was their excuse to get me out of the house because they didn’t know how to deal with me.”
“You don’t seem all that difficult to deal with.”
She smiled and stared out at the water, but Logan had a feeling her thoughts were a few thousand miles away. After a moment, she turned and looked at him. “I’ve never admitted this to anyone, but when they told me I was going to go live at the university, I was scared to death. I cried and begged them not to send me away. I promised I’d behave better, but they insisted that it wasn’t about my behavior. It was about me having this great opportunity. That was how they justified it, I guess, by telling themselves they were doing it for me. But they looked so relieved and happy about their decision, I knew they’d simply given up on me. So I let them think I was excited to be going.”
“Sounds like you were the grown-up in that house.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head and waved his words away. “No, I’m sorry. Nobody likes a whiner.”
“Grace.” He sat down, took her hand in his and said quietly, “Don’t apologize. Tell me what it was like for you at school.”
She smiled. “You don’t want to hear all that melodrama.”
“Tell me.”
“Okay,” she said, and took a deep breath. “At first it was awful. I was afraid every day, and I was so lonely. I had no friends my own age and everyone looked at me like I was an alien or something.”
“Did you tell your parents?”
“Oh, no,” she said quickly. “I knew they didn’t want to hear anything bad. But it turned out okay. I loved working in the laboratory, and, slowly but surely, the university became my life. It’s where I belong.”
She gazed up at him and tried to smile. “I guess I sound pretty weird, don’t I?”
Logan shrugged. “Who isn’t weird?”
She beamed at him and squeezed his hand. “That’s so nice of you to say.”
“Hey, it’s true. And trust me, I’m not that nice.” He stood and stepped onto the pier to untie the rope, then shoved the boat off and jumped back onto the deck. “Just watch me turn into Captain Bligh.”
Saluting, she said, “Aye aye, Captain.”
Logan used engine power to steer the boat through the small marina and out into the bay, explaining the basics of sailing to Grace and assigning her certain duties. As soon as they cleared the last pier, he unfurled the sails and they headed for open water.
It had taken every ounce of willpower he had to stay calm as Grace talked about her parents. He couldn’t imagine growing up in a house like that. Hell, his own mother had walked out when he was seven, but at least he and his brother had always had their father. Dad had been their biggest champion and always showed them nothing but love and support, even when they behaved badly.
But Grace’s parents? Sounded like all they’d shown her was contempt. They’d never supported her at all. In fact, it sounded like they might’ve tried to stifle her constant search for knowledge; but, knowing Grace, she probably couldn’t be stifled.
So her parents couldn’t handle it and they shipped her off to some university where she’d been put to work from the age of eight, conducting research and writing papers that would bring acclaim and new funding for the university. But it sounded like she’d never been allowed to have a life outside of the school. She’d certainly never had a boyfriend, or she wouldn’t have still been a virgin. On the other hand, she didn’t seem unhappy with her life. In fact, she seemed happy, loving, well-adjusted. She got along great with everyone at the resort. So maybe he just needed to stop worrying about it.
“Ready to come about,” he shouted, and watched Grace scramble to get out of the way of the boom, then pull the mainsheet taut as he’d showed her.
“Good job, mate,” he called out.
She laughed. “Thanks, Captain.”
Once the boat was on course, Grace moved aft and sat with him on the small padded bench where he showed her how to steer and steady the wheel.
“You’re a natural,” he said after Grace had been steering the boat for a few minutes.
“I’m just a good student,” she said, smiling as she gazed up at the full sail, resplendent against the blue tropical sky.
Logan had to agree. Hell, maybe she really had been better off at school than at home with her parents. Sounded to Logan like they were the real oddballs, not Grace.
Yes, she was really smart, but she was also funny and sweet. She had a great attitude and enjoyed learning new things. She’d taken to the cocktail waitressing gig as well as any of the other waiters on staff. Okay, she still got a lot of assistance from the others, but that was because they all liked her and didn’t want to see her get fired.
He still had to laugh whenever he thought back to their first conversation about the spores. She’d been so adamant about staying on the island, and now he was glad she had. Not that it mattered, of course. She would leave eventually. Logan figured the timing would be just right for him to move on to the next woman anyway. That’s how it had always been and it would keep on going that way. Women were a plentiful commodity. And as he and Aidan had always said, the more the merrier.
For now, though, for as long as it lasted, he was more than satisfied to spend his time with Grace.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said, pointing to the coast.
“Yeah, it is,” Logan murmured, then realized he wasn’t even looking at the shoreline.
“This chicken salad is delicious,” Grace said after taking her first bite.
“The kitchen does a great job with picnics and box lunches,” Logan said, as he spooned more coleslaw onto his plate.
They’d dropped anchor in a small deserted inlet a mile beyond the picturesque port town of Tierra del Alleria, and Grace and Logan had unpacked the picnic basket the hotel kitchen had prepared. Along with chicken salad sandwiches, there was orzo salad and Asian-style coleslaw. It was simple food expertly prepared, and Grace’s mouth was watering by the time she’d filled her plate. The kitchen staff had also tucked a half bottle of crisp white wine into the basket, along with brownies for dessert.
They ate and talked, and Grace felt a little tug at her heart as she replayed Logan’s earlier words when he’d defended her against her parents. Grace no longer blamed her parents for anything they’d done, but it still gave her a warm feeling to know that Logan was on her side.
He and Dee were the first people she’d ever shared her background with, outside the university, and they had both rushed to support her unconditionally. Nobody in her life had ever done that for her before and she felt so much love for them because of it. And of course she’d used the word
“Everything okay, Grace?” Logan asked, rubbing her knee gently. “You look a little anxious all of a sudden.”
She gazed at him with what she hoped was a carefree smile. “I’m fine. Wonderful. I was just, um, a little worried that we’ll never finish all this food.”
He took another big bite of his sandwich and grinned at her. “That’s never been a big problem for me.”
They napped in the shade of the mainsail, then made love below deck in the well-appointed, mahogany-lined forward cabin where a cool breeze wafted through the open brass portholes. Grace had enjoyed exploring the cleverly arranged space, but all those fun design details drifted into the ether as Grace lost herself in the exquisite sensation of having Logan sheathed inside her.
Pleasure built as he drove into her again. They gazed at each other and Logan’s mouth curved in a smile of satisfaction that indicated pure male approval. Then his face shifted, his jaw tightened, his eyes squeezed closed as his breath grew ragged and passion rose to a fever pitch. His murmured endearments awakened her innermost
