CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER SEVEN
W ILLOW REGISTERED TWO things as she clung to Jario in the breathless aftermath of their lovemaking.
One, that she wasn’t nearly sophisticated enough to attempt post-coital banter with the billionaire who’d propelled her to the very edge of ecstasy and then thrown her overboard.
Two, that the widening chasm in her heart might never be healed because what she’d experienced with Jario would never be repeated. Ever.
Touching heaven once was soul shaking enough. Twice? Multiple times...because surely the relentless string of climaxing was the very definition of multiple orgasms? Not likely.
Especially with the man whose future had been so indelibly altered by her father. And she would never see Jario again once she left this yacht. Because taking a stance in her relationship with her father was one thing, but what possible future was there for her with Jario when they were all so mired in betrayal?
None at all.
‘Are you going to say something?’ he murmured in her ear as he carried her into his luxury cabin. The same cabin she’d cleaned from corner to corner only a handful of days ago.
The reality of how much had changed since that morning settled heavier on her, her stomach tightening at the enormity of what she’d done.
‘Is this where I laud your sexual prowess?’ Attempted humour emerged breathless when she remembered he remained fully embedded inside her. That he was hardening again.
Inhaling sharply at the renewed hunger, she glanced at him to find him examining her with those intense eyes.
‘No need. I’m aware of my magnificence.’ His own attempt at levity fell equally flat, the undercurrents rising in the charged atmosphere.
‘In that case, I’ll exercise the right to remain silent so you can bask in your glory.’
Another twitch of his mouth shattered by the weight of the moment. As he rose with her and crossed the room, she fleetingly hoped he would take the responsibility out of her hands, toss her on the bed and strip her of the need to ponder what came next.
Instead, he headed for the bathroom and into the large walk-in shower.
If she’d expected him to put her down, to carve out a few moments to absorb the impact of the past few hours, she was sadly mistaken. Jario seemed reluctant to release her, even as his expression grew increasingly shuttered. And since she still couldn’t find the right words to express her chaotic, shaken emotions of their coming together, she allowed him to pin her against the bathroom wall while he set the water to his desired temperature. Then as he washed her hair, back and parts of her body he could reach, he slowly rocked in and out of her, stealing her breath clean away in yet another climax that soared so high, she tasted heaven.
Small talk was completely nonexistent when they exited. Jario silently held open a luxurious robe, which she shrugged on, then, catching her elbow, he led her outside, where a sumptuous breakfast had been laid out. Seconds ticked away as they both sipped their coffees.
Until she couldn’t stand it one more second. ‘Are we going to talk about this?’ she demanded as he poured her orange juice and slid it over to her.
He didn’t answer immediately. His gaze was busy conducting a thorough scrutiny of every dish before he looked up. Knowing it was for her benefit, that her anaphylactic episode remained on his mind, shouldn’t have softened something inside her.
Yet, it did.
She ate a few mouthfuls of heavenly croissant, ham and eggs. Then after passing her several segments of fruit, he spoke.
‘What’s the point in dissecting it? Did we not agree the sex had no bearing on the reason you’re here?’
The words were clipped, further ratcheting up her tension. Her fingers shook a little as she set her glass down. ‘That’s what we told ourselves, yes, but...’ She sucked in a breath. ‘Are we honestly going to pretend it doesn’t?’
His clenched jaw rippled, then he waved a hand at her. ‘Let’s hear it, then.’
His invitation was as surprising as it was unnerving. ‘What?’
Glinting blue eyes challenged her. ‘Tell me what has changed. How that affects either of us.’
The question ricocheted in her head, and with each second that passed, she realised there was no clear-cut answer. At least none that wouldn’t reveal the utter turmoil churning inside her. She wasn’t so fully at ease with her decision to wall herself off from her father’s lies and indifference to blurt it out to his enemy.
‘Exactly.’ His voice was soft but an inferno raged in his eyes.
And the hell of it was she didn’t think that inferno was aimed at her. He was battling seething emotions of his own.
‘Your father connived, cajoled and convinced mine to go on a business trip to Colombia when I was fourteen years old,’ he said in a voice so stark, shivers poured over her despite the sun’s hot blaze. Tight, white-knuckled fingers clutched his knife. After a moment he tossed it on the table, his breath whistling as he inhaled sharply. ‘My father didn’t deserve what happened to him.’
‘What happened?’
