?’
He shook his head. ‘I was staying there temporarily while Martyn was in the U.K. I have my own place further along the coast, but since I’m spending more time at the plantation these days, it’s easier for me to live here. My bungalow is right next to this one. If you look out of the kitchen window, you’ll see my back door.’
Amber glanced about the kitchen while she tried to take that in. It gave her time to think, and to adjust to what he was saying.
The units were made of wood, finished in a soft apple-green colour, so pale as to be restful on the eyes, with some of them glass fronted, and there were lots of shelving units and bottle racks, along with all the modern fittings anyone could want.
She glanced through the window. The back of his bungalow was just a few paces away, as he had said. From here, she would be able to see him sitting out on his veranda whenever he decided to take the air, and the same would go for him.
‘I hadn’t realised you would be my neighbour,’ she said. ‘Well, I thought you might be up at the house from time to time, but Martyn told me you had your own place a few miles away.’
He smiled, coming over to her and sliding an arm about her shoulders. ‘Did you really think I would stay away and leave you to your own devices?’ His fingers trailed through the silky hair at her nape. ‘That was never going to happen.’
His long body was close to hers, so close that she could feel the beat of his heart against her breast. It thumped out a steady rhythm, a relentless drumbeat that let her know he was in control, he was watching her, and he had everything worked out.
‘You don’t trust me at all, do you?’ she murmured.
‘Not a centimetre,’ he answered softly. ‘Not even a hair’s breadth.’ His head lowered, so that his cheek was close to hers, his lips just a breath away. ‘I can see very well why my uncle is so taken with you. You’re everything a man could want, and I’d be a liar if I said I was immune to your charms. But just so that you know, I’ll be close by. I’ll be watching everything you do, every move you make.’
He dropped a kiss lightly on her mouth, a touch that was feather-like and as insubstantial as thistledown, and yet the imprint of that kiss stayed with her long after he was gone. She felt the burning embers of it as though he had branded her with flame. It was a kiss that said, Beware, be careful what you do, because I may show you the consequences of any action you take.
CHAPTER SIX
AMBER stared, bleary-eyed, at herself in the mirror in the bathroom. How could she have slept for so long? No sooner had her head touched the pillow than she had fallen into a deep, deep sleep, and yet she didn’t feel refreshed. She felt a little odd.
Perhaps was still suffering from jet-lag. It had certainly been the longest journey she had ever undertaken, enough to put the strongest person out of synch. Somehow, though, she had the notion there was more to it than that.
This was to all intents and purposes the beginning of a new phase in her life. She had come all this way to start afresh. Wasn’t that the reason she was here? Yes, Martyn had said he wanted her help and she had agreed to stay with him through these difficult months of recovery, but if she was honest with herself, hadn’t she also been running away from the situation back home?
In truth, the thought of James getting closer to Caitlin day by day had been more than she could bear, and maybe Ethan was right to suspect her motives in coming here. Wasn’t she doing this job under false pretences? What made her think she could make any difference in Martyn’s life? Shouldn’t she have stayed at home and tried to make the best of things? Some kind of work would have come along eventually, wouldn’t it? But instead of waiting to see what might happen, she had taken the coward’s way out.
She stepped under the shower and hoped that the warm spray of water would gradually wash away her doubts. Perhaps it was strange that she was feeling this way, when she ought to be overwhelmed with happiness at finding herself in an idyllic tropical p
aradise, but Ethan’s warning was running persistently through her head, and it had played like a haunting refrain throughout her dreams last night.
She stepped out of the shower a few minutes later, wrapping a towelling robe around herself before going into the bedroom to dry her hair.
She switched off the hairdrier after a few minutes and heard a faint knocking sound coming from the front of the house. ‘Amber, are you there? Are you awake?’ She set the drier down on the dressing table and became aware of Ethan’s voice, threaded through with a faint note of frustration. How long had he been knocking?
