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Her eyes widened, her lips parted, but she immediately shut down any emotion he’d just seen flash across her face. No doubt about it, she was trying to cut him off before he did anything to hurt her...again. He should have seen this coming.
Guilt slammed into him. Not over sleeping with her just now, but for how she felt she had to handle the situation to avoid any more heartache.
“Will, I’m the maid,” she said softly. “While I’m not ashamed of my position, I also know that this was just a onetime thing. A man like you would never think twice about a woman like me for anything more than sex.”
Will gripped her arms, giving her a slight shake. “Why are you putting yourself into this demeaning little package and delivering it to me? I’ve told you more than once I don’t care if you’re a maid or a damn CEO. What just happened has nothing to do with anything other than us and what we feel.”
“There is no us,” she corrected him.
“There sure as hell was just a minute ago.”
Why was he so dead set on correcting her? Here he stood arguing with her when she was saying the same exact thing he’d been thinking earlier.
“And I have no clue why you’re bringing Bella into this,” he added.
Cat lifted her chin in a defiant gesture. “I’m a woman. Sometimes my insecurities come out.”
“Why are you insecure about her?”
Cat laughed and broke free from his hold, taking a step back. “You were with one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Suddenly when that relationship is severed, you turn to me. You haven’t given me any attention in nearly four years, Will. Forgive me if suddenly I feel like leftovers.”
“Don’t downgrade what just happened between us,” he demanded. “Just because I didn’t seek you out in the past few years doesn’t mean I didn’t want you. I wanted the hell out of you. And I was fighting my way back to you, dammit.”
He eased closer, watching as her eyes widened when he closed the gap and loomed over her. “Seeing you all the time, being within touching distance but knowing I had no right was hell.”
“You put yourself there.”
As if he needed the reminder of the fool he’d been.
Will smoothed her hair back from her forehead, allowing his hand to linger on her jawline. “I can admit when I was wrong, stubborn and a jerk. I can also admit that I have no clue what just happened between us because it was much more than just sex. You felt it, I felt it, and if we deny that fact we’d just be lying to ourselves. Let’s get past that. Honesty is all we can have here. We deserve more than something cheap, Cat.”
Cat closed her eyes and sighed. When her lids lifted, she glanced toward the window. “The rain has let up. We should head back to the yacht.”
Without another word, without caring that he was standing here more vulnerable than he’d ever been, Cat turned, opened the door and walked out.
Nobody walked out on Will Rowling and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let the woman he was so wrapped up in and had just made love to be the first.
Twelve
Catalina had known going into this day that they’d most likely end up naked and finally giving into desires from years ago.
And she hadn’t been able to stop herself.
No matter what she felt now, no matter what insecurities crept up, she didn’t regret sleeping with Will.
This was a one and done thing—it had to be. She couldn’t afford to fall any harder for this man whom she couldn’t have. She was planning on leaving Alma anyway, so best to cut ties now and start gearing up for her fresh start. Letting her heart interfere with the dreams she’d had for so long would only have her working backward. She was so close, she’d mentally geared up for the break from Alma, from Will...but that was before she’d given herself to him.
But what had just transpired between them was only closure. Yes, that was the term she’d been looking for. Closure. Nothing else could come from their intimacy and finally getting each other out of their systems was the right thing to do...wasn’t it?
While the rain hadn’t fully stopped, Catalina welcomed the refreshing mist hitting her face. She had no clue of the amount of time that had passed while they’d been inside the cabin lost in each other. An hour? Three hours?
The sand shifted beneath her bare feet as she marched down the shore toward the dock. Sandals in her hand, she kept her focus on the yacht in the distance and not the sound of Will running behind her. She should’ve known he’d come chasing after her, and not just because he wanted to get back to the yacht.