‘Yours lied to him,’ he seethed. ‘They were relatively new business partners, both ambitious and keen to grow their new venture capitalist business.’ His lips twisted. ‘Your father was a little more reckless in his approach than mine. Before you refute that, I have the evidence.’
Willow nodded, recalling the fights that’d started the fractures that eventually broke her family. Her mother screaming that she felt neglected, that she came second to Paul Chatterton’s love for his company.
Perhaps her agreement mollified Jario. After a beat, he continued. ‘He told my father the business meeting he’d arranged was taking place in Bogotá.’
Willow frowned. ‘What was wrong with Bogotá? Wasn’t it safe there?’
Lines bracketed Jario’s mouth, his eyes turning midnight blue. ‘Compared to where we ended up, Bogotá was a theme park,’ he said chillingly.
‘Did your father know the risks? Why would he...?’ She paused as he stiffened. Then a flash of bleakness shadowed his eyes.
‘You think I haven’t asked myself that over the years?’
‘But it’s easier to blame the living?’ she murmured.
His eyes blazed. ‘You dare to say that to me?’
‘You said you’ve thought about it. So you’ve probably considered why he went along with my father when he knew it was risky.’
He appeared a touch nonplussed, a frown creasing his brows before he shook his head.
‘With the right safety measures in place, Bogotá was safe enough. And he believed he had kidnap insurance should the worst happen.’
Willow stiffened. ‘What do you mean, he believed? Didn’t he know?’
A furious tremor ran through him. ‘He trusted your father when he said he’d arranged it. But he lied. He took it out for himself alone while assuring my father that he and the son he’d brought along, because said son wanted to spend his fifteenth birthday in his father’s country of birth, were covered.’
Cold horror washed over her, acid from the fruit rising until she feared she’d throw up. ‘Where did you...? What happened?’
He named a place she’d never heard of. ‘We were barely on the ground before we were taken.’
A vise squeezed her heart. ‘Jario—’
‘We were held for four months in a series of caves and basements, relocated often so we never knew where we were.’ His voice was devoid of inflection. Almost. His stony face contorted with cold bitterness and icier fury. ‘But your father was released after three weeks.’ His gaze speared into hers from across the table. ‘I bet you didn’t even realise he was gone?’
Horror blended with sympathy for him. ‘He was gone a lot on business when I was growing up. But I noticed a difference when he got back. That was when...’
‘His own demons started haunting him?’ he filled in bitterly. At her nod, a dull sheen swept over his eyes. ‘At least he’s alive.’
Her heart squeezed. ‘And your father isn’t. You must hate me.’
He dragged a hand down his face with an exhausted laugh. ‘A week ago, I probably would’ve. But...’ He stopped. Frowned.
‘But?’ Far too much rode on that single word.
Eyes weighted with bewilderment, pain and a resolution she couldn’t quite fully determine regarded her steadily. ‘But for reasons I can’t quite work out, I find myself not at all consumed with destroying you and a little less consumed with destroying your father.’
Her mouth dropped open at the raw admission. But when she rose, intending to move towards him, he raised his hand. ‘Jario—’
‘Don’t take that to mean I’ve gone soft, Willow,’ he said forcefully. Perhaps a little too forcefully.
She dropped back into her chair, her insides still twisting over the admission.
‘I don’t intend to revisit this story again. Do you want to hear what happened to us after your selfish father left us behind?’
‘Yes,’ she whispered, shame and anger dredging through her because she recognised the selfishness Jario described. Her father had laughed off his naked ambition as single-minded dedication to growing a successful business, but she recalled the mood swings, the irrational lashing out and the icy indifference. He’d knowingly tainted her in his selfish guilt and haunted suffering.
But it was nothing compared to Jario’s harrowing loss. She started as he rose from the table, dragged agitated fingers through his hair.
She watched him pace the deck, once, twice, before he paused to lean on his clenched fists, anguished eyes boring into her. The matching white linen pants and shirt highlighted his bronzed vitality and with his shirt unbuttoned, his stunning physique was unmissable. But it was his visibly haggard demeanour that commanded her attention.
‘Here’s the absolutely deplorable rub. He had a chance to redeem himself. He could’ve come up with the ransom.’ His jaw clenched in recollection. ‘It would’ve meant the business possibly going under and them having to start over. But it wasn’t impossible. Yet, he refused.’
‘No...’ The word shivered from her lips.
