Josie
“Okay... okay... just a little further... argh!”
Josie swung her arm out wildly, managing to catch hold of an overhanging tree branch before she slid the whole way down the rocky outcropping and into the small valley below.
Still, despite not falling, she managed to bang her hip against a large boulder, and she winced in pain.
Oh, that’s going to bruise.
It wasn’t anything she wasn’t used to, however. It was perfectly normal to end up with a few scrapes and bruises when out in the field – especially since she sometimes forgot her body had limits.
She’d once hiked for six hours to find the perfect place to set some nets, only to find her calves turning to jelly halfway through the journey back because she’d forgotten to eat the lunch she’d packed.
As much as she enjoyed her work, Josie realized that sometimes she could get too caught up in it.
Gritting her teeth, Josie pulled herself back onto even ground, before sitting down and pushing sweaty strands of hair out of her face.
The day was hot. She’d slept well and woken early, but by mid-morning the sun was already strong. She’d spent the evening before studying maps of Calauria to mark some likely places she’d find white speckled kingfisher nests. They always nested close to rivers, but they could build them almost anywhere – in branches, amongst thick undergrowth, between tree roots, in riverbanks... the possibilities were almost endless.
Taking a bottle of water from her bag, Josie sipped it contemplatively. She’d been moving along the riverbank for three hours now, getting the lay of the land. She could look at maps all she liked, but she found that she could never really get a feel for a place until she’d been there in person.
This part of Calauria was clearly uninhabited: the vegetation had been left to grow wild, and there were no real walking tracks out this side of the island.
She wondered if it was different on the south side, where the Vallas family villa was: she’d seen it yesterday when she’d gotten off the boat, a massive, sprawling place built into the side of the mountain that was more like a series of interconnected buildings than one massive house.
It was a beautiful place, that was for sure. Josie wondered what it must be like to have a whole island to yourself, a whole villa just for you.
Lonely, probably.
Josie sighed, re-capping her water bottle and tucking it away.
Lonely, perhaps, but hadn’t she herself sometimes spent weeks at a time alone while doing research?
That’s different, though, she thought as she stood up. That was only temporary. She’d known she’d be going back to the real world eventually, even if sometimes she wished she wasn’t.
Isaak Vallas seemed to have locked himself away here for some reason, and hadn’t been seen in years. Surely that had to be a lonely way to live your life?
Shaking her head, Josie decided it was none of her business. Surely, Isaak Vallas could have all the company he wanted, if he wanted it.
The fact that he hadn’t been seen in years, and that she personally had been told not to go near the villa, was a pretty strong indicator that he liked things the way they were.
And as long as he was letting her stay here, that was fine by her.
In fact, it was probably better this way. If he was a recluse, that meant he wouldn’t try to interfere with her work.
And speaking of work...
She had to keep exploring. She wanted to be back in the guesthouse before it got dark, and she still had plenty of ground to cover.
Lifting her hand, Josie touched her fingers to her grandmother’s ring where it hung around her neck. She hadn’t thought to buy a chain before she’d come out to Calauria, but she’d found some string in a drawer in the guesthouse and created a makeshift necklace out of it. It wasn’t fancy, but it did the job. Scrabbling through the dense vegetation here with it on her finger wasn’t a good idea, but she didn’t like the idea of going out without it, either.
Well, time to get going.
Settling her pack more comfortably on her shoulders, Josie set off again, choosing a path that looked like it might once have a walking track, but which was now almost totally overgrown with dense shrubbery and tree roots.
The trees became thicker the further she walked, and Josie was grateful for the shade. She stuck close by the small river that ran over the gray boulders and stones of the island, its burbling song oddly comforting.
But then... then another song drifted to her ears.
The song of a bird.
Well – calling it a song made it sound prettier than it was.
What it actually was was a series of small chirps and squeaks.
But nonetheless, it caught Josie’s attention immediately.
Quickly turning her head in the direction of the sounds, she caught sight of a small bird fluttering between trees. It was mostly concealed in the shadows, but she could still make out its shape in the low light of the dense foliage, hopping from one tree branch to the next.
