Silent Hearts (Hamilton Stables 3) (13 page)

But then Nick thought of his times visiting Frank at the office as a kid, and how different he acted there. Like he led two separate lives. So either Frank was a cheater with two families—one he claimed, one he didn’t—or William Compton was a liar.

Nick wasn’t ready to taint his memory of his grandfather on the word of a man he barely knew.

“You have your own company, a successful one. Why would you want to buy Hamilton Industries? Is it an ego thing? Buy the business from the father who refused to claim you as his own?”

William laughed, his belly jiggling, his cheeks reddening. “Perhaps I was rash in my assertion of your intellect. Frank did claim me, and I was given the very same opportunities as Carter. But I was never a Hamilton, and I was proud to be a Compton. Years later, Carter and I became friends, and we made an agreement to buy the other’s business before allowing it to crumble. So here I am.”

“But my father passed away five years ago. There’s no reason for you to honor your agreement.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. The person you are, the impact you make, the choice to be honorable or not, doesn’t have an expiration date. Your existence remains for eternity. Your mark on this world will never fade and you have a choice—be remembered for the good or for the bad. Either way, someone
will
remember you. I’d prefer to stay on the good side; wouldn’t you?”

The longer Nick spoke to William, the more he felt as if he was talking to his father. He spoke like him, their voices similar, the way they used every conversation to interject some bit of age-old wisdom. And the longer he thought about it, the more his gut told him to trust William. What could he possibly gain from lying? Nothing. “Trip and Alex don’t know.”

“Nor do my sons. Nor would you, if you hadn’t figured it out.”

“You could have lied.”

“We just went over that.”

Nick laughed then, relaxing into his chair. “So this isn’t a greedy businessman trying to buy my father’s business. It’s my . . . uncle? You’ll forgive my doubts.”

“You wouldn’t be a Hamilton if you trusted me at my word alone.” William checked his watch and then stood up. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have a flight to catch. Doubts are there for a reason—they force us to do our homework. Feel free to do yours, and when you do, I’ll be ready to chat again.”

Nick stood and shook William’s hand. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me. I’ll be in touch.”

“I hope so.” William made it two steps before turning back. “There was an unauthorized biography written about your grandfather, right?”

“There was.” Though Nick had never read it.

“When doing your research, you might find it interesting.”

Nick nodded to him, and William walked out just as Nick’s cell vibrated against his desk. He peered down to find a new text from Becca.

Nick thought of his best friend and how much she meant to him, now more than ever. His family might not be the rock he’d always thought it to be, but Becca was as pure as they came, her friendship never wavering.

T
he boat rocked again, throwing Becca forward, and for the first time in her life she understood the term
seasickness
. In all her experiences on a boat, she’d only ever coasted lazily—ocean or lake—but this was something else entirely. And though she wanted to be brave, she had considered asking them to take her back to the marina.

“Are you all right?” Zac asked from her right side, and then Nick on her left added, “Yeah, are you all right?”

The tension between them wasn’t quite what it had been before the putt-putt match, but she could still feel that uneasiness between the men. Or maybe the uneasiness she felt was simply part of her sour stomach.

“Fine. Are we almost there?”

“It’s just a thirty-minute boat ride from the marina. We’re almost there.”

Becca nodded, telling—no, ordering—herself to pull it together. She was going on this dive, she would not chicken out, and when she was done, she was going to go back to her and Nick’s hotel room and go all dominatrix on him to prove she was the ultimate badass now. So there, fear. Take that!

All right, so maybe there was no way in hell she would ever do the dominatrix thing, but they were going to have sex. Lots of sex. All night. Because it had been a week since that episode in his pool, her putty in his hands, and she was dying to know what he could do in bed if he managed all that amazingness in the pool.

Their schedules hadn’t lined up all week, but now they were in the Florida Keys for the checkout dive, sharing a hotel room, and nothing would ruin this weekend.

Nothing except Becca vomiting all over Nick, which was entirely possible if the boat didn’t stop soon.

Deep breath
.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nick asked when Zac went to the front of the boat to talk to the captain. With their charter service, they weren’t the only class on the boat, and Becca found herself studying each of the other students, in her class and the others, curious as to who was the weakest link. Who wouldn’t go through with it. And she’d come to the unfortunate conclusion that none of them appeared as scared as she felt. So if they were ranking the coolest to the un-coolest, she was at the slap bottom. Number one on the uncool list.

