Stella turned to Rick to defend Vasco. To say that her hero was not a salivating pervert, but of course she couldn’t because the man was a scoundrel of the highest order and she knew damn well he’d appreciated Mary’s cleavage as he’d appreciated countless other women’s cleavages before he’d met Mary and probably still was, out there in fiction land somewhere.
But it all died on her lips as Lucinda’s sweet melodic voice started up a dialogue in her head again, talking about her father disowning her for following a whim and her mother’s grief over their rift.
The implications stunk to high heaven.
Oh, God. Please no, not this, Lucinda. I’ll do anything, I’ll go anywhere else you want, but not this.
Just then Diana entered the room, negating the need for Stella to say anything, for which she was grateful. She yawned loudly and bade them both a good morning as she made her way to the kitchen in her clingy satin Hello Kitty pyjamas and poured herself a coffee from the percolator.
Rick whistled. ‘Well, hello Kitty.’
Stella rolled her eyes. Diana grinned as she plonked herself down in a lounge chair.
‘So?’ she demanded. ‘Are you going with Rick or what?’
‘Good question, Miss Kitty.’ Rick nodded. ‘Well?’ he asked, seeking Stella’s gaze.
Even just looking at him looking at her, Stella could feel the story buzzing through her veins. She could feel Lucinda beckoning her like the siren she was, waving at her from the rocks, drawing her ever closer to her doom.
She looked back at the computer screen with its mocking little cursor and acres of blankness and got nothing.
She sighed as Lucinda won. ‘Yes. I’m going.’
‘Really?’ Rick stood and punched a fist in the air at her curt nod.
How on earth was she going to share a boat with him when she hadn’t had sex in ages and he’d always been her private fantasy go-to man?
They were friends.
They were business partners, for crying out loud!
‘I’ve booked us two tickets to Cairns on a flight that leaves Heathrow early this evening.’
‘Ooh, cocky, I like that,’ Diana murmured, sipping her coffee.
Stella ignored her, as did Rick who, Stella knew from experience, must be biting his tongue to let that one go.
‘Australia?’ she squeaked.
Rick shrugged. ‘The map’s Micronesia and I haven’t taken the Dolphin out since I bought her.’
Stella stood. ‘You bought the Dolphin?’
Rick had been fascinated with the thirty-foot classic wooden yacht for as long as she could remember. They’d seen it in various ports over the years and it had always been a dream of his to have it for himself.
‘When?’
He grinned. ‘A few months ago. I finally tracked her down in New Zealand and had her refitted in Cairns. She’s ready to go.’
Stella felt a little thrill that had nothing to do with Lucinda. Rick had talked about it so much over the years it had almost become her dream too. ‘So we’re going to take her?’ she clarified.
He nodded. ‘If you want to. I could always hire something bigger, whiter, more pretentious if you preferred.’
Stella smiled at the distaste curling his lips. The Mills and Granville salvage fleet was three big white, powerful boats strong and, while she knew Rick was proud of what her father and he had built up, his passion had always been the classic beauty of the Dolphin. ‘Perish the thought.’ She grinned.
Rick grinned back at her and felt a hum of excitement warm his belly. There was something different about Stel this morning. Last night she’d been the Stella he’d always known—slopping around, no airs and graces, no special treatment.
This morning she glowed as if she had a secret that no one else knew. Her olive-green eyes seemed to radiate purpose. Her cheeks seemed pinker. Even her scraped-back ponytail seemed to have more perk in it.
She looked like women did when they were pregnant, as if they were doing something truly amazing and they knew it.
She was radiant.
It was quite breathtaking and his stomach clenched inside in a way that, as a man, he was all too familiar with.
But not where she was concerned.
He looked at Diana, all sleepy and tousled with her knowing eyes and cute mouth, and waited for the twinge to come again.
He got nothing.
Hmm.
‘Right.’ He drained his coffee quickly. There were things to do and not being here for a while was a good option. ‘Gotta go get some things sorted. I’ll see you both later.’
Stella busied herself in the kitchen until Rick left the house five minutes later. ‘How are you going to break it to Joy?’ she asked Diana.
‘Oh, forget that,’ Diana said, waving the query away. ‘I’ll tell her you’ve gone off to be inspired. There are much more important things to discuss.’
Stella frowned. ‘There are?’
Diana nodded vigorously, her shirt pulling tight across her chest as she leaned over the kitchen bench. ‘You two should have sex,’ she said.
Stella almost dropped her second mug of coffee. Was she mad? ‘Ah no.’ She shook her head. ‘Bad. Idea.’
Diana raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay, well, you’re going to have to explain that one to me.’
Stella didn’t even know where to start with how bad an idea it was. ‘Because we’re friends. And colleagues. I’m his silent partner, for crying out loud! And trust me, I know better than anyone not to get tangled up with a man of the sea. They never choose land. They never choose love.’
Diana rolled her eyes. ‘You’re just having sex with him, not marrying the man.’
‘Which is just as well because men of the sea should not marry. My father chose the sea over my mother. Rick’s mother left when he was a baby because his father wouldn’t settle on land. We’ve both seen how that kind of life isn’t compatible with long-term relationships.’
‘You’re. Just. Having. Sex,’ Diana reiterated.
‘Oh, come on, Diana, you know I’m not good at that. The last guy I was just having sex with I ended up engaged to.’
Diana nodded. ‘And the sex was lousy.’
‘Hey,’ Stella protested. ‘It wasn’t lousy, it was...nice. Sweet. It may not have been...imaginative but it could have been worse.’ Her friend didn’t look convinced. ‘He was a pretty straight guy, Diana. Not all men want to have sex hanging from the chandeliers. There’s nothing wrong with sweet.’
‘No, absolutely not,’ she agreed. ‘Except you did write a book full of hot, sweaty, dirty, pirate sex during your time with Dale.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m no psychologist but I think they call that transference.’
‘They,’ Stella said, bugging her eyes at her friend, ‘call it fiction.’
Diana held up her hands in surrender. ‘All right, all right. I’m just saying...you’re going to be on that boat with him for long periods of time where there’ll be nothing to do...it might be worth thinking about, is all...’
Stella shook her head at her incorrigible friend. ‘I’ll be writing.’
Diana laughed. ‘Good answer.’
* * *
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