He sounded as if he didn’t care. ‘So we’re just sailing off into the sunset? Running away like we ran away from Marco’s funeral?’
‘Concentrate on what you are doing,’ was all he said.
‘Why are you constantly stonewalling me when I ask you something?’ Lexi snapped out in frustration. ‘You never used to be like this. You used to be a really open guy I could talk to!’
‘I am still quite desperately in love with you. Is that open enough for you?’
Lexi almost swerved them into the solid mass of the break-water, forcing Franco to place his hands over hers on the wheel to guide the Miranda back onto a safe course, while she just stood with his smooth declaration playing in her head and rolling her emotions up in a ball that stuck hard in her throat.
Franco sensed the clamour inside her. He felt the tremor of her hands beneath the steadying grip of his on the wheel. The swell hit them portside. He took control of the throttle with Lexi trapped between him and the wheel, a useless player, while his sailing head took over and he guided them onto a smoother course. The wind caught her hair and blew it back across his shoulders. He glanced down and caught a glimpse of her face turned pearlescent pale.
‘No comment?’ he drawled in wry observation. ‘The lady has finally stopped talking.’
‘Your timing is useless.’ Lexi burst into shrill trembling speech. ‘I could have killed us just then!’
‘I am good at driving people to kill.’
That flat comment hit her like a punch in the stomach. Lexi groaned and spun around to look up at him. ‘You didn’t kill Marco,’ she told him painfully.
‘You think not?’ Still in control of the Miranda, he flicked her a brief cynical glance. ‘You were not there. You don’t know what happened.’
‘It was an accident,’ Lexi insisted. ‘You hit turbulence and …’
‘Time to put up the sails.’
‘Stop doing that!’ Sheer frustration made her hit out at him, her clenched fist making contact with his rock-solid chest. He winced. She quivered in remorse when she realised where she’d hit him. ‘Sorry.’ She smoothed the flat of her hand over the area she’d just punched. ‘But you have just got to stop shutting me out!’
‘I know,’ he sighed after a minute. ‘I just want you to know where I’m coming from before I stop shutting you out.’
Standing taut within the circle of his arms, she asked, ‘What is it that you’re finding so hard to tell me, Franco, that can be worse than what we’ve already said to each other?’
He looked down, his eyes narrowed against the glint of the sun on the water. She felt his chest heave up and down beneath her resting palms. He parted his lips to let the air out, then looked back at the shimmering horizon ahead of them with the stunning Italian coastline sliding by them on one side.
‘I think Marco meant to kill himself,’ he said, then swallowed thickly and brought his teeth together in a tense clench.
Too shocked to respond, Lexi froze for a few seconds, then, ‘No,’ she said thickly. ‘Please don’t say things like that.’
‘Or maybe he meant to kill me and made a damn mess of it—’ This time a tense laugh raked the back of his throat.
‘For goodness’ sake, Franco—why would you suspect something like that?’ she demanded painfully. ‘He was your friend!’
‘No, he wasn’t. Look …’ he sighed again. ‘Can we finish this later? I need to find a place we can anchor or risk sending us the same way that Marco went …’
This time he wasn’t trying to block her out, Lexi realised; she could hear the difference in his voice. And his face wasn’t wearing that awful grey cast, nor his eyes that black
blank look. He was genuinely struggling to concentrate.
‘Do you want me to put the sail up?’ she offered, earning herself a tense twitch of a smile.
‘What I want is for you to be gloriously impulsive like you used to be and grab me and kiss me then tell me how much you love me. But I don’t suppose—’
‘All right. I love you, OK?’ Lexi complied swiftly. ‘Just stop th—thinking such horrible thoughts.’
‘You’re going to take that back later,’ he predicted.
‘No, I won’t—not unless I’m the crazy one around here,’ she responded candidly. ‘Because I can’t think of one other reason for letting you put me through this last week. I must still love you.’
‘Gagged by the doctor, chained to my bed, beautifully manipulated by my father to make you stay with me.’ Franco listed the measures he had taken to keep her with him. ‘Now I have trapped you on the Miranda in the middle of the ocean so you can’t run away.’