If she didn’t go through with the dive, she would be that lady. The one twiddling her thumbs, dressed in full dive gear, only to watch others having all the fun. Was she really going to let that happen? After all, she had faced things in her life and never once had she backed down. So fear or not, she would do this. She would jump in that water and suck up every doubt and dive, dammit.

Her stomach lurched again.

If she didn’t throw up first.

Finally, the boat stopped in the middle of the ocean, water all around, and Becca remembered that
I’m Alive
show she’d watched during the summer, in which that couple’s boat sank and they were on that tiny life raft, surrounded by sharks, and the man’s leg was bitten off, and their lips were all crinkly from lack of water and their skin was burned by the sun—

“Becca? You’re white.”

She shook her head. “No. It’s the lighting, the sun. I’m fine.”

“Bec . . .”

“I’m doing this.”

Nick grinned and leaned into her, kissing her cheek, then whispering in her ear, “You’re adorable when you’re determined.”

She smiled and the nervous rope cutting off her air supply loosened a bit. “You won’t leave me?”

“Nope, it’s the buddy system. You never leave your buddy. I won’t leave you.”

She drew a long breath. “Thank you. For coming. For everything.”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be. Now let’s get your tank set up.”

They spent the next few minutes following Zac’s instructions. Fasten on weight belt. Place the BCD on the tank, the regulator on top, turn the air on, listen for leaks, turn it back off, but remember to turn it on before jumping in the water.

Becca had just sat back down, feeling better about the whole thing, everything she’d learned and all the hard work over the last six weeks playing out, when Zac stood up. “All right, let’s get ready. Strap into your tanks.”

“Becca, try to relax.”

“I’m relaxed,” she said without looking at Nick.” Totally chill. I’ve got this.”

If the sharks don’t get me
.

She sat down and slipped into her BCD, then slid on her fins, and suddenly it was her turn.

It was her turn.

Drawing up every bit of her courage, she smiled at Nick as he went before her, and then she went to stand, and immediately snapped back onto the bench. “Woah!” She tried to stand again and snapped back yet again. Oh my God. She was too weak to carry all the gear, she was a failure even before she got into the water. But then, she’d carried all the gear during their pool lessons, so it couldn’t be that. Still, she tried to stand again, only to remain fixed on the bench.

“Nick, help,” she called after trying for the fourth time. He turned around and burst out laughing.

“What?”

“You dressed your tank with the bungee cord on instead of unstrapping it first, then restrapping it.”

“English, please?”

He opened his mouth, but she must have shot him a shut-the-hellup-and-help-me look because he quickly closed his mouth. “No big deal. Rookie mistake.” He waddled over to her while the rest of the class tapped their feet and sighed in annoyance. Nick removed the regulator block from the top of the tank, unstrapped the bungee cord from the tank, and then put it all back together again.

Ah, now Becca understood the whole unstrapping and restrapping comments. She was such an idiot.

“There you go, madame,” he said, the widest smile in the world on his face. “All set now.”

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

She stood up, and the weight of the equipment, the balance change, and the rocking boat nearly had her falling back over, but Nick caught her. It took every ounce of her patience to say “Thank you” when he was so obviously fighting to keep from laughing.

“All right, we’re up.” Becca followed after Nick, watched him take the wide step Zac had taught them in the pool off the boat and into the water.

He popped up from the water and spun around to give the captain the diver gesture for okay, and then all eyes were on Becca.

She waddled to the back of the boat and then, before she could chicken out, she took the wide step off the boat and dropped into the water.

Cold water hit her hands and face, but her wet suit worked to keep the majority of her body comfortable. She spun in the water and gave the captain the go gesture.

“Game time,” Nick said, smiling at her.

“I’m ready,” she said, her teeth chattering a bit from nervousness and excitement. Because she was excited. The whole thing had a thrill factor to it, and she was eager to see the experience through.

Nick instructed her to release the air from her BCD and then, slowly, she began to sink into the water. At first, fear worked through her again, all the visions flashing before her eyes. But then she told herself to breathe, she could breathe, the regulator was working, she was okay.

She dropped lower and lower, careful to remember to swallow every few feet to clear her ears, until she reached the group. And that was when she first noticed the coral, a thousand colors, each one more unique than the last. The fish. Schools and schools of fish. And then the last of her worry dripped away and she was left with nothing but awe.

