Her Knight in the Outback by Nikki Logan

when he did, his face was carefully neutral. ‘We have a couple of hours before the boat gets back. Might as well have a look around with me.’
    Fine. He could make her stay...
    But he couldn’t make her enjoy it.
    * * *
    It took the best part of the remaining ninety minutes on the island but Marshall managed to work the worst of the stiffness from Eve’s shoulders. He did it with easy, undemanding conversation and by tapping her natural curiosity, pointing out endless points of interest and intriguing her with imaginary tales of the pirate Anderson and his hidden treasure that had never been recovered.
    â€˜Maybe his crew took it when they killed him.’ She shrugged, still half-numb.
    Cynical, but after the sad silence of the first half-hour he’d take it. ‘Seems a reasonable enough motive to kill someone. You know, if you were a bloodthirsty pirate.’
    â€˜Or maybe there never was any treasure,’ she posed. ‘Maybe Anderson only managed to steal and trade enough to keep him and his crew alive, not to accrue a fortune. Maybe they weren’t very good pirates!’
    â€˜You’ve seen the island now. Where would you bury it if it did exist?’
    She glanced around. ‘I wouldn’t. It’s too open here. Hard to dig up without being seen by the crew.’ Her eyes tracked outward and he followed them to the guano-blanketed, rocky outcrop just beyond the shores of Middle Island. ‘Maybe over there? Some random little cave or hollow?’
    â€˜Want to go look?’
    She turned wide eyes on him. ‘I’m not about to swim fully clothed across a shark-infested channel to an outcrop covered in bird poo filled with God knows what bacteria to hunt for non-existent treasure.’
    â€˜You have no soul, Evelyn Read,’ he scoffed.
    â€˜I do have one and I’d prefer to keep it firmly tethered to my body, thanks very much.’
    He chuckled. ‘Fair enough. Come on, let’s see if the lake looks as impressive up close.’
    It didn’t. Of course it didn’t. Wasn’t there something about rose-coloured glasses? But it wasn’t a total disappointment. Still officially pink, even once Eve filled her empty water bottle with it.
    â€˜You’re not planning on drinking that?’ he warned.
    â€˜Nope.’ She emptied it all back into the lake and tucked the empty bottle into her backpack for later recycling. ‘Just trying to catch it out being trickily clear.’
    They strolled around the lake the long way, then headed back down to the only decent beach on the island. A tiny but sandy cove formed between two outcrops of rocky reef. The place the boat had left them. Marshall immediately tugged his shoes and socks off and tied them to his own pack, which he stashed on a nearby rock, then made his way out a half-dozen metres from where Eve stood discovering that the sand was actually comprised of teeny-tiny white shells.
    â€˜Water’s fine...’ he hinted. ‘Not deep enough for predators.’
    She crossed her arms grumpily from the shore. ‘What about a stingray?’
    He splashed a little forward in the waves that washed in from the current surging between the islands. ‘Surfing stingrays?’
    â€˜Where lakes are pink and lizards bark? Why not?’
    â€˜Come on, Eve. Kick your shoes off.’
    She glared at him, but eventually she sank onto one hip and toed her opposite runner and sock off, then she did the same on the other foot. Though she took her sweet time putting both carefully in her pack and placing the lot next to his backpack on the hot sand.
    â€˜Welcome to heaven,’ he murmured as she joined him in the shallows. Her groan echoed his as her hot and parched feet drank up the cold water, too. They stood there like that, together, for minutes. Their hearts slowing to synchronise with the waves washing up and into their little minibay.
    Just...being.
    â€˜Okay,’ Eve