Vivian's Return

by Cooper-Posey, Tracy

Her bags of equipment were neatly lined up on the floor of the craft, with everything packed away inside once more. Vivien glanced at the hook she’d hung her dress from. It was empty. The dress had been packed inside the bags or it was gone. Either way, Vivien was too tired to care. She hefted the lighter bag over her shoulder and took up the strain of the heavier one and with a deep breath, staggered across the concrete to the gate that lead out to the parking area and her car.

  She stowed the gear with a heartfelt sigh of relief and slammed the door shut on it, pocketing the spare key she always kept wired to the underside of the Rover. Her key ring, she hoped, was somewhere in the depths of the diving bags, inside her evening purse. She would worry about it later.

  As she was about to climb into her car, she glanced out at the breakwater, which was growing clearer as the light grew. Or maybe it had been the eye-drawing patch of white at the end of the narrow tongue of rocks edging into her peripheral vision that made her turn to look properly. Either way, her attention was drawn to the still figure at the end, sitting on a flat rock, hand in pocket, head down. His back was to her.

  Vivien contemplated just climbing into her car and going back to the motel, but it would be tantamount to running away, because she seriously doubted she would have enough time to come looking for Paul before she left this afternoon.

  She remembered what Jenny had said about running away and her answer. She had run last time. They had never had a final meeting, a chance to seal the end of the relationship so that the bleeding would be minimized. It was one of the reasons she had returned. She didn’t like to think that it might happen again. She didn’t want to go through the rest of her life wondering if she could have minimized the damage in some way. She had to do it right this time.

  She had to go out to the end of the breakwater and say goodbye to Paul.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Paul didn’t turn around at her approach, which wasn’t silent despite her bare feet. She reached the flat rock he was sitting on and still he didn’t turn to look at her.

  Vivien placed her hand on his shoulder. “Paul.”

  His own hand came up to cover hers in a grip that was almost painful. “I hoped it was you,” he said quietly. “I didn’t look around. If you’d climbed into your car and gone, I’d have known it was the end. But you came out here.”

  She climbed over the rock and sat next to him. “To say goodbye,” she told him.

  “Ahh. So it’s not going to be like last time, then.”

  “No.”

  Paul kept his eyes on the open waves outside the harbor. “I blew it, didn’t I?” he said, his voice quiet.

  “You can only be what you are, and you’ve always been honest, that way. How can that be considered blowing it?”

  “I wouldn’t let you fly out with us.”

  “I know, I was there,” Vivien said, with a small smile. “Paul, I’m not being arbitrary just because it gives me some sort of power over you, saying you’ve got three chances before the witch waves her wand and ‘poof!’ it all disappears. If I thought there was any chance of you being able to change your nature, I would give you all the time in the world to sort it out. Forever.

  “But last night just proved again what I learned seven years ago. We might love each other but we’re basically incompatible. I’m an immovable object and you’re an irresistible force. In this universe there’s no place for us to meet. So it doesn’t matter how many ‘chances’ I give you to get it right, because you never will. Seven years ago I couldn’t change and this time around we’ve learned that you can’t either.”

  “No, I probably can’t,” he agreed. He looked at her and Vivien was startled to see him smile. “I can’t but perhaps we’ve been looking at this all the wrong way.” He picked up her hand and held it tightly in his. “Last night, when I realized you were going to dive no matter what I said...I think I died a little death. All my nightmares came true in a moment.

  “I’ve always stopped you from going out there, because I was so damned scared that something would happen to you and I had no idea how I would survive if you didn’t.”

  Vivien nodded. “Yes, you’ve always known how I felt when you went out.”

  Paul sighed. “When you left Geraldton last time, it felt like you had died. There was this huge hole in my life—so incredibly large that it overwhelmed me. I went mad trying to find ways to fill it, to get back some feeling. You know about that and you know I got through it. Last night, watching you in that water, I used what I learned from that time again.” He shook her hand for emphasis. “I was worried, hell, I was scared and I held my breath every time you went down, until you showed up on the surface again. But it wasn’t the purgatory in disguise I thought it would be. It wasn’t my nightmare, Vivvy. In my nightmare I can’t help you but last night I was there and if something had gone wrong, I could have helped you.”

  He smiled. “You were impressive last night. I don’t think I’ve really appreciated just how good you are until now, now that I’ve seen you in action.”

  Vivien felt the small warm glow of satisfaction throb inside her. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  Paul loosened his grip on her hand and spread it out across his thigh, studying her fingers. “The thing is, Vivvy, even if the worst thing did happen and you got into trouble and I couldn’t help you, then I know that it could be no worse than the last seven years and I survived those.”

