hear.” He’d never forgiven himself for the damage he’d done. The mess hadn’t been all his fault, but that wasn’t something a man weighed out on a scale. Damage was damage.
“And you, too, are moving on from the past. Soldier to professor. Now manager after having been awarded Z’s infamous Master title, hein?”
Ghost laughed. “Infamous?”
“But this means you are playing again, because the title indicates both power and experience, not something to be measured in a void. Are the Florida women more beautiful than our northwest beauties?”
Drake, for all his elegant sophistication, loved gossip as much as the nosiest of neighbors.
Ghost smiled. There were days he missed Seattle. “Yes, they are. Have you found yourself a submissive yet?”
“Non, non, not me. And you?”
The thought of Valerie came to mind. The feel of her in his hands. The sounds she made when he hurt her, as she slid into arousal. As she came. Willing and responsive and warm. “No, the one I’m interested in wants no relationships.”
“Ah, one of those.” Drake clicked his tongue. “Have hope, my friend. As you have learned, wounds do heal, and life will balance out again. Don’t give up on her.”
“No,” Ghost narrowed his eyes. “Giving up isn’t in my vocabulary.”
Chapter Nine
Under a beach umbrella, Valerie sat on the sand and played with her grandson, the love of her life. Out in the water, her daughter was swimming and splashing and undoubtedly enjoying a few minutes to herself.
Valerie remembered when her two were toddlers. Alone time didn’t happen.
“Did!” Luca’s big brown eyes lifted, and he waved his shovel in the air with a crow of accomplishment.
“Is your bucket full?” Valerie smiled. “It is. Excellent work, my man. Shall we dump it together?”
The damp sand in the bucket went on top of the growing pile, and they patted it to smoothness.
Valerie glanced at the sun and sighed. Her time with Luca and Hailey was almost over.
Such a lovely afternoon. Her daughter had driven over from Orlando for a computer programming class, and Valerie had volunteered to babysit Luca.
After class, Hailey, a total beach girl, had wanted to take Luca to wade in the Gulf of Mexico.
Happy for more time with her precious daughter and grandson, Valerie agreed.
Smiling, she checked in the cooler and pulled out a baggie of orange wedges from her daughter’s backyard tree. She ate one and grinned when Luca reached out a sandy hand, remembered, and opened his mouth like a baby bird.
“You’re such a smart boy,” she praised and popped a slice in his mouth.
Bouncing a time or two, he chewed, accepted another orange wedge, then started filling the bucket again.
“You’re a very hard worker. Just like your mama,” Valerie told him.
Drops of cold water splattered down on them as Hailey arrived and shook her hair. Luca burst into giggles, the most infectious sound in the world, and Valerie laughed.
“San’,” Luca pointed to the pile.
“Yes, it is. You have a most awesome pile of sand,” Hailey said solemnly as she pulled on a cover-up. “Mom, we need to get going, I’m afraid.”
“Of course.” Valerie rose and started gathering everything together. “I’m so happy you were able to leave Luca with me—and to have a beach trip after.”
“Me, too.” Hailey frowned. “I’m sorry Dad was too busy with work to see me and Luca today. It’s been quite a while since we visited him.”
“Mmm,” Valerie said noncommittally.
“It’s still weird you’re not together. Do you ever talk or anything?”
“No. I haven’t spoken to him since the day I went over to get your boxes.”
“Oh. Right. Thank you for picking them up.” Hailey shook her head. “I can’t remember the last time I was at the house, actually. Then again, without you there, it’s probably a mess. Dad was never much of a housekeeper.”
And neither were Barry’s two slaves.
Valerie could feel her daughter’s gaze.
Her soft-hearted child wanted her parents to get back together. Unlike some children of divorce, neither Hailey nor Dillon had seen Valerie and Barry fighting. The vague explanations of “We grew apart” hadn’t satisfied either child. Barry certainly wouldn’t tell them about his slaves—and had asked Valerie not to.
Last fall, on the rare occasions the children came over, Alisha spent the evening with her family in St. Pete. Kahlua, though, had thrown a fit at leaving the house to hide her presence, so Barry’s solution had been to avoid having the children visit at all.
Apparently, he hadn’t changed his method.
Ah, well, not her problem.
With Luca chasing the seagulls, the trip to their cars