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lot.”
    Juliette bit her bottom lip and stared into Will’s mind but couldn’t quite read him. The man certainly sounded sincere. It’s just that he was in dire need of a relationship manual. He came on like a speeding freight train.
    “This is all a game to you, isn’t it, Will? Well, I’m through being some man’s pawn. I’m through being easy. I have to protect myself.”
    “You don’t need protecting from me, sugar.”
    Juliette tightened the shawl around her shoulders. She felt feverish, then shaky. Perhaps she was coming down with something.
    She walked away from Will and minutes later found herself in a room full of paintings, drawings, and prints.
    “We’re having our art auction at the end of the cruise,” said a woman who stepped out from behind a podium. Would you care to take a look around? See if there’s anything you like? Here’s a brochure about the auction. We’re one of the largest privately owned galleries in the world. If you see something that strikes your fancy, just find our auctioneer and he’ll explain what to do.”
    Juliette took the brochure the woman offered. Jack and Kate stood behind her.
    “Mom, are you all right?”
    Juliette turned to Kate. “Do we have time before dinner to visit the gallery?”
    “Sure, I’ll come with you. I studied art history in college, and I used to work in a gallery. Did you know that?”
    “No, I didn’t. There’s a lot about you I didn’t know, that I missed out on. Let’s go in together.”
    Will and Jack stood guard outside the gallery.
    “How are things going with Juliette?” Jack asked.
    “I can’t figure that woman out,” Will said. “After my wife died, I couldn’t fight the women off. I’m considered something of a ladies’ man back in Graysville.”
    Jack smiled.
    “But Juliette, well, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and the strongest. There’s something going on between us. There’s a spark, a fire, but she won’t admit it. It happens every time I touch her. But she won’t let me in.”
    “Will, she’s been through a lot. She’s been hurt. I want to make sure you’re not going to hurt her again.”
    “I’m not like that lecherous reverend. She might be surprised, if she’d give me half a chance.”
    “Maybe you’re coming on too strong,” Jack suggested.
    “I only have two weeks. Then y’all are going back to Atlanta. She won’t let me near her in the cabin. The only chance I have of wearing down her resistance is in public, where I can kiss her or touch her, make a physical connection.”
    “But you just met her. I think things are happening too quickly for her taste. Women like to be courted.”
    “But every time I look at her, every time I’m around her, I go crazy. Jack, she is driving me insane.”
    Jack chuckled. “That’s the way I felt about Kate. It was instant, like a lightning bolt.”
    “I’m just going to have to use the time I have with her to get her to realize we were meant for each other.”
    Jack shook his head. “You’ve got it bad, Will.”
    Will acknowledged that he did. “I hope the girls come back out soon. I’m getting hungry.”

Chapter Six
    Kate and Juliette roamed the gallery for the next half hour, impressed by the wide selection of European artists on display. They wandered into an isolated alcove of the gallery and looked through another stack of paintings.
    A man hurried over.
    “Ladies, I’m afraid the gallery is closed for inventory.”
    Juliette looked deflated. “But the woman outside said—”
    “I’m afraid she was mistaken.”
    “Well, we were hoping to see some of these paintings,” said Kate, inching her way farther into the alcove.
    Juliette tightened the shawl around her shoulders. The man, regal and tall as a giant—coal dark hair and matching moustache and beard as full as a thicket, piercing blue ageless eyes, a rather appealing man, in a tailored black suit, reminiscent of a vampire, sans cape—blocked the entrance. His