Page 21 of Seasons of Sin

“The one you had to call this morning?”

“Sort of.” She swallowed, panic swelling in her throat.Be brave. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve run around with a girl called Anita. We grew up in the same area, went to school together. I think we actually hated each other at first,” she said with a small shake of her head. “But anyway, we’ve been inseparable for years. We went to university together - though she wisely chose to study economics and now works at the LSE.” She swallowed. “Anyway, I have loved her like a sister. Until just before I came here I discovered … I found out …” the words were dying inside of her. Weakly, she finished. “She’s been having an affair with … with a married guy.”

Thad frowned. “I can see why that would be disappointing. What does she say?”

He didn’t get it. She hadn’t explained properly. “I didn’t give her a chance to explain.”

“I can see why,” he agreed. “Marriage is a sacrosanct relationship. It must be hard for you to imagine remaining friends with her when she’s shown herself to have such different values to you.”

Her heart was pounding. “Kind of,” she said simply. The words he’d said only moments earlier were warming her heart and softening her soul. How could she ruin it? How could she confess the truth and risk that he’d never look at her in quite the same way? How could she risk that he’d ask her to leave immediately?

“Do you know the man?”

“The man?” She prompted, but her stomach was rolling with anxiety.

“That she’s sleeping with.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “He’s the husband of … a friend of ours.”

“That makes it even worse. It is a huge betrayal. Do you think the couple will make it?”

“The couple? As in the guy and his wife?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I think they both want to. He wants to get into politics. I think he’d fear a divorce would look bad.”

“Not half as bad as a disgruntled wife one day spilling her stories to the tabloids. Or worse, a disgruntled ex-lover,” Thad said with a truth Saphire hadn’t appreciated.

“Anita would never do that,” she said after a moment too long.

“You probably did not believe her capable of sleeping with the husband of a friend, either.”

“Good point.”

“You also have no idea if Anita is his first mistress. In my experience, men who cheat do it often and without much compunction for the poor wife.” He stroked her hair. “It makes no sense to me.”

“What doesn’t?”

“Why marry at all if you’ve no interest in monogamy?”

Guilt was now controlling her heartbeat. “You don’t think that … sometimes stuff just happens?”

“No.” He dropped his lips to her shoulder and kissed the smooth flesh tenderly. “I do not. It is one of the reasons I have never sought a relationship that went beyond easy, relaxed sex.”

Her heart pricked. “Why?”

“Because. I am not a man to be tied into marriage. I like to know that I can leave when I become bored of a woman. I don’t crave the emotional stability of a long-term relationship.”

Saphire could have pulled her hair from her head. Frustration gnawed at her belly. “Why does that bother me?” She mused aloud, turning around a little in his arms so that she could see his expression.

His dark eyes ran over her face, trying to comprehend her question. Finally, he shrugged. “It shouldn’t. You are the one who’s insisted on those exact same restrictions for us.”

And if I hadn’t? She didn’t ask the question because the answer scared the hell out of her.

“This is too serious,” she murmured. His lips were parted, and so close to hers. Just an inch away. She covered the distance easily and tasted his mouth. As always, the spell began to wrap around them, enslaving her to its wonderment.

“This is better,” she grinned, her fingers pushing at his button and zipper. She pulled him from his pants with relief and straddled him. She didn’t bother to remove her underwear, she simply slid them aside so that she could welcome him inside. She groaned as she felt his length expand inside of her. He was so damned hard and strong. She dropped her cheek to his shoulder, staring out at the glistening moonlit ocean as he rocked in time with the boat, slowly building her to an inevitable climax.