Carly Phillips - Lucky Charm

“Beats the hell out of me,” she muttered. “But not only does Sharon refuse to tell her fiancé about the blackmail but she’s insisting on dealing with this guy herself.” Gabrielle’s voice rose in pitch. “She’s going to the Wave tomorrow night to exchange money for photos, if you can believe that!”

“I can’t.”

“Well, I said I’d go with her.” She spoke softly, probably hoping he’d miss that last part.

His hearing was better than she’d hoped. “The hell you are. You two have no business handling a blackmailing bastard by yourselves.”

Gabrielle drew a deep breath. “Listen, friends don’t let friends get blackmailed alone. But you’re right. We shouldn’t go by ourselves. That’s why I’d like you to come for backup.” She patted his cheek with her palm.

“You’re just trying to stroke my ego so I’ll forget I’m upset with this whole situation.”

“Maybe I am.” She grinned. “And you’re much more astute than I gave you credit for. You have to know I can’t let her handle this alone.” She paused and arched her brows at him. “But I have another idea, though.”

He kicked at the sand with his heel. “I’m listening.”

“I thought you and I could do some investigating tomorrow, look up her old boyfriend. Maybe we can head this off. What do you say?” Her eyes were wide and imploring, yet excited at the prospect of doing some digging.

“My cousin Mike’s a cop in Boston. I’ll ask him to see what he can find out about Tony DeCarlo.”

“Excellent idea!” She wrapped him in her arms. “Thank you!” She tipped her head back and met his gaze.

Her eyes darkened immediately.

His thoughts turned to long hot kisses. But now he was preoccupied with her safety, as well. The fact that Sharon was being blackmailed was bad enough. But Derek hadn’t forgotten about Gabrielle’s two threatening incidents, either. He wanted to get to the bottom of everything going on, but since Sharon’s threat was more imminent, he’d start there.

“I really appreciate your help.” Gabrielle released her hold and settled back onto the blanket.

“Not a problem.”

“Hey.” She reached out and smoothed his forehead with her hand. “Relax, okay? I didn’t want to put you in a bad mood and ruin the whole night, but it was important enough to tell you about.”

He nodded. “I’m glad you trusted me,” he said gruffly.

She smiled. “I do. Now, let’s change the subject.”

He exhaled hard. “That’s a good idea.”

“So how much of a grilling did Holly give you about us?” Gabrielle asked, doing a one-eighty.

Reminded of his precocious daughter, he laughed. “Grilling is a good word for it. She’s a master interrogator. I told her we dated in high school and broke up before college.”

“And she accepted that without asking anything else?” Gabrielle stretched her legs out in front of her and wiggled her toenails, which were painted a hot pink.

“Oh, she asked for details, all right. She asked if I was going to marry you the way her mother had married John.”

Gabrielle jerked her head toward him, her eyes open wide.

Now, whatever had possessed him to admit such a thing?

“What did you tell her?” she asked.

“Nothing. She got distracted before I had to answer.”

“Derek?”

“Hmm?”

“What would you have told her? If she hadn’t been distracted?”

He propped his hands behind him and leaned back, settling in for an honest discussion. “I would have told her that I left you, but it hadn’t been easy.”

“Then why did you do it?” She glanced out over the ocean, her expression sad.

A warm breeze blew her hair back and his fingers itched to run through the silky strands, but he refrained, closing his fist instead. “You know why. I couldn’t let it touch you,” he said, referring to the curse.

Gabrielle bit on the inside of her cheek to keep from tossing back a sarcastic reply. She knew from experience if she baited Derek, he’d withdraw. And she needed to hear what he had to say.

“Tell me about Holly’s mom.” She couldn’t bring herself to call her his ex-wife.

“She’s a good woman who deserved better than me.” He groaned. “I already told you how we ended up together.”

A group of kids ran by their area of the beach, laughing and talking loudly.

He waited before he continued.

He met Gabrielle’s gaze, the pain in his eyes as great as the one in her heart. “Go on,” she said.

“That’s where I started to think about the curse and how it related to my future. I loved you, so I broke up with you to protect you from the fallout that all men and the women they loved in my family have suffered. But I didn’t love Marlene.” He never broke eye contact with her. “Not the way I loved you.”

