“I vote for ‘without.’ She’s not a real wife to you. She’s just a means to an end, and I won’t let you use her. So turn around, son.” A vicious smile slashed across Robert’s face. “You don’t stand a chance against me. I eat pencil pushers like you for breakfast.”
Jack planted himself, hoping for peace, but prepared for the battle of his life. “Annalise tells me you raised her on your own after her mother died.”
“I did.” Open grief touched his tanned face before being ruthlessly suppressed. “I let that girl down when she was sixteen. I won’t let her down now.”
“Sounds like we have ourselves a problem, because I don’t want to let Isabella down. She needs Annalise.” He drew a deep breath and confessed, “I need Annalise.”
Suspicion glinted in Robert’s green eyes. “For your niece?”
Jack shook his head. “For me. It just took me a while to realize that. Isabella was the excuse I used to bind Annalise to me without admitting why I wanted her.”
Robert’s arms dropped to his sides and he cocked his head to one side in a gesture eerily similar to Annalise’s. “And why is that?”
Jack didn’t bother to pull his punches or hide behind his pride. He put it all out there for the other man to rummage through. “Because I love your daughter.”
Robert eyed him for a long moment, before nodding in satisfaction. “Then what are you doing wasting your time jawing with me?” He stepped aside. “Go tell my daughter how you feel and put her out of her misery.”
“I’ll get right on that.” Jack didn’t hesitate. He passed by the other man and walked toward his future.
“Mason?” Robert waited until Jack turned. “That’s two of mine in your care. I will be watching you.”
Jack nodded. He could accept that. “I’d be doing the exact same thing if I were in your position.” He swung aboard only to have Robert stop him again.
“Oh, and Mason?”
“Yes, sir?”
“You couldn’t have taken me.”
Jack grinned. “I would have enjoyed trying.”
Robert returned the grin. “Yeah. Me, too.”
A cursory glance told Jack that Annalise wasn’t topside. He crossed the deck to the steps leading to the shadowed interior. His wife stood in the small, efficient galley, her back to him. He paused and allowed himself the luxury of watching her graceful movements as she went about the mundane task of putting a meal together.
She’d swept her hair into a casual ponytail, and the ringlets bounced with each dip and sway of her body. She wore a thin cotton tee that hugged her curves and screeched to a halt a scant couple of inches short of a pair of low-slung shorts that bared her endless legs to his view. He was about to announce his presence when she spoke without turning.
“I have your lunch ready, Dad. Grab a beer out of the fridge if you want one.”
“I don’t want a beer, thanks.”
Her spine went rigid and she carefully returned the plate to the counter with hands that trembled. She drew a careful breath before spinning around. “Jack.”
“Annalise.”
One look warned that her control was as tenuous as his own. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t read her as well as he’d hoped. Why had she married him? Was it just for Isabella, or was there more? He’d obsessed over the question ever since his conversation with Mrs. Locke. He wanted to be able to take one look and see the answer in her face. But it wasn’t there, and unadulterated fear threatened to bring him to his knees.
“I’ve been expecting a call from Derek,” she said. “I’m surprised you came, instead.”
Gathering every shred of composure at his command, Jack leaned his hip against the counter and shrugged. “What’s this got to do with Derek? You’re my wife, not his.”
Her chin assumed a combative angle. “For now.”
“Forever,” he stated decisively.
She shook her head. “Forget it, Jack. I won’t live with someone who believes I’m capable of—”
“Stop.” He cut her off with that one, quiet word. Perhaps it was the way he said it—naked pain leaking into the single syllable. Whatever the reason, it worked and she stumbled to a halt. “Please, sweetheart. You’re killing me.”
She gazed at him with a heartbreaking defenselessness that he recognized, mainly because he felt it, too. It was an emotion he’d never experienced before … until now. He’d always been the tough one. He’d always held himself at a safe distance, refusing to allow himself to feel or show the vulnerability she displayed so openly. And what had that gotten him? Money. Success. But what were those in comparison to an empty heart and a cold bed, and a little girl waiting for a mother? He’d had a taste of heaven, and he would do anything and everything to have that back.
