The Castaway Bride (13 page)

Yet he sensed Cristy wasn’t as experienced as she wanted him to believe. There was something almost innocent about her seductive breakfast manners, as though she’d been trying out something very new to her.

He wasn’t complaining. She could practice on him all she liked. And it made him even more intrigued by her; keen to know her better in the time they had together.

He turned around. “C’mon slowpoke.”

“I am not a slowpoke,” she protested. “It’s these darn flip-flops. You trimmed one shorter than the other.”

While he’d been out getting the coconuts, she’d changed back into the remnants of her wedding dress With her breasts swelling lushly out of the top and her long legs slender beneath the short, ragged skirt, she looked like some Robinson Crusoe fantasy come true.

And she was his.

He shook his head against the sudden thought and the rush of pleasure it gave him.
No.
She was not his. She was another man’s bride. She wore the ring to prove it. And he’d better keep reminding himself of that—he’d broken his own code by going as far with her as he already had.

It was getting harder and harder to keep up his barriers against her. But if he let himself get too close to her, he’d be gutted when they were picked up by a rescue boat and she waved him goodbye and waltzed back to her hubby-to-be.

So why not treat this as something temporary? Temporary, and somehow separate from his real existence. A seafaring fantasy with Cristy the mermaid sent by his good mate King Neptune to offer comfort to a shipwrecked sailor.

“Wait up!” she called and he held out his hand to her.

C
risty stopped in her tracks as they reached the beach and stood in awe at the sight that met her eyes. “Wow!” was all she could think to say.

The dull clouds had blown away, and the sullen, choppy gray sea had calmed to miraculous turquoise waters lapping quietly at the edge of the white coral sand. The only evidence of the storm was the scatter of fallen palm fronds on the sand—and the disappearance of
Wayfarer
.

She glanced sideways at Matt. “It’s a shame about your boat.”

“She would have been broken up on the reef.” She saw him swallow hard. “But she… she was insured.”

“Insurance doesn’t make up for losing something you loved. I think that boat was special to you.”

“Even though you thought I’d stolen it.”

Cristy looked sharply up at him but he was smiling, his eyes creasing in that deliciously sexy way. She felt herself color as she started to protest. “I did not. I just wondered—”

He cupped her chin in his hand so she had to look up into his eyes. “You’re a terrible liar, Cristy. Do you know that everything you’re thinking shows on your face?”

“It… it does?”

He nodded. “And you had me down as some itinerant boat thief.”

“Well, I…” She floundered, knowing she’d incriminate herself with every word.

“I do—did—own the boat, and I do have a job, and I’m actually quite respectable.”

“I didn’t for one moment think that you weren’t,” she protested.

“Did you know the tip of your nose got very red when you said that?”

Cristy’s hand flew to her nose. “It did not!”

Then she looked up at him and saw he was laughing. She smiled ruefully back. “I guess maybe I was guilty of judging by appearances. I should know better, after all it’s my job to see below the surface of things.”

“As an accountant?”

She shook her head. “I trained as an accountant but now I’m an analyst for a stock-broking firm. I check out companies to see how honest they’re being to the market in the way they present themselves.”

“That could be a useful skill to have, especially in these times.” His mouth twisted cynically. “Can you tell if people are doing the same thing?”

Cristy frowned. “I’m not sure I know what you mean?”

“Can you tell when people are being dishonest in the way they present themselves to other people?”

She hesitated. “As well as anyone else, I guess. I tend to take people as I find them. What about you?”

“I’m more cynical. I’ve found people are often very different to the way they present themselves.”

“Are they? You’ll find with me that what you see is what you get,” she said, puzzled as to the turn the conversation was going.

“Is that so?”

Their eyes met and Matt was the first to look away. He shrugged. “You sound like you enjoy your job.”

“I love it.” Then she remembered and cursed a mild curse.

“What’s the matter?”

“By running away from my wedding I’ve kissed goodbye to my job.”

“Why would that be?”

