‘There’s a small cove not far from here. Perhaps I could show it to you after we finish work here?’ Robert suggested. ‘Unless you’ve made other plans, of course?’
Jessie opened her mouth to answer, but José intervened smoothly, ‘Actually, I was hoping Jessie might want to come along with me to the reef later this afternoon.’ He sent her a quick glance. ‘I thought you might be interested in the work I’m doing—you mentioned you might need to look for some other source of income to keep you going. This would perhaps be ideal for you.’
‘Oh … yes, that’s true, I did. I didn’t realize …’ So there was the chance of working at the reef? That hadn’t occurred to her. She’d been too busy worrying about the pitfalls of spending time with José outside work to see that there might be an advantage in it. ‘Perhaps …’ She looked at Robert. ‘I’d love to go to the cove with you some time,’ she said awkwardly, ‘but maybe I should take this opportunity to see if I would be able to do this? I could really do with the extra income it would bring in.’
‘Of course. I understand. Don’t worry about it,’ Robert said. It was clear he was disappointed, but he put on a cheerful face. ‘We’ll do it some other time.’
José frowned and Jessie sent him a thoughtful look from under her lashes. Had he hoped to stop her from spending time with Robert? Perhaps he had an ulterior motive in getting her to go with him?
Well, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Wouldn’t this be the perfect chance for her to plead Ben’s case once more? After all, the man wasn’t made of stone, was he? ‘After work, then,’ she murmured.
José smiled. ‘Muy bien,’ he said.
LATER THAT SAME DAY, José turned his open-topped car onto the winding coast road, heading towards the harbour. It wasn’t a long journey, but Jessie found herself loving every minute of it, watching the landscape change from the town with its pleasant market squares shaded by tamarind trees and palms, through forest-clad slopes and the gentle, undulating hills that led down to the clear blue waters of the marina. The sun was warm on her face and the soft breeze lifted her hair.
‘Is it far to the reef?’ she asked, after they’d reached their destination and he’d parked the car.
‘Just a few minutes once we’re on the boat,’ he murmured. He lifted a case from the boot and they started to walk along the quayside. There were boats of all sizes in the yacht basin, their paintwork gleaming in the bright afternoon sunshine.
They followed a wooden mooring platform until José came to a halt by a large yacht, the Bella Rosa, white painted, with glittering steel guard rails all around the deck. Jessie stared at it. She was stunned.
‘Is this yours?’
He nodded. ‘I bought it about three years ago so that I could cruise around the islands and travel to the reef whenever I wanted. She’s beautifully kitted out. I think you’ll like her. I hope you do. Come on board and see what you think.’ He opened up the deck gate and put out a hand to help her on board.
His grasp was strong and firm as he drew her along the ramp, keeping her close to him. He was long and lean, full of lithe energy, and as he helped her onto the deck, he was so near her that she could feel the warmth coming from his body. She felt the brush of his thigh against hers and her pulse quickened, heat rising in her. When he finally released her she felt almost disappointed.
She did her best to shake off those feelings. He was her boss and there was trouble between him and her brother—surely it was extremely unwise to be seduced into having such a strong awareness of him? She had to stop herself from being enticed into any kind of emotional attachment—she’d been hurt before, and who was to say José wouldn’t turn out to be exactly the same kind of man?
Now, though, she looked around the yacht in openmouthed wonder. Sun glinted on the polished, golden timbers of the deck, and glazed doors opened into a spacious salon that had been fitted out with sleek upholstered sofas and a low table. Wide, deep windows provided a panoramic view of the harbour.
Everything here was perfection, and she could imagine sitting here, taking in the air with an aperitif in hand. ‘Wow,’ she said, and couldn’t resist smiling. ‘Just … wow!’
He chuckled at her bemused expression. ‘Let me show you around below deck.’
They went down into the galley, where pale oak exteriors housed a variety of equipment. ‘There’s a cooker, microwave, fridge and freezer,’ he told her. ‘Pretty much everything you might need.’
The boat housed two cabins as well as the master suite, each one beautifully fitted out with the same pale oak that was the recurring theme throughout the boat. This was repeated in the main salon, where the woodwork gleamed faintly and luxurious fabrics added to the feeling of opulence. The room opened out into a dining area, and light poured in through windows all around.
‘It’s fantastic,’ she said. ‘I’m very impressed. I must say, this is a novel way to travel to work.’
He smiled. ‘I guess it’s the best there is.’
He took a bottle from the fridge in the galley before they went back on to the upper deck, and once there he produced a couple of long-stemmed glasses from a glazed unit in the cockpit.
‘This isn’t alcoholic, I’m afraid,’ he murmured, pouring sparkling wine into the champagne flutes, ‘as I have to pilot the boat and then be fit for work, but it’s refreshing … and you can drink as much of it as you like.’ He handed her a glass, then lifted his to hers with a gentle clink. His smoky gaze met hers over the rim. ‘Salud!’
‘Salud!’ she echoed in a quiet voice, and then began to waver under that intense, heated stare. She sipped her drink slowly, breaking off that eye contact.
He didn’t say anything more but downed his wine and then, almost reluctantly, turned his attention to setting the boat in motion. She was relieved the moment had passed.
They sped across the water, heading towards a green outcrop some half a mile away, and after a few minutes José brought the boat to a halt at the dive site. Several men milled about on board another boat that was moored there. They were wearing wetsuits or shorts, and they were helping each other with equipment, compressed air tanks and masks and so on.
‘Holà! Is everyone all right?’ José called out, and they nodded. ‘That’s good. Permission to come aboard?’
‘Aye, come on over.’ The skipper grinned.
José retrieved his case and pulled out a large medical bag from one of the storage units on board, and then helped Jessie off the yacht and onto the dive boat. ‘Let’s hope the dive goes smoothly,’ he said.
They stood on the open deck and watched as the men took to the water. ‘What are they looking for down there?’ Jessie asked. ‘I mean, this is a conservation project—so what does that involve?’
‘A few of the reefs in the Caribbean have been damaged over the years, for a number of reasons,’ José explained. ‘If the sea warms up too much because of climate changes, for instance, it can cause the coral to die off, or certain species of fish can cause problems by overfeeding. In time, algae and seaweed cover the reefs and block out the light.’
‘Can something be done about that?’
He nodded. ‘We reseed the reef with fast-growing coral species—we’re having some success out here, and with luck we’ve managed to turn things around.’
He waved her to a chair on the deck by the guardrail.