by Lucy Gordon
She had been so happy this morning and in an instant he had wiped all of that joy away.
What had he told Mari? That she would be making a mistake in coming to Swanhaven? How ironic. He was the one who had made the mistake coming back here. He should have let his father complete the house in his own way and stayed where he was until the redevelopment project was complete.
That way he would not have met Mari again. He would not have talked to her, laughed and joked with her, worked by her side, and he certainly would not have made a connection.
Ethan slapped his hand palm-down on the side of his boat, hard enough to make him wince with pain.
Stupid! He should have known that coming back here would reopen old wounds and feelings that he had thought long dealt with. Especially now Mari had bought back the wreck that had been her old house and wanted to make some kind of home there.
Mari.
Ethan quickly wiped down his hands and shrugged back into his jacket.
Time was up. He strolled casually down the jetty to where Mari was standing, frozen, staring out across the bay, facing away from the ocean and peering up onto the cliff-top where Ethan knew her old home was.
She had wrapped her arms around her body as though trying to warm herself and block out the bone-penetrating icy wind, now flicked with faint sleet.
He walked slowly over, unfastened his own sheepskin jacket and stepped behind her, so that he could reach out and wrap the warm jacket around her body, pressing his shirt front against her back, his arms crossed in front of her coat so that she was totally enclosed inside his embrace.
Neither of them spoke as Ethan followed her gaze out to the dots of light which were flicking up on the far shore, his head pressed against her hood.
He closed his eyes. There had to be five layers of clothing between their skins, and the freezing wind howled around his bare hands. And yet … He was holding Mari Chance in his arms and it felt so right. So very right that it was madness.
Slowly, slowly, he dropped his hands to her waist, cuddling against her, and started to turn her around to face him.
As though awakening from a dream, Mari realised that she was not alone and her head twisted towards him inside the huge coat. As her body turned slowly, his hands shifted so that when her chin pressed against the front of his shirt, his arms were now around her back, pressing her forwards.
His eyes closed as he listened to her breathing, her head buried into his body, protected from the icy wind and the sound of the waves lapping against the stones on the shore.
Her arms, which had been trapped inside his coat, moved to wrap around his waist so that she could hold him closer.
A faint smile cracked Ethan’s face. She was hugging him back. Taking his warmth and devotion.
He dared not risk taking it any further. Dared not break that taste of trust she was offering him.
Hugging her tighter, Ethan dropped his face a little so that his lips were in the vicinity of her forehead.
Mari responded immediately and looked up as he moved back just far enough so that he could see her face under the hood.
Their eyes locked. It was a moment in time. But, just for that single moment, everything that had gone before meant nothing. They were a man and a woman who cared for one another very deeply, holding each other.
It seemed the most natural thing in the world for Ethan to run his lips across her upturned forehead, then her closed eyes, her breath hot against his cheek. He felt her mouth move against his neck. Stunned with the shock of the sensation, he almost moved away, but paused and pressed his face closer to hers, his arms tight on her back, willing his feelings to pass through his open hands, through the clothing to the core of her body.
This was unreal.
A single faint beam of light streamed out from the lively harbour that was Swanhaven in the early dusk and caught on Mari’s face like a spotlight in the gloom of the dock. The faint golden light warmed her skin. They were both cold, but there was no way Ethan would break this precious moment when the barriers were down and he could express what words would fail to convey.
His hands slid up and down her back. His mouth moved across her cheek, and he felt her lift her chin. Waiting for his kiss. The kiss that could warm that frozen centre her deep loss had created.
Adrenaline surged through his body, his senses alive to the stunning woman he was holding in his arms, his heart racing. He could feel her warm breath as they looked into each other’s eyes, both of them open-mouthed. Nose almost touching nose. His head tilted. Ready.
Ethan opened his eyes to look into the hazel-green eyes of this remarkable woman who he felt he had known all of his life. His dream was about to become a reality.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SUDDENLY, out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw something on the bay.
It was a sail. A small boat with a red sail with a black symbol on it.
It was Peter’s boat, and he could just make out a small figure standing at the tiller, turning the boat into the wind so it sped across the water, faster and faster. Too fast. Way too fast. And he was on his own. Almost at the same time, he caught a glimpse of Peter’s mother running towards the yacht club for help.
Ethan jerked back, his hands pulled away from Mari and he frantically grabbed her hand and half dragged, half pulled her back to the jetty and physically lifted her onto the boat without asking permission or forgiveness.
It took precious seconds for Ethan to untie the rope, start the engine and rev it to maximum speed so their small craft bobbed violently against the waves as it raced towards the red sail.
‘Ethan, what is it? Please. You’re frightening me. Tell me what’s happening!’
‘It’s Peter. That boy I’ve been teaching to sail these past few days. He’s out in the bay on his own and something’s gone wrong. Look! The red sail!’
Every time he took his eyes off the water to look at Mari in the fading light, all he could see was a small huddled figure with her eyes closed, clinging on to the side of the boat. Teeth gritted, flinching with every wave that struck the boat side-on.
