Where It Began. Kathleen Pickering
Seems more to me like you’ve been hiding on his yacht.”
Low blow number two. He stepped across the threshold, planting his feet firmly on the wide-planked flooring. His throat tightened with the urge to shout, we never spoke like this to each other before Carmen came between us, but instead, he shot a volley back, aiming straight for her heart.
He gestured to the room. “I could say the same for you in your studio, my dear. When was the last time you left Reefside?”
She swung on him. “Well, at least I’m taking my future into my hands. I’m willing to change my situation.”
He leaned toward her. “I had made plans, my dear. I’m supposed to leave for Australia this weekend.”
She pointed a finger, color rising in her cheeks. “You owe me this trip.”
If she’d slapped him, she’d have elicited the same response. Suspicion furrowed his brow. He resisted pressing a hand to relieve the pressure. Had Elias betrayed his secret? He cleared his throat before he dared ask, “And just how is it that I owe you, Princess?”
She unhinged the painting from the easel, carrying it to the drying wall, then turned to face him.
“You’ve been lounging around Reefside on my father’s dime for way too long. You owe it to him to postpone your plans and earn the salary you’ve collected by taking me.”
Relief was so immediate, he almost laughed. He’d come up to tell her he’d agreed to take her, but seeing her at work had, once again, thrown him off balance. And here she thought his reluctance was about money. If she only knew.
Damn.
He tried to stare her down, but she wouldn’t look away. He held up a hand in surrender. “Okay. Elias asked for three weeks. That’s all you get. I’ll leave for Australia when we return.”
Did she flinch at the mention of his departure? Now, wouldn’t that be something?
He took another step into the room. “Do you understand me, Princess?”
She retraced her steps to stand before him, hands on hips. He almost grinned at that stubborn, familiar I’ll-argue-till-you-kiss-me-into-submission look. Oh, yeah, Princess, give me a reason to reach for you. He was nuts to think he’d make this trip unscathed.
Her pointed finger came within inches of his chest. He wondered if she dared not touch him for fear of where it would lead. Her nostrils flared in that ever-so-enticing way. “Never call me Princess, Del Rio. Just get me to Little Harbour as fast as you can.”
DANIEL STOWED THE LAST of Maria’s gear and climbed into the cockpit, wanting badly to break something. Elias’s words, You don’t run out on family, prodded him like a pitchfork. Family. What remained of his family was here at Reefside. Yet living with Maria’s emotional absence and physical presence made this last task seem futile.
Even worse were the last words she’d fired at him before the accident. Despite the exquisite love that bonded them, she had chosen to mistrust him. The look in her eyes when her accusations flew had branded his soul forever. He had been so busy these past months, working with Elias to restore Maria’s memory, that he hadn’t taken the time to sift through his own emotions from that fateful day.
Now they whipped around his head like a hurricane. If he was successful in helping Maria restore her memory, and if all became resolved between them, could he be safe in her love, knowing she’d turned from him once before?
Grabbing a polishing cloth, he settled for wiping down the pristine instrument panel at the helm one more time. If they weren’t scheduled to set sail in minutes, he’d guzzle a beer. Hell, he might anyway. His mouth was drier than the Tortugas.
Yanking open the door of the cockpit refrigerator, he pulled out a bottle of water. He swigged a huge gulp, glaring down the waterway leading to the ocean but seeing nothing.
A haze of guilt clouded his vision.
How could Elias expect him—trust him for God’s sake—to take Maria back to where all the trouble began? He and the old man knew the story. They had a deal. Now Elias had imposed his will, knowing Daniel could not refuse Maria. Elias was breaking the promise he’d made like some deity tossing a mere mortal from the clouds. And Daniel had agreed. He would do it as a favor…but for whom? Did he still harbor the hope of winning her back?
He slapped his forehead. What the devil was wrong with him? He was about to spend one long, sweet sail alone with her. Like a maiden voyage for both of them. A lot of ground could be covered in twenty-one days. This could be the opportunity he’d been waiting for. Seducing Maria could be a goddamn dream come true, if he could allow himself to trust her love once more. Quite an irony, since he’d spent a year ignoring the possibility that he might not want her love anymore. Up to this point, all he wanted was to have her wake up and remember him. Now he wondered what good it would do if she did.
The Honora would be a hotbed of emotions for him no matter what happened. If Maria were to fall in love with him once more, even without regaining her memory, he could seize the opportunity to teach her what they’d once shared. Best-case scenario was that she would remember the accident and still find her way to understand the truth—what really happened before the collision—and forgive Daniel. Then, their love might grow roots so deep, no one would ever be able to shake them apart.
But before he could claim her love again two things were needed: honesty and redemption. There had been no sign of either, but that could also have been because the opportunity had not arisen. Well, here he was, ready and waiting. The only woman who could bring about either possibility was Maria, and she didn’t have a clue.
He had been shocked when his hands shook as he started the engine. Acknowledging the tension he felt leaving the dock was hard. No matter what the courts had said. No matter what he knew had happened on that boat, he had been responsible for the accident. He was a licensed captain. His lack of control had caused the death of two women.
Granted, he knew the mechanics of operating a vessel. He understood the wind, the tides, could read the skies, understood navigation laws, but witnessing those broken bodies and the destruction of lives after the fact had crippled Daniel’s faith in his abilities.
Who was he kidding? He needed healing as much as Maria. That one truth he would give to Elias. The older man, better than anyone, understood why Daniel had remained marooned at Reefside while Maria continued to dodge him. Sometimes he wondered if what was precious between them had been destroyed when she doubted his love at the worst possible moment before the collision.
No matter. What was done was done. Her world had been stripped bare. He had lost confidence, and her love. What a joke. Now he had to overcome his own fears in order to sail to the place where their lives had been ruined.
He hung his head, briefly closing his eyes. Sometimes, it was best leaving the dead buried. Maybe Maria was better off starting over without him; he should jump off the Honora and head to Australia before it was too late. After all, if one stepped beyond the point of no return, well, there simply was no return.
Did he care?
Hell yes.
Because Maria couldn’t remember. It wasn’t fair that he held all the cards, because he did remember.
A groan escaped his lips. Like it or not, he’d accepted a lose-lose situation. Screwed if she remembered. Screwed if she didn’t. When all this was over, he’d head to those Brisbane races either a man redeemed, or a man doomed.
Well, his world had been ripped from him once before when his parents were killed in Chile. He understood how to live with loss. Maybe sacrificing his future with Maria was the price he’d pay for absolution.
So be it.
A motion on the green caught his eye. Maria stormed down the lawn toward the dock, her hair bouncing like a veil of midnight silk on her shoulders. Her dark, exotic eyes smoldered with a distress he could feel from where he stood, and she hadn’t