Linda Miller - Snowflakes on the Sea

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Nathan McKendrick is world famous, handsome and passionate. The world loves him. Mallory O'Connor McKendrick is successful in her own right. Their storybook marriage had defied the odds as well as the rumors. They believe their love will never die—until suddenly the marriage is crumbling. What could destroy such a strong bond and what could they do to save it?

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

The bare semblance of a smile curved Nathan McKendrick’s taut lips as he stood at the living room windows looking down at the measured madness in the streets below. Cars fishtailed up and down the steep hills, and buses ground cautiously through the six inches of snow that, according to the doorman, had fallen since morning. The stuff was still coming down, in great lazy slow-motion flakes, like flour from a giant sifter.

Nathan sighed. The people of Seattle didn’t really believe in snow—though they were certainly acclimated to rain—and they were always caught off guard when it came. The timid closed down their businesses and cowered at home, while the more adventurous braved the elements.

He focused his dark gaze on the distance. The harbor was invisible, through the swirling storm and the cloak of night, except for a few flickering lights, and the rugged Olympic Mountains beyond were blotted out entirely. The Space Needle, a modern tower commemorating a past world’s fair, appeared as a patch of blue light in the gloom.

Depressed, Nathan turned from the scene and sighed again. The penthouse, sumptuously furnished in rich suedes and velvets, was close and confining that night, even though it occupied the entire top floor of the building and had been carefully designed to seem even more spacious than it was.

Where was Mallory? The question played in Nathan’s exhausted mind and stretched his waning patience thin. He began to pace the empty living room in long, fierce strides, expending energy he didn’t possess. A six-week concert tour, followed by the endless flight back from Sydney, had left him physically drained.

He paused, looking down at his travel-rumpled clothes—tailored gray slacks and a lightweight cream-colored turtleneck sweater—and grimaced. The garments felt scratchy against the lean, muscular length of his body, and the rough stubble of a new beard stood out on his face like tiny needles.

Though the penthouse boasted no less than four bathrooms, it hadn’t occurred to him until that moment to take the time to shower, shave and change his clothes; he’d been too frightened, too desperate to find Mallory. Oblivious to everything except the state of his wife’s health, he’d caught a cab at the airport and hurried to the hospital, where he’d been summarily informed that “Ms. O’Connor” had been treated and released.

The nurses had told him so little, and he hadn’t been able to reach Mallory’s doctor, Mallory herself or any of her friends. Finally, when he’d frantically dialed his sister’s number, he’d gotten a recorded voice telling him cheerily that Pat couldn’t come to the telephone at the moment.

Though he’d tried the penthouse number and gotten no answer, he had hurried there hoping that Mallory might have left a note.

Now, having made all the same fruitless calls again and left a rather direct message on his sister’s answering machine, he was nearly overwhelmed by weariness and frustration.

Softly, furiously, he cursed. Then, with consummate control, Nathan brought himself up short. Mallory was all right—Pat’s cable had said that much, at least, and with characteristic certainty. Pat was never wrong about anything.

He ground his teeth and went back to the window, only to turn away again and stride toward the master bedroom and the sumptuous bathroom beyond. There, he stripped and stepped into a pulsing, steaming shower.

By the time he’d finished scouring his tense flesh, shaved and gotten dressed again, he felt better. He tried Pat’s number once more and got the same mechanical spiel he’d heard before. Muttering a curse, he dialed the island house and was informed by a harried operator that the lines were down.

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Nathan bounded over the plush carpet and wrenched open one of the heavy double doors.

His sister stood impatiently in the hallway, glaring up at him. “You shouldn’t say things like that on the telephone, Nathan!”

He remembered the colorful message he’d left for Pat and laughed gruffly. “And you should be at home when I want to talk to you,” he retorted, arching one dark eyebrow.

Pat sighed, placated by his off-the-cuff comment. She looked tired as she ran one slender hand through the copper and gold strands of her long hair and blinked her wide cornflower blue eyes. “Could we start over here?” She smiled, stepping around her brother to enter the penthouse. And then, without waiting for an answer, she cleared her throat and began again. “Hello, handsome. Rough trip?”

Nathan shook his head distractedly. The grandfather clock in the living room chimed a soft reminder of the hour. “Pat, I’m going insane while you make small talk. What’s the matter with Mallory, and where the hell is she?”

Pat stood on tiptoe to kiss her brother’s freshly shaven chin. “Relax,” she said gently. “Mallory is okay. After they released her from the hospital, I took her out to the island so she could have some peace and quiet.”

He took his sister’s arm, ushered her somewhat roughly toward the living room. “Why was she in the hospital, damn it?” he snapped, impatient and scared.

Pat settled herself on the suede sofa and crossed her shapely legs. “She collapsed on the set last night, Nathan, and they called an ambulance. Somebody from the show got in touch with me and I cabled you as soon as I’d seen Mallory and talked to the doctor and everything.”

Nathan stiffened, then leaned back against the long teakwood bar Mallory had bought in the Orient several years before, and folded his powerful arms in stubborn outrage. “I’ve been going out of my mind,” he growled. “They wouldn’t tell me anything at the hospital—”

Pat lowered her expressive blue eyes for a moment, regrouping, and then raised them intrepidly to her brother’s face again. “Mallory’s producer threatened them with mayhem if they gave out any information to anyone. Nathan, let it go.”

With a harsh motion of one hand, Nathan reclaimed the brown leather jacket he’d tossed into a chair earlier and slipped his arms into it. Mallory was his first concern—at the moment, his only concern.

As he turned to leave, Pat rose from the couch and caught his arm in one hand, gently but firmly. “Nathan, don’t hassle Mallory about the name thing or the soap opera, all right? She’s a wreck, frankly, and she doesn’t need it.”

“Right,” Nathan agreed crisply.

Pat reached up to touch his dark still-damp hair. “One more thing, love—stop worrying. Everything is okay.”

Nathan laughed, even though nothing in the whole damned world was funny, and walked away from his sister without looking back.

Mallory O’Connor loved the island house, though she didn’t get back to it much, now that she was working in Seattle. Often, the sturdy, simply furnished structure seemed to be the only real thing in her life. Now, standing in the huge old-fashioned kitchen, with snow drifting past the polished windows, she drew a deep breath and allowed herself to feel the sweet, singular embrace of the one place that was really home. Then, comforted, Mallory began selecting fragrant, splintery lengths of kindling from the box beside the big wood-burning stove to start a fire. She’d slept for a while after Pat had raced back to the city, and now she was pleasantly hungry.