Touched By Gold

Trouble on a holiday of a lifetime

Mark lay diagonally across the huge bed. His arms were spread wide, his mouth open and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he snored.

It was such a normal sight – except this wasn’t their bedroom at home in Essex, this was a hotel room in Isabela, one of the Galapagos Islands, a thousand kilometres from the coast of Ecuador.

Cassie quietly slid the fly screen aside and slipped out on to the balcony to enjoy the sunrise. How Mark could still be asleep, she had no idea. Her body was seven hours ahead of local time and for her it was midday.

Of course, Mark’s internal clock was only a few hours adrift since he’d been working in California for a fortnight and had met her en route before coming to Isabela, but even so, why wasn’t he too excited to sleep?

Leaning her forearms on the balcony railing, she gazed at the beautiful bay on which the hotel sat. To her left was a mangrove swamp, with its tangled profusion of branches and roots. Next to that, black volcanic rocks emerged from the golden sand, forming a secluded bathing area over which pelicans swooped and plunged into the water, to emerge seconds later with bulging bills.

At the far end of the beach was a pier that was now bathed in a golden glow as the sun rose. A noise caught her attention below and she saw a barefooted man step on to the sand and walk towards the volcanic rocks. He held a large camera and as he reached the shoreline, he crouched down to sit on one heel in the wavelets and photographed something in the water. At first, she thought it was a pelican, then she caught sight of the glistening body of a sealion.

Cassie slipped back into the room, dressed hurriedly and crept out silently, so as not to wake her snoring husband.

Stepping on to the sand, she saw that the man had moved on and was now half way along the bay.

Good. She wouldn’t have wanted him to think she was invading his space, but she was desperate to see the sealion up close. It was still in playful mood and it bobbed about in the waves, eyeing her with curiosity.

Cassie knew that in the Galapagos Islands, people are not allowed to be nearer than two metres to the wildlife but it hadn’t occurred to her that the animals had no equivalent rule about approaching humans, and she was delighted when the sealion swam much closer to her. Eventually, it sank beneath the waves and was gone.

“Oh dear, I hope I didn’t frighten it off,” said a voice from behind her. It was the man she’d seen walking on the beach. “It was a bit wary of me earlier but I got some good shots of it performing for you.”

“No, I think it had bored of me. Anyway, I was just about to drag myself away to watch the pelicans over there.” she pointed along the beach. “Have you seen the marine iguanas?” “No, where are they?” He laughed and she realised how handsome he was with his strong jaw and blue eyes. And that mouth! Beautifully-shaped lips which turned up at the corners. She realised with a jolt that she’d been staring at him.

“There’s one just there,” he said and pointed to the rock next to where she was standing. She stepped backwards,

She had an almost OVERWHELMING urge to TEASE OUT one of his curls

almost stumbling, when she spotted the half-metre long animal with arms and legs spread-eagled; its black, scaly body camouflaged against the rough, knobbly volcanic rock.

“It’s warming itself in the sun to raise its body temperature,” he said, looking at it through his camera.

She crept forward to where he was crouching and sank down slowly trying not to startle the creature so she could get a better look.

“You could imagine it wandering about with dinosaurs during the Jurassic Era,” she whispered, watching him take several shots of the ugly reptile. Blond hair curled round his ears and with shock, she realised she had an almost overwhelming urge to tease out one of the curls with the tip of her finger to see how long his hair was.

Guiltily, she glanced back to her balcony to see if Mark was up and watching her, reading her thoughts. But that was ridiculous. She hadn’t done anything wrong – and neither would she.

Her marriage might have become rather unfulfilling of late, but she wasn’t one of those women who would risk everything for a fling. And that was assuming that this man was interested. So far, his attention had been completely on the wildlife. She probably represented an unwelcome intrusion.

“Well, I’d better go and…” She was about to say “see if my husband’s awake,” but for some reason, she finished with “get ready for breakfast”.

“See you around,” he said, looking up at her and smiling. “I’m Kurt, by the way.”

“Cassie,” she said, her heart racing.

Stupid, stupid! she told herself. You’re acting like a school girl! The trouble with you is that you’ve got an overactive imagination! But when real life turns to disappointment, what was the problem with imagining excitement? she reasoned. It was preferable to acting on impulse and wrecking a marriage.

And the other problem with you is that your conscience is too keen, she told herself. Who else would feel guilty for something that hasn’t happened?

When she arrived back at the hotel room, Mark was still snoring although he woke up as she closed the door.

“What time is it?” he mumbled, turning over and closing his eyes.

Cassie sighed. If he wanted to spend the morning in bed, he could stay there. She was going to shower, go for breakfast and then explore the town on her own.

Just as she’d finished dressing, Mark asked if she’d wait for him.

“I’ll be five minutes. I’m starving, I hope they serve a large breakfast,” he said, grinning.

They selected items from the buffet then sat at a table on the roof terrace. Realising she’d forgotten butter for her bread roll, Cassie got up and went back to the breakfast spread.

