* * *

  You don’t owe me anything.

  That’s not what this was, but he didn’t want to explain that his desire to help didn’t spring from a sense of obligation after taking her virginity. It wasn’t even reparation for what had come after, although that was part of it.

  He had watched her go pale at Rozi’s call and hadn’t been able to stand the anxiety that gripped her. He would do anything to assuage it.

  Which might make him a softheaded fool. Again. But she was in his arms again and he closed his eyes to savor the feel of her.

  His phone vibrated in his shirt pocket. He shifted slightly to see the face. His lawyer’s name showed up on the screen.

  Reluctantly, he settled her onto the bed, tucked a blanket across her and moved out of the room to take the call where his voice wouldn’t disturb her.

  * * *

  Gisella was deeply asleep in a hammock, swaying and swaying. The hammock was starting to tip—

  She threw out a hand to catch herself, flashing her eyes open. Her fingers landed on Kaine’s thigh where he sat beside her on the bed. His palm was stroking her arm rhythmically as he gently eased her awake.

  Had they—? Oh, God, they had. She recalled their intimacy in a rush of appalled memory. And afterward he had thought she’d made love with him only to barter her virginity. Then Rozi had called and—

  “Oh, God.” She sat up and her brain seemed to fly forward to smack the inside of her forehead, causing an instant headache. She touched her brow. “What time is it?”

  “It’s okay.” He stayed sitting next to her. “We have to leave in about thirty minutes. You should dress and check what I’ve packed for you.”

  “Did you sleep?” His stubble had darkened. His eyes were bruised and weary. The clock read 4:22 a.m.

  “I wanted to be available if my lawyer called again. He has a woman headed to the detention facility now. She’ll see Rozi, offer representation. I’ve emailed you her contact details if you want to forward it to your mom and the rest of your family, so they know things are progressing.”

  She sagged a little, wondering how she would have accomplished so much if left to her own devices.

  “I can’t thank you enough for fast-tracking things.” She couldn’t look at him. Her face grew so hot and tight it hurt. “Please bill me for all the expenses. Between me and the rest of my family—”

  “Gisella—”

  “I won’t accept that I’ve already paid for this, Kaine.” She scooted off the far side of the bed. “I couldn’t bear it.”

  “That’s not what this is,” he said, quiet and implacable, tone so dark it made her stomach wobble.

  “I’ll settle up once Rozi is out and I can think properly,” she swore, gathering up her clothes to take them into the bathroom, where she dressed and brushed her teeth.

  She felt guilty for falling asleep, but was marginally less emotional after a few hours of rest. She was clearheaded enough to finish packing and catch up with the messages on her phone. She forwarded Kaine’s lawyer’s info to her mother and noted the contact details for friends of the family her mother urged her to use in Budapest if she needed anything while she was there.

  As she was thanking her mother, Rozi rang through with a face call.

  “I’m leaving for the airport right now,” Gisella told her the second it connected.

  Rozi looked pale and tense, but not as distressed as she had sounded before. She appeared to be in the back of a town car. “I was hoping to catch you before you left. I’m out. It’s okay. You don’t have to come.”

  “You’re on your way to the airport? Coming home?” Gisella’s tension deflated, leaving her so weak she had to sit down on the bed to keep from collapsing onto the floor.

  “I have to stay in Hungary a little longer. The lawyer thinks it will all be dismissed very quickly, though.”

  Gisella looked to where Kaine had come to stand in the doorway of her bedroom. She could reimburse him, but how would she ever really repay him for getting a lawyer there? One who had acted so quickly and efficiently?

  She flicked her hot gaze back to Rozi, emotion tightening her throat so her voice was raspy. “I’ll still come and stay with you while you wait it out.”

  “You don’t have to. There’s nothing you can do and I’m—” Her cousin looked to her right, profile flexing with uncertainty. “I have to stay with Viktor. He, um, found the earring and paid my bail, which is how I got out. I’m his responsibility until your lawyer gets the rest of it sorted. Thank you so much for her. I’ll pay you back. I promise. But she said I should stick around because I might have to appear before a judge. She’ll try to make that happen as quickly as possible. I know you want more details, but can we talk later? I have to call Mom. She’s left a million messages. I’ll call back when things have settled down, okay?”

  “Yes, of course, but Rozi—forget the earring, okay? It’s not worth this kind of trouble.”

  “I know.” Rozi gave her a look of angst. “In fact, will you talk to Grandmamma about it? Because I don’t think we have the full story there. Oh, there’s Mom, trying to reach me again. I need to go. I love you!”

  “I love you, too.” Gisella ended the call and lowered the phone. Without the adrenaline of purpose firing through her, she was left weak and lost.

  Kaine had dressed in fresh jeans and a T-shirt, but he hadn’t shaved. He stood with one hand on the doorjamb, the other loosely clutching his own phone.

  “That’s good news, isn’t it?” His voice was raspy and sexy.

  “That she’s been released into the custody of the man who had her arrested? Sounds pretty alarming to me.”

  He acknowledged that with a tilt of his head. “You still want to go, then?”

