Island Heat (A Sexy Time Travel Romance With a Twist) (22 page)

We spent the better part of the afternoon getting the small craft out onto the water again, to see if it was seaworthy, and by the time the sun went down, Olivia had a nice fire built on the beach, and the small ship bobbled on the shoreline, anchored close by.

“I can’t believe it,” I said, happiness seeping into my voice. “A ship. A real ship.”

“The controls are shorted out,” Mr. Wingarde added, his voice singing out happily. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ve been sailing since I was a young boy, and I’m sure I can direct that thing back to land simply by following the North Star.”

Salvador and the others said nothing, simply allowed us to chatter happily to ourselves, discussing the plans for the ship well into the night. The bright fire on the beach kept away all scavengers, and there was no sign of the T-Rex. I wondered if he’d managed to free himself yet.

When we lay down to rest, Eustace offered to take first watch, and I snuggled in close next to Salvador. “Aren’t you happy?” I said, lost in my daydreams. He merely kissed my hand and smiled at me.

Lost in my daydreams, I didn’t notice his quiet demeanor. We’d get out of here, I mused, and I could go back to work. Salvador could live with me, and we’d get married, maybe have a couple of kids. He didn’t have any practical skills for the modern world, but I was sure he could find a job doing something – teaching Spanish or history, maybe – and oh, it would be such fun to show him and Olivia my world. I snuggled into his arms and went to sleep, thinking of all the wonderful things we’d experience together, the feel of his lips pressed against the back of my hand following even into my dreams.

The next morning, I was the last one to awaken. Groggy with sleep, I rolled over and looked into Salvador’s charming green eyes. He gave me a gentle smile, then reached over and kissed me, ever so softly, on the lips. I stretched underneath him, twining my arms around his neck and pulling him down for a more lingering kiss, and we enjoyed each other’s company for long, lovely moments, and I thought to myself that I’d never been happier.

My conquistador was with me, my fellow travelers were safe, and we were about to be rescued. Life did not get much better.

“We should join the others,” Salvador said, his voice carrying a hint of emotion I couldn’t identify. Reluctance? Perhaps he was worried that once we got off the island, I’d forget about him. I squeezed his hand. Not a chance. He and I were going to be together, always.

I followed Salvador down to the others on the shore. Eustace, Susie, and Olivia all stood on the shore, talking quietly, and I noticed that Eustace clutched Susie’s hand tightly in his. I smiled at that, slipping my hand into Salvador’s larger one.

“Where’s Mr. Wingarde?” I asked, putting my hand to my eyes to shield them from the bright sunlight on the water.

Olivia pointed at the small sailboat. “He’s making it ready to sail. No water leakage overnight, so he wants to leave before the sun gets too high in the sky. He says he’s already plotted a course and everything.” She squinted and glanced over at me. “We gave him one of the compasses we had in the caves.”

It was a little scary to think about setting off without having any working equipment. “I suppose the compass will work once we get out of this region, hmm?”

Olivia shrugged.

“Well,” I said brightly, hoisting my pack over my shoulder. “What are we waiting for? Shall we get aboard?”

Salvador lifted my hand to his lips and brushed a soft kiss on it. “
Belleza
,” he said, his voice husky, his green eyes intense with emotion that I couldn’t name. “You know I will always love you and cherish our time together,” he began.

I cut him off with a nervous laugh, and jerked my hand out of his. “Come on,” I said. “That sounds to me like you’re not going with me, and we both know that’s ridiculous.”

“I’m not going,” he said quietly. “None of us are.”

Olivia’s sad eyes brimmed with tears and she ran off, heading down the beach, back towards our campfire.

Perplexed by her reaction, I focused in on Salvador, trying not to get too anxious over his words. “What do you mean, you’re not going? It’ll be scary to be back in the real world, at first, but you’ll soon adjust. Isn’t that right, Susie?”

I looked over to the flight attendant for confirmation, but she shook her head and leaned in to Eustace. “We talked about this last night, Diana. I’m not going to leave Eustace here. I’ve got nothing back in the real world waiting for me except massive student loans and alimony payments to my ex-husband. I’d rather stay here and take my chances in the wild. I wish you the best, though, kiddo.”

