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He closed his mouth and followed her out into the corridor. The sickening feeling of disorientation was back in full force, and the unusual urge to grin deserted him.
***
The magical potion had definitely worn off. Rik clutched his head as Kenzie’s compact rental car bumped over the potholed road into town. “Could you possibly try not to hit every single one?” he groaned.
The look Kenzie cast him was beyond withering. “Are all the roads on the island like this one?”
“No. Most are worse.”
Only one tarred road circled the island, connecting the tourist resorts with the main town. Inland, where only the most adventurous visitors ventured, the roads were nothing but dirt.
She swerved to avoid the next major pothole, which was even worse than bumping through it. Rik hung onto the car door, feeling more than a little green. And she hadn’t trusted him to drive?
“You’re not booked into the hotel,” she said, keeping her eyes on the road. “Do you live here on Los Pajaros?”
“Something like that.”
He didn’t need to see her to know she had rolled her eyes. “You’re not good with small talk, are you?”
He was a master at small talk, had been trained in the art from the time he learned to talk. Along with many other skills that were all but useless now.
He shrugged and looked back out the window. On their right the sea flashed silver and inviting through the dense foliage that separated the road from the beach.
The undergrowth grew thinner, and the simple wooden dwellings clustered along the road grew more numerous. Then they crested the final rise and Fredrikshafen lay below them, a small town of broad avenues and colourful buildings.
Beyond the jumble of buildings lay the wide harbour. A vast passenger liner, winking white in the sunlight, dominated the largest of the piers that jutted out into the bay. Colour and vibrancy and light dazzled their eyes.
Kenzie sucked in a breath.
“It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?” he asked, managing a grin now that the ordeal of the drive was behind them.
She nodded. “It’s growing on me.”
The place was growing on him too. He’d come to Los Pajaros because he had nowhere else to go. There could be worse places to lose oneself.
The mayor’s office was housed in a white colonial building on an esplanade lined with scraggy palms that overlooked the harbour. Kenzie circled the block until she found a parking space and finally turned to Rik. “You sure you’re up for this?”
She wasn’t just asking how his hangover was doing. She wanted to know if he could really help her. This was his last chance to back out.
But he didn’t ever back out. No matter how much he wanted to run away and hide. We never back down from unpleasant tasks, his father had often said. We face them with our heads high and our hearts strong. He flinched.
“My headache’s back. Thanks for asking.” He unclicked the seatbelt and ignored her frown.
Head high. He hadn’t been doing a lot of that lately.
Kenzie followed him through the doors that stood open into a double volume courtyard fringed by potted palms. A military guard, sweating in his uniform, waved them past the security desk with nothing more than a curious look. Everything in the space was white, or had once been, and streaked with strips of light that fell through the high windows over the majestic staircase rising up before them.
The ground floor offices seemed deserted, though he could hear the distant murmur of voices.
Rik took the stairs two at a time, not waiting for Kenzie to follow. The sooner he got her in to see the mayor, the sooner he could leave. He’d take a taxi back to the resort to fetch his car, then … that was as far as his thoughts could take him. What then?
The stairs diverged. To the right lay the main reception and the airless waiting room. He took the left flight, rising to a corridor that overlooked the courtyard. The first office at the top of the stairs was spacious and air-conditioned. The middle-aged secretary within barely glanced up from her computer screen as Rik tapped on the door and pushed it all the way open. “How may I help you, Mr … ?”
“You can call me Rik.”
She looked up at him over the top of her tortoiseshell spectacles and her eyes widened. He had her full attention now. This was the one place in the islands where his face was instantly recognised. She blushed and smoothed back her thick swathe of dark hair. “Oh, I’m so sorry … ”
“Is the mayor in?”
“Yes, of course he is.” Then she caught sight of Kenzie and her voice faltered. “That is … ” She dropped her eyes. Meaning he was in for Rik, but not for anyone else. Now that was the kind of reaction he was more used to getting.
For the first time he wondered how it might feel to be the one forced to wait in the airless waiting room. At least he hadn’t yet fallen so far.
“My friend here would like a few minutes with the mayor, if that’s at all possible?”
The secretary hesitated, casting another glance past his shoulder to Kenzie. Rik had spent enough time on Los Pajaros to interpret that look. The only women with any authority in these islands – the only women who’d have any business with the mayor – were mature and respected. They weren’t pretty young things.
He arched an eyebrow.
“I’ll check.” The secretary slid out of her chair and hurried to the connecting door, eager to shift the decision of whether to let the foreign girl into the inner sanctum to someone else.
She reappeared scarcely a moment later, smoothing her hair once again. “You may go in.”
Rik held the door to the mayor’s office open for Kenzie.
“Bravo,” she whispered as she brushed past.
He didn’t respond. The swift contact between their bodies, the whiff of feminine perfume, her low husky whisper, and the sudden, electrifying heat that flashed between them left him momentarily dazzled. Last night’s bender was having some interesting side effects.
The mayor’s office was of colonial proportions, dwarfing the massive mahogany desk he sat behind. The purr of the air-con was subtle, but its effect was not.
The mayor’s tense smile suggested impatience beneath the politeness as he rose to his full height. “How may I assist you, Your … ”
Behind Kenzie’s back, Rik furiously shook his head as he cut him off. “Thank you for seeing us, sir. This is Kenzie Cole and she has a request to make of you.”
“More of a business proposition.” She turned on the same megawatt smile she’d used on him the night before, to pretty much the same effect. The mayor’s smile looked a little less forced as he waved them to sit.
Not one to tempt fate, Rik stepped back. When Kenzie turned to look for him, he shrugged as if to say, the floor’s all yours, and leaned back against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest.
She turned her back on him, focussing all her attention on the mayor, and Rik breathed an internal sigh of relief.
