The Reef

for a bottle.”
    “He will.”
    “Perhaps.” LaRue blew out smoke, watched it curl toward the top of the booth. “He doesn’t dive. When others do, he bites his nails and sweats. You might be interested that Matthew and Tate are lovers. They rendezvous nightly.”
    “I’m disappointed in her taste.” The lovely, cultured voice tightened. “Gossip is entertaining, LaRue, but I don’t like to pay for it. How long do they intend to stay with the Marguerite ?”
    “We left the Marguerite weeks ago.”
    The pause was brief. “Weeks ago, and you didn’t bother to inform me?”
    “I have, as I always have, relied on my own instincts. I enjoy dramatic timing, mon ami. Now it seems more appropriate to tell you we have found the wreck of the Isabella. And, she is rich.” He drew in more fragrant smoke, blew it out. “My diving companion, Ray Beaumont, believes quite strongly that she holds something most precious.”
    “Which is?”
    “Angelique’s Curse.” LaRue smiled to himself. “I think it would be wise for you to wire a bonus of one hundred thousand American dollars into my Swissaccount. I will check in twenty minutes to see that the transaction has taken place.”
    “A hundred thousand dollars, for a fantasy.” But there was a breathlessness in the words that came clearly over the wire.
    “When I’m assured the money is in place, I will use the fax from this charming little hotel and send you copies of the documentation Ray has worked so hard and long to gather. I believe you will find it well worth the price. I will contact you again, soon, with our progress. A bientôt. ”
    Very pleased with himself, he hung up before VanDyke could finish the next sentence.
    The money would come, LaRue thought. VanDyke was too much the businessman to ignore the investment.
    LaRue rubbed his hands together and exited the booth, hoping the hotel ran a little coffee shop where he could pass a quiet twenty minutes.
    It was so amusing, he decided, to stir the pot, and watch just how it simmered.

C HAPTER 21
    S HE WAS LATE . Matthew paced the bridge, telling himself it was ridiculous to feel disappointed that she hadn’t been waiting for him. He’d seen the light in the deckhouse when he’d started his swim over. Obviously, she was involved in something. Eventually, her concentration would break, she’d glance at the clock and realize it was after midnight.
    Eventually.
    He moved quietly to the pilot window again to stare out at the sea and stars.
    Like any sailor, he could map the world with those stars. With them, he could find his way to any point of land or body of water. But he had no map, no guide to show him the route to what he coveted most. On that journey, he was blind and without direction.
    All of his life it had been helplessness that had shamed him more than any emotion, any failing. He had been helpless to prevent his mother’s desertion, his father’s murder, Buck’s mutilation. And he was helpless now to defend himself against his own heart, and the woman who didn’t want it.
    He wished he could blame this restlessness that chewed at him on something as simple as sex. But that basic thirst had been slaked. He still wanted her, he couldn’t look ather and not want her. Yet it went so far beyond the physical.
    He supposed it had always been beyond the physical.
    How could he explain that he was a different man with her? Could be a different man if she felt even a shadow for him of what he felt for her. Living without her was possible. He’d done it before and knew he would do it again. But he would never be what he wanted to be, or have what he wanted to have, unless she was part of it.
    There was nothing he could do but take what she gave him, and let her go when the time came.
    He knew what it was like to exist for the moment. Most of his life had been like that. It was demeaning to realize that one woman could make him yearn for a future, for boundaries and responsibilities.
    A woman, he knew, who didn’t believe him capable of accepting any responsibility.
    There was no way to prove her wrong. They both understood that if he found what he was looking for, he would take it. And he would use it. Once he possessed Angelique’s Curse, he would lose Tate. There was no way he could hold both of them, and no way he could live with himself if he ignored his debt to his father.
    Now, alone, watching the stars mirror themselves on the water, he could hope that the necklace and all it stood