Coming up from a cloud of sleep, she smiled softly. “It’s nice being kissed awake,” she murmured huskily.
“It’s tolerable from my perspective too.”
Her eyes slowly opened. “Good morning.”
“Good morning." He kissed her, gently, lingeringly. She blinked sleepily as he drew away. “Is it morning, by the way?”
“All the signs are pointing to it: sun, blue sky—” She groaned and threw her arm over her eyes. “That means you’re leaving. ”
He pulled her arm away from her face, chuckling. “I’ve changed my mind. ”
“What?” she asked, her eyes flying open. “Really?” He nodded. “I’ve come up with a theory that requires my presence here. Besides, I’d feel better being here, protecting you.”
He pulled back, and she pushed herself up, arranging the pillows behind her. “Why would you think I’m in danger?”
“There’s a possibility that I didn't want to mention to you yesterday. Instead of trying for me and possibly failing, Rettig’s men might take you hostage and use you against me. I’ve asked Rill to send men up to protect you. Now I’ll tell him not to. ”
“I don’t need protecting. ”
“Maybe you don’t,” he said softly, stroking her arm, “but I look at you, and everything in me wants to watch over you. And what’s more, I don’t see that instinct ever going away. I’m sorry.”
She touched his face. “What’s going on, Nico?” “Rettig,” he said succinctly. “I think I’ve finally figured what his men are doing here. The island.” “SwanSea’s island?”
He nodded. “They’re using the fishing industry of the area as a cover and the island as a drop-off and pick-up point. They fill up their specially equipped boats with something heavy to make it look as if they have a full load and are through fishing for the day. But their main cargo is cocaine. They bring it up the coast, mingling in with the regular fishing boats whenever possible. Then they drop the drugs off at the island. Sometime later, probably the next moonless night, Rettig’s Canadian connections come down, load up their own boat, and take the stuff back to Canada. It’s been working like a charm. They just forgot one little thing: Seagulls aren’t attracted to weights. They should have thrown a few fish in, just for drill.”
The idea of the island’s being used for drug running was disturbing but secondary compared to her concern for Nico. She searched his face for some sign of his intentions. “So you’re going to stay here and do what?”
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan to do anything stupid. I’m just going to keep a closer eye on the island and see if I can pick up a pattern.”
“Nico—”
He touched her face. "Try to understand, Caitlin. I feel very proprietary toward Rettig. This is something I have to do. I started it, and I’m going to finish it.”
“I understand what it’s like to have a burning drive to succeed at something. I think all the Deverells have it; it takes a different form in each of us. But my understanding doesn’t make it any easier for me to see you put your life on the line.”
“Hey.” He leaned over her, forming a tent of warmth and strength over her with his body. “I thought I told you, nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“You’re not bulletproof, Nico.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to decide what he could possibly say that would reassure her. In the end, he decided there was nothing. “I have to do this, Caitlin, and I have to do it my way.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” “Causing you pain or worry hurts me more than Rettig’s bullets did.”
She slid her arms around his neck. “Don’t spend one more minute wonying about me. Because of my love for you, my worry is bearable.”
She glowed with a beauty within, he thought, and if he lived to be a hundred, he’d never deserve her. “I want to make love to you. I need to feel you against me. I need to tty to make you forget, a least for a little while, that you’re upset and hurting because of me.”
“I need the very same thing,” she whispered.
Ramona burst into the study where Caitlin was working, her face wreathed in a big smile. “Caitlin, your mother just drove up! Mr. Haines is out front helping her with her bags now. ”
“Great!” Jumping to her feet, she threw her pen down and turned to Nico. “Now you can meet her.” Nico had been lounging in a chair near Caitlin’s desk, reading a biography of Winston Churchill. “I thought she was in Egypt.”
“No, India. Now she’s here. ”
“That’s Julia,” Ramona said fondly, backing out the door. “Are you two coming?”
“Of course.”
She held her hand toward Nico, and he had no choice but to go with her. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to meet Caitlin’s mother. He did. But he’d hoped to be able to put off their meeting until his problems had been settled and he was able to come down from his tightrope.
Julia Deverell was just walking in the front door as they entered the grand hall. Caitlin broke away from Nico and ran across the marble floor.