Kenzie was pretty impressive when she turned on the charm. Just flirtatious enough to catch the mayor’s interest, just professional enough to be taken seriously. She pulled out a folder from the small rucksack she carried, presenting facts and figures. The mayor leaned closer at the words ‘jobs for your laid off ship builders.’
Even Rik stood straighter. Kenzie had done her homework.
Next to tourism, the yacht building business had been Los Pajaros’ biggest employer until the recession slashed the demand for such luxuries. Kenzie proposed using the workers who’d lost their jobs to build the pirate ships needed for the film. “It would only be a few months’ work, of course, but that’s better than nothing, isn’t it?”
She sent the mayor another winning smile and he melted. Rik nearly did too. Or he would have, if his entire body hadn’t been hard.
The mayor beamed. “You have my full support. I will email the harbour master and ask him to provide you with a boat and an escort. Where do you want to take your photographs?”
Kenzie pulled aerial maps from her folder. “These are the islands I’d like to visit, especially these two – Corona and Tortuga.”
Rik stiffened.
The mayor leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “Not possible.”
Kenzie’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Why not? You just told me I had your full support.”
The mayor cast a beseeching look at Rik.
He pushed away from the doorframe. “Corona is private property.”
Her brow furrowed. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to know she was wondering why Corona was marked on every map as government property if it was private. “And Tortuga?”
Rik and the mayor exchanged a look, and it was Rik who answered again. “Tortuga is a breeding ground for sea turtles.”
“It’s not a nature sanctuary – I checked. Besides, the hatching season will be well over by the time we shoot.”
The mayor’s mouth set in a grim line. “No one from these islands has set foot on Isla Tortuga in over three centuries.”
The disbelief on Kenzie’s face turned to incredulity. “Why ever not?”
The mayor squirmed. “It’s haunted.”
Rik gave her credit for not laughing.
“I’m not superstitious. If our film crew aren’t from these islands and don’t mind working there, would you give us permission to film on Tortuga?”
He gave her credit for not giving up either.
Again, the mayor glanced at Rik, this time for approval. The poor man’s dilemma was clear. The local economy could do with an injection of capital and a higher international profile. But Tortuga …
Rik nodded.
“I will,” the mayor answered Kenzie.
“Thank you. Is there anyone who isn’t from these islands who could take me there to photograph the place?”
The mayor paused only a fraction of a second before he looked at Rik. “You have a boat. Could you take her?”
Oh no. That wasn’t part of his plan for the rest of the day. Or ever.
Not to mention the mere thought of being on a boat was making him feel green again. He shook his head. “Not today.”
“Do you have anything better to do tomorrow, then?”
Of course the mayor knew he had nothing better to do. The mayor knew everything that went on around these islands.
Kenzie also turned to look at him, expectant. But where the mayor’s eyes held hope, hers held an entirely different expression. Reluctance.
She’d felt the attraction too. And she didn’t want to.
Rik shut his eyes, blocking out both their faces.
He knew exactly what tomorrow held. It would be the same as every other day. The sun would shine. He’d wake late, and go for a swim to clear the fuzziness in his head. By the time his arms and legs were too tired to swim any further, he’d wash up on the beach. And that’s when the emptiness would hit.
He would spend the rest of his day trying to fill that emptiness. He would run on the beach, or take Adam’s boat out, or he’d drink. And he’d already done enough of all these things to last a lifetime.
Even if it was just a boat ride to Tortuga, it beat spending another day in Adam’s guesthouse while the walls pressed in on him. But he was done with helping people, unless there was something in it for him. And there was only one thing Kenzie had that he wanted…
Now that was an interesting idea.
He shrugged. “Okay.”
Relief crossed the mayor’s face. He turned back to Kenzie. “If your director likes the island, then you build your boats on Los Pajaros and you accommodate your crew on Los Pajaros, and you film on Tortuga.” Translation: you spend your money here on Los Pajaros. “But you must promise me that no islanders will have to go to Tortuga.”
“Agreed. Do we have a deal?” Kenzie offered the mayor a courteous handshake.
“Deal.” The mayor took Kenzie’s hand, but instead of the expected shake, he bowed over their joined hands in the local custom.
Rik held the door open for her, but this time she was careful to avoid contact as she passed. Her scent still slammed into him, though.
He grinned. His body was taking over from his brain. That was an interesting first. He knew passion didn’t last and that it burned out far too quickly, but he didn’t care. She was only passing through. For just this once, he wanted to be like every other man and indulge his desires.
So she thought she didn’t want a man like him, a purposeless drifter with tattoos. And she didn’t trust him. Never mind. He could work with that. He’d make her want him, and she wouldn’t be able to resist.
Head high.
Chapter Four (#u18ea8303-1e4d-5e75-b96c-5599a76fb775)
@KenzieCole101: Who knew pirates still ruled the Caribbean?
They stood on the pavement beside her rental car. Kenzie shifted, uncomfortably hot inside her own skin. She’d scarcely been able to concentrate throughout the meeting with the scorching awareness of Rik’s presence behind her, and the effort was starting to take its toll.
Or perhaps it was just the heat. Or last night’s lack of sleep.
It was most certainly not physical attraction making her forget why she was here, or her vow to Lee. And it sure as hell couldn’t be the memory of those inked biceps making her want to indulge her fetish for bad boys.
She wasn’t that weak, was she, after everything she’d already been through?
“So what now?” She looked at the palm trees lining the esplanade, at the sizzling tar at her feet … anywhere but towards Rik.
“Now I take you home.”
At that, her gaze flew to his, horror that he’d read her thoughts tainting her cheeks.
“I need to fetch my car, remember?” That mocking look was back in his eyes.
