Love Castaway

by Cara Cooper

Genres: Women's Fiction

Synopsis

Dr Nancy Taylor, is contented with her lone conservationist role on a desert island. When Gareth Marrs lands his plane she wants him out of there. She craves isolation from the real world where she made a mistake so awful she cannot bear to return. Owner of a luxury cruise line, Gareth plans to profit from her precious hideaway. He is less than honest with Nancy about his reasons for being there. When the island is attacked by Somalian pirates, Gareth not only protects Nancy but begins to understand why she has shut herself away. He is deeply attracted to the beautiful enigmatic scientist, so different from the shallow conquests in his city home. When he awakens the emotions she has hidden for so long, Gareth offers a chance of happiness. But Nancy discovers his real reason for invading her hidden paradise, incensed, she orders him out of her life forever. Gareth isn?t a man so easily brushed off. Besides he knows the only future he can contemplate lies with her if only he can get her to face up to her demons.

Release date: March 13, 2014

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 126

Sample

Chapter One

The sound was so alien on the cool morning air that Dr Nancy Taylor wondered whether the monsoon winds in the coco de mer palm trees were playing tricks on her. She stood motionless and listened. Her long chestnut hair, damp from her morning swim, hung in ropes around tanned shoulders. Last night’s torrential monsoon gale had ripped through the island’s usual tranquil peace. Palm fronds hanging from their moorings and battering against each other could make strange noises. Especially when you were the only human being on a tiny coral atoll in the Indian Ocean. Of course it must be the tropical breeze that was playing tricks on her. No one came here apart from the monthly supply ship. No one was allowed to. They wouldn’t dare board the island paradise with its protected status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Or would they?

Hairs pricked up the back of her neck. There was the noise again. She wasn’t mistaken. A propeller. A plane. Like a distant angry wasp, in the distance, but close enough to be too close. Nancy shot out of the corrugated iron hut that had been her home for the last six months and peered into a sky of sublime cornflower blue. At first she couldn’t spot the plane; the sun, even just after dawn was blindingly bright promising yet another hellishly hot day. Finally, there in the distance she caught sight of white twin propellers. Her hackles rose. ‘How dare they?’ she said under her breath. It was so long since she’d heard her own voice it made her jump. Ever since arriving on Isle de Alfambra six months ago to do her scientific research she’d been careful not to talk to herself. That way lay madness. And anyway, how could she be lonely? The island teemed with life – giant tortoises, tiger chameleons, tree frogs, not to mention the bickering little black parrots that were her constant companions on the lagoon. But humans, no, she could do without them. She’d come here to escape from the ties that bound her and the briars that stung her heart just thinking of what she had left behind. And yet that plane was undoubtedly piloted by a human. What’s more, he was a grossly inefficient one if the way the wings were dipping and lurching were anything to go by.

The single-person plane coughed and spluttered closer, it was now near enough that she could see its blue insignia. ‘Go away, get out!’ she yelled, dashing onto the warm sands of the beach. She had to skip and jump to avoid the ragged litter of palm fronds and fallen coconuts as she waved her hands frantically in the air. She suddenly remembered she was wearing the briefest of bikinis – and nothing else. Not much more than postage stamp squares of material and a couple of ribbons tied together, it was months since she’d worn anything else on the days she was working on the beach. What was the point when no one ever saw you? She shouted, anger making her shrill. ‘You can’t stop here, not without a licence!’ The plane winged and swooped. Why on earth couldn’t the pilot control the thing? A wave of horror clenched her guts. The tiny plane pitched and yawed, heading for a spit of sand near – too near – her precious coral reef.

No, not there of all places. She hurtled out, splashing into the shallow sea the temperature of a warm bath, along the sand bank paths she knew so well it was almost as if she had a map inside her head which helped her avoid the razor sharp coral. Jumping up and down like a mad woman, screaming and waving her hands she shooed him away. ‘Not near the coral, don’t you dare,’ she shouted. But he was daring it. The long spit of sand made a perfect air strip, apart from the fact that if he overshot it, the wheels of his plane would destroy swathes of her carefully preserved coral. The marine habitat that she worked so hard to preserve took centuries to form and could be destroyed by an inconsiderate pilot’s wheels in a nanosecond.