  Vivien felt a small trickle of...what? Fear? Dread? Excitement? All three? She clamped down on the burgeoning hope inside her and said flatly, “I don’t understand.”

  Paul looked at her from under his brow. “It’s simple. I was wrong. You had to kick my knees out from under me and walk over the top of me and go out there and show me that I was wrong, or I would never have found it out but after last night I know I was wrong. I was wrong for thinking that I could stop you from going. I was wrong to try.

  “I was completely wrong to think that I couldn’t cope with you being out there, mixed up with danger.” He cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb along her cheekbone. “As long as I’m there too, I don’t mind. Eventually, perhaps, when I get used to the idea that you’re good at looking after yourself, I’ll be able to handle you going off solo too.”

  Vivien’s breath escaped her in a rush. “You mean if I had stayed behind as you had wanted all along, you wouldn’t have figured this out?”

  “No.”

  “So seven years ago, if I’d beaten you to the Sikorsky....”

  He shook his head. “It wouldn’t have happened then, Vivvy. I needed to learn how to live my life without you, first. So did you. And I needed to be out there with you, to see you in action, to understand what it is that you’ve been trying to tell me all along—that you were made for this sort of life. I could no more try to restrict you to the kitchen sink than turn the tide.”

  “So what happens now?” Vivien whispered, her voice losing all its strength. “Are you going to offer me the pilot’s job?”

  “No.” Paul shook his head emphatically.

  Vivien swallowed. “Then...”

  Paul picked up both her hands and swiveled to face her squarely. “Just listen for a moment. I have this...fairly radical idea. Now, you’re going to have to suspend judgment for a minute and just think about it.”

  Vivien stared at him. “What?”

  He took a deep breath. “How would it be if you became my business partner? I need another pilot. Hell, Jack can’t stay here forever. He’s too damned expensive. You could help me coordinate the Coastwatch operations and I can’t always be dropping everything to rush out to people’s rescues, so you could help me with those. I need another Gazelle—”

  Vivien didn’t let him get any further. With a barely suppressed sob, she threw herself into his arms and simply clung to him, while the overwhelming, almost painful wave of joy and love washed through her.

  Paul’s arms came around her and held her very tightly and she could feel his heart beating a
rapid tattoo against her.

  “I love you, Vivien,” he said, his lips against her cheek. “Please say you’ll stay.”

  “How can a girl refuse a proposal like that?” she asked.

  “I hadn’t quite got that far....” he said.

  Vivien reached up and pulled his head down to hers so she could kiss him and his mouth moved against hers with a restless hunger. She found herself smiling and pushed him away a little. “I’ll even marry you,” she said gravely.

  Paul laughed. “I’ll have it written into the contract,” he assured her and pulled her closer.

  On Vivien’s back, apart from where Paul’s hand seared into her skin through her borrowed shirt, Vivien felt the sudden warmth of sunlight and she looked up to see Paul’s hair glint with the gleam of blue highlights. The sun had risen.

  Paul looked over Vivien’s shoulder and laughed. “Look,” he said, pointing toward the office.

  Vivien looked. Sunlight was being reflected in sharp little intermittent darts from one of the windows.

  “The binoculars,” Paul said. “We’re being watched.”

  “Morris,” Vivien guessed. “Well, he’ll be pleased to know he doesn’t have to choose sides anymore.” She slid her fingers in the thick locks of hair on the back of Paul’s head and sighed. “Kiss me again.”

  “That is one demand I’m more than willing to comply with,” he told her and proceeded to do just that, much to Vivien’s utter joy and contentment.

  Other Romantic Suspense by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Dead Double

  The woman he must now protect looks exactly like the one he once hated.

  An Iranian physics genius in hiding wants to give the west his world-changing theories, but will only give them to Micky Wilde, whose beauty once charmed him. The only problem? Micky is dead. Logan Wilde involved his wife in his grim business and it got her killed. For Logan the guilt runs deep.

  Sahara Taylor-Hughes is a San Francisco beachbum with a life and personality a million miles different from Micky’s caustic ways, but she is Micky’s double in appearance. Duped into playing Micky to get the plans, Sahara destroys what little peace Logan has left.

  Zaram, a potent renegade terrorist, learns of the plans. He will hold the western world to ransom if he gets them first. Logan must help Sahara beat Zaram, collect the plans and make sure she stays alive, or else lose his mind…and his heart.

  Now available!

