Her heart thudded. It wasn’t possible. She was imagining things. Or hallucinating.
The yacht stilled, bobbing gently up and down on the waves. She pushed to her feet, eyes trained on the boat as her heart pounded in her throat. Was it him? Did she want it to be him? After nearly a month of silence—no texts, no phone calls, no letters—what was left to be said?
A shape appeared out of the ocean, a ghost emerging from the water. She took a few steps back, fear mixing in with her adrenaline.
“Kitty Hawk’s nice this time of year.”
The husky voice echoed up over the beach. Her mouth dropped open as Alejandro walked out of the water, white shirt clinging like a second skin to his muscular chest, black pants pasted to his legs. With dark curls plastered to his forehead and that wicked grin flashing in the dark, he looked like a hero from one of her old paperback romances.
“You’re wet.”
His laughter, deep and rich, chased away the chill that had settled on her skin when she’d first seen the yacht.
“Nothing gets by you, does it?”
“Rarely.” She crossed her arms over her middle, partly out of instinct to protect the baby now fluttering wildly in her stomach, and partly to keep herself from running down the beach and throwing herself into his arms. “Once in a while, though, I’ve been known to make a mistake.”
The barb hit home. His grin faded as he smoothed the wet hair out of his face.
“So have I. In fact, I made a big one pretty recently.”
“Aside from swimming in the Atlantic at night?”
“Yeah.” He took a step toward her. She didn’t move. She wouldn’t back down. “I let the woman I love walk away.”
Love.That word echoed in her head, over and over again. She wanted to reach out, grab it, hug it to her chest. He loved her?
Don’t. Don’t let him in.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm,” he repeated. “As in, ‘hmm, I like what I’m hearing’ or ‘hmm, go jump in the ocean, you bastard’?”
“I haven’t heard enough to make a decision.” Her eyes slid back to the yacht. “Seriously, why did you jump in the ocean?”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” He gestured at his soaking-wet clothes. “Believe me, I wouldn’t have worn this to go swimming. I planned on mooring the boat, coming ashore via the dinghy and kidnapping you. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken it out by myself in quite some time.” He gestured at the dark waves. “It’s now a permanent addition to the bottom of the Atlantic. But I’m a good swimmer, and that’s not important. What is important is I need...” Even at this distance, she could see,feel, the intensity of his gaze sharpen as he stared at her like they’d been parted for years instead of just a few weeks.
“I need you, Calandra.”
Hadn’t she just been ruminating on how she hadn’t really been living her life? Had let fear mask itself as discipline and kept herself emotionally distant from everyone and everything? Alejandro was offering her the chance to break free from the past.
“You were going to kidnap me?” she finally asked.
“Romantically kidnap you. With your permission, of course.”
Damn her lips for twitching. She’d missed him. His humor. His charm. The way he looked at her like she was the only one in the world. But she’d allowed herself to be suckered in once. To open her heart and believe he could be different. Would it be fear to reject him, or practicality?
“Do you still feel about me the way you did when we left Provence?”
Her mouth dried up as heat blossomed inside her. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean, Calandra. I saw it in your eyes. I know what you were going to tell me the night of the party.”
“You said we both had our answer. Nothing more needs to be said.”
Long strides ate up the distance between them. She stood, frozen in place by desire and want and the dread that if she moved a muscle she’d break down, throw her arms around his neck and ask him to never leave again.
“Much more needs to be said.” He laid a hand on her cheek, the gesture so gentle and tender it brought a lump to her throat. “For starters, I am not like my father.”