Written in the Stars (13 page)

And then the music changed and he slowed to a near stop, barely more than rocking
as he stared down into her face.

Flushing at the unexpected sensations shooting through her, Cordelia somehow found
her voice. “What if I offer you a deal?”

A breeze blew her hair across her face. He smoothed away the errant strand and tucked
it behind her ear. “What kind of deal?”

His fingers left a trail of sensation everywhere they touched her.

“A lucrative one,” she choked out.

“Keep talking.”

“How much would it take for you to lose interest in the Celestine?”

“Money?” His expression offended, he stopped moving. “There isn’t enough.”

“But now you have no guarantees that you’ll sail away with anything. I can change
that, make sure you have enough to start another hunt.”

“You mean like an investor?” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “Does money normally
buy you everything you want? You can’t buy me, Cordelia Ward. No one can.”

Cordelia gaped at him. He was actually acting insulted. Why, when he was in the hunt
for the money? Or maybe that wasn’t his motivation. Maybe it was the fame that went
along with the fortune, the glory of being the one to find a four-hundred-year-old
sunken treasure.

He leaned into her so close his breath laved her face. “How about I make you an honest
offer—a partnership.”

She stuck her right hand against his chest and backed off. “I don’t think so. You
and I have very different goals.”

“I thought we both wanted to find the mother lode of the Celestine.”

“I’m a marine archeologist and—”

He captured her hand before she could remove it. “And I’m a pirate?”

“I didn’t say that, but you are looking for treasure, while I am looking for artifacts.”

“Not that I see the difference, but how about I offer you this.” From his pocket,
he pulled a diamond-studded gold chain from which hung a crescent moon set with sapphires.

Cordelia’s eyes widened.

“Exactly.” He took her right hand from where he’d trapped it and placed the artifact
in her palm.

The touch of metal and jewels to her ring electrified Cordelia. Startled, she gasped
at the power but wrapped her fingers around the jeweled moon so she wouldn’t drop
it. Her heart beating too fast, she took a closer look and recognized its age. This
was no modern copy of something old.

Fearing that Morgan had found this on his earlier dive, would somehow beat her to
the mother lode, she panicked. “All right, partners, then, but we need to work out
details—”

Before she could finish, Morgan curled his fingers over her hand with the crescent
and kissed her.

Her wrist burned.

Her ring tightened.

Her head went light.

The chain trapped between their hands connected them like a live wire, kept them from
pulling apart. The current spread to every pore of her body, to her head, to her toes,
to her feminine center.

She had never felt so alive, so sure of herself.

Until the kiss ended.

Looking up into Morgan’s eyes that gleamed emerald with satisfaction, she had only
one thought: What had she done? A treasure hunter was the last person who should attract
her. They held opposing life values. She wanted to preserve the past, and he wanted
to profit from it. He was so obviously focused on money, why wouldn’t he take hers?

Confused and angry that he’d taken advantage of her emotions, she stepped away from
him and looked around to see Innis approaching them.

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Murphy?” he demanded.

“Sealing a deal.” Morgan grinned at Innis. “Cordy just accepted my offer of a partnership.”

“What?”

Morgan reached for her, but instinct made her whip his hand away using nothing more
than her anger and her mind. His whole arm flew back hard, twisting his body, and
her heart thundered in response.

Morgan’s eyes went wide and questioning. “What the hell, Cordy?”

Cordelia realized he knew she’d been responsible. Just as when she’d sent that vase
of flowers crashing against the wall, her telekinesis had turned on without her thinking
due to her advanced emotional state.

Not wanting to give Morgan a chance to question her, she put a hand on Innis’s arm.
“Please take me back to the boat.”

“I thought you wanted to work out the deal,” Morgan said.

“Tomorrow.” Realizing she still had the crescent and its chain in her hand, she held
out the artifact to him

“No. You keep it as a token of good faith.”

Innis’s eyes widened as he got a good look. And then he glared at Morgan. “Where the
hell did you get that?”

Morgan’s lips quirked into a mysterious, irritating smile. “Tomorrow.”

With that, he walked away and disappeared into the crowd, leaving her weak-kneed and
confused.

“Are you all right, Cordelia? Murphy didn’t do anything to force you to agree to this…this…partnership?”

“No, of course not.” But the evening really was ended for her. “Please, let’s get
out of here.”

Innis put his arm around her shoulders and led her off the terrace and toward the
dock where the Evening Star was anchored. She tried to take comfort from his nearness,
but her earlier romantic mood eluded her.

The electric kiss with the treasure hunter kept filling her thoughts instead.

“Can I ask why you agreed to a partnership with that pirate?” Innis asked.

