God help her, she didn’t know what to say or how to act. She was afraid she would start stuttering, try to explain that she never did things like this, that he’d been unique somehow, and that he’d been more than she had ever begun to imagine.
But there was no chance for awkward words, no reason to promise that of course they would see each other again.
Beth’s eyes flew open as she heard the sound of a dinghy approaching, the sound of chatter and laughter.
The girls!
His eyes widened and his brows arched as he heard them at the same time.
“Dear God,” she swore, flying up even as she spoke, stunned, horrified.
Feeling like an idiot. Anyone could have come aboard at any time. What in God’s name had she been thinking? She hadn’t been thinking. She’d been reacting, and feeling….
She hadn’t wanted to get out of pillow talk this badly!
“Hey!” He was up, too, and reaching for his trunks in the blink of an eye. She looked in panic at the condition of the bed, and wondered about the state of her hair at the same time.
“Got it,” he assured her, tossing over a brush from the nightstand and reaching for the sheets. She tripped back into her bathing suit, fingers shaking so hard she couldn’t get the bra top fastened.
“Don’t panic, you’re a grown-up, you know,” he said calmly, fixing it for her.
“That’s my niece!” she exclaimed, running the brush viciously through her hair. “And her friend, and they’re at a horribly impressionable age. I’m supposed to be a role model. You don’t understand. Her mother is dead—”
“Don’t panic,” he repeated softly. “I do understand, and we’re fine. Get topside. I’ll finish making the bed.”
She sped out of the cabin. There was a boating magazine lying in a wire rack by the table. She nearly ripped it apart in her haste to grab it. Then she sat on the sofa, her heart racing painfully again.
The girls—and whoever had come with them—were just coming aboard.
She stretched out and crossed her ankles, trying to look casual and comfortable. Then she decided she looked too casual and comfortable, and uncrossed them.
She crossed them again, smiling, as Amber made her way down to the cabin. “This is too cool. Way, way too cool,” she said.
“Ohmygod,” Kim breathed, coming down behind her.
“Like a floating hotel suite, huh?” she said, trying to sound cheerful and welcoming. She decided she was loud and fake, but apparently she sounded all right to everyone else.
Amber turned to her with wide eyes. “Like a floating palace.”
“Not that lush,” Ben protested, coming down behind the girls. He looked at his sister and grinned—apparently oblivious, she noticed gratefully. But then, he probably thought he knew her. Just as she had thought she knew herself.
Keith came striding breezily out from the stateroom. “Hey, kids. Want a tour? Or would you rather roam around on your own?” he asked.
Amber didn’t get to answer. “Would you look at the kitchen!” Kim exclaimed.
“Galley,” Amber corrected.
Kimberly laughed, running her hand over the counter and staring at the appliances. “No way. This is a full kitchen,” she protested.
“Seriously, it’s not a salon, either, it’s a living room,” Amber agreed, looking at Keith.
“You can go around the world in her, can’t you?” Kim asked.
“You could.”
“Have you ever?” she asked.
“No. But she does offer all the comforts of home,” he said. “Speaking of which, would you like something to eat? Drink? You want a smoothie?”
“You can make a smoothie?” Amber asked.
“Yup. I’ll see what we have.”
He delved into the refrigerator, and the girls went to join him. Ben looked at Beth. “You don’t mind that I brought them?” he asked.
“Don’t be silly.”
“We didn’t interrupt anything, did we?” he asked, a frown starting to crease his brow.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she protested. Then afraid that she was about to blush the shade of a beet, she leaped to her feet, closing the magazine.
“Hey, did you get a good look at the upper deck and the flybridge?” he asked excitedly.
She smiled. Big boys, big toys.
“It’s an amazing yacht,” she said.
“And to think I thought I had the prize of the seas when I bought mine.”
In the galley, a blender roared to life just as she started to answer, so she had to smile and wait.
“You have a wonderful boat, and I love it,” she said loyally at last.
“Oh, I love it, too. It’s just…well, who wouldn’t want to own something like this, huh?” he asked.
“Dad, you want a strawberry smoothie?” Amber called.
“Sure.”
“Aunt Beth?”
“Absolutely,” she murmured. She followed her brother into the galley and accepted a large paper cup from her niece.
She couldn’t help it; she felt wary of Keith. She had to keep her distance. She was afraid even to make eye contact, terrified that at any minute she was somehow going to give herself away. She was certainly over twenty-one, but she felt so responsible toward her niece. She’d always tried to teach her that sex should be special; that it was the most intimate act between two people and shouldn’t even be contemplated without sincere emotion, the deepest respect, and a sense of responsibility and consequences.
Well, emotionally, she was involved, like it or not. Had she been in the least responsible? No. And as to thoughts of future consequences…
It terrified her to realize just how much she wished there could be one. That he would reappear somewhere in her world, that he would be a responsible member of the human community and not just a diver. Or…a common criminal. Or worse.
A murderer.
No. She knew instinctively that wasn’t true. Or else she just wanted to believe it.
Keith didn’t have any problem being entirely natural and casual. He chatted easily. Beth wasn’t even sure what was being said half the time.
Then they heard the motor of the yacht’s dinghy, returning with Matt and Lee and the supplies. Ben said it was time to go, and thanked Keith, then Matt and Lee. They all talked about what a pleasure it had been to meet, said they would undoubtedly run into one another somewhere along the line sometime.
“Beth, you can come back with the girls and me,” Ben said. “Save Keith the bother.”
“Of course.”
“I can take you back—” Keith began.
“The girls and I have already packed up. We don’t need to head back to the island, just straight to the boat,” Ben said.
“Perfect,” Beth murmured.
It wasn’t perfect. Perfect would be if they all disappeared, if there didn’t have to be any words, if she could just go back where she had been and pretend. Pretend Keith Henson was someone she would see again, someone she had known forever and ever…
Someone she trusted.
She had