Biting her lip, Josie froze. Could it be...?
The bird let out another series of small chirps before it fluttered away – though not before Josie caught a flash of bright blue.
A kingfisher!
Josie let out the breath she’d been holding and began moving carefully forward. She couldn’t lose sight of the bird, but at the same time she had to be careful not to startle it away.
She kept her eyes glued to its small, fluttering form as she carefully picked her way over the uneven ground.
Come on, come on, she mentally coaxed the bird, willing it not to fly too far away from her until she’d had a chance to get a closer look at it. Just stay still a moment, let me have a look at you...
But the bird clearly wasn’t a mind reader, because it kept on going on its erratic path, hopping behind branches, swooping into patches of thick leaves. Josie felt almost like it was deliberately teasing her, not staying in any one place for long enough for her to see it clearly.
Pushing a low-hanging branch aside, Josie walked forward, all her attention focused squarely on the fluttering shape ahead of her.
Finally, it stopped. Not that that was especially helpful, since where it stopped it was completely hidden by a thick tree branch.
“Okay, okay,” Josie murmured under her breath. “No problem.”
Slowly, she started circling to find a different angle to observe from, her eyes never leaving the place she’d last seen the bird’s tiny body.
It’s all right, maybe it’s just gone into its nest, she thought frantically, as the bird remained hidden. That’s fine, I’ll just go over and –
“Shit!”
Josie never got to finish the thought.
With the next step she took, her foot moved out – and suddenly found there was absolutely nothing underneath it.
Oh, shit! Shit!!
Flailing her arms wildly, Josie managed to grab hold of a thin tree branch as she began to tumble down a steep incline, falling heavily on her side. The branch bent beneath her weight, but she didn’t fall any further. Her boots scrabbled against the loose stones of the outcrop that, in her preoccupation with the bird, she hadn’t realized she’d been standing on.
The stones, dislodged by her feet, rolled down a steep drop and into the bottom of the ravine below.
She was lying at full stretch, her arms straining as she kept a desperate grip on the tree branch. Looking up at it, Josie could see it wasn’t exactly sturdy.
A quick glance over her shoulder told her that letting go wasn’t going to be an option either. Even if the drop wasn’t as treacherous as it looked, she’d scrape herself to pieces on the loose rocks and pointed shale.
Okay, well, I’ll just have to pull myself up then, since I’ve been so stupid as to get into this situation.
Biting her lip, Josie shook her head. All right, maybe she had been inattentive, but now wasn’t the time for self-recrimination. She could do that later, when she wasn’t at risk of falling headlong into a deadly – no, not deadly, just... hazardous – precipice.
Hundreds of hours of hiking had given her quite impressive leg strength, but Josie was the first to admit that her arms weren’t as strong as they could be. Gritting her teeth, she slowly began to pull herself up the side of the ravine, her feet searching for toeholds to help support her weight.
Inch by inch, she crawled her way up, moving her hands up the tree branch as her feet scrabbled below.
Relief had just begun to spread through her chest – just an inch or so more and then I’ll be able to pull myself over the side! I can do it! – when her blood ran cold at the unmistakable sound of the tree branch beginning to give way.
Oh... no...
Sucking in a breath, Josie released one hand from the branch and scrabbled at the loose stones around her, trying desperately to find something to hang onto before the branch snapped and sent her tumbling to the rocks below. But there was nothing that didn’t fall away under her hands, nothing she could get any steady grip on.
Her stomach turned a somersault as the branch at last gave way with a sickening crack, and Josie felt herself beginning to topple down...
... At least until the moment she felt something strong and warm wrap itself around her wrist, halting her mid-fall.
Her heart in her throat, Josie looked up to find herself staring into the most beautiful pair of green eyes she had ever seen in her life.
Adrenaline singing in her veins and still expecting at any moment to fall, Josie couldn’t at first understand what had just happened. She blinked, brain frozen, staring at the strong, tanned hand that had grabbed her and stopped her from falling. Then she looked back up again at the green eyes above.
Okay. Okay.