Even strip his defenses bare and allow her to cut him to shreds.
Without a word, he opened his arms to her. Time seemed to hold its breath as he waited for her decision. Waited to discover whether he’d know a lifetime of warmth and joy, or be forced to survive in an arctic wasteland. With an inarticulate cry, she flew to him, and he breathed in life. He wrapped her up tight and buried his face against her silken curls and simply inhaled her. The scent of her. The feel of her. The sound of their hearts beating as one.
“I love you, Annalise,” he murmured against the top of her head. “And I’m more sorry than I can ever express.”
She lifted a glowing face to his. “Sorry you love me?” she teased.
A rusty laugh escaped. “I’m sorry I believed the worst.”
“I should have told you about my relationship to Isabella. I was going to.” She made a gesture that emphasized her bone-deep weariness. “But I should have done it before we married.”
“Tell me now, Annalise. I gather Isabella was the result of that night you lost your virginity?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “You have no idea how terrified I was when I realized I was pregnant.”
“What about the boy?”
“He and his family had moved away by then. Dad contacted them, of course. But they wanted nothing to do with me or the baby and were only too happy to sign the adoption papers.” She shrugged. “It was just as well. Tommy was no more in a position to raise a baby than I was.”
“I remember Joanne saying it was a private adoption, arranged through their lawyer.”
Annalise nodded. “Dad met with Joanne and Paul and had them carefully checked out.”
He eyed her curiously. “You never considered keeping Isabella?”
It was the wrong question to ask. Her chin wobbled for an instant before she firmed it. “I wanted to keep her with all my heart. I dreamed about it every night. But I was sixteen when I got pregnant. I’d just turned seventeen when I had her.” The confession was so soft he barely caught it. “I also know it was the most difficult decision Dad ever made. He’d been a teenage father himself, and he felt he’d done such a poor job of it, that it wouldn’t be fair to repeat the cycle for another generation. He was right. I couldn’t be selfish.” Tears overflowed. “I … I had to do what was best for Isabella, not what was best for me. So I hid my pregnancy until the school year ended and went to stay with my aunt until after Isabella was born. Every summer after that I’d go and stay with her … and remember. Celebrate … and mourn.”
He tightened his hold on her, her words tearing him apart. “I’m so sorry.”
“I never knew who adopted her, but Dad kept track and would reassure me that she was safe and doing well.”
Understanding dawned. “Until the plane crash.”
“Yes. It was all over the news. At first, the media reported that everyone onboard perished. I walked in while Dad was listening to the announcement. He was crying. He tried to keep it from me, but it wasn’t hard to figure out why he was so upset.”
“I gather you read that I’d taken custody of your daughter.”
She nodded against his chest. “And that you were having a hard time keeping a nanny. It seemed the perfect opportunity. I’d apply and see if there was anything I could do to help with the transition. I planned to stay just a short time. Neither of you were supposed to discover the truth. I didn’t even intend to tell my father I’d taken the job. But then …”
“Then?”
Her sigh rippled through her and into him. “I took one look at her and fell head over heels. I would have stuck to my original plan if it weren’t for one other problem.”
He stiffened. “What problem?” he managed to ask.
She lifted her head and looked at him, her heart in her eyes. “I fell in love with you. One minute I was trying to build a world for you and Isabella, and the next you became my world.”
The inner coldness cracked, splitting apart like chunks of icebergs beneath a spring thaw. He didn’t resist any longer. He lowered his head and kissed her. The kiss shouldn’t have been any different from all the other ones they’d shared. But it was. He didn’t know if it was the absence of secrets or the fact that they’d both allowed the last bastions of their defenses to fall. Maybe the fact that they’d confessed their love altered the elemental nature of the embrace. Whatever the cause, he knew he’d remember this moment for the rest of his life. Remember the heat and the generosity, the certainty and the passion. Most of all, it was the awareness that he’d finally come home. That he’d found what he’d spent most his life searching for—and he held her safely in his arms.