The Getaway: A holiday romance for 2021 - perfect summer escapism! Page 17

  ‘No, no, no!’ she yelped, just as Alex burst through the open bathroom door. Swinging around, Kate’s foot found the dropped soap and she slipped over sideways, crashing through the flimsy cubicle door and landing wetly in Alex’s arms.

  Utterly mortified, she struggled to gain purchase on the damp floor but only succeeded in falling further towards the ground. In his attempt to put her right, Alex’s hands found the underside of her boobs. It was the merest touch, barely more than a graze, but it triggered a sensation in Kate that she had not felt in some time – an urgency that flooded her cheeks with heat.

  Heart racing, she staggered away from him.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he asked. Now that his hands were free, he slapped one of them over his eyes.

  ‘Sure,’ she said, voice wobbling as she snatched up her towel. ‘I mean, I’m closer to death by embarrassment than I’ve ever been before, but other than that . . .’

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, gingerly lowering his hand as Kate gave in to hopeless laughter. ‘I thought someone was torturing you up here – what the hell was that noise?’

  ‘That was me,’ she said indignantly. ‘Laughing.’

  ‘Really?’ He looked genuinely astonished. ‘Wow. I honestly thought you were in pain.’

  ‘You’re lucky I wasn’t singing,’ she said, stepping past him into the bedroom. ‘That would probably have taken the windows out.’

  Her heart was still crashing away, an internal percussion of total and utter humiliation.

  ‘I should get dressed,’ she added, when he made no move to go. In truth, she’d never felt more naked, only not in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. She thought cold showers were supposed to douse feelings of arousal, not stir them up.

  ‘Oh, yes, I’ll get out of your hair.’ Alex for once appeared unsure of himself and Kate watched as he strode towards the door and disappeared from sight.

  Could he tell that her goosebumps had little to do with the temperature of the water? Was he aware of the crackling energy that had sprung up between them?

  Shaking her head, Kate unzipped the rucksack and pulled out the first item of clothing that came to hand – her black dress. The underwear she’d been wearing all day was on the floor in plain view, but Alex had seen a lot more than her knickers; he’d also seen her naked body – had touched her bare, wet, naked body. But far from feeling upset, ashamed or even regretful in the wake of this unexpected event, Kate was surprised by how little she minded. Now that the initial embarrassment had subsided, she could not stop giggling, and she continued to smile, at the memory of falling into his arms, at the sense of humour that fate continued to display, while she dressed and brushed her hair.

  Alex was out on the terrace when she made her way back downstairs. He’d lit a number of tea lights and placed them along one edge of the empty pool, and there were two large sofa cushions on the ground beside a paraffin camping stove.

  ‘Hey,’ he said, glancing up from where he was crouched over a frying pan. ‘I hope you like fish?’

  ‘I do,’ Kate said, the hot sensation she had felt in the bedroom burning every bit as brightly as the candles.

  Alex held up a small glass bottle.

  ‘There’s a saying in Croatia that the fish here swim three times – in the sea, in olive oil, and in wine. I can’t offer you the last one I’m afraid, but two out of three isn’t too bad, is it?’

  ‘Shame about the wine,’ she said, lowering herself down onto one of the cushions. ‘I could use a drink after what just happened.’

  ‘I do have some water,’ he offered, not meeting her eyes.

  Kate poked him with a finger. ‘That’s OK,’ she said. ‘I swallowed quite a lot in the shower – that’s what happens when you laugh open-mouthed, like I do.’

  ‘I’m glad you were finding something that funny,’ he said. ‘What were you so amused about anyway – you never said?’

  Kate removed her glasses and began cleaning them with the bottom of her dress.

  ‘Oh, you know, life – myself,’ she told him. ‘The water was freezing, and I was just . . . It doesn’t matter. It’s stupid. I’m stupid, you should have worked that one out by now.’

  Alex shook his head. He was no longer wearing the baseball cap and his dreadlocks were obscuring his eyes. He didn’t smell like a man who had done a hard day’s work, and Kate noticed that the fingers he was now using to sprinkle herbs from a small packet across two silvery fish were spotlessly clean.

