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The Paloma Blanca was a motor sailer and it shone proud and white and gleaming in the moonlight. Jennifer approached it slowly, looking around to make sure that no one had observed her. Adam had told her he would elude the secret service men and apparently he had succeeded. After Jennifer had seated Joshua and Mrs. Mackey at Maria Elena, she had taken a taxi and had had the driver drop her off two blocks before the pier.
Jennifer had picked up the phone half a dozen times to call Adam to say she would not meet him. She had started to write a note, then had torn it up. From the moment she had left Adam at the bar, Jennifer had been in an agony of indecision. She thought of all the reasons why she should not see Adam. Nothing good could possibly come of it, and it could lead to a tremendous amount of harm. Adam's career could be at stake. He was riding on a crest of public popularity, an idealist in a time of cynicism, the country's hope for the future. He was the darling of the media, but the same press that had helped to create him would be out there waiting to push him into the abyss if he betrayed their image of him.
And so Jennifer had made up her mind not to see him. She was another woman, living a different life, and she belonged to Michael now...
Adam was waiting for her at the top of the gangplank.
"I was so afraid you weren't coming," he said.
And she was in his arms and they were kissing.
"What about the crew, Adam?" Jennifer finally asked.
"I sent them away. Do you still remember how to sail?"
"I still remember."
They hoisted the sail and sheeted in for a starboard tack, and ten minutes later the Paloma Blanca was heading through the harbor toward the open sea. For the first half hour they were busy navigating, but there was not a moment when they were not acutely aware of each other. The tension kept mounting, and they both knew that what was going to happen was inevitable.
When they finally cleared the harbor and were sailing into the moonlit Pacific, Adam moved to Jennifer's side and put his arms around her.
They made love on the deck under the stars, with the soft, fragrant breeze cooling their naked bodies.
The past and the future were swept away and there was only the present holding the two of them together in its swiftly fleeting moments. For Jennifer knew that this night in Adam's arms was not a beginning; it was an ending. There was no way to bridge the worlds that separated them. They had traveled too far from each other and there was no road back. Not now, not ever. She would always have a part of Adam in Joshua, and that would be enough for her, would have to be enough for her.
This night would have to last her the rest of her life.
They lay there together, listening to the gentle susurration of the sea against the boat.
Adam said, "Tomorrow - "
"Don't talk," Jennifer whispered. "Just love me, Adam."
She covered his lips with small kisses and fluttered her fingers delicately along the strong, lean lines of his body. She moved her hands down in slow circles until she found him, and her fingers began to stroke him.
"Oh God, Jennifer," Adam whispered, and his mouth began to move slowly down her naked body.