Tiff had just walked out of a luxury apartment development when her mobile rang. On seeing Yvette’s number, she was a little surprised. After all, she’d turned down the job twice. Perhaps she was calling in connection with more freelance work.
‘Tiff. Hello. Yvette here. I have to tell you that your cousin called me this morning and told me that I mustn’t let you turn this job down.’
Tiff couldn’t stop her squeak of amazement. ‘What? I had no idea! Marina did that?’
‘Clearly she has your interests at heart. Would you consider changing your mind?’
‘I – I’d need to think about it,’ Tiff said, still taken aback by Marina’s intervention and Yvette renewing her offer. She must be very keen to work with Tiff.
‘OK, but please, let me have your answer asap, because I really need a features ed. We’re busy, and going to be busier. And, Tiff, before you go – I have to tell you something else you might be interested in …’
It was dusk by the time she arrived home and she went straight round to Dirk’s. He answered the door in a dark blue sweater and jeans, his hair wind-blown, his cheeks shaded by stubble. He was magnificent and wild, like the land he lived in – and as impossible to leave.
As soon as they were in the sitting room, he kissed her, leaving her reeling with lust and guilt. She had to tell him about the job offer; she owed him total honesty.
‘Wow,’ she said.
He grinned. ‘I needed that. I’ve been on a shout all afternoon. Some guy stole a rowing dinghy from the harbour and tried to get to France for some cheap wine. He lost an oar. We got him a moment before it was swamped.’
Tiff rolled her eyes. ‘What is wrong with people?’
‘This one was pissed. He didn’t want to come aboard even though he was sinking but we told him it was happy hour at the Smuggler’s and to save his booze cruise for another day.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that standard casualty procedure? If so, I’m not sure you’ll ever get a job as a hostage negotiator.’
‘It made him leave the boat and saved his life. The paramedics picked him up at the quay.’
She smiled and kissed him. She knew that behind the dark humour, these incidents bothered Dirk far more than he let on.
‘You look tired too,’ he said.
‘Thanks.’
‘But still very hot.’
‘That’s better. Actually, I am a bit knackered. I’ve been doing a couple of stints at the lookout station while Marina is taking a break, not that I’m much use. I had to endure an hour with Bryony Cronk today and if that’s not deserving of the highest honour, I don’t know what is. You know her, I suppose?’ Tiff said, rolling her eyes. Bryony ran a dog-grooming parlour in the village and had her own unruly Rottweiler constantly in tow, although with her booming voice and blunt opinions, Tiff considered Bryony to be far scarier than her dog.
He chuckled. ‘I heard Bryony had decided to join the Wave Watchers. I agree, spending any length of time with her deserves a medal.’ He smiled to himself again.
‘What’s up?’ she asked.
‘The idea of you spending your precious time in a coast watch station with someone like Bryony, out of the goodness of your heart … you’ve come a long way from the Tiff who first knocked on my door.’
‘Firstly, I only do it for Marina. Secondly, you overestimate the goodness in my heart.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he said, so gently that her skin tingled. She wished he wouldn’t say such nice things to her; every kind word would make it so much harder to leave him.
‘I’d say the jury’s out on that,’ she said lightly, dread weighing her down. He was right in one way; she’d never have dreamed that she’d become so involved in Porthmellow life and she wasn’t simply stepping in to help Marina. She’d begun to understand how no community, particularly a tiny one pitted against the elements, survived without pulling together. If that sounded cheesy, she couldn’t help it. It was true.
But the satisfaction she felt in helping out her cousin and the townspeople was overshadowed by her guilt over what she had to tell Dirk. Now here he was, leg crossed over his thigh, his arm flung over the back of the sofa. He looked tired but at ease, unsuspecting. Oh God …
Her stomach was doing backflips while she sipped the mug of coffee he’d made her. She teetered on the very edge of not telling him about Yvette’s revelations. Why did life have to throw these bloody great boulders in your way and, just as you’d found a new path, roll them away and reveal yet another route? She decided to start with the easier of the two.
‘If you’ve been out saving lives, I take it you won’t have seen the news?’ she said.
He frowned. ‘No. Why? Don’t tell me something else has happened to Marina?’
‘No, thank God. It’s about my ex, Warner. There was a short piece on the BBC news channel. He’s been sacked by the government. Misconduct in a public office. Turns out he was fiddling his expenses and claiming cash for employing a girlfriend. Not me, obviously.’
Dirk swore. ‘Is nothing enough for some people? Why do they have to be greedy as well as bastards?’
‘I don’t know. Some get into a bubble. Knowing Warner, he was simply arrogant enough to assume he wouldn’t get caught. He had this attitude that he could get away with anything … shaft anyone. Actually, I found out about it this morning. An editor friend called me to warn me the news was about to break.’
‘I’m relieved he’s finally been rumbled. How was he caught?’
‘An undercover team had been investigating him and they handed over their findings to the police. What I find most amusing is that it was the old expenses fiddle that got him in the end. He’s done much worse, but I’m sure a lot of stones will be turned over now he’s been caught out. He has plenty of enemies. We’ll see what comes crawling out.’
‘I’m assuming you had no idea of the kind of man he was?’
