‘What did you have in mind?’
Ten minutes later they pulled up at the island’s visitor centre. The rain had eased although the winds were still high, the palm fronds thrashing above their heads. ‘So why are we here?’ Theo asked.
‘To learn,’ she said, ‘it’s interesting.’
Theo doubted it, but what else did he have to do? And maybe it would give him a break from the constant headache that was trying to exist in close proximity to this woman.
Inside there was a café and store that sold books and all manner of souvenirs. A family sat at a table in the café, eating lunch.
Theo wasn’t a tourist. Souvenirs didn’t interest him. But he stopped to pick up the odd book and flick through the pages. He looked up and realised he’d lost sight of the Princess. His heart missed a beat. Had the Princess sneaked out the door while he was reading? Had she used this excursion as cover for one more of her attempts to escape? But no—he caught a glance of her through a doorway leading to another room. He put the book down and headed in. It was clearly the museum part of the building, overflowing with naval and aerial artefacts along with evidence and artefacts from the island’s whaling past. The history of the island was laid bare in the displays. The island might be tiny, but it had a big history. Formed from the remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption, there were black and white pictures of times gone by where there had been no airport or runway and when seaplanes had serviced the island, taking off and landing on the lagoon. And then there was a case containing bones, a skeleton of something resembling a massive turtle, at least a metre long, but this turtle came with a skull bedecked in a tiara of horns and a permanent grimace. The bones of its long tail were similarly barbed. It looked menacing and fierce.
‘It looks grumpy, doesn’t it?’ she said, appearing next to him unexpectedly, bringing with her the fresh citrus scent she wore. He edged away. Once he’d realised she hadn’t tried to run away, he’d been enjoying another brief moment of space away from her, but that opportunity had clearly come to an end. He didn’t want her so close to him. The whole purpose of the outing was about getting some distance from each other, but here she was, edging up next to him and setting the nerve endings in his skin on red alert. Hadn’t she told him that he was getting on her nerves? She was showing no signs of it. Instead, she seemed intent on crowding his space. What was her game?
His senses bristled at the proximity. He was hoping that he could make it through the day unscathed, without another attempt by her to seduce him, without another stupid kiss he’d planted on her.
Unscathed?
Theo wondered if it were possible. The longer he spent in this woman’s presence, the more he felt scathed—by her mere presence, by her touch.
By her scent, fresh and citrusy, that suited her perfectly.
By her lips. Enticing. Full and pink.
By her eyes. Her impossible cat-like eyes. Hazel. Or were they more amber, with flecks of gold in their depths? Eye colour that seemed to change with the light.
‘I told you it was interesting, didn’t I?’
She had and as much as he hadn’t cared one way or another, the small museum was full of surprising displays and facts. The tiny dot of an island in the middle of the Tasman Sea, halfway between Australia and New Zealand, had a rich and fascinating history.
‘It’s an ancient horned turtle,’ she said, not waiting for him to answer. ‘They used to live on the island around forty thousand years ago.’
He nodded. ‘I think I’m relieved they don’t still live here.’
She laughed. ‘Wow, you made a joke. How about that?’
Had he? He’d thought he was merely stating a fact.
‘You know what, though?’ she said, looking from the skeleton to Theo and back. ‘There’s a definite resemblance. It reminds me of you.’
He snorted. ‘Very funny.’
‘No, seriously. He looks cranky and fierce. Just like you.’
Excellent.She was comparing him to a forty-thousand-year-old skeleton. He turned away, as much to escape a scent that was becoming more alluring by the minute, as to get out of range of her verbal barbs. There was a reason for his crankiness, and the Princess was a big part of it.
Wrong, he corrected himself a moment later. The Princesswasthe reason for it.
‘Are we done here?’ he asked, impatient to move on in case she started comparing him to more of the relics in the museum.
‘If you’re ready.’
Theo was more than ready.
The Princess directed him up a hill and along a ridge that seemed to run along the spine of the island, before taking a right turn that led them down a beach. It was a small bay on the northern side of the island, with a cluster of rocky islands out to sea and with grassy picnic grounds adjoining the sandy beach, where wave tumbled over wave on their frenetic way to the shore. Nobody was picnicking today. Theirs was the only car in the car park. Clearly, they were the only mad people who wanted to be out in this weather. Everyone else must be hunkered down riding out the storm.
‘Okay,’ he said, thinking they were on a fool’s errand. Getting out of the apartment to avoid getting on each other’s nerves might have sounded like a good plan, but it wasn’t like they weren’t together. As far as he could tell, it didn’t matter where they were—they were still going to get on each other’s nerves. ‘So, we’re here. Why?’
She smiled on a shrug and once again he was struck by the change in his perception of her, that once he’d thought she looked like a teenager with all those mad colours in her hair, young and innocent. She wasn’t an innocent—he knew that now—and maybe that’s why she looked like a woman. And yet still her delight right now was more like that teenager, or maybe, he conceded, someone who had discovered something special. Was it really that special? ‘Come and see,’ she said.
