Morgan and his family lost their home and were left destitute.
Obviously, a man as wealthy as Brian Croft could have afforded to pay for the expedition no matter the outcome. It was obvious to Cordelia that he chose to financially ruin a family because he didn’t get what he wanted.
Sorrow filled her.
No wonder Morgan had bought his parents that new home.
No wonder Morgan had such an attitude.
This business had devastated Morgan’s family, and yet he continued working it, albeit in such an aggressive, coercing way. He obviously had a softer side, but he wouldn’t let anyone see it. Because he feared that someone might victimize him?
Did he think she would do so?
Certain that it was doubtful she would find information closer to the bone about Morgan than that, Cordelia sat back in her chair and closed the lid on the laptop.
Had she been unfair to him earlier, questioning him about his intentions? Maybe. She knew Innis didn’t like Morgan, undoubtedly the reason he held the treasure hunter suspect. But there had been no proof that anyone had tampered with her equipment. The gauge sticking may have been nothing more than inexplicable bad luck. Morgan had walked away rather than having to justify himself.
She couldn’t leave things like that between them.
She wouldn’t be Morgan’s Brian Croft.
Facing Morgan might be uncomfortable, but it was necessary. She would do so the next day. He’d made her an honest offer of partnership, and though he’d pressured her into accepting, she felt honor-bound to at least talk to him about it, even if the idea made her uncomfortable. She would have a difficult time keeping on track when the man in question could so easily distract her.
No other man had ever made her feel so truly alive. So thoroughly connected when they’d kissed.
She tried convincing herself it had been the chain between their hands that had electrified her. The treasure itself had seduced her.
So why didn’t she believe it?
Chapter Sixteen
Morgan spent the evening going over his maps, over his plans for the next day. He had a difficult time concentrating. He kept seeing Cordelia underwater struggling for air, kept wondering what had truly happened to her air gauge. He had to stop this. Worrying about her served no purpose. He needed to focus since, obviously, he would be on his own as always. No way would Cordelia want to have anything to do with him, not after today.
That didn’t keep him from worrying. Or from wanting.
He steeled himself against what he couldn’t have. And concentrated on what he could.
What he’d wanted for years was to find a mother lode that would enhance his reputation as a treasure hunter. He had to keep his goals in mind. He would succeed. He would make his parents proud of him, of themselves, make them stop feeling like failures because they had never gotten rich off of the sea. They were the ones who’d instilled the love of this life in him. They were the ones who’d taught him his trade.
Rising from his desk, he stared out the porthole at the Evening Star. Cordelia Ward was his competition. He would beat her. And then maybe he would seduce her.
But not tonight.
Tonight, dreaming of having her would have to be enough. For now.
…
Will lifts her high in his arms to watch the glorious play of starlight in her wide eyes. “I want to wake each morning with your back curled into me and my hands on your body. Please come with me, Elizabeth.”
Morgan tossed and half woke, murmuring, “Cordy?” but the erotic dream pulled him in deeper.
Her breast crushed against his bare chest, he feels each beat of her heart as he carries her from the warm pool to the soft, flower-rimmed earth.
Her half smile is warm without hesitation, her fingers swift drawing the last of his clothes from his body and letting her dress pool at her feet.
The slope of her shoulders, the high, rounded mounds of her breasts with their tight, small nipples, the gentle swell of her hips fill him with the fierce need to worship every part of her.
Their gazes find each other, his mouth hovering over hers.
“Yes, Will. I want to lie with you always.” Her whisper is a sweet breath on his lips.
Touching his fingertips along her throat, he feels her tremble and the joy of loving her overflows every sense. “Love, I promise we shall find paradise together.”
Waking with a start in the vague space between midnight and dawn, Morgan felt his pulse beat in his throat. Satisfaction in his groin. A yearning he didn’t understand.
He’d seen her again. The dark-haired woman. Only this time she had been with a man.
She had been with him.
Somehow…
A dream. Of course it had been a dream. It hadn’t been real. Hadn’t been a memory.
It had just seemed so…
He’d felt so…
Consumed.
But consumed by Cordelia. His night companion might have had dark hair but he’d felt Cordelia.
He slipped his hand down his shaft. He was hard. Ready for her again.
Remembering their electric kiss, he closed his eyes and willed Cordelia to come to him.
Again.
…
“Will, follow me into Paradise.”
The warm water of the spring fed pool tugs at Elizabeth’s gown as she urges Will to follow her.
He holds her face between his palms, and she comes alive under his touch, the world brightening and pulsing before her eyes.
Gently, he lays his lips on hers, then draws away.
His eyes drifting half closed, his clever fingers part her lips, his mouth returning to hers again. The pounding sweetness of his kiss makes her whimper with physical desire.
