Leaning against a white railing and slowly chewing the sandwich, Zoe detected a subtle change in her senses as they became more keen. Everything around her seemed to be in sharper focus, more vivid, more apparent. Boat horns sounded a symphony as they entered and left the harbor. Water lapped against the pier in a whispering caress. Children’s screams of laughter pierced the air.
She could blame some of the insular wooziness on jet lag and lack of sleep, but deep down, as much as she was trying to push it out of her mind, the incident on the plane with Colin Cannon had heightened her self-awareness. The birds were singing, and so was her skin where he’d touched her. The surf was pounding, and so was her pulse when she remembered the way he’d looked at her. The sky soared overhead, and so did her imagination when she dared to think about what it might be like to spend an entire night in his arms…under his tutelage.
This sense of wonder at the pure intensity that could exist between two people—she’d never felt anything like it before. It was as if a veil had been lifted from her eyes, and she couldn’t believe she’d lived this long and not known. She wasn’t a sheltered person—at least she’d never thought so. She stared at her engagement ring and acknowledged the truth—since she’d met Kevin, she’d systematically tucked in all the edges of her adventurous spirit, preparing to settle down, to raise a family, to grow old. The evolution was a natural part of growing up, wasn’t it? And it had happened so slowly, she hadn’t even noticed.
Which was why she felt so blindsided by her encounter with Colin Cannon. The incident was like catching lightning in a bottle, she decided—coming into contact with the right person at the right time, when both of them were in the right mood. Pent-up…unfulfilled…searching. Odds were that it would never happen again, not with him, not with anyone. It was a fluke.
Zoe tossed the rest of her sandwich to the birds and watched them devour it. The pure hunger in Colin Cannon’s eyes had been just as animalistic. His primitive desires had driven her to do things that she hadn’t thought about in years.
Until the letter arrived.
She reached into her bag and removed the envelope, turning it over and over. How uncanny that it had shown up just before her wedding. Although she did recall Dr. Alexander saying that in ten years’ time, when most of the senior girls would be thirty-two years old, they would likely be at pivotal points in their lives, on the verge of marriage or having children or even divorcing. It was the perfect time for reevaluation, Dr. Alexander had said. Just as their bodies were speeding toward a sexual peak.
Zoe lifted a hand to her flushed cheek. Was that why she’d reacted so fiercely to the Aussie, because more potent hormones were pumping through her body? Was it nature’s way of telling her to have fun before it was too late? Before she settled down?
She shoved the letter back into her bag. This wasn’t the kind of conversation she thought she’d be having with herself on this trip. The layover was supposed to be a time to catch her breath before the whirlwind of the wedding, a time to anticipate starting her life with Kevin.
Not to have an illicit encounter with a stranger. Just because he was broad shouldered and blond and wealthy and sexy and older and Australian—as opposite of Kevin as possible. And on the opposite side of the world.
A tall figure strolling across the boardwalk toward the marina caught her eye and she inhaled sharply. It was Colin Cannon, and he noticed her at the same time. He was dressed in khaki cargo shorts, a navy Windbreaker and faded deck shoes, carrying a small duffel bag. He was obviously headed to a boat—to his boat, no doubt. Still several yards away, he lifted his hand in a friendly wave.
Zoe didn’t react, at least, not outwardly. But seeing him again sent all kinds of carnal thoughts spiraling through her head. Snatches of their time together came back in vivid detail—seeing his face next to hers in the mirror as he made love to her from behind, holding her bound wrists overhead. She felt faint with sensory overload and reached out to touch the rail in front of her, to ground herself. She needed sleep, she reasoned. She was exhausted, her defenses were down. Once she got the rest she needed and the relaxation she’d come here for, she’d be better equipped to deal with what had happened, better able to resist Colin if their paths crossed again.
He hesitated, then made a move in her direction.
Zoe turned and walked as fast as she could away from him, back toward the resort. She felt his gaze on her and realized with dismay that she wasn’t running away from Colin Cannon as much as she was running away from her own weaknesses.
Because she didn’t trust herself around him.