“I worked for Howard’s family company. That’s how I met him. Now I—”

Matt’s face darkened and he took a step back from her. “You mean you were marrying your boss?” His mouth was set in a grim line and his eyes were dark and difficult to read.

“Well, yes. If you put it like that.” With his arms folded tightly across his chest he looked formidable. And judgmental.

“Now you’re the one making assumptions where you shouldn’t be.”

“Oh yeah?”

“You’re accusing me of being some kind of… gold-digger, aren’t you?”

“There are women who would marry their boss for financial gain, yes.”

“And you’re saying I’m one of them?”

He shrugged.

She flushed with anger. “How dare you judge me without even knowing me. I wasn’t marrying Howard for money. And I resent you saying that. You sound like—”

She realized what she’d nearly said and bit her lip.

“Like who?” asked Matt.

“Like none of your business,” she hissed.

“So why were you marrying Howard?”

What gave with the interrogation? “I don’t know why I have to answer that question.”

“You don’t. I’d just like to know.”

Did she really know the answer herself? She turned away from Matt and paced a few feet on the sand, nearly tripping on her uneven flip-flops and then righting herself. She turned back to face him.

“I was marrying Howard because he was decent and kind and I thought he’d be a good husband and father. I can’t deny I wasn’t attracted to his lifestyle—it was about as far away from the commune as you could get. He comes from one of America’s most highly regarded families. His father is close to the President. But I wouldn’t have married him just for the Templetton millions. Friendship, admiration, mutual respect—that seemed a good basis for marriage. Better than—”

She stopped herself.
Better than being blinded by physical attraction
, she’d been about to say. But she had had no intention of explaining her “you can’t trust lust” policy of deciding on the men she dated. And that Howard had passed the lust test with flying colors, that is, there hadn’t been any. Affection—yes. Admiration—yes. Intense physical attraction like she felt for Matt—not for a moment.

Matt’s voice was gruff. “What about love? Did you love the guy?”

“Love? What’s love got to do with it?” she quipped, stalling for time, avoiding his gaze.

“Quite a lot when it comes to marriage, I would have thought,” he said, more grimly than she thought was called for.

“Well… I didn’t love him in the hearts-and-flowers kind of way. We both knew that—and to be honest I think he felt the same. But we were great friends. Had been since we’d started working together—even though he was the boss.”

She scuffed her flip-flop in the sand. “I thought… I thought the ‘in love’ bit would grow once we were married. I thought a marriage based on honesty and friendship stood a better chance than something started by… by an irrational emotion.”

And yet for all his high-sounding talk, Howard had betrayed her with her bridesmaid.

Matt snorted cynically but Cristy ignored him. His questions were making her think.

She went on. “Now I’m not so sure. After all, he was groping another woman before we even fronted the marriage celebrant. Maybe I didn’t know Howard at all. I guess I had a lucky escape.”

Matt made another cynical noise. “That backs up everything I think about the institution of matrimony.”

“And what is that?”

“Avoid it at all costs.”

“Really?” She wondered why she should feel so disappointed at his words.

“The frosting was taken off the wedding cake after living through four of my mother’s marriages.”

“Four?”

“Yup. The first to my father whose life she made hell; the second to Danny’s father who made her life hell; the third to a compulsive gambler. She’s on her fourth now—she married him for his bank balance, he knew it, and so far, so good.”

“How awful for you.”

“It wasn’t great.”

Cristy sensed a deal of pain behind his simple words and she gave up a silent prayer of thanks for her own parents, admittedly eccentric, but married thirty years and devoted to each other—and to their family. They still tried to interfere way too much in her life but she knew, much as it annoyed her at times, they only did it out of concern.

“So Danny is only your half brother?”

“Yeah, though I’ve never thought of him as anything less than my full brother.”

“Does Danny—?”

She didn’t get a chance to ask anything further as Matt put his hand gently over her mouth to silence her.

“Who cares about Danny or my mother or your bridegroom?”

“Ex-bridegroom,” she managed to mumble against his hand.

“All that’s important right now is this,” he said, replacing his hand with his mouth in a kiss that made her forget everything but him and the flood of feeling his touch unleashed.