And with that, she and Eustace walked hand-in-hand, down the beach, without a backward glance at me and Salvador.

Panic rose in my throat. “I don’t understand. Why are they staying? How can they possibly want to stay here?”

“It’s their home,” Salvador said simply. “As it is mine.”

I reached for him, put my hands on both sides of his face, my fingers running over his beautiful mouth as if I could memorize it with my touch. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll be with you the entire time, and it’ll be fine. We’ll get back to the mainland, and we can get married, and you’ll live with me. It won’t be so bad. I promise—“

“
Belleza
,” he said softly, his hands cupping my face. He looked down at me with such tenderness I thought I would cry at the sight of it. “It is not that I would not leave with you. It is that I cannot.”

Tears threatened, and a hard knot formed in my throat, and I swallowed repeatedly. “I...I don’t understand. Why can’t you?”

“Think,” he said softly. “Even if I had lived to be a hundred years old – an ancient man – I would still be dead many times over. On this island, time does not pass. I am young, and I am healthy. But once I leave...” he shrugged. “I will age within days and die.”

“That’s not true,” I protested, fear prickling at his words. “You don’t know that will happen.”

“I do know it will happen,” he said firmly. “Harold came to the island only thirty years after Eustace and Olivia. He was only a few years older than Eustace when they landed. Fifty years ago, he made a raft and left the island, seeking to return to the mainland. He returned a week later, aged as he is now. Had he stayed out later, he would have died.”

I gasped at the horrible story, thinking of Harold, so fragile and old. “No,” I breathed.

“Yes,” he said firmly, his hands resting on my arms. “You see why I cannot leave. I would age away within a matter of days, leaving you nothing but a memory.”

“You’re leaving me nothing but a memory now,” I said, my heart aching. The tears that had threatened spilled over, and I began to cry. I didn’t want him to age and die. I wanted him to be as he was now, always golden and beautiful. “It’s all right, then. We’ll stay here. I’ll go back to the cave with you, and we’ll live out our days here.”

“No,” Salvador said in that heartbreakingly tender voice. “If you had a choice,
belleza
, you would go back home. I would not take that choice away from you. I would not force you to a life here, not when you can still leave.”

I sobbed. “It’s not fair,” I said. “I don’t want to leave without you.”

“I am sorry,” he said in that heartbreakingly gentle voice, pulling me close to him. “Know that I will always love you. Know that I will always think of you, and your sweet face, and the way you smell, every time I wake in the morning. Know that I will think of you when I look at the stars at night, and thank God that he has given us this short time together.”

I said nothing and clung to him as I sobbed. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair. I had love, and I was about to lose it.

Eventually, my tears died down to nothing but hiccups, and my sobs down to a dry ache at the back of my throat. Salvador said nothing, simply stroked the wetness away from my cheeks and kissed my face so tenderly that it made me cry anew. “Go,
belleza
. I would not condemn you to this life, just to keep you at my side. You deserve to go back to the life you love, and to live a full dream.”

We slowly separated, and I glanced back at the ship waiting in the water. Mr. Wingarde waved from the deck of the ship, then pointed at the sky and the boat. His message was clear – we needed to leave soon. The wind was picking up, and whipped my hair around my face.

Salvador opened his pack and handed it to me. “I want you to have this,
belleza
.” Inside, I saw a good portion of dried fruit, a corked bottle of Olivia’s fruit wine, and my heart nearly stopped at the sight of the log book, tenderly tucked away inside.

“Your log book from your ship,” I said, looking up into his face with searching eyes. “Why?”

The smile he gave me was soft, heart-breaking. “So you have something to remember Salvador Diego de la Cuerva by. So you will know this was not just a dream.”

I clutched it close to my chest and leaned into him once more. “It was the best dream ever, if it was,” I said, trying not to cry again.

His fingertips touched my chin, and he lifted my face for one last kiss. “You must go,
belleza
. I will not keep you.”

And just like that, he stepped backward, leaving me alone on the shore, the bag in my hands. I swayed for a moment, nearly ill with the thought of leaving him, and then straightened. I turned and headed out to the surf, wading out to the ship.

