She tucked her hands behind her back and shook her head. “No, you. I’m fine.”
My frustration morphed to agitation mixed with a heavy dose of regret. Now she wouldn’t even accept my help? We’d clearly come full circle, right back to that day she’d left my office in New York after I hadn’t given her the internship she’d wanted.
Sela’s advice trickled through my mind, but I dismissed it. I could make Natalie understand why I’d done the things I had without telling her about my past.
Even though all I wanted to do was grab her and shake some sense into her, I forced myself to pick my away across the stream, then wait patiently on the other side while she did the same. Twice she almost slipped, and my muscles coiled tight, my body ready to spring into action if she went down, but she righted herself just in time and joined me on the far side without so much as getting her boots wet.
“Come on,” I said, turning away so I didn’t grab her and do something stupid like try to kiss that distrustful look off her face. “It’s not much farther.”
She didn’t respond, only followed me deeper into the jungle. We went up a small rise, and each time I glanced back, I could see her searching for signs of a helicopter. On the far side of the rise, we dropped down into a small valley heavily wooded with thick trees that blocked out most of the sunlight.
“I don’t see anywhere for a helicopter to land,” she said at my back as we moved deeper into the valley.
“There aren’t a lot of clear spots on the island.” That wasn’t a lie either. It just didn’t answer her question. Changing the subject, I said, “Do you know much about the South Pacific?”
“Yeah, it’s in the southern part of the Pacific ocean.”
I didn’t miss her sarcasm, but instead of increasing my agitation, her snarky retort eased a bit of the tension inside me because I saw it as a first step back to the challenging, headstrong woman I remembered. “Scientists think there’s an underwater continent out here in the Pacific somewhere. The guy who sold me this island claimed the key to finding the lost continent was on this island.”
She huffed at my back. “Sounds like that makes you pretty gullible.”
I smiled and shoved a patch of vines out of my way, holding them back so she could pass in front me. “I might be, but when I found this, I wasn’t so sure he was lying.”
Her eyes widened when she caught sight of the pyramid-shaped ruins ahead, and the way her mouth dropped open made me ache to feel her soft lips against mine.
“What…is this?” she asked.
“Go see for yourself.”
She didn’t turn to look at me, but there was no way I could miss the wonder in her features as she stared ahead. And as I watched her move across the jungle floor and stop to gaze up at the crumbling structure, I knew bringing her here had not been a mistake.
When we’d been in Rome, she’d been awed by the Colosseum and Roman Forum. The day I’d blown off work and we’d explored the city like tourists had changed the way she’d looked at me. I had hope this could change the way she looked at me now.
I let the vines fall at my back and moved up beside her, gazing up at the ruins myself. “The guy I bought the island from said this used to be a temple linked to the lost continent of Lumeria. Haych laughed when I brought him out here and showed it to him. He grew up on a nearby island and said it’s a temple to Pele, the south Pacific fire goddess. Just like in Italy, pagans here build temples to appease their gods.”
She stepped closer to the structure and placed her hands on the crumbling stones. “It’s amazing. You can’t even see it through the trees.”
“The jungle’s too thick. Most of the temples built on the islands around here have deteriorated to the point where the canopy hides them from view.”
She didn’t respond, and I wasn’t even certain she heard me. Her eyes were filled with wonder and pinned on the structure as if it held the secrets of the world, and warmth gathered in my chest when I remembered the way she’d looked up at the Roman ruins in much the same way, only then she’d been holding my hand and hadn’t wanted to let go of me. Now she didn’t even seem to notice I was there.
She made her way around the temple and came back to stand on my left side, close enough for the sexy scent of her skin to reach my senses, but not near enough for me to touch. “It’s amazing.”
She’d looked at me like that before. In Italy. Before everything had turned to shit. I wanted her to look at me like that again. Was so obsessed with the idea of it, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. “There’s more.”
