Damn. The woman thought he wanted her to serve drinks to his guests. “Liz, you don’t—”
“Fine,” she snapped, cutting him off before he could explain. “I’ll do it. But the donation to the school goes up by twenty-five percent.”
He opened his mouth about to correct her mistaken impression then and there. Before he could do it, though, their host called from a few feet away. “We have arrived, safe and sound. Are you feeling better, my friend?”
Jack slowly turned around. “Much better,” he said, surprised to realize he meant it. His seasickness had been all but forgotten during the incredible interlude he’d just shared with Liz.
“And we will find another time to meet this weekend?”
Casting a quick glance at the woman standing beside him, with her stiff shoulders and her tightly pressed lips, Jack knew what would happen if he told Liz what role he really wanted her to play at the party. She’d smile politely now, in front of Marchand, then later would back out without a moment’s hesitation.
So he didn’t tell her. She would figure out his intentions soon enough.
“Yes, Ray, we are looking forward to it,” he said with an easy grin. “Liz and I have just been working out the arrangements. It’ll be a very special night, beginning to end.”
He’d make absolutely sure of it.
* * *
“SO TELL ME, girl, where is this beautiful mon of yours I been hearin’ about?”
Ignoring her boss, Liz continued to wipe down the surface of the bar, taking advantage of the few minutes’ respite between cruise-ship customers. Today’s crowds had come into Trinity’s in slow waves, rather than a great tsunami, which was a nice change.
“Louella says he’s very easy on the eyes.”
Louella Marchand was the Duke’s much-younger wife. The woman Jack had barely given a second glance to yesterday on the boat, despite her vivid beauty.
Had he really not noticed her just because she, Liz, was around?
“No way,” she mumbled, not willing to go there even in her head.
“What?” Trinity asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking out loud.”
“Plus avoiding answering the question.” The other woman took a seat at the bar, a knowing smile creasing her face.
Trinity was in her forties, born and raised on the island, and now ran the beach bar that had been built by her father. She often said she would marry her boyfriend, Frank, if not for the man’s love of tequila, which, she claimed, would put her out of business in a year if she let him drink for free. And she had a very bad habit of minding everybody else’s business—all with the best intentions, of course.
“All right,” Liz admitted, knowing she would get no peace until she did. “Yes, he’s very handsome.”
“You know him from Boston?”
Liz shot the other woman a sidelong glance.
“My Frank. He has big ears. He said it was pretty obvious you have a past with this man.”
“It’s complicated.”
Trinity waved a hand, setting her bangled bracelets jingling. “What is complicated about a beautiful woman and a beautiful man having a beautiful time in the bed?”
“That’s out of the question.”
“Why? You live like one of the nuns at St. Benedict’s. It’s not good for a woman to dry out like that.”
Liz rolled her eyes, amused in spite of herself at Trinity’s frank view of the world. “Even if I wanted to, right now I’m just working for Mr. Beaumont. I told you I’m tending bar for his private party tomorrow night.”
Trinity shrugged. She hadn’t been thrilled about Liz’s side job—until she’d learned the terms of the deal. Her immediate family had worked hard to get where they were, but she still had relatives living in much poorer circumstances. So she’d fallen in love with Jack without ever setting eyes on him.
“After the party, you make him a special rum punch, then you have a wild celebration.”
“He wants me to serve his drinks, not serve him.”
He might have kissed her a couple of times, but Jack had not made any suggestion that they’d go further than that. And for a man like Jack, kissing a woman just because he felt like it was probably an everyday occurrence. It didn’t mean anything.
Liar. He wanted you.
Her eyes drifted closed for a moment as heat rocketed through her. Because there had been no denying it. Yesterday, when she’d been on his lap, in his arms, when he’d touched her and driven her nearly to madness, he had been every bit as aroused. She’d felt his erection against her hip, which had just made her that much hotter.
She honestly didn’t know what might have happened if the Duke hadn’t called out and interrupted them. Because stopping Jack hadn’t been anywhere close to the top ten things she’d wanted to do at that moment.
“Ahh…you are holding out on me,” Trinity said with a disapproving wag of her finger. “Something has happened between you two.”
“Didn’t Louella fill you in on that, too?”
Trinity shrugged. “You mean the two of you disappearing to another part of the boat for a while? Of course she did. I meant, something happened between you in the past.”
Groaning, Liz tossed the rag into the sink and dried her hands on her apron. “No. It didn’t. Not ever.”
That wasn’t a lie. Not entirely. Because nothing had happened in the past.
Okay, there had been a night or two, maybe even just a moment or two, when she and Jack had been working together and their hands accidentally brushed, or they’d been standing too close and Liz held her breath in shocked anticipation. When he’d stared at her mouth and she’d studied his strong, lean body, and known they were both imagining what it would have been like to fall into each other’s arms.
Maybe the exuberant hug they’d shared in his office on the day a particularly positive article had appeared in the newspaper had lasted a second too long. Had felt a bit too personal.
