Because there was something she had always refused to confront and the events of last night—and this morning—had finally given her the courage at least to try.
He swore under his breath, his frustration clear. “Uh-huh? Well, next time you decide to steal a scooter and go joyriding, let Inez or one of the other staff know so I don’t have to interrupt my day to come looking for you.”
“I didn’t steal it, I was going to bring it back.” Outraged color tinged her cheeks at the injustice of the accusation and the patronizing tone. Would he ever stop treating her like an irresponsible child? She was twenty-four years old and last night she had finally felt like a grown woman for the first time in her life. But he was determined to take even that away from her. “And I didn’t tell anyone where I was going because I didn’t want anyone to know.” Especially you.
Although, she could see the folly of that decision now. Maybe she should have taken a moment to ask Inez for directions, because she’d been traveling up and down the walled roads and deserted tracks on this side of the island and she had yet to find her first graveyard. Not knowing the word for cemetery in Italian certainly hadn’t helped. But after reading his note she hadn’t really been thinking at all, she’d simply been reacting to the hurt and confusion his curt dismissal had caused. And that was the thing that angered her most of all—not with him but with herself.
When was she going to learn to stop being so impulsive? And when was she going to stop letting the low opinion of men like Jared and her so-called father Lloyd Whittaker matter to her? She thought she’d come so far in the last few months by surviving on her own and pushing herself to be resilient and self-sufficient. But Jared had managed to turn all that hard work on its head with one stunning orgasm, a few unexpected hugs and three thoughtless sentences.
She felt as if she had been slapped back to square one after a particularly brutal game of Chutes and Ladders. The thought that she might never be ready to return home to Manhattan, that she might never be more than Megan’s troublesome little sister, suddenly crippled her with anxiety.
“Where could you possibly have to go on an island you don’t know that’s important enough to put the whole villa, not to mention my business, in uproar?” Jared snarled, still channeling an enraged mountain lion who’d been poked once too often.
“I wanted to visit my mother,” she blurted out.
One dark brow shot up—the temper tantrum momentarily stopped in its tracks. “Your... Who?”
“Alexis Whittaker,” she clarified, already regretting her outburst. Which was just one more sign of
her inability to think straight when cornered. “She’s buried somewhere on this island,” she added when he continued to stare at her as if she had lost her mind. “I came here once before. The winter we buried her. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to come back.”
Although not the biggest reason. Because that was standing right in front of her, stunned into silence for once. “It’s not a particularly good memory. But I thought I’d be able to find it. That I’d remember the graveyard...if I saw something familiar.” She was rambling now but she couldn’t seem to stop, his indomitable presence making the whole idea begin to seem even more foolish. What was she even trying to do—get validation for her actions from a woman she had never even known and who had been dead for years?
“But nothing looks familiar,” she said, finally winding down. “Probably because it’s high summer now. And at the time I was only eight.”
He didn’t say anything for the longest time. He just stared at her as if he were trying to solve a particularly complicated riddle.
She felt the last of her anger drain away until all that was left was the foolish girl who had woken up this morning and believed that something good had happened last night. She wasn’t a romantic and, despite her inexperience, she wasn’t naive either, so she hadn’t kidded herself what she had shared with Jared was more than sex. But still, finding the courage finally to make that physical connection with someone had meant something to her. Something she’d been dumb enough to believe had been awesome enough for both of them to be repeated. And the way he’d held her afterward had made her feel noticed, even cherished, by a man for the first time in her life.
That it had all been an illusion—conjured up by heat and pheromones—only made her feel more exposed.
He was probably trying to figure out why she would want to visit her mother’s grave, but she didn’t intend to enlighten him. Especially as she wasn’t even entirely sure herself.
“Was your mother a Catholic?”
Katie frowned at the non-sequitur, and the intensity on his face. If only she could read him as easily as he seemed to be able to read her.
“I doubt it. She was the daughter of a British lord.”
“Then she’ll be buried at the non-Catholic cemetery.”
It was the last thing she had expected him to say. But she had to be grateful he hadn’t asked her questions she didn’t want to answer.
“Could you tell me where that is?”
“I’ll take you there.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know,” he said, confusing her even more.
She didn’t want him there, witnessing what might be another disaster. And she definitely didn’t want him to be kind to her again, because it caused emotions that were not particularly helpful. But before she could tell him so he was already striding toward the bike.
She dashed after him, annoyed all over again by his arrogance and the renewed warmth pooling in her belly when he mounted the powerful bike and kicked the ignition pedal. Why did he have to look so sexy on the magnificent machine?
“Wait! All you have to do is tell me where it is.” Having him there, watching and judging while she faced the demons she had been running away from for most of her life, would only make this harder.
“This is a one-time deal, Katherine,” he shouted above the engine noise, as usual not giving her a choice. “Either climb aboard or you’re on your own.”