possession, that was what was expected of him. Doing his duty when he’d far rather have stayed with Diana, wanting to see her face as he revealed his new toy to her. As he opened the door and she saw the stateroom. Certain that her reaction would tell him everything he wanted to know.
Perhaps it was as well he’d been distracted.
Better not to know…
When, finally, he could escape, he found her not below, exploring, but standing in the bow of the yacht, her arms outstretched like some figurehead…No…It was something else. A scene from a film.
She was dreaming after all and, smiling, he came up behind her, took hold of her waist and said, ‘Do it properly. Step up on the rail.’ Her response was to take a step back, drop her arms, but he urged her to go for it. Lifting her, he said, ‘Reach for it, Diana. Reach for what you want most.’
‘Zahir!’
His name was a wail of embarrassment, but he refused to listen.
‘Trust me…I won’t let you fall.’
Diana, feeling utterly foolish at being caught out play-acting this way, for a moment resisted, but his hands were strong, his support real, and suddenly she was there, leaning far out over the water, her eyes closed, arms stretched wide, reaching for her future as he leaned with her, his arms beneath hers, keeping her safe.
‘I can feel the wind in my face,’ she said, laughing, feeling like the girl she’d never been. And at her back she could feel Zahir’s strength as he held her, the slight roughness of his chin against her neck, the warmth of his body quickening her to a womanhood she’d never known.
The thudding of her pulse at his closeness, an aching intimate heat, shocking in its urgency, was confirmation that life was to be seized and shaken and, for one mad moment, she came close to turning and pulling him over the edge with her, taking him with her as she plunged beneath the surface.
If they were both out of their depth they would be equal…
Except she was Cinderella and the minute they stepped off the yacht she would cease to be a princess.
‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ she said shakily, backing away from the intensity of feelings that had almost overwhelmed her. Trying to keep this at a level she could handle.
She didn’t do overwhelmed.
She didn’t do dreams.
‘It won’t jinx the boat?’ she persisted, when the only answer was his soft breath against her cheek.
The scene in the film had been beautiful, but the love affair, like the Titanic, had been doomed from the first reel of the movie and, in an attempt to claw herself back to reality, she opened her eyes to find that the view had changed. That they were far from the shore.
Confused, she looked down to see a lacy ripple of white where the bow broke the surface of the water.
She stared down at it for a moment, trying to work out what was happening, then, as the water moving away from her made her giddy, she pitched forward, crying out, certain she was about to fall.
But Zahir’s hands were sure. He had her safe and, lifting her down, turned her so that she was facing him instead of the rush of water, drawing her close as she clung, shaking, to his shoulders, his arms around her as if he would never let her go while he murmured soft reassuring words against her hair, her temple.
She was still shaking, but not because she was afraid of falling. This wasn’t fear, this was something darker, more urgent, and, as she looked up, she knew he was going to kiss her.
Not the way he’d kissed her before. This was not like that sweet, sensuous, barely there kiss.
He’d held her as he’d danced with her.
This was something else. This wasn’t that light, floating touch as they’d slowly circled Berkeley Square. This was searingly close, a hungry, insistent need…
For the space of one, two, three heartbeats pounding in her ears, her head did its best to fight the seductive call to surrender, but by then her body had made a bid for independence and, overriding thought, reason, she was kissing him back.
No holds barred. No fooling. Minutes earlier she’d felt as if she were flying; this was the real thing.
Diana didn’t want him to let her go. She wanted him to carry her down to that stateroom and put that incredible bed to the purpose for which it had been designed.
Maybe he would have.
Maybe, like her, he was beyond reason and in another moment they would have been beyond recall. Instead they were shocked back to reality by a sharp shower of cold water.
She jerked back, gasping for breath.
Zahir, damn him, laughed. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, ignoring the water running down his face, instead wiping the spray from her cheeks with his thumbs.
‘All right?’ she demanded, her hair dripping down the back of her neck and trickling down inside her blouse. ‘What kind of dumb question is that?’
‘The “are you all right?” dumb question?’ he offered.
‘Fine!’ she said. Beyond the fact that she’d temporarily lost her mind. That it had taken the equivalent of a bucket of cold water to bring her to her senses. ‘I’m absolutely fine, if you overlook the fact that I appear to be at sea!’
‘Oh, that…’
‘Yes, that! Come and look at my new toy, you said. You didn’t say anything about putting to sea!’
‘Alan’s idea,’ he said. ‘But running away to sea suddenly has a lot to commend it.’
She refused to answer that on the grounds that it might incriminate her.
‘I’m sorry if you had a fright. Are you very wet?’
‘Yes!’ she said crossly. Being jerked down from that kind of high would make anyone cross. Then, more truthfully, ‘No…’
‘Sure? You don’t want to stand around in wet clothes.’
How could she be sure of anything when she was standing this close to Zahir, her hands still clinging to his shoulders as if he were anchoring her to earth, his hands about her waist and everything in between…touching?
‘Any excuse to get me out of this uniform, huh?’
Yes, well, it was the obvious next move after that mind-blowing kiss. Especially when she was clutching at his shoulders so hard that she was screwing up the linen of his jacket.
‘You’ve got me,’ he said.
And it was those three little words that brought her back to earth, to reality. He was the one thing she hadn’t got. Not
That was too much like history repeating itself.
And slowly, very slowly, she loosened her fingers, doing her best to smooth the cloth over his shoulders. Except that linen didn’t smooth. Once wrinkled, it stayed wrinkled.
A bit like her life…
‘Sorry,’ she mouthed silently, only to discover that Zahir was still holding her.
Zahir was holding this girl he’d only just met, who was nothing like any girl he’d ever dated, had ever dreamed of dating, and for some reason he just couldn’t let go.
He just wanted to keep her this close, with her hands on his shoulders, his hands at her waist keeping her close. To sail away with her into the sunset…
Well, that was the fantasy that this yacht had been built for.
‘You can let go now,’ she said. ‘I won’t fall over.’
‘Really? Are you absolutely certain that you’ve got your sea-legs? Suppose there’s another big wave?’
‘Good point,’ she said, making a point of looking at her watch. ‘We’d better turn around and go back if I’m going to get you to London by six.’
He didn’t want to go anywhere. He wanted to stay here with Diana and, as she pulled away, he said, ‘Forget London. Tell me about the yacht.’
Diana swallowed.
What she really thought was that a yacht costing millions was a very clear demonstration of just how far out of her depth her heart had swum. Heading out to sea, but on its own and sinking fast.
‘Does it matter what I think?’
