Isaak
“Ouch! Oh, that smarts.”
“I’m sorry – it’ll be finished with soon.”
Isaak swallowed as he looked down at the expanse of bronzed thigh in front of him.
Thankfully, the scrape hadn’t been any deeper than it looked, and he’d been able to clean the dirt out of it quickly and gently. Now, he was dabbing disinfectant onto it as softly as he could, highly aware that it would sting as it touched Josephine’s broken skin.
Call me Josie, she’d said as they walked back to the villa together. Nobody calls me Josephine except my Great-Aunt Ana. And even then, only when she’s angry.
Isaak took in a deep breath as he lowered the cotton swab again, dabbing gently along Josie’s thigh. He could see her muscles tensing as he touched it against her, and heard her sharp intake of breath.
“Is the pain... too much?” he asked, glancing at her in concern. “Do you need to take a break?”
Josie shook her head.
“No – in fact, it hurts a lot less than I thought it would. A lot less than a few minutes ago, anyway. Sometimes it’s best to just get these things over and done with.”
Isaak nodded. “I agree.”
He drew a deep breath, trying to focus once more on the task. He tried not to think about how soft her skin was, or about the generous curve of her thigh before it met the arch of her hip.
Up close, she was every bit as beautiful as she had looked yesterday when he’d seen her at the dock. She was stunning, all lush curves and cascading hair, black eyes and golden-brown skin. She was everything a woman should be.
But her beauty wasn’t the only thought in his mind as he gently ran the cotton swab over the scrape on her thigh.
His thoughts jostled against each other as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.
How did I know she was there?
Isaak had spent a sleepless night tossing and turning in his sweat-soaked sheets, before at last giving up just as the dawn’s light had touched the sky. He had tried swimming, doing laps until his lungs burned. But nothing had managed to calm the beast within him.
It had been frantic ever since he had caught his first glimpse of Josie yesterday. Nothing seemed to calm it down.
As he had dragged himself out of the pool, his arms shaking from exertion, he had made up his mind that he would have to tell her to go. He couldn’t risk it. Not if her presence made the monster inside him behave in this way.
He had showered and dressed, and been on the verge of sitting down at his computer to email his lawyer with instructions to ask Dr. Torres to leave the island when he had felt it. Something in his head telling him to run. NOW!
It had been impossible to ignore. Something inside him was telling him to move – that if he didn’t, something awful was going to happen.
He hadn’t understood it, any more than he understood the beast inside him – but nor could he argue.
Isaak had dashed from the main room of the villa and out into the garden, bounding over the plants and into the wild forest beyond without a moment’s thought. He had always been strong and agile, ever since he’d been young. It had led him to sports when he’d been at school, but he’d always outdone even the most athletic of his teammates, to the point where he’d found he had to hold himself back to avoid hurting someone. Despite the fact he’d enjoyed it, Isaak had decided to quit the teams he was on before he caused someone a serious injury.
But that strength and speed had come in handy as he’d raced through the forest, avoiding low branches and leaping small streams as he went. Tree roots and boulders were no obstacles. It was almost as if he’d known they were there before he reached them, and he’d simply leaped over them as if they weren’t even there.
Go. Go faster!
The voice in his head had been screaming by then, pulling him along. Isaak had had no idea where he was going or why, only that he needed to. There was no choice: he had to keep going.
It took several minutes before he heard it: somehow, through the rustle of the leaves in the breeze and the calls of birds, he could make out the sounds of someone in trouble. The sound of feet scrabbling against loose rocks; of panting, distressed breaths.
It’s her.
He didn’t know how he knew – of course, she was the only other person on the island, but it wasn’t that. It was the knowledge, deep in his heart, that the woman he had seen yesterday was in trouble, and he was the only one who could save her.
Somehow, his instincts had guided him straight to her.
He had found her only just in time: the branch she had been clinging to as she hung over the ravine had snapped even as he watched, and he had flung himself forward without even thinking about what he was doing, catching her wrist before she could tumble to the rocks below.
He had been only just in time.
It made Isaak shudder to think of what might have happened if he had been only a few moments later, or if he had been somehow able to ignore that sudden, wild impulse to run.
But it wasn’t only that, nor the mystery of how he had even known where she was.
There was also the fact that, far from the roaring, roiling mass the beast inside him had been yesterday, now it seemed almost... calm.
