Read Online Marooned with the Rock Star (A Crazily Sensual Rock Star Romance, with Humor) by Dawn Steele - Free Book Online Page B

her limp hands. Tears filled my eyes,
but I didn’t say anything. We both knew I wasn’t going to look
back, and so I didn’t pretend to mask it with false promises and
noble declarations of ‘I’ll come back for you’.
    Because I never came back.
    It was too painful to confront all the
memories we left behind. Not just painful, but downright,
terrifyingly excruciating.
    Rebecca never forgave me for that.
     
    *
     
    “You’re a coward!” Rebecca says to me.
    I can’t eat my soup. The plate of foie gras
lies untouched as well.
    I say, “I know.”
    I can’t bear to look into her accusing green
eyes. The color drains from my face.
    “You’re a . . . a . . . ”
    Words seem to fail her. She is that
upset.
    I know what is weighing heavily on her mind.
It anchors on mine just as guiltily. If we hadn’t done what we
did, maybe the karmic forces would align and make everything that
happened unhappen .
    Rebecca gets up abruptly from her chair.
    I look up. “Where are you going?”
    Her body trembles. “I can’t do this. I can’t
have dinner with you. I . . . I – ”
    Her eyes are filled with tears as she grabs
her purse and stumbles blindly away. She starts to stride towards
the exit, and finally gains speed.
    I am too stunned to move.
    What should I do? Go after her?
    But I didn’t do anything wrong. Not this
time. What’s done has been done. I can’t undo anything by going
after Rebecca Hall.
    I shouldn’t be going after Rebecca Hall.
She’s part of my past – the past I’m so desperately trying to run
away from.
    I am besieged by indecision when the waiter
comes back to the table, shaking his head lightly.
    “It’s a tough call,” he says to me. “But
your lady friend looks right upset. I would go after her if I were
you. There’s a storm out there and the deck’s slippery.”
    That’s as good a reason to go after her as
any.
    I get up and take out my wallet. I extract
two thousand dollars from it and lay it on the table.
    “This good to cover my bill and your tip?” I
say.
    He nods and grins. “You’re welcome back here
anytime, Mr. Taylor. I’m sorry about what happened to you. I think
the newspapers have a way of distorting stuff.”
    “Don’t I know it,” I groan.
    I dash out of the restaurant. I have no idea
where Rebecca has gone to, but I’m willing to bet it’s to her
cabin. The Clarion opens out into a corridor with some of the other
restaurants on the ship, At the end of this corridor, a door to one
of the sun deck swings shut. The silvery torrent of rain is lighted
up momentarily by the lamps inside.
    Shit. She has gone outside. Where it’s cold
and dark and blustery and not fit for a witch’s tit, or whatever
the saying is these days.
    I grit my teeth. I’ve got to go get her. She
might do something stupid.
    Nah. Not Rebecca.
    But how well do I know her anyway?
    Composing a mental apology to Manny and the
sorry state I’m going to render his dinner jacket, I run out
through that door.
    The wind hits me immediately. It is terribly
cold, and my nuts shrivel into my ball sacs inside my pants. The
rain pelts down and the sky is a merciless black. Jagged streaks of
lightning light up the dark clouds, competing with the blazing
lamps from the sun decks. There is no one outside.
    Maybe she didn’t even come out here.
    Then I see her.
    She is there by the side of the wall,
shielding herself from the cold. Her arms are wrapped around her
body and her shoulders are slumped. Her head is bowed. I can’t be
sure because of the pelting rain, but I believe she is crying. Her
cheeks are certainly wet. Her whole body is wet.
    What was she thinking of?
    “Rebecca!” The wind snatches the cry from my
lips and hurls it into the great beyond.
    She looks up, and her face contorts. She
turns from me and hurries away.
    “Rebecca! Don’t be stupid! Come in!”
    But she vanishes into the darkness. I curse
and almost slip on the wet deck. What is she wearing? High heels?
How can she totter