‘Nat? Nat, my darling, please, please speak to me, please don’t die. Oh, my love, please live for me, please, my darling. We can live wherever you want, we can do whatever you want; I don’t give a fuck about anything except for you.’

Sobbing, and praying to every God he had ever heard of, he bent his head to hers and gave her the kiss of life.

Nothing.

‘I’ll give up my job, if you want, and we can live in complete obscurity on an island somewhere, if that’s what you want. Just please live, my darling. Oh, God, please let her live, please just let her live …’

Despairing, he tried the kiss of life again.

Nothing.

And then, just as Ben thought he might have to take his own life if she didn’t wake up, Natalia started coughing and spluttering, until, wonderfully, she leant over and vomited a huge deluge of water onto the sand.

Ben sat back on his heels and, weeping with relief, looked up at the star-studded sky.

‘Thank you, God, or Ganesh, or Allah, or whoever the fuck you are! Whatever the fuck you are, thank you, thank you, thank you …’

‘Ben? Is that really you?’ Natalia’s voice was hoarse, but she was smiling weakly up at him from the silvery sand. ‘Have I died and gone to heaven?’

Ben gave a hiccup of laughter through his tears and bent over to kiss her pale forehead, too choked to speak for a moment or two.

Natalia’s voice rose.

‘Ben? Are you naked? My God, I really must have died and gone to heaven.’

She sat up slowly, and, laughing and crying, they hugged and kissed and hugged and kissed, on and on and on, neither of them quite believing that the other was alive, and real.

Eventually, reluctantly, Natalia pulled away. She had so many questions rattling around her drunk, exhausted, very nearly drowned mind.

‘How did you find me?’

He put a gentle finger to her lips. ‘Shhh, shhh, I’ll tell you everything later, once you’ve had a hot shower and something to eat, and I’ve got some bloody clothes on.’

Natalia laughed and coughed up some more water. ‘No need to put your clothes on for me, sweetie.’

‘Maybe not, but I’m fucking freezing.’

Natalia laughed again, then started to shiver violently herself, remembering how terrified she had felt in the sea, how certain she had been that she was going to die. Ben put his arms tightly around her, stroking her hair with one strong hand. ‘Shhh, shhh, shhh, it’s OK, Nat, it’s OK, you’re safe now.’

‘Thank you.’ The words emerged almost as a whisper.

‘There is nothing to thank me for,’ said Ben simply. ‘If you had died, my life wouldn’t have been worth living. In the meantime, though, please promise me one thing?’

‘Anything.’ Natalia pulled back so she could look him straight in the eye.

‘Promise me that you’ll never run away from me again.’