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!’
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, picking up a tea towel and briskly drying the glass.
Diana crooked an eyebrow at her. ‘Stella, this is me. Diana. Who knows you.’
Stella looked into her friend’s eyes and could see that she knew the truth. She sagged against the sink. ‘Okay, yes,’ she sighed. ‘Rick was the inspiration for Vasco.’
Stella hadn’t set out to write a book with Rick as the hero but Vasco had taken on Rick’s features in a totally organic way. She hadn’t even been truly aware of it until she’d written the first kiss.
And then it had been so blindingly obvious she’d wondered why it had taken her so long.
‘Hah! I knew it!’ Diana clapped delightedly.
Stella rolled her eyes. ‘This is between you and me, Diana,’ she said, placing a hand on her friend’s arm. ‘Promise?’
‘Don’t worry,’ Diana said, waving a dismissive hand, ‘your secret is safe with me.’
‘Thank you,’ Stella said, releasing a breath as she shuffled away from the sink and headed towards the fire.
‘Well, there’s only one thing for it now,’ Diana said as she followed Stella and plonked herself down on one of the lounge chairs. ‘You have to go with him.’
Stella looked up from her log poking. ‘What?’
‘The man obviously inspires you to write. You need inspiration. You need to write. Problem solved.’
‘Joy doesn’t want another Vasco Ramirez, Diana.’
‘Yes, she does,’ Diana said. ‘That’s exactly what she wants. Vasco sold like hot cakes. Vasco is king. Of course she wants you to do another Vasco.’
Stella gave her friend an impatient look. ‘You know what I mean.’
Diana sighed. She didn’t want to pull out the big guns. ‘Babe, things are going to start to get nasty. And trust me, you don’t want to be with a publishing house that plays hard ball. There’ll be lawyers. It’s time to quit the whole writer’s block nonsense and write.’
Stella felt Diana’s words slice into her side. ‘You think it’s nonsense—that I’m making it up?’
Diana shook her head. She knew Stella’s instant fame had compounded her already entrenched second-book syndrome and her father’s death had just aggravated everything further. She totally got that Stella’s muse had deserted her. But...
‘The lawyers will think it is, babe.’
‘I just need a little more time,’ Stella muttered.
Diana nodded. ‘And you should take it. Absolutely. Go with Rick, get inspired. Come back replenished.’
Stella glanced at her friend. She made it sound so easy. She shook her head. ‘It’s crazy.’
‘Why?’ Diana challenged. ‘Because you have a thing for him?’
‘I do not have a thing for him,’ Stella denied quickly. A little too quickly perhaps. ‘He’s an old, old friend,’ she clarified, not bothering to keep the exasperation out of her voice. ‘We’ve known each other for ever. There is no thing.’
Diana looked at her friend. Oh, there so was a thing.
Even better.
Lord alone knew, if she hadn’t had sex for almost a year on top of fairly pedestrian sex for the previous five she’d be looking at a way of fixing that pronto. And if it so happened that the man of Stella’s fantasies was there at the precise moment she decided to break the drought, then surely