After their scalding first joining, they made love again, this time with Sherona free of her bonds, loving Chance in the golden evening sun just as fully as he loved her. In the aftermath, he held her against his naked chest and stroked her hair.
“Come with me tomorrow,” he said.
Sherona blinked open her eyes from her satiated doze. He touched the side of her face, prompting her to look up at him. The sunlight was turning his hair into a burnished gold.
“To the airport in St. Louis?”
“No,” he said, a smile twitching at his mouth. “To the Middle East. Not just there, though,” he added, his grin fading. “I want to show you the world. I want to see your face when you look at the pyramids for the first time and the Simonas Petras Monastery on the Athos peninsula and the Italian coast and Ha Long Bay . . . all of it. It’ll be like discovering the world all over again. I want to see it all again through your eyes.”
For an unguarded second, she pictured it—the two of them standing side by side, staring enraptured at the miracles of man and nature, making love in exotic lands, the smell of spice and adventure in the air. She’d dreamed of traveling her entire life. To do so in the company of Chance would be a fantasy she’d never even begun to conjure in her imagination until now.
But of course, it was just a dream.
“That’s lovely of you to ask,” she said, moved by his invitation.
“Then say yes.”
“Chance, I can’t,” she exclaimed, wincing when she saw his handsome face darken with disappointment.
“Why not?”
“I couldn’t afford a trip like that in a million years, and even if I could, I couldn’t leave Derek alone.”
“Why not? Isn’t he on his own when he’s at college?”
“Well, yes, but that’s different. At a university, there’s some kind of supervision built in.” Chance gave her an incredulous glance. “There is. At least if he gets into trouble, he has places where he can go.”
“Sherona,” he said, giving her a give-me-a-break glance as he stroked her hair, “everyone in Vulture’s Canyon would rally to help Derek if he should need it. But if you can’t come this summer, maybe you can travel with me in the fall when Derek is at school. I’ll come back to do the cookbook photography, and then we’ll leave after that,” he said, staring off into the distance as if he were working out all the logistics in his mind.
“Chance, I can’t do something like that.”
“I don’t see why not,” he said, his manner completely practical.
She rolled her eyes at him in fond exasperation. As a wealthy heir to a fortune and a famous photographer, Chance didn’t even consider finances a major issue in making decisions. Of course, it was different for Sherona.
Quite different.
“I don’t have unlimited financial resources like you do,” she said slowly, as if she were explaining things to a child.
“I told you, it doesn’t matter. I do.”
She shook her head and gave a mirthless bark of laughter. “Do you really think I’d just drop everything and leave my entire life here?”
“I thought you said you’d always wanted to see the world,” he said, suddenly looking grim.
“I do, but—”
“Is it me, then? You don’t want to go with me?”
“No!” she exclaimed before she could censor herself. She paused, her breasts heaving against his chest, willing him to understand with her eyes. “I’d love to travel around the world with you. It’d be . . . incredible.”
His expression softened. He stroked her cheek. “I’m glad we agree on that, at least. So there’s no problem.”
She closed her eyes briefly in frustration and rolled away from him, hating the absence of his smooth, warm skin.
“There is a problem, Chance. I refuse to live off you financially. I’m not going to even consider a crazy proposition like that when I know I don’t have the money to do it.”
He sat up abruptly as she began to dress.
“I told you that I have plenty of money—”
“I’m not living off you, Chance. I’m not going to be some kind of kept woman,” she said abruptly, cutting him off. She regretted her harshness immediately when she looked into his eyes. Longing flooded her, so potent it stole her breath for a moment. She fastened her bra and pulled her blouse around her as she tried to recover her voice. He still hadn’t moved when she turned to face him.
“You’re the adventurer, Chance. I’m just a small-town girl with a small-town life. This is where I belong,” she said, blinking back tears.
“Your life is as large as you want it to be,” he said somberly.
She gave him a tremulous smile. “I didn’t set the boundaries of my life. They were just given to me. You’re the one who was born into a world without any limits. And it should be that way,” she said, her gaze on him warm . . . loving. “You’re the last person on the face of this earth who belongs in a tiny world, Chance Hathoway.”
“So that’s it?” he asked after a tense moment. “You’re refusing to come with me?”
“I can’t,” she repeated, her longing making her sound desperate.
“I’m falling for you,” he said starkly. “I think I might have fallen good and hard from the first second I saw you walk out of that lake. Don’t bring this to a halt before it’s really had a chance to get started, Sherona.”
“I’m not purposefully halting anything. It’s just that I belong here, and you . . . don’t. We both know that.”
His face looked set and grim as he stood up and grabbed his clothing.