As she reached out to the tiny packs of butter which were in a basket at the back of the table, the waitress saw she was struggling to reach them and slid the basket towards her, accidentally knocking several spoons on the floor.

Cassie crouched down to retrieve them at the same time as the man standing next to her, whose hand brushed hers as she picked up the nearest spoon. “Sorry!” he said, laughing. It was Kurt. For what seemed like several seconds, they both froze, his hand on hers, staring into each other’s eyes. Cassie’s breath caught in her throat as she held his gaze and felt such warmth in his touch, she wondered if sparks were radiating from their fingers.

The waitress rushed to help, breaking the spell and Cassie stood up quickly and hurried back to Mark.

“Who’s that?” Mark asked, nodding at Kurt, who was still helping the flustered waitress. “Kurt,” she said without thinking. If only she’d said, “Another guest.” Or, “I don’t know.”

“Who’s Kurt?” Mark asked with a sudden frown.

There was no point lying. Anyway, she had nothing to hide.

“I met him on the beach this morning. He was out there taking

photos of the animals.” “And?” “And nothing. That’s all I know. He told me his name’s Kurt. I don’t know anything more about him.”

Mark was quiet during breakfast and Cassie tried to engage him in conversation.

“What would you like to do today? I’ve heard it’s really interesting to walk in the Wetlands.” “Who told you that? Kurt?” “No,” she said, keeping her tone neutral, recognising that if she didn’t, it was going to lead to an argument. “The girl on the reception desk mentioned it this morning.” Mark was silent for a few moments. “Yes, OK – let’s do that, then,” he finally said.

In the Wetlands, they discovered a lake of flamingos and not far from the path, half-hidden by the tangle of roots and shoots in the mangrove swamp, they spotted a giant tortoise. It poked its wrinkled head up to look at them from beneath a shell which was about the size of their coffee table at home.

Cassie pointed out marine iguanas and explained why they were sunning themselves on the black volcanic rocks – although she didn’t tell him it was Kurt who’d told her. Mark’s earlier flash of jealousy had caught her off-guard. She’d never seen him react like that when she’d talked to another man.

In the evening, they dined in a restaurant which was hardly more than a palm-thatched roof on bamboo poles by the beach, and he held her hand as they walked home in the dark along the rutted path. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken her hand and she squeezed his tightly. After a strange start, the day had improved greatly.

“I’m going to have a shower before bed,” he said. “Care to join me?”

She stopped abruptly and looked at him to see if he was serious. It was too dark to see his expression but when he pulled her to him and kissed her, she knew she’d heard correctly.

Early the next morning, Mark’s mobile phone vibrated on the bedside table. He reached out and switched it off. Probably a client on the other side of the world in a different time zone.

She knew he’d be cross. He usually turned his phone off overnight but they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms and their wonderful lovemaking had probably driven mundane thoughts of mobile phones from his mind.

Cassie wondered if she should slip out and go for a walk while Mark slept but she was worried about bumping into Kurt. No, she’d wait until Mark wanted to get up; after all, he couldn’t sleep all day, they had to be ready by ten o’clock because they’d booked a kayaking tour of a local island to see penguins.

She suddenly realised there was no movement and no steady breathing from the other side of the bed and she opened her eyes. Mark was propped up on one elbow, watching her.

“Did that call wake you?” she asked, hoping he wasn’t going to be grumpy.

“Call? Oh no, that was my alarm. I set it last night in case you wanted to go for a walk along the beach this morning with me. You could show me that seal you saw yesterday.” “Sealion,” she said. “How d’you know the difference?” He paused, then his tone became bitter, “Oh, I expect Kurt told you!”

“Oh, for goodness sake, Mark, stop being so childish!” Cassie turned over, pulling the sheet up to her chin.

This was ridiculous! He was obviously spoiling for a fight but she was determined not to oblige. She’d longed to visit the Galapagos Islands and she was going to enjoy it – with or without Mark. If necessary, she’d get ready, have breakfast and go on the kayaking tour on her own. He moved and she expected him to get up or turn over angrily as she’d done, but she felt his fingertips on the back of her neck, slowly moving down her spine. Despite her anger, she shivered with delight.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, nuzzling her, “it’s just that yesterday when you were picking up spoons, you looked at that man… and you sort of… glowed.”

“Glowed? What on earth do you mean?” She was very still.

“You sort of… lit up. And it reminded me of how you used to light up when we shared a moment – when I touched you. And I have to tell you, Cassie, it shook me to the core to realise I hadn’t seen that look for a while and when I did see it, it was for another man…”

“There’s nothing going on, Mark, you know that, don’t you?”

“Of course! We’ve only been here one day and most of that you spent with me.” He paused, “I trust you, anyway, Cass. And I’m sorry I’ve been so stupid. From now on, I’m going to be the one to make you light up.”

Cassie and Mark checked out of the hotel the following day and took the boat to Santa Cruz Island. She never saw Kurt again. And Mark never mentioned him.

Despite her ANGER, she shivered with DELIGHT at his TOUCH