Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 9) (3 page)

Calmly, she stared him down, hands trapped behind her back against the door. “We don’t have to do this. I’m not helping Jared develop Ilhota Rosa into a resort.”

“I’m aware. What I want to know is why not? Seems like the woman screwing Anderson would have every reason to stay in his good graces.”

His tone could use work. So could his leading argument. But God, his chest hurt with the effort to bite back the questions, the urge to tell her how his throat still burned when he imagined her with his former friend.

She didn’t even flinch. “If you came here to have a rational adult discussion, dragging my personal life into the mix is not the way to do it. I’ll let it slide once, but I won’t hesitate to kick you out if you do it again.”

Personal life.
Once, he’d been invited into the very center of her personal life. Did she not have the same exact memories of their two weeks together that he had? They’d
connected
, had the most amazing experiences together, and that was out of bed. In bed… he’d gotten so lost in her that he’d never been able to fight his way free of the web she’d spun around him.

God, what a paradox. He’d trusted her, let her under his skin, allowed himself to imagine a future with her during their sporadic Skype conversations once he’d returned to the front. Then he’d let her go so she could find someone who could make her happy. And now he was pissed that she’d done that?

Yes
. He was still so unable to believe that she’d hopped into bed with the one person who should have been considered off-limits. And he was living a stone’s throw from them both now that he’d returned to Duchess Island, which she’d
known
was his plan.

Hell, she’d been the one to encourage him to follow his dream of moving to the Caribbean and starting his own company. It had been
her idea
.

Anger spiked through his gut, black and fierce. How did he shove that back in the box? It was times like this that being the Saint sucked, because he didn’t feel like doing the right thing. He wanted her to bleed on the inside as much as he was. And she wasn’t.

He crossed his arms over the seething morass of temper and… other stuff in his chest he had no intention of honoring.
Get over yourself
. This conversation was not about the catch-22 he’d created. It was about saving his company.

“By all means. Let’s be adults, Dr. Reed. I was expecting you to follow Anderson’s script and deny Ilhota Rosa’s status as a wildlife sanctuary. He’s frothing at the mouth to keep my company’s snorkeling excursions away from the coral reef off the coast. What I don’t understand is why you did the exact opposite of what he wanted.”

“Because it’s my job,” she replied, serenely smoothing back a lock of her flame-red hair. “Jared hired me in my capacity as a dolphin expert, and as such, I did a careful study of the area. It qualifies as a wildlife sanctuary, and that’s what my report said. His bid to buy the island and develop it into a resort is over. You’re welcome.”

Her chilly tone lit a match to the powder keg of his temper. Was she
really
going to stand there like they had no history and it wasn’t tearing her apart to be in the same room with him?

Because it was killing him.

They hadn’t picked up where they’d left off when he came back to the Bahamas, the chaos under his skin shouldn’t even exist—and wouldn’t if he hadn’t screwed up—and worst of all, she was sleeping with a guy Charlie had known for
twenty years
. How dare she be so calm?

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” he bit out. “Nor would I have. If you really want to do something for me,
Dr. Reed,
I’ll take an explanation for why Anderson suddenly has it out for me. Did you poison him against me or something?”

Retribution for ending things. He’d had a lot of time to turn over this whole vendetta in his mind, and that was the only explanation. She was pissed that he’d dumped her without explanation, and instead of asking him why, she’d sicced her billionaire boyfriend on him.

“Is that what you think is going on?” She laughed, and it grated at the fresh wounds being formed as they spoke. “For your information, my interest is dolphins. Not you or Jared and this pissing contest the two of you have thrown me into the middle of.”

Her eyes widened as he waltzed closer. “Oh, come on, sweetheart. You threw
yourself
in the middle when you climbed into Jared’s bed. Tell me. Was it his money that turned you on the most or simply the thought of bagging both of us?”

Her blue eyes snapped as red stained her cheeks. Finally. A response from the ice princess.

The parallels between Audra and Naomi, the first woman he’d ever trusted, were pretty obvious. Charlie had a thing for women who were ultimately attracted to someone with a better bank account. In Naomi’s case, it had been his father. Audra was just following the same game plan. Money always trumped everything in the end.

He’d thought she was different, or he wouldn’t have cared enough to let her go in a completely unselfish act that she clearly didn’t appreciate.

“Get out,” she said with every ounce of the passion he remembered.

Oh, God, did he remember it. Especially as he became painfully aware of the rise and fall of her breasts and how close they were to his chest. How hellaciously difficult it was to stop himself from taking one small step and wedging her body between his and the door.

Audra was the most vivacious, adventurous woman he’d ever met, and her thirst for thrill seeking eclipsed his own. Together, they’d burned like gasoline on a fire. He doubted that part had changed.

“Sure that’s what you want?” he murmured and was gratified to see a glimmer of something other than ire surface in her gaze. If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he’d have missed it. She wasn’t as unaffected as she’d have him believe.

And that made all the difference.

His own temper settled. Finally. Good. He had things to say to Dr. Audra Reed.

“I’m sorry. Let’s start over,” he suggested, hating the catch in his voice. “My business is suffering, and I… Can we just talk? For old time’s sake? Then I’ll leave if you want me to.”

She smacked him in the chest, flat palmed. “I will if you back off.”

Her voice trembled with something he had no idea how to interpret, which was so shocking he complied. Once, he’d been able to read Audra like a blind man read braille. But that had been two years ago. Their intermittent Skype conversations since then had been too brief to build on what they’d started.

Her hand dropped away the moment he stepped back, his flesh cooling instantly where her heat had been an instant ago.