Jario’s smile was completely devoid of humour. ‘Yes,’ he hissed. ‘My father begged him on his knees to sell the company. It would’ve been cents on the dollar, but it would’ve been enough to bargain with the kidnappers. When he wouldn’t relent, he asked him to take just me. To return me to my mother. Your father claimed it would be quicker if he left first then arranged for us to be released. Even then, I knew they were empty promises. I spent my fifteenth birthday in chains in a cave, two weeks after your father left.’
Willow’s hand flew to her lips, for the first time, feeling true disgust for the father she’d loved despite all his flaws. Despite the tainted legacy of his name and what he’d done, shame she now knew would remain forever.
She wanted to ask how he’d managed to get free but anger, sorrow and horror blocked her throat.
But Jario, now he’d opened the floodgates, couldn’t stop telling his harrowing ordeal. ‘Every day my father pleaded for my life, offered up whatever he could. My mother tried to sell our house but the economy was in the toilet and the pennies she was offered were laughed at by our kidnappers.’ He swallowed thickly and somehow, she knew the worst was yet to come. ‘In the end, my father decided we had to escape.’
Dread made her frame shudder. Their breakfast had long gone cold, the view blurring in the face of his heartrending recounting.
‘He was shot trying to smuggle me onto a food truck in the kidnappers’ compound.’ The words were delivered in a ravaged croak, barely audible.
Willow couldn’t remember rounding the table, ignoring his stiff form to throw her arms around him in inadequate commiseration. He didn’t flinch away from her, because she strongly suspected he didn’t register her insufficient gesture. But she held on, desperate to reassure him, and her, that he’d made it through. That he was alive. Because despite everything he’d been through, the idea that she would’ve never met him, that the profound impact of him was something she would’ve been denied, felt criminal.
‘Do you know what it feels like to watch your parent die in front of you?’ His voice bled pure desolation, unfathomable anguish. Her heart bled right along with it. ‘That kind of grief and rage, it swallows you whole, and it never lets go. Never.’ His bunched fist slammed against his breastbone, his exhales rippling through the morning air. ‘It changes you here.’ He pressed harder. ‘From one moment to the next, you see your life altered forever. And knowing it didn’t have to happen...’
‘Jario... I’m so sorry you had to go through that. God, I’m...’ She shook her head, knowing her words were insufficient but trying anyway because the thought of him dwelling in that desolate landscape, the way he clearly had been for years, utterly demolished her. ‘Tell me what I can do.’
He grasped her shoulders, shadows dancing in his eyes. ‘You can start by refusing to fall on your sword for that coward.’
Her throat closed tighter as tears prickled her eyes, her heart clenching despite the wrenching decision she’d made for herself. ‘You...don’t need to worry about that. I’m at a crossroads where my father is concerned.’
Surprise jolted him, then his hard expression returned. ‘The problem with crossroads is that you can turn back. I prefer burnt bridges.’
Willow wasn’t sure which one cut deeper. She could only stand there, dragging tiny bursts of air into her stunned insides. ‘That’s a decision for me to make, Jario. Not you.’
Censure and disappointment etched deeper into his face. ‘Then we have nothing more to say on the subject, do we?’
Anguish squeezed her chest as she watched him stride off the deck. The gentle breeze felt like ice pellets against her skin. She barely remembered drifting over to the railing, gripping it hard and staring at the water churning in the vessel’s wake.
Several times she tried to swallow and make sense of everything Jario had said. How could her father have done that? When the pressure of it grew too much, she hurried to her cabin. She’d texted Addie and left a few voice mails for her father since she left home, but she hadn’t spoken directly to him.
It felt imperative now that she did even if, as she suspected, he would still be in the same state she’d left him in. Or worse.
A minute into listening to the ringing, she knew he wasn’t going to answer. Her fingers tightened on the phone as she waited for the voice mail.
‘Hi...it’s me...’
She stopped and shook her head. There was no easing into this. Nor did she truly want to. What he’d done, what he’d put Jario and his family through...
Willow squeezed her eyes as tears threatened to spill free. ‘I know what happened in Colombia when you were kidnapped. What happened with Jario Tagarro and his father. How you...got yourself free and...’ She swiped a shaky hand across her wet cheek. ‘How could you do that?’ she whispered. ‘I can’t...do this anymore. This is your last chance, Dad. If you want a relationship with me, then...’
Maybe it’s not too late to fix this.
‘Call me. We need to talk about this.
She hung up, the weight of her father’s sins bearing down on her shoulders. Only to open her eyes moments later to a different landscape.
Red, white and green set against the backdrop of a green landscape and the large cruise ship and smaller boats that made up one side of Benoa Harbour.
