Страница 112 из 117
“Do you really love it here that much?” he asked next to her lips a moment.
“You know I do,” she whispered. “But more importantly, I think you do. I know we’ll have to stay at the Breakers at times, with your work.” Emma was even more prepared to stay at the Breakers now that Va
“And what about your work?” he asked, cradling her jaw with his hand.
“I’ve thought about it a lot. There are a few English-speaking nursing agencies here. I’ll find work. Nurses are always in demand.”
“And you’re sure you want to work?” he asked, nuzzling her nose.
“Of course.”
“Being a nurse is part of who you are,” he agreed quietly, meeting her stare. She raised her eyebrows in a silent query, waiting for what he’d say about La Mer. Again, he smiled. “Yes,” he said. “I think it’s time I made La Mer my home. Our home. I don’t feel as tied to the Breakers anymore. I don’t feel like part of me is trapped there.”
“I’m so glad,” she whispered.
He dipped his head and covered her mouth again. Warmth swept through her at the sensation of his firm, moving lips. She’d have thought their intense sexual attraction for each other could mount no higher, but she’d been wrong. It seemed to escalate every day, the fire fed by their increasing trust and feelings for each other. When they’d been together during that amazing, magical week at La Mer before, they usually made love after lunch. It was a habit she was looking forward to making a tradition.
“I’m definitely selfish about one thing. I’m dreading the fact that people will start to arrive tomorrow for the wedding,” she said against his plucking lips a moment later, highly distracted by the feeling of his hand moving along the curve of her hip and ass. “Dean, Michelle, Amanda, Colin, Niki—”
Something struck her and she rolled back, staring at Va
“What?” he asked.
“Niki. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before. Because of Cristina, Niki is a relation to you, isn’t he?” she asked.
Va
“Cristina was Niki’s great-aunt, so I guess that makes us second cousins or something?” he said, glancing down and watching himself rub her hip.
“Does Niki know?”
Va
“Do you think you’ll ever tell him?” Emma asked quietly, cupping his shoulder.
“Maybe. Probably,” he amended after a moment. He met her stare, looking pensive. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“Okay,” Emma said, sensing his intensity.
“Take off your bikini first.”
“What?” she asked, surprised.
“Just do it,” he directed, the quirk of his brow a subtle challenge.
She laughed, but did as he asked, then lay on her side next to him again. His gaze moved over her naked body with warm appreciation.
“Okay?” she asked amusedly.
“Better than okay,” he murmured, caressing the side of her breast and sweeping it downward over her sensitive side, making her shiver. His hand opened on her hip and he met her stare. “Do you think it was wrong of me, not to grant Cristina forgiveness when she asked it of me?”
Emma tried to mask her surprise at the unexpected question.
“No,” she said honestly. “Forgiveness is a state of mind. You know what I’ve told you all along about Amanda and me. If you weren’t feeling it, if they were just words, it would have been wrong to lie about it.”
He stared out at the sea as he rubbed her hip, the sun-infused water turning his eyes into brilliant cerulean crescents.
“Va
His mouth quirked slightly. “It’s too late now.”
She touched his whiskered jaw, and he looked at her.
“It’s never too late.”
She saw his throat convulse as he swallowed.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said out there.” He nodded toward the floating dock. “About me carrying a good load of the guilt for Adrian’s death, and how Cristina knew that, and how she asked for my forgiveness not just for her . . .”
“But for you,” Emma said, tears burning her eyes. It was a miracle to her, to see him tackling his demons . . . to watch him heal. “That’s why it’s never too late to forgive, Va
“Feel it,” he said, nodding. “I understand it’s not black and white, like I thought. And I do. Feel it, I mean. I’ll never love Cristina, but I understand that she was doing all that she was capable of, coming there to mother Adrian and me . . . never really feeling or wanting that role. She was wrong for her neglect, but she was trapped by her selfishness. I think she wished she could have been different.”
“I know she did,” Emma agreed, stroking his shoulder.
His gaze flashed up to meet hers. “I never told you this, but the night before you were in that accident, I swam out again.”
Her caressing hand stilled. She knew what he meant by “swam out.” He meant that he’d tempted fate again, tested whether or not he would ever be taken like Adrian had been.
“Something happened to me out there,” he admitted starkly.
“What?”
“I remembered more than I’d ever recalled about the day when Adrian died. I’d always thought that I’d let go of him, that I hadn’t held on tight enough, that I wasn’t strong enough to save him . . . but that’s not what happened.”
She waited, her naked skin prickling with amplified awareness. He looked into her eyes, and a shiver coursed through her.
“I didn’t let go,” he said. “I was ready to go down with him. He let go of me,” Va
“You mean . . . he intentionally released you?”
Va
“It was like he was telling me to . . .”
“Live,” Emma finished for him.
His glance at Emma was a mixture of doubt and longing and hope. “Maybe I’m wrong. But that’s what it felt like, when I remembered it out there that morning.”
“You weren’t wrong. Adrian released you all over again, and this time you felt it. Va
His gaze sharpened on her. He cupped her jaw. “No. You’re amazing.”
“Me? What have I got to do with it?” Emma asked, stu
“Everything.”
Her lips parted, and suddenly his mouth was covering them, his tongue sliding between them, and he was rolling her on her back and coming down over her, his heat and arousal stu