Prologue

PROLOGUE

M axwell stood in the bow of the boat, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his hair, the spray of salty water on his skin, and took a deep breath of the humid air, the feeling that he was coming home washing over him. As the island came into view, the sensation only grew until he was filled with the kind of contentment and satisfaction that he rarely felt anywhere else on Earth. Knowing deep down that he'd made the right decision, even if all his friends and family thought he'd lost his mind, he looked at the resort he'd spent the last year building, a pleased smile spreading across his face.

When Mateo stepped up next to him, he tried to ignore the other man's presence, not wanting anything to spoil the moment, but the weight of the man's eyes eventually forced him to turn away from the view he'd come to love. A pair of piercing dark eyes regarded him for a moment more before Mateo turned to look at the beach where the new dock gleamed brightly in the tropical sunlight, only one of the improvements he'd made to the coast of the small island.

"I know what you're thinking. Let's not have this discussion again," he finally said. "I've heard it all before and it hasn't changed my mind, and it certainly won't now. I've done my best to assure you that the island will still be the paradise that it's always been. I don't know what else I can do to convince you that I'll treat this place with the respect that it deserves."

Mateo shrugged. "I don't think there's anything that would make me truly happy except for you to leave. This island isn't a vacation paradise. It's a sacred and special place to the people of Barbados," he said. "You don't belong here, and your rich friends don't belong here, but the government has decided the money you offered them was more important than the people of this country."

"If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else, and they might not have cared as much as I do about protecting the environment," he said. "This island is important to me, Mateo, I don't want to see it ruined either. There's something special about it, something that draws me to it."

Mateo looked over at him, his eyes searching his face, his dark skin glistening with perspiration in the heat. "You're under its spell," Mateo said, shaking his head. "I warned you when you started all this that the island is a strange and wondrous place. No man should try to tame it, there's no telling what might happen."

"Enough of your doom and gloom. The island is a beautiful place and nothing more," he said. "I don't believe in superstition or legends. This is nothing but a piece of land. It doesn't live and breathe; it doesn't have a will of its own or the power to influence people. I appreciate the warning, but you're wasting your time. Heart of the Ocean belongs to me, at least for the next fifty years. I'm going to open my resort, and nothing you can say will scare me away."