Page 14 of The Cottage on Pelican Bay

He liked the sound of his name off her lips. He’d liked it that night and he liked hearing it now. “I would say that he had a lot of nerve.”

“Yes, he did. Once I knew I couldn’t trust him that was it for me. He was trying to wear me down, trying to get me to change my mind about getting back with him. I felt the need to get away and make decisions. Thanks to you, I did. That night with you I found a pathway forward like I told you. Now I am the consequential independent woman minus the rose-colored glasses.”

“What were you before?” he asked.

“A woman who believed in happy endings. One who also assumed she had to depend on a man for her happiness. Now I know there aren’t any happy endings, and I’ll never depend on a man for anything again. I’ve taken control of my life and will do whatever I want and whenever I want. I control my own destiny, make my own decisions and will only take advice if and when I ask for it.”

Saint was proud of her for making those decisions and from the sound of it, she was proud of herself as well. That night they’d spent together, he’d still been stinging from his breakup with Mia. Asking her to marry him twice and being rejected had prompted him to make a number of decisions himself.

Some things weren’t meant to be, and he could accept that marriage was not for him. That made him feel sad in a way because he knew how much his parents wanted him to one day marry to give them grandchildren.

“I don’t believe in happy endings, either,” he said. “So, I guess that’s something we have in common.”

“Yes, I guess we do.”

It only now occurred to him that although she’d wanted to leave the party she hadn’t said where she wanted to go. “Where am I taking you, Zara?”

They had left the bayou and this section of roadway wasn’t as dark. Peeking over at her, he could see her face in the moonlight. She was beautiful. He’d thought that the first time he’d seen her, and he thought so now.

“I should tell you to take me home, Saint.”

He loved her French accent. It was as deep as Vaughn’s. “I’ll take you wherever you want to go.” He wasn’t ready for them to part ways.

The shock of seeing her again had worn off. What hadn’t worn off was the chemistry that flowed between them so effortlessly. He hadn’t fully understood the intensity of it that night and honestly, he couldn’t understand it now.

That night in his hotel room was to have been one and done. It hadn’t. At least not for him. Whether she knew it or not, he hadn’t been involved with anyone since her because he’d been convinced no other woman would measure up. No other woman had stirred to life the degree of desire like she had.

As far as he was concerned, Zara was the epitome of feminine temptation. Even now in the confines of the car the sexual energy between them was all-consuming. He felt it and had a feeling she did, too. Sharing conversation with her had alleviated it some but not completely. Even now, a deep hunger for her was stirring to life in his midsection and he knew why. Memories of their night, together with seeing her again, had pleasurable sensations racing up his spine.

He came to a stop at a traffic light, and he knew the moment she’d turned in her seat toward him. When he looked over at her, he saw a fanciful look in her eyes. Just seeing that look made his nerves dance and his brain race.

“More than anything, I’d like to go dancing tonight. This was to be a quick trip for me just to attend Vaughn and Sierra’s celebration cookout. Tomorrow evening I’m flying out to return home.”

“Where is home for you?” he asked, realizing just how little he knew about her.

“Boston.”

“How long have you lived there?”

“Close to eight years. I never returned to the cove to live after leaving for college. I resided in Paris for a while when my parents moved there,” she said. “So, what about it, Saint? Will you take me dancing? There’s this nightclub in New Orleans that has the best music and dance floor. I try to go there whenever I come back to Catalina Cove.”

He didn’t have to think twice about his answer. “Yes, I’d love to take you dancing. If that place in New Orleans is where you want to go, then that’s where we’re going.”

Zara knew she should have told Saint to take her home. Instead, she’d asked him to take her dancing in New Orleans. That was an hour drive for them to share space in this car. Sexual energy was crackling between them. The hot, raw and carnal kind. That ball of fire that had burst into flames in the pit of her stomach when she’d seen him hadn’t gone out. It was still burning brightly.

So why was she playing with fire? Why was she listening to that voice inside her head reminding her that she hadn’t been in a man’s bed since his? The bigger question was why she was tempted to yield to the primitive force inside her. Namely, that sexual hunger that had begun raging the moment she’d seen him again.

Knowing silence between them was only increasing the heat, the need and the desire, she decided to generate conversation between them by asking him something that she wanted to know. “You said you don’t have any regrets about our night together. Why not?”

When the car came to a stop at a traffic light, he turned to face her. The look in the depths of his dark eyes sent more desire pulsating through her. His gaze returned to the road, as he began talking. “That night I told you that I had broken up with my ex-girlfriend almost a year before. Up until then I’d felt I had gotten over her and moved on. Spending time with you made me realize what I had been doing was breathing but not living.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“I was going through the motions of living but hadn’t fully been doing so. I had thrown myself into my work. Suddenly, that had become the only thing that mattered to me. Then there was the issue of my parents.”

She lifted a brow. “And?”

“And...like I told you that night, my ex-girlfriend and I had dated for over four years. She had become close to my parents, and I was close to hers. Naturally, both sets of parents assumed we would eventually marry. Needless to say, our breakup wasn’t easy on anyone. They couldn’t understand it and didn’t want to accept it. They got it in their heads that we just needed a little time apart to get our shit together. As far as I was concerned, there wasn’t anything to get together. The woman I loved didn’t want a future with me. I’d gotten that and wanted to move on.”

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