TALIA
Thank God I didn’t tell her. At least now, she still had one last chance to get herself out of this mess without anyone else discovering it. ‘You can do this,’ she whispered to herself. ‘You have to.’
There he was – tall and solid, lips parted and eyes full of desire for her, leaning against the door frame, head cocked to one side. Heady with anticipation. Expectant.
‘Nick,’ she said.
He stepped towards her, reached for her face with his hands, began to lean down to meet her lips with his, and it came rushing back, the desire, wanting it – wanting him – so desperately, so urgently, in that moment that she thought she might falter.
Perhaps just one last time. And then I’ll end it, right after …
No. ‘No.’ She put a hand to his chest and pushed him gently away from her. The firmness in both her voice and her gesture took them both aback. Nick jerked backwards and narrowed his eyes.
‘What? Why not?’ He came closer to her again. ‘There’s no one around – Eleni’s upstairs, Rory’s out of it … I was waiting for you to get back here, watching through the peephole in my cabin … we’ve got a few minutes to ourselves.’ He reached for her again. ‘Come here.’
Talia took a step back, putting more distance between their bodies – she couldn’t trust her own not to respond if he stayed this close to her. But she had to hold firm, to stay strong.
‘Nick, this has to stop. I can’t – we can’t do this any more.’
He frowned, gave a short bark of a laugh. ‘What? Talia, you need to stop overthinking this. We’re just two people with some insane chemistry enjoying each other’s company. We’re not doing any harm – no one’s found out, have they? No one’s getting hurt.’
Again, he moved towards her. Again, she stepped back.
‘I mean it,’ she said. ‘I’m serious – I can’t do it any more. And actually, someone has found out. I think the crew saw us, and Sam knows about us somehow – maybe he caught us that night in the salon. And we might not have hurt anyone else – yet – but this is hurting me!’
There was a tense pause. Talia watched Nick carefully, saw his expression darken – the desire in his eyes was gone suddenly, and replaced by something cold – something frightening.
‘Hurting you?’ When Nick finally spoke again, his voice was a low snarl, his lips pulled back into a cruel sneer.
‘And how exactly did you come to that conclusion? I’ve given you – washed-up, lonely, menopausal you – the time of your life this year.
I’m pretty sure I never heard you say a single word about how badly you were hurting when you were tearing my clothes off, or giving me some pretty average head. ’
Talia’s hand flew to her mouth; she thought she might throw up with the shock of his words.
She’d never seen or heard him speak to her – speak to anyone – like this.
What had happened to the admiring, affectionate man she’d given herself to these last months?
This was someone cold; someone cruel. This was a completely different person.
‘I didn’t realize that’s how you felt,’ she said icily.
Raising a trembling finger, she pointed to the door.
‘But in that case, it all seems even clearer. This is finished, and you should leave now. It has all been a terrible mistake, and I’m sorry it ever started.
Please – just go – back to your beautiful, lovely wife, who never deserved any of this – and let’s forget it ever happened. ’
As quickly as the callous version of him had appeared, it vanished again, replaced now by the Nick that Talia knew: tender, heartfelt, affectionate.
‘Oh God, Talia. I shouldn’t have said that – I didn’t mean it.
I’m so sorry.’ He’d seemed to revert back to his usual self with as much ease as if he’d just slipped on a mask.
Talia reeled, the switch was so fast, so unnerving.
‘You just gave me a shock, that’s all.’ His voice was all softness again, all tenderness.
‘Our time together – me and you – it’s meant a lot to me.
And listen, I know we always said—’ He broke off for a second, his eyes damp and glistening.
Is he going to cry? Does he really feel that much for me?
‘I know we said we wouldn’t get too attached – wouldn’t let our feelings get involved.
But I can’t lie to you – I’m falling for you.
I have been for a while, I think. I don’t even love Eleni any more – things aren’t good between us, honestly, not since last year.
’ He sighed heavily. ‘There. I’ve said it.
I’m in love with you, Talia. So, do you understand now why I didn’t take you wanting to end things too well? ’
He gave her a bashful smile; Talia looked away. ‘I get it,’ he continued. ‘Sam finding out – that must have given you a scare. But don’t worry, honestly. I can deal with him.’
She took another step backwards, then dropped down on the edge of the bed without thinking; all the fight had left her suddenly, so dizzying and confusing were Nick’s abrupt changes in personality.
‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t make this harder than it already is.
I care about you, and our time together has been special to me too, but it has to end.
Here – now. It’s over, Nick. I’m sorry, but we’re done.
You can work things out with Eleni, I’m sure – you’ve got two young children, and she’s a wonderful young woman … ’
Her words fizzled out; Nick said nothing. He stood in front of her, staring at her for a long moment, his features shifting from sadness to anger to confusion to shock, then finally settling in the unpleasant snarl he’d showed her a moment ago.
A creeping sense of dread moved up Talia’s spine, gripped at her throat.
She was alone in a cabin with this man, in the semi-darkness – this large, well-built, strong man – with the door closed and no one nearby; her husband incapacitated elsewhere.
She’d been alone with Nick many times before, and she’d never been afraid of him.
But how well did she know him, really? What if she’d got him wrong?
If something happened here, now – if he tried to hurt her …
Why isn’t he moving?
‘You need to leave,’ she tried again. Her voice emerged in a grating rasp, betraying her fear.
