"Flower boxes," Katie said aloud. She tipped her head to the side, trying to visualize the boxes blooming with flowers below the wide windows on either side of the front door. That was exactly what the cottage needed, she decided. That would make it a storybook cottage in a storybook setting on a storybook island. But would her life be a storybook life here?
She found Ramon stepping off a ladder on the far side of the house where he had also been painting. At the sound of her softly spoken "Hi" he turned in surprise; a slow, devastatingly attractive smile sweeping across his tanned features. He was so obviously pleased to see her that Katie felt suddenly, absurdly happy, too.
"I brought you something," she joked, taking the blossom-covered branch from behind her back and thrusting it toward him like a bouquet.
"Flowers?" Ramon teased, accepting the branch with grave formality. "For me?"
Though his tone was light, Katie caught the warmth kindling in his expressive eyes. She nodded, a provocative smile curving her lips. "Tomorrow it will be candy."
"And the next day?"
"Oh, jewelry is customary. Something tastefully expensive, but small—nothing ostentatious that might alert you to my true intentions."
He grinned. "And the next day?"
"Lock your doors and guard your virtue, because that's collection day," she laughed.
His. broad chest was bare, gleaming like oiled bronze, and he smelled like soap and sweat, a combination that Katie found strangely stimulating as he pulled her into his arms. "For you," he said as his hands moved lazily over her back and his mobile mouth came nearer to hers, "I will be an easy conquest: my virtue for the flowers alone."
"Shameless hussy!" Katie teased a little breathlessly.
His eyes darkened. "Kiss me, Katie."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Katie's head jerked up as Padre Gregorio said her name from the altar, followed by Ramon's. He was reading the banns, she realized. Everyone in the crowded church seemed to turn in unison toward the pew near the back where Katie and Ramon were seated between Gabriella and her husband, and Rafael's family.
The villagers certainly knew who Ramon Galverra Vicente was, Katie thought, which wasn't surprising, since he had been born here. But what was surprising was their peculiar attitude toward him. From the moment he had walked into church at her side, they had been watching him with open curiosity. A few of the villagers nodded or smiled at him, but there was curiosity in their expressions, too, mixed with uncertainty and even awe.
Of course, Ramon's demeanor before the service began had definitely discouraged anyone who might have wanted to make a friendly overture. With an aloof, coolly courteous smile, he had passed one glance over the inquisitive occupants of the church, sat down beside Katie, and completely ignored them.
Katie shifted uncomfortably in the hard pew, her expression one of rapt attention as she listened to Padre Gregorio's sermon, of which she understood not one word. She was beginning to wonder if the fates were all conspiring to prevent Ramon and her from being alone together for any appreciable length of time. In the last seven days there had been no occasion for the "sharing of each other" that Ramon had predicted there would be.
On Friday, while Katie was still wrapped in Ramon's arms joyously receiving his drugging kisses of gratitude for his "bouquet," a bank of dark clouds had rolled across the sky, blotting out the sun. What began as a sprinkle soon became a downpour. They spent a pleasant, if very unsatisfactory, evening playing cards with Gabriella and her husband.
Saturday it cleared, and the men worked all day at the cottage. Now that the electricity was on, Ramon was keeping them working inside when darkness fell, which eliminated the cottage as a trysting place. Early Saturday evening, Gabriella's husband, Eduardo, suggested to Ramon that Katie might enjoy a trip to Phosphorescent Bay.
Katie had been amazed that Eduardo, of all people, would suggest a romantic outing for them, as well as offer his car for the drive to the southwestern coast of the island. She couldn't imagine Eduardo in the role of Cupid, when she knew he heartily disapproved of her. The mystery was solved the moment Ramon consulted Katie and she eagerly agreed to the trip. "Then it is settled," Eduardo said. "Gabriella and I will be pleased to have you accompany us." That effectively prevented Ramon and her from being alone in the house while Eduardo took Gabriella to the bay. Beneath Ramon's expression of bland surprise, Katie could tell that he was very annoyed with his friend.
Despite that, the evening was an unexpected success. At the beginning of the fifty-mile drive over well-maintained island roads, Ramon was silent and thoughtful as he sat beside Katie in the back seat. Realizing that Eduardo was the cause, Katie put on her brightest smile and soon had Ramon grinning at her while he tried to answer her endless questions about the passing landscape.
Phosphorescent Bay was a magical experience for Katie. The same heavy clouds that had brought the rain and kept most of the tourists away from the Bay, also obliterated the moon. With Gabriella and Eduardo in the front of the rented motorboat and Katie and Ramon in the rear, Katie alternately turned her face up to Ramon's for a lingering stolen kiss, then twisted in her seat to watch the shimmering green lights that swelled in the wake of the boat. At Ramon's suggestion, she leaned over the side and dipped her arm into the water. When she lifted it, a veil of the same shimmering green lights clung to her arm. Even the fish that leaped from the water left a shower of light behind them.
For his part, Ramon relaxed in the boat, looking like an indulgently amused native who was humoring three tourists. If there was anything he enjoyed more than watching Katie enjoy herself, it was thwarting Eduardo's wish to have some romantic privacy with his wife in the back of the boat. Each time Eduardo suggested Ramon and Katie take the front seat, Ramon declined with a good-natured, "We are perfectly comfortable back here, Eduardo."
By the end of the evening, it was Eduardo who looked annoyed and Ramon who was grinning wit
h satisfaction.
Thunder boomed, echoing through the dim church, followed by a triple flash of lightning that illuminated the splendid stained-glass windows. Katie smiled wryly, accepting what was apparently going to be another day when the weather drove them indoors, another day and evening when Ramon and she would not even be able to talk alone.
"We have a perfect day for shopping," Gabriella announced at eight-thirty the next morning as she carried her cup of coffee into Katie's bedroom. "The sun is out," she added gaily, sitting down on the bed. She sipped her coffee, watching Katie who was getting ready for her appointment with Padre Gregorio.
"Do I look demure enough, do you think?" Katie asked, straightening the gold chain at the waist of her mandarin-collared white dress.
"You look perfect," Gabriella smiled. "You look the way you always look—beautiful!"
Katie rolled her eyes, laughingly accepting the compliment as she left the house, and promised to come back for Gabriella as soon as she was finished with Padre Gregorio.
Fifteen minutes later, Katie was not laughing. She was pinned to her chair, flushing under Padre Greg-orio's piercing scrutiny.
"I asked," he repeated ominously, "if Ramon knows that you are using your money, your credit cards, to pay for the furnishings for that house?"
"No," Katie admitted apprehensively. "How did you find out?"
"We will get to that in a minute," he said in a low, angry voice. "First I want to know if you are aware that Ramon is returning to this village after an absence of many years? That he left it long ago for something better?"
"Yes—to work for a business that failed."
Her admission made Padre Gregorio look even angrier. "Then you understood that Ramon has come back here to start over again, with nothing?"
Katie nodded, feeling as if the ax were about to fall, though she wasn't certain from which direction.