The New Year Resolution (10 page)

His hair was swept back off his forehead showing his lovely Indian Ocean tan and deep blue eyes.

Nicole couldn’t help smiling back. “How are you, Dominic?”

They were treading water. The waves were much choppier this side of the reef. Nicole had to keep her chin up lest a crest hit her in the face. It was much calmer below the surface.

“I’m good. Look, I won’t keep you up here. I wanted to get you away from big brother over there and invite you on board for cocktails this evening.”

Nicole sighed. “You know I can’t,” she said softly. “I’m here with Ryan.”

“How serious are you two?” he asked, suddenly. “I wasn’t too sure, last night.”

Nicole knew she had to tread carefully. If she said, not very, it might make its way back to Vincent and the last thing she wanted was for him to withdraw his funding and all this to be in vain. But on the other hand, Dominic
was
cute and Nicole knew she could have some fun with him, if not now, then perhaps back in Johannesburg. Ryan obviously wasn’t interested in anything other than his subterfuge, so she didn’t feel much of a sense of loyalty there, even if he had reduced her to a quivery mass yesterday.

But she had to burn her bridges with Dominic to prevent Vincent from finding out about her and Ryan’s little game. 

Dominic sensed her hesitation. “Bring him along if you must,” he said, his eyes twinkling mischievously. “I promise I won’t intimidate him too much.”

Nicole burst out laughing. Dominic was so arrogant, she couldn’t help it.

“I’d love to,” she said, feeling rebellious. Why should she sacrifice herself for a man she hardly knew? Ryan was constantly reminding her they were acting out a role here on the island and she shouldn’t read anything more into it. It was her holiday, too. In light of Ryan’s current attitude, it might be fun to introduce some new people into the mix. “I’ll see if Ryan is keen.”

There was a shout and Nicole glanced back towards the reef. Ryan was gesturing urgently.

“That’s my queue to leave,” said Dominic, putting his mask back on. “See you later. Maybe.”

Nicole chuckled to herself as he flicked his feet in the air and disappeared. Then she put her mask back on and followed suit.

The swim back to the reef was harder than she had anticipated. A strong current was pulling her back towards the open sea. For a moment Nicole almost panicked, then she focused all her energy on kicking hard towards the reef. Her flippers did their job but she was running out of energy when a figure appeared next to her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the reef wall. She gladly let him help her. Her legs were burning from the exertion. When they surfaced in calmer water, they were only metres from the catamaran.

“What the hell do you think you were doing?” Ryan fired the question at her before he’d even pulled his mask off. “I said shallow dive, not swim off the Cliffs of Insanity.”

Nicole removed her mask and did a slow breaststroke towards the boat platform.

“Can we get on the boat before you bawl me out?” she asked, hauling herself up. “I’m a bit worn out from that swim.”

Ryan followed her on board, a deep scowl on his face. “There is a strong current out there. You could have been swept away.”

“No kidding,” she said, wondering how Dominic had fared. She turned to look at his boat. He was pulling himself onto the deck, seemingly unscathed.

“It was quite by accident. I had no idea it would be so hard going.”

“I’m sure,” said Ryan, following her gaze. “I saw you talking to Dominic. If you wanted to see him all you had to do was ask. I would have taken you over to his boat. You didn’t have to put your life in danger to do it.”

Nicole stared at him. The scowl had lessened but his eyes were still angry.

“I wasn’t trying to meet him,” she insisted. He’d been trying to meet her, but that was beside the point.

“Really? Well, why did you venture so far out over the reef?” It was clear Ryan didn’t believe her. Every muscle in his neck was rigid. His anger was probably more to do with his ego than her safety.

“I followed a turtle.”

“What?” Ryan blinked at her then, as her words sunk in, he snorted. “You followed a turtle?”

Nicole nodded. What was so funny about that?

Ryan shook his head, unable to retain his cross look. “Okay, well in future don’t follow any animal that’s headed beyond the reef.” He narrowed his eyes. “That goes for the human variety, too.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “Ha-ha.”

