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But he’d rolled them both out of bed and dragged her into the shower.
She’d felt disappointed...a little crushed, actually...until he’d pulled her closer, and kissed her fiercely. Then he’d dropped to his knees and she’d felt his hands grip her hips before he’d started kissing the tops of her legs.
Her breath fluttered in her throat as she remembered the feel of his flickering tongue as it had eased between her thighs, nudging against the tight ball of heat there, his warm saliva mixing with the warm water.
She’d had no idea that she would feel as if her actual bones were melting, and afterwards, when he’d gently turned her away from him and thrust into her, his arm around her waist, anchoring her to his body, she had felt both his power and his tenderness.
Now, pressing her knees together, she glanced over at Basa’s profile. She couldn’t imagine any other man being so expert, so fierce, so generous—couldn’t imagine being with another man. But that would change, she told herself. It would have to change. And at least this way there was no time for her to mess it up.
As they reached the top of the hill the ground flattened and she saw there was another car already parked. Two men were leaning against the car, and spread out over the springy grass was a huge pale blue and white hot air balloon.
She swallowed a breath.
‘We haven’t left the island since you got here, and I can’t let you go back to England without seeing something of my second homeland,’ Basa said quietly. ‘This way you’ll get to see so much more.’
The thought of going back to England made her chest feel too tight, and suddenly her eyes were burning with tears.
But she smiled past the ache in her throat. ‘I’ve always wanted to do this...’
His eyes held hers. ‘So let’s go sail along the silver sky. Here—’ he handed her a quilted jacket ‘—you’ll need this.’
It took thirty minutes to inflate the balloon. Their pilot, Butch, spoke very good English, but with a strong Spanish accent.
Mimi frowned as Basa helped her into the basket. ‘Butch isn’t a very Argentinian name.’
Butch laughed. ‘My real name is Gonzalo, but everyone calls me Butch because I am from Cholila.’
‘Cholila is outlaw country,’ Basa explained. ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid out there for a while when they were on the run.’ His eyes hovered over the pulse-point in her throat. ‘Since Butch is in charge, for this ride at least, maybe that makes you and me outlaws too.’
His smile transfixed her, slowed her pulse and stilled all thought, so that it was perhaps a full five minutes before she realised that the balloon was slowly rising up.
Her head began to spin. Basa had been right. The sky was silver up here—and blue and pink and gold. The air was crisp, but the rising sun was warm, and then Basa wrapped his arms around her waist and the heat of his body quickly enveloped her.
‘There’s the island,’ he said, leaning in, his cheek brushing against her.
‘Look at the lake—it’s so blue.’
From so high, the translucent water was jewel-bright, studded with the dark shapes of ducks and swans. Heart thumping, she gazed down. Beneath them she could see grazing cattle, and Basa pointed out an eagle soaring in the air currents. It was so vast, so open, with huge, grassy plains spreading in every direction, right up to the foothills of the mountains, and all of it was gilded in sunlight.
She turned to look at him, a painful heat filling her chest. ‘Alicia said you call this place the first step to heaven.’
‘I do.’ His eyes, dark like the rocks in the lake, met hers. ‘And now I have my very own angel.’
Was it the poetry of his words making her feel so dizzy? Or the fact that he wanted to share this beautiful place with her even for a moment? She didn’t know, but it was a bittersweet feeling to remember that tomorrow this would all be just a memory.
Her heart felt as though it was being squeezed. She thought she had known loss and sadness, but this was a new kind of feeling—an emptiness that made her feel as if she was hollow inside. Her hand gripped the side of the basket. Her pulse was pounding, and she was torn between wanting to capture this moment for ever—his face, his voice, the way he filled not just the basket but this endless sky—and forgetting they had ever met.
The rest of the flight seemed to pass in seconds, and then Butch brought them down with little more than a bump. Within minutes the two SUVs were powering through the grass towards them.
Back at the house, she spent the rest of the day trying to ignore the ache that had started inside her up in the silvery sky. She packed, and talked and smiled with Claudia, and watched Lionel build a vast willow frame above a circle of fire for an asado later.
And then she and Basa walked around the island until the ache became unbearable and she was suddenly frantic for the feel of his body on hers, and in hers, and she towed him back to the bedroom where they made love for the rest of the afternoon.
Later, they sat by the fire, drinking ice-cold champagne while Lionel and Claudia cooked the meat.
‘What you were talking about earlier,’ he said abruptly. ‘About you not being planned by your parents. I don’t understand what my not coming back to the room that night has to do with the way that made you feel.’
For a moment her mind was utterly blank, but then, as she tried to think of a way to answer his question, she felt something stir inside her. When they made love they held nothing back, so why was she still hiding herself from him?