Her gaze finally swung my direction, and the way her blue eyes sparkled, void of any of the skepticism from before, made my pulse kick up. “More?”
I nodded, pointing over her shoulder. “Through there.”
She turned, and when she spotted the stone archway she’d completely overlooked earlier, her soft gasp shot a memory straight through my brain. One of me pressing her up against the wall of that elevator in Rome, and the surprised gasp that had tumbled from her lips just before I’d devoured her mouth.
Heat built in my veins. A heat that was growing harder to ignore. She stepped away from me without a word, oblivious to the effect she had on me. Vines wrapped around the archway, and she tried to push them aside, but they were thick and scratched her bare arms.
“Here.” I moved around her, pulled the vines back so I could pass under them, and held them back for her as I extended a hand.
This time, she didn’t hesitate to accept my help, and when her warm palm and slim fingers wrapped around mine, it was all I could do not to pull her in and take her mouth just as I’d done in that elevator.
Holding her hand tightly, I made my way down the broken steps, letting her use me as a brace as she picked her way over the jagged rocks. She let go of me once we reached the bottom and the ground evened, but I was okay with that because she hadn’t pushed me away in revulsion or yanked her hand back in disgust. Where once that might not have been enough for me, today it was the first step back toward everything, so I let her go without a fight.
“We think this was the heart of the village.” I rested my hands on my hips and watched as she moved through the space, studying the handful of crumbling structures set in a circular pattern. “They would have had a fire pit here in the center. Houses on each side. And there at the end, the blazing tree.”
She glanced to her left, where a tall tree with red blooms bordered the jungle. “What did you call the tree?”
“The blazing tree. It’s sacred to all Tahitians. Legend has it there was once a young couple, madly in love, with eyes only for each other. They met around a fire pit, much like what would have been here, when his village visited hers. After that day, they were inseparable and married quickly. But the goddess Pele came across him one day while the man was gathering firewood in the jungle and desired to have him for herself. Only, the man wasn’t interested. Remember, he was madly in love with his wife. When he rebuked Pele’s advances, she became so angry, she changed him into a tree. The young man’s wife heard the argument from the edge of the village, came running, and begged Pele to change him back into a man, but she refused and disappeared. The other gods, knowing what Pele had done, tried to change the man back themselves, but Pele’s curse was too strong. So they transformed his wife into a beautiful red flower and placed her on the top of his tree so the two lovers would never be apart. Ever since that day, the blazing tree blossoms with fiery red blooms that mirror the passion in the lovers’ souls. So long as the tree is flowering, Tahitians say the skies will be clear and the sun will shine. But if someone plucks the blossoms from the tree, rain falls all over the island like tears because the lovers can’t bear to be parted.”
Natalie stared at the tree for several moments, then said, “You called it a burning tree?”
“Yes.”
“From Tahiti?”
Something in the tone of her voice had shifted. It was no longer filled with awe but was no
w laced with an edge that set me on alert. “Yes,” I answered cautiously.
“Nice try.” She leveled me with an icy stare. “My stepfather took me and my mother to Hawaii when I graduated from high school. That particular legend isn’t Tahitian. It’s Hawaiian, and it’s about the Ohi’a tree, which this is not.”
She stepped around me and headed for the crumbling stone staircase. “I’ve seen enough.”
I reached for her arm before she could get three steps away, not wanting to give up on what had been the nicest moment between us in weeks. “Natalie.”
“Don’t.” She whipped around and jerked her arm back as if my touch had burned her. “I’m not interested in your lies. I just want to get to the helicopter.”
“I wasn’t lying. That’s the story I was told.”
“So it’s your version of the truth. You tend to have a lot of those.”
I clenched my jaw, hating how she immediately assumed I’d try to mislead her. But before I could think of a way to prove that wasn’t my goal, her eyes widened, and she moved farther back.
“Oh, I get it now. There is no helicopter, is there? This was all a ploy to get me out in the jungle so you could do what?” Her eyes hardened. “Get rid of me?”