  Rozi wouldn’t have tried to stop her getting on the plane if she wanted her to come. In fact, as Gisella thought back on the conversation, she almost thought she’d seen something in her cousin that conveyed Rozi very much preferred that Gisella not come. It was vestiges of something she’d seen a couple of times before, and made her prickly as she thought about it. It wasn’t her fault that men sometimes looked past Rozi when Gisella showed up. Was Rozi romantically involved with Viktor? He’d had her arrested!

  If Gisella hadn’t slept with her own mortal enemy, she wouldn’t even consider her cousin capable of it, but she had to wonder. Even if Rozi was sleeping with Viktor, why would she think Gisella had designs on him? Didn’t she remember that Viktor was Gisella’s cousin?

  Besides, she had no interest in other men. Kaine was the only one she wanted.

  And he thought she was something between a predator and a parasite.

  “Gisella? Are you okay?” He was frowning at her.

  She realized she was staring at him. He’d pulled her from a fire, but she remained in a place of profound vulnerability, completely at a loss as to how to cope with what had happened between them. A few hours ago, she had hated him with every fiber of her being—but only after glorying in all the things he had made her feel. Then he’d stepped up during a potential disaster and won her over on a different level.

  She snapped her gaze away from his, too raw and overwhelmed to make any sense of what she felt.

  “No. I don’t need to go.” She didn’t have to add the cost of a chartered jet to this debacle unless it was really necessary. And, somehow, she still had to make things right as far as Benny’s actions went, not worse. If she started spending Kaine’s money on wild-goose chases, they would remain adversaries forever.

  What did she want them to be?

  “I’m really sorry for all the trouble,” she murmured after he finished telling his pilot to stand down.

  “It keeps my staff on their toes,” he said with a negligent shrug.

  “I expect an invoice,” she repeated. “Otherwise, I’ll guess at the amount and transfer it to you.”

  His cheeks went hollow. “We’ll talk about that later.”

  She didn’t argue. It had been a rough night and neither of them was fit for negotiating right now.

  “You should get some sleep,” she told him. She ought to do the same, but felt wired, having geared herself up for travel.

  “I’ve had half a pot of coffee. I’ll be up for a while.” He glanced with dismay toward the open curtains where the city was still under a blanket of darkness. “Want to go watch the sunrise?”

  She choked on a laugh, then realized he was serious. They had a couple of hours before the sun came up. She was wide awake and dressed. She rarely did impulsive things like that, but always wished she were the kind of person who did. Yesterday’s rain had blown itself out and the moon was playing peekaboo from behind torn clouds.

  “Like, go somewhere? Or—?”

  “Boardwalk at Long Beach?” he suggested.

  The whole point of their being together was supposed to be a fake relationship for the benefit of others, not a sexual relationship that would start to feel awfully romantic if they chased sunrises at the beach.

  Nevertheless, she reached for a thick cardigan, shrugging it over the yoga pants and long-sleeved top she’d dressed in for travel.

  On impulse, she stopped him from calling his driver.

  “Do you feel like driving?” She could take the wheel if he was too tired.

  “You have a car?”

  “Daddy does,” she said with a conspirator’s smile. The address of the garage was on the way and a cab was easy to flag down at this time of morning. Minutes later, she was showing her ID to the night guard, and signing out a vintage T-topped Camaro.

  Kaine gave a low whistle at the apple-red sports car. “You’re taking me back to my teen years, when I was boosting rides to take girls to the beach.”

  “I thought you only shoplifted.”

  “Sometimes the shop was a car lot. I always brought it back before anyone knew it was gone. Borrowing, really.”

  “Hmm...” She couldn’t help chuckling at the distinction as they slid into the low-slung leather-covered seats.

  He did like to drive. He soon had them on the freeway, where he made the engine growl as he put the car through its paces, a relaxed smile of pleasure on his face.

  After a while, she filled the companionable silence with an acoustic station. She let the pluck of guitar strings drown out whatever heavy thoughts were trying to take root in her mind. For the moment, she let herself be. He seemed to feel the same.

  When they reached Long Beach, he paid for parking and they made their way onto the boardwalk, unhurried. Streaks of orange sat on the horizon between the charcoal sky and an expanse of mottled navy blue. The tide was half out, flavoring the damp breeze with the scent of kelp and salt and all those other primordial scents that reminded her they were just two small organisms on a rock hurtling through the cosmos. The universe didn’t care about their petty human anguish.

  “I haven’t been here since I was a kid,” she said as they fell into an ambling walk. “Uncle Ben had a house here until the hurricane a few years ago. Mom and Dad usually stayed in the city, but Rozi’s mom would throw me in the car with her kids and bring me out here. It would be nothing but sunburns and junk food for days.”

  “I get the impression you feel fostered out in your own way.”

  “Do I sound self-pitying? I don’t mean to. I feel really lucky to have my family.”

  “Because you needed them and they gave you what your parents didn’t.”

  She faltered, pausing to set her hand on the rail. The colors on the horizon were deepening. Growing sharper and more focused.

