His Last Chance at Redemption by Michelle Conder

he’d watched Lexi go under hadn’t been that much different. Which was absurd. He’d loved his uncle and didn’t care a whit about Lexi Somers.
    ‘Lexi, are you okay?’ Tom’s concern was palpable and Leo shook off his disconcerting thoughts and pierced him with a look. If he but knew it, Tom Shepherd was only standing because of the woman he’d nearly killed. He hadn’t put a life jacket on Lexi and Leo knew why. And he knew why Tom had gone extra fast to make her cling to his back. Had she enjoyed it, pressed up against Tom’s back as she’d held tight? Had she been thinking of
Tom
when she’d responded to
his
kisses moments ago? Leo inwardly cursed the direction of his thoughts. This sense of jealousy—because he recognised that was what it was even though he had never experienced it before—was so unlike him. Women were always easy to come by and easy to let go.
    Unused to feeling so out of balance, Leo turned his anger on her. ‘Why the hell didn’t you insist on wearing a life jacket?’ he snarled.
    He could see his sudden attack had startled her and that she was floundering over how to answer him.
    ‘That was my fault, Leo,’ Tom answered like a protective beau. ‘I said she wouldn’t need one.’
    ‘Excuse me. If I could just see the patient.’ The doctor pushed the two men aside and crouched beside Lexi and Leo paced away from them before he did hit Tom. He hadn’t been in a fist fight for seventeen years and he was disgusted with his loss of control that nearly saw him in one now. He didn’t understand this possessive urge he felt towards Lexi Somers but it had to stop. She wasn’t his and she never would be. He would never want her to be, despite his continued desire to take her to bed. That was just lust. Unusual in its intensity, yes, but still something he could control.
    The doctor finished examining her and sat back on his haunches. ‘You’re fine. You’ve taken in a bit of water but your lungs sound clear enough. It doesn’t appear you were hit and I expect you’ll make a full recovery by this evening, but get some rest when you get back all the same.’
    ‘I feel fine now,’ Lexi said, hugging her knees close to her chest.
    ‘Thanks, Gerard,’ Leo murmured. ‘Tom can return you to the yacht.’
    Tom hesitated. ‘I’m really sorry, Lexi.’
    ‘That’s okay, Tom. Accidents happen.’
    ‘No, they don’t,’ Leo cut in. ‘That was a stupid thing to do, Shepherd, and if I see you on one of my skis again without a life jacket I’ll find someone else to do the East India project.’
    Lexi’s eyes flew to Leo as he squared off against Tom. The East India project was
his
idea? Lexi was shocked. The man worked tirelessly to save men he had probably never met after a building accident, knew the name of a staff member who ranked low down on the yacht’s employment hierarchy, and now funded documentaries to bring the plight of children inthe Third World to the attention of others—and these were just things she knew about. It didn’t make sense that a man like that would not want to have a relationship with his son.
    Unless he was still pining for the mother of that child?
    Lexi’s throat constricted at the unexpected thought that Leo might still be so in love with the beautiful Amanda Weston that he couldn’t even stand to have their son in his orbit if he couldn’t have her as well. Not that he’d said as much—but what other explanation could there be?
    Lexi remembered how her own mother had been so deeply affected when her father’s double life had come to light she had never risked her heart on another man again, turning instead to fostering children to fulfil the void his defection had left behind. Lexi had admired her mother for providing such a caring environment for other children, but she had always struggled when a child who had become part of their family had been returned to their own home.
    ‘Okay, okay, my friend; I can see you’re upset.’ Tom held