Pulling the robe more closely around her and securing the belt, she hurried to answer the door. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, stepping back a little and inviting him in with a small wave of her hand. ‘I didn’t hear you above the noise of the hairdrier. Have you been waiting long?’
‘A few minutes. It doesn’t matter.’ He looked her over from head to toe, an appreciative glint coming into his blue eyes as he surveyed the creamy expanse of her shoulder where the robe had slipped a little, and then his gaze moved to trail along the length of her smooth, lightly tanned legs. Instinctively, she drew the lapels of the robe together.
‘I realise time’s getting on,’ she said. ‘I must have slept through the alarm, but I was hoping I’d still make it in time to have breakfast with Martyn. He said the meal would be later than usual.’ Then she frowned as another thought struck her. ‘Is he all right? I rang the house last night and gave Molly the instructions for his medication.’
‘He’s fine, don’t worry about it. He’s suffering a bit from the effects of all the travelling, and asked me to tell you that breakfast will be delayed even further. I’d have left you alone, but it occurred to me that you might not find your way about too easily. There are footpaths going off in all directions around here, some leading to the beach, others to the coastal path. It’s easy to be confused with all the trees and greenery obscuring the view.’
He walked through to the kitchen. ‘Since I’m here, shall I make some coffee? You look as though you could do with a cup of something. Adorable as you look with that confused, sleepy expression, I think you’d appreciate being wide-awake for a tour around the place. We could take a walk down to the beach while we’re waiting for Molly to cook breakfast, if you like?’
‘That sounds like a good idea.’ It was almost like being on holiday. Having someone take over the running of the household and see to all the catering was way beyond her experience. Ethan lived in a completely different world from her. ‘Does she always make breakfast for you?’
‘Whenever I’m around, or when Martyn is home…along with lunch, dinner, supper or whatever takes her fancy. Molly’s a great person to have around. Her husband, Ben, does all the odd jobs around the place, and keeps the grounds in order.’
‘Wow. How the other half live.’ She smiled. ‘I’m impressed…and coffee would be lovely, thanks. I haven’t figured out yet how to use the grinder, so I made do with juice last night. It was delicious, though, like nothing I’ve ever tasted before.’
‘That would be the produce from our plantation,’ he murmured. ‘It’s fresh as can be, so I’m glad you like it.’ He walked over to a cupboard and took out a bag of coffee beans. ‘We grow this on our land, too, but we don’t export it in large quantities. The locals really like it, and it’s an indulgence I look forward to every day. It keeps me awake when I have a long day at the hospital. Come over here and let me show you how to work the machine.’
Amber did as he asked, and he began to assemble the various parts of the apparatus. ‘You fit the blades in here, see, and then set it on the stand, like so…It can be a bit tricky…Here, you come and try for yourself.’
She gave it her best effort, but the whole thing was seated wrongly and he reached around her to give the base a twist. ‘It’s a bit awkward if you don’t know how. It’s a new gadget, one of those “do everything except wash the dishes” types…It doubles up as a food mixer, blender, grinder. That’s why there are so many parts to it.’
She felt his arms go around her and he took her hand and showed her how the mechanism worked. She felt the heat rise in her as his body moved closer to hers. His thigh was touching hers, his chest was nudging the length of her back, and his arms were closing in on her like an embrace.
‘The whole thing was disassembled while no one was living here,’ he said. ‘This bit plugs into the mains electricity. And now you just tip in a few beans, see, like this?’
‘Yes, I see,’ she managed. It was hard to think straight with him holding her that way. ‘It was just that I didn’t know how to put it all together, but it’s clear now that you’ve shown me.’ Now that the gadget was assembled, the rest was plain sailing, but he hadn’t stepped back from her, and she was altogether too conscious of his nearness. She could feel the warmth of his body through the towelling robe, and he was close enough that she registered the restrained power locked in his broad shoulders.
She added the coffee beans.
‘That’s good. Now fix the top cover in place, switch on, and away you go.’