Her hand tightened around the jeweled moon. “Because I feared he was too close to
the mother lode, and if I didn’t agree, he would get it all. No artifacts for a real
collection.”

No curator needed, depriving her mother of a reason to get up in the morning. No recognition
for the father who had spent his life tracking down the very treasure that had belonged
to her ancestors. No recognition for herself as a marine archeologist.

If she hadn’t agreed, the glory would all go to the treasure hunter.

“You don’t even know that he found that thing today. I didn’t hear any celebration
coming off his boat.”

“If that’s true…” Her mind raced with possibilities. Had Morgan somehow tricked her?
“Then what have I done?” she asked aloud this time.

“Nothing wrong,” Innis assured her, helping steady her as she took off her heels before
getting onto the boat.

A moment later, they stood at the prow of the Evening Star. Innis took her in his
arms, and she wished their evening had never been interrupted. Here was a man she
could count on. A man she could trust. Maybe even a man she could love again.

“I will protect you and your interests, whatever it takes,” Innis promised, his head
angling toward hers. “I want nothing more than to make you happy.”

This time his mouth met hers. Cordelia tried to lose herself in the kiss, but even
as she kissed him in return, her mind was too aware that her wrist wasn’t burning,
that her ring wasn’t tightening. By the time she realized that was a good thing, Innis
ended the kiss, though he still held her in his arms.

“Whatever you need.” His voice was gruff.

She needed to forget that electric kiss on the terrace.

Realizing Innis was waiting for some response, she said, “Thank you for that. Let’s
get back to the wreck site.”

Remembering she’d had thoughts of their being alone on the boat with that bottle of
champagne, she knew now that nothing was going to happen between them tonight.

Chapter Thirteen

The first thing Cordelia searched out when they dropped anchor was Morgan’s boat.
No lights. Subdued voices. No Morgan himself. Was he there below or still on Crescent
Key plotting against her?

Innis kissed her again before going straight over to Foley’s Treasure, leaving her
confused and filled with regret. If he was the right man for her, wouldn’t she have
stronger feelings for him? She certainly had very strong feelings for Morgan Murphy,
starting with doubt.

She didn’t trust Morgan one bit. He raised her hackles, provoked her temper. And he
enjoyed doing so. Innis, on the other hand, did everything in his power to make her
happy and to see that her dream was realized.

How could she be attracted to two so very different men?

Apparently having been aware of their approach, Mom came back aboard before Cordelia
could escape to her cabin. “Did you have a wonderful evening?”

“An interesting one.”

Cordelia showed her mother the chain and crescent and explained that she was now partners
with Morgan Murphy so the man couldn’t simply walk away with the whole mother lode
if he found it first.

“Sounds to me like there should be more to that story.”

“Wise mother,” Cordelia said, kissing her cheek. “I’m off to bed.”

Not that she was sleepy.

Back in her cabin, she changed into shorts and a T-shirt, then brought out Elizabeth’s
journal. Maybe she would read something that would help her figure things out, like
how she could be so attracted to a man who was obviously trouble if her wrist burning
and ring tightening when she was too close to him was an accurate tell.

Odd, though, that both wrist and ring had been quiet that afternoon when he’d boarded
the Evening Star.

What in the world could that mean? she wondered as she began to read.

Dunham Castle, 1603

The duke is by my side as I face the man who has betrayed all that we hold dear. The
sun streaming in through the narrow windows dapples the cool stone floor with light.
It falls upon Carlyle’s face, and I see what weapon he will use against me.

I step in front of the duke to protect him, for it is my duty.

“Her child is a bastard as is Stephen. It is to William she gave what should rightfully
have been mine.”

It is the moment I knew would come. I feel the duke’s warmth so close behind me, yet
he has not moved, nor have I.

“He was proud of their coupling. He told me so himself in the woods that last day.
Ask her if it is not true that she loves only William, and her bastard is his.”

Carlyle’s triumphant shout swirls around me like an evil net in which I am caught.
To deny Will is one blasphemy I will never commit.

I stand tall as I turn to confront the duke.

I see knowledge in his gaze a heartbeat before his mouth moves into a smile. He knows
the truth and rejoices.

My heart swells in my breast as I send the silent message he now believes. Nothing
else matters except that these are the children of our hearts.

The duke turns to challenge Carlyle, declaring Serena and Stephen to be the children
of his body and refusing to deny them.

With hatred in his eyes, Carlyle points his finger at me. “She has bewitched you!
She is a witch, and her power lies in her celestial girdle.”

