Stella glared at Rick as his not-so-subtle guilt trip found its mark. Well, it wouldn’t work. ‘Are you crazy? I can’t go gallivanting around the bloody ocean. My editor would have apoplexy. My book is way overdue and I have probably the worst case of writer’s block in the history of written language, don’t I, Diana?’
She looked at her friend for confirmation, who did so with a vigorous nod of her head.
‘Well, this is exactly what you need.’ He grinned, unperturbed. ‘Nothing like the open ocean to stimulate the muse.’
Stella stared at him askance. ‘Don’t you have other salvage jobs on the go?’
Rick shrugged. ‘Nothing the guys can’t handle. Besides, it won’t be a salvage job, just a recon mission, see what we can find. A few weeks, four at the most. Just you and me and the open ocean. Salt, sea air and sunshine. You could get a tan,’ he cajoled as he took in her pallor. ‘It’ll be just like we were kids again.’
Stella shook her head against the temptation and romance of yesteryear, which appealed to her on a primal level she didn’t really understand. She dragged her gaze away from his seductive mouth.
They weren’t kids any more.
‘I can’t. I have a book to write.’
‘Come on,’ he murmured, feeling the longing inside her even if she couldn’t. ‘You know you want to. You always wrote like crazy whenever you were on the Persephone. Remember? You were always scribbling away in that writing pad.’
She remembered. She’d either had her head stuck in a book or she’d been writing something. He’d teased her about it mercilessly. She should have known back then she was destined to be a writer. ‘I can’t. Can I, Diana?’
Diana looked at Stella. Then at Rick. Then back at her friend. If anyone needed a change of scenery it was Stella. These four walls were obviously becoming a prison for her despite the view—maybe mixing it up a little would get the juices flowing again.
And if the open ocean was where she was most creative...
Joy would have a fit but Diana had a hunch that this was just what her friend needed. She bloody hoped so because her head would be on the chopping block if Stella returned tanned and still bookless.
She stood and joined them in the kitchen. ‘I think you should go. I think it’s a great idea.’
Stella blinked. ‘What?’ she said as Rick’s grin trebled.
‘This,’ he said, slipping his arm around Diana’s shoulders, ‘is a wise woman.’
‘Thank you.’ Diana beamed at him.
‘Come on, Stel. I dare you.’
Stella rolled her eyes. As kids their relationship had thrived on dares and one-upmanship, Stella hell-bent on proving she could keep up with a boy.
Dare you to swim through that hole in the wreck. Something expressly forbidden by her father. Dare you to bring a coin up from the bottom. Also forbidden. Dare you to touch that manta ray. Just plain stupid.
It was a wonder they’d both survived.
She remembered when the dares had stopped. That evening on deck when she’d dared him to kiss her. She wondered if he remembered. His eyes glittered back at her—all bad-boy blue—and she knew he remembered.
‘Tell you what,’ Rick said as he pulled himself back from that ancient memory that still resonated in his dreams, ‘don’t decide now. Sleep on it first, okay. I bet it won’t seem as crazy in the morning.’
Stella was willing to bet that in the cold light of day and stone-cold sober it would not only seem crazy, it would actually be crazy.
Utterly certifiable.
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then winked at Diana. ‘Can I crash here?’
Stella felt like a child between two grown-ups. ‘What, no girl in this port, sailor?’ she asked waspishly. The man had never lacked for company on shore.
Rick chuckled. ‘Not one who can make pancakes like you.’
‘Ah,’ she said, realising she was being churlish and making an effort to get them back to their usual repartee. ‘So you only want me for my pancakes.’
‘And your half of the map.’ He grinned. ‘I’m beat. I need a shower. Then I need to sleep for a week. Towels still in the same place?’ he asked as he left them, not waiting for an answer.
Diana watched him go. ‘Wow.’
Stella nodded. ‘Yes.’
She turned to face the sink, leaning her elbows against the cool steel as she looked out of the large bay window into the bleak dark night. Diana joined her, still sipping at her wine.
‘Does he wear contacts?’ she mused. ‘It’s quite striking to see a man with such dark colouring have such blue eyes.’
Stella nodded again. She’d been captivated by them for as long as she could remember. ‘Yes, it’s really quite mesmerising, isn’t it?’
‘Which room are you in, Diana?’
Both women started guiltily as the voice from behind them had them straightening and whipping around to face Rick. He was naked except for possibly the world’s smallest towel around his waist, clutched at the side where it didn’t quite meet. His blue eyes looked even bluer with less of anything much to detract from them.
‘The one on the left,’ Stella confirmed after a quick glance at a gawking, mute-looking Diana.
‘Great, I’ll doss down in the other.’ He smiled at both of them. ‘See you in the morning, ladies.’
Stella and Diana watched him as he swaggered away, the towel slipping as he gave up on trying to keep it on. They caught a glimpse of one naked buttock just before he disappeared around the corner.
A buttock adorned with a very sexy, perfectly round, dark brown birthmark, right in the middle of a very sexy dimple.
Diana gasped as suddenly everything fell into place. Bronzed colouring, piercing blue eyes, long shaggy hair, a mouth made for sin and a very cute blemish in a very specific place.
‘Oh, my God!’ She looked at Stella. ‘That’s why he’s so familiar. It’s him—he’s Vasco Ramirez!’
CHAPTER TWO
STELLA blushed furiously. ‘Shh,’ she hissed. ‘Don’t be preposterous.’
Diana laughed. ‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much.’
Stella turned back to the sink, busying herself with washing out her wine glass. ‘There are some similarities...’ she admitted.
‘Similarities?’ Diana hooted. ‘I knew I knew him...I just couldn’t figure out where from. I mean, hell, let’s face it, if I’d met him somewhere before I’d hardly be likely to forget him—the man’s a total hottie. And, I have to say—’ she nudged Stella ‘—looks like a total sex fiend.’
‘Diana!’
She shrugged. ‘In a good way.’
‘Well, don’t look at me,’ Stella muttered. ‘You know I’ve only ever been with Dale.’
Diana tisked. ‘I can’t believe you’ve never gone there...well, I mean you’ve obviously thought about it because you wrote an entire three-hundred-and-seventy-five page sexual fantasy about the man—’
‘I did not,’ Stella denied,