‘Enya...’ he breathed, and there it was, that pull of desire deep in her gut.
Calmly, he put the rope he was coiling on to the deck and walked towards her.
‘Permission to come aboard?’ She lifted her shoes in her hand and took a step closer.
Reaching out, he grabbed the knapsack and took her hand, holding it tightly inside his before lifting it to his lips and gently kissing the back of her fingers; the touch of his lips lit a fuse that sparked along her limbs and set fireworks off in the base of her stomach.
He helped her climb down on toFoula Girland stared at her, as if hardly daring to believe that she was real. She inhaled the scent of the man who was familiar and yet still a stranger in so many ways.
‘Here you are!’ he whispered, as if, deep down, he had been expecting her.
‘Here I am.’
His tan was deep, hair longer, his smile and easy manner just the same. Her heart danced, as it had a habit of doing when he was close.
‘How... how did you know where I was?’
‘Well, I might have been given access to a map with your whereabouts and plans on it.’
‘Iris?’ he asked, eyes brimming with emotion.
‘Yes.’ She smiled. ‘Iris. Although Aiden helped me plot and suggested this was as good a place as any.’
‘Our kids are having a baby!’ he sniffed.
‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ She laughed, and fell against him, gripping his linen shirt and closing her eyes as he put his arm around her, letting her rest for a while...
‘I can’t believe you’re here.’ He pulled her towards him, holding her close. ‘You told me that when Jonathan died you sat very still for some time, and that it seemed like the best option to just sit and wait until the world stopped spinning.’
‘That’s right.’ She nodded, staring at the beautiful man in front of her.
‘You told me that for you, the sun had disappeared, the birds had gone quiet, the air had grown cool, and the sky had gone dark.’
‘Yes,’ she whispered. It sounded bleak, and so very sad, a reminder of how far she had come, how she now viewed the world differently.
‘Well, this is where our next adventure begins. We will seek out the sun, listen for the birdsong and bask in the warmth, the light. That’s what we will do, Enya. That’s how we’ll live, and we can do it safe in the knowledge that all the people we love and all the good things in our lives are still there, waiting for us.’
‘I don’t doubt it.’ She breathed against him. ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about what Rhona said, that when two people are shown a path that leads directly to happiness, they kind of have a duty to walk it. And that if they don’t, it just might be the biggest missed opportunity of their lives.’
‘She’s right.’ He ran his finger over her cheek.
‘I don’t want to miss the opportunity, Dominic, I want to walk that path,’ she whispered. ‘I think I knew we’d find a way back to each other when the time was right, I knew it.’ She stared at him now, speaking the truth without reservation or concern, understanding that love, when it came, didn’t need approval or permission, it just arrived, and all you could do was make space for it. For there was no doubt in her mind that this was indeed love.
‘I knew it too. I told you I’d wait for you. I’ve been looking for you, always looking for you. I could feel it here.’ He touched his fingers to his heart, and she felt her whole body yield with longing.
‘I like being with you.’ She stared up at him.
‘Well, that’s lucky. What’s the plan?’ he asked.
Enya shrugged. ‘I guess we take it one day at a time, right?’
‘I guess we do.’ He smiled at her.
‘I used to think about you before I fell asleep and then when I woke up. I always wondered what you were doing and whether you might be thinking about me,’ she confessed, feeling her words spiral up into the big blue sky.
‘Yes, Enya. The answer is yes. I was, I was thinking about you, dreaming of you. I only wanted to sail away with you. I do, Iwantso badly to sail away with you, and every time I look up, I want to see you. Because even if we lived from now until eternity, it would still not be enough.’
‘Is this real?’ Reaching out, she let her fingers graze his face; his gaze was intense, and she had never felt less invisible in her whole life.