5
“ZOE, WHAT’S WRONG?” Erica said in a muffled voice.
In the next mud tub over, Zoe’s eyelids were pleasantly weighted with cool chamomile tea bags, her face wrapped with a warm, moist towel. Only their swaddled heads extended from the black goo, and she desperately wanted to scratch her nose.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she responded. “Why do you think something’s wrong?” From under the towel, her own voice sounded squeaky and high-pitched.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking. You’ve been in a fog for two days. Is something bothering you?”
Zoe winced inwardly. So she hadn’t been doing a very good job at hiding her stubborn preoccupation with Colin Cannon. She lifted a mud-covered hand from the bath and removed the warm towel and tea bags. “I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all. I’m sorry. You were good enough to stay with me these two days and I haven’t been very good company.”
A laugh sounded from behind the towel. “Are you kidding? Jim and I needed a break from each other and this has been heaven. But I’m worried about you.” Her covered head pivoted toward Zoe. “You’re not getting cold feet about marrying Kevin, are you?”
Zoe’s forced laugh came out sounding a little too much like machine-gun report. “Of course not.” But she was glad that Erica couldn’t see her face.
“Because if you are, now’s the time to work it all out in your head.” Then Erica gasped. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, I saw that man from the plane.”
Zoe’s heart jumped. “What man?”
“That hunky guy in first class that gave you the ‘vibe,’ remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Zoe said with a little chuckle.
“I saw him in the lobby this morning. He’s walking around as if he owns the place.”
“Good to know,” Zoe said carefully. “So I can avoid him.”
“Uh-huh,” Erica said, then expelled a long, lazy sigh. “I’m going to miss this. I’d still like to know who you slept with to get us unlimited access to the spa.”
Zoe swallowed nervously. “I told you. When I booked the rooms, I mentioned it was a prewedding getaway. The manager must have found out and decided to do something special.”
“Well, it worked,” Erica murmured. “I’ve never felt so pampered in my life. Is there any service we didn’t get?”
“I don’t think so,” Zoe said. “Although I’m regretting the Brazilian bikini wax.”
“The tenderness goes away,” Erica assured her. “Trust me, you’re going to love it. Having sex with a Brazilian wax is amazing.”
The wrong man’s face and body came to mind, and Zoe nearly groaned aloud. “What time is your flight out in the morning?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Early. I’ll try not to wake you when I leave. Do you have big plans tomorrow?”
“I might take a walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens. And I’d like to get to Manly Beach before I leave.” Maybe the time alone would clear her head.
“That sounds nice,” Erica agreed. “Have you talked to Kevin?”
“No, we keep missing each other.” That was part of the problem, she told herself. Talking to her fiancé would crowd Colin Cannon out of her head, but when he wasn’t traveling with his sports-equipment sales job, Kevin was spending every free minute training on his bike. They were even honeymooning Stateside, so he could take his racing cycle along. Boulder, Colorado, was a beautiful city, she conceded. She didn’t mind that it was also one of the best places in the country for long-distance training.
Really, she didn’t.
On Erica’s last night they decided to take in a music festival at the harbor. They drank beer and moved from stage to stage listening to everything ranging from the pulsating vibrations of Aboriginal music to the throbbing beat of full-on rock and roll. The weather was balmy and the heaving crowd was festive.
Zoe was glad for the noise and the activity because she didn’t have to make conversation. But the constant thump of the music resonated through her body, playing on sensitive nerve endings, bringing to mind a different kind of rhythm. Lubricated with alcohol, she and Erica swayed and danced with the masses. Zoe felt languid and weightless, enjoying the high from the strong beer and the energy from the bodies around them.
“Don’t look now,” Erica shouted in her ear, “but there’s your hunky Aussie!”
Still moving to the beat of the music from the nearest stage, Zoe nonchalantly turned around and sure enough, Colin Cannon stood a few feet away, watching her with hooded green eyes. He wasn’t standing apart from the crowd, but to her, he was impossible to miss. His rugged body was dressed in jeans and a white button-up shirt. His bronzed skin glowed with vitality, his sun-kissed hair rumpled and sexy.