For just a moment, he wanted to slam his head against the rail.
Fuck. Fuck it all.
He should have fucking remembered. It was the first Thursday in August, and Karolina had arrived. One of his favorite clients. Amusing. Smart. She visited the island like clockwork, reserving a long weekend every month to spend time with her equally-wealthy girlfriends, intent on being pampered, having fun, taking tennis lessons with the island’s star instructor, and…
Well, she knew what she wanted, and he hadn’t minded giving it to her.
“I wanted to find out when you’d be free for dinner, but you weren’t answering your cell.” She directed a gleaming smile toward Tess, who’d eased a step back from the rail. From him. “I didn’t mean to intrude, ma’am. I’ll be gone in a moment. And you picked the exact right person to ask for help. Lucas knows everything about the island.”
All evidence of the picnic had been packed away. She thought Tess was a random tourist who’d cornered him for information.
To her credit, Karo’s smile, her reassurance, was genuine. She wasn’t mean, or he’d never have allowed even their limited sort of relationship. But Tess didn’t know that, and she could surely hear the proprietary tone of the other woman, could surely see the way Karolina looked at him, as if he were her favorite toy on this island of countless amenities.
Which he supposed he was. In the past, that hadn’t bothered him.
But now, wariness was blooming once more on Tess’s lovely, round face.
“Karolina, I’m not—” Unsure what to say, he pressed his lips shut.
He couldn’t simply send her away and tell her he no longer wanted dinner with her, that he was aching to spend more time with the silent, still woman beside him instead. Karo deserved better than a public termination of their very private—if very casual—arrangement, and she deserved an actual conversation before he put an end to what they’d had.
But if he chose Karo over Tess now, Tess would never, ever look at him that way again. The way she had mere minutes ago. With soft eyes and curiosity and openness and approval.
This was his one and only shot with her. He knew it.
Maybe he shouldn’t want that shot, but he did. More than he was comfortable admitting.
He respected both women. He wanted his actions to show it. Maybe he could ask Tess to wait at the bottom of the steps for a few minutes while he had a private conversation with K—
“No worries. I’ve gotten answers to all my questions.” Tess smiled back at Karolina. “Thank you for everything, Lucas. You kids have fun.”
Kids. He closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose. Shit. He hadn’t even considered the fact that Karo was in her mid-twenties. Thanks to the magic of makeup or dermatology or good genes or something, she looked even younger than that. And now that he thought about it, had she called Tessma’am?
When he opened his eyes, Karo was lounging at the top of the steps in one of her usual impeccable white outfits, her blond hair sleeked back into some kind of twist.
Twenty-four. Undemanding. Pleasant. Willing.
Brushing past her with another polite smile, there was Tess, her silver-streaked hair tangled and whipping in the wind as she made her exit.
Forty. A little rumpled and sweaty from their time in the sun. Prickly and encouraging and determined and sly and funny and so fucking hot he was surprised the cupcakes hadn’t melted in her hand.
She wanted more from him than Karolina did.
Correction: Shehadwanted more. For several fleeting, vulnerable minutes.
Karolina moved closer, rising on tiptoes to brush a kiss across his cheek. “So when are you free tonight?” She gave him a familiar-looking wink. “You know I always look forward to our dinners the night I arrive.”
Those dinners usually occurred in bed. But not tonight, since he refused to use one woman as a substitute for another. Both women deserved better than that. Hell, so did he.
Maybe he’d feel differently tomorrow or next month.
Tonight, though, he was going to bed alone.
“Karolina…” He leaned down and kissed her on her forehead, and then moved a step back. Two. “We need to talk.”
Eight
When Belle glancedacross the room for the umpteenth time, brow furrowed, Tess ducked her head and jotted gibberish in her spiral-bound notebook, feigning intense concentration.
