She stretched, then made her way to the bathroom, using the toilet and brushing her teeth. When she opened the door to the hall, she saw her clothes in a neat pile next to several boutique shopping bags. Intrigued, she scooped up everything and brought them inside, dumping the armful on the bed.
Rummaging through the first bag, Angelina pulled out five bikinis in various colors and styles, which all looked about her size. She held a gold top to her chest, wondering if she’d dare wear the tiny scraps of material in public. Just imagining wearing the bikini in front of Rafe made heat flush through her body.
Angelina set down the bathing suit and opened the other bag. This one contained three pairs of jeans. Again, he’d guessed her size.
The warm breeze blowing through the windows made her decide on the clean tank and shorts from yesterday. She dressed and combed out her curly hair, but left it free, flowing to her waist. Rafe had always loved her hair. She put on a little make-up and made a mental note to ask him for sunscreen.
Angelina paused at the door, wondering how she could pin him down to talk. I’ll find a way, she promised herself.
Barefooted, Angelina padded down the staircase, eager to see Rafe. She heard the ice-crushing sound of the blender and followed the noise into the kitchen, where she found him whipping up a smoothie. Dressed in a faded gray T-shirt and running shorts, with his hair rumpled, he looked far too attractive for her peace of mind.
“Ah, just in time.” Rafe smiled, poured the smoothie into two tall glasses, and handed her one. “Good for what ails you.”
You are what ails me. But Angel didn’t say anything, just took a sip, enjoying the tropical flavors.
He watched her drink. “Mango. Papaya. Pineapple. Vanilla protein powder. Ice cubes. Liquid vitamins and minerals and other good-for-you things.”
As opposed to bad-for-me Rafael Flanigan. “I found some interesting articles of apparel outside my door this morning. A bit early for shopping, isn’t it?”
He flashed the charming Flanigan smile. “A few phone calls, and the deliveries arrived on my doorstep.” He snapped his fingers. “Magic.”
She took another sip of her smoothie.
“On Seeker’s Island, the locals aren’t strangers,” Rafe explained. “We help each other out.”
Angelina wondered just how well he knew these shop owners.
“You can return anything that doesn’t fit.”
“I won’t be here long enough to use them.” Regret followed the words.
“Don’t go, Angel. Give me today. Later, I’ll listen to your proposition, sign those confounded documents if I think it’s right to do so. But I want you to spend some time relaxing on Seeker’s Island.”
Why? Because she was pale? Or because he wanted her? Angelina thought of, and then dismissed, her boss’s reaction. She’d send him another text. “You’ll cooperate?”
His grin was wicked. “You could call it that.”
“Rafe…” she warned.
He held up a conciliatory hand. “Here’s the plan. I want to go for a run on the beach, and I hope you’ll join me. Then, breakfast and a ride to the falls for a swim in the magical pool. Then lunch. After that, whatever you want to do, even if it means talking about things I’d rather avoid. Deal?”
Angelina studied Rafe’s face, searching for his level of sincerity. What she saw reassured her. “Deal.”
~~~
Wearing wide-brimmed straw hats and bathing suits under their jeans and T-shirts, they rode two of Rafe’s Paints around the island to the falls.
Angel had missed being on horseback. How did I stray so far from my roots…from what I loved? Even as she thought the question, she knew the answer.
Sweetwater Springs had been too full of painful memories of Rafe, so she’d stayed away from her home as much as possible. Her family had made her avoidance easy, for they’d frequently visited her at college and law school and later in New York.
Angelina forced herself to concentrate on the present. To enjoy the beauty of the white sand beach; the turquoise water that deepened into dark blue; the mangroves anchored on the edge of the water; the sandpiper that skittered across their path—and the sexy man who rode beside her, though she fought the attraction.
They passed a thatched roof, open-sided tiki hut. Seeker’s Paradise Bar read the sign out front. The man behind the bar saw Rafe and waved.
Rafe waved back but didn’t stop. “Only another few minutes.”
