The Secret Father

Everything below deck was neat and functional. The craftsmanship in the oak fittings was superb, but there were no flamboyant touches. The electronic gadgetry was state-of-the-art, but other than that the fittings had a spartan touch. Sam Rourke was not all he appeared on the surface.

He looked comically alarmed when Lindy offered to prepare lunch in the small galley.

‘Don’t worry,’ she responded, not rising to the bait. ‘The most ambitious thing I intend doing is slicing bread and tossing a salad. We can’t all be culinary geniuses.’

‘Your talents lie in quite different directions, Doctor,’ he leered. Lindy yelped as the hand aimed at her behind made contact.

‘You’re disgusting,’ she scolded, a smile on her lips as she disappeared below deck.

‘You wouldn’t have me any other way.’ The chuckled retort followed her descent.

She hummed as she worked in the small galley. The last three weeks had been the most exhilarating she could ever remember. Despite being plagued by doubts and subject to wild mood swings which were alien to her nature, she wouldn’t have altered the series of events which had made her this man’s lover.

Half an hour later, laden with a tray, Lindy made her way up onto the deck. Sam took the tray from her hands. ‘I’m impressed,’ he said.

‘You’re supposed to be.’

In a companionable silence they ate the cold meats, salad and crusty fresh bread.

‘More?’ Sam held up the half-empty bottle of Chardonnay.

‘I’d better not—too much sea air and wine and I’ll be asleep.

‘Do you always sail alone?’ she asked, flopping back on the plaid rug and shading her eyes against the sun.

‘Not today.’

‘You know what I mean.’

‘Usually. I enjoy the illusion of freedom. I decide where I go and when. The only responsibility I have is staying alive. The elements have a way of putting life in perspective.’

She rolled on her stomach and cradled her chin in her hands. ‘What happened to Sam Rourke international superstar, with his fancy cars, glitzy clubs and glitzier girlfriends?’

‘I hope the public are a little more open-minded when I slip out of character than you are.’

‘I didn’t mean that,’ she hastily shot back. She levered herself to her knees and placed her palms on his thighs, just above where the frayed edges of his cut-off denims exposed his hair-roughened flesh. ‘I just find it difficult to reconcile the Sam Rourke I know with the one in the glossy magazines. I wake up at night and wonder what on earth Sam Rourke sees in me. I like this Sam,’ she admitted huskily. ‘I like him a lot.’

There was a silence. Lindy chewed her lip; she wished she could see his face, but the sun was in her eyes. Her heart was thudding with trepidation. Their relationship had been warm and loving. They laughed a lot and made love even more, but Lindy was well aware that this was a thing that existed in the present—it had no foundation and no future.

Though it gave her pain, Lindy accepted this because she loved him. She ought to have censored the comments that had come straight from the heart before they’d reached her mouth. Would he withdraw from her, back off?

‘Sometimes I wonder. You seem so detached at times…’ The breath was crushed from her ribs as he hauled her up across his lap. His expression behind the rakish grin held a strong element of triumph. Lindy’s arms curled around his neck and for the first time she allowed herself to hope the unthinkable! Perhaps they did have some sort of future together?

‘You know me, I don’t gush.’ The quirk of his lips showed that he too recalled the comment she’d made the day they met.

‘How could I forget?’ The smile faded from his eyes as he brushed back the strands of hair from her face. ‘I don’t really know you at all, do I? Though what I do know I like.’

He could charm snowflakes from a blue sky, she knew that, but with her he didn’t try to. He wasn’t trying to crowd or rush her with sweet words. He was letting her set her own pace. Lindy recognised his wariness for what it was because she too felt the same way. ‘I could say the same.’ The past was suddenly a great gulf between them. Could she ever share her past with anyone, even Sam?

‘I’ve missed you this last week—since I moved back on board Jennifer,’ he said.

Lindy’s smile was redolent of satisfaction. ‘I hardly noticed you were gone,’ she lied. Amazingly, Hope hadn’t made any comment when Sam’s stay at the cottage had extended beyond the original few days.

‘Liar,’ he breathed softly. The kiss beside her mouth was a sweet-scented whisper. ‘Ned seems quite taken with you.’