a mentor?”
He thought a minute. “Mateo,” he said. “Mateo Villarreal.”
“I remember Mateo Villarreal.”
He looked surprised. “You do?”
“Well, I remember your mentioning him. You’d been climbing with him before you…before you came here for the wedding.”
And just like that, the years seemed to fall away. The “Do Not Touch” and “Do Not Mention” signs vanished and the past came rushing back.
When she’d first met Nathan he’d just come back from an Andean expedition with Chilean mountain climber Mateo Villarreal, a man so well-known that even a non-climber like Carin had heard of him.
During the week they’d spent together, Nathan had told her plenty of Mateo stories. Mateo, he’d assured her, made a guy like Dominic look easy-going. Mateo was intense, focused, demanding and absolutely reliable. Also very funny. It had been easier to think of Dominic as a “whole person” and not just a scary one when she’d heard Nathan’s stories about Mateo.
She hadn’t gone through with the wedding, though, because in telling the stories, Nathan had endeared himself to her even more. One Mateo story she remembered particularly well because it had, in a way, made her reevaluate her own situation.
In those days, Nathan had said, he hadn’t been much of a climber. He’d had to push himself to keep up with Mateo on even a moderate climb. Of course, the climb itself wasn’t what he’d gone for. Nathan had been after photos. He’d told her there was a particular route he’d wanted to climb and Mateo had said no, he wasn’t ready.
Nathan had argued. “A man needs to test himself.”
But Mateo had been adamant. “There’s testing and there’s foolishness. And it’s crucial to know which is which. It’s fine to stretch. But you need to respect your limits.”
It was respecting her limits that had made Carin jilt Dominic. In the abstract, the notion of being married to Dominic Wolfe had been thrilling. He was gorgeous, wealthy, strong, capable, responsible—everything a woman could want in a man.
He was like Everest. Both towering and tempting.
Not a challenge in which a novice could succeed. And the closer she’d come to their wedding day, the clearer that had become.
During the week before the wedding, Nathan had attempted to show her the softer side of Dominic—the human side, the gentle side. He’d shown her that Dominic had traits that made him human, that she could relate to.
It wasn’t Dominic she’d doubted in the end.
It was herself.
Facing marriage to Dominic, Carin had learned her limits.
Now she wondered if she was pushing the limits again—sitting here talking to Nathan, feasting her eyes on him, enjoying his company.
She finished her glass of iced tea. “I’d better let you get back to work,” she said abruptly. Nathan looked startled. A flicker of something—annoyance? irritation?—crossed his face. But then it was a mask of politeness again.
He stood up. “I’ll take the dishes into the kitchen. Do you want to stay here or would you like me to carry you back to your room?”
Carin shook her head and stood up carefully. “I’ll walk.”
She didn’t need him touching her. Didn’t need more memories or more temptation. It had been a week since her accident. It was time she did what she could for herself. She took a halting step.
Nathan’s jaw tightened as he watched. “Carin.” His tone was warning.
She shook her head. “I’m fine,” she said fiercely. “Go take the dishes into the kitchen.”
He didn’t move, just stood there, prepared to catch her if she fell.
She wouldn’t fall!
She saw a muscle ticking in his temple as she made her way past him and slowly limped into her room.
Enough.
Nathan wanted to tell Carin he’d had enough. Wanted to step in right now and tell her how it was going to be—that she was going to let him carry her across the damn room, that they were going to talk about what had happened between them all those years ago, logically and rationally for once. Then they were going to put it behind them, marry each other, turn the three of them into a family, and that was going to be that.
A hundred times since her accident he opened his mouth to say those things. And every time he’d back away again.
His father could have done it. Dominic could have done it. Hell, even Rhys probably could have done it!
Nathan couldn’t.
He wanted to marry her. No question about that. If he’d come back out of duty first and a healthy curiosity about the one woman he’d fallen hard for in his whole life,