She stared at him, arms crossed. Probably as a warning in case he tried to get too close again, which chilled him out faster than anything. God, who was this jackass wearing his clothes? Had the Saint fallen so far from grace that he couldn’t be counted on to treat a woman with respect?

Survival mode
. He shoved everything back in the box like he’d done so many times since landing on Duchess Island and finding out that Audra had been sleeping with Jared Anderson. After all, it was his fault that she’d moved on.
His
.

Eventually, she nodded. “I have a meeting in a couple of minutes. Can we cut to the chase? I didn’t file that report to designate Ilhota Rosa as a wildlife sanctuary for any other reason than because the facts support it. Don’t read into it.”

He kept the disappointment off of his face through sheer will alone. He’d half thought that she might have done it as a sign, a way of reaching out to get his attention. But clearly there was no special significance to Ilhota Rosa in her mind. She probably didn’t even remember that she’d taken him to the island on their first date. The occasion was cemented in his memory as the moment when they’d fallen into something deeper than they’d expected. Than
he’d
expected.

What she’d taken from their relationship, he’d never know.

“If it makes you feel any better, Jared’s extremely unhappy with me,” she said wryly, and the quirk of her lips was so familiar he almost smiled back.

But caught himself at the last minute. Because none of this made him feel better. They were all adults though, as she’d pointed out, and the right thing to do was keep acting like one.

“I can imagine,” he allowed.

Jared Anderson was a son of a bitch, no doubt. How she’d ended up with him was the billion-dollar question—of course, that was also the most likely answer. Money made people do crazy things, and Anderson had plenty of that. The man’s bank account had leeched away his soul, and it had taken Charlie longer than it should have to clue in that his high school running buddy had become someone else, someone ruthless and cunning. Someone like Charlie’s father.

Shades of Jared’s adult personality had filtered through the first time Charlie had come to the Caribbean. It hadn’t taken long for their friendship to fizzle.

Which was why he’d cut off communication with all three of them. He had no time for people like that.

“I’m sorry too, by the way. I—” She cut herself off abruptly, and the way her eyes glinted clued him in that she meant for everything.

It was too late for apologies. Forgiveness wasn’t one of his skills; otherwise, he’d have found a way to forgive himself for what had happened in Iraq. If you just did the right thing, no one had to forgive. A lesson he’d been forced to learn the hard way. Besides, they’d both committed far too many sins for any hope of redemption.

“I don’t want to talk about the past. Just the future.” With a false sense of calm he definitely didn’t feel, he surveyed her. “I’m here with a proposal.”

A
udra’s pulse shot into the red as she blinked at the solid, magnificent man taking up all the oxygen in her office. He didn’t want to talk about the past? Why, because she really hadn’t meant anything to Charlie after all?

Of course the last year of silence had already answered that question in flaming ten-foot letters. But the longer he stood there watching her, the worse the bruising on her heart hurt. And she wanted to know: why now, after all this time? For over a year, she’d been braced for the confrontation, from the moment Jared had told her Charlie was back in the Caribbean after his final tour in Iraq.

Nothing
. No contact. No explanation for his monumentally gutless brush-off eighteen months ago, via text message to boot. As far as she’d known, Charlie St. Croix was a ghost, a fragile memory of an idyllic period of her life that couldn’t have been as sweet and amazing as she recalled.

She’d wanted to see him. More than she wanted to breathe some days until she’d gradually had to let that dream fade. But now that he was here? So much percolated beneath the surface of this conversation that she could hardly stand to be in her own skin, let alone articulate any of the pain and anguish his mere presence had dredged up.

He wasn’t even going to ask how she was or what had happened since he’d left? A hell of a lot, thanks. She’d needed him. He hadn’t been there for her, forcing her to go through the blackest period of her life without him.

Since Charlie hadn’t asked—then or now—she had less than no interest in telling him. Whatever his proposal was, he could choke on his own jealousy before she’d lift a finger to consider it. And just for fun, she’d keep it to herself that she and Jared had broken up three months ago.

Not talking about the past was definitely a good plan.

“I filed my report,” she said. “What else could we possibly have to say to each other?”

“Plenty. You know Anderson filed an injunction against commercial ventures, right? He did it deliberately. Because I filed the injunction against the resort.”

His voice curled through her stomach, and she held on to it tightly, basking in warmth that she hated herself for wanting so much. He’d made his disinterest in her so clear. What was her problem?

“Yes. That’s why he hired me, after all, to counter your injunction. Hence the reason I called it a pissing contest. If either of you would glance up occasionally, you’d see how petty this whole thing is.”

That was the wrong thing to say. Charlie’s whole body went stiff and fierce, and she was ashamed she’d been watching him closely enough to notice. But jeez, what should she look at when the epitome of male perfection was dominating all the space in her office?

“But that’s the thing,” he said so quietly that she had to strain to hear him. “He started it by striking at my business. What was I supposed to do, roll over and let him destroy me?”

“No, of course not.” She shut her eyes for a second, which did nothing to fortify her. “But
you
filed the papers to declare it a wildlife sanctuary when you know the only wildlife around that coral reef that could possibly warrant protection is dolphins. What else was that but an attempt to drag me into it?”

Seemed pretty clear to her that all of this was some kind of punishment.

She had been the one to introduce Charlie to the dolphins that hung around in the cove on the north side of Ilhota Rosa, up close and personal. They’d stood on a rock together, his arms encircling her waist as the big gray bodies swam all around them. One had even let Charlie rub her head in what had been one of the most spiritual experiences of Audra’s life.