Abbey’s head jerked up. She’d been playing with a trickle of wet sand as she’d been thinking and hadn’t seen Ryan, splashing up through the shallows. Lesson over, Leith had gone to join the fun. Grandma, grandson and now Leith, all pretending to be whales.
‘Penny?’
‘What are you thinking, Abbey?’ Ryan sat himself beside her, and his broad, wet shoulder touched hers. Skin against skin. A shudder of sensation ran though her and Ryan saw it.
‘You’re cold.’
‘No. No, I’m not. How… how did the lesson go?’
‘Brilliantly.’ He smiled and put his arm around her. A gesture of affection. Nothing more. ‘You saw. I have her doing dead man’s float already. I had to take things easy because she’s exhausted from last night and I don’t want a recurrence, but she’ll be swimming like a dolphin in no time.’
‘Or a whale.’ Abbey smiled over to the silly game being played out nearby and tried hard to ignore the sensation of Ryan’s arm around her waist.
Ryan grinned. ‘As you say.’
‘Ryan…’ Abbey’s voice sounded stiff. ‘I want to thank you-’
‘There’s no need,’ Ryan said roughly, and the arm around her waist tightened. Possessively. ‘No need at all.’
‘But-’
He put his hand up and pressed a finger against her lips. ‘Abbey, I said no.’ Then he paused.
It was as if he’d suddenly realised how close they were.
And how much was between them.
The glimmers of light that had been dancing all around them suddenly seemed to intensify. Ryan’s finger stayed where it was. There was an electric current running between them-running through Ryan’s finger on her lips-from Ryan’s hand on her waist-from his body straight to hers.
And both of them could feel it. Abbey’s eyes flew up to Ryan’s and her heart gave a jolt stronger than any gained from a defibrillator.
Ryan…
There was suddenly only Ryan.
Out in the shallows, Janet and the two children were wholly engrossed in their game. Their laughter rang across the water, heightening the sense of delight. Heightening the joy…
And Abbey felt the joy flood through her. Through and through. Ryan holding her. Ryan touching her. It felt so right.
Abbey’s face tilted upward to the sun. Lifted compulsively-so her lips were just where Ryan’s lips could meet them, if he would only bend his head a little.
And he did.
Ryan stared down at Abbey for a long long moment but he could no more resist the force pulling them together than she could. He couldn’t even try.
Ryan’s lips met hers as if the two of them were pieces of a puzzle now joined. His chest touched her breast, and her scant bikini bra was no shield at all. Skin against skin. Mouth against mouth. Body against body.
Heart against heart.
That was how it felt, Abbey thought in wonder. As if, by that single touch, Abbey’s heart had found a channel to escape-from her body to his. Her lips touched and felt and explored and her whole body yearned to be closer. Closer to this man who made her feel as no man on earth had ever made her feel…
As if she were part of a whole and the other part of her was the man whose lips were claiming hers. And if she drew away she’d be tearing herself in two.
This was crazy. Somewhere in the back of Abbey’s head her common sense was screaming at her. Mistake. Huge, earth-shattering mistake. On a scale of one to ten, this ranked about a hundred and forty.
Because the kiss changed everything.
Or, rather, it made everything the same again. It reminded Abbey of what she’d known for most of her life. That she loved Ryan Henry absolutely. Totally. Without question. At eight years old she’d handed her heart over to Ryan and she’d never taken it back again.
Sure, she’d loved John, but her love for John had been different. John had been her beloved friend and he and his mother had been Abbey’s family. John and Abbey had built something that was totally satisfying, but there had never been this instant linking of heart to heart, this knowledge that this was where she belonged. That she was part of this man.
Only she didn’t belong. She was no part of Ryan Henry.
The kiss was deep and wonderful and lasting, but it couldn’t last for ever. A tiny wave splashed up further than the rest, breaking over Ryan’s legs, and he drew away as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown at him rather than the tropical warmth of the sea.
As if he was shocked to the core.
‘Abbey…’
It was a hoarse whisper, full of total bewilderment, and all Abbey wanted to do was reach out and put her arms around Ryan’s broad, wet shoulders and draw him to her again. To claim him as her man.
But she didn’t. She couldn’t. This man wasn’t hers. Ryan’s life was half a world away, and the woman he was about to marry was probably on a plane, heading here, right now.
So Abbey gave a choking little laugh and managed to smile.
‘That’s… that’s enough of that, Ryan Henry,’ she faltered. ‘I know… I know it was only a kiss of friendship but even though this is a honeymoon resort your Felicity would never approve… ’
Your Felicity.
The confusion in Ryan’s eyes faded. Felicity. His future. Felicity was his life. His future had nothing to do with this waif of a doctor, sitting here in her cute little bikini with her elfin-like cuds and too-big eyes and her leg stuck out before her, covered with white bandages and a green garbage bag.
Felicity was his love. Not Abbey.
Felicity was his future.
Ryan closed his eyes for a long, long moment and when he opened them his face was resolute.
‘You’re right. Felicity would have pink kittens. She’d never understand that we’re just friends.’
Just friends. How hollow did that sound?
Ryan flicked Abbey’s white face with a long finger and rose to stand looking down at her. His eyes were blank and uncomprehending.
‘I’d best take Leith back to the hospital,’ he told her in a voice that was none too steady. ‘I need to check there are no problems with Steve, and then get down to see Dad in the hospital in Cairns tonight.’ Ryan bit his lip and stared out to sea, as if reluctant to leave. As he was. Who would want to leave this magic place?
Who would want to leave Abbey?
‘I’ll be back Thursday if I can,’ he told her. ‘If Steve’s managing, I’ll come and see you then. Look after yourself.’
And then, without so much as glancing at Abbey again, he walked over, collected the reluctant Leith and strode away up the beach.
End of one crazy interlude.
Before Ryan left for Cairns he managed to contact Felicity. She was just leaving one meeting and about to enter another.
‘I can ring back later,’ Ryan told her.
‘It’s OK, Ryan. There’s never going to be a good time here. I’m so busy you wouldn’t believe it. What is it?’
Ryan briefly outlined what was happening and heard Felicity frown down the phone line.
‘I guess the best course might be for us to just make our own way back to the States,’ Ryan suggested. ‘I don’t want to tie you here. We can do the marriage bit next vacation.’
More frowns. And then a decision.
‘No. I’ll come anyway,’ Felicity said decisively. ‘Let’s just get this marriage bit over fast, Ryan. It’s been hanging over us long enough. I’ll be there on Thursday. If you’re in Cairns with your father, we can meet there and take it as it comes.’
She rang off and headed for her meeting, leaving Ryan staring down at his mobile phone.
This was what he wanted, wasn’t it? That Felicity still came? That the wedding went ahead?
It had to be. It was his future, all mapped out. The future as he and his mother had planned it since he was fifteen years old.
Then why the hell did he feel so damned bleak?
CHAPTER SEVEN
ABBEY’S honeymoon lasted a week, and by the following Monday she was aching for it to be over.