The water was no more than waist-high when I made it to the edge of the boat, and climbed the metal rungs to get over the side. On the boat, Mr. Wingarde was busily tying knots into the sail and puttering around. “We ready to go?” He said, smiling cheerfully at me. “If this good wind keeps up, we might hit shore in Bermuda in no time, once we get our bearings.”

I looked over at the shore. Salvador stood there, stoic as ever, his arms crossed over his chest, unmoving. He’d stay there until I was out of sight, I knew. He’d stay there until I was no more than a speck on the ocean, and long after that. He’d wait until I was no more than a breath or a whisper of a dream, and then he’d make the long, lonely walk back to the cave, and return to his endless life.

Without me.

I felt hollow inside. Empty, and hollow. “I’m ready,” I said dully, tears sliding down my cheeks.

I sat there like a lump as Mr. Wingarde pulled up the anchor and adjusted the sails, catching the wind. “Good sailing weather,” he declared, as cheerful as could be.

I was dying, but I forced myself to smile at him. “Great weather,” I echoed.

The wind snapped into the sails, and the little boat slid out into deeper waters, slowly, agonizingly. Yet, it was too fast. We were going away too fast, and I watched as the island began to recede behind us. Unthinking, I uncovered the book that Salvador had sent with me, and nearly wept at the sight of the beautiful embossed cover.

I opened it and stared at the names inside, watching as the pages flaked against the high breeze and ate away. Soon there would be nothing left, but I kept it open and touched the pages anyhow.

Salvador Diego de la Cuerva, 1521.

My vision blurred, and I swallowed back the sob that rose. I’d never forget him. I glanced backward, looking at the shore, and saw him still standing there, as motionless as before, receding with every choppy wave that hit the boat.

He was sending me away
, I thought, and wept, my tears splashing on the page and obscuring his name. “Shit,” I sobbed to myself, wiping at the beautiful script and crying even harder when all it did was smear against my fingers.

How could he send me away?

Because he loves you, you idiot
, my brain told me.
He wants you to be happy, even if it means letting you go back to the life you love.

I stared around me, at Mr. Wingarde whistling as he leaned against the sail, smiling out at the blue waters. I felt like a void inside, cold and numb and aching. Is this what happiness was?

Is this what I was returning to?

Was
this
happiness?

I thought of the moment that I’d woken up on the shore that morning. The sun had been beating down in my eyes, and my feet ached from the long walk the day before. I’d had sand in all my crevices, and my mouth was dry, but I’d rolled over and looked into the most beautiful face I’d ever seen and the most wonderful green eyes. And Salvador had kissed me awake.

That was happiness. That was contentment, no matter the sand or the dinosaurs or whatever.

I couldn’t do it.

I threw down my bags and clutched the book to my chest, staring at the shore. It was receding in the distance, almost too far to swim. I looked at the book down in my hands, and knew that the pages would never make it back to shore. They wouldn’t survive another dousing.

“Mr. Wingarde,” I said, and thrust the book in his hands when he turned.

“What is this?” He said, his happy whistle stopping.

“It’s a log book,” I said. “Write my name in it, please? And remember me?” And I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and ran to the far end of the boat.

Lord, but the water looked deep. I glanced back at the shore, and Salvador’s bronzed form standing there.

It was now or never.

I jumped.

The first shock of the water was cold, and I went under the waves, terrified. My first thought was of sharks, and riptides, and everything bad that could happen.

“Diana,” Mr. Wingarde screamed as I resurfaced. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going home, Mr. Wingarde,” I yelled at him. “I can’t leave. Not now, not ever.”

“You’re a stupid fool,” He yelled at me. “I’m not turning around to come back and get you.”

“Then don’t turn around,” I yelled back at him, but the words were slapped out of my mouth as a wave rose up, and I went under, only to resurface a moment more, coughing.

“You’ve decided, then?” He shouted at me, log book still clutched in his hands. I nodded, turning towards the shore, paddling slowly. I was going to need all my strength to swim back.

There was a hard slap of water in front of me, and I stared at a circular float as it bobbed in front of me. I looked back to Mr. Wingarde, and watched as he waved at me. “God be with you, Diana.” He waved. “I won’t forget. Now swim hard!”