Page 16 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4

‘Oh,’ Bunny mumbled as the other man leant back over the seat in front and introduced himself as Andreas Zervas.

Sebastian’s friend, she recalled, and then they were all donning headphones to drown out the noise of the helicopter and there was no further opportunity for conversation.

Bunny gazed numbly out of the window as the craft swung in a turn above the island to head back out across the sea.

And from that vantage point, the island looked absolutely tiny, the roof of the house only momentarily visible below the trees.

John grasped her hand and squeezed it. Tears prickled behind her lowered eyelids and her throat thickened.

What a storm of drama and stress she had created for her family!

John would have come without his wife and had probably travelled out to Indonesia with her middle brother, Luke, a corporate lawyer and the highest earner in the family.

It was a longer flight than she was expecting and she couldn’t wait to see her parents and reassure them that she was perfectly all right.

When the heavy craft finally set down again, she peered out of the window but she could see only technical equipment.

She whipped off the headphones and John hissed in her ear, ‘Wait until you see this boat…’

They had landed on the yacht? She was hugely relieved that no further travel was required to reach their destination and she moved down the steps onto the helipad, following Sebastian, who told her to watch her feet when she stubbed her toe and then, in exasperation, he lifted her up again. ‘You need shoes!’ he censured.

‘If I hadn’t been trying to help you onto the raft, I wouldn’t have lost my shoe in the first place!’ she snapped back with spirit, colouring when she noticed her brother’s surprised glance.

Sebastian stalked through a door and lowered her to a rug.

It was a huge reception area and at the very foot of it she saw her parents standing taut and somehow seeming very small against their imposing glass and opulently elegant surroundings.

Bunny hurtled down the length of the room into her parents’ arms. There was frantic speech and a lot of tears, questions that weren’t answered and some harried answers that weren’t entirely true.

In the midst of it, Sebastian walked up to join them.

‘She saved my life,’ he told her parents and her brother Luke. ‘She got me on the raft and looked after me until I’d recovered my wits.’

‘And then he looked after me. He fished and built bonfires and dealt with snakes,’ she recalled with a shudder.

Her mother wrapped her arms round Sebastian before Bunny could intercept her and gave him a huge, enthusiastic hug, only separating from him when Bunny’s father insisted on shaking his hand while Bunny introduced everybody.

‘Let me show you to your cabin,’ Sebastian interposed. ‘You’ll want to get changed and catch up with your parents. I had Andreas organise some clothing basics for you.’

‘Oh…er, thanks,’ she muttered in a rush as he guided her across a companionway and into an utterly breath-stealing space before stepping out again, leaving her with her family.

The cabin was almost as large as the reception area with a very opulent bed on a shallow dais, a snazzy separate seating area and doors out onto a deck.

Another door stood ajar on a luxury bathroom that rejoiced in a copper tub, fleecy towels and glorious marble tiles.

‘Wow…’ Bunny whispered, impressed to death by her surroundings.

‘The rest of us are on the deck below,’ Luke imparted, frowning at her. ‘He’s put you next door to his cabin.’

Bunny investigated through the third door and rifled through a wardrobe packed with fluttering garments and drawers full of silky underwear.

‘Well, I’m not about to complain about being spoiled after the last two weeks,’ she confided, lifting her chin.

Rather more than ‘clothing basics’ had been provided, she acknowledged, but she would take that up with Sebastian later in private.

‘Of course she’s not,’ her mother piped up, shooting Luke a reproachful glance. ‘Your sister’s had a rough time.’

‘Exactly how friendly are you with our generous host?’ John enquired quietly.

Bunny shrugged. ‘About as friendly as you would expect after two weeks worried we weren’t going to make it off that island any time soon,’ she replied stiffly.

‘That’s not telling us anything,’ Luke reproved.

‘I don’t owe you an explanation,’ she heard herself say sharply and then her mother was shooing the men out, saying that she was overwrought and that it wasn’t the time for a postmortem.

