Page 86 of Love Is: Two Bodies One Soul

ChapterTwenty-Nine

Sawan– Wednesday 27th October

After four days on the island, Owen and Lexie had explored most of the interior and the long beach to the northern side of their camp but they’d found nothing even remotely off-putting about the place, and Owen was on the verge of despair. Lexie found him down on the beach, scowling out to the bay and muttering about needing to find something really noxious or dangerous, preferably both.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked, coming up behind him and slipping her hands around his waist.

‘Worrying.’

‘What about?’ She kissed his shoulder and one of his muscles flexed. God, she loved his back. In fact, she loved everything about him. He was gorgeous in every way. Except he hadn’t answered her question. Not perhaps perfection after all. He still had a tendency to sink into a black mood if she left him alone too long. She should have realised something was wrong when she woke this morning to find him already gone from the tent and not outside doing something useful, like making breakfast.

‘Well ….’ She ran her hands down his belly and slipped her fingers under the band of his shorts. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s troubling you or am I going to have to torture it out of you?’

Sighing, he removed her wandering hands.

Uh-uh, she thought. That was not a good sign.

He held on to her hands though, and after another sigh, said: ‘I can’t find what George wants me to find. You know I told you, he thinks I’m some kind of eco-warrior able to stop the development planned for these islands?’

‘Yes.’ Lexie nodded and coaxed him to sit on the sand with her. ‘You explained, that’s why you kept bringing back captive creatures to camp and identifying them online … looking for something poisonous.’

‘The deadlier the better.’

‘And you’ve found nothing.’

‘Exactly! Zero, Nada, Zilch, flaming dim byd periglus.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Sorry.’ He flicked a sheepish glance at her. ‘I forgot you’re not fluent, yet. It’s Welsh for nothing dangerous. George is pressing for the article. I’m going to have to send him something today, and admit I’ve failed. This place is safe and there’s nothing going to stop the developers.

* * *

Later,after a quick swim and a hurried breakfast, Owen set himself down in front of his laptop, glaring grimly at the screen. Lexie cleared away their dishes and decided the best thing she could do was leave him alone. She walked over to him and dropped a kiss onto his shaggy head. He was getting so hairy, his stubble was turning rapidly into a very dark beard, his hair, longer and more tangled, tasted of sea salt from their earlier swim. The wild man of Paradise, she thought, smiling to herself and massaged his shoulders. God, he was tense!

‘I’m going to try out my underwater camera,’ she announced in between kneading his muscles.

Owen swung round, throwing his arms around her hips and looking up at her. ‘Are you sure it’s safe to go alone?’

‘Of course,’ she smiled, loving him for his concern, loving his breath on her belly button. ‘You said, yourself I’m a strong swimmer.’ She bent over and kissed his crumpled brow. ‘Stronger than you, you said.’

‘But … diving alone? Can’t you hang on until after I’ve finished the article. I’ll only be an hour, perhaps two.’

‘No. You’ll work better without me distracting you. Besides, I’m only going to snorkel. I can’t be bothered to kit up with tanks and things today. I want to focus on the camera. Was that a pun?’ She laughed and, stepping away from Owen, she scooped up her new camera, a towel, snorkel and mask and turned for the beach.

‘Stay in the bay,’ Owen called after her.

‘Yes, mum!’ she called back, laughing.

Owen stood up. ‘Are you calling me an old woman?’

‘If the cap fits ….’

‘You wait until you get back … you’ll pay for that remark.’

‘Promises, promises.’ Lexie giggled, turned, gave Owen a happy wave and then headed off for the beach, still laughing, leaving Owen staring after her.

Half an hour later, she was treated to a fabulous underwater ballet performed by a fantastic array of fish. Brown fish with orange dots flitted from their aquatic stage to be replaced by black, disc-shaped creatures. Their clown-like sad faces swam up close to Lexie’s lens. Round black eyes stared sorrowfully in at her, then floated away regretfully. She smiled around her snorkel. Dear little fish, YouTube stars in the making. Move over cute kittens and puppies. The fish are about to hit town.

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