While they waited, Rico looked at Teresa. “This is my cousin Sean King and his beautiful wife, Melinda Stanford King.”
“Stanford?” Teresa asked. “Any relation to Walter Stanford? The man who owns this island?”
“He’s my grandfather.”
Rico watched Teresa curiously as the two women fell into an easy conversation. She had known about Walter Stanford. So she’d done some research on Tesoro before arriving on the island. To help her family? Or to find out more about Rico and where he was living now?
She laughed at something Melinda said and the delicious sound settled over him like a warm blanket. Seeing her now, he wasn’t looking at his betrayer, but simply a woman so lovely it took his breath away. And he realized that the tightness in his chest was easing.
Maybe it was a good thing Sean had horned in on dinner. Having the other couple here was definitely easing the tension at the table. Though it would no doubt return when the evening was over and they were back at Rico’s house.
“So,” Sean asked with a smile as the waiter arrived and poured Melinda a glass of the sparkling water. “What’s new?”
Rico glared at him. Sean’s sense of humor could be irritating at the best of times. Tonight was not the best of times.
“I should ask that of you,” Rico said. “When we spoke earlier, you were watching a game. What made you decide to come here instead?”
“This promised more action than what was happening in that game. Dead boring.” He took a sip of champagne, then leaned his head toward his wife. “Besides, Mel’s getting a little twitchy. Waiting for the baby to make a move can make you restless. Thought she’d have a good time getting out of the house.”
“Please,” Melinda said with a laugh. “It wasn’t just me trying to get out for the evening. You were going stir-crazy.”
“Maybe a little,” Sean allowed and draped one arm around her shoulders.
Shaking her head at her husband, Melinda turned to Teresa. “Sean tells me you’ve been living in Europe the last few years. What do you do for a living?”
Rico slanted a look at her and waited for her answer. He, too, was interested in how she’d spent her time the last five years. When he’d known her, she’d been one of the chefs at his Cancún hotel. Had she kept her love for cooking, or had that been part of the ruse she’d used to get close to him? How could she be so familiar to him and yet feel like such a stranger?
Teresa glanced at him briefly, as if she’d guessed what he was thinking. Then she turned her full attention to Melinda. “I’m a chef. I’ve been working at different restaurants in Europe for the last few years.”
Melinda frowned a bit. “No home base?”
“No,” Teresa said with another glance at Rico. “I move around a lot.”
To avoid being found, no doubt, he thought, even though he wondered why. It wasn’t as if she had known he was looking for her. So why hadn’t she gone back to her family? The ones who had been important enough to her to betray her husband?
“That sounds great,” Melinda said. “I love living on the island. Couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.” She reached out and caught Sean’s hand in hers. “I do love to travel, though, so I envy you that. But I really can’t empathize with the chef thing. I’m a terrible cook.”
“True,” Sean put in. “She made tacos last week and even the dog wouldn’t eat them. And he’ll eat anything.”
“Thank you,” Melinda said wryly.
Her husband gave her a hard, fast kiss. “Didn’t marry you for your cooking abilities,” he said with a grin. “We can hire cooks.”
“Thank goodness. Or we’d starve,” Melinda put in. “Though right now, I’m looking too well fed to be starving.”
“You look gorgeous,” Teresa said.
“That’s what I’ve been telling her.” Rico smiled gently at his cousin’s wife. “A pregnant woman is nothing but beautiful.”
“And big,” Melinda put in. “Don’t forget big.”
“When’re you due?” Teresa asked.
“Officially? A week.” The woman winced and shifted position uncomfortably. “But it feels like any minute to me.”
Sean shivered dramatically. “Don’t say that. At least wait until we get home again.”
Melinda patted his hand. “Sean’s practiced making the hospital drive from our house five times.”
“Smart,” Teresa said.
Rico snorted.
Sean sneered at him.
“The hospital is only ten minutes away,” Melinda said with an indulgent smile for her husband.
“There could be traffic,” he said, defending himself.
“On Tesoro?” Rico laughed and shook his head at his cousin. “The landmass is so small, if you were on the other side of the island it would still only take you twenty minutes to reach the hospital.”
“Fine, fine.” Sean poured his wife another glass of sparkling water, then topped off his own champagne. “Just wait until your wife is pregnant. Then we’ll see how funny you think this is.”
Silence dropped over the table with a thud of awkwardness. Teresa winced. Melinda slapped her husband’s arm again. Rico frowned and Sean took a deep drink of his champagne. “Going to be a long night.”
Five
Going to be a long night.
Sean King’s words echoed over and over again in Teresa’s mind as she waited in Rico’s bedroom hours later. He’d already promised that they would sleep in the same bed. But there was no way she could relax until he was here.
She figured she now knew how a sacrificial virgin must have felt just before being tied to an altar stone. Of course, she was no virgin—that ship had sailed long ago. But the nerves were there. The anxiety about what she should do. He’d said nothing would happen between them unless she initiated it. So. Should she?
In spite of the anxiousness holding her in its grip, Teresa was…aroused. And she’d thought that over the years she had managed to bury what she’d felt for Rico. She had never met another man who could stir up her insides with a single look. She had thought that Rico was her one chance at happiness and when she’d left him, she had accepted that she would never have him again.
Now she was here, and Teresa was forced to admit, at least to herself, that the thought of going to bed with Rico again had her body burning in anticipation.