The Reef

fifteen years. I ain’t been much of a substitute father—”
    “You’ve been wonderful,” she interrupted hotly.
    “Screwed up more than once, but mostly I done my best. I always knew Matthew had something special in him. More’n me, more’n James. I never knew how to make it come out. You do,” he added, turning to her at last.
    “He’s a better man with you than he would be without. He’ll try harder with you there, and turn off that bad Lassiter luck. You gotta make him get rid of that damned necklace, Tate, before it curses your lives. Before VanDyke kills him for it.”
    “I can’t do that, Buck. If I tried, and he changed himself because I’d asked, what would I leave him?”
    “I should never have told him about it. I made him think we could make James’s death worth something if we found it. That was stupid. Dead’s dead.”
    “Matthew’s his own man, Buck. What he does can’t be because of me, or you, or anyone. If we love him, we have to accept that.”

C HAPTER 25
    T ATE STRUGGLED TO take her own advice to heart. As Matthew slept beside her in his cabin on the Mermaid, she tried to put her fears to rest.
    He’d said it was time they trusted each other. She knew trust could be as strong a shield as love. She would make hers strong enough, she promised herself, to defend them both against anyone or anything.
    Whatever happened, whatever he did, they would face it together.
    “Stop worrying,” he murmured and nudged her closer.
    The heat of his body, the hard length of it against hers, soothed. “Who said I was?”
    “I can feel it.” To distract them both, he ran his hand over her hip. “You keep sending out all these nasty little worry darts. They’re keeping me awake.” His hand inched back up, over her rib cage. “And since I’m awake anyway . . .” He rolled on top of her to send kisses and shivers down her throat.
    “Next time I build a boat, I’m going to make the master cabin bigger.”
    She sighed as his lips nibbled their way to her ear. “Next time?”
    “Mmm-hmm. And I’m soundproofing it.”
    She let out a chuckle. Buck’s snoring from the next cabin battered the walls like thunder. “I’ll help you. How does LaRue stand it?”
    “He says it’s like the boat rocking in the current. It’s just there.” Circling a finger around her breast, Matthew studied her face in the moonlight that drifted through the open window. “When I designed the living quarters, I didn’t have a wife in mind.”
    “You’d better keep one in mind now,” she warned him. “This one. And I think the living quarters are just fine.” Teasingly, she flicked her tongue over his jaw. “Especially the captain’s cabin.”
    “You know, if I’d figured out that this engagement business would clear the way for this, I’d have tried it sooner.” To please himself, he spread her hair over the pillow. “It beats the floor of the bridge.”
    “All to hell.” She curved her lips under his. “But I kind of liked those nights. Don’t think this engagement business is going to last long,” she added. “We’re going to Nevis tomorrow to start the formalities.”
    “Christ, you’re bossy.”
    “Yeah and I’ve got you, Lassiter.” She vised her arms around him. “I’ve really got you.”
    Nothing, absolutely nothing, she vowed, was going to take him away from her.
     
    “The minute you’re finished, I want you to meet me in the boutique.” Under the bright morning sun, Marla shook the sand out of her sandals as she stepped from the beach onto the stone walkway of the resort. Small, informal wedding or not, she intended to take her duties as mother of the bride, and surrogate mother of the groom, seriously.
    Tate sighed and flipped her braid over her shoulder. “I don’t suppose it’s any use telling you again that I don’t need a new dress.”
    “No use at all.” Happily, Marla beamed. “We’re getting you a wedding dress, Tate Beaumont. If the boutique here at the resort doesn’t have anything suitable, we’re going to Saint Kitts. And Matthew”—she patted himgently on the cheek—“you could use a haircut—and a decent suit.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Suck up,” Tate muttered.
    Ignoring that, Marla continued to smile. “Now y’all go see the concierge. I’m sure he can help you find the way to push through the paperwork. Matthew, you and I will look into that suit later this afternoon. Oh, and Tate, ask him about