She followed his instructions and the aroma of freshly ground coffee filled the air. He breathed it in, and bent his head towards her so that she felt the faintly roughened texture of his face against hers. ‘Isn’t that something special? The test will be in the final brew, of course.’
‘I…Yes…’ she said huskily. ‘Um…perhaps I should go and get dressed. I wouldn’t want to keep Martyn waiting for too long.’
A glimmer of amusement crossed his face, and she realised that he had known full well what he was doing, all along, and he was well aware of how flustered she had become. Right now he had the upper hand, and it was disconcerting to know that he would exert his control over her at any opportunity.
He eased back from her, and she fled to the bedroom, her heart beating out a frantic rhythm and her cheeks flushed with soft colour.
The coffee was steaming gently in the percolator when she returned to the kitchen. By now she was much more composed, and it helped that she was wearing clothes that were much less controversial, a T-shirt and white trousers, and her hair was tied back in a more orderly fashion, so that only a few tendrils escaped to trail along her cheeks.
He handed her a mug of the hot liquid, and she added cream and sugar before sipping the contents. ‘Mmm…it tastes like a small piece of heaven,’ she murmured. She had herself under control now, and Ethan could do his worst. She wouldn’t rise to his bait.
Perhaps he sensed the change in her, because he let go of the playful mood and concentrated on finding out if everything in the house was to her satisfaction.
‘It’s more than perfect,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t expected any of this. It’s like a home from home—more so, in fact. I could never have aspired to anything like this. When Martyn first put forward the possibility of me coming out here, I thought I would have a room in the main house, perhaps, or at the most, a small flat. After all, my job was to come out here and keep an eye on your uncle, and make sure that his medication was appropriate…but, of course, that doesn’t involve very much. We might need to vary the dosage from week to week to ensure that his heart pumps adequately, but otherwise things should run pretty smoothly.’
‘But you do know that he’s very fond of you? That can’t have escaped you. He was determined to keep you close at hand.’
‘It’s a mutual feeling.’ She sent him a quick look. ‘I know you think there’s more to it, but I like your uncle very much. I took to him right away. I believe he asked me to come here because he wants the reassurance of a friendly face close by. As a doctor, you must know yourself that when someone has been near to death they become apprehensive about the future. Caitlin is busy with her own life, which is only natural because she’s young and on the threshold of everything, and Martyn is too generous a man to expect her to come home with him and take care of him.’
‘My uncle has never been short of company or lacked
friends about him. Come to that, he has Molly and Ben with him the whole time. They live in at the house.’ Ethan returned her gaze with a penetrating stare. ‘There’s more going on here than my uncle is letting on. He is a very wealthy man, and he is used to having things his own way. Maybe you don’t know any more about it than I do, but all I can say is that I will protect him in any way I can. He’s more than an uncle to me. He’s been like a father, and I won’t stand by and see him hurt in any way.’
‘And it’s right that you should do that.’ She tilted her head to one side, giving him a questioning look. ‘Perhaps we could call a truce…at least we could put up a united front to help him get through these next few months with as little stress as possible.’
‘A truce?’ He came over to her and lifted her hand, placing it between his palms. His grasp was light but firm, and having him hold her that way sent a strange thrill of excitement coursing through her body. He raised her hand and held it to his lips, brushing softly over the smoothness of her skin. ‘A truce, sealed with a kiss. Now, that’s something that should stand the test of time.’
He looked at her, his gaze brooding, the pressure on her hand increasing momentarily, and then he relinquished his grasp on her and she felt a sense of confusion, as though something momentous had happened, but she couldn’t quite fathom what it was.
‘Let’s go for a short walk along the bay,’ he said after a minute or two. ‘You can tell me a little about the job my uncle found for you at the hospital. I expect you’d like to go and look around there some time before you start, and maybe see something of the town. We can arrange all that over the next day or so. You start work there in a couple of weeks, don’t you?’
‘That’s right.’
They set off to walk along the sand just a short time later, and Amber stopped every now and again to gather up shells that had been washed ashore by the incoming tide.
