She must not have been completely successful because Beau frowned and sent her a searching look. He opened his mouth as if to probe. No, she thought. Don’t ask me. Hot relief flowed through her when he closed it again and let the matter drop, and returned to piloting the boat through the busy channel.
CHAPTER 9
He was a goner.
From his spot at the controls of the Mari, Beau watched as Elizabeth lifted her face to the October sun shining in through the clear roof of the cabin. Her eyes were closed and a soft smile of pure delight tipped the corners of her mouth.
He found it unbearably sexy to watch a woman who was usually so tightly wound unravel in front of his eyes with every passing minute.
The sharp sea breeze coming in through the open port-holes whipped bright, vibrant color into her cheeks, and under her wide-brimmed hat, strands of her blond hair had pulled loose from the clip she contained it with and now fluttered wildly in the wind.
She looked young and sweet and vibrant.
He’d been attracted to her before. He wasn’t particularly pleased by that admission but he couldn’t lie to himself about it. What he was feeling now as he watched her couldn’t ever be classified as something as mild as attraction. He figured it was safe to say he was completely entranced.
The boy said something to her in sign language and she laughed, her smile gleaming white in the sunlight, and pulled him to her into a hug then kissed his forehead.
Beau quickly jerked his gaze back to the water cutting away in front of the boat. He did not need this. What the hell had he been thinking to invite her and the kid out on the Mari today? He still couldn’t believe he’d actually asked her—it had been one of those crazy, irrational impulses. The kind he couldn’t ignore even though he knew damn well he was going to live to regret it later.
He didn’t like this at all. This constant desire was like walking around all day with sand in his shoes—he felt itchy and uncomfortable and couldn’t think about anything else.
A commercial fishing trawler approached starboard and Beau gave the trawler its right-of-way under international steering and sailing rules, then started them up again and headed north through the Sound, toward Point No Point.
Before Marisa was killed, he and Grace used to take this route often. A budding marine biologist, Marisa used to love looking for orcas, harbor seals and other sea life that inhabited the fertile waters of Puget Sound and the San Juan islands.
After her death, he had to admit much of the joy he used to find out on the water eluded him. He wasn’t sure why. He still fished once in a while and he still enjoyed exploring remote islands when he had a chance. He had even replaced his old junk heap with this fifteen-year-old Grand Banks the year before.
Someday he wanted to cruise all the way to Alaska then down to Mexico, but he wasn’t sure if he would ever have that much time. And even if he had the time, he wasn’t sure he wanted to do it without somebody he enjoyed being with enough to take along.
He liked his solitude, probably because he’d spent so much of his childhood alone. But he had to admit the salt air seemed more crisp, the sun warmer, the water more brilliant when he had someone to share it with.
He glanced at his companions—at the slim, elegant blonde as enthralled by the water as the little solemn-eyed boy—and realized he was enjoying himself out here more than he had in a long time, even with the relentless tug of desire yanking him toward Elizabeth.
She turned and caught him staring at her—or maybe she didn’t realize he’d been staring, because she gave him a quick smile.
“I thought we’d head over to Port Ludlow and have lunch,” he said over the growling diesel motors. “I’ve seen a stray pod of orcas near there a few times, and I thought Alex might enjoy seeing them.”
She smiled again and nodded. “Anywhere is fine. This is wonderful, Beau. Thank you so much for inviting us.”
Yep. He was a goner.
“Care to take the controls?”
Her jaw sagged at the suggestion. “You want me to…to drive the boat?”
He laughed at her horror-stricken look. “Sure. It’s easy, I promise.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t. What if I hit something? Or ran us aground.”
“You think I’m going to let you hurt my baby? Trust me. I’d take over well before you could do any serious damage. Everything will be fine. Come on. Give it a try.”
Although she still looked as if he’d just asked her to eat raw salmon eggs out of his tackle box, she stood and eased closer toward the helm—and toward him, a pretty decent side benefit.
She was close enough that he could smell the peach scent of her shampoo and feel the heat of their shoulders brushing slightly as the Mari rode the waves.
For the next hour he showed her the basics of piloting the cruiser—how to check the depth sounder, how to read the GPS, how to use the VHF radio, even how to use the EPIRB—emergency position indicating radio beacon—to summon help if the need ever arose.
She was a fast learner and soon she was handling the Mari like a seasoned trawler pilot.
“You want something to drink?” Beau asked when he was confident she was comfortable enough at the controls that he could walk down to the galley. “I’ve got pop in the fridge and bottled water. Sorry I don’t have anything stronger but I don’t like to drink on the boat. I’ve seen too many drunk idiots who have no business behind the wheel of anything.”
“Don’t leave!”
He laughed. “I’m only walking down to the galley. Just yell if you hit a shoal.”
“That’s not funny.” She made a face but never took her gaze off the horizon.
“Relax and enjoy yourself. You’re doing great.”
She looked skeptical. “Really?”
“I promise. If I didn’t have confidence that you can handle it, I would have taken over a long time ago. You’re a natural out here.”
This time she did glance at him. She looked shocked at first, then she offered him a brilliant, radiant smile that just about jerked his sea legs out from under him.
