Page 88 of Winter’s Fire

A hand on her shoulder brought Lucy out of her introspection. When her gaze met her mother’s, her stomach clenched—the last secrets of her time with Logan were at the threshold of exposure, and the question now was not if she revealed them, but how far she went in revealing them.

“You already know I volunteered for the assignment and why, even though I’d have to work alongside someone I couldn’t stand.”

Lucy’s hands tightened around her mug. Mentally, she was playing for time, trying to weigh up how not to give her mother a heart attack. When she thought of all the things she’d done with Logan…

“You always were impetuous,” Rachel observed. “Instead of trying to work out what you can and can’t tell me, why don’t you just tell me everything? Whatever you say, it’ll be our secret. I’ve been around a while—I’m not easily shocked, you know.”

Maybe so, but Lucy baulked at trying to explain anything that even hinted at the cliché of “whips and chains”. She’d been brought up to be strong and independent, attributes her mother valued highly—how could she possibly admit or even allude to the appeal of ceding control to a man, even if it were only in an intimate context? She could barely explain it to herself—trying to get someone else to understand was a gargantuan task.

“You know we were posing as a couple, at that resort.”

“Nenufar, I believe you said. That’s a pretty name. It means ‘water lily’ in Spanish, doesn’t it?”

Lucy nodded. A stylised water lily had formed part of the resort’s logo. “It… It’s a bit different from what you’d expect of the average holiday resort.”

“Adults only? I doubt there’s much call for children’s entertainers there, then.”

If only her mother knew. No, best not to go there. “Something like that. Before we went, I… that is, Logan… He had some useful prior experience, so we spent a few days… I suppose you could call it ‘knowledge transfer’. I had to learn about working undercover, and because I was working so closely with him, I got to see another side of him. Then when we got there…”

“The effect of sun, sea, sand and proximity?”

“You could say that. I realised he wasn’t as rude and obnoxious as I’d thought…”

“And you fell in love with him.”

Lucy managed a small smile. “Not as quickly as you did with Dad. With hindsight, the feelings were growing before we left, but I didn’t acknowledge it till later. Anyway, our investigation was going nowhere, and we thought we’d be heading back empty-handed. Then… to cut a long story short, we got a lead, something to work with, and… attracted the wrong kind of attention.”

“That’s when you were kidnapped?”

Lucy nodded. “Pretty much. I’ve never been so scared, but at the same time, I knew losing my head wasn’t going to help. And Logan was with me.”

“You’d just realised you were in love when you were thrown into a high-adrenaline situation.”

“Which was why I never said anything to Logan about how I felt. It was an abnormal environment even before we were taken, and I wanted to be sure what I was feeling was real. We were about to come home, and I thought there’d be plenty of time to… figure it out.”

Funny how a hug from her mother could make any awful situation better, even if it was only temporarily. Lucy carried on with her story. “Then they brought Diana to the cell. She zeroed in on him like a ballistic missile, and he did nothing to deflect her. Turned out she was his ex. I don’t know who dumped who. I can guess, but it would have been obvious to a blind man he wasn’t averse to getting back together with her.”

“Did he tell you that? Either then or later?”

“He didn’t have to. I got the message loud and clear from the way he was with her, and she had no trouble warning me off. Not that I needed to be warned off. Anyway, we got away, Sam’s ship picked us up—”

“He saw Logan with Diana?”

“Glimpses. The authorities met us in Miami, and after we answered some questions, we flew home. End of story.”

“How can it be the end when you still love him?”

“How I feel doesn’t matter. It can’t—he doesn’t feel the same way about me.” She’d seen him with Diana—all the proof she needed.

“Are you sure about that?”

“As sure as I can be. As sure as I need to be.”

“You know, it’s really not like you to give up so easily. Have you thought about fighting back?”

Lucy smiled, but in her heart there was only sadness. “Funny you should say that. I had been thinking about it, but it would cause nothing but trouble.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe the truth is something you haven’t considered.”