Page 33 of One Forbidden Night In Paradise (Hot Winter Escapes)

‘No.’ She blinked. It wasn’t planned, and yet it had felt inevitable, inescapable, necessary. She felt exhaustion pressing down on her, heavy and stifling like a storm about to break. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten. No questions. No conversation.’ His face was expressionless, but there was an edge to his voice. ‘That’s why you did a runner last time. But we’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean so that’s going to be a little harder to pull off, don’t you think, Jemima?’

‘Not as hard as you think,’ she snapped. Hating that she couldn’t keep the shake out of her voice, she snatched up the remainder of her clothes and walked stiffly towards the bathroom and shut, then locked the door.

As solutions went it wasn’t particularly effective, she realised a moment later. She couldn’t stay in the bathroom for ever, but neither did she want to keep having that horrible conversation with Chase.

It was all such a mess, she thought as she buttoned up her blouse.

And it was her fault. She had drawn a clear line in the pink sand the morning after the night before but then she had to go and blur the boundaries between them by staying in his house and going diving with him. It had been a stupid thing to do but then, when it came to men, she was stupid, and weak.

Look at how she’d let Nick treat her. And he wasn’t the first.

Her throat tightened and she felt suddenly close to tears. The whole point of coming to Bermuda was to do things differently. To be different. And with Chase, that had happened. She had felt an intense physical attraction to him and acted on it without thought of even the immediate future.

Without any kind of thinking at all.

And it had been scary, but also empowering, only now she was back where she started. Letting herself be buffeted along by stronger currents like those two divers. Repeating the mistakes of the past when what she should be doing was breaking free of them. She pictured her father’s face, the skin red and flaky, his bony cheeks covered in patchy grey stubble. Only that would mean facing up to who she was, and what she’d done.

There was no sound on the other side of the door and she unlocked it cautiously, but the bedroom was empty. She felt both relief and a disappointment that made her heart feel as if it were being squeezed hard by a huge fist. And the irrationality and hypocrisy of that made her want to scream.

She was losing her mind. She needed to get off this boat and as far away from Chase Farrar as possible. Grabbing her bag, she yanked open the door—and stopped.

Chase was sitting on the floor opposite the cabin.

Her stomach twisted with shock and another kind of relief entirely. The stupid kind that made her whole body fill with light, and made her thoughts spiral towards the impossible.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Waiting for you.’ The huskiness in his voice brought a rush of heat to her cheeks. ‘I was worried but—’ glancing at her bag, he got to his feet ‘—I see I didn’t need to be.’ Eyes narrowing, he stalked past her into the bedroom. ‘What? No note? How disappointing.’

As she watched him turn, her heart began to pound fiercely. ‘Why are you bringing that up?’

‘Because that’s what you do, isn’t it?’

‘And now you can see why,’ she countered. ‘It’s a whole lot easier than trying to talk to you.’

‘Oh, now you want to talk. Because earlier you preferred to sulk in the bathroom.’

As he stalked towards her, she felt her whole body tighten. Twenty minutes ago their bodies had collided on that bed, driven by a mutual hunger that was as intense as the storm that hit the island last night. Now that storm was blowing in a completely different direction. ‘I wasn’t sulking. I was upset.’

Jaw tightening, his gaze held hers. ‘Yeah, because we had sex again.’ His voice was so cold that for a moment it seemed to freeze her brain and she couldn’t take in what he was saying. And then she did.

‘No, that’s not why I was upset.’ Except it was, in part, and, looking into his eyes, seeing the emotion smouldering there, she knew that he had heard it in her voice.

His gaze burned into her face. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Ms Friday.’

‘And, of course, this is only about you.’ Now she felt a flicker of anger. Not just with Chase but with herself for thinking that a one-night stand might change the essential dynamic between her and every man she had ever met, except her brother. ‘You know, I don’t know why I thought this would be any different. Why you’d be different.’ Her voice came out scratchy.

Why I’d be any different, she might have said.

Chase frowned, his gaze suddenly intent on her face. ‘Different from what?’

Feeling trapped, she looked away, a lump forming in her throat.

‘Different from what?’ he said again.

He was standing too close, his hard, muscular body radiating power and authority, and something that felt oddly like concern. ‘It’s complicated.’ She wished he would leave but he just stood there, waiting, his body blocking her in, and she knew that he wasn’t about to let her go this time. Not without her answering his question first.

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