It was still there, as it always was.
But, for the first time in years, Isaak felt that it was, somehow, peaceful. Content, even.
Far from his fear that it would somehow cause him to hurt her, Isaak realized that being near her had seemed to soothe it somehow, as if her mere presence was some kind of healing balm.
Or maybe, Isaak thought, it was just that the whole of his mind was taken up by how powerfully attracted he was to her.
He swallowed as Josie shifted her leg a little, glancing over her shoulder at him.
My God, she’s beautiful.
“I can’t thank you enough for this,” she said, as Isaak tried to get his focus back to disinfecting her scraped leg. “I know that one of the conditions of me being here was to not approach the villa. I’m sorry I disturbed you.”
Isaak glanced up at her, shaking his head. “No. Please don’t apologize. This is no inconvenience, I promise.”
If only she knew...
Clearly, Josie thought his instructions to stay away from the villa were because he wanted to be alone. But that wasn’t true at all.
He had always felt different from others, even before the beast inside him had made itself known. But he had always craved company, longing to find someone who might truly understand him.
Living alone on the island was pure necessity, and nothing more.
He couldn’t risk harming someone.
But if only she knew how lonely I’ve been...
And if only she knew how her presence here had brought him the kind of calm he hadn’t known in years.
“Still, I promise I won’t bother you any more after this,” Josie said. “You’ve been very kind to me. And I mean... wow...”
Lifting her arm, she gestured a little to the room they were in.
It was Isaak’s favorite room in the villa. Massive glass doors opened out onto an enormous terrace overlooking the azure beauty of the ocean. The walls were rough-hewn, the white plaster still showing the ancient stone of the monastery the building had once been. Trees growing on the mountainside crowded around the windows and provided shade on the terrace, giving the room a feeling of secrecy and seclusion despite its openness.
“I have to admit, if I had a place like this, I probably wouldn’t leave either,” Josie said, laughing a little.
Isaak nodded. “I’m... extremely fortunate.”
He knew it was true. He didn’t like to consider what his life might be like if he had been adopted by people who couldn’t give him all the advantages the Vallases had. To think that he might not have been able to hide himself here, never knowing when the beast might have broken free...
“It sounds like you can take a lot of the credit for it, though,” Josie continued. She glanced at him again, her expression a little sheepish. “I hope you don’t mind that I... well, that I read up a little on you before I wrote to you. You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished Seems like you saved your father’s business. You’ve earned your success.”
Isaak frowned, almost wanting to disagree with her. “I won’t deny it was hard work at times. But many people are not so fortunate to even have that opportunity. Even if I hadn’t been able to save the company, I inherited enough money on my father’s death that I never would have needed to work again.”
“You still did, though,” Josie said. “As you say, you could have just sat on your a – I mean, sat back and done nothing. I think that’s at least a little admirable.”
Maybe she was right, Isaak thought as he tore off a strip of medical tape, using it to affix a square of gauze over the scrape on her leg. But despite the fact he’d known he wouldn’t personally be affected by the collapse of Vallas Shipping, he’d felt he couldn’t be responsible for all the people who worked for it losing their jobs. When times had been tough, he had insisted on not taking a salary so that they wouldn’t have to lay off a single worker.
And besides which, Nikos Vallas had built the company from nothing. He had poured blood, sweat and tears into it. Isaak knew he would have been betraying his adoptive father’s memory to simply let the company die.
Isaak tried to ignore the way his blood throbbed in his veins as the tips of his fingers slid over Josie’s skin as he attached the gauze. But he couldn’t ignore the way she shivered as he touched her, or her sharp inhalation.
“Sorry,” Josie said again, sounding a little breathless. “I’m talking about things that’re none of my business.”
“It’s... it’s okay,” Isaak said. He realized belatedly that his fingers were still resting against the soft skin of her thigh. He could feel the thrill of the contact all the way up his arm. He swallowed. “I believe I have finished treating your scrape.”
With effort, he drew his hand back, suppressing the urge to groan with regret as he did so.
What was it about her that affected him like this?
“It sounds like you’re no stranger to hard work yourself,” he managed to get out, curling his hand into a fist and raising his eyes to her face, where he immediately found himself lost in her black eyes.
