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‘Welcome aboard, sir—ma’am.’
‘It’s all right, Grey, she’s a friend, not a client—we don’t have to make an impression,’ said Joshua drily.
The man’s shoulders relaxed and he grinned, his teeth white in his weather-beaten face as he replaced his black-brimmed cap. ‘What a shame. I’ve been practising my snappy salute.’
‘This is Regan. I believe she gets seasick in small boats,’ Joshua supplied wickedly.
‘Then you won’t have a problem with Sara Wade,’ Grey told her kindly. ‘She’s as solid as a rock.’
‘Don’t rocks usually sink?’ said Regan.
‘Not a rock with this much horsepower,’ he smiled. ‘This baby could raise the Titanic.’
‘Don’t get him started,’ said Joshua. ‘It really is his baby. Grey has captained her since she was commissioned. You can cast off whenever you like, Grey—we’ll be down on the aft deck, but I might bring Regan up later to show her the view from the bridge.’
‘Aye, aye, sir.’ This time Grey did salute, a careless, irreverent flick of his brim which made Regan smile.
‘Let’s go the long way round, so you can see where everything is,’ said Joshua, opening the door to the main cabin and discarding his jacket and tie on the nearest chair.
The polished mahogany walls, maple floors and plush white and gold furnishings of the huge lounge were sumptuous, and the dining table in the next room looked as if it would easily seat twenty under the glittering modern chandelier. The U-shaped galley further forward was bigger and better equipped than some restaurant kitchens Regan had seen. Down a companionway there were four large double cabins with en suite bathrooms, the main bathroom and a sauna. Distracted by the confusion in her mind and the proximity of her guide, Regan was nonetheless stunned by the opulence of the gold-plated fixtures and fittings and coordinated furniture and fabrics.
Beneath their feet was an almost imperceptible vibration as a powerful engine purred into life, and when she murmured something about conspicuous consumption Joshua said, ‘We bought it from an American billionaire who fell on hard times. We use it mainly for corporate entertaining, here and overseas—for events like the America’s Cup—or charter it to visiting business-people who don’t like to stay in hotels.’
Following him back up the companionway, Regan guessed that the weekly charter fees would cost more than the average New Zealander earned in a year!
While they’d been below the boat had left the slips, and as they stepped onto the aft deck Regan could see the marina terraces recede behind a forest of masts as they cruised around the first curve in the broad canal. But it was what she didn’t see that concerned her. ‘Where are the others?’
‘Others?’ Joshua leaned sideways on the brass rail, plucking a pair of sunglasses from the breast pocket of his shirt and sliding them on his face.
‘You said, “We’re going on a short cruise—”’
‘And so we are. Grey has had some minor adjustments done on the satellite navigation system and he just wanted to give her a brief shake-down run—’
‘But you mentioned Carolyn, and I assumed…’ She trailed off at his sardonic smile. He hitched up the knee of his black trousers and rested his foot on the lower rail.
‘I’ve told you about the danger of making assumptions where I’m concerned.’
‘You deliberately led me to think that you were taking a bunch of people out,’ she accused huskily.
He turned aside the challenge with a lazy smile. ‘You seem to be rather stressed-out lately. I thought you might appreciate the chance to get away from all the cares of the world for an hour or two.’
Since he was a major source of her stress, that seemed unlikely. ‘What if I want to go back?’
‘We can’t ever turn back the clock…so forward seems the only logical place for us to go.’ He shifted his stance, casually crossing his long legs at the ankle as he rested his elbow on the rail. ‘What were you and my son talking so earnestly about when I found you?’
She stiffened. She couldn’t see his eyes, but the stillness of his face suggested a penetrating watchfulness. She moved up to press her stomach against the rail, using the excuse of leaning over to study the boats they were passing to show him a delicate, unrevealing profile.
Now was her chance to do the honourable thing. To forestall any future trouble for Ryan with a full and frank confession. She would have to trust to Joshua’s strong sense of justice, and the compassion she now knew he possessed, and hope that he would appreciate the honesty of her intentions…
‘He has a crush on you, you know.’
Her head whipped around, as he had known it would, the glossy hair flaring out from her skull in a blue-black spray.
‘Ryan? Don’t be ridiculous!’ spilled out of her lips.
‘The more attention you pay him, the more likely he is to presume that you mean something by it,’ he told her.
She lifted her chin. ‘I do: it means I like him.’