Smiling, I uncoil it from my body, sapphire stars and emerald crescent moons twirling
from strings of gold and diamonds, and toss it at his feet. I need it no longer, for
its power lives within me.

“Take it and be gone.”

His expression triumphant, Carlyle picks up the celestial girdle and hugs it to his
chest as he leaves, knowing he is banished as the murderer of his brother.

Stephen is now the heir, as I promised Will. His death is in some small measure revenged.

He lives on in me, and in his children. It is for me and for Serena and for Stephen,
to think and act always as he would have done.

Remember that the future is for you to write, for it is set firmly in your stars.

It couldn’t be!

Cordelia picked up the chain and crescent and remembered the power she’d felt when
it had touched her ring and when Morgan had kissed her.

That kiss had been heart-stopping. She’d never experienced a like reaction to any
man before—of course it had something to do with the artifact and Elizabeth’s magic.
This had to be part of Elizabeth’s celestial girdle. How had Morgan gotten hold of
it?

What did it all mean?

Her birthmark had burned with familiar warning.

According to the journal, Elizabeth had tossed the celestial girdle at the villain
Carlyle, who’d taken it with him to his ship. What if he’d passed it down to his descendants
the way the keepsake treasure chest and Posey ring had gone through Elizabeth’s line?

Dear Lord, what if her mother had been correct when she’d said that if Elizabeth’s
belief that she and Will would be together again was true, then Carlyle would try
to stop them?

Disturbed at the turn the evening had taken, Cordelia slipped the crescent and chain
under her pillow and tried to sleep.

…

Innis held in his emotions until he reached the room in the bowels of Foley’s Treasure.
Once the door was closed and locked, he let out a growl of frustration. Morgan Murphy
had some kind of power over Cordelia. If he didn’t do something, the pirate would
be sure to woo her into his bed.

The thought of Murphy’s hands on the woman he loved made his gut clench. Bad enough
that Murphy had kissed her.

Worse had been her enthused response.

And then when he’d kissed her good night, it hadn’t been anything like the kiss they’d
shared after he’d saved her from the shark. This time, he’d felt like she had been
a million miles away.

Had Murphy filled her thoughts even then?

What to do?

Cordelia was destined to be his. He’d never met another woman that compared to her.
She was the love of his life. His soul mate. He couldn’t lose her. He would do anything
in his power to make Cordelia love him. Brigitte had come up with a love spell and
he’d thought why not? He’d been sure Cordelia had just needed a little push. The charm
hadn’t really worked or the spell had worn off, and Murphy had found a way to steal
her interest.

Getting the pirate out of the picture was the key. He had to find a way to discourage
Murphy, to give him good reason to leave the dive site. And Cordelia.

And if the pirate wouldn’t leave, what then?

He unlocked and opened the doors to Brigitte’s closet, to reveal a high, narrow table
covered with red velvet, decked with black candles and pots of herbs and vials of
oils. Brigitte’s domain, kept secret from her husband Leandre, who wouldn’t approve
of her practicing the black arts of Voodoo rather than the more acceptable, positive
religious side.

How humiliating it would be to admit to her that another man had Cordelia’s attention
after Brigitte had created that fetish for him. Brigitte was expert in all manner
of spells and curses, but this was something he didn’t want to share with her. He
slammed the doors shut.

So how was he going to keep Murphy away from the woman he loved?

…

Even as Morgan watched the Evening Star, he slipped the treasure he’d found in the
surf over his ring finger. Surely this had been a wedding ring, a token of love considering
the engraving inside the band.

…yet never doubt my love…

His thoughts turned to Cordelia Ward.

He’d only met the lovely and infuriating marine archaeologist that very morning, but
oddly enough, it felt to him as if they’d known each other forever. He would have
sworn when he held her in his arms to dance that he’d held her before. An electrical
current had passed through them when their hands had met with the chain between them.
And that kiss…a new experience…more than lust. Never before had he felt so many warring
emotions with such little encouragement from a woman.

A challenging woman.

Spirited.

Perhaps more complex than he’d given her credit for.

Cordelia Ward was one to watch. One to get to know better. Assuming she didn’t back
out of the partnership offer, he would have that chance. If he could only find a way
to neutralize Innis Foley’s influence over her. Surely that wouldn’t be impossible.

With the fireworks simmering between him and Cordelia, if he could keep Innis away
from her somehow, it would be no time before he would have her full cooperation on
the dive site and in his bed. He would look forward to that.

But tonight he was alone, the memory of her—her scent, her taste, her very peevishness—his
only companion.

Undressing and dropping his clothes on the floor, he threw himself into his bunk and
clicked off the room light.

Hoping to dream of her.