The sight of her filled him with desire, but also with guilt for all the pain he had personally put her through.
He’d finally remembered why he had been so mad at her all those years ago. People, he realized, could be so stupid when they were suffering. They could hurt those whom they loved without ever wanting to.
Sam closed his eyes, his mind drifting back some fifteen years earlier.
It was a time when he and Catarina Marcello had first met. They were at a lookout at the end of Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles.
She was crying.
They both were. He was grieving the loss of his brother, who used to walk up to the lookout to find solace, and she was there to grieve the loss of her lover. The thing that neither of them had known at the time was they had both lost the same person.
Daniel Reilly was his brother.
He was also secretly engaged to Catarina Marcello.
After sitting at the lookout and just staring out into the hills of Hollywood for some time, Sam had started to talk to her.
Neither spoke about their loss. They didn’t have to. They just sat and talked.
Strangely, after that they became friends. It was slow at first. They went for walks, lunch, and eventually started dating.
Sam looked very different to his brother, who was tall and skinny. The two barely passed as brothers when they were standing next to each other, so in retrospect, it was easy to see how Catarina had overlooked the connection.
By the time their lives had become deeply entangled and Catarina discovered the truth, she failed to see how she could ever tell Sam.
After all, how do you explain to the man you want to marry, that your first choice had been to marry his brother?
Failing to come up with a solution, Catarina had ignored her past, promising herself that she would one day tell him, when the time was right.
As it was when he was helping Catarina pack for their move, and inside a well-read book — Faro’s Daughter, by Georgette Heyer — a photograph slipped out.
Sam went to put it back and stopped.
His eyes narrowed on the photograph, taken three years earlier. In it, were Catarina and his now deceased brother, Daniel.
There was no way that she could have missed the connection after all these years, which meant that she had been lying to him — all along.
It was the betrayal of the lie that ate at his soul.
When Catarina had returned home, he confronted her about it. She broke down into tears and became inconsolable. It only made Sam angrier. Somehow, in the heat of the moment, words were said that went too far, and both agreed that they could never marry someone they didn’t trust.
And just like that, he had left the girl of his dreams.
Sam blinked. He had tears in his eyes. Catarina woke up, rolled over, and kissed him.
She wiped away his tears with her fingers. “What is it?”
Sam said, “I remember why I was so angry at you.”
Catarina held her breath. “I’m sorry.”
Sam pulled her into his arms tight and kissed her head. “No. I’m sorry I was such a fool. We both loved my brother. It should have made our love for each other stronger. Instead, I let the stupidity that often accompanies one’s youth dictate a different path.”
She tilted her head up, and gazed into his eyes. “So now what?”
“I don’t know. I’ve spoken to Tom and told him that he’s in command of the Tahila while I have a vacation and wait for the rest of my memory to return. What are you doing?”
Catarina said, “I have to go to Ubatuba, Brazil for a conference on neurology. It’s only two days. I was thinking that maybe you would like to come with me?”
Sam thought about that for a moment.
Before he could respond, she said, “The diving is meant to be pretty spectacular. What do you think?”
Sam said, “I once heard a rumor that the San Rosa Celeste ran aground somewhere along the Brazilian coastline.”
Catarina arched an eyebrow. “And that is, who exactly?”
“According to legend, it was the crew of the San Rosa Celeste, a group of Spanish Conquistadors, who were the last to ever lay eyes on the Golden City of El Dorado. They were heading back to Spain with tales of a city of superfluous gold…”
She met his eye. A wry grin of incredulity forming on her lips. “You want to go hunting for El Dorado?”
Sam grinned. “Yes, but only if you want to come too.”