Free Paradise Found by Nancy Loyan Page B

splashed water on him. “What you really need is a cold shower.”
    He winked. “Not on your life.”
    He trudged through the deep water toward her. Facing her, he drew her into an intimate embrace, molding her against him, balancing her in the water’s gentle current.
    His hand on her backside drew her against his male hardness. Even the warm temperature of the water had little effect on his determined anatomy. She groaned softly into his chest as she tingled at his touch.
    “The ocean isn’t the safest place,” he whispered, lifting her up and into his arms, her form masking the prominent bulge in his shorts.
    He carried her into shallow water and down the beach where he lowered her foot first in the powdery sand. She looked up at the serious expression on his face.
    “This isn’t really the best time and place,” he said.
    “For what, pray tell?” As if she didn’t know what was on his mind. It was on hers.
    “When we make love it’s going to be in privacy and in a real bed.”
    She noted the confidence in his voice. The thought of them entwined in a bed was sounding inevitable and disconcerting.
     
     
    That evening they dined at Daemon’s home on bourzwa, red snapper, stuffed with prawns and jasmine rice. Seated on a deck overlooking the ocean, a red dusk colored the sky, outlining the silhouette of a schooner anchored in the surf. As the tide rolled in, frothy waves crashed against the rocks below, the noise thundering, the effect lulling. Victoria raised her glass of French Chardonnay and sipped. The cool liquid slid down her throat. She closed her eyes to savor the quenching respite from the steamy night air. Opening her eyes, she drank in the beauty of the waves, water, and sky.
    “The view of the ocean is stunning from here,” she said.
    “Yes, but what a chameleon the ocean can be; one moment serene and gentle, the next turbulent and temperamental.”
    “But here in the Seychelles it’s usually welcoming and peaceful. Like tonight.”
    “I can’t remember having had such a perfect day and the evening is yet young,” Daemon said, setting down his own glass of wine.
    “You’re ruining me. I came home to settle and plan my future, not to vacation like a European tourist.”
    “Everyone deserves a vacation. You deserve one more than most after experiencing 9-11.”
    “It’s been years and I should file that bad memory away already. I have traveled, trying to vacation away the trauma. I try, yet I fear that day will be forever etched in my mind.” She gazed out into the endless ocean, one-thousand-miles away from any continent.
    Daemon lifted his glass and drank some wine before speaking. He joined her in looking out over the ocean where it met the horizon. “I can relate to what you’re going through. Been there, done that myself.”
    She turned to face him. “Did you witness 9-11?”
    “No, only on the news. Other than Afghanistan, I haven’t witnessed any catastrophes, just been the victim of the aftermath.”
    “How so?” Now her curiosity had been piqued. As their eyes met, Victoria could see pain in his hazel depths. Something in his past had caused him heartbreak and pain and he needed to reveal it. Revelation was a form of consolation.
    He swallowed hard. “My parents were at the Eden Resort in Phuket, Thailand, on the West Coast in Patong Beach, when the great tsunami devastated Malaysia.”
    “They were?” Her heart skipped a beat.
    “The beachfront resort was decimated.” He hung his head in his hands. “My mother never had a chance.”
    “She drowned?”
    He nodded. “My father was in a series of business meetings at a resort on the other coast while my mom stayed behind to relax on the beach. She liked to sit on the
    beach, reading while the ocean provided natural background music.”
    She stood and moved behind him, placing her hands on his quaking shoulders, massaging away the tension that had taken hold.
    He glanced up at her. “When I’m alone, I grieve for