Justine Davis - Romancing the Crown - Kate & Lucas

“What?”

“Is my memory of what we shared that wrong? Am I the only one who felt we had something special?”

She tried to pull away but he held on, twining his fingers with hers. “Don’t,” she said. “There’s no point—”

“I need to know, Kate. Am I the only one whose heart speeds up when our eyes meet? Don’t you ever dream of moonlight swims and making love on the warm sand?”

“Please, Sam. I don’t want to—”

“Don’t want to what? Remember?”

Sudden heat came to her eyes. Her features tightened. “Yes. That’s right. I don’t want to remember.”

He brought her hands to his lips. Holding her gaze, he pressed a slow kiss to each of her knuckles in turn. “It wasn’t bad, Kate,” he murmured. “It was magic.”

Her lips trembled. “Sam…”

“I remember the night we met. You were wearing a blouse with no sleeves that was the color of your eyes. Your skirt was covered with flowers that reminded me of laughter. But do you know what really caught my eye?”

She shook her head.

“Your feet.”

“My… feet?”

“They were bare.”

“That’s because I was walking on the beach.”

“And when I saw the way you curled your toes to feel the sand I said to myself, ‘This is a passionate woman.”’ He rested his chin on their joined fingers and smiled. “It didn’t take long for you to prove me right. Remember the first time we kissed?”

She remained silent, her gaze on his lips.

“We’d heard the saxophone music from the beach and followed it to that club. All I could think about while we danced around the floor was that I wanted to know how your smile tasted. I didn’t even realize the music had ended.” He chuckled softly. “We might still be standing there if you hadn’t grabbed my cheeks and kissed me yourself.”

Kate stared at his mouth, trying to shut out the memories, but they came anyway. She remembered every detail of that night. She had never done anything as bold before, but there had been something so seductive about the throaty wail of the saxophone and the feel of Sam’s body moving in rhythm with hers that she hadn’t been able to resist lifting up on her toes and guiding his head to hers.

They had met mere hours before, but they had kissed as if they’d known each other all their lives. The power of it had blown them both away. They hadn’t even thought that what they were doing was fast or reckless. They hadn’t been able to stop.

He was right. It had been magic.

But it was over.

Gone.

As dead as their baby.

She shuddered as the good memory was swept aside by the bad. She yanked her hands from his before the inevitable wave of pain could follow.

The small dinghy rocked from her sudden movement. Off balance, Kate threw her arms out to stop herself from tumbling backward.

Sam reached for her, catching her before she could fall overboard. But as his large hands closed over her shoulders, his thumb hooked the delicate gold chain that circled her neck.

Kate felt a sharp pinch a split second before she heard the snap. Over the sound of the water lapping against the rocking boat, she heard a tiny splash. She tried to twist around.

“Steady, there,” Sam said, shifting his grip to her forearms.

Kate shook off his hold and grasped the gunwale to peer over the side. “Oh, God.”

In the blue-green illumination from the reflected sunlight that filtered through the water, she thought she saw a glint of gold. She lunged forward, thrusting her arm underwater as far as she could, but she was unable to catch the necklace before it sank out of reach.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist. A moment later, she was jerked against Sam’s chest. “Take it easy, Kate. You don’t need to jump overboard to get away from me.”

“What?”

“If I’m that far out of line, just tell me and—”

“No, Sam. You don’t understand.” She tipped her head to look at him. “I lost my necklace. It must have broken when you caught me.”

His eyebrows angled together. He looked at her neck. “Do you mean that gold chain with the little butterfly you always wear?”

“Yes, I…” She was shaken to hear him describe it so casually. “I didn’t realize you’d noticed it.”

“I notice everything about you.” He touched his fingertips to the side of her throat. “I can see the line the chain left on your skin. Damn, I’m sorry, Kate.”

To her disbelief, she felt tears come to her eyes. “It’s not your fault. It was a fine chain. It would have broken easily.”

“I’ll replace it when we get to San Sebastian. There’s a jeweler’s shop near the palace that’s supposed to be very good.”

She shook her head. How could she explain that it was irreplaceable? What would he do if she told him why that necklace was so important to her?

“If they don’t have a butterfly that you like, I’ll have them make one, okay?” He skimmed his fingers from her throat to her cheek. “Let me make up for this. Please.”

Make up for it? she thought wildly. How could he possibly make up for the child she’d lost? “Forget it, Sam. It’s gone.” Like our past , she thought. Like our baby .

He brushed his fingertip under her eye, catching a tear. “I’m sorry, Kate. It must have meant a lot to you.”

Yes, the necklace had meant a lot. It had given her a way to focus her grief. It had also been a reminder of how destructive love could be.

But it hadn’t been love. No, what had gone on between her and Sam had been sex, that’s all.

But he was touching her so tenderly, and he was ready to comfort her for something he didn’t even understand. Could she have been wrong not to give him a chance?

No. She’d been through this before. She wasn’t going to get drawn into anything with him again. She pulled away and returned to her seat in the stern. “We’d better get back.”

Sam didn’t pick up the oars. Instead, he toed off his shoes, then reached for the hem of his T-shirt and tugged it off.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Going on a treasure hunt.” Dressed only in his cutoff jeans, he braced his hands on the seat behind him and swung his legs over the gunwale. “Lean back so we don’t flip.”

Automatically she moved to balance the dinghy. “Sam, you can’t really mean to dive for it, can you? You’ll never find anything as small as the necklace in this light. I can’t even see the bottom.”

“It’s worth a try.” He touched his fingers to his forehead in a parting salute. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

“Sam!”

With a movement that was too fast to follow, he twisted his hips, arched his body and neatly slid feetfirst into the water.

“Sam, you idiot!” she cried. She fought to steady the boat, then leaned over the side as far as she dared.

The surface roiled where he had entered the water. By the time the ripples cleared, she could see that he had turned himself around and was kicking his way downward.

Kate wiped her eyes and blinked hard, straining to keep him in focus. Ripples of reflected sunlight moved over his body, becoming fainter and fainter until finally he blended into the darkness around him and disappeared.

“Sam, you idiot,” she repeated, this time in a whisper. What kind of man would jump overboard in a cave merely to retrieve a necklace? They were on a mission, for God’s sake. He shouldn’t be wasting his time with something personal like this. It was reckless and irresponsible.

It was also an incredibly sweet thing to do.

Sam? Sweet? He’d laugh if she told him that. He was a rough, tough Navy SEAL. He shrugged off bullet wounds. He craved excitement and adventure and freedom. He—