The Reef

slipped under her robe to flesh as her mouth jolted his system. “In fact, I’m starting to like the idea. More and more.”
    She skimmed her lips over his jaw and down his throat. “I’m going to make you so happy.”
    He let out a shaky breath as she peeled his T-shirt over his head. “You’re doing a good job so far.”
    “I can do better.” She leaned back, her eyes on his, and slowly unbelted the robe. “Just watch me.”
    She was his oldest and most vivid fantasy, rising over him, slim and agile. Flame-colored hair, milky skin, eyes that echoed the sea. She was his to touch wherever he desired. His to hold when his heart thundered. His to watch as passion shimmered over her.
    It was so quiet, so peaceful, so easy to join body and heart with hers. They might have been in that long-ago underwater dream, weightless, anchored only to each other. Every sense, every cell, every thought was tied to her, and only her.
    He belonged, finally and completely.

C HAPTER 28
    T ATE ROSE EARLY , and leaving Matthew sleeping, slipped from the cabin. She needed to think. The idea of a solitary cup of coffee in the galley seemed the best way to start.
    Trusting Matthew was one thing, but letting him handle VanDyke on his own was another.
    When she walked into the galley she found her mother already at the stove with the radio playing Bob Marley at low volume.
    “I didn’t think anyone was up.” Following the scent, Tate walked to the coffeepot and poured.
    “I had an urge to bake bread. Kneading helps me think.” Marla vigorously massaged the dough on her floured board. “And I thought I’d cook everyone a full breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits. Cholesterol be damned.”
    “You cook like that during emotional upheavals.” Concerned, Tate studied her mother over the rim of her mug. However carefully Marla had made up her face, Tate spotted the signs of a disturbed night. “I’m okay, Mom.”
    “I know.” Marla bit her lip, surprised tears were threatening again. Like most mothers facing a crisis, she hadn’t broken down until Tate had been safe. Then she’d crumbled. “I know everything’s all right. But when I think ofthose hours that vile, unprincipled—” Rather than give in to tears, she punctuated each word with a sharp punch to the dough. “Evil, conniving, murdering jackal had you I want to peel his skin away from his bones with a paring knife.”
    “Whoa.” Impressed, Tate rubbed her mother’s shoulder. “Great image. You’re a scary woman, Marla Beaumont. That’s why I love you.”
    “Nobody messes with my baby.” She let out a long breath, grateful there was no betraying hitch in it. The kneading and the venting had worked wonders. “Your father talked about drawing and quartering and keelhauling.”
    “Dad?” Tate set her mug down and chuckled. “Good old mild-mannered Ray?”
    “I wasn’t sure Matthew was going to be able to convince him to stay aboard when they went after you. They fought about it.”
    That brought her up short. “Fought? Dad and Matthew?” Tate decided she needed more coffee after all.
    “Well, they didn’t come to blows, though it was close there for a minute or two.”
    It took a conscious effort to close her mouth at the image of her father and her lover squaring off on the foredeck. “You’re joking.”
    “Buck got between them until they’d both cooled off,” Marla remembered. “I was afraid Ray would pop him instead.”
    “Come on, Dad’s never hit anyone in his life.” She lowered her mug again. “Has he?”
    “Not in the last few decades. Tempers were a bit heightened.” Marla’s eyes softened as she brushed at her daughter’s tumbled hair. “You’ve got two men who love you sick with worry. And Matthew busy blaming himself.”
    “He always does that,” Tate muttered.
    “It’s his nature to believe he has to protect his woman. Don’t knock it,” Marla added with a chuckle at Tate’s derisive snort. “No matter how strong and self-reliant, a woman who has a man who loves her enough that he would literally give his life for hers is very lucky.”
    “Yes.” Equality and common sense aside, she couldn’thelp but smile over it. Damned if she didn’t have a white knight after all.
    “If I could choose someone for you to spend your life with, it would be Matthew. Even eight years ago when you were both so young, too young, I knew you’d be safe with him.”
    Intrigued now, Tate leaned a hip on the counter. “I’d