Temptation Bay (A Windfall Island Novel)

by Anna Sullivan

  She loved this, loved that weightless moment when she hit altitude and leveled off, when her stomach dropped out and she went a little breathless and a lot awestruck. No matter how often she flew, plane or helicopter, it was never anything less than pure magic. Utter freedom. It was the only time in her life when she was truly at peace and absolutely her own woman because she’d built a thriving business around something she loved, something she never allowed to be just business. And even though she knew Mr. Dexter Keegan could see the childish delight on her face, she didn’t care. She simply let herself feel.

  When she reached the height and distance she wanted, she checked in with the tower, reported her stats, and was given the all clear, meaning she was out of range to present any impediment to airport traffic.

  “If you look to your right there’s a wonderful view of the city of Portland, Mr. Keegan,” she said.

  “Dex.”

  “If you have some time on your way back through, the Old Port district is a great way to spend a day,” she continued evenly, more at ease than she ever was on the ground.

  “I doubt I’ll have time for shopping and sightseeing.”

  Maggie glanced over at him, and saw a veteran flier, calm and relaxed. To all appearances. What she felt from him was different. What she felt was alertness, energy, focus. His eyes never stopped scanning the skyline, and yet she felt like she was being watched.

  She didn’t comment; those were personal observations, and personal observations invited personal questions. Instead, she swung the Twinstar wide in the usual flight pattern, and lost herself in what she loved.

  “The extreme point of land below us is Cape Elizabeth,” she said, filtering the radio chatter and keeping an eye out for birds from the other charter services that worked the Portland area. “As we move northeast, you’ll see dozens of islands, large and small. In all there are nearly 3,000 islands along the Maine coast. Only Louisiana and Florida have longer coastlines.”

  “Fascinating,” he said, with a tinge of sarcasm Maggie told herself she’d imagined, as when she looked over she didn’t see it on his face.

  Then again, self-control was a vital tool in his line of work, and winning or losing might hinge on how good a show he put on. “I can lose the spiel, but I have to stick to the flight plan.”

  His eyes shot to hers, boredom sharpening into irritation that was quickly smoothed over. “Lot on my mind,” he said, the practiced, chagrined smile making it an apology as well as an explanation.

  Maggie had nothing to say to that, so she said nothing.

  “For a tour guide you’re not very talkative.”

  “I get the feeling you prefer it that way.”

  “I don’t want the spiel,” he corrected her. “I’m not against conversation in general though, and since I’m the customer, and it’s your policy to make the customer happy…”

  “It’s not usually this difficult,” she said, and she’d ferried some pretty wobbly fliers in her time as a pilot. Then again, an airsickness bag wouldn’t solve this problem. Maybe a cold shower. Or a bullet. She glanced over at him. A silver bullet. And maybe some Holy Water. Dex Keegan had wolf written all over him, wolf with a veneer of civility, which was a devastating combination. What woman didn’t want a gentleman in the dining room and a beast in the bedroom?

  “What’s going on between the headphones?” Dex wondered into the silence—silence being a relative term in a helicopter.

  “Thwarting gravity.”

  “Nope, flying for you is like driving for most people. You do it without even thinking.”

  “How about landing, can I think about that?”

  “Sure, but you weren’t thinking about landing, either.”

  “I’m beginning to think about crashing.”

  Dex chuckled, and it was such a rich, infectious sound she couldn’t help but smile. At him. That wasn’t good. Especially when she caught the glint in his eye. That glint told her he thought he’d won. Which meant she’d lost.

  Maggie hated losing. “Mr. Keegan, why are you baiting me?”

  He sat back in his seat, and just when she thought she’d gotten the last word, he said, “I’m a lawyer. It’s what I do.”

  She slanted him a sideways glance. “You cross examine every stranger you encounter?”

  “You’re more likely to get truthful answers when you keep people a little off balance, don’t give them time to think.”

  “So I’m not just a liar, I’m neither smart enough nor imaginative enough to lie on the spur of the moment.”

  “Everyone has an agenda,” he said mildly.

  “Including you, Mr. Keegan?”

  “Including me. But you knew that already.”

  “Very cynical.”

  “It saves time.”

  Maggie huffed out a breath, as much humor as derision. “Suppose you ask your questions, and I’ll do my best not to mislead you. Or at least confine my lies to the little white kind.”

  He laughed, full out this time, a contagious peal of sound that tugged at some part of her she had no intention of acknowledging. She didn’t so much as smile, tempting as it was.

  “Tell me about the island.”

  It surprised her enough to have her glancing over at him. Their eyes met, held. The air between them began to… sizzle, she admitted, before she turned away. And warned herself not to look at him again—or at least not to get so caught up it took her a moment to remember where she was in the conversation. She recovered admirably, she decided. “I figured you knew all about the island, seeing as you have business there.”

  “It would be helpful to get the impressions of a native.”

  “Isn’t it a shame I left my grass skirt and coconut bra back at the hut.”

  “I’ve been to Hawaii,” he said, although the once over he gave her, complete with the kind of speculative edge that said he was imagining her in the bra, gave her a nice little ego bump. “I’m more interested in what Windfall Island has to offer.”