Julia threw her arms around her daughter, enveloping her in a hug and a cloud of Opium perfume. “Darling, it’s so wonderful to see you. How are you?”
Caitlin drew away and gazed happily at her mother. She was as lovely as ever, her ash-brown hair falling to her shoulder in a stylishly casual fashion, her face free of any makeup, her slender figure clothed in a dark blue-silk tank top and a purple, blue, and turquoise peasant skirt. Sandals, an armful of clanky silver bracelets, and a beautiful large purple rope necklace completed the outfit. She never gave any thought to what she wore, Caitlin thought proudly, but she always looked sophisticated and elegant. “I’m terrific. How about you?”
“Couldn’t be better, now that I’m back home with you. Ramona, how are you surviving the renovation?” Julia asked, bestowing a hug on the older woman.
Ramona gave a dismissive shrug. “Caitlin’s doing all the work.”
Julia smiled at her daughter. “I’m dying to see what you’ve done to the place so far.”
“And I can’t wait to show you. But first there’s someone I want you to meet.” Caitlin beckoned to Nico who had been standing to one side, watching the reunion.
But before Caitlin could perform the introduction, Mr. Haines and several of his men struggled through the door, each carrying an armload of luggage.
“Thank you, Mr. Haines. Why don’t you just leave it all there.” Julia gracefully waved a hand toward the door. “When I find out what bedroom Caitlin wants me in, I’ll give you a call.”
“Very well, Miss Deverell. And it’s good to have you back.”
Julia bestowed a breathtaking smile on the man. “Thank you. Caitlin, wait until you see what I brought you from India. Oh, who's this?” she asked, noticing Nico for the first time.
“This is a very special person in my life—Nico DiFrenza.”
With a surprised look at her daughter’s radiant face, Julia extended her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Nico. You know, I really must stop staying away so long. I miss too much.”
“Miss Deverell,” he said, shaking her hand.
“Please, call me Julia. I have a feeling we’re going to be getting to know each other quite well.”
He grinned. “Yes, I think so. And it will be my pleasure. I cam see now that Caitlin comes by her beauty quite naturally.”
Humor flashed in Julia’s green eyes. “I’m going to like you, aren’t I?”
“Elena DiFrenza is Nico’s great-grandmother,” Caitlin said.
Julia lifted her brows ever so slightly. “Does that mean in the future well be able to get our clothes discount?”'
Nico laughed. “I’m sure something can be worked out.”
“Oh,” Ramona said in a suddenly strange voice. “Here’s Quinn, about to leave us.”
Everyone turned toward the man who was standing, stone-still, in the center of the grand hall, his gaze fixed on Julia.
“Quinn!”
Julia whispered.
Caitlin glanced at her mother and saw that all color had drained from her face. “Mother? Do you know Quinn?”
Julia, pale and motionless, stared at Quinn as if he were a ghost.
It was Quinn who finally moved. He put down his bags and walked slowly to her. “Hello, Julia,” he said quietly.
“Mother? Are you all right?”
With a look at Caitlin, Quinn took Julia’s arm. “Your mother and I are going into the salon and talk awhile.”
Dumbfounded, Caitlin gazed after Quinn and her mother as they disappeared through a doorway. “That’s the oddest thing I ever saw. They—” She broke off abruptly, because suddenly she knew . . . With an exclamation, she turned to Nico and received another shock. There was no surprise on his face.
“Quinn is my father, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew.”
“Yes.”
Caitlin felt as if the world had just been cut loose from its moorings and was spinning wildly through space. “I don’t understand.”
He took her arm, much as Quinn had taken Julia’s, and tried to think of the nearest room where they could have privacy and she could sit down. “Let’s go back to the study. Ramona, I wonder if we could trouble you for some tea?”
Gazing worriedly at Caitlin, Ramona nodded her head. “Of course.”
On the long walk back, Caitlin was silent. Nico let her be, knowing that soon enough the numbness would wear off.
He closed the study door behind them and watched while Caitlin made her way to her desk. Instead of sitting down, she rounded on him. “What’s he doing here?”
“He told me he’d just wanted to come see you.” “Me? Now?” Her laugh rang hollowly in the golden room. “Where’s he been for the last twenty-six years, and why hasn’t he come to see Mom in all that time?”
