Black Diaries

42. Welcome to Paradise

And it was indeed wonderful, from the moment we touched down. The "airport" at Port Blair was nothing but a single, decorative strip of tarmac, surrounded by lush green hills. In the distance, a golden sun was shimmering, set like a jewel into a misty silver sky.

"What's this?" I demanded, laughing, when I stepped out of the jet only to be pulled into the direction of a helicopter standing waiting a few dozen yards away. The Indian pilot got out and, with a big smile and a wink, held the door open for us. "You're so impatient you can't even drive to the hotel in a car, like normal people?"

Pulling me flush against him in front of the waiting helicopter, Elliot bent down to brush his lips against mine. "Where's the fun in doing things like normal people?" he breathed. "Besides, we aren't going to a hotel."

I was so dazed by the feel of his lips on mine that it took a few moments for his words to penetrate. "What? No hotel?"

"There are over six-hundred islands in the Bay of Bengal. Do you really think that with that much choice, I'd be satisfied with staying on one where there are any other people who could get in our way?"

I gasped. "Don't tell me you've rented a whole island again!"

"No. This time I bought it."

Before I could think of a reply to this, he slung his arm around my waist and lifted me into the helicopter, gently depositing me on the left back seat and getting in behind me. Jumping in, the pilot switched the controls on.

"An island?" I was staring at Elliot, still not having completely digested the news. "You actually went and bought an entire island."

Elliot shrugged. "For a few dozen millions. It seemed like a bargain."

"A bargain?"

Catching my face between his hands, he leaned over and gazed deep into my eyes. "I had a feeling that I'd be needing a faraway, romantic island more often in the future."

My heart started beating an erratic rhythm against my ribcage. That look in his eyes... "You did, did you?"

"Sir?" came a voice with a slight Indian lilt from the front of the helicopter. Somehow it seemed very, very far away. "I'll be starting the helicopter now. South Sentinel Island, yes? We'll be there in approximately two hours."

"Make it there in one hour," Elliot told the man without taking his eyes off me, "and you'll be paid double."

"Arey!"

With that exclamation, the pilot pressed a few more buttons, and the rotor blades over our heads started turning with a low and slow thrum, thrum.

"You're crazy!" I whispered up at Elliot.

"Crazy? No." Pulling me closer, he brushed his face against mine, not kissing me, not even caressing me, really, just being close. The sparks crackling in the air between us should have been enough to set the helicopter on fire. "I just have very good reason to want to be alone with you with as little delay as possible."

And with that, he slipped the headphones over my head. The effect was staggering. I could suddenly hear nothing but the hammering sound of my own heartbeat in my ears, and maybe the thudding of the quickening helicopter blades, which seemed like nothing so much as an echo of my quickening heart. The blood rushing through my veins suddenly felt a hundred times hotter than a moment before, seeking for a release, any release. I gazed into Elliot's eyes and saw there the mirror image of my own desire.

His muscular arms slid around me, and I saw his delicious lips move, mouthing something. I didn't hear a single word. No matter. I understood anyway.