  “Windfall,” Maggie echoed, and although she knew he had ulterior motives, suspicion couldn’t drown out the surge of warmth she always felt. Windfall Island wasn’t just a dot on the map; it was, simply, home.

  Her father had meant it to be a prison when he’d banished her there. He’d never know the amazing gift he’d given her, could never understand what it meant to love unconditionally. Windfall was hers; it had been since the day she’d set foot there.

  “You strike me as a man who does his homework,” she said, “but if you want a firsthand account, I can give you the island’s background, tell you how it got its name, that sort of thing.”

  “I’d rather talk about the present.”

  “Not big on history?”

  He shifted a little in his seat, and she could feel his eyes on her. “Is there a reason you don’t want to discuss the island?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, because I feel like I’m getting the third degree? I’m your pilot, not your witness.”

  It was his turn to use silence as a response. He settled back in his seat, eyes forward again, oozing nonchalance.

  Maggie glanced over at him, not buying it.

  “I’m really just trying to get a feel for the place,” he finally offered.

  Maggie smiled a little, fondly. Growing up, she’d never really felt she belonged anywhere. That just meant she got to choose her home, and she was lucky enough to have been welcomed with open arms to Windfall Island. The place might be peopled with the truly eccentric and the downright loopy, but there was no place on Earth she’d rather live. “Windfall has to be experienced.”

  “That’s my intention.”

  “And I’m happy to provide transportation.”

  “It’s a small community, a small, close-knit community. And I won’t be around long enough to—”

  “To what? To waste your time getting to know people?”

  “Maybe you missed the part about my time crunch.”

  “No, I got that loud and
clear,” she said, shooting him a wry grin. “Just like I didn’t miss your reason for coming to Windfall, because you didn’t give me one.”

  “Can’t,” he corrected, “On the instruction of my client.”

  Maggie snorted. “That sounds like a line.”

  “It is a line. From the Bar Association.”

  “Have they met you? Because you do fine without a script.”

  “Be careful, I think you just complimented me.”

  “That wasn’t a compliment; it was a commentary on your ability to prevaricate.”

  “Yeah, I’m taking that as a compliment too.”

  “Well, prevarication is probably a required course in law school. I bet you got an A.”

  “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” He sat back, crossed his feet at the ankles. “Keep the compliments coming; I can take it.”

  She grinned over at him, caught him grinning back, and when her pulse scrambled she turned forward again. Before he could see it too. And comment on it. Not that she couldn’t fend him off—once she got her nerve endings to stop throbbing so her brain could kick back in. She just had to stop thinking about how much she liked the shape of his mouth, not to mention the rest of him—including his brain, which she was finding delightfully agile. Probably like his body.

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, dug for strength.

  “Admit it,” he said in his richly amused voice. “You’re enjoying this.”

  Maybe, Maggie thought, but she didn’t like being called on it, especially with Dex Keegan’s brand of smug confidence. In fact, it pissed her off enough to want to put him in his place. “You want to know about Windfall? These aren’t the families who came over on the Mayflower looking for religious freedom. You won’t find any Brewsters or Bradfords or Aldens in the phone book. Windfall was settled by outcasts, by escaped slaves and shipwrecked sailors, some of them just one short step up from pirates. They took native American women for wives, and they’re proud of that heritage, proud enough to make native an insult.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “It was the way you tossed it off,” she said, still riding that defensive surge. “They didn’t build stately mansions on huge tracts of land, and every man of every color was free, or as free as possible on an island run with an iron fist. It was a hard place inhabited by hard people.”

  “The apples haven’t fallen far from the tree.”

  “Johnny Appleseed never made it to Windfall.”

  He shifted, and she could feel him watching her again. “Are you always this hostile to men you’re attracted to?”

  “Has your ego always been this big?” she shot back.

  He considered that for a beat, then said, “Pretty much.”

  Maggie shook her head, amused despite herself. Amused and wary. Best to keep her guard up around Mr. Dexter Keegan, at least until she found out what he wanted with Windfall Island and its people.

  “So you’ve lived on the island all your life?” he said at length.

  “No.”

  Maggie heard a soft huff of air over the headphones before he said, “The look on your face can’t be good.”

  “What look?”

  “This isn’t a contest.”

  “Everything’s a contest. Life is a contest.”

  “Who raised you? Attila the Hun?”

  Close enough. Admiral Phillip Ashworth Solomon had treated his only child with as little care as Attila had the men he sacrificed for conquest and glory. If she’d been a son… But she hadn’t, and she’d stopped wishing otherwise a long time ago. She’d made the life she wanted, and if it couldn’t be enough for the Admiral, well, it was his loss.

  “I thought you were curious about the island.”

  “I’m curious about everything,” he said, sounding like he found it a blessing and a curse.

  Maggie looked at the landscape laid out below her like a picture postcard. “Take a look out the window,” she said.

  “What direction?”