Then out of the still night there was a shout, then the unmistakable sound of a human body crashing into water.
Then silence. Absolute silence.
Peter’s boat was stationary, listing to one side. And there was no sign of the boy.
Ethan slowed the engine and coasted a good distance from the sailing boat and, just as they got close enough to see what was happening, the boat came to a juddering halt which made Mari scream out in alarm.
Ethan scrabbled over the side to see what they had hit, then took a gentle but firm hold of Mari’s arm. ‘It’s okay. It’s a piece of wood.
A tree trunk. It’s just below the water level. We’re not damaged. But Peter is not in the boat. I need you to take the tiller for a while. Please.’
Mari looked terrified but, with a silent nod, she carefully made her way to the back of the boat and took control.
Ethan frantically fought to get his balance at the side as he looked back and forth along the waves for any sign of the boy, calling his name louder and louder. ‘Peter! It’s Ethan. Peter!’
‘There! In the water! Ethan!’
Ethan whipped around. Mari was pointing into the waves a few yards ahead of the boat where there was a splash of red in the surf.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ethan stripped off his boots and dived into the freezing waves, the shock of the cold paralysing him for a few seconds before he could swim the few short strokes until he reached the small figure, who was splashing about with his arms above his head in the choppy, icy water.
Ethan grabbed both of Peter’s wrists and dragged him upwards until he could take the boy’s weight around his shoulders. He tried to calm the teenager, who was grabbing, scrabbling onto Ethan. Peter’s sodden clothes and boots almost pulled them both headfirst into the waves, but Ethan was too quick and leant backwards, taking the full weight of the coughing, spluttering and
panicking boy towards him.
In a few exhausting strokes, Ethan managed to drag their two bodies closer to the boat, where he could see that Mari was already at the side, waiting. Even so, it took precious few minutes to swim close enough so that he could support the thrashing boy around the waist and hoist Peter into his own boat and Mari’s waiting arms, where he collapsed onto his side, coughing and heaving water, but alive and breathing.
Ethan waited until they were both safe and out of the way before hauling himself, painfully and slowly, over the side and onto the deck, where he forced air into his lungs, before looking around for Mari. Hoping that she could get them back to shore on her own.
To his relief Mari had already moved over to the outboard motor and they were underway. The light from the cellphone pressed to her mouth illuminating her terrified pale face. Her coat was gone, wrapped around Peter, who was crying and shivering with shock and cold. Her hair was wet and hanging in strings around her face and her clothes were ruined.
And she had never looked more beautiful.
Ethan thought he heard her calling for help before the cold shakes hit him hard and he wrapped his arms tight across his chest. Cold. But with an icy fury burning inside of him.
Mari stood outside the emergency room where Peter was laughing about something with two younger-looking boys while his mother watched, her face tired and lined. She peeked through the slats in the window at the smiling teenager hooked up to the monitors, and the cluster of people around him.
Peter had given them all a terrible scare—her most of all.
Almost back to normal. That was how the nurse described her patient.
Well, that was not how she was feeling. Far from it.
She slumped against the wall, exhausted. And very angry with herself for being so weak and feeble that a simple accident had the power to destroy her completely.
It was all so confusing. She had turned against Ethan for surviving the accident that killed her brother, and yet she was so grateful that he had been there at that moment last night when she’d needed help, and he had not hesitated for one second to dive into the icy water to do what he could to rescue a boy he had only come to know a few days earlier.
Shaking, Mari staggered the few steps to the waiting area and collapsed, her head back, eyes closed, trying to catch her breath and persuade her heart to return to a normal beat. Adrenaline, fear and concern surged through her.
She was immediately taken back to the moments they had shared on the shore, and the tenderness of Ethan’s touch. Ethan had recognised what she needed at that moment and offered it to her, before she knew it herself.
He truly had become a very special man.
She had trusted Ethan. Without thinking about it, or judging him, she had wanted to kiss him, back then, at the water’s edge, and stay in the warmth of his embrace. She had wanted it very badly.
And why not?
They were adults. They were single. This wasn’t the school holidays any more. All she had to do was put the past behind her and forget the pain that they both had suffered together and maybe they had a chance …
But what about the fact that she had three or four years of hard work ahead of her in renovating the house, working to earn the money she needed, and then, eventually, setting up and running her own IT business in Swanhaven? While Ethan’s life was in Florida. Thousands of miles away.
Long-distance relationships were impossible.
A cold sense of reality washed over Mari. As cold as the air at the harbour.
Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that they could spend more time together—but that was all it could be. And the sooner she realised that, the better for both of them. They could still care about one another as old friends, and she could treasure that friendship during the long months and years of lonely work she had ahead of her.
That was it. They could meet up now and then when he came to visit his parents at their retirement beach house and have a few drinks. No strings.
No strings?
And just who did she think she was kidding with that idea?
