AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If only she knew that was not the danger. He wasn’t about to miss even a fraction of an inch. Wanting to get on with their hike and swim, and get himself out of this situation, he finished up as quickly but as thoroughly as possible. “All set.”
“Thanks. Let me just grab my sun hat.” She flitted off and was back a few seconds later.
They headed outside, up the beachline away from both of their cottages. At first, their walk was nothing more than a leisurely stroll along the sand, but then the coast got rocky in patches, and they would wade through knee-to waist-high water to get past the tougher terrain. A few times, they hiked inland and made their way on footpaths that wound through the forest.
“You sure you know where you’re going?” Zane trailed behind Allison as they walked down a narrow trail under dense tree cover. It was a welcome break from the sun and the heat of the day. “We haven’t seen a single person or even another cottage this whole time.”
“Yep. I know this trip like the back of my hand. I promise. Scott and I did this a hundred times when we were kids.”
“The resort has been in your family that long?”
“Yes. It originally belonged to my grandparents, but it was a little more rustic when we were growing up. The bungalows weren’t quite so fancy. They didn’t have all of the amenities they do now. My aunt and uncle made it into what it is today.”
Ahead, Zane saw the bright sun breaking through the trees. “Is that where we’re going?”
She turned back and flashed her smile at him, the one that made it hard to think straight. “Yep.”
“Awesome.” Zane took stock of their surroundings as soon they were out of the wooded area and back on the beach. To his right, the coast was again rocky, with a steep and densely overgrown hillside racing up from it. He then looked out over the water, spotting a tiny island. It appeared to be about the length of four or five football fields away. It had three palm trees on it but no other signs of life. “What’s that?”
“That’s where we’re going if you’re up for the swim. Scott and I named it Mako Island.”
“As in the shark? Because I was more in the mood for colorful tropical fish today. Not so much into man-eating aquatic specimens.”
Allison laughed. “Scott was really into sharks when we named it, but don’t worry. I’ve never seen anything too scary in these waters.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“It’ll take about twenty minutes to get over there, but it’s an easy swim and you’ll get a beautiful view the whole way. Just follow me.”
Zane nodded in agreement, declining to say that if he was following her, it wasn’t the ocean that would be providing the beauty. That was all on Allison.
Zane and Allison put on their fins and snorkel masks, then she grabbed the inflatable swim buoy her uncle had left for her. With a belt that went around her waist, it would float behind her, hold a few bottles of water and could double as a flotation device if either she or Zane got into trouble during their swim.
“Your aunt and uncle think of everything, don’t they?” Zane asked.
“They love to be protective.” Always. But she wasn’t going to let things like her family come between her and a good day with Zane. “Come on.”
Allison waded into the sea, feeling so blissfully at home the instant she was floating in the water. They swam at a leisurely pace, buoyed by the saline. Below, the ocean floor was dotted with clusters of starfish, while schools of fish in bright shades of yellow and blue darted between the sea plants. One thing Allison loved more than anything about snorkeling was that the only thing she could hear was her own breath. She purposely made it deep and even, forcing every stress in her life from her body. Today was for her and Zane. She’d waited fifteen years for it to happen.
As they approached Mako Island, the water became quite shallow—only two or three feet deep. That allowed them to walk the final fifty yards to dry land, or in this case, what was really a very large sandbar with a few rocks, trees and plants.
They both collapsed when they reached a shady spot on the beach, sitting down and taking off their fins. “That was incredible,” Zane said, a bit breathless. She tried not to watch the rise and fall of his enticing chest. She tried not to think about how badly she wanted to touch him there. “Thank you so much for sharing it with me.”
“Of course. I’ll give you the quick tour of the island. It won’t take long.” Indeed, it was only about the size of the combined footprint of five or six Rose Cove cottages. Mostly sand and rocks, some low brush and a half dozen palms. Unfit for human life, it wasn’t completely uninhabited. Plenty of birds were busy up in the trees, and there were even a few iguanas, who could make the swim from Rose Cove or other nearby islands.
They found their way back to that shady, cool spot on the beach and took a breather. “You know, half of the fun of this is getting to show it off to someone I care about.”
Zane sat forward, resting his forearms on his knees and looking down at the sand, and nodded. “That’s a nice thing to say.” His voice was so burdened it made her heart heavy. Why did he have to be so deeply conflicted about every nice thing she chose to say? “I care about you, too.”
She had too many words on the tip of her tongue—things about her brother or other women or why in the hell he couldn’t just give in to the attraction that she had to believe he felt. There was no way that the electricity between them only went one way. But she didn’t want their conversation to get too serious, so she kept these nagging, negative thoughts to herself. Instead, she fished the bottles of water out of the small pouch attached to the swim buoy and handed one to Zane. “Here. Drink. I need to keep you safe out here. Scott will never forgive me if you die of dehydration.”
Zane laughed. It was deep and throaty and sexy as ever. “Same for you. I think we’re equally responsible for each other at this point.” He took a long drink of his water, then replaced the cap and reclined back in the sand, resting on his elbows. “It’s so amazing to think about, isn’t it?”
“What? How my brother has an ironclad hold on both of us?”
“Well, that, sure, but that’s a long conversation. I was talking more about the here and now. When we met, did you ever think that you and I would end up together on this tiny uninhabited island in the Caribbean?”
Allison hugged her knees to her chest and ran her hands through the sand, too embarrassed to tell Zane that she’d spent more than a decade crafting fantasies about him. Of the many times she’d felt like a naive schoolgirl around him, this moment might have been the most striking. It felt as though there was an invisible force between them, keeping them apart, and she didn’t know how to get rid of it. “Hard to believe, huh?”
