Chapter 5
“I’m telling you, Rocco, she’s a dream.”
His friend laughed down the phone line. “Now I see why you didn’t wish me to join you.”
Thad grinned. “You would definitely have cramped my style, man.”
“You met her the day of the funeral?”
“Yeah.” Thad stared at his emails and grimaced. There were hundreds that should have been dealt with, and not one caught his attention.
“How?”
“Long story,” he said, unwilling to share the details of their relationship, even with a man he thought of almost as a brother. “It was random. A thousand things could have gone wrong and we wouldn’t have met.”
Rocco was incapable of speaking for several long moments. “You’ve known her how long? A few days? And you speak as if this is some kind of fateful love-match.”
Thaddeus ran his finger over the keyboard slowly, thoughtfully. “Don’t be absurd. I’m not a fool. She’s not looking for anything serious and God knows, nor am I.” The denial felt heavy in his mouth, the words unnatural.
Rocco nodded, but an instinct in his gut was unsettled. “What does she do?”
“Do? You mean for work?” His smile was indulgent. “I have no clue.”
The suspicions grew. “And how old is she?”
“Mid-twenties?”
“Christ, Thad, do you even know her name?”
Thaddeus smiled triumphantly. “Saphire Arana, and she lives in Notting Hill.”
“Great, so you know her name and roughly her address,” Rocco murmured, scrawling both down in his notebook. “What else?”
“We have not spent time interviewing one another,” Thad hedged defensively.
“I bet I can guess how you’ve spent your time.” Rocco clicked the lid back on his pen. “Let me guess; she’s a classic Thaddeus super babe? Blonde? Big tits? Legs that go on forever? Skin the color of burnt sugar?”
“Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,” he shook his head.
Actually, except about her breasts, which were perfection personified.
“She’s petite, with hair as dark as night, skin that’s the color of clotted cream and lips …
God, her lips.” He sighed. “And her eyes … they are bluer than the sky on a crisp summer’s day. She is exquisite, Rocco. Exquisite.”
He pushed the lid of his MacBook down. How could he even think of work when Saphire was there? It was a waste of his time and energy. “And she makes me laugh,” he added as he stood.
Rocco, in all their years as mates, had never heard Thad describe a woman in such a way.
And because their friendship scored deep in both men, and because Rocco felt a concern over Thad’s state of mind given the recent bereavement he had suffered, he knew that he had to do something to protect his friend.
Gorgeous, available women didn’t just fall into men’s laps in their hour of need. Something was wrong with this little situation, and Rocco knew, even as he hung up the call, that he would not rest until he’d found out what it was.
* * *
It was set a little further down the shoreline than the jetty his speedboat was moored to.
A second boat was anchored just off-shore; bigger and far more prestigious.
Saphire wasn’t much of a fan of boats, but her father and husband had both enjoyed their fair share of time on luxurious yachts.
She knew from information she’d gleaned from their conversations that the boat in front of her was a top-of-the-line craft.
“What is this?” She murmured.
“You didn’t want to go to Athens,” he said simply, holding her hand as she stepped into the small motor-boat.
Her eyes flew to his.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Relax,” he smiled at her as he crouched beside the engine and pulled it to life. It hummed with power; it took only a minute for it to cut through the shallow waters and pull them alongside the bigger boat.
“You want me to climb up there?” She said uncertainly. Her tummy was in knots; it had nothing to do with this man, for once, and everything to do with the mess that was waiting for her back home.
“You’re not going to claim to be afraid of heights, are you?” He teased.
She sent him a droll look. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
“That’s my girl.”
More pain. She wasn’t his girl. She never would be.
“I’m not dressed for anything other than this boat,” she warned him, as she hooked a bare foot onto the lowest rung of the ladder and begun to climb up.
Though she’d taken one of his work shirts and wore it like an over-sized dress, cinched at the waist with one of his belts.
It was almost a passably fashionable ensemble.
“You are dressed perfectly, from where I sit,” he teased, enjoying the view of her rear as she got to the top of the ladder.
“Perve,” she called over her shoulder. She winced when she saw a man in uniform standing with his hand extended, to help her onto the deck.
“Thank you.” Her cheeks glowed fire-engine red.
She ran her hands down the front of her dress and kept her eyes trained on the ocean.