It was time for desperate measures. As he careered downwards, she ran in front of him, onto the spit of sand, right into the path of the plane. ‘Go away!’ she yelled again shaking her arms madly. An inner voice told her what she was doing was wrong, foolish. Someone might get hurt. Her father’s stern injunction ran in her ears, ‘Nancy think before you act.’ How many times had she heard that, and how many times had she ignored it? Her reasons were always perfectly good, it’s just that they so often got her into trouble; because as a five-year-old that wall looked so good to walk along until she fell off it; because as a fourteen-year-old that boy with the rebellious glint in his eye seemed so much more interesting than the polite boys; because, because, because. Like now, it was darned foolish to block a moving plane with your body but she knew if she didn’t stop it crashing into her coral reef she’d never, ever forgive herself. Besides, the world no longer held people who cared about what happened to her, so why should she care about herself?

The plane heading downwards looked as if it wouldn’t stop, as if it would hit her, until with only a split second to spare, the pilot yanked it upwards, around, and away. Thank heavens, she thought, he’s finally got the message and he’s going to leave me in peace. She stared eagle-eyed, hands on hips, like an Amazon warrior maiden. But then, the plane turned, flipped around, and headed back. This time as it swooped towards Nancy, her pounding heart plunged as she realised in disbelief that she could rant and rave as much as she wanted but the pilot was set on an unswerving course. Just as the puttering plane got close enough for her to see the pilot’s features, his short-cropped blonde hair and heavily hooded eyes burning with concentration, she managed to jump out of the way. He just missed her, skudding one wheel messily onto the sand strip, and lurched the plane sharply on its side. The left wing drove itself into the sparkling white dune, spraying her with sand, and the engine abruptly screeched out its last death throes into silence.

Oh no, she hadn’t wanted to make him crash, just warn him off. How stupid could he be to keep on with the landing when she was so clearly warning him off, standing in his way? Her blood boiled at this intrusion into her island sanctuary. What an idiot! The only good thing was that he hadn’t ploughed into the coral reef. If he had, she’d have quite happily thrown him to the sharks. She dashed across the pearl-white sand, now heating her bare feet in the morning sun. The plane’s door banged open and out staggered a gloriously tanned, six-feet-four male in white cotton trousers and open-necked white shirt. He placed sneakered feet on the sand, the only two footprints other than her own that the island had seen in years, and yelled, ‘What the hell’s up with you, you crazy woman? You could have killed me!’ He clutched his hand to his forehead, blue eyes speared with silver shards.

She was momentarily taken aback. Of all the people she’d expected to emerge from the plane, a Greek god who could have been posing as a model from an aftershave ad wasn’t one of them. She blinked, as she noted high cheekbones, a sultry mouth, and a gloriously flat stomach with a tiny line of golden hairs making its way down to the belt at his waist. His shirt had ridden up as the plane had been thrown on its side and she had to look away as a rush of heat which had nothing to do with the sun burnt up her cheeks. He was absolutely, one hundred per cent, film star gorgeous. Perhaps she was having some sort of hallucination. It was a long time since she had seen any man other than the wrinkled old boatman who brought her monthly supplies. Now she thought about it, not only hadn’t she eaten yet this morning, but she’d been so wrapped up yesterday in protecting all her precious seedlings from the coming storm she’d barely eaten in twenty-four hours.

‘Well, don’t just stand there,’ his voice was harsh and grumpy, ‘can’t you see I’m hurt?’ He took away his hand and she gasped to realise that it had hidden a gash trailing a crimson ribbon of blood down the side of his face.

‘Oh goodness,’ she ran over and stared in horror. Being almost naked – apart from the tiny bikini – she didn’t have even a hanky to mop his forehead or to perform rudimentary first aid. ‘Oh heavens. Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were hurt. Um.’ Quick, think quickly. ‘Come over here,’ she said, still annoyed that he had landed where he had no right to land, and wanting him gone as soon as possible she reasoned it would be in her best interests to get him cleaned up and ready to leave as soon as they’d righted the plane. She hoped to goodness he hadn’t been stupid enough to run out of petrol. She had some put by but that was for emergencies, not for incompetent, lost pilots. Besides it would be a sin to let that sparkling white T-shirt get covered in blood. ‘Um, perhaps if you took your shirt off, I could use it to stem the bleeding.’

