Page 176 of Deep Blue Sea

‘He’s at the boat, I think. Does he know you’re here?’

‘No.’ She smiled, willing her courage not to desert her. ‘No, he doesn’t.’

It was just a couple of minutes’ walk to the jetty, and she felt tongue-tied all the way there. She recognised him from a distance, his tall, muscular figure on deck cleaning the boat, his back still turned to her until she was standing right on the edge of the water.

Her dreams and nightmares had been full of boats for the past forty-eight hours, which wasn’t surprising after her experience at the Reynolds’s house. But watching their own boat bob gently in the water, backlit by a beautiful golden setting sun, she felt her resolve strengthen.

‘I wanted to know if you were taking any more divers out today,’ she said, trying to keep her voice as clear and steady as she could.

He spun round, and as she watched his face break into a wide smile, she felt her heart slowly melt.

‘You’re back. You used the ticket,’ he said, jumping on to the jetty.

‘You sound surprised?’ she said, feeling like a teenager.

‘I thought you’d want to stay longer.’

‘Well I couldn’t wait.’

‘For what?’ he asked hesitantly.

‘I need to tell you something.’

As she steeled herself, she could feel the line of her mouth growing firm and a crease appearing between her eyes. She must have looked really serious, because Liam’s own face became concerned.

‘What’s wrong?’

She took a breath, her speech prepared, her mind clear. She felt suddenly emotional. She was tired from the flight, but she knew she had to do this.

‘I know we kissed. And I know you turned me down. I tried to pretend that it didn’t matter, but I know now that it does matter. It really matters. Because I think we are just right together. Me and you. And if two people who are so right together aren’t together, then it makes me wonder who the hell should be.’

Liam opened his mouth to speak, but she held her hand up to stop him.

‘Let me finish, because if I don’t, I’m not sure I will ever say it. I loved being back in London but I love something else more. You make me so happy, Liam. You’re right, I was a snappy little crocodile when I came to Ko Tao, and then I wasn’t and that difference was you. I can’t bear the thought of losing you or of you not being in my life any more. And right now, just looking at you is making my heart beat so fast that I could fall off this jetty into the Gulf of Siam. And I know I don’t look like Diana or Sheryl or Alicia Dyer. I know I will never be posh or well-spoken like your friends in London. But we fit. And I just think that two people who fit together like us should be together. In life. In love . . .’

She had barely noticed that he had walked right up to her.

‘Just stop talking for one minute so I can kiss you.’

And the kiss was sweet. So sweet. As if it was nectar, as if she was coming home.

‘So you’ve changed your mind, then?’ she said eventually, her heart almost jumping out of her chest.

There was silence. All she could hear was the lapping of the tide against the hull of the boat.

‘Everything I do is because I love you,’ he said, holding her face between his hands. ‘I had that disgusting fifty-baht curry the first night we met because I didn’t want to let you get away. I set up a business with you because I came here to make my life better and I knew that if I spent every day with you in it, then I couldn’t not be happy. I’ve been single in Thailand for three years not because I’m mourning for Alicia or any other girl in London, but because I don’t want to be with anybody else but you. And when I turned you down on the beach that night, it was purely because I thought we wanted different things, not because I wasn’t hopelessly in love with you.’

‘You told me we should stay friends.’

‘You’d just heard about Julian.’

‘That didn’t change the way I feel about you.’

Liam shook his head, his blue eyes shining. ‘For three years I have listened to you dissing love, dissing marriage, keeping your distance from everyone, anyone, because you didn’t want to get hurt. When something happened between us, I didn’t think you wanted what I wanted, so I said that we should stay friends because I was protecting myself.’

‘What do you want?’ she said, hardly daring to breathe.

‘I want to be with you. In life. In love. Till we grow old. Forever.’