Page 21 of Once an Angel
bridges so it could belong to only the boldest adventurers."
Emily wondered if he, like her, was thinking of three bold young men who had dared the sea to come here.
He rested his chin on top of her head. "Look at it, Emily. Can you really see it?"
Her gaze swept the shore. She wanted desperately to see it through his eyes. Glittering stars punched holes in the fading fabric of day. Night shadows melted across the swaying palms. The plaintive cry of
a bellbird lifted the tiny hairs at her nape.
His long, elegant fingers curled over her collarbone. She studied them, dazed by their grace. They were saved from effeminacy by their tensile strength and the dusting of dark hair along their knuckles. "God banished every deadly creature here. There are no dangerous animals, no poisonous bugs, no snakes.
He molded the mountains with His fists and blew roaring blizzards down the slopes. He sculpted icy fjords and smoothed the pristine beaches with His loving fingers." His voice grew soft, wistful. "Then
He sprinkled the hills and streams with gold."
His love for this country was palpable, but Emily sensed that running through it like a thread of gold through a gurgling stream was a deep sadness. What had his love cost him? New Zealand might be a paradise, but for him it had become a paradise lost. Her heart ached.
Before she realized it she was cupping his hand and bringing it toward the comfort of her lips. She gently kissed his fingertips. He drew in a ragged breath and Emily stiffened, horrified by what she had done. How could she have fallen so quickly beneath the sway of his charms. Had her father succumbed as easily?
"Let me go," she whispered, pleading for far more than her physical release.
His grip tightened for an implacable instant. "Who are you, Emily? What are you running from?"
"You!" She began to struggle, afraid panic might force her to blurt out more than she intended. She worked her fingers up between them and shoved at his arms with all her strength. "I've met men like
you in London. You take a girl out in the moonlight, relax her guard with soft words, then play your
little game of seduction."
Before she could wiggle away, he caught her arm in a steely grasp and jerked her around to face him,
his eyes dark-lashed orbs of brandy fire. "Is that what you think this is about? Seduction?"
Emily hung in his grip, accusing him with her silence and the sullen set of her jaw.
"I might remind you,MissScarlet, that you were the one who just kissed me. I live on a bloody island, for Christ's sake. I'm surrounded by hundreds of miles of coastline." His voice rose to a roar. "And you had the sheer audacity to wash up onmybeach stark raving naked." He pulled her tight against him, molding her like a wet glove to the lean curves of his body. His voice softened to a dangerous purr.
"I'm warning you now—this isn't England. We don't deal in seduction here. If I decide I want you,
I won't need any flowery words or moonlight swims."
Braced in the powerful cradle of his thighs, Emily knew his words to be true. A helpless shudder rocked her.
He shoved her away from him. She didn't dare look at him. A little thrashing and a few awkward strokes and she felt sand beneath her feet. She lurched forward until she could crawl up on the shore. She
wanted to run, to flee far away, where his mocking anger could not find her, but her ruse of an injured ankle forced her to sprawl in the sand like some wounded fish. If she jumped to her feet and sprinted for the shelter of the bush, would he follow?
A furious splashing came from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Justin emerge from the waves—a smoldering Poseidon, magnificent in his fury. Water streamed from his chest, plastering his dungarees to his hips and thighs like a second skin. Emily lowered her shocked gaze.
She needn't have worried. Justin strode past her as if she were no more significant than a sand crab.
"Justin?" she said tentatively.
He moved down the shore, slowing only long enough to scoop up a shell and hurl it into the sea.
"Mr. Connor?" she said louder.
He was rapidly fading into the darkness. Emily cupped a hand around her mouth and yelled, "You lied! You said you wouldn't let me go!"