He slips his hands down until they cup her buttocks and lift her closer to him. The folds of her gown separating them could not quell her instinctive need to be seamlessly a part of him.
Here.
Now.
Under this moon.
Beneath these stars…
“Elizabeth?” Cordelia murmured, only half-awake.
She’d never dreamed of Elizabeth and Will before…not like this.
Yearning to find them once more, she gave over to her dreamland.
Their nude bodies slick with water float gently beneath the surface.
He hovers over her, his pale flesh so lovely and irresistible in the faint light of the waning moon.
How has she done without him all this time?
How has she done without the kisses he laves over her body? Without the touches so soft and seductive?
He thumbs her nipples, and she arches toward him, urging him to take her in his mouth. He captures her, and she melts in the warm cavity, her nipple alternately softening and then hardening to a turgid peak.
Sweeping around her face by the current, her hair keeps her from really seeing him with her eyes. But no matter, she recognizes him, for she can see with her soul.
Her soul knows him.
Knows they are meant to be.
Knows they are one.
He slides down her body like fluid, his mouth exploring every rib, every curve. She tangles her fingers in his hair as he parts her thighs to taste her. His tongue is clever, makes her pant, makes her swallow seawater.
Gasping out a stream of air bubbles, she widens her thighs for more.
He slips in a finger. A second. A third. All the while, he teases her center with his tongue. Her hips lift in supplication. She is so close to the edge, but this will not do. She tears at his shoulders until he releases his grip on her and floats up. The tendrils of her hair tie them together as his mouth covers hers.
A kiss as deep as the sea.
They s
ink to the ocean’s floor, her only thought to make them one. She reaches down for him, grasps his length, pleasures herself by pulling on the foreskin so it slides over the tip, making him groan into her mouth. She guides him to her, her inner flesh quivering with heated anticipation.
Sand scrapes her spine and comes alive, as tendrils of sparkling chain snake upward, followed by a jewel-encrusted golden mesh that wraps around her waist.
The celestial girdle!
He slides his palms around the girdle and pulls her so close she can hardly breathe. The chains wrap around his back and tighten, binding them together. Every inch of her flesh comes alive in a way she’d never before experienced. Through the depths, she sees a star shoot overhead as he enters her, their hands twined together, rings connecting like a thunderbolt.
Doubt the stars are fire, yet never doubt my love…
As his pulsing rhythm fills her, she cries out. The celestial girdle lifts them from their own bodies, spiraling through the heavens…higher and higher…at last where they belong. Together.
Lightning strikes all around them.
Thunder rumbles approval.
And for a moment, she is lit from within, knowing at last a perfect balance of desire and love.
Then suddenly—unexpectedly—the girdle releases them and falls away, and they plunge back down through the skies and back into the water where they split apart.
Shocked, she tries to get back to him, but now dressed in diving gear, he remains just out of reach, hurtling ahead, racing toward the glow of jewels as the girdle returns to its hiding place in the wreck.
Her wrist burns…her ring tightens…
As she realizes he is reaching for the treasure… Her heart misses a beat when another hand beats him to it, freeing a bejeweled gold dagger from the girdle and flashing the sharp blade toward his air hose…
Awakening in the middle of the night, her wrist burning, her ring too tight, Cordelia was unsettled. No dream had ever been so real to her or had ever felt so right…
Elizabeth and Will…she had recognized their love in a way she never had before…and then the dream had shifted…as if her soul had actually recognized and claimed another’s, just as Elizabeth’s had claimed Will’s.
But whose?
She’d never seen his face.
Had it been Innis? Or Morgan?
The night vision had ended with one man trying to kill the other after removing the dagger from the girdle. At least now she knew it was connected with what Carlyle believed to be the source of Elizabeth’s magic.
Was one of them really willing to kill for the treasure?
Literally?
Which man?
Morgan was the pirate. Would he do anything to get what he wanted?
Then, why give her the chain and crescent from the celestial girdle? To trick her into trusting him?
Or was she taking her dream-vision too literally?
Chapter Seventeen
“Aren’t you going down with us?” Innis asked Cordelia the next morning as his crew prepared for their first dive of the day.
“Not this morning. After yesterday…well, I need to recover.” She was hedging and hoping he believed her. “We’ll see how I feel later.”
All an excuse to buy her enough time to do what she needed to.
Innis put his arms around her and hugged her. “I’m just glad you’re safe. Take what time you need. You’ll know when you’re ready.”
Her mother came out of the galley as Cordelia said, “Thanks for being so understanding.”
Brushing his mouth lightly over hers, Innis stepped back. Cordelia smiled at him and waved him off.
“What’s going on?” her mother asked. “You’ve had scares before. It’s not like you to let one stop you from diving.”
Cordelia kept her voice low. “I’m not letting it stop me. There’s something important I have to take care of first.”
