New Year, New Man. Laura Iding

all you wanted from me was sex. Obviously that wasn’t the truth, was it? You want what you’ve always wanted: marriage. That’s why you’ve been so damned accommodating all the time. And why you’re so upset right now!’

      Her face flushed with a shaming heat, her hurt eyes making him feel totally wretched.

      ‘If that’s what you really think, Nick,’ she choked out, ‘then I can’t stay here with you. I just can’t.’

      In all his life, Nick had never felt so dreadful. Even when he’d been in jail. But it was for the best, wasn’t it? He was no good for her. Better they call it quits now before she got even more hurt.

      ‘If that’s what you want,’ he snapped.

      ‘What I want…’ She shook her head, her shoulders slumping as a soul-weary sigh escaped her lips. ‘I’m never going to get what I want. Not with you. I can see that now.’ She straightened, putting her shoulders back and lifting her chin up. ‘I’m sorry for throwing that book at you, Nick. Generally speaking, you have been honest with me. Quite brutally at times. I just didn’t want to hear what you were saying.’

      Now Nick felt even worse, his heart like a great lump of iron in his chest. The temptation to jump up and take her in his arms was almost overwhelming. He wanted to tell her that he was the sorry one, that she was unique and special and that he did want to marry her.

      But he resisted the temptation. Somehow.

      ‘I…I’ll move my things into one of the spare bedrooms for tonight,’ she went on, her eyes glistening. ‘Then first thing tomorrow I’ll see if I can get on a flight back to Sydney.’

      ‘Fine,’ he said, and threw back the sheet. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.’

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

      SARAH couldn’t sleep. Not only was she still very upset, but she was also hot. The weather forecast had been right: the temperature had risen sharply over the last few hours, so the air-conditioning was struggling in the higher humidity.

      In the end, Sarah got up, put on the pink bikini she’d bought before Christmas, grabbed a towel and headed for the pool. Who cared if it was the middle of the night and pitch-black outside? The pool had underwater lighting.

      The strength of the wind surprised her. She had to anchor her towel underneath a banana lounger to stop it from blowing away. The same banana lounger, she realised, that she and Nick had had sex on the day before. Wild, wanton sex, with herself a very willing partner.

      Shuddering at the memory, Sarah dived into the water, and began stroking vigorously up and down, hoping to make herself so exhausted that when she returned to bed she would immediately fall asleep.

      Fat chance, she thought wretchedly, but continued to punish herself with lap after lap. Finally, the lactic acid in her joints forced her to stop. Slowly, she swam over towards the lounger that was down near the far edge of the pool.

      Sarah shivered as she hauled herself out of the water. The wind was much stronger than before. That storm couldn’t be far off now. Hopefully, it wouldn’t last too long. She didn’t want there to be any reason for the airport to be closed tomorrow. She needed to get off this island and away from Nick as soon as possible.

      Sarah was bending to retrieve her towel when a wildly swirling gust of wind lifted a nearby table and umbrella off the tiled surrounds and hurled them against her back. She screamed as she was catapulted with tremendous force into the air and right over the horizon edge of the pool. She screamed again when she hit the water-catching ledge below with a bruising blow to her shoulder, another scream bursting from her mouth when momentum carried her right off the edge and into the void.

      Nick was lying on top of the sheets, wide awake, when he heard Sarah’s terrified screams. He was off the bed in a flash, fear quickening his heartbeat—and his legs—as he raced in the direction of her cries.

      The pool area.

      The security light was already on, indicating that Sarah must have come outside here recently. But he couldn’t see her anywhere.

      And then he saw them: the table and umbrella floating in the far end of the pool.

      ‘Oh, my God!’ he exclaimed, his first thought being that she was under them in the water, knocked unconscious and already drowning.

      When Nick dived in and found no sign of her, an even worse possibility came to mind. Swimming to the far edge, he peered over it to the ledge below, hoping against hope that he’d see her sitting there, waiting for him to pull her up into his arms.

      The most appalling dread consumed him when the dimly lit ledge proved empty as well. The thought that she had fallen down to the rocky waters below was so horrendous that he could hardly conceive of it. For no one could survive a fall like that.

      ‘Nooooo!’ he screamed into the wind.

      She could not be dead. Not his Sarah. Not his wonderful, beautiful, sweet Sarah.

      ‘Nick! Nick, are you there?’

      Nick almost cried with relief. ‘Yes, I’m here,’ he called back, scrambling over the edge and dropping down to the ledge below. ‘Where are you? I can’t see you!’

      His eyes were gradually becoming accustomed to the lack of direct light, but the wind was making them water like mad.

      ‘Down here.’

      ‘Down where?’

      He leant right over as far as he dared, finally spotting her clinging to the cliff a few metres down under the ledge. No, not to the cliff but to a bush that was growing out of a crevice in the rock face—a rather straggly-looking bush.

      Hopefully, the roots were tenacious.

      ‘Have you got a foothold?’ he called out to her.

      ‘A bit of a one. But I think this bush is coming loose. Oh, God, yes, it is. Do something, Nick.’

      Nick knew she was too far down for him to reach. He needed something long that she could get hold of. But what?

      Panic turned his head to mush for a moment.

      ‘Think, man,’ he muttered to himself.

      The umbrella in the pool. It was quite large and its supporting pole was long.

      ‘Hold on, Sarah, I have an idea.’

      Adrenaline had him leaping back up and into the pool with the agility of a monkey. He grabbed the umbrella, yanked it down, then jumped back with it to the ledge below.

      ‘Here,’ he said, and stretched it out towards her. ‘Grab this.’

      She did so.

      ‘Hold on tight,’ he ordered.

      Her weight surprised him at first. But he felt strong, stronger than he’d ever felt. And then she was there, in his arms, weeping and shaking with shock.

      Nick held her close, his lips buried in her wet hair, his eyes tightly shut.

      ‘It’s all right,’ he said thickly. ‘I have you now. You’re safe.’

      ‘Oh, Nick,’ Sarah cried. ‘I…I thought I was going to die.’

      Nick held her even tighter. He’d thought she had died. And it was the most defining moment in his life. He knew now what Jim had felt at that hospital. Because as much as Jim loved Flora, he loved Sarah. Oh, yes, he loved her. There was no longer any doubt in his mind.

      But did that make any difference? Wouldn’t she still be better off if he let her go?

      He just didn’t know any more.

      ‘I…I can’t stop sh-shaking,’ she said, her