He held both her hands and pulled her close to him, letting her feel his arousal. “I want to take you to a special place.”

“Yes, yes,” she murmured urgently, rocking her hips against him, remembering the special place he’d taken her to this morning and aching to revisit it. This time without interruptions from a lizard named Sam.

Matt pulled away from her, a hint of a grin lifting the corners of his mouth. “I don’t mean that special place. Well I do. Hell, c’mon, I’ll take you there.” He pulled her along to a faint track that opened ahead of them through the palm trees and undergrowth. Feeling almost giddy with anticipation, she went with him.

M
att was gratified at the look of wonder on Cristy’s face as they pushed their way through the rainforest into the cool of the clearing. “Matt, this must be the most beautiful place on earth.” Her voice was low with awe.

“I think so,” he said.

Ahead of them was a waterfall pouring down the mountain and over a small cliff into a deep, green pool surrounded by mossy rocks, a small sandy foreshore, and clusters of extravagantly lush tree ferns.

“I thought the beach was paradise, but this is where you come when you tire of paradise,” she murmured. “Look at the way the water comes down and breaks into spray. It’s sparkling like diamonds. And there are little rainbows.” Her eyes shone to rival the spray.

Matt smiled, inordinately pleased at her reaction. “I thought you’d like it.”

“I love the sound the waterfall makes. And what’s that lovely smell?”

He gestured towards the vegetation. “Some kind of tropical flowers. I don’t know their names. White things.”

Cristy rolled her eyes heavenward but smiled as she did so. “White things. He brings me to paradise and tells me that the heavenly scent is from white things. Romance isn’t your strong point, is it?”

“I warned you,” he said, his voice gruff.

Cristy looked up at him, her eyes suddenly serious. “Yes, you did.” She was quiet and still for a moment. Then she reached up, placed her hands on his shoulders and brought her face close to his. “But I think you’ve got potential. Thank you for sharing this wonderful place with me. She kissed him lightly on his mouth and then stepped back. “Now c’mon. I want to swim. With you.”

She kicked off her flip-flops and ran to where the sand sloped into the water. He stared after her, his mouth warm from her kiss, his heart even warmer from her words.

She knew, without him telling her, how much this place meant to him. There was something special about Cristy Walters, something he was finding it harder and harder to fight.

She stopped and looked back over her shoulder at him, one foot poised cautiously above the surface of the pool. “Uh… this is fresh water isn’t it?”

He nodded.

She held her foot aloft. “No sharks?”

“Not a one.”

She placed her foot back on the sand. “What about crocodiles?”

He shook his head.

“Sam’s not lurking around?”

“Don’t see him.”

“Any other dangerous Australians I need to worry about?”

“Only me,” he said.

Her smile shone brighter than the sunbeams dancing from the waterfall and warmed his heart some more. “I’m not one itty bit afraid of you,” she said.

“Then I declare the waters safe in this particular part of paradise.”

“Good,” she said, and he grinned at the look of relief on her lovely face.

She took another step forward and then stopped.

“Now what’s the matter?” he asked. “There’ll be fish in there. But they shouldn’t nibble your toes. If one does, grab it. It’ll beat canned beans for lunch.”

She wrinkled up her nose in a way he was beginning to find dangerously endearing. “It isn’t that. This dress. Those buttons.”

Her smile was slow and seductive and Matt knew with a shudder of anticipation that he was receiving her loud and clear. This time he’d be allowed to complete the job of undressing her.

Within seconds he had her buttons undone. The dress slid off of her, she stepped out of it and tossed it aside then twisted around to face him, gorgeous in her near nakedness.

What a perfect body she had—curvy in the right places, slender where she should be. Standing there with the waterfall behind her, her beauty was as much of the scene as the spectacular display of nature. With her wild blond hair tumbling over her beautiful, rounded breasts she was his mermaid fantasy come true—the only thing short of perfection the dark bruises discoloring her hip and thigh from where she’d fallen when the bed collapsed.

He was ready to take her—right now.