Chapter One

Summer 1995…

He passed by her desk. A wisp of her brunette hair was caught at the edge of her mouth while she intensely scrutinized the computer screen before her eyes, unwavering in her dedication to duty always. She wiped the strand of hair away and went on working. Robbie McKellar saw her for the umpteenth time, but this time with more attention than usual, enough to make him stop suddenly and abruptly turn around.

“Madeleine, the yacht is going out this evening, why don’t you come along?”

For several moments he waited for her response, maintaining a winsome air of amusement. He was young, nonchalant, unguarded in his admiration of her. She would always be like this—more serious than he. His was a doting love from afar that until that moment had been left ignored, shunned perhaps; after all, this was a working environment where overtures of a forward nature were discouraged.

In time, Madeleine slowly looked up, a bit befuddled as if it were unclear if she’d even been addressed.

“Robbie?”

Her eyes were a bit glazed over. But she was beautiful: high cheek bones, lustrous waves of brunette hair, perfectly formed lips softly brushed with dark pink. He’d savored her breasts on many occasions. What twenty-two year old man wouldn’t have given the sensuous abundance tucked inside her lacy bras a second glance, and then a third? He was quite certain that Madeleine Danes was unaware of her effect on men, or more specifically how her thin pastel blouses were often so transparent that what lay beneath them would be clearly visualized by any red-blooded male. That bevy of breast flesh could stir a man’s libido from yards away. Even now as she sat back in her chair, her chest sumptuously heaving as she took a long breath, Robbie could feel a gentle stirring in his pants as he glimpsed that beautiful bounty once again. How much longer could this gone on—his brazen lust—before he was forced to acknowledge his desire? Or act on that desire? So what that she was nearly twenty eight and he six years younger. They were both free of relationships, Madeleine’s latest relationship having broken apart three months earlier; she should be ready to date again, Robbie concluded.

“You just asked me to…to join you on the yacht?” She looked surprised