He shrugged, still cut to the quick at the way she’d condemned him without a second thought, just like his own family. What was the use in getting into this now? “Nothing important.”
Celia went still, studying his face. “Please, Reese,” she said quietly. “What was in those letters?”
“An explanation.” He turned away abruptly, walking to the window and placing his hands on the windowsill, leaning forward until his head nearly touched the glass. “My first impulse was to run to you. But even before I picked up the phone, I realized my father would like nothing better. If he’d been able to catch me in a compromising position with an underage girl, he could have used the threat of statutory rape charges to force me to do what he wanted.”
Celia’s eyes went wide. “Surely your father wouldn’t have done that.”
His mouth twisted. “Looking back, probably not. But I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. So I took off, left the States. That’s when I wrote the first letter, telling you I’d be back the day of your eighteenth birthday.”
She made a stifled sound, bringing her fisted hand to her lips.
“In the second letter, I told you about starting my trip around the world. I hadn’t heard from you yet, so I wrote again and asked you if you’d marry me. But I never got an answer.”
Celia fought to hold back the tears. Dear God. She’d thought she was nothing more than summer entertainment to him. How could she have been so wrong? “Oh, Reese, if only I’d known. I’m so sorry.”
“Forget about it.” He still faced the window but she didn’t need to see his face to know she’d unknowingly hurt him. “It was for the best. I got to see the world. I made buckets of money and I did whatever I damn well pleased for more than a dozen years. If I’d tied myself to you, I might still be stuck here.”
She flinched as the cold words slapped her. But behind them, she heard the pain. He’d been rejected by his family, and then he’d thought she’d done the same thing. When he’d realized how easily she’d accepted his guilt, it must have compounded the betrayal he must have felt. She’d give anything if she could turn the clock back and fix it.
Getting out of bed, she went to him, slipping her arms around his waist and pressing herself against him, heedless of her nudity. “I’m sorry,” she said, pressing a kiss to the center of his strong back and speaking against the warm flesh. “I should have believed in you. I have no excuse for it, and I’ll regret it until the day I die.”
He stiffened noticeably beneath her touch and she clutched at him more tightly, prepared for rejection. But she wasn’t prepared when he said, “Look! Look out there and tell me what you see.”
He grasped her wrist and pulled her around in front of him, placing his hands on her shoulders as she looked out the window across the darkened water, visible from her second story. Her eyes were already acclimated to the dark and it was only a moment before she saw what he had. “It’s some kind of small yacht, running without lights, I think.” She whirled and ran from the room, rummaging in the closet for her binoculars, which she quickly opened and handed to Reese.
“It is,” he said. “Definitely. And it looks very much like it just came out of your harbor.”
She sucked in a breath of outrage. “I’m calling the FBI first thing in the morning.”
Reese put a cautionary hand on her arm. “Celia, we need to make sure no one finds out we saw this. Claudette’s murder most likely proves they’re still here. These people apparently don’t consider either of us a danger or we’d be dead by now, too.” His thumbs caressed her forearms lightly. “I know it goes against the grain, but you need to be careful about stirring this particular hornet’s nest. They’ve already proven they can be lethal.”
“We can’t let them keep using my harbor,” she said hotly.
“Celia,” he said patiently, “I’m not telling you to ignore it. I’m just saying we need to be careful.” He set down the binoculars and put his hands at her waist, drawing her to him. “I won’t take chances with your life.”
“What happened to ‘it was for the best’?” She kept her tone light, trying to let him know she understood the hurt that drove him to lash out.
Reese grimaced. “I was mad, okay? Even after all these years, it still hurt to think that you didn’t trust me. But knowing you never got my letters…I guess if I’d been in your shoes I might have thought the same thing.” His fingers tightened on her waist. “I don’t know if we can sort out everything that’s behind us, and I don’t know if I care.” He snuggled her closer. “What I do care about is us, right now. And I’m not going to throw that away. We’ve already missed too many days we should have shared.”
When he bent his head again, she met his mouth with urgent desire, needing to show him that she cared, too. Unlike Reese, who seemed to have it all figured out, she wasn’t sure where this was going or how it would end. But Reese had made her feel for the first time since Leo and Milo had died, and she wasn’t giving that up without a fight.
Seven
“It’s so horrible,” Angie said as they restored the office equipment to its proper place the next afternoon.
Celia nodded. “I know. Poor Claudette.”
“And it’s scary, too. There could be a murderer right here on this pier.”
“There could be.”
“Do you think there is?”
“I don’t really have any idea.” She put an arm around Angie’s shoulders briefly. “But I want you to try not to worry so much about it. The FBI is doing everything possible to catch these people.”
“That’s what we all said the last time,” Angie said baldly.
Celia flinched and Angie’s expression immediately switched to regret.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “This just has me so on edge.”
“We’re all on edge. The only thing to do is keep on with our normal routine and let the professionals do their job. And speaking of which—” she flipped the schedule on the desk around so that she could read it “—did you have any small craft out last night?”
