“No indeed.” He was silent for a moment.
“I hope you’re prepared to do this. You’re the one who put us in this situation.”
“Oh, because I seduced you?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You folded like a house of cards. Your resistance was futile, and hollow, I might add. No wonder you had to stay away from me.”
“We cannot be like this. Because here we are yet again, bringing knives and guns. When we should be endeavoring not to fight,” he said.
“I’m actually not trying to fight you. But I am pointing out that if you want to cast blame, you’re going to have to have a little bit of honesty. You didn’t want to resist this.”
“No. But I’m well aware of the potential cost,” he said.
“You don’t think that we’re going to have so much sex this week that we can burn it out of our systems?”
“No. But perhaps it will be less…knife-like.”
“What are you afraid of?” she asked.
He raised a dark brow. “I’m not afraid of anything. But I am wary. You and I have been adversaries far longer than we’ve been lovers. Somehow, we have to find a different way to be.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. It wasn’t all about the baby anymore. It was about them. Their relationship mattered. For the sake of it. Not simply for the sake of somebody else.
“What if we were happy?” she said. “What if we had a lovely relationship, and great sex?”
He laughed, dry. “What a lofty and valiant goal. That is what I would like. But look at the state of the world.”
“You’re very cynical for a man born into money.”
“Only because I know that money doesn’t fix every problem. Because I know how toxic people can be with one another regardless.”
When they touched down on his island, the first thing that captured her imagination was the blue. The ocean was so clear, so vivid. Even in the deepest parts, as they were descending she could see flying fish as they rose to the surface and glided up out of the water, and then as they moved over the shallows, she could see stingrays floating like underwater birds, slow and peaceful.
The sand was bright white and smooth, the nature pristine and undisturbed.
“The house is stocked for our arrival. All of our meals are prepared. No one will disturb us here.”
“Oh.”
She got off the plane, and he gestured to a waiting car. He drove them both away from the airfield, and to the center of the island, to the place with the highest elevation, which wasn’t much on the relatively flat plain. But they could see over the trees, down to the beach. The house itself was all glass and stone, letting all the beauty of the island in, with no need for privacy, since they were the only inhabitants. The high ceilings had skylights, letting in the warmth from the sun, and probably offering fantastic views of the stars at night.
She drifted from the entryway into the kitchen, which had black stone slab countertops, with a large platter set in the center, filled with sliced and gloriously arranged tropical fruits. “There’s no one here?”
“No.” He turned and looked behind him, and they could both see the jet they had come in on taking off.
“We are the only people on the entire island.”
She nodded, and dropped her purse down to the floor. Then she took off her shirt, her skirt and everything else.
“We don’t need clothes then, I guess.”
She knew she had him then.
His smile turned wolfish, and whatever reserve he’d been trying to keep was gone entirely now.
“I don’t suppose we do.”