Of course, she hadn’t been saved by a disembodied hand and a pair of eyes.
Now that she was able to start processing thoughts other than I’m doomed! and Aaaaaargh! Josie could see that the man who’d saved her was...
... Well, unbelievably handsome didn’t quite do it justice.
His green eyes were framed by long, dark lashes, and a tumble of black hair fell over his forehead in waves. His lips were full, his square jaw and strong chin lightly stubbled, and his nose perfectly Roman.
He was stunning. And, if the fact he was holding her over the edge of a ravine was anything to go by, unbelievably strong, too.
“Oh, uh,” Josie said.
Wow, intelligent, her brain said, apparently deciding that hectoring her was the best way to deal with the situation.
To be fair, she wasn’t exactly sure what the etiquette was when mysterious strangers rescued you from certain death.
And besides that, it wasn’t like he was saying anything either.
The man was staring down at her, eyes wide, as if in surprise. He blinked, mouth opening and closing without producing a single sound.
Not that Josie could really blame him – she supposed it wasn’t every day you came across damsels in distress hanging off the side of a cliff!
“Are you okay?”
His voice, when he did at last speak, was rich and deep – it reminded her somehow of deep golden sunlit afternoons, dark honey, and soft leather. It sent a roil of pleasure through her stomach, even though it was possibly the least appropriate situation for that to happen in.
“I – I’m fine,” she stuttered, as he flexed his arm and hoisted her without any apparent effort up to the lip of the ravine. She staggered a little as she stood, and his hand was instantly on her waist, steadying her.
She could feel the warmth of his skin even through the material of her shirt, his touch sending a thrill along the whole length of her spine. Josie sucked in a breath, licking her lips.
Her chest contracted as she looked up at him again. He really was amazingly good-looking – but Josie had never been one to lose her head over a man. She’d seen handsome guys before. Usually they were also insufferably arrogant assholes.
A million thoughts swam through her brain as she tried to figure out what to say next. Naturally, she wanted to thank him profusely – but she also couldn’t figure out just how he’d found her, in this isolated spot well off the beaten track, on an island she was pretty sure had a population of one...
“Oh!” she said as realization finally dawned. “You’re Isaak Vallas!”
She bit her lip as he winced. She sounded like some country bumpkin seeing a celebrity on the street.
“I mean – of course you are,” she said hastily. “It’s your island.”
The ghost of a smile flittered across his face, and she swallowed.
“Yes. It’s my island.”
His English was lightly accented, soft and sweet. It sent a shiver of pleasure up her spine.
What’s with that?
Belatedly, Josie realized that his hand was still resting on her waist from when he’d steadied her. Isaak seemed to realize it at the exact same moment she did, and drew his hand back suddenly as if he’d been burned.
Inexplicably, Josie found herself missing the contact as soon as it was lost.
She glanced at Isaak, and found him staring down at his palm as if he didn’t recognize it.
Pressing her lips together, Josie decided that she’d better try to make amends sooner rather than later. She was here on Calauria only because Isaak Vallas had given her permission, and now the first thing she’d done here was disturb the peace he so obviously craved and made herself look very foolish by almost falling off a cliff. It wasn’t the most brilliant start to her expedition, or the best way to introduce herself.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t paying attention. I thought I saw... well, no, there’s no excuse.” She shook her head ruefully. “I’m an experienced field worker – I should know better than this. I’m really sorry I disturbed your walk, and I promise you it won’t happen again.”
Josie held her breath, hoping that would be enough. Who knew with these eccentric billionaires? Though when she looked at Isaak, ‘eccentric billionaire’ was the last thing that came to mind. If anything, he looked like he belonged on the pages of a men’s fitness magazine. With his striking combination of black hair and green eyes, tanned skin, massive shoulders and bulging biceps...
... Josie shook her head.
Focus!
“It’s... it’s okay.” Isaak’s voice was soft, and he was still staring down at his hand. Slowly, he flexed his fingers. Suddenly, he seemed to give himself a shake, and then glanced at her. “The terrain here can be... treacherous. You’re not hurt?”