  ‘You’re not stupid, Kate.’ His voice was soft, yet firm.

  ‘Oh, but I am,’ she said, twisting open the bottle of water he passed across. ‘And the ironic thing is, I came to Croatia to escape ridicule. Only apparently, it’s followed me here.’

  Alex was rooting through his bag now, and Kate watched as he removed first a handful of tomatoes, then a neat red onion.

  ‘Would you?’ he asked, motioning towards a wooden chopping board and knife. ‘I have to keep an eye on the fish, make sure it doesn’t singe.’

  ‘Sure.’

  Happy to have been given a task, Kate sat forward and started to slice.

  ‘There’s some bread in there, too,’ he added, nodding towards the bag. ‘By some miracle, I got to the bakery a few minutes before they shut.’

  ‘You’ve thought of everything,’ she said, smiling at him. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘I was away a little longer than planned,’ he said, resting his chin on his raised knee. ‘Fish weren’t biting; I had to move around a bit.’

  ‘Hang on.’ Kate paused in her chopping. ‘You’re saying you caught those?’

  ‘Of course I did.’

  ‘As in, just now, from the sea?’

  ‘Well, unfortunately they don’t grow on trees.’

  ‘That is impressive,’ she said, cutting into the onion. ‘If I tried to fish, the only thing I’d be likely to catch would be a cold.’

  ‘Do you want me to do that?’ Alex asked, as Kate’s eyes began to stream.

  She shook her head. ‘It’s fine. It’s actually nice to be crying over something other than James for a change. Sorry,’ she added, as his expression clouded over. ‘I know I talk about him too much. It must be tedious. In fact, I know it is – Toby makes no secret of the fact.’

  ‘He means a lot to you, this James fella?’

  Kate nodded.

  ‘Then of course you want to talk about him.’

  Was that right? Did she keep talking about James because she loved him, or was it simply that she wanted to make sense of what he had done to her? Kate had come to the conclusion recently that it was more to do with the latter, but perhaps Alex was right, and it was the love she felt that was spurring her on, not the pain.

  Because she did still love James. Didn’t she?

  ‘Have you ever had your heart broken?’ she asked, reaching for the oil and drizzling some of it over the salad. The bread he’d bought smelt fresh and steam escaped when she broke a piece off.

  ‘Not in the way you have,’ he replied. ‘Not like that.’

  The fish was almost cooked, and Alex was busy preparing plates and cutlery. His small satchel appeared to have Mary Poppins carpet-bag dimensions, and Kate made admiring remarks as he arranged everything on the floor between the cushions.

  ‘Do you mean that nobody has ever dumped you?’ she said, smiling as he passed her a plate.

  Alex paused for a moment before replying. ‘Not really, no.’

  Getting information out of Alex was like sifting through coal dust for diamonds. She would have to choose her moment to push him for more information, because this was not it. The two of them were about to share a meal that he’d prepared, and Kate did not want to say or do anything that might make him feel uncomfortable.

  She wondered if he had a girlfriend – or maybe even boyfriend – tucked away on a neighbouring island. Certainly he gave no indication that this was the case, but he wasn’t the type to offer any real titbits about his private life. He wouldn’t necessarily discuss
his personal relationships with anyone, although Kate liked to think that the two of them were friends now. And friends shared things. They talked and supported and let down their guard around each other. Might it be that all Alex needed was a nudge from her?

  Perhaps if she led, then he would follow.

  Chapter 29

  ‘God, that fish was delicious.’

  ‘You’re still not over it, two hours later?’

  Kate smiled and rubbed her stomach for effect. ‘I may never be over it,’ she told him. ‘You may have ruined every other fish supper I have, from now until the day I die, because none of them will ever measure up.’

  Alex raised his eyes from the fan of playing cards in his hand. They were on their seventh game of Rummy, and having won three rounds each, this was the decider.

  ‘You’re going to hate me,’ he warned, as he placed the King of Hearts down on the top of the pile.

  ‘You’ve bloody won, haven’t you?’ she groaned, rolling over onto her side as he lowered the rest of his hand with a flourish. ‘I knew I’d peaked too early with my triple victory at the start.’

