Check out this scene from my latest romance book Once Upon an Island.
The sea is calm, there’s only the slightest breeze, and when I glance over the side of the kayak I see a school of bright yellow and white fish flashing by. The sun hits their scales and turns them iridescent. The small ripples bend the sunshine and send light dancing over the sandy sea floor. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over the fact that you can see ten, twenty, thirty feet down, like you’re peering through a perfectly clear glass window into the sea.
I turn in my seat and smile back at Declan. “Isn’t this incredible?” I ask, forgetting for a second that we don’t like each other.
He keeps paddling, and I ogle the way his biceps bulge when he moves his paddle swiftly through the water.
Wowie zowie, he’s a looker.
His rash guard shirt is skintight, and it shows off his flat chest and the muscles of his abdomen. It’s amazing to me that his outside doesn’t match his surly inside at all, in fact, it’s… “Incredible.”
“What’s incredible?” he says sharply.
I stiffen. Ummm.
“Oh look, a sea turtle,” I say and point in a random direction over the side.
He stops paddling and looks down into the water. The boat slows. “I don’t see it.”
I pretend to look for the non-existent sea turtle over the edge of the kayak. “Oh, well. They’re pretty fast.”
Declan gives me a skeptical look and tightens his jaw.
He lifts the paddle and sends it to the other side of the kayak. Little water droplets fall across the boat, forming an arc. We start moving forward again.
I turn back around and help paddle.
Unfortunately, the peaceful feeling from earlier is gone. There’s an itch between my shoulder blades that tells me Declan is studying me with quiet intensity. I take a quick peek behind me and then turn forward again.
Sure enough, instead of looking out at the water and the beautiful scenery, Declan’s staring at me.