Up ahead, the sandy beach changed to rocks. Rafe pointed inland to a grove of trees. “The nature preserve. The falls and pool are there.”
They headed their mounts off the beach and onto a path leading through the mangroves with their stilted roots burrowing into the moist soil. Shade provided welcomed relief from the sun. Farther in, the mangroves gave way to white cedars, tall palms, and gnarled oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Here and there, Angelina spotted a tree with small orange-red flowers or an orchid peeking through the thick ferns.
An old man, wearing overalls and no shirt, stepped between two oaks. Spanish moss dangling from the tree limbs framed his head. His face was brown and wrinkled, and his gray hair waved to his shoulders. A squirrel monkey rode on his shoulders.
Rafe shot the man a dark look. “Amos, you have the worst timing.”
The old man saluted and backed away. “Just checking things out, Rafe. I’ll head back to my place. Leave you two alone.”
Rafe watched the man go and winked at Angel. “I supposed we should be glad he had clothes on.”
Her eyes widened.
“Yep. Amos likes to soak naked. Not a pretty sight. And Chachi, the little devil monkey…nothing’s safe around him. He’ll steal you blind. I know from experience…never, ever leave your clothes lying around while you skinny dip.” He urged his mount on.
Angelina followed, chuckling at the image of Rafe running around naked to catch a monkey and retrieve his clothes.
As they neared the pool, the distant sound of a waterfall grew louder. Instead of cascading over a cliff like the Flanigan Falls, here the water spilled down a hill of jumbled rocks, lush with ferns and other greenery, and divided into several streams before splashing into the turquoise pool. The water looked deep near the falls, but became shallower on the other side, and she wondered why no one was around.
Angelina sat on her horse watching the hypnotic dance of the water and feeling sadness for a girl who’d once happily ridden to another waterfall, excited and in love. The hurt that lay in store for her…. She glanced at Rafe. Would history repeat itself?
~~~
Rafe watched Angel, wondering what she was thinking. Like him, was she remembering the past?
They dismounted, and Rafe short-tied the reins to a limb of a towering sand pine. A long time ago, someone had trimmed away the lower branches, except for one used as a hitching post, the scaly red bark worn smooth from generations of use.
Rafe sat on a rock to pull off his boots and socks, then shucked off his outerwear.
Angel took her time undressing. But when she bared her body, her golden curves barely concealed by small triangles of shiny fabric, Rafe had to do everything he could to keep his hands off of her. Over the years, he’d probably seen thousands of women in bathing suits, but none affected him like Angel.
To distract himself, Rafe rolled up his clothes and tucked them in the saddlebag he’d brought for that purpose. “To keep them safe from Chachi. I can’t guarantee the safety of our hats though.”
Angel folded up her clothes and handed them to him.
Once he’d secured them in the saddlebag, Rafe pointed at the pool. “The water’s warm.” He raced the few steps to the pool and dived in, swimming deep to touch the bottom before pushing off to the surface. The water was crystal clear and almost too warm from the hot springs combining with the cold waterfall on a hot summer day. Definitely not chilly enough to cool his reaction to seeing Angel in a bathing suit. He had a moment of wishing for the cold Montana pool at the b
ottom of Flanigan Falls to quench his ardor. Coming up for air, he waited for her to join him.
Her hair was loose in a mass of curls that bounced when she followed his lead. She dove in next to him, emerging with the water shining on her skin, her thick eyelashes clumped together.
Rafe tipped his head, indicating they swim across the pool. Side-by-side, they stroked to the shallow end. When he knew the water was waist high, he stood.
The weight of the water pulled Angel’s hair into long waves, which flowed all the way to her waist.
Rafe fingered one tendril, then in an instinctive reaction, wound the strand around his wrist, twisting until his hand reached her face. He used her hair to gently reel her closer. With his other hand, he cupped the back of her head and tilted up her face.
Her lips parted. In that moment, Rafe remembered doing this very gesture in a snowmelt pool under a blue Montana sky, with the sound of Flanigan Falls in the background. Their first kiss on a magical day.