  ‘You should have stopped the game there,’ he said. ‘Generosity gets you nowhere.’

  ‘Says the man who cooked the fish,’ she countered. ‘The man who caught the fish, who brought me here, who continues to put up with me.’

  ‘Oi,’ said Alex, frowning hard to beat back a smile. ‘Less of that. I demand, as this evening’s overall Rummy champion, that you not say anything else bad about yourself, or apologise, for at least twenty-four hours.’

  ‘Twenty-four hours? But . . . but . . .’

  ‘You’re lucky I didn’t say twenty-four years.’

  Kate sat back upright and began to shuffle the cards. The tea lights had long since burned out, but the moon above them was full. She could hear the drone of a mosquito, but found she had no desire to shoo it away. There were worse things in life than the odd bite and her limbs felt leaden with complacency. It was not a feeling that came to her often, and Kate luxuriated in it now, this unfamiliar sense that nothing mattered all that much, that everything would somehow be all right.

  ‘What do you want to play next?’ she asked. ‘Or, should I say, what would you like to beat me at next? Unless you’re too tired?’ she added, as Alex stifled a yawn. He’d fished a silver coin out of his pocket and was flicking it with his thumb into the air, catching it each time without so much as a sideways glance.

  ‘Back in a sec,’ he said. ‘I just need to check something.’

  Kate stared after him as he made his way inside, the coin glinting as it was tossed up and down, the hood of his jumper bouncing as he hurried up the steps. Almost as soon as he had disappeared from view, she felt a chill, and putting down the cards, reached for her cardigan.

  A light went on in one of the first-floor windows, then was promptly switched off again, and a few moments later, another glow shone out from the floor above. Was it too much to hope that Alex was raiding the minibars? She was still hankering after a drink, but when he eventually returned it was not with alcohol, but more cushions and a blanket.

  ‘I know you said that you weren’t the type to sleep out on the deck of a boat,’ he said, ‘but how about on the terrace of an empty hotel? It’s a bit creepy in there, if you ask me, and out here you’ll be able to see the stars.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Kate eyed the boundary wall warily. ‘What if bears get in?’

  ‘Bears? There are no bears. This is Croatia, not the Canadian Rockies.’

  ‘Snakes, then? What if snakes slide under the covers?’

  ‘You’d be unlucky to find a snake all the way out here,’ he said.

  ‘Murderers, then? Murderers are everywhere.’

  Alex fixed her with a look. ‘I’ll stay out here with you, as your protector against any bears, snakes or murderers that happen to pass by.’

  ‘Aren’t there any mattresses inside?’ she asked, but Alex shook his head.

  ‘You go indoors if you want to, but I prefer to be out here. I don’t mind,’ he added. ‘I just figured it made more sense for us to stay together.’

  ‘In case a killer comes to get us,’ she pointed out. ‘Admit it.’

  ‘What is it with you and being murdered?’ he laughed, tossing her the blanket and dropping the extra cushions onto the floor. ‘I’m merely trying to be companionable.’

  Alex built himself a makeshift bed and lay back, one arm hooked under his head and the other resting across his chest.

  ‘Don’t you need a blanket?’ Kate asked, arranging her own cushions. She should go inside and clean her teeth, wash off the make-up she had put on. But she didn’t want to; she couldn’t find the energy.

  ‘I’ll be fine, don’t you worry yourself.’

  Kate wanted to take off her bra before she lay down, but would Alex read that as some sort of sign? He’d given her no indication that he was interested in that way and she had no reason to think that he was, but then there had been that undeniable heat in the bedroom upstairs; and he had been the one to suggest they sleep out here. It had been so long since Kate had been alone with any man but James that she worried she could be reading the situation all wrong. The last thing she wanted was more humiliation – for either of them.

  She was just about to gather up the bedding and head inside after all, when she heard Alex murmur something.

  ‘What was that?’ she asked, lowering herself down onto one elbow.

  ‘I was admiring the moon,’ he said, his gaze focused up at the sky. ‘I’ve always been a big fan.’

