Because of the Ring

by Stella Bagwell

  In stunned fascination, she watched his face dip downward and then she moaned as his lips fastened roughly over hers. The taste of his kiss sent hot desire sweeping through her body like a raging wildfire and made resisting impossible. Her hands, which were caught between the sudden crush of their bodies, managed to crawl up his chest, then fasten at the back of his neck.

  The buffeting sea breeze rocked the boat and their bodies tilted. The next thing Claudia knew she was sprawled at an angle on the ledge of cushions and Hayden was on his knees beside her.

  With his hands framing her face, he said between heavy breaths, “You see what I mean. This is the real power between a man and a woman.”

  It was powerful, Claudia thought. So powerful that she wanted to pull him down to her, to feel the weight of his body pressing into her, to feel the smoothness of his heated skin and to taste the wild pleasure of his kisses. She wanted all of that and more. Much more than he was willing to give. “This is lust, Hayden.”

  His hands quickly slipped to the mounds of her breasts and as he cupped their weight in his palms, he whispered raggedly, “At least we can see it, feel it. We know it’s real.”

  Her head twisted back and forth against the cushion as pain fell like a heavy weight inside her. “Love is like that, too, Hayden. Only it lives in our heart.”

  A harsh expression suddenly tightened his features. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

  “You’re wrong, Hayden! Wrong!”

  He ducked his head to kiss her once again, but Claudia rolled away from him and scrambled to her feet.

  “Claudia—”

  He reached for her arm, but she scurried through the door leading into the sleeping quarters, then slammed it closed between them.

  Slowly, Hayden rose to his feet and stared around him in stunned fascination. What in hell had come over him? he wondered. One minute the two of them had been talking and the next thing he knew he’d been gripped with a violent urge to take Claudia in his arms and make love to her. Not lust, but love.

  Now that she was out of his sight, he could admit that much to himself. But not to her. No, he’d gone to extremes to make her believe that all he wanted from her was a romp between sweaty sheets. He’d wanted her to think he was incapable of loving. Because he was scared. He was terrified to think of giving his heart again and having it wrung into painful little knots.

  Cursing under his breath, he went to the wheel and opened the throttle. Immediately the Stardust began to push south into the rolling waves of the gulf.

  Inside the cabin, Claudia sank shakily onto one of the beds and pressed her palms against her hot cheeks. She still wasn’t quite sure what had happened between her and Hayden. Once he’d started kissing her, she’d been engulfed with desire, swept away to a place where nothing mattered except being next to him.

  But then he’d started talking and his words had doused her like a cold rain. He didn’t believe in love. He didn’t want love. All he wanted from her was sex. Just like Tony.

  Groaning, she looked down at the opal on her hand. The ring had led her in the wrong direction! Again!

  Oh, Gran, you didn’t give me a gift of love. This is a curse. A curse I can’t deal with anymore.

  With sudden decision, she rose to her feet. There wasn’t any point in delaying the inevitable. She was going to tell Hayden to head the Stardust back to Port O’Connor, that she was giving up on the ring, and any hopes of ever making any sense of her visions. And perhaps, most of all, she was giving up on him.

  Claudia reached for the door, but before her hand could close around the knob a violent wave of dizziness came over her and she reached blindly to steady herself.

  As her hand came in contact with the wall, the contents of the tiny cabin seemed to recede into the background. There was a man standing in front of her. He was tall and muscular and he looked like Hayden. But now that she knew the difference, she could see that the man was his grandfather, William. He appeared to be somewhere in his early twenties and was dressed in a tan khaki shirt and matching trousers. Something bright and shiny glowed from each corner of his collar.

  “What do you want?” she whispered desperately. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  The man didn’t answer. But then Claudia didn’t really expect him to. Her visions had never spoken before; there was nothing different to indicate he would now. Yet she felt as though he was trying to tell her something through his eyes and the wistful smile on his face.

  “What is it?” she called to him. “What is it?”

  “Claudia! Are you all right in there?”

  It took her a moment to realize the voice she heard belonged to Hayden, but by then she wasn’t capable of answering. She was trembling from head to toe and a heavy sheen of sweat covered her face and chest. Her head was swimming and she was half afraid she was going to throw up.

  “Answer me, Claudia.”

  The door swung open and Hayden managed to catch her just as she was pitching forward.

  “Claudia! What’s wrong?” Carefully, he eased her down onto one of the bunks. “Are you getting seasick?”

  “No,” she said on a groan, then weakly lifted a hand to her damp forehead. “Oh, dear Lord, I had another vision!”

  Quickly he pulled out a handkerchief and after pushing her hand away, mopped at the sweat trickling down her face. “Tell me,” he ordered.

  “No! It doesn’t matter. You don’t believe me anyway,” she countered in a shaky voice. “Just go. Turn the boat around and take me home. That’s all I want out of you.”

  He looked at her for a moment, then walked out of the cabin. Claudia expected to feel a sudden about-face in the boat’s direction, but instead she heard the motor die and then the rattle of chain as he lowered an anchor.

  Desperately, she pushed herself to a sitting position and tried to shake away the spinning sensation in her head.