The memory surged through him, unbelievably sweet and nostalgic. A time as different from now as could be. Yet…the promise of more was there, as strong as ever.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rafe’s heavy-lidded eyes gazed knowingly into hers.
Tethered by her hair, Angelina found herself fighting the ache in her throat. Was this really happening? Was she going to allow herself to become intimate with him?
Angelina felt torn, as if she were two different people. One was the detached and rational lawyer. The other ached for Rafe, wanted and needed him, and knew this encounter had been inevitable from the moment her father asked her to fly to Seeker’s Island.
Passion darkened Rafe’s smoky eyes. Dipping his head, his lips only a few inches away, he paused, giving her time to reject him as she had the night before.
Angelina arched her back to close the distance, longing for the feel of his lips on hers, a return to an earlier time of innocence.
But Rafe wasn’t an inexperienced boy, and this kiss wasn’t gentle, tentative. Instead, his mouth claimed hers, his lips possessive, demanding her passionate response.
Angelina wrapped her arms around him and slid her hands up his wet back, the muscles strong and sleek under her palms.
The kiss deepened. Tongues touched. All her senses heightened. The feel of his lips, their shape and texture felt so familiar, so right.
The kiss ended as suddenly as it began. She pushed against Rafe’s chest at the same time he pulled back.
They stared at each other, breathing raggedly, before Angel leaned away.
Rafe seized her wrist and towed her over to a flat rock submerged in the shade of the overhanging trees. He gently pushed her onto the wide surface—a comfortable seat.
“Rafe…Rafe, wait—”
“I know,” he murmured. “We need to talk before we….”
Angelina lifted her chin. “I agree.” She brushed her fingers across her lips. They still tingled from Rafe’s kiss, sensitive and swollen under the pads of her fingertips. She thought they might tingle for hours—no days from that kiss. Maybe they’d never recover. Maybe she’d never recover.
“Who’s going first?” Without waiting for a response, Rafe cocked an eyebrow. “I brought up the topic of talking, an unmanly thing to do. Therefore I get huge points, and you should be so impressed you’ll spare me further masculine humiliation by plunging right into the conversation.”
Angel gave him a half smile, withdrawing even though she didn’t move. “I waited for you, Rafe. Waited for the phone to ring. Ran to the mailbox for months, hoping for a letter. I couldn’t believe you’d left without saying good-bye. Then the rumors started circulating….” Her voice broke.
“What rumors?” But Rafe knew. Horse thief. He closed his eyes, as if he could turn off the sound of the slur by shutting out his vision. The McCurdys hadn’t kept that bit of slander to themselves.
“Mongrel.” Angel spoke the ugly word in an even tone.
Rafe could see the shadow of pain in her eyes. “What?” Her response was so unexpected that it threw him. “How did you know Granddad called you that?”
She made a rueful turn of her lips. “Gabe told one of his friends what your grandfather said. Then he told one of his—”
“Gabe talked?” Rafe couldn’t believe it. He and his brother had always abhorred tattling and gossip. They had a pact to never betray each other to their grandfather, no matter what punishment they suffered. After many years had passed, Rafe had figured out that Gabe had only gone to their grandfather that night because he’d believed the old man would take care of the situation with Dustin McCurdy. And he did. But not in the way his brother expected.
“Gabe confided in Ben Grayson. Remember how they became buddies because of football?”
He grimaced. “Benjamin Grayson, the…whatever number was tacked on the end of his name. What did we call him? Five and a half?”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“Never liked the guy.”
“Gabe beat up Ben for talking, and that was the end of their friendship.”
Good for Gabe. Rafe had a surge of missing his brother. He cupped Angel’s neck. “I’m sorry. My grandfather was wrong to judge your family’s heritage, to say such an ugly thing about you, and I told him so. It was one of the things we fought over.”
She looked down. “I thought you must have believed him. Why else would you have left me?”