They explored the coral, careful not to touch or damage it. They swam around and through fish of every imaginable color and shape and size. And no sharks in sight. Not even one!

Too soon, Nick gave her the thumbs-up that it was time to go back up. Thirty minutes had passed in the blink of an eye.

Becca followed Nick’s lead to go up slowly to protect her lungs, and then she broke free on the surface, a laugh bubbling up from the thrill of it all. She wanted to go back down, explore for hours and hours, but she knew the dive time was up. The current was rough so as she approached the ladder, Nick helped her hand over her fins and then Zac and another woman from her class helped her up the ladder and into the boat.

Finally, Nick was in the boat, too, and she wrapped her arms around him, kissing him hard, right there before the class and the clouds and God. She didn’t care. For once, she didn’t care about anything or anyone else—just the man, her friend, who had turned her life upside down the moment he said he wanted her.

“That was unbelievable.”

He grinned and kissed her again. “We’ll make an athlete of you yet.”

Becca pulled back. “Now let’s not get crazy here. An athlete Becca Stark is not, but I love this. Can we go again tomorrow?”

“We’ll go as often as you like. Just wait until you dive in Fiji.”

“Wow, Fiji.”

“Maybe we could go in the spring.”

A smile played on her lips, but she couldn’t help it. “Are you making future plans with me, Nick Hamilton?”

He smiled back. “Yeah . . . I guess I am.”

 

Nick took his time in the shower, his thoughts confusing and yet clear. He thought of Becca’s question again—
are you planning a future with me?
—and all he could think was yes, he absolutely wanted a future with her.

So why did the idea of it scare the hell out of him?

He told himself he didn’t have to worry about it for now; they were together and his heart was happy, and for now that was all that mattered. Them, together. Because the idea of losing Becca now could break him for good. Their friendship was important to him, but he knew in his heart that there was no one else for him. Becca was his match.

He wrapped a towel around his waist and padded out of the bathroom, only to find Becca in her bra and panties, not yet dressed from her own shower. There was nothing overly sexy about the getup— turquoise bra and turquoise panties, both with white lace trim—yet suddenly Nick couldn’t think about anything but the last time his hands had been on her. His mouth on her.

As though she could feel his stare, her gaze switched from the clothes laid out on the bed to him.

“Um, hey, I didn’t expect you to come out so soon. I didn’t know what we were doing for dinner, so I set out two outfits—dressy-ish or casual—but I gotta tell you, I’m exhausted and . . .” Her eyes drifted down his chest like she was seeing him clearly for the first time. Her gaze trailed over his stomach to the white towel wrapped around his waist.

In two easy steps he reached her. “Or we could stay in.”

“Or we could stay in,” she repeated.

All Nick could think was that he should be nervous, he should be hesitant, he should have fear or worry or some emotion that told him to pause the moment and think. But as his eyes fell back on Becca’s, all he could think was that this was where he should be, where he belonged. He didn’t have the strength to fight it anymore.

Closing the distance between them, Nick tilted her chin up and stared into those endlessly kind eyes of hers. “You were amazing today.”

“I loved it.”

“Absolutely amazing.” He pressed a kiss to her lips, then her neck, then trailed them over her shoulder, dropping her bra strap in the process. “And absolutely beautiful.” He continued the kiss across her chest, slipping off the other strap, then the bra was unfastened and falling to the floor.

“We can wait,” he said, eager to make sure she was comfortable. That she knew this was more to him than a fling. It was everything.

“No . . . we can’t.”

Nick pressed his lips to hers and eased her back down on the bed, dropping his towel in the effort.

Becca’s gaze found him and she reached for him, stroking him slowly, her touch driving him insane.

“I want you inside me,” she breathed. That was all the permission he needed; he slid her panties off, pressing hot kisses along her stomach as he went, then over her hip, down her thigh. He stared down at her mound as he stroked her, a finger slipping inside.

“Nick, now ... please.”

He smiled to himself as he stepped away from her and reached for a condom from his carry-on bag, tore the silver wrapping, and rolled it on. His eyes fell back on her as he drove inside, and then they were together and he kissed her with a new passion, full of new words he couldn’t say—words of commitment and their future. Words of love.

Her body tightened and stars crested his vision, his heart out of control as he released inside her, this woman who had been his everything for most of his life. And he couldn’t help thinking that he’d had it all wrong before.

This was happiness.