“Did you see your father this morning?” asked Alec.
She shook her head.
“He was due in, right?”
Her gaze went to a cloud wisping across the moon. “Yes, he was.”
“But you didn’t stay to say hello?”
She watched straight over the bow. “I didn’t want to hold everybody up.”
Alec considered her profile for a moment. “You didn’t want to see him,” he concluded.
“I told you, it’s not the same as Jack. With David, I don’t care one way or the other.”
“What about the rest of the family?”
“What about them?”
“Your cousins Dev and Max were coming in today. And Isabella would have been on set. Don’t you want to get to know them?”
Charlotte’s expression tightened.
“You escaped, didn’t you?” Alec guessed.
She waved a dismissive hand. “I needed clothes.”
“You could have had some shipped from home.”
She mustered a cocky grin. “And where would be the fun in that?”
“Charlotte,” Alec pressed. “Are you afraid of your family?”
“It’s not the same as for you.”
“Blood is still blood,” said Alec. He had dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins in and around Provence. Montcalm family occasions were large, boisterous and entertaining. It didn’t matter how seldom he saw some relatives, they always meant something.
She gathered his jacket closer around her.
“You said you missed Jack,” Alec pointed out, struggling to figure out her feelings. “Now’s your chance to get to know him.”
Storm clouds gathered behind her blue eyes. “It’s complicated.”
“That’s just part of the package. You want to hear about my Uncle Rudy and his affair with cousin Giselle’s next-door neighbor? Or the time Uncle Bovier disinherited his eldest son, Leroy, because he was gay? Talk about a crisis. My phone rang off the hook for weeks.” Alec took a breath.
“At least you know them,” said Charlotte.
“Not that well.” There were members of his family he saw only once a year.
“And.” She gave a hollow laugh. “They didn’t give you away.”
Alec stilled.
Her voice went hard. “Nobody looked at you and Raine, and said, ‘We like Raine better. Give Alec away.’”
“I’m sure it wasn’t-”
“I have one father, an aunt and uncle, two grandparents, a brother and four cousins on the Hudson side of the family, and not one, not
“I was wrong,” Alec put in softly, drinking in the intense emotion on her face. “You’re not scared. You’re angry.” He nodded to himself. “That makes sense. You have every right to be angry with them.”
She waved her glass for emphasis. “My grandparents took wonderful care of me.”
“You waited your whole life for Jack to come and rescue you. He never did.”
“Jack was a little boy.”
“Emotions have nothing to do with logic.” Alec rose from his chair, crossing the polished, redwood deck. He crouched next to Charlotte’s chair. “If you could control your emotions with logic, would you be here?”
She gazed silently into his eyes.
“It’s a risk, you and me. For you, it’s your reputation. For me…” He gave a short laugh. “Well, all the usual reasons. Plus, you’re Raine’s friend, and she’s going to kill me if you get hurt.”
“I’m not going to get hurt.”
“I’m counting on that,” Alec said honestly. He might be narcissistic and self-centered, but he didn’t deliberately set out to hurt anyone. He tried hard to choose independent, worldly women. That they were mostly gold diggers was regrettable, but then the breakup disappointed them on more of a financial level than an emotional one. And that was good.
He heard the steward behind him with the first course.
Alec came to his feet. He’d hold Charlotte in his arms later and try to chase away her demons. It was a temporary fix for both of them, but it was all they had.
The water in the aft-deck hot tub swirled around Charlotte’s naked body. Soft, underwater lighting reflected on the blue walls, highlighting her pale skin and Alec’s arms where they wrapped around her waist to anchor across her stomach.
Angry at the Hudsons? At first she’d dismissed Alec’s theory. Schooled by her diplomat grandfather and gentle, compassionate grandmother, Charlotte always had her emotions completely under control. She wasn’t given to outbursts of anger. She was analytical and empathetic. Anger was a self-indulgent emotion that was never productive.
But as dinner moved on, something pricked at her brain: Could Alec could be right? Had she spent the past twenty-one years repressing her anger? Was that why her stomach churned at the thought of seeing the Hudsons?
She’d always felt like an outsider. And she’d long since admitted to her jealousy of her cousins and their easy familiarity with each other. But was there more?
“Stop thinking,” Alec rumbled in her ear, giving her a quick kiss on the temple, his arms tightening for a split second around her waist.
She was cradled in his lap beneath the warm water. He’d asked the ship staff to give them privacy, so they were alone on the dark deck, surrounded by a smoked-glass guardrail. Clouds had been moving in for an hour, and the city lights turned blurry as the first raindrops plunked into the tub.
Charlotte snuggled against the cocoon of Alec’s body. She didn’t feel like an outsider now. In fact, for the first time in her life, she was at the center of the universe-hers and Alec’s. She recognized the danger of those feelings and vowed they wouldn’t get out of control. But for now, for tonight, Alec was a welcome break from the reality she’d have to face back at the movie set.
The rain grew heavy, fat droplets splashing into the hot tub.
“You want to go inside?” asked Alec.
“I like it here,” she responded, reluctant to break the spell.
“I like it, too.” He kissed her neck, tracing a trail to her damp shoulder and back again.
“You taste good.”
“It’s the rainwater.”
“No, it’s not.”
She tipped her head to one side, giving him freer access. His large hands slipped up her stomach, covering her breasts. “You’re soft,” he muttered. “So soft.”
She dropped her head right back, and he placed a warm, wet kiss on her lips.
“Have you stopped thinking?” he asked.
“I think you’re magic,” she answered, and he smiled.
“It’s nice to be magic.”
He kissed her again, more seriously this time. Then he carefully turned her so she was facing him, straddling his lap, her arms loosely around his neck.
He shimmied her close. “Do you want anything?”
“Besides you?”
“Coffee, brandy, dessert?”
“You’re going to call the steward?” She glanced meaningfully down at their naked bodies.
“We can have it delivered to the stateroom.”
“I assumed you had something else in mind for the stateroom.”
He smoothed back her wet hair. “I’m in no rush.”
