Caitríona stretched as she came awake, a wide smile on her face. She had had the most amazing of nights, she thought. Alec was the most passionate and generous of lovers; he had made her feel that her pleasure mattered greatly to him and that in itself was so intoxicating and arousing she had managed to orgasm four times in a single night, coming apart with trembling sighing pleasure in his arms. She had told him so much personal stuff, as had he; unlike most men, he actually listened.
No wonder she was so exhausted, she thought with a happy giggle as she looked over at Alec’s side of the bed, expecting to see him sleeping. She frowned when she saw that his side of the bed was empty with nothing more than rumpled sheets and an indented pillow to show he had been there.
Slowly, she leaned up on an elbow to look around the room; it was sparsely decorated, as most rentals were, but it somehow managed to be breathtakingly beautiful.
She went into the bathroom and hurriedly brushed her teeth and then ran her wet fingers through her tangled mass of hair, straightening it out some. She laughed, hugging memories of their lovemaking to herself even as she admitted to herself that she was halfway in love with the man. Who wouldn’t be? He was so amazing.
She heard sounds in the direction of the kitchen and with a wide grin, she shrugged into a robe and traipsed towards in that direction.
“Alec? Is that you?” she called, her face split with a wide grin.
Her smile died when she saw the brunette from the yacht sitting at the table eating a breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and bum shorts.
“Hey,” Caitríona said hesitantly.
“Hi,” the brunette said cheerfully. “If it isn’t the lady from the yacht. Lost again?”
Caitríona’s chin went up defiantly as she stared the other woman down. “Hardly. Alec and I ”
“Yes, I got in late enough last night to hear for myself what you two were up to,” the brunette interrupted with that bright smile still plastered all over her face. The smile was so brittle it was a wonder her face didn’t crack.
“I didn’t realize you were here. I hope we didn’t”
“Oh, no need to apologize. We’re all on holiday, right? Everyone has a holiday fling every now and then,” she assured smoothly, her green eyes sparkling with an indecipherable light.
Caitríona licked her lips. The woman somehow managed to make last night, as magical as it had been, sound so cheap and tawdry. She glared resentfully at Olivia’s back as she carried her breakfast dishes to the sink and began to rinse them out.
“It wasn’t just a fling,” she said crossly to Olivia’s back.
“Well, what else could it have been? You’re married and”
“I’m not!” Caitríona denied hotly.
Olivia froze, her hands immersed in the water in the sink. Then slowly, she turned on one heel and faced Caitríona, her green eyes wide and distressed.
“You’re not?”
Caitríona shook her head, wondering why Olivia was acting so weird.
Olivia’s full lips trembled, her green eyes glittering with unshed tears.
“Then how could he?”
Fear clutched at Caitríona’s heart as an ugly premonition shot through her that she was about to learn something truly horrible about Alec.
“How could he what?”
“I thought you were just having fun and I despised you for it. But I know he was just Well, how do I say this?”
“Just say it! What is it?”
“Alec’s married,” Olivia said simply. “I’m sorry.”
The words slammed into Caitríona like a sledgehammer and her eyes shut in dismay as she digested this bit of news. He couldn’t be married! No! She wasn’t making any claims on him, she told herself desperately, but the thought that she had helped him cheat on his wife made her want to hurl.
Her gaze flew to Olivia’s and she surprised a satisfied look in the other woman’s eyes. Suspicion filtered through her. Olivia had never liked her and she would have every reason to tell such a cruel lie. “Alec is not married! You’re lying!”
“Wait here,” she said simply.
She disappeared into the bedroom Caitríona had just exited and Caitríona followed her immediately. She saw Olivia rifle through Alec’s bedside drawer and pull out a sheaf of photographs. She extended them to Caitríona with a pitying look on her face. Shakily, Caitríona looked down at the pictures in her hands. A younger Alec grinned up at her, wearing a wedding tuxedo with his arm around a smiling woman who was dressed in a mermaid-style wedding gown.
Caitríona shook her head disbelievingly. The next picture showed the couple locked in a kiss before a minister; there was no doubt! He was married! The next picture showed the exchange of rings!
Disbelievingly, she looked up at Olivia and the other woman held up her right hand. A chain dangled from it and at the end of the chain was a wedding ring. It was the same ring Alec had on in the picture.
“He’s married?” Caitríona whispered.
“Yes, to Sophie,” Olivia confirmed sympathetically, solicitously coming around and leading the other woman to sit on the bed. She took the pictures and returned them to the drawer.
