Stretching out his length beside her, he briefly considered the possibility of a set-up. It was an occupational hazard for rich and powerful men. Just because Kimmie was so different from the rest didn’t automatically make her harmless, but his best guess was that she planned to use him to forget her ex-fiancé. What she clearly hadn’t taken into account was how she’d feel about herself afterwards.
Decision made, he sprang to his feet. ‘I’m taking you back.’
‘Did I do something wrong?’
Surprise, hurt and bewilderment flashed behind her eyes in quick succession. It couldn’t be helped. He wasn’t a counsellor or Kimmie’s keeper. Had she changed his thinking? Maybe. He’d never needed patience where seduction was concerned, but Kimmie was wounded and needed time to recover. They were both damaged by a past that had made him independent, always, and had made Kimmie a survivor too.
‘You’re taking me back to the party?’ she asked uncertainly as he headed away from the beach.
‘No. I’m taking you home.’
‘To your home?’
‘No, back to the guest house.’
This was a first for him. When he identified something he wanted he went straight for it, but Kimmie demanded a different approach. It was never easy to hold back and show the type of restraint she would require, but when had he ever embraced easy?
* * *
Now she felt worse than ever. Rejected twice in one day was too much for anyone. Labelling herself a naïve and pathetic failure, she scrambled to her feet. Overreaction? Probably, but her emotions were raw today. She shouldn’t have gone so far, or told him so much. She shouldn’t have kissed Kris because now she knew how that felt, and was equally certain that no other man could ever compare. If only she’d spared a moment to think how she’d feel afterwards, or that she was heaping humiliation upon humiliation on herself. Was she so unattractive? Had she bored him as she’d obviously bored Mike? Had telling Kris some of her life story, or at least a carefully edited version of it, been her worst mistake? Had kissing her been unpleasant for him, or had something else put him off? He’d seemed to enjoy the kisses, so perhaps it was a case of too much personal information. She’d found it dangerously easy to unburden all those memories to Kris. Would he yawn about it later? Would he laugh about it with his friends? She could only imagine Kris surging through life on a wave of approval, while she was still struggling to climb out of the mud.
That had to be it, Kimmie concluded as she checked her bottom was covered, and wished her bikini top was a little bit more concealing.
‘We’ll walk up the cliff,’ Kris informed her, staring skywards to where the craggy rock face threw a shadow over the beach, ‘and then I’ll drive you back.’
‘You’ve got a car up there?’ She glanced at him with surprise.
‘A house too.’
She went hot and then cold. It wasn’t just her emotions that were in a mess. Her brain cells were crashing too. ‘So this is your beach.’
Kris didn’t answer. ‘Should we make a start on the climb? Or I can take you back to your friends. Whichever you prefer.’
‘You haven’t answered my question.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I haven’t. Nor have you answered mine.’
What the heck was happening? She needed time to think. Who was this man? Her suspicions were racing. Did she want to go back to her friends, or would she prefer to unscramble her thoughts in private? It had been good to escape their curiosity and pity, and not just because the distraction was Kris. The climb up the cliff would take all her energy, so there’d be no time for thinking or fretting, or wondering what Kris’s motive was in being so considerate towards her.
‘The walk will do you good,’ he said as if confirming her thoughts.
‘Like taking my medicine?’ she suggested wryly as she glanced up the cliff.
‘Like keeping you in that quiet place where you don’t have to explain yourself to your friends,’ Kris said with piercing intuition. ‘And anyway,’ he added in a lighter tone, ‘I thought you liked adventure?’
‘Why do you think that?’
‘Gut instinct.’
‘So you haven’t had enough of me?’
He shrugged. ‘I like a challenge.’
‘So do I,’ Kimmie admitted, ‘but in this instance I’m going to tell my friends what I’m doing.’
‘A wise precaution,’ Kris agreed. ‘We’ll walk that way.’
Why not let this play out? She wasn’t ready to let go of Kris yet. He was the best thing that had happened in a wretched day, and seemed in no hurry to get rid of her. She could go with him or not. Find out more about him, or spend the rest of her life wondering, What if?
‘Before we set off there’s that question you didn’t answer,’ she reminded him. ‘You’re not crew or a local fisherman, are you?’ And when he chose to stare at her with a non-committal expression on his face, she stated with sudden certainty, ‘You’re the man who owns the island. You’re Kristof Kaimos, CEO of Kaimos Shipping, said to be the richest man in the world. Unmarried, untouchable, and determined to remain unattached, according to the press, in spite of your uncle’s best efforts to see you married off.’
‘You seem to know a lot about me.’
Hot and cold had just become shards of ice and spears of fire piercing every inch of her. Kris was Kristof Kaimos. Incredible. Impossible. But very real.
‘It’s hard to avoid news of the super-rich,’ she admitted with all the cool she could muster. ‘Anyway, I feel quite safe now.’
‘Meaning?’ Kris probed, frowning.
‘Meaning I can’t imagine you would rope me in for the role of consort.’
He laughed out loud, a flash of strong white teeth against his burnished tan. ‘You have such a romantic way of putting things,’ he remarked. His stare burned into her as he looked down.
‘I’m a bit worried that you haven’t denied it,’ she admitted, ‘but I’m confident your selection of wife will come from a much more prestigious group of women than a jobbing artist could hope to join. As for being romantic? Believe me, I’d love to be romantic, but life made me wise up in a hurry.’
‘We all make mistakes.’
‘Even you, Kris Kaimos?’ she challenged. ‘Will you regret meeting me by tomorrow morning?’
‘I can’t possibly know until tomorrow comes.’
‘You’re good at evading questions, aren’t you?’
‘I’m a businessman.’
‘I don’t believe you’ve answered a single one of my questions,’ Kimmie mused, ‘but I suppose there is an upside to that. If your business fails, you could always consider becoming a politician.’
‘My business won’t fail.’
‘No. I don’t believe it will,’ she agreed. ‘With you at the helm, it wouldn’t dare.’
Humour glinted briefly in Kris’s eyes, but then he turned serious. ‘Would you rather I made a pretence of feelings I don’t have?’
‘No, of course not.