Man, oh, man.
“What do you want to drink?” he growled.
“I wouldn’t mind a bottled water,” she said.
He tapped Alex on the shoulder and pantomimed taking a drink with a question in his eyes. He was pleased when Alex nodded. He didn’t know much sign language yet, but he had discovered he could make basic things understood.
He gestured for the boy to follow him down into the galley, then showed him the selection in the fridge. With another of those quicksilver smiles, Alex selected a root beer and Beau pulled out a water for himself and one for Elizabeth then returned topside.
“How do I say ‘watch for whales’?” he asked Elizabeth after he tucked her water in the holder on the captain’s chair.
She gazed helplessly at the wheel. “I can’t show you right now! My hands are a little tied up here.”
He laughed. “It’s not like a car. You do have to be alert but you don’t have to keep your hands busy every second.” His intention was innocent—to reach around her and engage the automatic pilot but as soon as he touched her he wanted more. She was warm and smelled fresh and sweet, and all he could think about was tasting those luscious lips again.
Bad idea. He tried to remind himself of all the reasons why kissing her would be about as smart as sticking his hand down into the prop. She was everything he wasn’t looking for in a woman—refined and elegant and snotty.
But the more time he spent with her, the more that argument rang hollow.
Elizabeth Quinn the multigazillionaire heiress might be cool and distant. But Elizabeth Quinn the woman was like these waters, with hundreds of tantalizing inlets and shoreline he hadn’t even begun to explore.
Not that he planned to start. He was a simple man who liked the women in his life to be as easy and uncomplicated as he considered himself.
He cleared sudden roughness out of his throat and quickly engaged the au
tomatic pilot. “There. Now she’ll just follow the chart I’ve set for a minute, and you can show me the sign for whale.”
He had to admit he found her sudden blush dangerously appealing. So he wasn’t the only one affected by their nearness. Was it his imagination or did her breathing speed up a notch when he brushed against her? If he gave in to impulse and kissed her, would she push him away or pull him closer as she had in the bank vault?
Damn. He had to stop thinking about that. He yanked his mind away and practiced the signs she showed him a few times to make sure he had them right, then repeated them to Alex, touching the binoculars that hadn’t left the boy’s neck.
While Alex applied himself diligently to this important task, Beau turned back to Elizabeth. “Do you want me to take over again?”
“Not unless you want to. I’m enjoying it.”
“With a great deep-water dock like you’ve got at your place, you ought to get a boat of your own.”
“Oh, I couldn’t!”
“Why not? You’re loaded. You can probably afford the best.”
It probably wasn’t too tactful to mention her fortune but she didn’t look offended. “Oh, no. I couldn’t,” she said again. “I’d be too nervous to…to pilot my own boat.”
“There’s nothing to it once you get the hang of it. It’s all a matter of putting in the time to learn. You can practice on the Mari any time you want until you feel comfortable enough for your own cruiser.”
Now why the hell would he make an offer like that? He needed to stay away from the woman, not make up flimsy excuses for them to spend more time together.
Still, he was glad he had when she gave him another of those stunning smiles. “Thank you. I’ll…think about it. It’s a very sweet offer.”
He wanted to warn her again that he was not sweet. He was rude and abrupt and surly. Everybody said so.
Even as a kid, he’d been a rotten little cuss who took every chance he could to break all the rules and restrictions his grandmother could think up for him. He hated living in that damn museum, isolated from other boys his age, head-butting constantly against Marie’s unrealistic expectations for her only grandson.
The only time he’d been free—the only time he had escaped the weight of his grandmother’s cold disapproval—had been fixing up his dead grandfather’s battered old wood-side yacht and then sailing out on the freshwater lake near his grandmother’s house.
Maybe that’s why he still loved the water so much. It reminded him of another lifetime ago, when he’d been young and wild and carefree.
Before he managed to unravel the tangle of lies and half-truths Marie had fed him all his life. He’d been sixteen before he learned the bitter truth about his parents, the scandal his grandmother had carefully hidden from everyone.
When his safe but stifling world was blown apart.
He grimaced, thinking of those grim days after he learned how his parents had died. If that lake hadn’t been land-locked, he would have climbed into that old yacht and sailed out to sea and never looked back. Instead, he’d turned so wild that Marie had finally, out of desperation, sent him to a military academy to finish his last two years of high school.
As long as he was away from her and Big Piney, he didn’t care where he was.
He was wrenched out of the grim memories when Alex ran to Elizabeth and tugged on her windbreaker. “What do you see?” She signed and spoke at the same time for his benefit. Beau picked out the sign for whales in Alex’s excited answer but that was about it.
He glanced to where Alex pointed. Sure enough, a small pod of killer whales, three adults and one juvenile, was swimming about five hundred yards to starboard.
“Why don’t you let me take her now while you watch the orcas. I’ll move a little closer for a better view.”
Beau brought the Mari two hundred yards from the pod—the protective distance required by law—and cut her engines, then led them to the flybridge, for a better view.
The whales seemed to enjoy the company and weren’t in any hurry to move away. For a good ten minutes they stayed close, splashing their fins and leaping out of the water in pirouettes a ballet troupe would envy.