Josie shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Just a little banged up. I’ll probably have a few bruises tomorrow.” She laughed, trying to sound lighthearted. “No big deal – nothing I’m not used to.”
Isaak blinked, mild alarm spreading across his face. “Nothing you’re not used to?”
Josie raised her hands reassuringly, feeling flustered. “Oh, no – only because field work can be kind of rough sometimes. I’ve banged my knees up plenty of times getting out to a location. It’s just part of the job.”
Isaak still didn’t look particularly reassured. Josie swallowed as his eyes ranged down over her body – though the look in his eye was one of concern, rather than lasciviousness. Josie hesitated, caught halfway between relief and disappointment.
On the one hand, she’d had enough of men looking her over to last a lifetime. But on the other...
“You’re bleeding.” Isaak’s voice was intense, his accent becoming slightly stronger.
“Oh – where?” Josie glanced down at herself, twisting a little. He was right, though – she had a scrape on her thigh that was just beginning to ooze blood. She bit her lip as the adrenaline that had been flowing in her system finally receded enough for her to feel the sting of the cut.
It wasn’t especially deep or serious, but she’d have to be very careful to make sure there wasn’t any dirt or small stones left in the cut. That was going to be difficult, considering its location on the side and back of her left thigh. She was going to have to be very careful when she cleaned it – and it meant she could kiss goodbye the idea of doing any more exploring today.
Sighing in frustration, she ran her hand through her sweaty hair, which had started to come loose from its ponytail.
Annoyed, she tightened it. She’d always had unruly curls, and she really ought to get it cut. But being out in the middle of nowhere for months hadn’t really given her much chance to visit a hairdresser.
Great, and now you’re standing in front of the most handsome man you’ve ever seen with your hair a mess, bruised to hell, and – oh yeah – he was forced to rescue you after your own silliness! Good work, Josie!
Disappointment sliced through her chest – though whether it was at the lost day of exploring or at having to leave Isaak to get herself cleaned up, she wasn’t sure.
It was a strange feeling, this reluctance to move away from him. Sure, he had a kind of rugged beauty that took her breath away, but that didn’t account for the strange tightening in her chest when she looked at him, and the way her skin was still tingling from when he’d touched her.
Weird.
But Isaak himself had been extremely taciturn throughout their meeting. Given what she’d guessed about his love of isolation, he probably wasn’t thrilled to be stuck here talking to her when he’d presumably just been out for his morning hike.
I should leave him to it, Josie thought. I’ve bothered him enough for one day. Or lifetime.
“I’m sorry again for spoiling your walk,” she said. “I guess I better get back to the guesthouse and get this taken care of.” She shook her head. “Thanks again – I’d say I’d see you around, but I’m sure you’d prefer it if I left you alone from now on!”
Josie hesitated a second longer, still not quite able to tear herself away. But then, steeling herself, she began to turn to head back the way she’d come.
“Wait –”
Josie stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of Isaak’s voice. She glanced over her shoulder at him, a little surprised.
“I mean, wait, please.”
As she watched, he squared his shoulders, seeming to collect himself.
“I can’t let you go with a wound like that.”
Josie blinked. “Oh – no, it’s just a scrape,” she said, waving a hand dismissively, even as her inner voice yelled at her to take Isaak up on his offer.
He’s telling you you don’t have to go! You can stay with him!
She shook her head a little.
He’s only offering because he feels obligated, she answered herself. I can’t abuse his hospitality. He’s not out here on this island because he wants company.
“Even a scrape can be dangerous if it gets infected,” Isaak said, taking a step toward her. “Dirt or rocks could have become embedded in it. I know first aid – it’s necessary when you live alone as I do. Please – let me take a look at it under some decent light back at the villa. I’d hate for you to suffer a worse injury than necessary.”
Josie swallowed. The offer was a tempting one – and not just because she was sure Isaak could do a more thorough job of cleaning the scrape than she could, twisting around to look at the back of her own thigh.
She shivered as she remembered how hot his hands had been, and how they had made her skin prickle with excitement.
“All right,” she said, before she could give herself time for second thoughts.