The sun was setting, casting the sky in shades of purple and silver.
Thad climbed up with an easy athleticism and then stepped aside, so that the man in the suit could climb down and take the small boat back to shore.
“Oh, he’s not staying?” She asked with a lifted brow.
“No.”
Pleasure purred inside of her despite the distressing phone call she’d made that morning.
“I think I’m glad,” she said, reaching down and weaving her fingers through his.
“I am a selfish man, and I am definitely not willing to share you, agape mou,” he promised darkly. And his words spawned a realization in her soul. Would he feel betrayed by the choices she’d made? Would he resent her for using him to take revenge on her no-good husband?
She looked at him properly and it was then that the candles caught her eye. Dozens of little lights twinkled from the bow of the boat, each encased in a glass jar. An ice bucket and a picnic rug in the middle, with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.
“You said we were going for a walk along the beach,” she laughed unsteadily, her heart tripping over itself.
“We did,” he grinned.
“And you said this would just be sex,” she added, but her pulse was firing and the fever in her blood had nothing to do with the proximity of his gorgeous body and everything to do with the thoughtfulness of his gesture.
“I’m sure we can find time for that too,” he promised, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her towards him. He held her tight to his chest and kissed her on the top of her head, then slackened his grip so that he could guide her towards the rug.
“The view from here is incomparable.”
She sat down on the picnic rug, her slender legs kicked out in front of her, crossed at the ankles. He poured a flute of champagne and handed it to her, then sat down beside her.
The outlook was, indeed, exquisite. The boat was facing away from Thad’s island, towards the mainland. But dozens of little islands dotted the way, like beacons in the night. She sighed as a surprising sense of contentment settled around her shoulders.
“So this whole island is really yours?” She asked after they’d sat in contemplative silence for a little while.
He dipped his head forward in agreement.
“What else is on it?”
“Nothing. Wilderness. It’s quite perfectly untouched.”
She lifted a brow. “Your grandfather never thought of developing it?”
“What for?” He asked quietly. “He was as rich as Croesus and did not need the money. This place is special for us. Him and me. And his father before him. It is a place to come to and be centered.”
“A bolt-hole,” she said with a tense smile. That’s exactly what it had been for her.
“Of sorts,” he agreed.
“It’s strange to hear you speaking like that. I mean, you’re this incredible businessman but you have a place to go and be centered. That’s kind of cool.”
“Cool?” He laughed. His conversation with Rocco came flooding back to him. “How old are you?”
“Twenty six.”
He concealed his smile with effort. “Mid-twenties?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. Twenty six. Why?”
“I just realized I did not know.”
She frowned. “I guess we never got around to those facts.”
She sipped her champagne, and found it deliciously cold and refreshing, then cradled the flute in her hands. “How old are you?”
“Thirty one.”
The same age as Jordan. She pulled a face, and it made him laugh.
“Too old?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Perfect.”
“Then why this face?” He mimicked it back to her and she burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
He sipped his own champagne, his eyes hooked hers over the rim. “Now that we are here, and you are my virtual prisoner, I realize I can ask you all my questions, and you will have to answer them.”
“Wasn’t I your prisoner on the island?”
He grinned. “Good point. Still. I could always threaten to throw you overboard if you do not answer my questions, like a pirate’s quarry.”
“I’d take you with me.”
He mulled over the sentence and then nodded, his eyes locked challengingly to hers. “And I’d go willingly.”
Her heart turned over in her chest. She knew she desperately needed to lighten the mood. “Anyway, these questions of yours must be pretty scary if you had to go to these lengths to get them answered.”
“You have things you wish to keep private,” he murmured softly.
“Oh.” Her skin paled, and she sat up straighter, crossing her legs together. The statement cut through her very heart. “You’re being serious?”
“Why not?” He lifted his shoulders. His expression was so beautifully calm that her heart squeezed and remorse crested through her. Is this what infidelity felt like? Why then did she feel a sense of guilt towards this man, rather than her husband?
“What do you want to know?” She said hesitantly, and Thad shook his head.
“You act as if I’m asking to pull your teeth out one by one. Why?”
She bit down on her lip. Her eyes drifted out to the ocean. “You know why.” She swallowed. “I came to Athens to get away from … stuff. I didn’t plan to meet someone like you. I’m not really in the right place to start swapping life stories.”