‘You tend to get close when there’s only the two of you all day every day,’ she added apologetically as Luke departed with bad grace.

‘Would you mind if I went for a shower and got dressed?’ she asked her mother as she gathered underwear, a long silky skirt and a light top from the dressing room. ‘I need to freshen up.’

‘You’ve changed,’ the older woman remarked, her brow furrowing. ‘I’m not criticising. You’re more confident. Naturally the experience you’ve had and a year away from home has changed you.’

Bunny stripped and sped into the shower, revelling in the shampoo and the conditioner for her hair and then dressing in haste, all fingers and thumbs as she combed her hair, ran a dryer through it and finally thrust her feet into leather sliders that must’ve cost the earth.

The garments were classy and chic and pleasantly soft and silky against her skin.

When she reappeared both her parents were in the seating area chatting and, minutes after that, a stewardess knocked on the door to say that dinner was about to be served.

‘Only Bunny is having the roast vegetables because it’s her favourite,’ Sebastian announced, sending her a fleeting smile.

He had changed as well but only into well-worn jeans that fitted his big muscular body as if they had been tailored for him and a loose white linen shirt, bright against his bronzed skin.

He had shaved, his strong jawline exposed without the covering black stubble she had grown accustomed to seeing there.

His amazing dark good looks had never been more obvious.

His brilliant dark eyes gleamed as they rested on her with satisfaction.

‘So looks like you’ve got very friendly with our host,’ her brother Luke remarked, his hand at her spine to guide her into a chair at Sebastian’s elbow and at a very long polished table.

Drinks were served first but Bunny was hungry enough that her tummy felt as though it were meeting her backbone and as soon as she was able she ate with appetite, cherishing the luxury touches of melted cheese and some sort of moreish chutney.

Most of the conversation centred on their escape during the storm and the island.

‘Apparently the caretaker, Dwi, checks the house once a month and he spent the last few weeks away from home visiting relatives. His neighbour phoned him to say that he had seen smoke coming from the island but he didn’t believe him.

The neighbour was known for telling tall stories but that’s why Dwi came out to the island today. ’

Stifling a yawn, she cleared her plate. Several times, Sebastian stepped in to answer questions because she was flagging and she wished he would quit his self-appointed role acting as her protector.

Evidently, Reggie’s catamaran had been saved but it was now official evidence and, bearing in mind his injury, it would probably be weeks, if not months, before his boat was returned to him.

Her father had already visited his old friend in hospital and he told her that Reggie’s wife, Eka, had been with him.

Her family had waited several days after the alarm of her disappearance had been raised before deciding to fly to Indonesia because they had wanted to be on the spot if there were any developments during the search.

‘You’re exhausted,’ Sebastian told her.

‘Yes, but I’m too wired to go to sleep yet,’ Bunny confided.

‘Do you want to call it a night? Or would you like to join me for coffee?’

‘Coffee,’ Bunny selected.

‘We’ll have coffee on deck. Coffee with cream,’ Sebastian said with a sudden grin and, for a moment, it was as though they were the only two people in the world. His spectacular dark eyes were bright as starshine and held hers fast.

‘And biscuits?’ she pressed hopefully.

‘Play your cards right and there might even be a dessert. I told my chef that you had a sweet tooth.’

Even aware that her family were watching her like hawks, Bunny still let Sebastian draw her neatly away from the table and guide her towards the deck doors.

‘Right now, you’re overwhelmed,’ Sebastian murmured soft and low. ‘Too many people around you, too many questions at once. We were living on a very quiet island and we’ll both need time to adjust to the change.’

Sometimes he got everything right, she conceded, but sometimes he got it dreadfully wrong: as when he had offered her money in an effort to persuade her not to discuss him with the press.

As if she would ever have contemplated doing that!

She shifted away from him and took a deeply upholstered seat behind a fancy table in a trendy S shape.

She breathed in the sea air with surprising pleasure, seeing the lights of the Bali nightlife in the distance while reassured that the giant yacht would not be moving while she was onboard.

‘How did you organise these clothes for me?’