by Fiona Brand
Jaw tight, and feeling like he’d just negotiated a mine field, Ben hurried her toward the helicopter. “The point is, don’t bother with the phone until we get back to Miami. You can get coverage down on the beach where the resort is, but this part of the island is a dead zone, courtesy of the mountain range.”
Moving fast, Ben handed her into the helicopter, swung into the pilot’s seat, switched on the engine and handed her a headset. By the time Sophie had strapped in, he had gone through his preflight checks.
He checked the weather again. If there was lightning, it would be an absolute no to flying, because helicopters didn’t respond well to lightning strikes, but at this point the storm seemed to mostly be wind. There was rain coming, visible in the gray curtain out to sea, but it wasn’t here yet.
He lifted up and skimmed out, keeping low as he skirted the base of the mountain ridge that gave Sail Fish Key its name. Minutes later, he rounded the eastern part of the range that thrust out into the sea, forming the “tail” of the fish, and the sky lit up.
He cursed and banked sharply. “We’re going back to the resort. We can wait there until the storm passes.”
He met Sophie’s gaze briefly. He knew she hated flying; her knuckles were white, but that was the only evidence of it, and in that moment he saw a side of her he hadn’t expected to see. He’d seen battle-scarred soldiers who had turned into gibbering wrecks on a flight, but true to form, Sophie was toughing it out. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. What happens if lightning strikes?”
“It won’t because we’ll be down in about five minutes.”
As it turned out, he didn’t have five minutes. By the time he’d turned the helicopter around, rain was sheeting down and a fork of lightning struck a tall pine tree off to the left, where it stuck out of a promontory. They were flying low, anyway, so he made the decision to set down on the beach. If they were going to sit the storm out, they could do it there as well as anywhere.
He was almost down, just hovering a couple of feet above the sand, when a gust of wind sent something, probably a branch from the trees, into the rear rotor. The helicopter shimmied a little and he corrected, but they landed with a thump.
Sophie muttered, “That’s the third accident.”
Ben turned the engines off. It wasn’t a crash, more of a hard landing, but if the rear rotor had been damaged by flying debris, their steering was gone and they would be stuck here until they were rescued.
* * *
An hour later, Sophie tried her phone even though she knew it was useless. The storm had passed as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind a beguilingly beautiful sky. Stars glimmered through drifting wisps of cloud, but there was no getting past the mountain range, which reared up, dark and brooding behind them.
Ben was busy with a tool set, trying to fix the rear rotor, which was bent. Apparently, the branch had hit it at just the right angle. It looked like they were going to be here for a while so Sophie set about checking on what they could use to make a campsite.
First things first. She dragged out her tote and decided that now was the perfect time to change into her real clothing. Once she had on her comfy jeans, white sweater and sneakers, she began collecting firewood. She managed to find a number of pieces of driftwood, which she stacked in a crisscross fashion so they would burn more easily.
She didn’t know if Ben had anything like a lighter, but if not, she was sure, with his background, that he could rub some sticks together and, presto, they would have a fire.
If he needed paper to get the damp wood burning, she could help out there, too, since she had the little notebook and a small pack of tissues. She extracted those from her tote and lined them up beside the firewood.
Ben walked around the side of the helicopter, carrying the toolbox, just as she was inventorying the food she’d brought. Three protein bars, which meant she could have one and Ben could have two. A bottle of water, an apple and the pack of vegetable chips, which they could share.
Ben stared wordlessly at her neatly stacked pile of wood and the things she had lined up. He stowed the toolbox in a compartment behind the two front seats, and pulled out what looked like a fishing tackle box.
He placed the tackle box to one side of the kindling and began extracting items. The first was a lighter.
She drew her knees up and dropped her chin on them. “I’m disappointed.”
He lifted a brow. “What did you expect me to do? Start the fire with a couple of sticks?”
Next he pulled out a small coffeepot, a tin mug and some grounds. “I always carry this stuff in the helicopter because sometimes I go fishing.”
“I’m good at fishing. Nick hates it because I’m lucky.”
Ben gave her a surprised look, which she met with equanimity. “I wasn’t always a city girl, you know.”
She realized that for the first time ever, there was a complete lack of tension between her and Ben. They were marooned on Sail Fish Key, and despite the drama of the storm, she was enjoying every minute of it. They were getting a chance to just be together.
Within seconds flames were licking over the pieces of wood she’d collected. Ben walked into the trees that bordered the beach and came back with sticks that he shaped into a frame. A few minutes later, he had the coffee brewing.
While they waited for the coffee, Sophie checked the interior of the helicopter and pulled out the cloth seat covers, which she spread out on the sand so they could sit in reasonable comfort.
Using a stick and a cloth, Ben retrieved the boiling coffeepot, which was giving off a mouthwatering aroma. While he poured coffee into their one cup, Sophie busied herself unwrapping the protein bars and opening the bag of chips. Ben produced a pocketknife to cut the apple, and they had a feast.
The first sip of coffee was bliss, the second almost as good.
Ben examined the protein bar as if it was an alien artifact from another planet. “What’s in this?”