He stood near the aft railing keeping a protective eye on Alex while they watched the whales.
After a few moments Elizabeth sighed. “They’re…magnificent! I don’t have words.”
It took everything in him not to reach for her, to kiss that bright, elated face.
“Yeah, they make me pretty speechless, too,” he said gruffly and turned back to the whales.
At last the pod moved away, diving below the surface as they raced each other through the strait. Alex didn’t tear his gaze off the whales as they swam out of sight, shoving his binoculars tightly to his eyes so he could catch every last glimpse, but Elizabeth turned to Beau, her own eyes shining with excitement.
“Oh, Beau. That was incredible. Thank you so much for showing us!”
He couldn’t help himself. A man could only be so strong.
He had to kiss her.
Don’t be an idiot, Riley. The thought registered briefly, like a kingfisher touching water just long enough to snap up a meal, but he ignored it and touched his mouth to hers.
She froze, eyes wide, then she sighed and her lashes fluttered down. He would have stopped right then—what was a friendly kiss between shipmates, after all?—but she leaned into him, her hands climbing up to tuck against his jacket, and he deepened the kiss.
She tasted of mint and smelled of peach and she had the most incredible way of sighing against his mouth.
He was such a goner.
The kiss probably didn’t last longer than thirty seconds. He would have gone on kissing her forever, but reason intruded. They were adrift on open water with a five-year-old boy on board. He had absolutely no business stealing a kiss under any circumstances but especially not under these.
When he pulled away, she gazed at him in stunned disbelief, then cast a quick look to Alex. Beau followed her gaze and saw to his vast relief that the kid wasn’t paying them any mind at all, still enthralled by the whales, now only black-and-white specks against the horizon.
Elizabeth didn’t say anything, just continued watching him out of wide blue eyes, but Beau would be damned before he apologized. He wasn’t sorry he’d kissed her, except it would be that much harder to keep his distance if he couldn’t close his eyes without remembering the taste of her.
“We should be reaching Port Ludlow within the hour.”
She nodded, her color high. “Okay.”
He’d be damned before he apologized.
The Mari roared to life with his vicious twist of the control and cut powerfully through the waves once more.
* * *
They stayed on the flybridge while Beau guided the cruiser with the second control station up top, through places whose names he tersely related—Skunk Bay, Foul-weather Bluff, Hood Canal.
Elizabeth was glad they were outside instead of in the close confines of the cabin. With Alex tucked against her, she turned her face to the sunshine and the cool, wet wind as she tried to make sense of that stunning kiss.
It would be so easy—so temptingly easy—to surrender to the hot current of need pulsing through her. Beau was a powerfully attractive man who by all indications was as drawn to her as she was to him.
They were two unattached adults—at least she assumed he was unattached. Terrible thought. She suddenly couldn’t bear the idea of him with another woman, kissing someone else, tasting her skin, holding her in those strong hands.
He couldn’t be, she assured herself. Beau would never have kissed her with such intensity if he was involved with someone else.
So they were both unattached. Why couldn’t they engage in a purely physical relationship? Tangled sheets and sweat-soaked bodies might be just what she needed.
Her stomach fluttered at even considering the idea of making love with him. No. She couldn’t afford to be that crazy, that irresp
onsible with her heart. She was already half in love with him, far too vulnerable to protect herself from slipping all the way there if they made love.
She couldn’t fall in love with him. She couldn’t. It would be nothing short of disastrous when she knew with bitter certainty that all she would get out of an affair with a man like Beau Riley would be a broken heart. How could it be otherwise? Even though he might desire her physically, he could never possibly return her feelings.
She had spent her entire pathetic life offering her heart to men who didn’t want it, first her father, then Stephen, both of whom had been unable to find anything in her worth loving. She didn’t know if she could survive such ravaging pain again.
Besides that, the timing couldn’t be worse. She had to focus on finding Tina’s killer, and beyond that Alex needed her full attention right now. He had lost his mother only a few short weeks ago and would need nurturing and stability for a long time.
She sighed and leaned against the metal railing. She wouldn’t have thought he could hear the small sound over the thrum of the motors, but Beau glanced over at her, his expression remote.
“There’s Ludlow. You think that will suit you for lunch?”
She hated the cool distance in his voice, even though she knew it was far better for him to freeze her out than to offer her more of that beguiling heat. When she answered, she tried to match his cool tone, though her vocal cords felt tight and achy. “Yes. I believe so.”
“Good. Would you tell Alex I have to moor to the buoy and then he can help me row the dinghy to shore?”
She translated the message to Alex, who was thrilled to have another task. She had to admit she found it a little surprising that Beau had such dead-on instincts with Alex. He treated him just like any other child, giving him jobs and responsibilities.
Some people assumed Alex’s hearing impairment made him somehow incapable of anything challenging. She found that about as frustrating as the people who seemed to think he should be able to hear them if they only yelled a little louder.
She thought of Beau taking the time to buy ASL tutorials, of him trying so earnestly to communicate with Alex. Not many men she knew would have gone to so much trouble for a child they knew on only a casual basis. It would be far too easy to develop feelings for a man like that.
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