He’d said it the other night, but hearing it now caused her breath to catch in her throat and her heart thudded heavily in her chest. As bad as she felt for the other woman, this was exactly what she’d always needed to believe. That he’d never been able to move past loving her, just as she’d never been able to fully commit to someone else.

He needed to know she’d felt the same way. “Derek-”

He placed his hand over her mouth. His touch was electric. Her body tingled and every nerve ending came alive.

“Let me finish explaining first.”

She nodded.

“After the shock of Marlene’s pregnancy wore off, of course I offered to marry her.”

“It was the gentlemanly thing to do.”

He inclined his head and looked up at the sky. “That wasn’t the only reason. I realized that Marlene was giving me a chance to have a future-a wife, a family.”

All the things she’d wanted with him, Gabrielle thought, but said nothing. What good would it do now? They could only move forward from here.

“It might not have been the situation I would have chosen, but that’s what made it so perfect. I thought that since I cared about her but wasn’t in love with her, the curse wouldn’t ever come into play. The wording specifically said-Any Corwin male who falls in love would be destined to lose his love and his fortune. Because I didn’t love Marlene, I thought I was safe.” He exhaled hard. “I was wrong.”

Gabrielle’s heart picked up speed. This was her chance to question the curse, the opportunity she’d been waiting for to change Derek’s way of thinking.

She scrambled to her knees and inched closer to him. “Derek, listen to me. I need you to think,” she said, knowing her future depended on his reaction to her words. “Tell me why your marriage broke up and how you think it was because of some ancient curse.” She intentionally sounded as sarcastic as she felt.

“Gabby, I know the curse isn’t rational. But in my family history, facts are facts. And I watched it play out again in my own life.”

“How?”

“Marlene came from a family that didn’t have a lot of money. Her father was a solid working guy until he died when Marlene was in junior high. Her mother was an Italian woman who stayed home to take care of the kids, but after her husband passed away, she had to get a job as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Marlene was the first one to go to college. Getting pregnant wasn’t in her plans, but we agreed to keep the baby and make it work between us. I tried.” He sounded tired and weary, as if relating an old story he could no longer quite believe.

She placed her hand over his. “I’m sure you did everything you could to stay together for Holly’s sake.”

He nodded. “I worked damned hard to make enough money to stem Marlene’s childhood insecurities about being poor. But she didn’t understand about the long hours I had to put in. And the more strained things got at home, the harder I worked. By the time we divorced, there was nothing left of the friendship we’d shared.” He shook his head, his frustration obvious.

Gabrielle squeezed his hand tighter. “Did you ever think it was something as simple as two people who aren’t in love might not be able to make a marriage work?”

“I sure did. Until I took a huge hit financially. I’d worked my way up at a large securities firm. I did well, made big money for my clients and for myself. Later, I began investing capital in companies I thought were going to do well. Start-ups like JetBlue Airlines among others. Around the same time as my divorce, I put a large chunk of cash into what was supposed to be a sure thing.” He shook his head and laughed wryly. “That’s when I learned there’s no such thing.”

As Gabrielle listened to him, her frustration grew. “It would have happened, anyway! A financial miscalculation has nothing to do with a curse. Don’t you see how each incident-your divorce, your money problems-they’re not related. There’s a logical, rational explanation for each!”

He remained silent so she continued. “Let’s say for the sake of argument, there is such a thing as a curse. It kicks in if you fall in love. But you weren’t in love with Marlene. No love, no curse!” she yelled at him.

“Well, if things got that bad with Marlene, I sure as hell am not going to take that chance with you!” His brown eyes flashed with determination.

But she was equally determined to make her point. “Well, I’m not going to give you a choice.” She settled into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him close and planted a warm, hot kiss on his lips.

DEREK HAD NEVER BEEN able to win an argument with a determined Gabrielle. And the woman now straddling his lap was equally strong in her resolution to come out on top. Pun intended. Although, he wasn’t laughing. He was completely, thoroughly aroused.

Her lips were hot and seductive as she made her point. A point he couldn’t remember, thanks to the pulsing in his groin and the desire flooding his body. He couldn’t focus on anything except the delicious woman seducing him on the beach, so he did what any sane man would do.