Who Needs Mistletoe?

a bit sad to leave, even though they’d only lived at the location for the morning. They’d made love on the sand there and she’d pleasured him beneath the small clump of coconut palms. Once they moved, would things suddenly change?

When they’d first tumbled onto the beach, wrapped in each other’s arms, he hadn’t even thought about the consequences of what they were about to do. He’d been so glad to be alive, he hadn’t thought of anything else.

But with each touch, each kiss, his feelings for Sophie were growing. Was it simply because they were here alone, without anyone to interfere? In the past ten years, the press had hounded him unmercifully. Every relationship he’d gone into had been splashed across the pages of some magazine. He hadn’t been able to enjoy anything close to a normal romance with a woman.

Being here with Sophie was the nearest he’d come. And to his surprise, he was falling fast. He could barely stand to be away from her, so addicted was he to her presence. He had to fight to keep from touching her and kissing her. And there were times when he honestly felt he could be content simply listening to her voice for the next fifty years.

Was this what it was like to fall in love? Trey shook his head, pushing the thought from his brain. He’d met Sophie seven hours ago! Besides, he didn’t have a clue about what it was like to be in love. Lust, now that was another thing. But love wasn’t something Trey had ever experienced for himself.

As he approached the ruins of the old village, Trey called for Sophie. When she didn’t respond, he dragged their belongings onto the shore and went in search of her. After ten minutes, he came to the conclusion that she was either too far away to hear him or something was wrong.

Raking his fingers through his hair, Trey tried to calm the fear that coursed through his body. If something had happened, there was nothing he could do. They were alone on this island with no help available. Drawing a deep breath, he tried to think of where she might have gone.

He would have seen her had she walked along the shoreline. “Wood,” he muttered, spinning around to find a small pile of palm fronds near the front steps of the cottage. She’d probably walked across to the ocean side to search for wood.

He ran back through the grove of palms, past the water tanks, toward the ocean side of the motu. Sophie wouldn’t have been stupid enough to go swimming on her own. Hell, even he knew better than that.

Trey ran until his lungs burned, weaving through the tangled underbrush and dodging palm trees. When he burst out of the trees onto the beach, he bent over and gulped a deep breath of the humid ocean air. Sweat dripped down his chest and his legs were cut and bleeding from the sharp edges of old palm fronds.

He scanned the beach, then caught sight of her sitting on the sand a hundred yards away. Cursing softly, Trey kicked off his shoes and jogged toward her. She didn’t see him approach and when he called her name, Sophie jumped as if startled. Shading her eyes from the sun, she stared up at him.

“Jesus, Sophie, didn’t you hear me calling you?” He squatted down in front of her and peered into her face. “When I got back to camp and couldn’t find you, I was worried.”

“Where am I going to go?” Sophie asked.

“I don’t know. I thought you might have taken a swim in the lagoon and drowned. Or been bitten by some poisonous spider and were now lying under a tree, dying. Don’t scare me like that.”

“There are no poisonous spiders on this island,” she said. “Or in all of French Polynesia. I told you, the only thing that might kill me would be a centipede bite. Or a shark attack.”

“Well, there you go. I did have good reason to be worried.”

“There’s more chance I’d be killed by a falling coconut than a shark,” she said with a shrug.

He plopped down in front of her. “Really?”

Sophie nodded. “There are a lot of people killed by coconuts,” she said.

Trey reached out and grabbed her hands. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just sitting. I was curious what the beach was like on this side of the motu. This is nicer than the lagoon side, don’t you think? I mean for your resort.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Was that really what she was thinking about? He tried to calm his anger at her, knowing that he ought to be happy she was fine. But as he stared at her beautiful face, Trey realized he wasn’t really angry at her at all. She was a grown woman and could take responsibility for her own safety. He was angry at himself, for caring so much, for being frightened at the possibility of losing her.

“We’re going to get some bad weather,” she murmured. “There’s a squall coming in.”

Trey glanced back over his shoulder to see a wall of slate-gray clouds building on the southern horizon. “How long?”

“A few hours at least. We may have to secure the plane.”

“Why?”

“If the wind is high it will pick it up and flip it over. I saw some old pilings on the west side of the lagoon. We can pull it over to that spot and tie it down properly.”

“How high would the wind need to get to flip it over?”

“High. At Faaa, we just put it in the hangar.” She looked at him, a frown wrinkling her brow. “If the plane gets wrecked on this island, Madigan Air is out of business.”

Trey reached out and took her hand. “If it gets wrecked on this island, I’ll buy you a new plane,” he promised. He straightened, then pulled Sophie to her feet. She bent down and picked up her sandals and then wandered over to the water’s edge. Trey watched her, wondering at her subdued mood. Was she having regrets about what had happened between them? Just an hour ago, he’d never felt closer to a woman, but now, she seemed a million miles away.

“Come on, let’s go,” he said, holding out his hand.

She turned to face him, and took a step. An instant later, he saw a look of pain cross her face. “Oww!” she cried, as she hopped on one foot.

“What is it?”

Sophie looked down at the sand, then groaned. “Jellyfish.”

“They can be poisonous, can’t they?” he asked, a current of fear shooting through him.

“Just box jellyfish,” she replied, wincing as she hopped on one foot.

Trey stepped to her side and she wrapped her arm around his for balance. “How do we know what kind that is?” He pointed to the nearly transparent corpse lying in the sand.

“Help me rinse off my foot,” she said.

He scooped her up and carried her into deeper water, wading in up to his thighs so she could dip her foot in. “How do you know if it was a box jellyfish?”

She sighed impatiently. “Well, if I die, then we’ll know,” Sophie said in a wry tone.

“Don’t kid about that,” Trey warned.

She winced. “I think I can stand. You can put me down.”

“I’m going to carry you back to camp.” He set her on her feet and then turned his back to her. “Hop up.”

“You don’t have to do this,” she said.

“Don’t argue, Sophie. Just do as I say.”

He waited. He didn’t want to care so much, but Trey couldn’t help himself. What if something went wrong? What if the jellyfish was poisonous and there was nothing he could do to help her? They were stuck in the middle of nowhere, helpless and completely vulnerable. What had seemed like a fun time could turn deadly serious in a heartbeat.

She barely weighed more than the backpack he’d carried during his Outward Bound trip. Driven by adrenaline, they made it back to the cottage in less than fifteen minutes. He set Sophie down on the front steps, then bent to examine her foot. An angry red welt ran the length of it, from her ankle to her little toe.

“What should we do?” he asked.

“There’s not much you can do,” Sophie replied. “There’s a gel that I have at home that stops the sting…but that’s at home.” She leaned back, bracing her hands behind her. “You could always pee on it,” she suggested. “That’s supposed to work when you don’t have anything to relieve the sting.”

“You want me to pee on your foot?” Trey shook his head. “No, I’m not going to do that. I can’t.”