Maybe she had wanted him. Maybe she’d been guilty of that much.
But no more.
“Nothing happened,” she repeated, talking to herself as much as to her boss.
Trinity eyed her suspiciously, then finally appeared to accept her words. She hopped off the stool. “That doesn’t mean it never will.”
Sure it did, at least as long as she kept reminding herself that nothing ever should happen between them. That it would be a bad idea to let it. Because letting Jack anywhere close—into her bed or, God forbid, into her heart—was just an invitation to heartache.
She’d gotten over her past, her lousy marriage, and even felt ready to move on. But moving on with someone she might already have deep-rooted feelings for, someone who would be jetting out of her life again in a day or two?
Bad idea, Liz.
It shouldn’t be too hard to keep that in mind. She was working for him again. Saturday night she would don the professional bartender’s uniform and wait on him and his rich friends.
It was her job, what she did. So she’d had absolutely no business being a little hurt by the idea. No business at all.
And maybe it was a good thing. At least it had reminded her of just how out of her league Jack was. Keeping a professional distance was smart and right.
Even if the thought of never feeling his hands or his mouth on her again felt wrong.
Trinity’s smile was knowing but gentle, with wisdom that came from years spent watching the world from behind her bar.
“Just remember, girl, the islands are a wonderful place to live your life,” she said. “But nowhere on earth is the right place to hide from it.”
CHAPTER SIX
LIZ ARRIVED promptly at six o’clock, an hour before the evening party was set to begin. Jack heard her chugging up the hill to the house on her little scooter several minutes before the doorbell actually rang.
The scooter was one reason he hadn’t sent her outfit around to her at home. He couldn’t see her driving up from Castries on that thing
, not the way she was going to be dressed.
The second reason? Well, it was possible that once she saw what he’d supplied for her to wear and realized his intentions were not what she’d imagined, she might very well bolt. If he’d sent the outfit to her at home, she might never have come at all.
“Show Ms. Talbot to the second bedroom, would you?” he asked a member of the staff who looked after the house full-time. “Ask her to get ready and meet me on the terrace.”
He then proceeded to wait, either for her to join him or for the sound of that scooter as it rapidly drove away.
Heading outside, he stepped to the railing of the broad patio, leaned over it and gazed out at the water. It gleamed beneath the late-afternoon sun, as if heaven itself had strewn it with a million crystals. The kind of beauty that was almost too much to see every day, and the kind Liz had wrapped herself up in completely.
Would she ever want to go back to the real world? To his world? Either with him or without him?
He didn’t know. And while he hadn’t been thinking along those lines when he’d flown down here to look her up, now he couldn’t think of much else.
He had been telling himself all week that his presence here was to gain Liz’s help with the lawsuit. And, perhaps, to see if sparks still flew between the two of them. To find out once and for all if he wanted her simply because she was the one he’d never had.
Now, he was beginning to think he had known the answer all along. With every day that passed, his attraction grew, until the thought of her—the memory of her taste, her scent, the softness of her skin—kept him up at night.
But it didn’t end there. He didn’t merely want her, he liked being with her. He liked her laugh and the way her mind worked. Liked her down-to-earth sense of humor, her sarcasm. Liked her courage.
God, she had actually stuck a pin in a map and followed where it led her. He didn’t think he’d ever known anyone who possessed that kind of strength.
Or anyone who’d ever felt they had so little to lose by walking away from their old life.
His heart twisted, as it had when she’d first told him. Liz had left, followed her whim, because she had nothing worth staying for. Which he found not only unbearably sad, but also took as a personal challenge. He wanted to give her something to hold on to. Something to fight for. Something to stay for.
Him.
You have feelings for her.
Yeah. He did. The business, curiosity and pure physical interest hadn’t been what drove him down here. Some long-denied emotion had.
He just didn’t know what he was going to do about it, how he was going to let her know. Or how she was going to react.
“Ahem.”
After what seemed like forever, but was in fact less than half an hour, he heard someone step outside. Not turning around, he waited for Liz’s reaction. Would she tell him she was leaving? Take offense that he’d been able to guess her exact size? Ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, dressing up his bartender like she was Cinderella going to the ball?
Finally she ended his suspense, murmuring two simple words.
“It’s lovely.”
Jack straightened and turned around. And could only agree.
The outfit was lovely. But not nearly as lovely as the woman wearing it.
Ankle-length and silky, the dress was made to slide across the skin, to mold to the body. The jade-green fabric looked magnificent with her hair and eyes, as he’d known it would. The deep V neckline revealed the inner curves of her lush breasts. As she walked closer, the high side slit provided tantalizing glimpses of her glittering high heels, her shapely calf and one beautiful thigh.
Jack could do nothing but stare at her for a long moment, not knowing if he’d ever seen a more breathtaking sight.
“You are beautiful,” he finally said.
She just smiled.
Liz had lifted most of her hair off her neck, leaving just a few long curls to brush her bare shoulders. Around her neck, she wore the emerald-and-diamond necklace he’d left for her, as well as the matching earrings. With her coloring, they looked like they’d been made for her.