“I don’t want to lose you out there,” he said softly.

“Because then your carefully laid plan would be in tatters?” Nicole couldn’t help herself. The emotions from last night and Ryan’s subsequent dismissal, along with her own acute embarrassment, made her blurt out stuff she didn’t mean to.

Ryan stared at her thoughtfully, and then calmly removed a wet strand of sea grass from her cheek. “No silly, because I don’t want to lose you out there.”

Immediately Nicole felt her heart sputter to life again. It was annoying how he only had to look at her to send her pulse rate rocketing. Cute as Dominic was, he didn’t have nearly the same effect on her. Ryan’s impossibly long eyelashes were stuck together with water and his hair was sticking up in all directions but Nicole didn’t think she’d ever seen a hotter guy.

He unzipped his wetsuit and peeled it off his rippling shoulders. Nicole didn’t even try to avert her eyes. When he had it pulled down to his waist he gestured for them to take a seat.

“Perhaps we should talk about what happened last night,” he said steadily.

“That would probably be a good idea.” Because she was confused as hell – and very conscious their shoulders were now touching. Nicole had dumped her tank and mask after she’d climbed on board, but she still had her wetsuit on. Truth be told, she simply didn’t have the energy to remove it right now.

“First, let’s get you out of that wetsuit.” Resistance was futile, for Ryan leant back, unzipped her and pulled it down over her shoulders. Feeling like a child, Nicole wriggled her arms free of the restricting neoprene. Finally, he tugged it down to her waist.

“Your strap is twisted,” he said, slipping his fingers under her swimsuit strap to untwist it. Nicole breathed in sharply as his warm fingers touched her bare back.

“Thank you,” she croaked. The urge to jump on him was beyond overwhelming.

Ryan seemed utterly oblivious to her uncontrollable desire. He leant back on his hands, tilting his face up to the sun. Already his bronzed chest was bone dry. 

Nicole waited for him to say something. Anything.

After a long, painful minute, Ryan sat up and turned to face her. “Do you want to know the real reason I came into your bedroom last night?”

Nicole nodded, hardly daring to breathe.

“Because I wanted to continue what we’d started on the beach.”

At her astonished stare he continued. “You’d been driving me mad all evening. On the beach... I lost control. It’s never happened to me before. When I kissed you, I wanted to keep on kissing you.”

“Why didn’t you say so?” whispered Nicole.

“Because you gave me an excuse not to. You told me not to say it was a mistake. That you knew anyway. I thought then maybe you were right. So I decided to leave it and not take it any further.”

“I should have kept my mouth shut,” she murmured.

Ryan laughed. “So you wanted it, too?”

Was he serious?

“You couldn’t tell?”

“I wasn’t sure....” He let his voice trail off as his finger traced an invisible line under her collar bone. Nicole shivered.

“And what about now?”

“Ryan, we don’t have to pretend anymore. You can stop tormenting me.” Making light of the situation didn’t help. Nicole shifted uncomfortably. Heat of a different kind was flooding her loins and turning her legs to jelly.

“I’m not pretending now,” he said softly, his mouth very close to her ear.

Nicole began breathing rapidly. Her chest rose and fell as she once again found herself staring at his mouth, willing him to kiss her.

But he didn’t. This time he didn’t take the initiative. He waited until she couldn’t take it anymore and flung herself on top of him, kissing him with all the pent-up emotions of the last twenty-four hours.

He laughed and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her back with a lot more control than she was exhibiting. After a few mind-blowing moments, he whipped her over onto her back so she was lying on the taut canvass beneath him. The water gurgled below as it lapped gently against the twin hulls. The catamaran rocked gently.

The crew was nowhere to be seen. They must be below deck, although right at that moment, Nicole didn’t really care where they were. She was only conscious of Ryan’s hands on her body. His fingers slipped under her shoulder straps and ever so slowly, he peeled her swimsuit down to her waist.