  “Here, drink some of this. You look like you need it.”

  She looked up to see Hayden thrusting a long-necked bottle of beer at her.

  “My head is already whirling,” she argued. “I don’t need alcohol.”

  “It’s cold and wet and bracing,” he said. “Drink it.”

  Claudia did as he ordered and after several swallows she began to feel a little closer to normal.

  “Thank you,” she said finally. “I’m better now. You can go ahead and start home.”

  Soberly he continued to study her. “Home, as in my place? Or are you meaning Fort Worth?”

  Tears of anger and despair clawed at the backs of her eyes, but she fought them off. She’d already shown this man too much of her weak side.

  “Fort Worth! I want to forget that I ever knew you. I don’t want to think about your grandfather or anything else associated with you.”

  He eased down beside her on the small bunk bed. “All right,” he gently agreed. “I’ll get you back to my place tonight and you can catch a plane to Forth Worth in the morning. But first I want to hear about this vision.”

  “I’m not in the mood to be patronized,” she muttered stiffly.

  Catching her chin between his fingers, he turned her face to his. “You came on this boat to try to learn something. Now isn’t the time to fall apart!”

  The sternness of his voice got through to her and she took in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders.

  “You’re right,” she said, twisting the cold beer bottle between her hands. “I owe you that much at least.”

  “You don’t owe me anything.” He took the bottle from her and placed it in a holder on a nearby wall. “Just tell me what happened.”

  She shook her head as though she still couldn’t quite settle it all in her mind. “I had decided to tell you to take me home, that I wanted to forget this whole thing about the ring. I started to leave the cabin, but when I reached for the door handle, your grandfather was suddenly standing in front of me.”

  Hayden’s expression was instantly skeptical. �
��How do you know it was him this time? You were confused before.”

  She nodded. “That’s true. But I know the differences between the two of you now. It was him. He was wearing a khaki uniform of some sort. And there was something shiny pinned to the points of his collar. Silver birds maybe. Or something with wings.”

  If she’d reached out and slapped him, he couldn’t have looked more shocked. The color drained from his face so abruptly that for a moment she wondered if he was becoming ill.

  “Hayden? Are you getting sick on me now?”

  “No. I—” He shook his head, then in an awed whisper, he said, “Those were wings you saw on William’s shirt. Silver wings.”

  Wide-eyed, she stared at him. “What sort of silver wings? How do you know?”

  He reached for her hand and enfolded it between the two of his. “My grandfather was a flyer—a pilot in the army air force during World War II.”

  Chapter Eight

  Claudia gripped his fingers as excitement shot through her. “You hadn’t told me your grandfather was in the military, Hayden! I couldn’t have known that without seeing him in a vision! So now can you believe me?”

  “I want to show you something before I answer that,” he said. “Do you feel like standing?”

  “Yes! I’m fine.”

  Hayden helped her from the bunk, then led her outside onto the deck, which was gently pitching with the rolling waves. Even though a few clouds were drifting overhead, the evening sunlight was fiercely bright after the dim interior of the cabin. Claudia blinked as she looked around her.

  “See that mass of land directly to the south of us?” Hayden asked.

  Claudia turned in the direction he was inclining his head. About a quarter mile away was an island of some sort. She could discern a few light-colored buildings grouped together in a small area. Off to the left, a lone pickup truck was traveling east over the open land.

  “Yes, I see. What is it?” she asked curiously. “Some sort of stopover for shrimpers or fishermen?”

  “No. That’s Matagorda Island. It runs for forty miles or so parallel to the coast. It’s a Texas state park now. But during World War II and for many years afterward it served as an air base. My grandfather was stationed there. For about a year of his service, I think.”

  Walking into Hayden’s office and finding the man she’d been seeing in her visions had been a shock to Claudia. But that episode didn’t compare to the strange swirl of emotions surging through her at this very moment.

  “Hayden, I—oh, my, this is all so unbelievable! A few minutes ago in the cabin your grandfather’s presence seemed so real I actually tried to talk to him!” She gripped his arm as her eyes widened with wonder. “It has to be this place!”

  He rubbed a hand across his furrowed brow. “I have to agree that something odd just happened,” he murmured in total dismay.

  “Then you do believe me?” she prodded.

  Hayden let out a shaky breath. He’d always thought of himself as a levelheaded Joe who dealt in facts and everyday reality. Something like this happened to people who lived in a fantasy world. Yet he couldn’t deny that something strange, something far more than coincidence, was going on with Claudia and that damned ring of hers.

  “I guess I have to,” he conceded. “You obviously didn’t know about my grandfather being a pilot and you didn’t know about the island.”

  “You don’t sound all that convinced, though,” she said with disappointment.

  “I’m not—I just can’t understand what any of this means. Or how you could have any connection to William Bedford.”

  She gazed out at the island and tried to imagine what it must have been like nearly sixty years ago. Hayden’s grandfather would have been a very young man at that time with his future just beginning. “Was William married at that time?” she asked curiously.

  “No. He didn’t marry Grandmother until later, after he’d returned from duty in late 1944.”

  “Did he serve in action overseas?”