  Dead Again

  A small plane crashes in the Rockies and the two survivors, Jack and Sophie, help each other live until rescue arrives seven days later. Only Sophie goes on to pick up the pieces of her life, which has now been irrevocably changed by big, gentle Jack’s love...and death.

  Sophie learns that Jack’s death didn’t close that chapter of her life, after all. A drifter called Martin holds the key to her heart, along with a deadly secret. Combined with a corrupt and desperate police chief and her pressure-cooker life as a single mother in a small town, they plunge her head-deep into the after-shocks caused by those seven days in the mountains. The consequences will reach out to rock state governors, district attorneys and one of the deadliest crime lords in the land. All of them have reason to react.

  For Sophie, life is about to change again...for the worse.

  Now available!

  Fatal Wild Child

  When Seth O'Connor pulls Gabrielle Sherborne out from under her wrecked car in the middle of an icy river high in the Canadian Rockies just before Christmas, he never thought someone might actually be gunning for the infamous wild child of the famous Hollywood director, Cameron MacKenzie Sherborne III, and the family that puts up with her antics.

  Told by his superiors to insert himself into the Sherborne family and protect Gabrielle, Seth learns that the former film star is anything but a brat. She’s all woman, incredibly sexy and smart, with a vulnerability that eats right through the armor over his heart. That makes doing his job suddenly very tough for Captain Seth O'Connor, for the unfriendlies are closing in…

  Now available!

  Acknowledgements

  To the City of Geraldton, Western Australia, bless your cotton socks—I can’t think of a better place to grow up. To all the friends I made there, and the great memories. And of course, I can’t fail to salute the wind and the waves there. I miss them!

  Without all of you, this book could not have been written. It was your unique characteristics that allowed the story to be what it is.

  Thank you.

  Other books by

  Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Blood Knot Series (Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)

  Blood Knot

  Blood Stone

  Blood Unleashed (Upcoming)

  Blood Revealed (Upcoming)

  Beloved Bloody Time Series (Paranormal Futuristic Time Travel)

  Bannockburn Binding

  Byzantine Heartbreak

  Kiss Across Time Series (Paranormal Time Travel)

  Kiss Across Time

  Kiss Across Swords

  Kiss Across Chains (Upcoming)

  Guardian Bonds (Gargoyle Paranormal Series)

  Carson’s Night (As Teal Ceagh)

  Beauty’s Beasts (As Teal Ceagh)

  Sabrina’s Clan (Upcoming)

  Destiny’s Trinities (Urban Fantasy Romance Series)

  Beth’s Acceptance (As Teal Ceagh)

  Mia’s Return (As Teal Ceagh)

  Sera’s Gift (As Teal Ceagh)

  Short Paranormals

  Solstice Surrender

  Eva’s Last Dance

  Guns ‘n’ Lovers Series (Romantic Suspense)

  Red Leopard

  Black Heart

  Blue Knight

  White Dawn (Upcoming)

  Silver Noon (Upcoming)

  Golden Day (Upcoming)

  Go-get-‘em Women (Short Romantic Suspense Series)

  The Royal Talisman

  Delly’s Last Night

  Ningaloo Nights

  Dare to Return

  Sian’s Run (Upcoming)

  Jewells of the Morrow series (Historical Romantic Suspense)

  Diana By The Moon

  Heart of Vengeance

  The Perilous Maiden (Upcoming)

  To Soothe a Savage Heart (Upcoming)

  The Heart of the Enemy (Upcoming)

  The Cherlebury Rose (Upcoming)

  The Duchess of Winter (Upcoming)

  Despite The Sands Of Time (Upcoming)

  Scandalous Sirens (Historical Romance Series)

  Forbidden

  Dangerous Beauty

  Rhys Davies’ untitled story (Upcoming)

  Romantic Thrillers Series

  Fatal Wild Child

  Dead Again

  Dead Double

  Terror Stash (Upcoming)

  Contemporary Romances

  Lucifer’s Lover

  An Inconvenient Lover

  The Sherlock Holmes Series

  Chronicles of the Lost Years

  The Case of the Reluctant Agent

  About the Author

  Tracy Cooper-Posey is an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author. She writes erotic vampire romances, hot romantic suspense, paranormal and urban fantasy romances. She has published over 50 novels since 1999, been nominated for 5 CAPAs including Favourite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.

  She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated three times for Book Of The Year. She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught romance writing at MacEwan University.

  She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys sewing, history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.

  Her website can be found at http://TracyCooperPosey.com

  Vivian's Return