“You’ll have to ask
him.
” Her eyes widened with a pain that nearly tore him apart. “I’m sorry, Caitlin, but it’s his story to tell.”
“The person you had check on Quinn, he told you about him, didn’t he? You knew all about this yesterday. ”
“The report I received gave me information on Quinn’s background. When I talked with him on the bluff, he told me the rest, but he asked me not to tell you.” *
“He
asked you! Nico, he’s a stranger to you. You’re supposed to be in love with me. You should have told me.”
Nico reached out and tried to take her into his arms, but she shrugged him away. Frustrated, he ran his hand around the back of his neck. “Caitlin, Quinn didn’t want to see you hurt. As a matter of fact, he told me that’s why he searched my room. He saw how you felt about me and was worried about the type of man he thought I was. And of course he was absolutely right. ”
“What an extremely
fatherly
thing to do!”
“Caitlin—” A knock on the door interrupted. Nico opened the door and took the tea tray from Ramona. “How are you, honey?” Ramona asked Caitlin. “Did you know too?” she asked accusingly.
“No. But I suspected. I once saw an old photograph your mother kept in a drawer. He was a young man then, and the picture was taken from a distance." She shrugged. “I don’t know. When Quinn showed up, the similarity between him and the man in the photograph struck me. ”
“But why did you ask him to stay?” she asked, a small cry in her voice.
Ramona clasped her hands tightly together. “I just thought it was the thing to do. I still do.” “But
why?’’
“Julia. You’ve said it yourself many times. She’s been like a butterfly, flitting from place to place, looking for something. I personally have always believed she was looking for
someone.
Your father, I think."
Tears filled Caitlin’s eyes and she sank back against the desk. “How is Mom?”
“I don’t know. I’m about to take her a tray of tea too.”
Caitlin nodded. “Please ... I’d like to be alone now."
“No,” Nico said. “I’m staying with you.”
“Just leave.”
“She’ll be all right,” Ramona said to him. “She needs a little time. Come with me to the kitchen, and I’ll make you a cup of tea. Caitlin? You drink the tea I’ve brought, you hear? Nico and I will be in the kitchen if you need us.”
“Caitlin?” he said, his tone pleading with her to ask him to stay.
She said nothing. And soon she was alone in the golden room she’d always thought so warm, she wrapped her arms around herself and wondered why she felt so cold.
Nine
She sought the sunshine and the sea. The heat of the sun and the power and unending rhythm of the ocean had always seemed to her a part of SwanSea and of her. She had a favorite seat—a rock that warmed in the afternoon and was lapped by waves at high tide.
It was there Quinn found her.
Somehow, he knew she would regard it an invasion of privacy if he tried to sit on the rock with her, so he stood on the sand, gazing at his daughter, his heart hurting for her, for him, for so many wasted years.
“I’d like to talk with you, Caitlin.” Her gaze remained on the horizon. “Your mother’s worried about you, and she wanted to come, but I asked her not to. I felt that it was my place to try and make you understand.”
“Does that mean Mom understands?”
His words were cautious. This wasn’t a simple situation; there would be no simple solution. “It’s not something that’s easily understood with just a
few hours of discussion, but let me put it this way— Julia now understands more than she did.”
She turned her head, and the expression in her eyes was flint hard. “Did you lie to her the way you lied to me when you told me that you had visited grandfather here?”
“You’re right, Caitlin. That was a lie. It was an expedient lie, but a lie nevertheless. More than anything, I wanted the opportunity to be around you for a few days, so that I could see you and come to know you in some small way.” His voice broke, and he stopped to clear his throat. “I was so hungry to know my daughter. ”
The charming facade he’d kept in place since he’d been here had dropped away. Now Caitlin saw signs of vulnerability that deepened the lines of his face, and she realized it was the first time she’d seen him show any real emotion. Apparently he was adept at facades. Nico had been right when he’d said Quinn had taken great care to blend into the woodwork. She looked back at the sea. “I really don’t want to talk to you. Your explanations should go to Mom, not me. ”
“They have, and they will continue to,” he said gently. “But whether you’ll admit it or not, you’re angry and hurt, and I don’t blame you. Perhaps, though, you could simply sit there and listen to me.”