They’d arrived in Bali.
An hour after most of the crew had disembarked for their much-needed day off, Willow was pacing her room. Since she was now a guest instead of crew, she was free to come and go as she pleased.
She’d declined the crew’s half-hearted invitation to tour temples and rice paddies in Ubud. She wasn’t in the mood to field curious questions about her connection to Jario. And deep down, she’d been reluctant to leave Jario.
Now she suspected why he’d chosen to make his home on a floating vessel, albeit a breathtaking one, a greater weight of guilt wouldn’t let her go and explore Bali with a carefree spirit as if the man whose blood ran in her veins wasn’t the reason behind Jario’s suffering.
Returning to the bedside table, she checked her phone, although she was close enough to have heard a ring or text.
It was early evening back in California. Yet, her father hadn’t responded, and with every passing second, her pain-tinged anger grew, suspecting that like everything else in his life, he would ignore this, too.
Her mind kept replaying Jario’s ordeal on a loop. Being kidnapped was bad enough. To be left with such harrowing scars from what came after was soul shredding. Conversely, she recognised now where his implacable will had been born.
What hadn’t killed him had made him much, much stronger. Unfortunately, that strength had also calcified a large portion of his heart. She refused to believe it was all of it.
Because you hope to find a chink soft enough to reach him?
Why not? Surely that wasn’t such a bad thing to—
Approaching footsteps paused her thoughts; Jario’s appearance a second later stilling them both in their tracks.
‘You’re still on board?’ Despite his faint surprise, his expression was shuttered.
She wished she could give a cool, offhand reason for remaining behind, but she couldn’t bring herself to be flippant. ‘I didn’t feel like going out.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You think locking yourself up in your room instead of going out to explore with the others pleases me?’
‘I’m not trying to please you!’ She grimaced at her overheated response. ‘I just...didn’t feel right going out there to play tourist while...’
‘While what? While poor old Jario is stuck on his boat feeling sorry for himself?’
‘No! Don’t put words in my mouth. I told you how much I hate that.’
He exhaled and she fooled herself into thinking she saw a flash of contrition on his face before he cupped her chin. ‘Don’t waste your pity on me. It’s neither welcome nor will it be tolerated.’
‘It’s not pity. It’s empathy. There’s a difference.’
Predictably, his eyes narrowed. ‘Another useless emotion designed to make the donor feel better and leave the recipient barely altered. Find a better emotion. I dare you.’
Desire and irritation zipped through her, burning away the edges of desolation and, sweet heaven, she was tempted to clutch the distraction with both hands.
‘There we go,’ he murmured. ‘Much better.’
‘You don’t really want...you can’t expect...’
‘Why not? I recall you riding me like I was the last man on earth a few short hours ago. As performances go, it hit a few excellent spots I wouldn’t mind—’
She wrenched herself from his grasp. ‘That’s not what I’m offering.’
Disappointment filmed his eyes before he veiled it. ‘Too bad. What, then?’
Catching his restless tension, she cast around wildly, then settled on the familiar. ‘Stress relief of a different kind. Come with me.’
As invitations went, it was near flippant enough to trigger his further annoyance. But it was an invitation couched in a challenge, one he couldn’t resist, especially if he craved a distraction from newly uncovered old wounds. And for her, doing something other than waiting for a call from her father that she suspected wasn’t coming felt imperative.
Delaying the inevitable much?
So what if she was? Who said she had to actively embrace heartbreak?
What about this new heartbreak you’re risking? This fling that isn’t quite as meaningless as you’re fooling yourself into—
‘I’m waiting with bated breath, Willow,’ he mock-growled.
She started, realising some of her inner turmoil had spilled free when he arched an eyebrow.
‘You’ll need to change. Meet me at the swim deck in five,’ she said briskly, not just to respond to Jario, but to quell the frantic internal debate.
She held her breath when his probing stare lingered. Then, eyes sparking with enigmatic thoughts, he nodded and left her room.
The bikini she’d worn previously had somehow found its way into her belongings, along with two more swimsuits and a few other items usually reserved for guests. Like the silk kimono that matched the suit, three pairs of sunglasses, soft suede slippers with the yacht’s logo discreetly embroidered on them, and several luxury sun and skin creams.
Resisting them felt like a petty battle when she had bigger problems, so she slipped into a gold-and-white polka-dot set she’d never have chosen for herself in a store but was mildly agog at how well it suited her. Snapping her gaze away, she applied sunscreen, shoved her feet into the slippers and tossed one of her shirts over her shoulders.