Angie hesitated, apparently thinking. “No. Everything was returned by six. Why?”
Celia shrugged. “I just wondered.” She made a show of checking the list. “So today we have two all-day charters and three small group rentals?”
“Yes.” Angie leaned in to check, but then she straightened. “I almost forgot. A guy just docked a few minutes ago. He asked for Reese, but there was nobody aboard the Amalie. I came in to see if you knew where he was.”
“He walked down to the video store,” Celia said. “Who’s the guy?”
“Don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d bet he was a Barone. He looks a little like Reese, and his boat is the Baronessa.”
Reese’s brother. Celia leaped to her feet and headed for the door. She’d forgotten that Nicholas Barone had been on the Cape. The Barones rarely used her little marina, preferring Saquatucket, which was closer to the family compound. She was willing to bet Nick Barone turning up at Harwichport wasn’t a coincidence.
As she hurried down the pier, Ernesto Tiello was walking toward her. He moved slowly, like a very old man, and she suddenly remembered the way he’d followed Claudette Mason around like an eager puppy. Her heart squeezed with pity.
“Mr. Tiello,” she said as he drew nearer. “I’m so sorry about what’s happened to Claudette. I know you two were close.”
Tiello’s face was drawn and haggard, and deep in his eyes she saw a flare of pain at her words. “Yes,” he said, dropping his gaze to the ground. “We had become good friends. Her death has been…most difficult.”
Impulsively she reached out a hand and squeezed his shoulder. “Is there anything I can do?”
He shook his head without looking at her. “There is nothing to be done. Except, perhaps, allow the authorities to do their job and catch whoever did this.”
She nodded, agreeing. “I hope they’re successful.” Looking past Ernesto’s portly frame, she noticed that a tall man
with dark hair and shoulders as broad as Reese’s was coming her way. “Please excuse me,” she said to the distraught man. “If there’s any way I can help you, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you.” Ernesto Tiello moved on past her and she walked along the dock toward the stranger who was rapidly approaching.
She extended a hand as she came to a halt in front of him. “I’m Celia Papaleo, the harbormaster. I understand you’re looking for Reese.”
“Celia.” His eyes were full of knowledge as he clasped her hand in a firm grip. “Nick Barone.” He paused and studied her for a moment. “The same Celia who used to date my brother?”
She nodded. “The same.”
“And how about now?”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you dating him now?”
She hesitated, wondering how to answer him. Dating? Not exactly. But…
“Never mind. That was rude.” He grinned and her heart skipped a beat; that smile was a close relative to the one Reese employed when he was teasing her. “Do you happen to know where he is?”
“He walked down to the video store. Would you like to come into my office to wait for him?” She turned and gestured toward the shack and they walked up the pier, but before she could show him inside, a familiar figure came striding toward them.
“Reese!” she called, wanting to give him time to…
To what? Compose himself? Brace himself? Get himself under control? “Your brother stopped by.”
Just for a moment, she detected a slight hesitation in his smooth gait. But he recovered quickly and came toward them, his face blank and unreadable. He extended his hand. “Nick. It’s been a long time.”
There was a frozen moment and then Nick Barone grabbed his brother’s hand and hauled him into a hard embrace. “You damned idiot,” he said. “Your quarrel’s with Dad, not with me.” He pounded Reese’s back. “God, I’ve missed you.”
Celia turned away to hide the tears she couldn’t suppress. She knew how much Reese missed his family; this unconditional love was exactly what he’d needed.
Behind her, Reese said, “I’ve missed you, too.” His voice sounded thick.
“So why in hell didn’t you answer my letters?”
She turned back, alarmed at the frustration and strain in Nick Barone’s voice. If he thought she was going to stand by and let him hurt Reese even further, he could think again.
Reese shrugged, stepping back a pace. “I don’t know.”
She could sense him backing off mentally, as well, and before either of the brothers could do something stupid, she said, “Nick, would you like to join us for dinner tonight? That will give you plenty of time to catch up.”
Two sets of eyes turned her way. One was a piercing blue while the other was a steely silver, but two nearly identical gazes pinned her like a butterfly to a mat. She could almost see each of them thinking.
Finally, Nick said, “Thank you. I’d like that…if my brother doesn’t mind.”
Reese cleared his throat. “Of course I don’t mind. Let’s make it seven o’clock since Celia will be here most of the afternoon.”
Reese heard her feet on the porch an instant before the back door opened.
“Hi,” she said when she saw him standing in her kitchen. Then she sniffed. “What is that? Smells great.”
“Stuffed baked chicken breasts in wine sauce. And a spinach salad.” He handed her a glass of the Fume Blanc he’d picked up on his way over to start dinner. “But I forgot dessert. Shall I run back out to the store?”
“No.” She set down her bag and left her shoes by the door. “I have a pumpkin loaf in the freezer that can be cut and served after a five-minute defrost. That’ll do, won’t it?”