  “Yes. But I’m not sure exactly where. He never talked much about his military service. I’m not sure if it bothered him to remember or if that time of his life he wanted to keep private. Either way, I never pressed him about it. After all, by the time I came along, he’d already built the roustabout company. Oil and gas was our interest. That and sailing and fishing.”

  “Have you ever visited the island?” she asked curiously.

  “A few times. Those buildings you see are now used by Texas Game and Wildlife rangers that run the park, but years before they were a part of the old barracks that housed the airmen.”

  “It must have been a small base,” Claudia commented. “I don’t see that many buildings.”

  “There used to be more. But some were dismantled when the air base was moved out and I think some might have been washed away by Hurricane Carla in 1962. But the concrete runways are still in surprisingly good shape. There’s a whole network of them on the backside of the island. Would you like to sail around to the beach side and go ashore?” he asked.

  Yes burned the tip of her tongue, yet the practical side of her wouldn’t release the one word of agreement. With a doubtful expression, she lifted her face up to his. “I’m not so sure it would be smart to spend any more time together than we have to, Hayden.”

  “What does that mean?” he asked sharply. “What the hell are we doing down here together anyway?”

  Heat flared in her cheeks. “We both know what we’re supposed to be doing. But for some reason we seem to get sidetracked,” she said awkwardly.

  “If you’re talking about the little episode that happened between us earlier, then forget it,” he said grimly. “I told you it wouldn’t happen again.”

  “And that’s supposed to reassure me? To make me feel good?”

  Hayden lifted both arms then let them fall to his sides. “What else do you want from me, Claudia? We’re two different people. We don’t think alike. We want entirely different things.”

  She dared to meet his gaze head-on. “Do we?”

  His nostrils flared. “You’re chasing after a fairy tale and I need the real thing.”

  Claudia grimaced with disappointment. “The real thing, meaning sex?”

  Shrugging, he glanced away from her. “If you want to put it so bluntly, then yes. I won’t deny that I want you.” He focused his gaze back on hers. “And I think you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want me.”

  She trembled as the truth of his words hit her. “Maybe I do,” she said tightly. “But I won’t settle for just that. From you or any man.”

  He snorted mockingly. “Isn’t that moralistic thinking rather old-fashioned? We’re two adults with basic human wants and needs. What would be wrong about giving in to them?”

  It wouldn’t be all that wrong, Claudia thought. If he loved her. But that would never be the case.

  She moved a few steps away from him and lifted her face to the cooling sea breeze. She needed to clear her senses, to brace herself against the temptation he was offering her.

  “That’s fine for some people, Hayden. But not for me. I want to make love. Not simply have sex. I want to have an emotional and spiritual connection with the man I give myself to. And if it takes years to find him, then I guess I’ll just have to wait.”

  As Hayden stood there admiring her lovely profile, he realized she was the sort of woman he’d once wanted for a wife, the sort of woman he’d searched for before he’d stumbled onto Saundra. Maybe things would have been different if he’d met Claudia first. But the past was done and his heart couldn’t see past the scars around it.

  “Like I said before, we have different wants, Claudia.”

  Her heart heavy, she watched him move to the mast and begin to untie the sails.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Putting up the sails. We’re going to the other side of the island. If nothing else, we can eat our lunch on the beach.”

  Claudia didn’t argu
e. They had to eat lunch somewhere and being here on the boat with him was just as tempting as being on an isolated island, she supposed. And who knew, if she was lucky, maybe William Bedford would come to her again and explain just what in the heck he wanted from her.

  Since Claudia knew nothing about sailing a boat, she sat out of the way on the deck while Hayden finished his task with the sails, pulled up anchor, then steered the Stardust to the east.

  Thirty minutes later they rounded the corner of the island. Here the wind was even brisker and the rolling surf of the gulf was breaking onto wide, sandy beaches. Gulls swooped and laughed while brown pelicans skimmed above the water, then nose-dived for unsuspecting fish.

  For as far as she could see, the beach was deserted and the only activity she could find on the ocean was a freighter steaming along in the far distance. Claudia got the feeling they’d traveled to another world.

  “The water is too shallow to get any closer,” Hayden told her as he began to pull in the sails. “I’ll have to drop anchor here. Can you wade to shore?”

  Claudia pushed herself to her feet. “Of course. I love the water. Do I need to keep my shoes on or pull them off?”

  He eyed her canvas pull-ons. “If you don’t mind wearing soggy shoes, leave them on. Just be sure and shuffle your feet. That way if you step in the path of a stingray he’ll scoot out of your way instead of stabbing you.”

  “Are there sharks in these waters?”

  “Sure there are. But only the babies get this close to shore.”

  “Do they bite?”

  Chuckling, he lifted the foam chest and climbed onto the deck. “Don’t worry, Claudia. I wouldn’t let anything bite one of those pretty legs of yours. Unless it was me.”

  Coming from any other man, she would have simply laughed. But from Hayden, the baited remark stuck her like a red-hot poker.

  “Hayden, you promised—”

  “Oh, hell, Claudia, calm down. I’m not about to start nibbling on your thigh instead of my sandwich. Even though it would probably be tastier.”