“I wasn’t sure you’d stay.”
“I almost didn’t,” she admitted.
“What changed your mind?”
Liz shrugged. “I’m a sucker for silk.”
Jack thought she should never wear anything else.
Actually, her not wearing anything sounded just about perfect to him right now.
“I have the feeling you don’t want me serving margaritas to your guests tonight.”
He slowly shook his head. “No. I want you by my side, serving only as my hostess.”
A hint of wariness entered her face. “Professionally, though. Right? I mean, you just need me nearby to whisper names you forget or tell you who’s who?”
Good Lord, could the woman really be so blind? Did she really think he had followed her thousands of miles just so she could act as some kind of secretary?
Then again, he hadn’t told her that. Hadn’t admitted anything. A mistake he needed to rectify.
Extending his arm, he led her to the railing, saying, “I didn’t stumble into you by chance, you know.”
“I know. You already told me you knew I was working at the bar before you showed up.”
Jack let go of her arm and looked down at her. “I found out you were in St. Lucia and I came here.”
Confusion creased her brow. “You…you tracked me down? You actually followed me?”
He shook his head. “Tracking you down or following you would have been a little stalkerish, don’t you think?”
He’d simply waited, hoping that somehow she’d wind up back in his life one day.
“The truth is, one of your old co-workers at the agency is doing some work for us. He mentioned you had moved down here.”
Liz’s attention shifted to the water. “And you thought that since you had to come down here on business, you’d look me up.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
He lifted a hand to one long curl, smoothing it between his fingers. “I had been wondering what happened to you after you left Boston. Thinking about you.” Wondering if she could hear the intensity that seemed so loud to him, he added, “I came for you, Liz. I could have sent somebody else to handle the business issues, but I came myself. Because you were here.”
He didn’t bring up his other reason for being there. Now, when he was finally letting her know how he felt about her, was not the time to mention her sleazy ex and his equally sleazy lover.
Hell, maybe he’d never mention them. The lawsuit wasn’t definite; it was just a possibility. And really, what more could Liz say than that Tim Talbot was as bad a husband as he’d been an employee?
Even if she could help, did he really want to put her through that? Bring pain to her now when he had finally begun to bask in those wonderful smiles and that husky laugh?
“You came just to be with me?” she asked, turning back toward him, giving him her full—surprised—attention. Her green eyes swam with confusion; her lips trembled.
Yes. No. Maybe.
I want you. I need you. But I also intended to use you.
What were the right words?
He didn’t know. Nor could he find out. Because before he could respond, the door opened again. One of the servants came out, announcing their first guest. And the moment for revelations was lost.
* * *
THE EVENING WAS a great success. True to his word, Ray Marchand invited a few of his closest millionaire buddies. And some less wealthy, but equally astute ones who had their fingers in the retail pies on this island and others nearby.
Jack impressed every one of them, charmed each of their wives. He also kept Liz completely off balance for the entire evening.
She just couldn’t get his words out of her head. I came because you were here. He hadn’t been flirting, there had been no amused glint in his eye, as there might have been
if he was just running a line.
He’d meant it.
Which left her wondering what she was supposed to make of that. How was she expected to feel?
He had been right in saying that intentionally tracking her down, following her, might have sounded a little like stalking. Yet somehow, his having a casual conversation with someone who knew where she was and deciding to seek her out seemed…romantic. Not stalkerish at all.
Especially since he’d waited eighteen months. Eighteen long months, during which she had recovered, moved on, rebuilt her life and her self-confidence.
It was almost as if he had been waiting for her to heal before taking his shot. And gave truth to his claim that he had been thinking about her since the time she’d left.
For a woman who’d been cheated on and had then remained alone for a long time, the idea that someone as attractive as Jack really wanted her was both heady and a little terrifying. What normal woman didn’t want a man to desire her that much?
But what normal woman would ever think she could actually have him?
Besides, she wasn’t entirely sure she believed it. Waiting for her, giving her time to heal and then coming after her implied altogether too much thought. Not to mention the kind of feelings—emotions—Jack Beaumont had never shown any sign of having for her. The Jack she’d worked with had been a fun, friendly, confident and slightly spoiled womanizer. If he’d had any personal interest in her, surely she would have seen some evidence of it.
Maybe you didn’t want to see.
Maybe not. She’d had blinders on in so many aspects of her life. Maybe it had just been easier to remain blind to what was happening all around her, to pretend all was well with her life, with her marriage.
To make believe she was happy even though she wasn’t.
Liz puzzled over it throughout the evening even as she chatted lightly with Jack’s guests, several of whom she knew from living here on the island. Not one of them made her feel out of place, despite their bank balances. That could have been because of the obviously attentive way Jack bent close to listen to her when she spoke, or the slightly possessive hand he kept on the small of her back. Considering the back of the dress was cut low, almost to her waist, she’d had a hard time even thinking when he’d touched her.
Sand, Sun...Seduction! Page 13