Although she hurried, he beat her to the swim deck, his eyes tracking her.
The yacht had sailed on since dropping off the crew at the harbour, and they were now in a semi-secluded bay with no other vessels nearby.
‘You wish to challenge me to another game?’ he asked, eyeing her steadily.
Willow shook her head and made a beeline for the top-of-the-range flyboard while wondering if she’d gone mad. ‘No, I want you to teach me how to ride this one.’
‘Why would I want to do that?’ he asked silkily.
She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, even as her heart banged against her ribs. ‘Because I hate heights and the thought of getting on this terrifies me, but facing one’s fears takes guts. I’m willing to face it. With your help.’
Emotion wild and blazing flared in his eyes. He fully understood the subtext and she knew she risked him reacting adversely.
For a while he didn’t respond, his gaze fixed on her face. Probing .
She started the flyboard, stepped on it and struggled to keep her balance. Another minute passed before she held out her hand.
He didn’t take it.
Her heart climbed into her throat, the notion that her gamble would fail smashing through her. His refusal would spell the end of their interaction.
Was that what he was hoping for, an excuse to shatter the truce they’d agreed to and end things once and for all?
Her shaking hand started to drop. He jerked forward, grabbed it and her heart lurched. Eagerly, her fingers curled around his.
The expression that had begun to harden morphed into faint surprise then eased into latent satisfaction, right before he stepped onto the flyboard, flipped their hands and meshed their fingers together.
His balance and control were formidable.
‘Ready to take flight with me?’ she whispered.
‘I should be asking you that,’ he drawled.
A dozen responses crowded her throat. In the end, her answer was easy. And terrifying. ‘You won’t let me fall. Because that’s not who you are.’
Butterflies swarmed her belly as she accepted where the answer had come from. She knew in her bones that while he had every right to despise her, he wouldn’t deliberately harm her. ‘Or if we fall, we fall together.’
Another flare of his eyes as he lost a shade of colour. Then he wrested back his control. ‘I haven’t fallen yet. I don’t intend to.’
Coarse knots tightened around her chest with his words but she pushed away the alarming distress of it. There would be time to dissect everything.
Later .
His eyes flicked to her mouth and she realised she was licking her lips, and cursed under her breath when heat rushed into her face.
‘Hold on to me, Willow.’
In the end it was as easy as breathing. And letting down her guard and trusting .
His arms circled her waist, firm and tight, and he breathed steady instructions into her ear. At her nod, his feet flexed, manoeuvring the flyboard with the ease of a well-honed athlete.
The e-Foil had been exhilarating, but this was a delirious mind trip the likes of which she’d never known before.
She was experiencing something she’d hankered for from afar and hadn’t had the courage to try out. Like watching bungee jump videos, wishing you had the courage but knowing you probably never would. Now...she shrieked and laughed in delight as Jario charted a lazy arc over the water, then executed a faster loop. She gripped his shoulders as her belly flipped and flopped with sensations of pure delight.
Delight trebled when he sent her a lazy, hooded-eyed smile, then slowly elevated them until they were easily thirty feet in the air, spinning in slow circles, dancing high above the ocean.
There, he stared at her for an age, his smile slowly disappearing and one expression after another chasing across his face. ‘Why are you still here, Willow?’ His low voice rumbled through her like a freight train through a mountain pass, their plastered-together bodies making her stingingly aware of the slow rise and fall of his breathing, the steady thump of his heart against her breast. The flexing power of his thighs as his feet manoeuvred to keep them aloft.
Because I can’t turn my back on you...on this. Not yet.
She pressed her lips together against blurting out the exposing remark. ‘Because those crossroads I mentioned? They’re new to me. I’m taking a minute to take stock, make sure I’m doing the right thing.’
His mouth twisted but his expression stayed riveted on her face, those incisive eyes analysing her every word and expression as if it mattered to him. ‘The right thing or the necessary thing?’
The hand on his bare shoulder trembled. Tightening her grip on him was just to steady herself, nothing else. ‘I’m not perfect by any means, but I’m hoping if I’m successful, right and necessary will be halves of a whole.’
‘And what do you think is right and necessary where I’m concerned?’ His sibilant hiss would’ve made her shiver if his arms and his body hadn’t kept her deliciously warm. Even in debate she felt perplexingly...cared for.