My stomach pitched as if she’d punched me. “Do you honestly think I would do that?”
“I don’t know. You killed that man in my house.”
“He was trying to hurt you. I was protecting you. Most people would be thankful someone saved their life, not pissed off about it.”
“Most people wouldn’t need protecting from a man like that. He never would have found me if it weren’t for you.”
“I didn’t lead him to you.”
“No. But he came after me because of you.”
There was so much hatred in her voice, I suddenly wondered how I’d ever thought taking her on this stupid hike would make a difference. Drawing in a calming breath, I brushed a hand over my forehead and forcibly gentled my voice when I said, “Look, I know you’re still mad at me—”
“Mad? You think I’m mad?” Her eyes widened with a fury I didn’t know was in her. “You kidnapped me, drugged me, forced me into a marriage I never consented to, then you branded me like a fucking animal. I’m not mad, Luc. I’m furious, and if you think one stupid hike into the jungle is going to change that, then you’re a bigger piece of shit than I thought.”
She turned for the steps, and I felt my grip on what was left of my sanity begin to slide. My lungs constricted with the knowledge I was going to lose her if I didn’t make this right. More than that, I was going to lose the chance for us, which was even worse.
“I had to get you somewhere safe,” I said at her back, knowing better than to reach for her right now. “After you ran from me in Italy, I knew you’d fight me, and I had to get you out of there quickly without anyone seeing. What the hell was I supposed to do?”
She whipped back to face me. “You were supposed to let me go. I didn’t want you anymore.”
I knew she hadn’t. As she stared up at me with those blue eyes blazing, I knew she didn’t want me now either. But I still wanted her. And after everything that had happened between us in Italy, I couldn’t believe that some small part of her still didn’t care for me. I’d seen it in her eyes. That kind of connection couldn’t be faked, and it wasn’t something a person could turn on and off like a light.
“I couldn’t do that,” I said calmly, choosing my words carefully so I didn’t say the wrong thing. “They wanted to hurt you, Natalie. They still want to hurt you. I was willing to do anything to keep that from happening including, yes, drugging you, kidnapping you, and even marrying you because spouses are protected in my family.”
She held up her hand and twisted it so I could see the ugly tattoo darkening her ring finger. “And this? What was this? A wedding present so the whole world knows just what kind of loving spouse you are?”
Regret gathered in my gut. “That…was a mistake. I might have panicked a little.”
“You panicked?” Her eyes widened in a fuck-you mock I didn’t miss. “Oh, you poor thing. That must have been really hard for you. Panicking over all the disgusting ways you could mark me as your property.”
Frustration welled inside me because no matter what I said, she was twisting it into something vile. “I needed a permanent mark on your finger you’d want to keep covered so I could be guaranteed you’d wear your ring. It was the first word that came to mind because I knew you’d hate it.”
She dropped her hand. “What ring?”
I drew a breath for courage. “The wedding band I haven’t given you yet because I’ve been too afraid you’d chuck it at my head if I did.”
She was silent for several moments as she stared at me. And though her eyes were still hard as stone and flickering with rage, I sensed—or maybe I hoped, I wasn’t sure—a softening at the edges of all that anger. “Well, that’s the first smart thing you’ve done in weeks.”
When she turned back for the steps and began climbing, panic resurged inside me. None of this had gone as I’d planned. I stepped toward her. “Natalie—”
“Don’t touch me.” She paused on the steps to glance over her shoulder, but she didn’t meet my gaze, and I knew from the way her muscles tensed as I drew close that she meant every word. “You claim you followed me to Idaho to protect me, but we both know the truth. You followed me because you couldn’t handle the fact I was done letting you manipulate me. You’re not the man I thought you were. You tricked me in Italy, and I was naïve enough to fall for it. But I’m not naïve anymore. Your so-called House will give up looking for me after a while. I’m a nobody, and I didn’t see enough of that ritual to be a real threat to your family or anyone else. You’re the one who’s probably in more trouble with them than me. As for this?” She held up her hand, flashing that ugly tattoo at me again. “I’m not your property. I won’t be your or anyone’s slave, and I have zero desire to be your wife after knowing the sick perversions you’re into. So stop acting like you give a shit about me and leave me the hell alone. The sooner you do that, the better off we’ll both be.”