“Nuts and chocolate. They mostly make them so you can have chocolate and feel good.”
Ben wound his arm around her waist and pulled her in close against him. “Cool. My turn for the coffee.”
She handed the mug over and snuggled in, leaning her head on his shoulder while she munched chips and ate her protein bar in alternate mouthfuls to get the maximum flavor experience. The night had cooled, but enough heat radiated from Ben that she actually began to feel sleepy.
“Were you frightened when we came down?”
“A little bit, but mostly because I hate flying anyway.” She shrugged. “I knew I was safe.” She couldn’t even quite explain it to herself, but in a weird way that did not compute, she had trusted Ben.
He handed her the coffee and she had another sip then ate her half of the apple. Smothering a yawn, she snuggled back into Ben. After a while, lulled by the glow of the fire and the sparks flying skyward, her eyes drooped and she drifted into a doze.
Ben’s mouth grazed the top of her head. “I don’t understand why you want me.”
The words seemed to echo in her mind so that she wasn’t sure if she had dreamed them or he had said them. “That would be because I love you.”
A weird little stab of panic pulled her out of the downward plunge into sleep, and she knew with clarity that she had done the last thing on earth that she should do.
She had told Ben that she loved him.
* * *
The Messena resort helicopter landed on the beach just after dawn. Sophie’s stomach dropped when she saw the pilot was Nick. She had hoped he would still be away, but someone must have called him when she and Ben hadn’t returned. Probably Hannah.
Sophie met Nick’s gaze and knew that he wasn’t fooled for a minute by her blond hair. “You’re not Francesca.”
“We swapped places.”
Nick sent Ben a narrowed, glittering look. “D
id you know before you flew?”
Ben’s gaze locked with Sophie’s. “I knew the instant I saw her walking toward me. But you don’t need to worry. We’re engaged. When we get to Miami we’re getting a ring.”
The words sent a shock wave through Sophie. Giddy pleasure washed through her, but that was almost instantly diluted by the fact that Ben’s declaration that they were engaged was so sudden. There had been no proposal, and, more importantly, Ben hadn’t said he loved her.
And there was another issue. Last night, Ben had made it clear how he had finally realized that when they had made love the first time she had been a virgin. And that she had only ever slept with him.
She knew enough about the alpha male psyche, courtesy of having four brothers, to know that kind of thing mattered.
Then there was the fact that Ben was announcing their “engagement” while Nick was literally standing over him, as if he was more concerned with upholding some kind of unspoken masculine code, than about finding out if she wanted to be engaged.
Nick grinned and shook Ben’s hand. “Why didn’t you say so? Congratulations—”
Sophie eyed them both flatly. “I don’t recall agreeing to an engagement.”
Ben frowned. “I was going to wait until we got to Miami—”
“It would have been nice if you had actually asked.”
Frustratingly, Nick had already backed off. The change in his demeanor spelled out loud and clear that he now saw them as a couple and didn’t want to get caught in the middle of one of their arguments.
Feeling off balance because last night she had felt so close to Ben, Sophie helped pack up their rudimentary campsite. She didn’t like it that Ben had announced an engagement she hadn’t agreed to without any regard for her. She didn’t like feeling manipulated and railroaded. However, she was in love with Ben, which he now knew, and that was a game changer.
An engagement, while not ideal, would give her the time she needed to unravel what exactly kept going wrong between them and, hopefully, allow Ben to finally fall for her.
Cancel that, she thought. To make Ben fall for her. And in terms of falling in love, there was a definite glimmer of hope because physically, at least, Ben couldn’t resist her.
* * *
The flight back to Miami seemed even quicker than the flight out. Nick landed them at the Atraeus Mall, because, courtesy of Hannah, Ben’s Jeep was parked there. After Nick offloaded them, he flew the chopper, which was normally booked up for tourist flights, back to his resort.
As soon as they landed, Ben’s phone went crazy and he began fielding calls and texts. When they reached the parking lot, he unlocked the Jeep. Sophie dumped her bag on the floor, climbed into the seat and fastened her seat belt. She was still upset by the way Ben had announced their engagement—she hated being railroaded into anything. Plus, her back was stiff, a leftover from her injury and a sure sign that she needed to do some exercises.
Ben swung behind the wheel, a concerned look on his face. “Are you all right? You look like you’re in pain.”
“It’s nothing. Just a little back problem I had before. I’ll get some ibuprofen from the store later.”
Ben pulled into traffic and drove into town, stopping at the first convenience store they saw. “I’ll get you that ibuprofen now.”
His phone beeped as a text arrived. He checked the text and, leaving the phone on the parcel tray, he swung out of the Jeep and walked into the store.
While Ben was gone, Sophie reached for her own phone, which was also sitting in the parcel tray. As she did so, her fingers must have brushed the screen of Ben’s because the phone lit up. The message Ben had just received was still open.
It was from Hannah —but that wasn’t what made her freeze in place. Hannah’s message was simple, declarative and clearly meant to be humorous. She wanted to know if the “aversion therapy” of taking the “other twin” to Sail Fish Key had worked.
