Escape (3 page)

Lucy followed everyone out of the room and headed toward the pool. The area was designed to be more functional than aesthetic; oxygen tanks and breathing apparatus had replaced the sun beds. The outside of the pool was a simple paving. It was the least exotic part of the resort.

At the back of the pool, working on the equipment, was Rudy. He had taken off his shirt and the sight of his half-naked body sent tremors through her. He was perfectly formed, with just the right amount of muscle, and smooth, tanned skin. She guessed he was naturally fit from all the diving—he didn’t seem like the type to pump iron in the gym.

Despite the blandness of the swimming pool, Rudy’s presence somehow made the place look exciting.

“As I’m sure you all remember,” Rachel said, addressing the group, tearing Lucy’s attention away from Rudy, “the most important thing when you’re diving is to make sure you have a buddy. If you have a buddy, then anything that may happen can be resolved. If you ever try to dive alone and something happens—you lose your mouth piece, your air runs out, you get your lines caught on something—then you are as good as dead. Do you understand?”

Everyone nodded obediently.

“So the first thing everyone needs to do is find
yourselves
a buddy.”

Lucy felt as if she was back at school and was about to be the last one picked for the team. Everyone else already had a buddy; they had arrived at the resort with friends
.
Lucy was the only one on her own.

She glanced over at Stacy and Leanne, and they both gave her an apologetic half-smile and a shrug. No help there.

“Oh,” Rachel said, looking Lucy up and down. “You don’t have a buddy. Not to worry, you can buddy up with me.”

“Great,” she said, feeling she would quite happily have stripped naked, rather than buddy up with Rachel.

Rudy stepped in. “That’s okay, Rachel. You concentrate on teaching the group. I’ll buddy up with Lucy.”

Rachel opened her mouth to protest, but then shut it again. Instead, she forced a smile.

“Of course, I’d be happy to,” she said.

He approached Lucy, carrying the diving gear he want
ed her to wear. Self-conscious
, she stripped off her skirt and vest top, aware she
was the only one in a one-piece
whe
n all of the other girls wore
bikinis.

Screw it
, she thought. She hadn’t exactly had time to shop for this holiday.

There was a lot of equipment: buoyancy vests, air tanks, face masks, weight belts. Luckily, they didn’t need to use fins in the pool, so she was at least excused of one humiliation.

Rudy helped Lucy put on the dive gear, his hand reaching across her stomach to fasten the belt in place, his body close to hers. He helped her holster on the air tanks, before donning his own. Just the proximity of that gorgeous body
,
so close to her own, made her catch her breath.

“Are you ready?” he asked
.

Lucy nodded and placed the mouth-piece between her lips, gripping its rubbe
r with her teeth
as instructed. She took a couple of deep practice breaths, the nitrous oxide mixture sounding hollow, like a bad imitation of Darth Vader.

Feeling awkward, Lucy headed down the shallow steps of the pool, Rudy supporting her arm so she didn’t lose her balance. The cool silk of the water crept up her thighs and she gasped a little as it hit her che
st. Then she
acclimatised
and sa
nk into the water, relishing the sudden weightlessness of the equipment.

Rudy gave her the thumbs down, the signa
l to go under, and she lowered her head beneath
the water, instinctively squeezing her eyes shut as she went. She fought to continue to breathe in and out, slow and steady, but her whole body tried to rebel, and she desperately wanted to hold her breath. Though she was only a couple of feet beneath the surface, she could
feel herself starting to panic—her heart rate picking up, her breathing becoming faster.
She had never even liked putting her face in the water before. Her heart raced and her arms started to flail, wanting to push herself up to the surface.

Rudy’s fingers touched her arm and her eyes flew open. Beyond the mask, water swam before her eyes. But Rudy suspended directly in front of her and his brown eyes focused on hers, his impact managing to pierce through the panes of Perspex glass.

Her breathing slowed and she followed his lead, breathing with the flow of bubbles filtering through his mask.

Rudy
pointed to his own mouth piece and then to hers, indicating for them to swap. The idea of having something that had be
en pressed up against his lips, in her mouth,
was enough to give her palpitations, but she held it together. Sucking in deep, she held her breath. Carefully, she took the piece out of her mouth, slowly blowing bubbles as she did so, and took Rudy’s mouthpiece from him. She put the regulator in, breathing as she had before.

He put his thumb and forefinger together, the sign to ask if she was okay.

Automatically, she gave him the thumbs up, but then realized she was
signa
l
ling
to him she wanted to go back up and changed it to an ‘okay’ sign. Lucy laughed through her mouth piece, creating a
flurry of bubbles.
S
h
e was actually enjoying herself, she realized.
Even around the mouthpiece, Rudy managed to smile back at her.