She climbed up the crumbling steps, swept the vines aside, and disappeared into the jungle. And though the urge to follow her was strong, I held back, cemented in place by her words.
“You’re not the man I thought you were.”
My chest tightened. I’d known she was angry; known she felt betrayed and lied to. I’d just never in a million years thought I’d hear her say she didn’t know me.
She did know me. She was the only person who knew the real me. She had right from the start. And I could think of only one way to prove that to her.
Every breath felt like a thousand knives stabbing straight through my heart. Proving I was the man she remembered might mean alerting her to the danger she was still in—would always be in because of me—but it also meant bloodletting wounds I’d sworn I’d never open to her or anyone.
Wounds I was pretty sure were going to make her hate me forever even if they did finally open her eyes to the brutal truth.
Chapter Seven
Natalie
I couldn’t believe he’d tricked me again. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen for his manipulation as I had in Rome.
I stomped into the house and slammed the door at my back, not caring if the blonde in the kitchen heard me. Disbelief and anger surged inside me, coloring my vision red. Luc was trying to lull me into submission by playing on my interest in history as he’d done that day he’d blown off work and taken me to see the Colosseum and ruins in Rome. Then, I’d been naïve enough to think he was doing it because he actually felt something for me and wanted to spend more time with me. Now, I saw it for what it was: a master move to position his pawn right where he wanted it next.
Disgust rolled through my belly as I headed for my bedroom and slammed that door as well. I was sweaty from the hike, appalled with myself for believing he might actually let me go, and furious that even af
ter everything he’d done, he was still claiming he’d done it all for my safety.
He hadn’t done it for me. He’d done it for himself. Because he’d known he’d be in big trouble with his father and his House for letting me leave Italy after I’d witnessed that ritual. I was sick of being lied to. I was sick of my gullibility. I was sick that even after everything, my stupid heart wanted to betray me by searching for the good in him.
I crossed into my bathroom, started the shower, and ripped off my clothes. As I stepped beneath the spray and let the hot water pummel my sore muscles, I closed my eyes and faced an ugly truth.
He wasn’t going to let me go. He intended to push this sham marriage as far as he could to save his own ass. He didn’t care what I wanted. Which meant he didn’t really give a rip about me at all. What we’d shared in Italy had been nothing more than sex, only I’d been such a simple, stupid fool, I hadn’t realized it until I was in over my head.
Misery enveloped me, overpowering all the anger. Tears burned the backs of my eyes, and it took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to give in to the urge to cry. But even as I fought, I heard Luc’s frantic, whispered voice in my ear that last night in Italy, when we’d argued about his family and he’d been afraid I was going to walk away from us.
“I need you so much. Don’t leave me. Please don’t ever leave me.”
The tears I’d been fighting broke through my resistance and slid down my cheeks. Before I could stop it, my legs buckled, and I crumbled to the floor of the shower and let the pain consume me.
That was the Luc I wanted. That was the one I kept hoping would show up in my room. The one who would tell me how much he needed me and how he couldn’t live without me. Not the one I kept waking up to, feeding me lies, manipulating me, pretending as if he truly cared.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat there and cried, but when I finally pulled myself together and pushed to my feet, my skin was pink, and my fingers and toes were wrinkly. Exhaustion pulled at me as I washed my hair, then slathered soap all over my body. I was physically and mentally drained, but I had to start making plans. I couldn’t sit here waiting for Luc to let me go. I had to escape even if it meant risking my life.