wasn’t the reason, you jerk! I wanted you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life, even if I do now ask myself why, but I left because there were some things I refused to share with my sister, your bed being one of them.”
He gave his head a disbelieving shake, sure he’d misunderstood. “What did you just say?”
“Oh, please! Stop pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about. We made love in your stateroom. You wanted me to stay the night. I wouldn’t, because I didn’t want to start a feeding frenzy of gossip among the crew and passengers if we were found out. So I went back to my own quarters, but I couldn’t sleep. That’s the kind of effect you had on me, Dimitrios . I was intoxicated by you. Floating on air.”
“You had a funny way of showing it.”
Ignoring his snide interruption, she continued doggedly, “I finally decided to go up on deck and watch the sunrise. And that’s when I saw Cecily leaving your cabin.”
“Did you?” he said. “And did you ask her what she was doing there?”
“I didn’t have to. She was only too happy to tell me what marvelous stamina you had, what an incredible romp between the sheets you’d given her.”
“And you believed her.”
Suddenly not sounding so confident, she muttered, “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because she was lying, Brianna,” he informed her dully, none of the exhilaration he should have known filling him. Instead he felt hollow, empty. So much time wasted, so many mistakes piling one on top of another, and all because of a misunderstanding that need never have occurred in the first place. “As you’d have found out soon enough if you’d had the guts to shove her back through my door and made her repeat her allegations to my face.”
“You’re the one lying. I saw her. She’d been in your room.”
“Sure she had. Tried climbing into my bed, as well, pretending to be you. It was dark enough that she might even have gotten away with it, if I hadn’t picked up a whiff of tobacco on her breath.”
“Did you confront her?”
“No,” he said sarcastically. “I jumped up and down like a crazed ape, beat my manly chest and bellowed to the whole of Crete how lucky I was to have the Connelly twins fighting over me.” He stopped and drew an irate breath. “What do you take me for? Of course I confronted her!”
“Well, what did she say?”
“That you’d asked her to keep me occupied so that you could sneak off and catch a flight out of Heraklion without my knowing.”
Ashen-faced, Brianna stared at him. “But why would she bother concocting such an elaborate story for me? What advantage did that give her?”
“Use your head, woman! She wanted rid of you, because she was jealous, and she knew damned well your pride would never allow you to challenge me and thus expose her deception.”
Rallying, she countered, “It’s easy for you to make that claim now, when it’s too late for anyone to prove otherwise.”
“I’m not in the habit of lying, Brianna, and if it’s a confession of guilt you’re after, I freely admit I slept with her the very next night after you left,” he acknowledged calmly. “A big mistake on my part, certainly, and I’m not proud of it, but a man tends to react badly when he’s been dumped by the woman he planned to spend the rest of his life with. Pour enough booze into him, and if there’s someone else more than willing to take her place, and she happens also to be a carbon copy of the original, well…” He shrugged. “It’s called the rebound factor. Maybe you’ve heard of it.”
“It strikes me as a bit more than that. After all, you ended up marrying her a couple of months later, and not a moment too soon, judging by Poppy’s age.”
She looked so crushed that, just briefly, he regretted having spoken so forthrightly. But she wasn’t the only one who’d paid a high price, anymore than he was the only one who’d made mistakes.
“Because she was pregnant,” he
He gave his head a disbelieving shake, sure he’d misunderstood. “What did you just say?”
“Oh, please! Stop pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about. We made love in your stateroom. You wanted me to stay the night. I wouldn’t, because I didn’t want to start a feeding frenzy of gossip among the crew and passengers if we were found out. So I went back to my own quarters, but I couldn’t sleep. That’s the kind of effect you had on me, Dimitrios . I was intoxicated by you. Floating on air.”
“You had a funny way of showing it.”
Ignoring his snide interruption, she continued doggedly, “I finally decided to go up on deck and watch the sunrise. And that’s when I saw Cecily leaving your cabin.”
“Did you?” he said. “And did you ask her what she was doing there?”
“I didn’t have to. She was only too happy to tell me what marvelous stamina you had, what an incredible romp between the sheets you’d given her.”
“And you believed her.”
Suddenly not sounding so confident, she muttered, “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because she was lying, Brianna,” he informed her dully, none of the exhilaration he should have known filling him. Instead he felt hollow, empty. So much time wasted, so many mistakes piling one on top of another, and all because of a misunderstanding that need never have occurred in the first place. “As you’d have found out soon enough if you’d had the guts to shove her back through my door and made her repeat her allegations to my face.”
“You’re the one lying. I saw her. She’d been in your room.”
“Sure she had. Tried climbing into my bed, as well, pretending to be you. It was dark enough that she might even have gotten away with it, if I hadn’t picked up a whiff of tobacco on her breath.”
“Did you confront her?”
“No,” he said sarcastically. “I jumped up and down like a crazed ape, beat my manly chest and bellowed to the whole of Crete how lucky I was to have the Connelly twins fighting over me.” He stopped and drew an irate breath. “What do you take me for? Of course I confronted her!”
“Well, what did she say?”
“That you’d asked her to keep me occupied so that you could sneak off and catch a flight out of Heraklion without my knowing.”
Ashen-faced, Brianna stared at him. “But why would she bother concocting such an elaborate story for me? What advantage did that give her?”
“Use your head, woman! She wanted rid of you, because she was jealous, and she knew damned well your pride would never allow you to challenge me and thus expose her deception.”
Rallying, she countered, “It’s easy for you to make that claim now, when it’s too late for anyone to prove otherwise.”
“I’m not in the habit of lying, Brianna, and if it’s a confession of guilt you’re after, I freely admit I slept with her the very next night after you left,” he acknowledged calmly. “A big mistake on my part, certainly, and I’m not proud of it, but a man tends to react badly when he’s been dumped by the woman he planned to spend the rest of his life with. Pour enough booze into him, and if there’s someone else more than willing to take her place, and she happens also to be a carbon copy of the original, well…” He shrugged. “It’s called the rebound factor. Maybe you’ve heard of it.”
“It strikes me as a bit more than that. After all, you ended up marrying her a couple of months later, and not a moment too soon, judging by Poppy’s age.”
She looked so crushed that, just briefly, he regretted having spoken so forthrightly. But she wasn’t the only one who’d paid a high price, anymore than he was the only one who’d made mistakes.
“Because she was pregnant,” he
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