Josie laughed a little, sitting up on the sofa and moving her leg from where it had rested on his knee. Was it just him, or did she seem just as reluctant as he was to break contact with him? Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed. Her lips were full and moist.
“Well, perhaps that’s true,” she said. “I’m not going to lie – being out in the field comes with its hazards – I guess that must be pretty obvious! But it’s not just that. I’m constantly fighting for funding to continue my work, and every year it’s getting harder. I need to be out in the field, but I also need to write papers and teach students. Not that I don’t enjoy all of that, but it’s hard not to feel like you’re being pulled in about a thousand different directions at once. And it’s not like it leaves a lot of time for a social life.” She shrugged, glancing at him. “But then again, I always was kind of a homebody. Maybe that’s why I envy you your little island home so much.”
Isaak forced himself to look away from her. He wasn’t sure how he could explain his situation without coming across like a poor little rich boy – Oh, yes, I have all this money and this beautiful island all to myself, but if only I weren’t alone...
He gave himself a mental shake. He didn’t want to talk any more about himself, in any case. He wanted to know more about her – and to try to figure out why it was he felt so calm when he was near her.
“But it seems you’re passionate about your work,” he said, turning to look at her again, feeling excitement slice through his chest as he found her eyes still trained on him, as if she had been studying him while he wasn’t looking.
“Oh yes, of course,” Josie said, her eyes shining, a smile spreading across her face. “I’ve never wanted to do anything else, ever since I first started watching birds in my mother’s garden. A few bumps and bruises is nothing compared with being the first person to discover a new species, or finding the final piece of evidence you need to solve some mystery everyone’s been working on. And I love the teaching aspect of it too – it’s amazing watching students fall in love with their studies. Ordinarily I don’t like talking to people much, but when it’s teaching...”
She stopped suddenly, ducking her head shyly. Isaak watched her, his heart in his throat as a blush burned its way across her dark skin.
“I guess I got a little carried away there,” she said, flashing him a small smile. “Sometimes I forget myself a little when I’m talking about my work.”
“No, not at all,” Isaak hurried to reassure her. “It’s so... it’s so wonderful to see someone who genuinely loves what they do.” He was speaking truthfully. He’d grown cynical after spending so much time in the business world – it seemed like most people there were only in love with money. “I knew you were passionate about it from the moment I read your letter.”
Josie looked at him, eyes wide. “You... you read it? I just assumed your lawyer would have passed on the details and...”
“‘I know this is an unusual request, but Calauria represents a rare opportunity for me to continue my work,’” Isaak quoted from memory, the words that Josie had written coming to his mind easily. “‘It is my hope that, with your permission, I may be able to contribute something not only of value but of beauty to the ornithological community’.”
The words had moved him. His initial instinct to reject the request had melted before them. What could he have done, except say yes?
Josie was staring at him, her mouth open in surprise. Finally, she blinked, seeming stunned. “I – I don’t know what to say,” she said softly. “It’s... well, so often... I mean, I’m used to people dismissing my work as not important, or boring, or whatever else.”
Before Isaak knew what he was doing, he found himself leaning forward, reaching out to take her hand. “No, of course it’s not any of those things,” he said, watching as she looked down to where his hand covered hers – not with surprise or alarm, but with a strange heat in her eyes that he knew was also in his. “Not if it brings you happiness. If I have learned anything here, from everything that I’ve been through –”
Isaak’s voice caught in his throat.
What am I saying? What am I doing?
He wasn’t sure he knew himself, except that Josie made him feel something he hadn’t felt in years.
It wasn’t only a sense of calm – the raging beast within him finally tamed by her presence. It was something else too: a tightening in his chest that made him feel breathless, a warmth on his skin that felt almost like the sun.
She attracted him irresistibly, in a way he’d never known before – and, from the way she was looking at him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes focused on his mouth, he knew she felt it too.
But I can’t...
Isaak tried to shake himself free of her power, closing his eyes and turning his head.
It’s too dangerous... I’m too dangerous. Just because the monster is quiet now doesn’t mean it’s gone...
“Isaak...”
At the sound of her softly saying his name, Isaak found he couldn’t keep his eyes off her any longer. Opening them and turning to look at her, he found her face tantalizingly close to his.
He licked his lips, swallowing heavily, as a groan wound its way up from his throat.
“Josie...” he began to say, before at last, her lips met his.