‘After you.’
‘I’m serious,’ he replies. ‘This will start sinking and even in warm water you can get hypothermia. We have to get back to land ASAP.’
I glance overboard and I’ve never been so close to water that looked so deep – I’ve certainly never swum in it.
‘Come on,’ he says softly. ‘We’ll do it together. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.’
A bit rich but, as the corner of the raft starts going under, it’s hardly the time or the place.
And without a second more to think about it, we jump in.
The water swallows me whole. I go deep under – deeper than I was expecting – but just as the panic starts rising in my chest I feel Lockie’s arms around my body, pulling me up to the surface.
I take a deep breath as soon as I can, filling my lungs with the sweet, sweet oxygen I thought I’d never taste again. My God, it’s glorious. I’ll never take it for granted again.
‘Are you okay to swim?’ Lockie asks me. ‘It’s not far.’
‘Yeah,’ I manage to reply.
‘I’ll be right behind you,’ he tells me.
We start swimming. It doesn’t look all that far but my God it feels it.
We finally reach the sand and I crawl onto it like some kind of swamp monster. I don’t even make it to the dry sand before I flop onto my back.
Lockie lies beside me. Even he seems knackered.
‘We did it,’ he says victoriously. ‘You did great.’
‘Yeah, well, you would have been gutted if I’d died off camera, wouldn’t you?’ I say, never too knackered to be spiky with someone who deserves it.
‘Can I please explain?’ he replies.
‘You’ve got until the rescue team arrives,’ I tell him – now I know that there is one, and it’s headed our way. Let him try to explain, it’s not going to change the way I feel.
‘By the time I got in touch with Simon, after the storm, the show was a hit,’ he explains. ‘Everyone was glued, watching to see if we all survived – but we were never actually in danger.’
‘But we thought we were,’ I remind him.
‘And I regret that,’ he replies. ‘I just wanted to make the show a hit, and I did – we did. And it just got out of control. But that’s why I didn’t kiss you on the terrace. The only reason. Believe me, I wanted to.’
I actually laugh in his face.
‘Which would be awfully gallant of you, except you had sex with me behind the waterfall,’ I remind him. ‘Do you think I’d have done that if I’d known we were on TV? I’m beyond mortified.’
‘There are no cameras behind there,’ he says quickly. ‘And no cameras that can see inside, and it blocks the signal, so no microphones either. That’s why I took you there. It’s private.’
‘For a cheeky shag?’ I snap.
‘No, for a moment, just the two of us, where we could be ourselves,’ he replies. ‘Look, I know your ex cheated on you, and I get that, I really do, but I like you, I really do, and I won’t betray you like that.’
‘You really are an idiot,’ I tell him, half laughing, half furious. ‘You think you can fix me like you fixed everyone else. “Oh, I’ll show Cleo not everyone is going to cheat on her,” blah blah blah. Except my ex didn’t cheat on me. He betrayed me, yeah, but it wasn’t another woman. It was at work. For a job. He screwed me over to get ahead at work. So, yes, thank you for proving to me that you’re just like him.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ he says. ‘But that’s not?—’
‘Your time is up,’ I tell him. ‘Here comes the cavalry.’
A speedboat charges towards the shore, with Arabella standing on the front, waving at us. Behind her, there’s a small crew – a cameraman and a sound guy. Of course there is.
