The words hung in the air between them and he saw the tension in her body as she struggled to grasp his meaning. He reached to wrap one long strand of her hair around his finger then released it, watching it hold the curl for a few seconds before falling back onto her shoulder. It was time to tell her about his wife.
“I met Jessica at a nightclub in South Beach several years ago. She was attractive. Fun. We ended up back at my place.”
He risked a glance at her face, wondering if she were as jealous about his past loves as he was of Frank. Her lips were a firm line, but she didn’t interrupt. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to continue. “I didn’t know it at the time, but she was taking anti-depressants and perhaps other things as well. I was a little too drunk to ask the right questions and she was too messed up to give me a straight answer. She told me she was using birth control and I believed her. A few weeks later, she showed up at my door. Pregnant.”
“Oh, Niko,” she breathed.
Now he was grateful for the dark sunglasses that blocked her gaze from his view. He couldn’t bear to see the same condemnation there that he’d faced from his friends and relatives. Even more so from himself. “I couldn’t allow my child to be born without my name, so we married.” His laugh was grim. “The honeymoon was over before the signatures were dry on the marriage license.”
His voice dropped to a lower tone as he fell deeper into the memory. “Poor Jessica. She didn’t want to be pregnant, and she was so sick the first trimester. After that first few months, she lost all interest in me.” His lips quirked in a deprecating grin. “Not just sexually. I could have handled that; blamed it on the difficult pregnancy. She became withdrawn, obviously miserable. The only conversations we had revolved around the baby, the nursery, or hospital plans.”
“How did you handle it?”
He wondered at the soft, almost hushed sound of her voice. She didn’t appear upset or angry as he’d expected, but offered something deeper and more gentle. Concern? Sympathy? “I was worried about her and the child, of course, but excited too. It wasn’t the way I would have chosen to start a family, but it was
my
family. My little girl.”
“Was the baby….” she trailed off as if she couldn’t voice the words.
“She was beautiful. A little early, but a good weight, healthy, all ten fingers and toes.”
She was silent, waiting, barely breathing. He searched desperately for a way to explain without exposing the extent of the blow that he’d felt at the moment of the baby’s birth. There was nothing to be said but the truth.
“She was also racially mixed.”
He felt her jolt of surprise before she reached to touch his hand. “How could you be sure?”
He made an abrupt gesture. “Jessica’s family was German. She is a tall, big-boned blonde with blue eyes. Her child appeared African-American.”
She shoved her glasses up on her head with a shaky jerk. “She lied to you?”
He shook his head and sat up, pulling her against his chest. He badly needed to feel her against him.
“When she saw the child, she had a complete breakdown, right there in the delivery room. It was one of the worst moments of my life.”
Kara uncrossed her legs, draping them over his to scoot closer to him. He buried his face against her neck, breathing deeply of her sweet, special scent. “She’d been in a long-term relationship just before we met; hence, the anti-depressants. She was also pregnant when we met, but never suspected it. Until she saw the child.”
“You’re sure? She didn’t trap you in marriage deliberately?”
“I’m sure,” he said with calm acceptance. “Not that it matters. She never cared for me. She was in love with the father of her child and that’s not something you can recover from in a few days or months.” With stunned gratitude, he realized that the words no longer had the power to hurt him. “We divorced immediately and Jessica reunited with the child’s father. I understand they’re happy.”
“I’m so sorry, Niko.”
He leaned back, his gaze on her face. All he read there was empathy. Women were truly amazing creatures, capable of so much warmth and compassion. It made it even harder to say the words that he must. “I was a rebound relationship for her. Good to bolster her ego for a few hours, but never meant to be permanent.”
“Just like me.” The statement was low and sharp as if shards of glass ripped her throat as she spoke.
“Exactly.”
* * *
The word was flat, echoing with a finality that Kara refused to accept. Her fingers tightened on the skin across his ribs. She wouldn’t let him go like this.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Niko. You and I, we’re different people. We’re good together. Don’t throw it away.”
“It’s not going to happen, Kara. I won’t be involved in a relationship with you.”
She wished he’d raise his sunglasses so she could see his eyes. She lifted her chin, determined to make him understand. “You are involved.”
“Don’t fool yourself, g
lykia mou
. What we’ve had was quite pleasurable, but it’s over.”
Pleasurable. The word felt like a slap in the face. She reached to tug his sunglasses from his face, tossing them onto the teak deck. “Look me in the eye and tell me I was nothing but a holiday fling to you.”
He clasped his warm palms on each side of her cheeks, starring into her eyes. “I will forever cherish every moment that I’ve had with you, but you love Frank.”
“I–”
“Don’t deny it.” His voice was low and rough. “You told me so yourself that afternoon in Key West.”
She wanted to find words to refute it but couldn’t. It wasn’t possible that she could have been so in love with Frank last week, looking forward to spending the rest of her life with him and today she felt nothing. That would show a lack of depth to her own personality that she couldn’t believe of herself.
“It has taken me years to mend from my failed marriage.” His words were slow and deliberate. “It would be unkind of you to keep me dangling on a string for months or maybe years waiting for you to recover. Be fair to us both and end it here.”
Her mind screamed out against the truth of what he’d said, but she couldn’t form the words. She’d had the same thoughts herself. It was ridiculous to imagine that she had fallen in love with Niko so quickly. True, they shared a connection that was much deeper than her relationship with Frank had ever been, but it couldn’t be enough to form a lasting attachment. She had to be fooling herself. Rolling on a rebound high was the term she’d heard to describe it. And what an incredible high it was. He deserved better than that, but with his hands cupping her face and the warmth of his body heating her skin, she couldn’t let him go. She needed him with a desperation that she’d never felt for anyone else.