  “Down.” Hundreds of islands dotted the inlets and waterways of the coastline, some of them so small they were no more than a pile of moss-covered rocks, only a dozen or so large enough for year-round habitation. The sight always made her catch her breath, the blue, blue water with its mosaic of browns and greens like a huge fascinating jigsaw puzzle that changed mood and appearance from day to day. It never looked the same twice, but it was always familiar. Always hers.

  “Islands everywhere,” Dex observed, maddeningly underwhelmed. “I’m only interested in one.”

  “To understand Windfall you have to understand that,” she said, pointing down, “and that,” gesturing to the endless, blue-gray stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, eerily calm today.

  Dex didn’t say anything, just looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to fill the silence.

  She obliged him, answering the initial question he’d asked her. “I wasn’t born on the island. My mother and I moved there when I was a teenager.”

  “And your father?”

  “Didn’t. But you’re interested in the island, and we’ll be landing in about five minutes.”

  “So you’ll be rid of me. Without finding out why I’m asking all these questions?”

  “If Windfall Island was a country, gossip would be our national pastime. It won’t be long before everyone knows your business.”

  “Does that go for you, too?”

  Maggie bumped up a shoulder. “I manage to keep to myself. No crime in that.”

  “So you’re not the least bit curious about why I’m here?”

  “In that suit it’s probably bad news for someone.”

  Bad news for someone. Maggie Solomon left it at that. So did Dex. He couldn’t tell her why he was there, but he could have assured her it had nothing to do with her. There was no way she could be descended from Eugenia Stanhope, taken more than eighty years before at eight months of age. Eugenia’s kidnapping had come to be known as the crime of the century, considering the Stanhope family was not only insanely wealthy, but also boasted connections in all the highest circles of business and politics, including the White House.

  Dex had good reason to believe Eugenia, if she’d lived, had ended up on Windfall Island. And if she’d not only lived, but married and given birth as well, her descendants would either still be living on the island, or he could at least pick up the trail there and follow where it led. Not having been born on the island, Maggie wouldn’t be on that list…

  Except there were her eyes, brilliant, almost turquoise blue. Not exactly the Stanhope eyes, but close enough that at first he’d thought his search had ended before it really began.

  Still, while her eye color was rare, it certainly wasn’t isolated to the Stanhope family. Maggie had no reason to lie to him about her origins, and questioning her any further would only raise her suspicions—and the whole island’s, considering her huge and obvious loyalty to her adopted home.

  If his reasons for coming to Windfall became public knowledge, it could pose serious problems for the investigation. There was money involved, big money, and even the most level-headed people went a little crazy over millions of dollars.

  He had a reputation to build, and nothing could get in the way. Especially not a woman with all the warmth and welcome of a north Atlantic iceberg. And the strength. His eyes shifted sideways. He would have admired her for it if he wasn’t so sure she was going to cause him trouble.

  He reminded himself yet again that he should remain objective, but in his mind’s eye he was seeing her stride from the helicopter as she had moments ago, that long, slim body encased in a dark blue flight suit no doubt intended to project skill and professionalism. He found it ridiculously sexy.

  She wasn’t classically beautiful, he thought. More like effortlessly arresting, with perfect, milky skin set off by a cap of sleek black hair, spiky choppy bangs on her forehead and just curling over her ears and the collar of her battered flight jacket. Dex saw character there, in the
lift of her chin and in her eyes, those brilliant blue eyes that told him she liked nothing better than to laser through bullshit.

  Then there was the way she moved, energy and confidence in every economical step. Her words were just as spare, and while she’d made her opinions of him and her home clear, she kept to herself. Not his usual type, and he figured there must be something perverse in him that he found the sulky set of her mouth appealing, something a little self-destructive that he looked forward to her next cutting comment. And he delighted in not knowing what that comment would be. He’d never enjoyed the predictable.

  The woman definitely had dimensions, unexpected dimensions, to her. Take the way she flew, a symphony of movement and emotion so beautiful and raw that watching her made him feel like a voyeur. The fluid grace of her body and the striking, stirring, orgasmic—there was no better way to describe it—bliss on her face made him envy her for the amazing good fortune of making her living doing something she so obviously loved.

  If he’d had to choose the one thing about her that intrigued him the most, though, it would be her kiss-my-ass, get-the-hell-out-of-my-way attitude. She was independent as all hell, Dex thought, and in his line of work—no, that wasn’t true anymore. He’d left the military and his Special Ops unit behind a long time ago. Problem was, the I-could-die-tomorrow philosophy was hard to shake, especially when he’d chosen a profession that could be every bit as dangerous—and not just to the one in peril.

  Hadn’t he watched his own sister simply dissolve when she got the news that her cop husband had gone down in the line? Hadn’t it broken his heart when she fell apart, killed him to stand by when his parents took her and her two small children in while he could do nothing? Even as he’d grieved, he’d promised himself he’d never do that to someone who loved him.

  He glanced over at Maggie Solomon and relaxed. She didn’t want anything to do with him, so as long as he resisted his baser urges he’d be fine. Hell, even if his urges got the better of him she’d send him packing, probably by putting him in the dirt—a mental picture he deep-sixed since the idea of a nice, sweaty bout of wrestling with her wasn’t doing a whole lot for his self-control.