Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,8
what had happened since he’d left? A hell of a lot, thanks. She’d needed him. He hadn’t been there for her, forcing her to go through the blackest period of her life without him.
Since Charlie hadn’t asked—then or now—she had less than no interest in telling him. Whatever his proposal was, he could choke on his own jealousy before she’d lift a finger to consider it. And just for fun, she’d keep it to herself that she and Jared had broken up three months ago.
Not talking about the past was definitely a good plan.
“I filed my report,” she said. “What else could we possibly have to say to each other?”
“Plenty. You know Anderson filed an injunction against commercial ventures, right? He did it deliberately. Because I filed the injunction against the resort.”
His voice curled through her stomach, and she held on to it tightly, basking in warmth that she hated herself for wanting so much. He’d made his disinterest in her so clear. What was her problem?
“Yes. That’s why he hired me, after all, to counter your injunction. Hence the reason I called it a pissing contest. If either of you would glance up occasionally, you’d see how petty this whole thing is.”
That was the wrong thing to say. Charlie’s whole body went stiff and fierce, and she was ashamed she’d been watching him closely enough to notice. But jeez, what should she look at when the epitome of male perfection was dominating all the space in her office?
“But that’s the thing,” he said so quietly that she had to strain to hear him. “He started it by striking at my business. What was I supposed to do, roll over and let him destroy me?”
“No, of course not.” She shut her eyes for a second, which did nothing to fortify her. “But you filed the papers to declare it a wildlife sanctuary when you know the only wildlife around that coral reef that could possibly warrant protection is dolphins. What else was that but an attempt to drag me into it?”
Seemed pretty clear to her that all of this was some kind of punishment.
She had been the one to introduce Charlie to the dolphins that hung around in the cove on the north side of Ilhota Rosa, up close and personal. They’d stood on a rock together, his arms encircling her waist as the big gray bodies swam all around them. One had even let Charlie rub her head in what had been one of the most spiritual experiences of Audra’s life.
Over the last two years, she’d had a lot of time to reflect and that was definitely the moment when she’d started to fall for him.
That was the hardest part of seeing him again. She’d expected to have a completely different life, one with Charlie in it, and that hadn’t happened. Instead, he’d broken her heart into tiny unrecoverable pieces. Maybe it was a good thing that he’d waited so long to confront her—she wouldn’t have been able to handle it a year ago.
“You flatter yourself. Ilhota Rosa should never be privately owned. The injunction I filed had nothing to do with us.”
The ice in his blue eyes stole the little bit of warmth she’d been clinging to. This chill between them was new. Horrible. She hated it. Hated the circumstances that had put them here.
Hated the way he said us without a sliver of an undertone that hinted at a possibility that us could still be a thing. That’s fine. She’d had over a year to get used to that.
The problem was that she hadn’t reconciled that she and Charlie were over at all. Neither did she understand why they were over.
“It doesn’t. You’re right.” She rounded the desk, desperate to put a barrier between them, and sank into her chair. “And I agree. The island is special or I wouldn’t have filed the report.”
She was paying for it too. Jared had been in Singapore for weeks, which she’d hoped would give her breathing room when he got word of what he’d consider a betrayal. But being halfway around the world didn’t prevent him from sending her nasty text messages demanding she retract her report. Which wasn’t happening.
Then he’d started calling, but she didn’t bother to answer. He didn’t own her, and besides, their conversations had been tense enough lately.
That tended to happen when you broke up with someone who wasn’t on board with the relationship ending. But there hadn’t been much to end, frankly. Not from her