“No harm was done,” came his answer in a voice devoid of emotion. Without light she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she sense
d a stunning change in him. The blood pounded in her ears.
“What’s wrong?”
“Playtime is over.”
She weaved on her feet. “I don’t understand.”
“Of course you do, but a woman like you chooses not to pick up on the signals. I don’t recall inviting you to join me in my bed. Because of your history with men, you just assumed you would be welcome.
“Perhaps your ‘one for all, all for one’ motto is the by-product of being the youngest in a set of triplets, but to be frank, the thought of making love to my brother’s latest pit babe sickens me. I don’t know how I can make myself any clearer than that.”
A thousand knives seemed to be stabbing her heart at once. She held back scalding tears only through the greatest strength of will.
“I don’t know, either. How come you didn’t push me away sooner?”
“I must admit I was curious to see if there was a conscience hiding somewhere inside that tempting body of yours that would stop you before I did.”
Her breath caught. “I noticed you waited until you’d kissed me back first!”
“You’re a delicious flavor treat. The trick is to enjoy a small taste rather than to sate one’s self with fruit from the basket others have picked over first. When I decide to fully indulge myself, I will pluck the sweetest fruit of my choosing from off the tree and swallow it whole.”
Both sisters had warned her Luc wasn’t like other men. They were right. His demons were too daunting for her to fight without more information.
But he had responded to her.
No man could have kissed her with such soul-destroying intensity if she’d sickened him that much. He would never have let her get that far otherwise.
What she needed was input. The kind only an insider could provide, if he was willing…
She climbed back up to her bunk and spent the rest of the torturous night huddled under the covers while she thought out her new plan. Toward morning the elements decided to cooperate. The storm passed over, and the light patter of the rain ceased.
As soon as the first light of dawn filtered into the cabin, she stole out of bed and climbed down the ladder, careful not to make a sound. Luc was in a deep sleep. She could tell by his breathing.
It was vital he stay unconscious for a while longer since she intended to undo the ropes and start rowing toward the mainland. Her impetuosity had gotten them into this predicament. Now she needed to rely on her ingenuity to get them out on the double quick in order for her latest strategy to work.
She tiptoed to the bathroom. After putting on her bathing suit and T-shirt, she slipped into her sneakers. Quietly opening the doors at the bottom and top of the stairs, she climbed out on a deck still damp from the night’s storm. However the mist had lifted enough to give her the visibility she needed.
In a few minutes she’d untied the ropes and had climbed back in the boat. She used the oar to shove off, giving it a hard push for maximum glide. When she couldn’t touch bottom anymore, she started paddling, first on one side, then the other.
Within ten minutes every muscle in her body was killing her, but her determination to put her new plan into action had become a driving force. Though progress was slow, even after she got the hang of it, the island had almost disappeared from view. That was a good omen.
She rested for two minutes, then began the back-breaking process all over again.
Within a half hour she’d reached her exhaustion level and sank down on the bench for a breather. That’s when she heard the sound of an engine off to the left. Pretty soon she saw a light plane flying over the water. As it came closer, she noticed it had pontoons.
Olivia started jumping up and down, waving her arms.
The plane circled, then landed and taxied toward the boat. A man dove overboard and swam toward the Gabbiano. When he reached it and climbed the ladder, she let out a surprised cry.
“Nic! What are you doing here? How did you know we were in trouble?”
His captivating white smile was reassuringly familiar. “Giovanni forgot to tell Fabio that when the wiring gets wet, it causes a short and the power goes off.”
She rolled her eyes. “We already found that out last night.”
“He called Fabio because he was worried you and Luc might be caught in the storm, so Fabio called me. According to one of the children near the dock, they saw you head east when you left Vernazza.