  “I’m as judgmental as the next person. Of course I think my parents could have been more emotionally accessible to me. The trade-off is that they provided for me very well. Rozi called our uncle Ben first last night, then me, because we’re in a position to offer real help. Her parents would first have to book an appointment at the bank, to remortgage their house. They have always made time for their children over making money, and they had four. They struggle financially, not that they complain. They’re very happy. But it creates an ironic dynamic. I’m jealous of Rozi having an ideal childhood, but she’s jealous of me for all the cool stuff I had.”

  “Which was?”

  “Anything I asked for.” She shrugged it off. “When I say my parents left me to my own devices, I mean that literally.”

  “Ah.”

  She watched his gaze follow the swoop of a seagull, quite sure he had had neither his emotional nor material needs met. He had said that he stopped stealing when he was able to buy what he needed.

  “The one time I remember coming to the beach as a kid, I was with a foster family. I thought they were going to leave me there.” His tone was self-deprecating, but something in his expression made her quiver inside.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “I didn’t know they wouldn’t.” He squinted into the distance. “I think that’s why I kept getting myself sent to the lockup. I hated it there, but at least I knew what to expect. It was predictable. They told you the rules and enforced them. Going into a stranger’s home, you didn’t know what was going to happen next. I heard so many horror stories and was forever bracing for something bad. When a foster parent sprang a trip to the beach on me, I had every reason to assume they were going to bury me in the sand and let the tide come in.”

  “Kaine, that’s awful.” She reached to cover his cool hand.

  He briefly pinched her fingers in his grip before he pushed off the rail and continued walking.

  She hung back a beat, feeling rebuffed, but when she caught up to him, he caught her hand in his, squeezing again. “I don’t know how to believe in people.”

  Her heart lurched. She was hyperaware of his warm grip on her hand and wove her fingers between his, liking the way they fit so neatly and could walk so comfortably while joined like this.

  She hurt for him, though. And she understood what he was telling her, that he was trying to explain why he didn’t trust her. He’d never had anyone he could trust.

  Meanwhile, she was surrounded by people she trusted and who trusted her. That’s why it was such a slap that he didn’t.

  She stroked the back of Kaine’s knuckles, wishing she could make him see she wouldn’t let him down.

  He glanced at her. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ll hate it.”

  “I don’t. I feel angry on your behalf. Guilty about Benny, even though I can’t believe he would have deliberately tried to take advantage of you.”

  He paused at a concession stand that was opening its window. The aroma of fresh coffee wafted out along with the sugary scent of fresh doughnuts. He bought one of each for both of them and they moved to a bench, set their feet on the rail and watched the stain of purple and pink on the clouds turn red and orange at the center.

  With the only sound the call of the gulls and the wash of the incoming waves, she felt as though they were the only two people on earth. It was a moment of utter peace. A few minutes later, white light broke against the horizon, beginning the new day.

  Her eyes watered and she told herself it was just the long night and the beauty before her, not the poignant need to believe they were turning a corner in their relationship.

  “Do you surf?” she asked as she spotted a lone nut in a wet suit being chopped up on the waves.

  “I can keep myself from getting killed, but I’m not passionate about it. Do you?”

  “Ha! Do you know how many points my feminist mother would give you for not simply assuming I wouldn’t because I’m a girl?”

  “Are you a feminist?”

  “I am.” She licked the last of the powdered sugar from her thumb and fingers, then dried them on her knee, saying what they had come here to talk about. “Which is why I slept with you. I wanted to, Kaine. This is my body and it was my choice to share it with you. Provided you consented, of course.”

  He tipped back his head and choked a laugh at the last fading star. “I consented the hell out of last night.”

  Indeed.

  The rim of the sun became a circle, brilliant as a phoenix reborn from the ash-colored ocean. Its reflection danced toward them in a crooked line across the waves. The dark sky turned blue while the clouds faded to a delicate tangerine, pastel yellow, then creamy white.

  They finished their coffee and rose to throw everything into the nearest bin.

  He reached out and she let him draw her into his arms. She leaned on him, absorbing his warmth through her clothes.

  “Last night was incredible, Gisella. I feel privileged that you shared your first time with me.”

  She closed her eyes and emotive tears stung the seam of her lashes.

  “I helped Rozi because I wanted to help you. I didn’t feel like you extracted anything from me. That was freely given because I like you.”

  Her mouth was buried against his shirt along with her closed eyes. “I’m still going to pay you back,” she said, pressing away.

  He sighed, but let her pull out of his arms.

  They walked back to the car, but he didn’t drive far. He pulled in at an office flashing “Vacancy” in a row of quaint cottages facing the water. The boutique motel had clearly been rebuilt since the storm, but was designed to look as though it had been providing seaside accommodation to upper-class families for a century.

  “I need to sleep. You can leave me here if you want to.”

  “I’m tired, too.” The coffee had done nothing to stave off the weariness catching up to her.

  She could have booked her own cottage. He even glanced at her as he checked in, asking, “Would you like your own room?”

 

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