  Kate shuffled herself flat, the blanket covering her bare legs.

  ‘I suppose I haven’t ever taken the time to properly look at it before,’ she confessed. ‘I guess, she’s always just been there – a constant that I was happy to accept but never question.’

  ‘I like that you do that,’ he said. ‘I like that you think of the moon as a she.’

  ‘I don’t know why I do.’ Kate kept her eyes fixed on the smooth white pebble above them. ‘Perhaps because I associate loneliness with being female.’

  ‘You see the moon as lonely?’

  His tone was one of surprise, and Kate turned her head to find him watching her.

  ‘Well, she is. There’s nothing else up there with her, is there?’

  ‘I think that being alone and loneliness are two different things,’ he said quietly. ‘There’s an elegance to solitude. I’ve always thought of the moon as having accepted her position up there for the greater good, because people look to her to be their guide. She saves lives, by being up there, by remaining alone.’

  ‘Spoken like a true fisherman,’ said Kate, glancing away and up towards the stars once again. Away from the lights of Hvar, she could see even more of them than usual; it was a beautiful, ethereal sight.

  ‘It takes guts to stride out on your own,’ she said. ‘The moon must be brave – a real Wonder Moon-man.’

  Alex made a noise of amusement, but didn’t say anything and again, Kate turned her head to find him facing her. The intensity she had grown accustomed to seeing in his pale-blue eyes was not there tonight, but he still looked thoughtful, as if trying to work her out.

  ‘Trust me to make a lame joke in the middle of a deep conversation,’ she said. ‘There you are talking about the merits of the moon and I’m trying to turn her into a pun. And not even a good one at that.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said, stretching his arms out and yawning with the effort. ‘I’ve heard worse.’

  ‘You really know how to make a girl feel special.’

  Alex laughed. ‘I cooked you a fish dinner, missy – what more do you want?’

  ‘Oh, you know,’ she said mildly. ‘Just the moon. Maybe one or two stars.’

  ‘It would be nothing you didn’t deserve.’

  There it was – that intensity. Kate could almost feel it, her blood running hot as she stared at him, and he back at her. She parted her lips and saw him mirror th
e gesture, a pink bud amid the dark foliage of beard. Her hands were clasped together against her chest and she slowly unfurled her fingers. He must be able to hear the ferocious beating of her heart; a thudding in the space between them.

  Whatever was happening, she did not want to question it.

  Kate closed her eyes, one hand going down to pull the cover higher. It was a warm night, the dark air a weighted blanket thrown across them, but she shivered, a pulse throbbing insistently from somewhere deep inside. It made no sense that she was feeling this way, that she was so stirred, but she welcomed it.

  He was still gazing at her, Kate could feel it, did not need to open her eyes to know that he was there. Slowly, very slowly, she looked. Alex was close enough to touch and she moved towards him, her body holding her breath captive as the gap between them closed.

  He started to say her name, but she silenced him with a kiss, and for a moment he froze, his mouth unyielding. Kate drew back, then pressed her lips against his once again, and this time he responded, kissing her quietly and with infinite care. A hand cupped her face, his fingers stroking, a curl across her cheek brushed gently away.

  She wanted this, wanted him – but there was a reluctance inside her. A trace of foreboding that caused her to pause. Alex opened his eyes, searching hers for an answer, and she looked away.

  ‘Sorry, I . . .’

  ‘Don’t be sorry,’ he said. ‘I understand.’

  Kate sighed at his words, leaning forwards until her forehead was resting against his, trying in vain to draw strength from him, to find a way to silence the insistent whispers that told her this was wrong; that she would hurt him, or he hurt her. She could have screamed with frustration, but instead she simply breathed, her chest rising and falling as Alex moved slowly away from her.

  ‘I’ll be back in a moment,’ he said quietly. ‘Don’t let the bears steal the rest of the bread.’

  ‘I won’t,’ she whispered, unable to watch as he walked across the terrace; she didn’t trust herself not to follow him. Instead, she kept breathing deeply, drawing the air into her lungs and down into the pit of her stomach, holding it there and counting to one, two, three, four, before allowing herself to exhale.