The Trouble with Mojitos (6 page)

“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.

@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 head 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.

Nah. Life was too short to waste in a gym. She’d rather be out here trekking through the unexplored wilderness.

Though the view wasn’t helping her temperature any. Rik’s jeans were fitted enough to give her an unparalleled view of a tautly sculpted ass and muscled thighs. She took a long swig of water from her bottle, but it didn’t help. Rik had more than just his torso going for him.

Look, don’t touch. Look, don’t touch. Touch, don’t look.

Damn.

When the ground levelled off, bringing her eye level in line with his shirted back, she was almost disappointed.

“You’ll need to send in labour in advance to create paths through this.” Rik paused and she nearly smacked into him. He held out a hand to steady her, and another swift rush of blood swept through her. Like she needed any more heating up. She was going to combust any moment.

Focus. This was work, not play. “Won’t that destroy the environment?”

“It grows back quickly. Another rainy season and no-one will ever know you were here.” He held back the fronds of an over-large fern to let her pass.

“How much further?”

“We’re there.”

Her eyes grew wide as she looked past him. He hadn’t been messing with her. Tumbled down walls of stone peeked out through the foliage. She darted forward, pulling aside the branches and tracing the lines of walls. Not just one ruined building, but a whole settlement. It would need a team of people to clear the underbrush properly, but this was exactly the type of ruin the director wanted. She prayed her pictures would do the place justice, that he would see this as she could see it beneath the matted vines and ferns.

“Give me the machete,” she said, holding out her hand.

Rik frowned. “What for?”

“I need to clear away some of these branches so I can get a decent picture.”

“I’ll do it. It’s a man’s job.”

She rolled her eyes. Clearly they
did
teach chauvinism in Prince Academy. But she wasn’t about to complain. Not when he stripped off his shirt again, giving her an unimpeded view of that magnificent torso gleaming with sweat as he worked. If she were a poet, she’d write a sonnet or two for those biceps. Her fingers itched to capture them on film.

Oh what the heck … 

Perhaps Lee would forgive her a little lapse if she brought home a few drool-worthy pictures. She raised her camera.

When he’d cut through a swathe of the overhanging foliage and a corner of one building stood free, Rik stepped back to admire his handiwork. “Will that do?”

She nodded and focussed on her camera.
Will it ever … 
“That’s perfect. Thanks.” The camera shutter whirred again.

Though she didn’t need to, she took the folder from her bag and flipped through the printed pictures until she reached a sketch by the storyboard artist. She compared her pictures to the artist’s impression. A phenomenal match, down to the bromeliads and orchids in the trees. “This is the place!”

“Yes it is.”

But Rik wasn’t looking at the page, or at her. His gaze had fallen onto the stretch of wall he’d uncovered in his hasty clearance. He bent down to look at a heart-shaped inscription carved into a corner stone, like a piece of ancient graffiti.

Kenzie bent too. “
TT and CA
. What does it mean?”

He knelt beside the wall and rubbed the inscription reverently. “They were real. And they survived. If only my father … ” His voice caught.

Not wanting to touch what she could only imagine was a complicated issue, she asked instead “Who survived?”

“The pirate and his princess.”

“From the legend – they were real?”

“Of course. There’s a grain of truth in every legend. My father was fascinated by the story and collected every scrap of information he could find. It’s well documented that Governor von Kerkhoven lost his bride to a dark-skinned privateer, and in revenge he did his best to rid the Caribbean of pirates. But his bride was a daughter of the Count of Arelat, not a princess, and the jilted groom was no sorcerer, just a man with a small navy at his command. This settlement was only one of the casualties.”

“I feel sorry for him,” Kenzie said. “Still doesn’t mean he had to act out. What happened to the girl?”

“That’s always been the mystery. There was no record of either her or the pirate after they eloped. Until now.” He stroked his hand over the stone. “Thomas Taylor and Clara d’Arelat. So they survived the legendary battle and lived long enough to leave their mark here.”

“This could be a national monument,” she suggested. Or a theme park, but that just sounded tacky. Almost as tacky as having a film crew barge through here in a few months’ time.

She snapped a few pictures of the inscription. If Rik happened to be in at least half of them, no-one but her need ever know. These pictures were for her alone.

“So is that your work all done?” He rose, wiping grimy hands on his jeans.

“It is. This place is amazing. It’s unbelievable that I’ve found everything on one island: beaches, lagoon, forest. Even the ruins. That’ll save the production a few bob rather than having to build a set. I guess we should start making our way back to the boat.”

Not that she was in any hurry to leave, even if the hike was downhill all the way, with lunch at the end of it.

***

This was not the way they’d come, Kenzie was sure. The forest seemed denser and less friendly. She’d lost all sense of direction, and the urge to photograph her surroundings had deserted her at least a mile back.

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto,” she muttered. A hanging vine slapped her in the face, and she came to a halt. “Uh, Rik … ”

He paused to look back at her.

“I don’t suppose you happen to have a GPS in that rucksack of yours? Or a compass?”

He shrugged. “We don’t need a compass. I have an excellent sense of direction.”

Yeah, and she had an excellent sense of trouble, but that didn’t stop her from plunging headlong into it.

“So you’re sure this is the way we came?”

He looked about them, as if noticing their surroundings for the first time. How many miles away had he been?

“It’s not the same way, but as long as we’re headed downhill, we should reach the beach soon. Then we can follow the shoreline back to the boat.”

She hoped so. This was a bloody big island, and her hiking boots were beginning to chafe. Not to mention, her water bottle was empty. And sweat had begun to pour down her back. That look might work on Rik, but on her it didn’t look anything like a wet tee shirt contest, she was sure.

He resumed his forward surge and she followed in his wake. The path was more slippery now, mossy beneath their feet, with steep banks and sudden gullies hidden beneath a carpet of waist-high bushes that scratched and tugged at her. Not to mention the vines that dangled from the branches above, like snakes coiled ready to spring.

The canopy overhead was too dense to judge where the sun was in the sky, but according to her watch it was past lunch time. Her stomach agreed with the watch.

Which would make it the end of a normal working day in London. Not that a production company in full-on pre-production mode would be working normal hours.

The noise of the forest escalated the further they travelled – the call of birds, the rustle of wind in the leaves, and a low roar that seemed to come up through the soles of her feet.

Rik paused and waited for her to catch up. “I think we might be lost.”

No kidding. And, typical man, he hadn’t believed he needed directions.

Since they were stating the obvious, she added her two cents. “And we’re out of fresh water.”

“That we may be able to do something about.” He cocked his ear and listened. “Follow the sound.”

On the plus side, the nearer they got to that low roar, the more the trees thinned out and the patches of dappled light grew bigger and brighter. The forest no longer seemed quite so menacing beneath the cloudless sapphire sky.

Then they emerged into a sunny glade.

Kenzie caught her breath.

There it was, the source of the sound. Amidst the emerald green of the forest, the stark white plume of a waterfall, falling down a rocky shelf into a pool before flowing away downhill.

The air was richly fragrant here, heavy with the scent of wild frangipani flowers run amok. The colours too were vivid: rich greens, the delicate whites and yellows of the flowers, the brilliant flash of red and blue as a macaw skimmed through the treetops.

“Wow – look at this place!” She clambered over the sun-warmed rocks at the waterfall’s base to reach the pool. Peering in, she splashed cool water on her face, her neck, her arms. Instant relief.

The water was crystal clear beneath the bubbling surface, and small, bright fish darted through the shallows. Tentatively she cupped a hand in the water and tasted. Unbelievable. Completely fresh and sweet, untainted by human intervention.