Forever My Love by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

mean to do this to you, I just wanted to get you and Shanna to safety. Want to try to start over for the evening?”
    What else was there to do? She couldn’t go home because they still had to find their daughter. And she couldn’t stay in the cabin because she would throw her arms around him and burst into tears and beg him to make love to her just one more time, and give her one more memory to live on during the empty years to follow.
    If they survived this, she thought fleetingly, then pushed the thought furiously away.
    They would survive. She’d make Brent be careful, if nothing else. If he was going to make them go away, she was going to make him go away, too, she decided firmly.
    â€œDinner,” she breathed.
    â€œPardon?”
    â€œYou said that you wanted to start the night over. All right, you muscled your way to the helm. Want to muscle your way to the galley?”
    â€œSure.” He stood, reached down a hand to her and pulled her to her feet. Then he paused for a moment and she thought her heart stopped beating, that the whole world and time had ceased to exist. She thought he was going to touch her again, to say something, but he did not. He left the cabin and strode down the aisle to the galley.
    â€œAll right, Ms. O’Hara, what am I cooking?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” she admitted. She opened the tiny refrigerator behind the carved oak counter and started looking through the provisions. “Omelets!” she said at last. She set a dozen eggs on the stainless steel counter by the sink then began adding other ingredients. “Mushrooms, peppers, onions, cheese, sausage—”
    â€œHold up on the sausage, Ms. O’Hara,” he instructed her. “That must be for the new love of your life. I detest sausage, remember?”
    He spoke lightly but there was an edge to his voice. And when she glanced at him, he was leaning over the counter, watching her, a golden light glistening in his eyes. She hadn’t forgotten the danger signals. She smiled sweetly, wondering why she felt such a rush of excitement at his anger. Was he jealous? If so, it was damned nice. He hadn’t a thing to be jealous about, but he didn’t know that. “Sorry,” she told him casually. “I guess I did forget.”
    â€œDo you have any normal beer in there?” he asked her.
    â€œNormal beer?”
    â€œGood old American brew. Instead of your, er, friend’s trendy water?”
    Shanna had done some of the stocking of the galley, and all her life, she had stocked it with her father’s favorites. Kathy tossed Brent a beer.
    â€œThanks. I guess memory does survive at times.”
    â€œIn your daughter’s heart.”
    â€œSo is he much of a sailor?” Brent asked politely.
    â€œHe’s fine.”
    â€œJust fine? I would have thought that you would have demanded so much more out of life.”
    â€œWe were talking about sailing.”
    â€œWere we? I had the impression we were talking about something else. Everything about him seems to be fine. Not good, not great, not wonderful. Just fine. You ought to be shooting for wonderful, Kathy.”
    â€œAh. Because you were wonderful?” she challenged him.
    He smiled, his lip curving slowly. He bent close to her and lifted a lock of her hair, then slowly let it go. “Yeah. At some things. We were pretty wonderful.”
    She pulled away from him, bumping her head against the cabinets. He started to reach for her, worried, and she pulled away again. “I’m fine! It’s okay. Hey, you’re supposed to be doing the cooking remember.”
    â€œYeah, sure.”
    He sipped his beer, set the can on the counter and started to rummage through the cabinets. “Where the heck is the frying pan?”
    â€œAmazing, isn’t it? You remember the docks and the ships and everything else—but not where the pans are kept!” Deciding they were never going to