‘Do you need to ask that?’ She was a little hurt.
‘No. I’m sorry I did. He must have hidden his real nature well.’
‘He fooled me. My pride was hurt and it still is. I’m angry with myself that I fell for someone who I thought …’ She still felt the sting of betrayal. ‘Who I thought would never use me like he did.’
‘I know that,’ he said gently.
‘Even so, I’m not sure how I was so taken in, and yet I was.’
‘You’re as human as the rest of us. Don’t think you’re not. People always amaze me. The strongest will clutch at a drowning relative to save themselves; the smallest, oldest, seemingly the frailest will show enormous strength …’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, but we don’t use that in our PR.’ His brief smile melted away. ‘How do you feel about this … finally being vindicated?’
‘It’s … hard to say. I suppose I should be doing a dance and whooping but I don’t feel like doing that as much as I might have once expected.’ Tiff could not deny that she’d thought she loved Warner back then, and she couldn’t openly revel in his misfortune … but she wasn’t sad for him either.
But she knew too that the real reason behind her sadness was sitting right in front of her. She hadn’t known that tearing herself away from Dirk would have hurt so much. That a pound-shop Heathcliff was the man she loved. She was also painfully aware that she was only putting off the moment when she had to confess all to Dirk. ‘My contact is the editor of the Post. She didn’t only call me to warn me that Warner had been dropped in it. She had something else to tell me.’
Realisation flickered in his eyes. He’d guessed … ‘Somehow I had a feeling you might say that,’ he murmured.
‘She also offered me a job.’
He waited before replying, measuring his words. ‘I see. Is this because you’re now back in favour?’
‘I wouldn’t put it like that; this editor – Yvette – told me at the time that she thought I’d been done an injustice. She believed I’d been set up, but there was no proof so she couldn’t justify taking on a disgraced reporter, not to mention she didn’t have a job for me. She has tried to help along the way; she’s the one who’s been running my freelance stories and, as you know, she came up with the auction lot.’
‘Yours is a world I will never understand.’
Goosebumps popped up on Tiff’s arms. He’d hit the nail on the head. The gulf between their worlds was huge and about to widen. She could see no way of bridging it.
‘Is the job offer anything to do with the exclusive about Marina?’ he asked.
‘That played its part, I’m not going to lie to you, but if you think for one moment that’s why I did it, then you aren’t the man I thought you were.’
‘What man is that, Tiff?’ He fixed her with those dark eyes that made her shiver with lust. They were also eyes that let her know there was no hiding from him.
She held up her palms. ‘No, no. I’m not feeding your ego …’
‘It would make a change.’ His smile was chilly but his expression softened quickly. ‘You’d be a fool not to accept it.’
‘Then I’m a fool.’ She laughed. ‘I’m not sure I can accept it.’
‘Why?’ he burst out.
‘Because …’ Tiff faltered. ‘Because Marina needs me.’
‘This is your big chance to go back.’
Yes, but at what cost?
‘It’s not quite as simple as that …’ she murmured, unable to frame her feelings in words. Seeing Dirk now, feeling that their relationship had moved to a new level, she suspected that he was the reason she’d told Yvette she still needed a little more time to think over the renewed offer. How ironic it was that the door back to her old life – a better version of her old life – had opened again, right at the moment when she’d felt that she and Dirk had a glimmer of a chance at making a go of things.
‘You know I’ll miss you,’ Dirk said, so gently that she could hardly bear it. ‘But I’d never hold you back. You’d despise me if I tried.’
‘Despise?’ She smiled, but her heart ached. ‘That’s not quite the word I’d use.’
‘You wouldn’t respect me if I asked you to stay. Which I both want and absolutely don’t. If you really need to be here for Marina’s sake, that’s different.’
Was it? She cared for Marina, she cared for Dirk. In different ways, of course, but each equally as powerful. The pull of Porthmellow had become stronger by the day, a little bit at a time, carrying her away from the shore until she was so far out, she wasn’t sure she could get back.
‘Actually, it was Marina who told Yvette I should take the job. I’d turned it down once.’
‘And you should take it.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘Be all that you could and should be, for my sake.’
Tiff saw his expression and she realised, finally, that he probably was right. Why was it so very hard to do the thing she’d vowed from the start – have no regrets? Was he secretly feeling as sad as her at the possibility she actually might leave soon?
The worst thing was she’d probably never know now …
She fought back tears, and placed her finger on his mouth, feeling its warmth. ‘Please, would it be OK,’ she managed, ‘if we avoided the issue for now and had knicker-ripping, hot and sweaty sex?’
His audible intake of breath told her that her diversion tactic had worked.
‘Hmm. Let me think …’
His eyes darkened with passion and Tiff’s own body tautened with desire. He leaned in closer and she felt his breath against her as his lips brushed the tender skin of her neck. How could she ever leave … would it be so very bad to stay and experience this every day?
‘Dirk!’
Her shriek of delighted surprise pierced the air as, without warning, he swept her up in his arms and dropped her onto the Chesterfield. Even as she was getting her breath back, he was pulling his sweater and T-shirt off in one go and wasting no time in delivering on her request.