The screen went blank again. Feeling numb, Sophie stared out at the parking lot. Suddenly everything that had gone wrong in her relationship with Ben now made a horrible kind of sense. His resistance to the attraction and the fact that she had been the one who had done the seducing. The way he had kept dropping her like a hot potato.
He didn’t want to want her, to the point that he had used a number of different tactics to void the attraction.
Number one had been distance. Living half a world away had worked. The second tactic had coincided with the second time they had made love: she was pretty sure he had slept with her in order to gauge how he felt, and maybe even to get her out of his system. The third tactic had been the most insulting. He had used her own twin, for whom he felt nothing, as “aversion therapy,” because if they became a couple, he then had to consider marriage.
Ben knew her brothers were, quite frankly, medieval when it came to relationships. He couldn’t sleep with her, or even date her over an extended period of time, and not offer marriage. She had seen exactly how that dynamic had worked on the beach of Sail Fish Key less than an hour ago.
If Ben had failed to commit, Nick, despite liking Ben, would have given him an ultimatum. If Ben had ignored that, things would very probably have gotten physical. Business ties would have been cut at the first opportunity.
When Ben came back to the Jeep, she simply closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. Minutes later, he dropped her at her apartment. He gave her a searching look when she collected her things and didn’t lean over to kiss him. His phone buzzed again. He ignored it, made a time to pick her up for dinner and drove away.
Feeling like an automaton, Sophie walked inside, had a quick shower and changed. She put her sandy clothes in the washing machine and walked through to her kitchen to get some iced water from the fridge.
Aversion therapy.
Humiliation flooded her. The fact that Ben hadn’t said anything about love, just the engagement, now made perfect sense. His aim had been to resist her, but she had forced his hand by pretending to be Francesca and pushing them both together again.
He was marrying her because he thought he had to.
And, in that moment, her mind was made up.
There was no way she could marry Ben. She wanted a husband who would love and cherish her, who did not feel pressured into marrying.
It would hurt to walk away, but it would hurt more to stay.
Picking up her phone, she checked out flights. The urge to go back to New Zealand, and to the solitude and beauty of Dolphin Bay, was suddenly overwhelming. She couldn’t be away for long, because she had a business to run, but she could go for a week and run the office remotely. Besides, Francesca was here to keep an eye on things.
There was a flight that left in a few hours. She checked her watch. Ben would be back to pick her up in two. The equation worked. She would have time to get on the flight, but the plane would leave quickly enough that if he thought to check the airport, he would be too late to stop her.
* * *
Ben knocked on Sophie’s door. When there was no answer, he tried phoning her. The call went through to voice mail.
An older woman who occupied the next-door apartment opened her door, leaving it on the chain. “If you’re looking for Sophie, she left. She’s gone overseas.”
Her door closed before Ben could ask a question. Not that he needed to ask, he realized. He had suspected something was wrong when she had gone so quiet in the Jeep. Added to that, she hadn’t answered any of his calls. The fact that she had left confirmed it, and he was pretty sure he knew where she had gone.
He called Miami’s international airport as he took the stairs two at a time. Sure enough, there was a flight leaving for New Zealand in an hour. When he reached his Jeep, he headed northwest toward the airport. As the crow flies it wasn’t far from Sophie’s apartment, around eight miles, but traffic was frustrating. While he drove, he called a c
ontact he had who ran security at the airport and got the confirmation that Sophie was on a flight to New Zealand.
He pulled into the parking strip outside the departures building, went inside and studied the information boards. Sophie’s flight hadn’t yet left, but it was boarding.
He checked with the information desk and found out that the next flight to New Zealand left first thing in the morning. The stopovers would kill him, he would be hours behind Sophie, and he would miss a raft of meetings; but suddenly his business ceased to matter. He could take care of things by phone, and Hannah was more than capable of fielding any enquiries.
He picked up his phone to text Hannah and stared at the last message she had sent, the one about dating Francesca as aversion therapy. His heart almost stopped in his chest.
He remembered leaving the phone on the parcel tray, by Sophie’s, as he had gone into the convenience store to get the ibuprofen. She must have seen the message. When he had come back to the Jeep, her eyes had been closed as if she had been tired. She had avoided making eye contact with him when he had dropped her off.
She had read the message.
Returning to his Jeep, he drove back to the city center. He had hurt her and there was no way he could take back the harm that he had done.
Somehow, he ended up back at Alfresco. He pulled into a parking spot and stared at couples as they walked into the restaurant.
When he thought back to the way he had behaved, it was no wonder Sophie had run. He had been arrogant and insensitive, and more concerned with preserving himself than considering what their relationship had been doing to her. Offhand he could not think of a reason why she would want him back.
But he had to try to get her back.
He drew a deep breath to ease the sudden tightness in his chest.
He had to get her back, because he loved her.
Fourteen
Francesca walked off her flight to New York and hailed a cab to the boutique hotel she had booked in Manhattan. Her hotel was near the Atraeus Mall, so once she had gotten dressed it was a matter of walking half a block and she was there.
