Island Detour by Imbalzano Maria

Author:Imbalzano, Maria
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC027020 FICTION / Romance / Contemporary
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Published: 2024-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

With the towel secured around his waist, Max finger-combed his wet hair off his forehead, then stretched out on the bed. He was drained.

It wasn’t from camping the past two days; he’d always loved that. It was the despondency that came with having spent the previous night in a tent with Sophie. Who now hated him. And so she should. He was a despicable man—pushing her to the edge, then waiting for her to fall. And all because he was afraid to trust his own emotions. Because he didn’t trust her.

The other night, he thought he and Sophie could possibly become more than friends. But the information shared by Maddie made any relationship with her impossible. While he’d opened up to her about his past, she’d edited hers. Maddie’s words reverberated in his head. Why didn’t Sophie tell him she’d been involved with Greg Nelson? She had made it sound like they were just colleagues vying for the same position, when in reality it was much, much more.

She’d left out a huge piece of the puzzle—a relationship gone bad, which Greg must have seen as an additional motive to ruin Sophie. Although Max couldn’t fathom any reason that would push a person to wreck someone else’s career. Nelson had definitely gone too far to settle whatever issues he had with Sophie. But that didn’t excuse her lie of omission.

He had to stop dwelling on her, or he’d go insane. His new prescription was to ignore her and move on. His focus would revolve around moving ahead with the research institute—substituting one promise for another—turning a negative into a positive.

Max closed his eyes. But visions of Sophie took over. The azure waters of the Gulf had nothing over the color of her aqua-blue eyes, eyes that penetrated his until he was sure they could read his soul. He wanted to be back on the beach with her, sitting side by side, talking about their deepest secrets. In so many ways, she was the right woman for him. Chiseling through his walls, ever so gently, careful so as not to damage him any more than he already was. Little by little she had uncovered the demons that weighed him down and encouraged him to toss them aside.

With her, he felt lighter, freer, happier.

She had started a slow fire in his gut that spread through every inch of him with her kind, caring ways. But a more lethal blaze burned through him at her lack of honesty.

He moved his fingers and felt her phantom silky tresses flow through them as they had the other night—strands golden from the sun, catching the light of the moon. The muscles of his body tensed as two opposite versions of Sophie pulled at him.

He swung his feet to the floor, got up, and got dressed, needing to jog off his angst.

No peace for the wicked.

****

Sophie had survived the camping fiasco.

Not only had she made it back to school without having to speak to Max, but she’d

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