He quirked a questioning eyebrow at her then grasped the edges of the shirt, pulled it up over his head and handed it to her. Suddenly, she didn’t know where to look. Certainly it was dangerous to gaze at that wide expanse of shoulders, and it was far too risky to stare at that finely honed ridge of muscles running across his chest. She turned away, scampered over to the shoreline, dipped the edge of the shirt into the crystal-clear sea, and wrung it out. She glanced over and saw he was resting, seated on an upturned wheel of the plane. As she made her way back, she was painfully conscious of his direct gaze on her unclothed limbs.

Nancy knew she was too skinny. Living alone on the island she had become so centred on the animals and plants she studied she often forgot it was time to eat. Thank goodness her hair draped over her flat chest. She hadn’t had to worry about being embarrassed or self-conscious in months. The stranger had invaded her territory looking like the leader of a tribe of Vikings and although he was hurt, she was still annoyed at his unceremonious arrival. Roughly she wiped the blood which had trickled down his face and was threatening to stain those oh-so-pristine trousers.

‘Ouch!’ he yelped.

‘Sorry,’ she managed the word only reluctantly. It wasn’t her fault he’d crashed. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near Isle de Alfambra. Anyone who bothered to gain the least bit of knowledge about this group of islands would know that this was a treasure-house of tropical wildlife specifically protected by law from strangers who could unwittingly bring anything with them: foreign insects in the tread of their shoes; alien bugs on the foodstuffs they carried in their provisions. It was basic elementary ecological sense, of which he seemed woefully ignorant. ‘I suppose I ought to introduce myself,’ she reluctantly held out her hand. ‘Dr Nancy Taylor. I apologise for getting cross, but I wasn’t expecting visitors today, tomorrow, or any time in the next few months actually.’

‘Well I can’t say yours is the best welcome I’ve ever had. Still if I had to crash-land I suppose at least I’ve had the foresight to land where there’s a doctor. Although your basic nursing skills are a mite rusty, that’s for sure.’ He took the hand she proffered and held it a moment too long, securing her with blue orbs as deep as the sea. Now he had calmed down, his face was even more delectable. His mouth betrayed a laughter line or two telling her that in better circumstances he might be fun. She pulled her hand away sharply.

‘I’m not a doctor of medicine and never have been. I’m a scientific researcher. I wish I could say welcome to my island but you’re not welcome. In fact you’re here illegally unless you’ve been given a permit to land and the authorities have neglected to tell me.’

‘Nope,’ he looked up at her with an innocence that he could switch on like an electric light, and with lashes so thick it was a sin they were owned by a man. ‘I don’t have any permit because if you’d have thought before running out there like someone possessed you’d have realised that landing was the last thing I wanted to do. I was forced to land. There’s something up with one of my engines. Didn’t you hear the plane wheezing and spluttering? I’ve been flying around demented, I thought I’d never find a suitable strip for the plane’s wheels.’

‘But why use my island?’

‘Your island, do you own it?’

‘Well, no.’ She bristled. Isle de Alfambra felt as if it was hers. She tended it, had sleepless nights worrying over it, had catalogued and studied it and its animal inhabitants twenty-four hours a day. ‘But I’m looking after it, investigating the flora and fauna for the Indian Ocean Island Foundation. I have a right to be here, unlike you.’

‘Good for you, but if I hadn’t crashed here, I’d have had to land in the sea. ‘Your island, unlike the others round here, at least has a stretch of unforested beach to land on. It’s just a pity the welcoming committee’s so rude.’

Nancy pursed her lips and kept on dabbing at his forehead. More softly this time as she was beginning to see he’d had little option. Besides he’d be gone soon. He had to, he was far too distracting and she had far too many important th. . .