Page 121 of Her Reluctant Hero
“Where would I sleep?”
“The filter hasn’t dried out yet.”
She held out her hands to stop the words. “Okay, okay, bad idea. I just thought, maybe, Jonathan would want to see what it is I used to do.” If she could get Jonathan to understand her love for the science, maybe she could return to it, at least now and again.
Not with Adrian, though. That would just be miserable.
Adrian’s defensive posture dropped at that, and Jonathan’s expression softened as he turned to her.
“I’d love to see it.”
She smiled, couldn’t help being self-conscious about it as Adrian rolled his eyes behind Jonathan.
“Let’s eat, then we’ll see if the boat will start,” she suggested.
If it didn’t, they’d be spending the night for nothing.
No amount of diving could make Adrian hungry right now. He couldn’t eat as he sat across from the man Mallory had chosen over him.
Okay, Jonathan wasn’t as obnoxious as Adrian had imagined. He looked less thrilled to still be here than Adrian felt about him being here. But he was doing it for Mallory, and that earned bonus points in Adrian’s eyes.
She’d chosen this guy, after all. The least Adrian could do was hope for her happiness if it couldn’t be with him.
Mallory’s eyes brightened when Robert joined them, looking curiously at Jonathan. She scrambled to her feet, and Jonathan followed more sedately—Adrian figured the guy to be at least ten years older than her—to greet the professor.
“Dr. Vigil, this is my fiancé, Jonathan Montcroft,” she said. Adrian imagined she stumbled a bit over the wordfiancé.
He didn’t imagine the glance Robert shot him. Neither did Mallory. Adrian lifted his shoulder in a half shrug.
“Jonathan is spending the night,” he told Robert. “We’re going to take him out to the barge in a bit so he can see what we have.”
Robert opened his mouth to say something, looked at Mallory and closed it again. “That will be nice,” he said, his tone precise, polite.
Only when they were halfway through the meal did Adrian understand Mallory’s eagerness. Robert had been like a father to her after the death of her parents, and Robert, estranged from his own family, saw Mallory as a daughter and Adrian a son. Now she was seeking his approval of her new fiancé as she would from her parents.
Adrian had to make sure Robert gave it.
He was relieved Jonathan’s hands weren’t all over Mallory, though he had a hard time believing the man could not touch her. Hell, even now, Adrian couldn’t stop touching her.
Unable to take another bite of the sandwich that had turned to sawdust in his mouth, Adrian stood. “I’ll see if I can get the boat started. Come down when you’re done.”
The first thing Jonathan did when he stepped onto the gently purringMiss Mwas to reach for a life jacket. Mallory blinked at him a moment, before she reached for one herself. She hadn’t worn one the whole trip, but she didn’t want him to look foolish in front of Adrian.
A glance at Adrian told her that her intervention was too late. But he didn’t say anything, just prepared the boat to launch.
Only Dr. Vigil joined them, though Mallory sensed the others wanted to come along too, just to see what would happen between Adrian and Jonathan. So far they’d mostly just ignored each other in the politest way possible.
Jonathan was nothing if not polite.
“Mallory, can you give me a hand up here?” Adrian asked as he stepped into the pilothouse. She recognized that tone. He didn’t need help any more than he needed more attitude. He wanted to talk. Three guesses what the subject would be.
“Can’t Dr. Vigil help you?” she asked sweetly from her seat by the rail. She did not want to have to explain to Jonathan what she and Adrian were discussing.
Adrian poked his head out of the pilothouse door and looked squarely at her. “No.”
Mallory narrowed her eyes at the back of his head when he withdrew into the pilothouse, but smoothed her features before Jonathan noticed. “I’ll be right back,” she said in the same sweet tone, maneuvering to her feet more awkwardly than usual with the added bulk of the life vest. She grasped the railing outside the pilothouse, more to diffuse the tension running through her body than to keep her balance. She refused to enter, so she stayed in the open doorway. “The boat started easily enough. What did you need?” she asked through her teeth.
He bent his head down, glancing over her shoulder at Jonathan. “He’s not going to puke on my boat, is he?”