“Are you going to tell me about it?”
“I need to talk to Morgan.” And knowing Innis wouldn’t like it, she hadn’t wanted to tell him the truth. “You were right about him.”
Her mother accepted that explanation without insisting on more.
Seeing men gathering on the dive platform of the Sea Rover, Cordelia picked up her binoculars and looked for Morgan, but he was not among the three divers there. She spotted him on deck with the older man. Good. Innis was just taking his team down to the wreck. She waited until they disappeared below the surface and then lowered the dinghy.
“Good luck,” Mom said.
Cordelia gave her a thumbs-up and took the dive ladder down to the small boat. She locked the oars in position and rowed toward the Sea Rover. By the time she got close, the three divers had already started their descent. She tied up and scrambled onto the dive platform.
Morgan was waiting for her at the rail. He didn’t say a word, rather gave her a burning look before turning away. Her pulse threaded unevenly as she stepped up onto his boat. He’d disappeared, as had the old man. She stood on deck for a moment, before going into the galley. Morgan was there. Alone.
Leaning on a counter, he stood, arms crossed over his chest, staring at the door as she came in.
Waiting for her.
She swallowed hard. Just seeing him standing there looking so arrogant and judgmental made her stomach knot.
“We need to talk, Morgan.”
“Why? So you can accuse me of something else? I’m done playing nice, Cordelia, so you should be very careful.”
He’d called her Cordelia rather than Cordy. Of course he was still angry. Done playing nice? When had he started?
She kept her temper in check. She was here to learn the truth.
“I was so upset at running out of air yesterday, I—I didn’t know what to think,” she told him with complete honesty.
“So you let Foley do the thinking for you.”
“I’m sorry.” She really was. “But I’ve had time to think on my own now. It occurred to me…why would you save me if you had tampered with my gauge so that I would run out of air?”
“Maybe I set it up so I could play hero.”
She’d considered that, but she didn’t believe him. “Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
He pushed away from the counter and came at her.
Her mouth went dry and her heart started to thud, but she held her ground.
He stopped mere inches from her, but she felt as if his energy was pulling her closer until only a hairbreadth separated them.
“Why are you really here, Cordy?”
So it was Cordy again. She forced a smile. “The partnership…I thought you wanted that.”
Sliding a hand behind her neck, he said, “This is what I want,” as he pulled her to him and covered her mouth with his.
She gave herself over to the kiss.
Lost herself in the moment.
Opened herself to feelings that she rarely acknowledged.
Need drew her arms up around his neck and she pressed herself harder against him. Want hazed her mind and opened her to his touch. Desire made her want more, everything he could give.
Until seductive whispers from somewhere froze her…
You have imprinted your soul on mine…for eternity…
…as you have on mine…our destiny…
Cordelia pulled her head free but couldn’t push herself away from Morgan. Her lips centimeters from his, she whispered, “Did you hear that?”
He didn’t answer. Didn’t move. Didn’t press her.
Had he heard? Why didn’t he say something?
Why couldn’t he be honest with her? She was trying…
Trembling, she pulled away from him. Their gazes locked in a mental embrace that
felt like it could go on forever.
Until uncertainty forced her to break the connection and ask, “Why did you back out on being partners with me?”
“I want you, Cordy, but not with Foley along for the ride.”
Which sounded like he wanted her more than a business partnership. All right, so that was honest.
Her pulse raced as she said, “Innis is not just along for the ride. I hired him and gave him a stake in the find because he’s the best at what he does.”
“And because you have a soft spot for him?”
“What if I do? He means something to me.” Old feelings for Innis had resurrected over the past few days, but she now realized they were just that—memories.
“So you’re blinded by the past.”
Cordelia shook her head. “I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.”
“That you don’t know Foley anymore. You don’t know the kind of man he is now or what he’s done to get where he is. You’re not paying attention, Cordy.”
The haze in her mind cleared. “I’m paying attention now, Morgan. What exactly are you saying?”
“If someone tampered with your gauge, then who would have better reason?”
He still hadn’t said that he hadn’t done it.
“You’re accusing Innis of trying to kill me?”
“Or of playing a very dangerous game in trying to win you back from me.”
“Who said you had me?”
“Your being here says it for you.”
Mentally pulling away, Cordelia felt enveloped by a chill she couldn’t shake. Morgan was so sure of himself. Innis had accused Morgan of tampering with her gauge and now Morgan was accusing Innis. Which man was telling the truth? How was she to know?
As if he could read her, Morgan said, “You have to make up your mind, Cordy. You have to decide who you should trust. You wear your uncertainty like a suit of armor to protect you. You need to decide,” he said again. “Only you can decide what is true.”
Cordelia backed away from him.
Written in the Stars Page 16