Rafe gave her a little shake. “Because I was young and stubborn and stupid. Because I’d vowed never to return to Sweetwater Springs, and I knew you dreamed of practicing law with your dad. Because if I allowed myself to miss you, then I’d miss my friends, my family, the ranch, and I couldn’t…wouldn’t go crawling back. Came here, put my mind and my back into creating a new life. When I wasn’t working, I stayed drunk and numb for a long time. But by God, Angel,” his chin rose “I was no horse thief.”
“I know,” she whispered, cupping the side of his face with one hand. Her eyes filled. A tear spilled over, sliding down her cheek.
Rafe couldn’t bear to see her cry. Remorse welled up, clogged his throat like someone had shoved a fistful of sand into his mouth. He took a minute to fight for control, to find the words. “I’m so very sorry, Angel,” he said, his voice thick. “I shouldn’t have been so damn stubborn. When you didn’t answer my note, I should have written a letter, written a hundred letters.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “What note?”
He leaned forward and kissed the teardrop before it could fall, tasting the salty trail. “The one I left in the oak.”
She stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed. “There wasn’t a letter, Rafe. I went there the next day. Made sure I felt every inch of that hole in the trunk. Went back every day for months, just in case you returned or were around, but in hiding.”
“I did leave you a message, Angel. I swear. Told you I was coming here. Told you to write me care of Seeker’s Island Hotel.” Then he remembered Lucinda McCurdy driving by. “Lucinda must have taken it. I was pulling out when she passed me. She must have wondered why I’d stopped there at night, and being a McCurdy had to investigate and make trouble.”
She pressed a hand to her heart. “I can’t believe this, Rafe. All those years of pain.”
“It’s the truth.”
“No, no. I believe you. I mean that I can’t believe we’ve wasted so many years.”
Time for my confession. “I thought you believed McCurdy’s lies about me stealing his stud.”
She made a raspberry sound. “Never in a million years would I believe one of Dustin McCurdy’s lies. Besides, I heard almost a day-by-day recounting of you saving the money, paying Dustin, bringing your mares there…. And so I told everyone. Some people might have believed the McCurdys, but most didn’t.”
“Why didn’t my family get in touch with me?”
“I’ll bet your grandfather was too damn stubborn to admit he was wrong. As for your mom, she was so downtrodden by that old man. Sh
e and your brother, they’re too much alike—both gentle souls, even if Gabe has a hunky cowboy body.”
“What!”
“Just saying.” She grinned and kissed his chin. “Not as hunky as you, though.”
“So, they knuckled under. But what about after he died?”
“They knew you weren’t responding to Dad’s letters. Probably figured you didn’t want to talk to them.”
He kissed her nose. “They figured right.”
Her expression turned serious. “Rafe, your grandfather died a year ago.”
“I assumed something like that.” Maybe in the future when he’d worked through things, he’d be able to mourn the loss of the old man. Right now, he didn’t feel anything.
“His will stipulates that if you didn’t return to Sweetwater Springs, the ranch is to be sold to the McCurdys. I have no doubt, they’ll break the land up into parcels for developing.”
Rafe swore. He sat a few minutes, watching the breeze dry Angel’s hair, seeing the curls spring back around her face, thinking through the implications of her revelations. “Did he expect me to live there? Run the ranch with Gabe?”
“No. Just visit for one month a year. Your stay doesn’t even have to be continuous.”
“That’s it? He went to all that trouble for that little bit? I’d have thought he’d not only want me hog-tied, but also my progeny for ten generations.”
“Deep down, your grandfather must have known he was in the wrong. He wanted to force your hand to make you come home, make peace with your family.”
“Good.” He pulled her into his arms. “Because I’m staying here on Seeker’s Island.” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “Unless you’ll make me move to the big city.”
“You’d do that for me? Relocate to New York?”
“We’d have to raise the Paints in your apartment,” he teased. “Is it big enough?”
MONTANA SKY 07.5: Angel In Paradise Page 4