In the space of twenty-four hours she had bought the home she had been dreaming about and working towards over the past years, was in debt to Ethan for loaning her the money and had then found out that her sister had no intention of staying in Swanhaven. Oh—and then she had to go out in a small boat to rescue a young sailor who seemed to idolise Ethan as much as she had. If that were possible.
All in all, not the quietest of Valentine weekends.
Mari sighed out loud, but turned it into a smile as the doctor strolled out of the cubicle where Ethan had been checked, leaving the curtain partially open, and from her waiting area Mari could see that the great hero was up and about, pulling on the collection of clothing that Rosa had brought in, courtesy of their extended family.
Of course Ethan had tried to make her feel better and had laughed away the threat of hypothermia and frostbite on the way here in the ambulance. Just testing the water before deciding it was a tad cold for a skinny dip—but roll on the summer, eh?
And all that came only a few hours after she had accused him of not knowing who she was. Stupid girl. He knew exactly who she was. Because he was her friend. Perhaps, if she tried hard enough, she might be able to see him in that way.
Time to face Ethan—and everything he had done for her. And see how looking at him as her new best friend worked.
Well, she could try! For both of their sakes.
She took a deep breath and strolled over to the door jamb and knocked once before peering around the curtain of the cubicle across the corridor.
‘Nice pullover!’ She grinned and folded her arms in as casual a pose as she could manage, considering that this was a hospital and the man she was looking at had been holding her not so very long ago.
Ethan pulled the pale blue and white-check V-neck sweater down over his hips, and then bent over to slip on the golfing shoes, complete with tassels.
‘Only if you like the golfer look. And, believe me, after living in Florida for so many years, this is my idea of style. Plus it’s warm and dry and I think the shoes go particularly well.’ He glanced up at her as he pushed himself off the bed.
‘How are you doing, Mari? Warmed up a bit?’
She grinned at his roughly dried hair. ‘More than a bit. How about you?’
‘I’m good. All my fingers and toes are intact and apparently I have the constitution of a small ox. Have you talked to Peter?’
‘Mild hypothermia from finding out just how cold the water can be, and swallowing quite a lot of it in the process, but he got a nasty shock—and so did his mother. They’ll keep him here overnight, but he should be discharged in the morning.’
She paused and then glanced into his face.
‘I can’t remember if I thanked you last night. Isn’t that terrible? You saved that boy’s life and I might not have thanked you. You were amazing. Thank you, Ethan. He owes you. We all do.’
He was standing now, shrugging on a ski jacket several sizes too small which probably belonged to one of the cousins, but he looked up as though startled at her question, and stepped forward so that they were only inches apart. His voice was low and trembling with emotion when he spoke.
‘I should be thanking you for staying with me, Mari. I know that it doesn’t change the past. But thank you.’
The shock of those words, and the intensity with which they had been spoken, acted like a detonator under a firework.
Mari looked up into Ethan’s face in amazement, her sore red eyes brimming with tears, and what she saw there broke her heart.
In that moment she recognised the compassion, and the good man that he had become. Had always been. He had gone into the freezing water to save a boy he barely knew who needed his help—but that was not what he meant at all. He was talking about Kit.
She had no words to express her feelings. Words would not be good enough.
Mari raised both hands open-palm
ed and pressed her fingertips against the sides of Ethan’s face, as though she was holding a precious porcelain object, the stubble on his chin prickling against her wrists as her eyes locked on to his.
She moved her body forward so his back was tight against the sludge-green painted walls of the hospital room, pressed her chest against his, closed her eyes and in one smooth movement tilted her head just enough so that when she kissed him their bodies were a perfect fit.
This was what she’d wanted on the shore.
This was what she had been denying herself with pathetic attempts to pretend that Ethan was nothing more than an old childhood friend, every doubt and hesitancy had been blown away by a few simple words which expanded her world into areas where rational thoughts about where this could take them in the future did not matter any more.
The thrill of his warm mouth on hers quivered through her body, warming, relaxing, exploring. Her heart thumped and her breathing became hot and ragged as she moved into his embrace, her entire body revelling in the wonder of the experience.
Ethan’s head moved sideways to lock with hers as she took a breath, and his hand pressed the back of her head towards him for a second deeper kiss.
His other hand was around her back now, drawing her closer, and the pressure of his fingers seemed to lift her higher and higher, her heart racing as Ethan returned the kiss, his mouth harder, wider and hotter.
He was kissing her back with a passion and intensity she had only dreamt about as a girl and in those lonely dreams through all of the years since.
It was everything she could have imagined, and every nerve in her body sang with the thrill of the feel of his warm mouth on hers.
The first time they’d kissed they’d been teenagers, and this was a world away. This was a powerful, handsome athlete of a man who held her in his arms with such delight and passion it was ridiculous to resist. And she didn’t want to.
It was Ethan who broke the kiss, the palms of his hands sliding down to her waistline. His head moved forward as she lifted away, and she was stunned to see that his eyes were still closed, his mouth open, as he tried to keep contact as long as possible.