“You told me once that you wanted me so badly you were beyond caring what was fair. You’d want me even if I cried out Frank’s name when we made love,” she said low and urgently. “I don’t believe you’ve changed so much in the last few days.”
His eyes darkened to the navy of storm-tossed seas. “I lied. I would have killed him with my bare hands had you called his name, then I would have found a way to give you so much pleasure that it would never happen again.”
“You’re jealous,” she said triumphantly. “You want me!”
She leaned against the pressure of his hands on her face, drawn toward the fullness of his lips. The thrill of victory coursed through her veins for a brief moment as he allowed the touch, then he sighed against her mouth and raised his head. Dropping his hands from her face, he untangled his legs from hers and stood. Bending to pick up his sunglasses from the deck where she’d thrown them, he placed them back over his eyes as he stepped to the railing.
She swung to place her feet on the floor, longing to follow him, but something in his tense stance held her where she was. His back was to her, his gaze fixed across the resort grounds on the tall coral-colored towers of the hotel. She stood slowly, the beaded ankle bracelet she’d never removed brushing against the opposite ankle.
“What about the anklet?”
He turned slightly at that, leaning against the teak wood that topped the guardrail. “It was a gift, a small memento of your day in Key West.”
“Eduardo told me that, in some cultures, the bracelet is a symbol of marriage.”
He shrugged, his gaze not quite meeting hers. “Perhaps, but the ancient Greeks awarded bracelets to returning war heroes as a symbol of valor. I suppose I was thinking of that when I bought it. I was impressed by how well you held up that day. Most women would have been to pieces.”
She took a step toward him. “It was because of you. You teased and made me laugh. You climbed the tower with me.”
Then you pressed your body against mine
, she wanted to add,
and I wanted you to do it again and again
.
When he didn’t respond, she walked across the deck, standing close enough to touch him, but holding her hands at her side. “George thought the anklet was blue and white as protection against the evil eye.”
He sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his swim shorts. “This is ridiculous, Kara. I had no idea you’d place so much importance on it.”
“I didn’t really until Eduardo and George…” She trailed off, feeling the heat of a blush wash across her cheeks. “I guess they were just teasing me and I read too much into it.”
He dragged one hand out of his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair. “No, they were right to a point. I chose the blue on purpose. It’s just a superstition, but since you were going back to Sanibel that night to face Frank, I thought you could use all the help you could get.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly. If the anklet had meant nothing, then perhaps she’d read too much into their physical relationship as well. She clenched her teeth together to stop the tremble that she felt in her chin. She had been an idiot. A romantic idiot. Again. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t recognize the difference between real, lasting affection and passing attraction?
He turned his head, his gaze on the palm trees that lined the boardwalk in front of the ship, their tops swaying slightly as the breeze stiffened.
“I’ve chartered a plane to Miami that will leave at six o’clock this evening. You and George will be on it.”
“George?” Her confusion echoed in her tone.
He turned back to face her, his arms crossed against his chest. “There’s a weather system coming in. The sea is likely to be rough on the return journey. Both you and George would be a liability. We won’t have time to tend to you if you are hurt.”
He was interrupted by a buzzing noise. His cell phone. With an impatient motion, he pulled it from his pocket, glanced at the screen then clicked a button to silence it before turning his attention back to her.
“The plane will land in Miami. George will take a taxi home, but I’ve arranged a car to take you on to Sanibel. I talked to your father this morning and he’s booked your flight back to New York. You’ll be home tomorrow night.”
A liability. That’s what she was now? She refused to believe it. Refused to believe that her father had plotted against her. “I won’t go.”
He pushed away from the railing as if he would approach her. Her breath caught, wondering what he would do. He stopped, the effort of restraint obvious in his clenched fists and the bunched muscles of his thighs.
“The plane leaves at six o’clock sharp and you are going to be on it.”
The firm words did not intimidate her. She planted her feet in a wide stance, raising her head to a determined tilt. “Do you think you can force me to board a plane?” she said, challenge in her tone. “You were in command of this ship when you decided to turn it toward Nassau, but the authorities won’t stand for the scene I will make at the airport.”
“There will be no scene.” His voice was low and determined.
His cell phone buzzed again and he flipped it up to look at the screen. He muttered something under his breath and turned his back to her to answer it. The conversation was quick and in a language that she didn’t understand. This time, he clicked the phone off with a violent jab of one finger. He ran his free hand through his hair again in a gesture of frustration so familiar she wanted to go to him, to soothe his anxiety.
“It’s Eduardo. There’s some problem at marina security and he can’t get the doors through. I have to go.”
Panicked, she eased toward him. “The doors can wait,” she said, pleading in her tone. “This is more important.”
Niko stared at her for a moment as if memorizing her features. A last good-bye. Clicking his cell phone on again, he scrolled to a number and put it to his ear. She breathed a sigh of relief. She’d gotten through to him. He’d tell Eduardo to wait. They’d have time to work this out.
“It is time.” The words were slow, heavy with regret, as if forced from him. He disconnected the call and shoved the cell phone back into the pocket of his swim shorts.
Kara tensed. Something wasn’t right. “Who was that?”
He closed the distance between them and slid his arms around her waist. His touch was gentle, his fingertips barely gliding against her skin. She leaned into him, drawn to him as surely as she’d been from their first meeting on the dance floor. His head lowered, his lips stroked hers with tender restraint. She opened to him, needing more, but he drew away, releasing his slight hold on her as he stepped back.