Free A Taste of Paradise by Connie Mason Page B

I’m dreading another three or four weeks at sea.”
    â€œWhat are you saying, Sophia? Don’t you want to return to England?”
    â€œOf course I do,” she maintained. “What would I do in Jamaica?”
    â€œThere is nothing for you in Jamaica, Sophia. I’ve already told you, there is no place for you in my life. You’re my past, Jamaica is my future. I refuse to take responsibility for you.”
    Anger roiled deep inside Sophia. She leaped to her feet, hands on hips, facing him squarely. “You were never one to accept responsibility, were you, Chris? Instead of accepting things and making them right, you ran. You can keep running, for all I care. Forget about me. You’re very good at that.”
    Spinning on her heel, she flounced off.
    Sophia knew the moment the words left her mouth that she had made a terrible mistake. She didn’t dare look back to see if her outburst had angered Chris as she clambered down the ladder. All she wanted was to reach the safety of her cabin.
    There were only a few times in his life that Chris had been rendered speechless, and this was one of them. Damn Sophia to hell! How dare she play with his emotions! She was the one who had rejected him after the duel that took Desmond’s life.
    Had Sophia known that the
Intrepid
belonged to him when she chose his ship on which to hide? What was her real purpose in stowing away? Was it to bedevil him? Did she still want to punish him for killing Desmond after all these years?
    â€œCaptain, are you all right? Did something happen between you and your lady?”
    â€œSomething happened a long time ago,” Chris spat. “Sophia is a fortune hunter who enjoys playing one man against another. She’s poison, Dirk, put on this earth to torment me. Believe it or not, long ago I fancied myself in love with her.”
    Blaine eyed him curiously. “What happened?”
    â€œI’ve tried my damnedest to forget Sophia and almost succeeded, until she turned up on the
Intrepid
. There are things in my life I’m not proud of, things that happened during my misspent youth. Sophia is responsible for the most difficult time I have ever had to face.”
    â€œIf Miss Carlisle is all that you said, I’m surprised you didn’t return her to England immediately.”
    There was no mirth in Chris’s laugh. “I’ve spent the better part of seven years trying to forget what I did because of Sophia. I told myself she meant nothing to me, that it didn’t matter if she was on board, but I was wrong.”
    â€œCare to talk about it?”
    Chris walked over to the railing, gripping it so hard his knuckles turned white. “Because of Sophia, I killed an innocent man, my best friend, in a drunken duel that never should have happened. The whole fiasco was a stupid mistake, and that’s all I’m going to say.”
    â€œYou said Sophia was in trouble.”
    A thoughtful expression crossed Chris’s features as he directed his gaze at the water churning beneath the ship. “Trouble seems to follow Sophia. Once, I believed she cared for me, Dirk, but it was my friend Desmond she chose to wed.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do now?”
    Chris whirled, his face contorted with rage. “I’m going to do exactly what I planned to do from the beginning. Bid the minx good riddance and book her passage on the first ship sailing out of Kingston Bay for England. I hold Sophia partly responsible for a man’s death. No one will ever know how much guilt I’ve suffered since the day Desmond died in my arms.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, or on Miss Carlisle. She must have been young when you first knew her.”
    â€œDon’t diminish her guilt in the disaster, Dirk. I’m a changed man emotionally and mentally since that fickle minx lied to me about her feelings. She made me believe she loved me, and then refused to speak to