“Do they ” Caitríona tried; her throat was dry and parched. She licked her lips and tried again. “Do they have kids?”
“Not yet. Apparently, Alec doesn’t want kids,” she said slowly.
“He didn’t mention it,” she said wonderingly. How could she have been so wrong about him? How could she have read him wrong?
“Honey, most men conveniently forget they are married when they want to cheat,” Olivia said gently.
Caitríona shut her eyes, feeling her heart shattering into a million pieces in her chest. How could she have been so impossibly stupid?
“Could I have some privacy, please?” she said, looking up at Olivia, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
With a nod, Olivia turned and quietly departed from the room.
Caitríona buried her head in her hands, tears seeping from the corners of her eyes as she recalled the way she had virtually thrown herself at the bastard like a lovesick idiot and then she had actually told him she had never met anyone as amazing as him. No wonder he had just grinned smugly and continued to make love to her without a word; he must have thought she was a desperate fool.
Anger surged through her and she sprung to her feet. She grabbed her sandals and purse and dashed out of the room. A thought occurred and she ran back into the bedroom, scribbled a note hastily on a sheet of paper and pinned it to the pillow. There! He couldn’t possibly miss that.
She heard Olivia moving around in the kitchen and she stealthily made her way to the front door, jerked it open and ran out of the cabin.
She had had enough of Hawaii, she decided dry-eyed as she walked toward her cabin; it wasn’t far from Alec’s. She still had over a week for her holiday, but if she had to stay one more day in Hawaii, with the possibility of running into that bastard, she would lose her mind. The thought of somehow running into Alec was so distressing she hastened her steps automatically, anxious to put as much distance between them as possible.
By the time she reached her little rented cabin, she was running and out of breath, with tears coursing down her cheeks. She impatiently dashed them away as she moved around the room, rapidly throwing her clothes and cosmetics into her bags. In less than five minutes, she was done. She called for a taxi and also called the airport to book and hold.
Ten minutes later, as the taxi slid toward the airport, Caitríona wondered if she would ever be able to step foot in Hawaii, as long as she lived, again.
***
Alec Durante whistled to himself as he returned to his cabin later, carrying takeout bags. Last night had been more than a little wild. Caitríona had been so passionate, he had been surprised when he didn’t see actual scorch marks on her body.
He started with surprise when he saw Olivia rummaging through the drawers in the kitchen; his sister had avoided him like the plague for days now, especially since she’d met Jorge, her holiday fling. What was she doing here?
“Hey Olivia, what’s going on?”
“Alec. I came to have breakfast and then I had to remain until you got back coz I don’t have a key to lock up with.”
“That’s great, but you didn’t have to wait behind. Caitríona’s in the bedroom.”
“Who?” she asked with sham innocence, her green eyes wide in her slim face.
“The lady from the yacht,” he said.
“Oh, her? She left,” she said and turned to lick some peanut butter from a spoon in her hand.
His heart clutched in his chest. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. She just up and left. Said something about needing to go,” she said.
Alec dashed into the bedroom, unable to believe Caitríona had left like that without so much as a goodbye, especially since he had been so looking forward to breakfast in bed with her. She had seemed to like him as much as he liked her. What happened in the space of time he was away, he wondered as he stared around the empty bedroom.
He stalked back into the kitchen. “Olivia? Did you say anything to her?”
“No. I didn’t. She’s so hoity toity I doubt anyone gets much of a chance to say anything to her,” Olivia said carelessly.
His eyes narrowed as he stared suspiciously at Olivia. It wouldn’t be the first time his sister had decided she didn’t like his date and ran the person off.
He grabbed her arm, and enunciated through gritted teeth, “If I find out you had anything to do with Caitríona leaving, it will be one of the last things you do.”
“Get your hands off me, you Neanderthal! I’m sure she probably left you a note or something, so why don’t you go read it and find out why she left,” she shot back, wrenching her arms from his grasp.
His head snapped back in surprise. He hadn’t noticed any note; he had been too upset. He bounded into the room and sure enough, a note lay pinned to the pillow.
With shaking hands, he took it and read what was written on it in bold cursive, letters: I would hang around, but once was enough. C.
Alec re-read the note, disbelievingly, five good times, but the words didn’t change; there they were, in black and white, taunting him with how little he had meant to her.
Anger coursed through him as he squeezed the note in one fist, crumpling the tiny paper into a ball.