Reese set down the cutlery with which he’d been about to set the table. He walked toward her and took her hands, tugging her against him for a sweet kiss. She opened her mouth beneath his so willingly that he felt an immediate rise of desire, and more. God, he loved the way she responded to him. He’d dreamed of this for thirteen years, and now that she was finally his again, he could hardly believe it.
Slipping his arms around her, he said, “Pumpkin loaf sounds great. And now we have all kinds of extra time since we don’t have to worry about dessert.” He lowered his head and kissed her again, hungrily drinking in her response, stroking her soft, lithe curves possessively. “Wonder what we could do to fill the hours.”
Laughter gurgled up out of her throat. “Gee, I don’t know.” She slid one hand down his body, her small palm covering the hard evidence of arousal that pushed at the front of his pants, and smiled when he shuddered. “We’ll think of something.”
As he carried her up the stairs, she wound her fingers into his hair and cradled his scalp. “I was afraid you might be mad at me.”
“For what?”
“For inviting your brother to dinner.”
“Oh.” He shrugged. “At first I was a little annoyed, but then I realized I really wanted to have dinner with him, so I couldn’t be mad, could I?” He dropped his head and kissed her. “Thank you.”
She responded to him with all the sweetness he remembered from their loving years ago, her body rising to meet his. As he stroked and petted her, she writhed beneath him with complete abandon, stoking the fires of passion until she flared into a wild conflagration that seared his senses and consumed him, as well.
An hour later they were lying side by side on her bed. Reese had his arm around her, her bare body aligned with his, and he lazily stroked her back with his free hand. She snuggled closer, loving the cuddling, the closeness. Loving him.
She felt the final, small knot of denial loosen and drift away from the close guards she’d put on her heart. She loved Reese Barone. Had she ever stopped loving him?
No. She’d buried it, said goodbye to her girlish dreams of a life with Reese after he’d left. But the feeling had never died. Now he was back and there was no way to deny it. She loved him, had always loved him. Would always love him, until the day she stopped breathing.
A rush of emotion swept through her and she turned her head so that she could press a kiss to the hard pad of muscle over his heart. I love you.
Reese’s arm tightened around her. “I don’t remember you being so noisy years ago.” His words interrupted her moment of introspection. He grinned as she balled a fist and delivered a punch to his shoulder. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“I was young and inhibited.”
“Not too inhibited to make love on a catamaran in the middle of the day.” His free hand tipped up her chin and he gave her a deep, stirring kiss. “It’s one of my favorite memories.”
“Mine, too.”
“So you didn’t totally forget me.” His tone wasn’t smug and satisfied, as she’d expected, but rather diffident.
“Did you really think I could ever forget you?” She shook her head slightly. “You were my whole world that summer.”
“And you were mine.” He paused. “I, uh, have to tell you something.”
She twisted a curl of the hair on his chest around her finger and glanced up at him, alerted by an odd note in his voice. “Oh?”
“I was here briefly at the end of August. I found out you were still around and that’s why I came back.”
She propped herself up on his chest, her heart aching strangely as his words arranged themselves into meaning in her head. “You came back…to find me?”
He grinned at her, but it wavered around the edges. “Yeah.”
“Did you know I was…single?”
He nodded. “Somebody over at Saquatucket mentioned you’d been widowed.” He ran his hands lightly up her back. “I just had to know if you really were as special as I remembered.”
“It’s hard to live up to an idealized thirteen-year-old memory,” she said, striving for a light tone.
“Celia.” He twisted, lying her flat on the pillow and leaning over her on one elbow, his eyes intense and serious. “You haven’t liv
ed up to it.”
Shock left her speechless. She supposed she should feel pain, but she didn’t—yet.
Then he said, “You’ve exceeded it. To be honest, I came back hoping, I think, to get you out of my system so I could get on with the rest of my life. Instead—” he paused, stroking a finger along her cheek “—I’m having a hard time imagining what it would be like without you now.”
Her throat closed up as her eyes began to sting. Why was it that she couldn’t simply enjoy his sweet words? While part of her reveled in knowing that he wanted her as badly as she wanted him, a wary corner of her heart backpedaled. She hadn’t planned on caring for anyone ever again, hadn’t planned on letting anyone get so close that she’d be devastated if they were torn from her. She might love him, but she realized suddenly that she hadn’t allowed herself to consider thoughts of a future with him. The whole notion was so frightening that she simply couldn’t face it.
Did she love him? Yes, yes, yes! But loving someone was no guarantee of anything, except heartbreak. Conflicting feelings raged within her. Hide, said one voice. Protect your heart.
Another urged her to tell Reese how she felt. True, he hadn’t said the words, but neither had she. And hadn’t he just practically admitted that he still cared? His words skirted the edge of a marriage proposal, didn’t they?
And with that thought, panic rose. No. No, no, no, she couldn’t do it again. Dear God, what would happen if she lost Reese? She’d thought her life was over when Milo and Leo, her precious baby boy, had died. But if Reese died… The mere thought chilled every cell in her body. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t.
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