Ryan stared at her breasts for a long moment as if he couldn’t believe how lucky he was, and then gently cupped them in his hands, kneading gently. Nicole gasped. His hands were scorching hot on her damp skin and the contact sent shivers through her body. He rubbed her erect nipples with his thumbs, just rough enough to leave them aching for more.

“Oh...” she whimpered, unable to help herself. The warm sun on her naked skin, along with his gentle ministrations had her literally bubbling with arousal.

Encouraged, Ryan bent his head forward and suckled, tasting each nipple in turn. Nicole writhed on the canvass, scarcely able to contain herself. Already she felt a raw pulsing between her legs, still covered by the wetsuit.

Ryan looked up at her. “You drive me wild,” he told her. “I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you in that tiny bikini on day one.”

“Likewise,” whispered Nicole, lifting her head to kiss his chest. He lay on one side to give her better access. Nicole ran her tongue over his broad chest and licked his nipples, savouring the salty taste of him. Then she ran her hand over his abs, tracing the dents with her fingers.

“Please tell me you work out,” she said in awe. “Because it’s not natural to have a body this hot.”

Ryan laughed. “I go to the gym twice a week,” he admitted. “It helps clear my head.”

Nicole sighed. “I should go more, but with work and then Olivia it’s almost impossible.”

Ryan ran a hand over her concave stomach. “It’s hardly like you need to work out,” he said admiringly. “You’ve got a perfect body.”

“Why, thank you,” Nicole grinned. “You know all the right things to say.”

“I try.” Ryan slipped his hand under her swimsuit and delved beneath the tight neoprene until his fingertips touched her bush. Once again Nicole silently thanked Janine for suggesting she have a wax before she left Pretoria. She didn’t have anything glamorous like a Brazilian or anything, but at least she was neat and trimmed.

Nicole held her breath as Ryan probed even further and touched the soft inner folds of her lips. Unfortunately, he could go no further. The wetsuit was far too constricting.

“Can I take this off you?”

“Please,” she breathed.

It couldn’t come off fast enough. Nicole raised her hips obediently as Ryan tugged it over her bottom and off her legs. He had to pull quite hard and she slid half-way down the trampoline before it was off. They both ended up laughing.

“Not the easiest of clothing to remove,” he murmured. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take my wetsuit off, too. It’s rather constricting.”

Nicole glanced down and saw what he meant. The taut fabric was jutting out painfully over his erection. “Ouch,” she said, sympathetically.

Ryan pulled his suit off and threw it onto the deck. Unrestrained by the wetsuit, but still covered by his swimsuit, his erection was larger than ever.

Nicole gulped.

“That’s better. Now where were we?”

Nicole felt very exposed on the deck of the catamaran in nothing but her swimsuit scrunched up around her waist. She glanced over at Dominic’s yacht, but couldn’t see anyone on deck.

“Worried what your friend might think?” asked Ryan, lying down next to her again.

“Not in the slightest,” replied Nicole, realising it was true. “I just don’t want the crew getting an eyeful.”

Dominic was no doubt quite a catch, but he didn’t make her feel the same way Ryan did. This crazy, can’t-get-enough passion she felt for Ryan took her breath away.

As if proving the point, she reached for his head and pulled it down to hers. Ryan kissed her hard, wiping away all thoughts of Dominic and stamping his mark on her. When his lips left hers she was panting like a dog returning with a stick.

There was nothing tender in the way he looked at her now. His eyes were dark and intense with desire. Nicole felt the flutter of anticipation in her belly turn into full-out churning. In one swift move he pulled the bathing suit from her hips, down to her ankles. Wordlessly, she kicked it off.

The hot midday sun burned into her naked body, making her nipples tingle, or perhaps that was Ryan’s scorching gaze. Nicole tilted her head back to maximise the warmth spreading through her limbs. She felt decadent and luxurious, naughty but strangely free. She hadn’t been this spontaneous since before Olivia was born. It felt good, like she was getting some of her old spirit back.