Th
ough
people
surrounded them,
they were in their own little bubble, focused only upon each other.

Together, they practiced the different hand signals she needed to know and pretended to lose their mouth pieces, so Lucy would know what to do in an emergency. He showed her how to equalize her ears, so she wouldn’t feel the extra pressure and pain caused by compressing the air in her sinuses. By the end of the session, Lucy had lost her self-consciousness and worries about panicking, and didn’t want to go back to the surface.

But the session had to end and Lucy clambered back out of the pool, the weight of the tanks suddenly apparent now that she was out of the water. Rudy helped her struggle out of them.

She turned to him, a big grin still plastered on her face.

“That was amazing,” she said. “It was so weird, breathing underwater. I can’t believe I did it!”

He laughed at her excitement and his eyes sparkled in the sunlight. “Wait till you go in the ocean and you get to see more than an old
plaster
floating at the bottom of the pool.”

“I can’t wait. I want to go now.”

“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to, but the starter dive leaves here at eight-thirty tomorrow morning, so I suggest you come then.”

“I’ll be there,” she said.

“Great, but I hope to see you tonight, at the barbeque?”

She smiled shyly as she wrapped herself in her towel. “Sure.”

Chapter Two

As the last of the
light bled from the sky, the party on the beach was just getting started. Loud dance music blared from several big speakers, the bass vibrating through the sand. All around, people stood
or sat in groups, talking,
laughing and drinking. Some people danced and others waded into the ocean, paddling and even swimming under the moonlight.

The atmosphere buzzed with vibrant excitement. Young people filled the beach, either on holiday or traveling, with no more responsibilities than deciding where to eat the next day.

Rudy stood behind the bar, helping out. Though busy enough, he couldn’t help but be distracted. His gaze scanned the different groups
of people, but none of them contained
the girl from the dive lesson today.

Lucy.
             

He couldn’t explain how those eyes had stayed in his memory, but they had. He hoped she would show.

“Hey, boss,” Jai, one of the local Thai guys who worked behind the bar called to him. He held up the crate of beer clasped in his hands. “Where do you want these?”

Rudy nodded to a spot on the sand, behind the bar, and Jai dropped them down. Everyone at the bar was
being served, so Rudy crouched
and started loading the bottles into the fridge.

It was probably a good thing Lucy hadn’t shown up. He shouldn’t have any kind of interest, other than a professional one, in one of the guests. He thought he would
have learned his lesson by now—
getting involved with another woman was the last thing he wanted to do. But something about this girl made him want to be near her.

The warm night kissed his skin, but in the four years Rudy had been on the island, he’d become acclimated to the heat. However, t
he women at the party had not and t
he place was awash with girls in strappy tops and s
hort skirts.
Rudy wasn’t interested. Was it possible to become
anesthetised
to all the naked limbs and tanned skin?

Ever since his last relationship two years ago, he thought he had hardened his heart. He tried to keep women at arm’s length, metaphorically speaking. Of course he’d had some dalliances, but he always knew the woman in question was in it for the same reason as him; purely physical.

And so far, this had worked for him.

Until now.
Now a woman on the island interested him in a more than just physical way and though his brain told him to keep away, he couldn’t help but feel drawn.

Rudy smiled to himself. This woman wasn’t like the usual people they got on the island. Pale-skinned and free from any tattoos or piercings, she looked as though she had just been plucked from city life and dropped into the wilderness.

She fascinated him. With her impossibly long limbs and wide, strange colored eyes—somewhere between blue and green,
a hue that reminded him of the ocean—she’
d made an impression on him that he couldn’t seem to shake.

Laughter from behind
the bar
caught his attention. Those were the normal people the island attracted; young, carefree,
and
out
for
adventure.

Adventure seemed to be the last thing on Lucy’s mind. To Rudy, it looked more like she wanted to run and hide.

She’d roused his curiosity and it wasn’t just because of the long legs or the big aqua eyes.

It was the story behind those eyes that had him drawn.

“Hey, Rudy!”

Rudy looked up to see Rachel’s head peering over the top of the bar, looking down at him. He got to his feet, brushing sand from his knees.

“What’s up, Rachel?” Though he addressed her, his eyes flicked across the throng of partying people, checking to see if Lucy had arrived yet.

“I need to talk to you about something. You got a minute?”

“Um,” he stalled, not wanting to
miss
Lucy, but knowing he owed Rachel his time. “Sure.”

“Great,” she said. “Walk with me for a bit.”

Lucy walked down the
stone steps from her balcony, nervously smoothing down her yellow sundress. Music from the party drifted up to her, growing louder as she closed the distance to the beach.