Tempted By Her Island Millionaire

He was silent for a moment, then she heard him take a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

She felt his arms tighten around her. Sympathy? She certainly hoped not. “It’s one thing when a short-term, frivolous relationship ends. A marriage failing is a bit more life altering.”

He had no idea. The end of her marriage was only part of it. Someone like Clint would never understand. He could never grasp how someone like her had never truly felt untethered. She was a daughter first. Then a wife. Her identity had always been tied to someone else.

She’d never felt like just Rita. Just herself.

No, she wouldn’t even bother to explain. There would be no point.

“Was it one particular thing?” he asked above her head. “That led to your split, I mean.”

His question wasn’t as simple as it appeared on the surface. There were so many particular smaller issues. And one major underlying one. “Yes. And no.” It was the most honest answer she could give.

“So you’re saying it’s complicated.”

She could repeat her answer and be correct once again. “Only in that we wanted different things.” Things she was in no way ready for. While Jay wanted them more than anything. Things like a family, children, a house. Things she wouldn’t be able to walk away from and then it would be too late, making her stay for all the wrong reasons. “So yes, in that way it was complicated.”

She couldn’t get into any more than that, despite Clint’s charm and the effect he was having on her when he held her this way. How could she explain something that she hadn’t fully grasped herself yet?

And what about him? What exactly was his story? The way he’d talked earlier about his relationships sounded as if he expected them all to come with predetermined expiration dates.

She was trying to come up with a way to ask when a small sliver of reddish-orange light broke through the surface of the clouds in the distance. The sun was finally beginning to rise. A collective hush suddenly fell over the murmuring crowd. In slow motion they all watched as more and more streaks of breathtaking hues of red broke over the sky.

The scene took her breath away. Any hint of her earlier cold or discomfort was completely forgotten. This view, this image would stay with her forever.

As would the thought that she was unexplainably happy that she’d been able to share it with Clint. While he held her in his arms.

* * *

The woman pulled at him like a magnet. Clint had fully intended to stay away from her on this trip. He really had. But then he’d seen her shivering in the dark with nothing but a flimsy, hooded sweatshirt and some type of thin fleece headband. The windchill up here had to be below freezing at the least. How was he supposed to walk away?

He wasn’t made of stone after all.

Now he was beyond happy that he’d ignored the warnings in his head and gone to her. He couldn’t imagine taking in this scene any other way. Tomorrow he might think differently. But right now, watching the brilliant colors slowly explode across the dawn sky above the crater, he was more content than he could ever remember.

Spiritual. It was the one word that came to mind. The most spiritual thing he’d experienced in all his years. And he had the pleasure of doing so with the extraordinary woman who happened to be in his arms.

A few feet away, an elderly gentleman with long white hair dressed in traditional native garb began chanting.

“It’s a prayer and salutation to the sun,” Rita whispered below his ear. The chanter’s deep, rich voice added yet another magical element to the extraordinary moment. Clint allowed himself to simply relax, to simply take in the majesty surrounding him. Rita was breathing steadily and deeply against his chest.

They remained that way several moments even after the sacred chant ended.

“That was amazing.” Rita finally broke the silence but made no effort to move out of his embrace. And he couldn’t remember when he’d ever felt so at peace, so serene.

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind them made them both jump. Clint turned to see his sister and her groom both staring with their mouths agape. Reluctantly, he pulled his arms away and let Rita go.

“I was really cold,” Rita offered by way of explanation.

Lizzie blinked, then focused her intense gaze on her brother’s face.

“She was shivering.”

“Right” was Lizzie’s only response but she dragged out the word so long it was almost comical. His soon-to-be brother-in-law made a dramatic gesture of coughing into his hand in order to hide his laugh.

Rita adjusted her top and stepped away. “That was quite an amazing sight to behold.”

Clint had to tighten his fists to keep from reaching for her again. As silly as that notion was under their current circumstances. But he couldn’t deny that his fingers itched to do that very thing.

“Uh-huh. Sure was.” Lizzie’s double meaning was as clear as the new dawn sky behind them. He’d have to set the record straight with her at some point. Explain to her that he had no long-term sights on her school friend.

She really should know him better than that.

“So anyway,” Jonathon finally said, “there’s some hot chocolate and coffee waiting on the tour bus. The van with all the bikes is up here now. We’ll be heading out shortly to ride.” He tugged on his fiancée’s hand. Lizzie finally moved and they both walked away.

Though Lizzie shot one more questioning look at him as they left.

“I’d almost forgotten,” Rita said, not meeting his gaze. “About the biking.”

Part of this excursion was to be a group bike ride back down the mountain. Apparently, it was the thing to do when you came up here.

“All part of the adventure.”

Rita bit down on her lip and glanced up at the road ahead. “I might have to skip that part of the experience.”

That took him aback. “Whatever for? Can you ride?”

She nodded. “Yes, of course. But I’ve never actually ridden down a high, rugged mountain before.”

He shrugged. “I’m guessing very few of us have.”

She didn’t respond.

“What will you do instead?” he asked her, suddenly beyond disappointed that she wouldn’t be participating.

“I’ll just ride down with the driver in the van.”

He gave her a shrug. “I’m going to skip riding too then. I’ll just drive down in the van with you.”

“What? No. Why would you do that?”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to let you sit by yourself in the back of a van following the rest of us down as we ride. It’s just not in my nature.”

Her eyes clouded with concern. “I don’t want to be the reason you miss out on this, Clint.”

“Then reconsider. Come on, it will be fun.”