She glanced away from the hypnotic pressure of his gaze, the tiniest flare of hysteria questioning if this was the place to be doing this. ‘Ultimately, that’s up to you, but I’m here...if you need me.’
His exhale was audible and disbelieving. ‘So you intend the impossible?’
Willow glanced over his shoulder at the distant majesty of the pura temples and the mountains, then beneath them, and her breath caught at the sight of a pod of dolphins streaming through the sapphire-blue waters.
‘Half an hour ago I would’ve said it’d be impossible for anyone to convince me to step onto a flyboard and hover fifty feet in the air,’ she whispered. ‘Yet, here I am.’
His nostrils flared, bringing her attention to the sharp blade of his nose and the deeply sensual mouth beneath it. Heat unfurled in her belly.
A sound rumbled from deep within his chest. ‘You’re trying to change paths set in stone, Willow. I won’t allow it. Do you hear me?’
His vehemence cut through her, but so did the sure-fire knowledge that she’d reached him on some level. A level he wasn’t pleased with, sure, but the reality was stark and moving enough to make her look deeper into his eyes to catch the swirling bewilderment on the edge of deep determination. Eating away at it?
‘Pressure and stone make diamonds, Jario. Ever heard of that?’
‘Are you being clever with me, querida ?’
‘I’m just offering a different viewpoint,’ she replied, returning his stare with a bold one. Then movement from the water behind him caught her eye. ‘Like the one behind you right now,’ she whispered, nudging her chin at the breathtaking display.
His gaze lingered on her face for several more seconds before he turned. The dolphins she’d seen earlier were circling again, growing in number. In seconds, there were dozens leaping, arching and flipping through the air in a spectacular, awe-inspiring show.
Jario slowly dropped their altitude by several feet for a better view. One particularly nimble dolphin jumped so high, it came eye to eye with them before the creature flipped, its iridescent grey skin catching the light as it nosedived back into the water.
‘That’s...amazing.’
‘They’re migrating pods,’ he said, his breath brushing her ear. ‘There are thousands of them in the water here at this time of year.’
‘Are we disturbing...?’
Before she completed the question, Jario was already retreating, angling the flyboard towards the yacht, giving the beautiful creatures room for their aerial acrobatics.
When they reached the swim deck, she expected him to let go of her, but he kept his arm around her when they stepped off. Her gaze flicked up to his, but he was still watching the water.
Then one arm lifted, pointed to the left. ‘Over there. Watch.’
Seconds passed, and she wondered whether he was directing her to another dolphin display. But the water heaved mightily, and a giant fin the size of a tanker’s propeller lifted out of the sea, and in majestic slow motion, a giant blue whale followed, conducting a perfect somersault before, with a humongous splash, it disappeared beneath the waves.
Her head snapped up to Jario, her gasp of delight ending in a smile she couldn’t have stopped if her life depended on it. His breath hissed out as he stared down at her.
In the next heartbeat they were slamming into one another, lips fusing in a hot, hard kiss that knocked the breath from her lungs. His tongue swept into her mouth, devouring her delight, then flicked in erotic friction, igniting a firestorm of desire that tightened her nipples and dampened her core. Willow whimpered at the force of need that slammed into her. It battered her so hard she barely felt him lift and carry her off the deck. All she could do was hang on as he carried them deeper into his vessel.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked, despite suspecting his destination.
A light nip at her shoulder sent a decadent shiver through her. ‘To see where else you can be necessary,’ he replied.
A sting of hurt lanced through her, then it was swept beneath a heavier layer of desire as he nudged her closer in definitive demand. Willow leapt up and wrapped her legs around his waist. His eyes darkened.
‘Is this necessary enough?’
His resolute look was weakened by a tiny wave of bewilderment. ‘It’s a start.’ His lips trailed over to the erogenous zone beneath her ear, laved it with deliberately erotic strokes of his tongue.
Then he raised his head, turbulence swirling in his eyes. ‘He doesn’t deserve your consideration, you know.’
She swallowed. ‘Most people don’t deserve how life punishes them, especially when they’re good people who’re awfully wronged. I may not be fighting next to my father, but I’m not joining your war—’
He interrupted her with something pithy and Spanish under his breath, then sealed her mouth with his before she could speak. He was shutting her up. But her words had gotten through, even if he hated her for them.
But as they frantically divested each other of their damp suits, Willow hoped that she’d at least planted a seedling that might offer a path to lessening the burden he’d had to carry.
And also alter his path of total vengeance towards her family.