‘I don’t think so. Not until we’ve sorted this out.
’ He spoke softly, but his eyes were sharp shards of ice.
‘I told you I was sorry. Didn’t you hear me say that?
I didn’t mean what I said before. I don’t want this to be over.
And however scared you are, whatever you’re saying now, I know you don’t either. ’
He took another step towards her, stood towering above her now as she sat frozen on the edge of the bed.
Then, in one sleek, measured movement, he sat down next to her and pulled her towards him, gripping both sides of her face in his hands.
The gesture was tender, and yet Talia’s body pulsed with fear.
What will he do if I try to move away? She swallowed and stayed still.
‘Do you want me to leave Eleni? Is that it?’ One of Nick’s hands moved lower as he spoke, down to her chin, then her neck. ‘Is it seeing us together, here? Did it make you jealous? I’d do it, if that’s what you want. I’d end my marriage. I don’t love her.’
Talia opened her mouth and closed it again, her words forming and then sliding away out of reach. He’s bluffing. He can’t be serious.
‘We could be together properly – you and me. Just say the word, and I’ll tell Eleni – I’ll tell her right now, and you can tell Rory.
We’ll say we’re leaving them, and we want to be together.
No need to worry about Sam then, either.
We’ll get it all out in the open, here on the yacht, and then we can start our new life when we get back. ’
At that, Talia found her voice. ‘No!’ She pulled away and jumped up to stand in front of him, a foot from where he sat on the bed.
‘Oh my God, no. That’s not what I want – it’s never what I wanted.
I want this to be over! Now, today. I don’t want you to leave Eleni, I don’t want anyone else to know. I want it to stop!’
In less time than it took for her to blink, Nick lunged up in front of her, the stone-cold expression back on his face.
He grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her back, and further back, until, with a slam that winded her and sent rockets of pain shooting from her skull down to her hips, she hit the blank space of wall between the bathroom and the cabin door.
She gave a sharp yell of pain, then fell silent as Nick’s hands moved from her shoulders to her throat, and began to squeeze – now she could only make gasping, choking sounds as she fought desperately for mouthfuls of air.
‘You don’t get to decide when it’s over,’ Nick whispered.
She grabbed at his hands, tried to scratch them, force them off her – but he was too strong, far stronger than her.
There was a grim twist to his mouth as he gripped her throat harder and tighter, crushing the breath out of her – it was almost a smile.
He’s enjoying this. He wants to see me suffer.
There were stars in front of Talia’s eyes now; the edges of her vision were turning dark and closing in.
A rolling animation of images flickered through her mind like an old-fashioned movie reel, one, then the next, then the next.
The soft, doughy smell of her mother’s hugs; the girls’ gap-tooth grins in their primary school photos; Rory’s face lighting up, beaming, as she walked down the aisle on their wedding day.
And then her brain fast-forwarded, conjured visions of Rory finding her in here, dead; working out who’d killed her, and why; the girls at her funeral, sobbing …
From somewhere far away, a noise reached Talia’s ears, her head pressed close to the wall. Vaguely, she remembered there was just a wall separating her from the passageway outside – that’s where it was coming from.
Someone’s coming downstairs.
Talia removed her hands from Nick’s, curled them into fists and slammed them into the wall behind her – thump.
She had no idea if it had been loud enough to attract attention, but the noise distracted him.
His eyes flitted towards the door, for only a fraction of a second, but that was enough, enough for Talia to free one of her legs from the pressure of his body and use it to knee him in the groin with every ounce of force she had.
Nick groaned and loosened his grip around her throat.
Talia dug her nails into the skin of his hands again and this time they loosened more – enough, finally, for her to take a deep breath.
The inhale gave her a surge of strength, and she wrenched her body free of his grip, leaving him grasping at her hair – yanking out strands, making her howl – but at least he’d let go of her throat.
She bolted towards the cabin door – I’ve done it, I’m going to get away – but no, no, he was already standing in the way, in her path – he was blocking her exit. Where do I go?
Without options, panicked, Talia darted instead into the bathroom, closed the door behind her and moved her body in front of it, trying to stop him from shoving it open while she fumbled at the lock, taking in a few gasping, painful breaths.
She wasn’t quick enough.
The door mustn’t have closed fully – his fingers had jammed through the gap – and he was pushing now, yelling at her to ‘Open the door, Talia, just fucking let me in, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you’, and she wasn’t strong enough, she couldn’t hold him back, he was going to get it open and, and …
oh God, he was going to kill her now, wasn’t he?
She didn’t believe that he was sorry – he’d hate that she’d got away once, it would only fuel his rage.
She did her best to keep her weight against the door, but he was pressing against it now, and it was too late – it was opening, and now Nick stood in the doorway, face purple with rage and indignation, watching with a snarl as Talia edged backwards, only able to put a few feet between them before her shoulders were wedged into the corner of the bathroom, and then she was trapped – there was nowhere else to go.
I’m going to die here.
Here, in the en-suite bathroom of her elegant cabin on this luxurious superyacht. All her wealth and beauty and privilege and success meant nothing at all in the face of a violent man who wasn’t getting what he wanted from her.
He stood in front of her now. She closed her eyes as a rush of light-headedness washed over her, knowing she was powerless to stop him doing what he was about to do.
This is how it all ends.