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‘Millie, I’m not moving from here until you listen to what I have to say.’
‘Ah, I really don’t—’
‘Clio’s gone. She’s booked a room at a hotel in Rodney Bay and her sister is flying over for the remainder of her two-week stay. I wanted to tell you this yesterday, but I know you’ve been avoiding me, and I didn’t want to embarrass you when there were so many people buzzing around the place. I want you to know that her arrival was a complete shock. As far as I was concerned our relationship had been over for months, she was engaged to another guy, and we had both moved on. I told you that.’
‘You did,’ murmured Millie, clenching her palms into fists to control the rampaging emotions that had started to gallop around her body unchecked.
‘However, Clio has admitted that she lied. There was no new man in her life, no romantic proposal at the top of the Eiffel Tower. She spun me that story in an effort to make me “come to my senses” and ask her to come back. When her ruse didn’t have the desired effect, she panicked, but by then I had left Oxford to come out to St Lucia.’
‘So she decided to follow you here?’
‘She thought that it would be like being on holiday together, forgetting that I’m actually here to work, and conveniently overlooking the fact that I had given her no reason to believe I wanted to see her, or resume our relationship. Of course, I did want us to remain friends, and shehadtravelled a long way under the mistaken belief that I still had feelings for her. I needed to explain things to her in straightforward language, but I knew I couldn’t have that sort of conversation over the phone so I went to airport to collect her. Obviously, she hadn’t arranged anywhere to stay so I had to bring her back to the lodge.’
‘Zach, I—’
‘I know I should have handled her unexpected arrival better, but I admit that I was in total shock. I’m so sorry for my lack of communication on the ride back to the villa on Thursday morning, but I was rehearsing what I was going to say to Clio that would let her down as gently as possible but make it absolutely clear that there could be no future for us as a couple.’
Millie wasn’t aware she had been holding her breath and she tried to inhale a lungful of oxygen or she would end up collapsed into a heap at Zach’s feet. His lips were inches from hers, so close in fact that she could feel his breath on her cheeks and eyelashes when he spoke. Shivers of desire rippled through her veins and spiralled out to her fingertips.
Zach heaved a sigh and ran his hand over his chin, his eyes raking Millie’s face as he tried to gauge her reaction to what he was saying. She decided to let him continue his explanation without interruption to give herself the chance to formulate her own words before she spoke.
‘I spent all of Thursday night consoling Clio. She put up a good argument, I have to concede. So, in the end, I just told her that I didn’t love her and there was nothing either of us could do to change that. The next morning when I woke up, she had left the lodge and I hoped that meant that she had accepted what I’d said, but it turned out she had only taken Binks for a walk around the grounds.’
‘Erm, yes. I know. Their early morning stroll took them via the villa.’
‘Via the villa? You met Clio?’
‘Come on, we need to get back to the villa. I’ll tell you about it in the car.’
Much to Millie’s delight, Zach hooked his arm through hers and together they dashed towards where he’d left Tim’s scarlet BMW Roadster, clambering in and shooting away from the hotel at speed. The breeze whipped through Millie’s hair and her spirits edged up another notch as a feeling of freedom suffused her whole body, followed by a cascade of possibilities now she knew Zach and Clio weren’t an item.
‘Clio came to warn me off.’
‘Warn you off?’
‘Yes, the “hands off my man” type of speech.’
‘Oh my God, I’m sorry you had to hear that, Millie. I had no idea she’d been to see you. Why didn’t you tell me? Ah, wait a minute, I get it now. You thought we were back together, didn’t you?’
‘I suppose I did. You didn’t call me to tell me what was going on, so I assumed… well… especially when I saw you kissing amongst the palm trees when Ella and I went down to the Purple Parrot on Friday morning.’
They had arrived at the entrance to the villa and instead of driving up the incline, Zach pulled off the road, cut the engine and turned to face Millie. His mouth twitched into that familiar smirk she had grown to love, and her stomach performed a pirouette of pleasure.
‘I did not kiss Clio “amongst the palm trees” as you so eloquently put it. When you saw us, I was actually pleading with her to see sense. I thought you knew how I felt about you?’
‘About me?’
Zach’s eyes told her all she needed to know and suddenly she was floating on a cloud of happiness. She leaned forward and when their lips met she felt as if fireworks were exploding in the sky overhead. She had no idea how long they sat in the car, exchanging kisses and promises, but when the first of the hire cars started to overtake them, honking their horns at their romantic interlude amongst the cocoa trees, she reluctantly broke from Zach’s arms and urged him to drive them to the reception before Ella and Lottie sent out a search party.
‘Can we file this away under “To Be Continued”? asked Zach, raising his eyes in mischief.
‘Just you try and stop me!’
As the plantation house came into view, with its white-painted veranda and pale blue jalousie shutters, Millie let out a sigh of contentment. She glanced at the view towards the Pitons and out to the Caribbean Sea, sparkling under the sun like a sheet of dancing diamonds and dotted with flecks of white from the sails of the fishing boats. There was no other place in the world she would rather be, and no one she would rather share it with than the man sitting next to her.
Before all the craziness of the wedding reception started, she sent up a missive of gratitude to her guardian angel for leading her to the Caribbean, for introducing her to such amazing and talented people, and for helping her to believe that she could love again. It was turning out to be the most perfect day in the tropical island paradise of St Lucia.
Chapter Twenty-One
