Helen snorted. “Are you kidding? I’d pay you to say that in front of him. Not to mention the rest of the barracudas who are here tonight.”
Hold laughed, long and loud and infectious, and as Helen ushered them into the dining room, every eye in the place swiveled to him. Several of the women got to their feet in order to get a better look.
Maggie met their gazes, each and every one of them, satisfied when butts reconnected with chairs.
Helen brayed out a laugh. “I don’t believe you’ll need me to keep the peace. George and a cocked pistol couldn’t keep folks at bay the way you can with a look.”
“I’m in no mood for the normal craziness,” Maggie said, cursing under her breath when Helen took a closer look at her.
“You sure you want to share a table with her, Mr. Abbot?”
“I’ll risk it,” Hold said, “and it’s Hold.”
“Now, is that a name or a suggestion?”
Again with the laughter, and the women, and the quelling looks, which Maggie had to turn up a notch this time. “What are you, the Pied Piper of horny women everywhere?”
“I like to think of myself as a magnet, a big, strong one, and women are just pretty bits of glitter.”
“With real sharp edges, around here anyway. Any one of them could rip you to shreds in a matter of minutes.”
“But I’d enjoy every second of it. And I have amazing recuperative powers.”
“Great, they’ll erect a statue to you.” She held up a hand. “Don’t comment on my choice of verbs.”
“I’ll just say it was an apt one.”
Maggie rolled her eyes, took him by the arm, and dragged him to the corner booth she favored. “Come on, I need to get my back to the wall before one of your glittery little admirers shanks me to clear the field.”
“You and me’re just friends, more’s the pity.”
“They don’t know that.”
Maggie slid into her customary seat. Hold took the one opposite her and picked up the menu.
“Don’t bother,” Maggie said. “You’ll be getting the daily special, and you’ll love it.”
“Anything would be good about now. But we’re not here for the food, are we?”
Maggie only half heard him, her gaze winging to the door, stalling there.
Hold touched her hand, brought her attention back to him. “You wanted me away from Dex for a reason, Maggie.”
“It didn’t exactly work,” she said, tipping her head to where Dex stood by the entrance, staring at them.
Hold looked over the back of his seat, started to raise a hand in greeting. Dex ignored him, heading across the room. It took him a while, seeing as he stopped at nearly every table on the way.
“I thought he might want to join us,” Hold said.
“He’ll have no trouble finding a partner for dinner.” But Maggie watched him refuse every offer, then take a seat at the bar.
He turned sideways on his stool, leaned one elbow on the bar, and stared in their direction.
“He doesn’t appear to like being the consolation prize.”
Hold looked over his shoulder, and when he turned back he was grinning. “Is that what you think he’s mad about?”
Maggie shrugged.
“I’d say there’s a green tinge to that glare he’s aiming my way.”
“Yeah, right, I shouldn’t go by what he says, I should read into his expressions.”
“You strike me as a sterling judge of character, Maggie.”
“And?” she said cautiously.
“When have you ever met a man who knows what’s in his own heart?”
Being that she’d grown up with a man who didn’t know he even had a heart, she had to give Hold that one. She glanced at Dex, felt the beginnings of what she thought might be hope, and squashed it. She knew what hope could do to a person—had done to her. She wasn’t going there again.
AJ provided just the distraction she needed to keep her from sliding back into the dark mood she’d finally begun to shed. He slid a plate in front of her, and one in front of Hold, before hurrying away at the call of his name.
“Good, old-fashioned Yankee pot roast,” Maggie said. It smelled like heaven, but tasted like dust in her mouth.
Hold was clearly enjoying it, though. “It’s not fried chicken and grits, but it does kind of hit the spot. Now if I could get you to tell me why I’m here, eating this truly amazing meal with a beautiful woman, my evening will be complete.”
“Do you always take three times as long to say everything as the next person?”
“I come from a place where language, like everything else in life, is something to be savored at leisure. And you’re evading.”
“Fine, here it is. I want to submit my DNA for testing. I could go about it myself, but Dex won’t tell me where to send the sample.”
“And you want me to help you.”
“I’m hoping you will, but if you’re going to do the male solidarity thing, I’ll find another way.”
“By letting it be known you sent the test, even if you didn’t.”
She bumped up a shoulder. “It’s going to come out anyway, but I’d rather do it the right way, Hold.”
“And if I don’t help you, you’ll stick your neck out and see who shows up to chop your head off. I get it, and you can keep your pretty little head on your shoulders. I’m all for the male solidarity thing, but in this case I happen to disagree with Dex.”
Maggie opened her mouth, then shut it. “You’ll help me get the sample in for testing?”
Mouth full, Hold nodded.
“Why?”
“For all the reasons I imagine you gave Dex when the two of you argued about it. I don’t like using you as bait any more than he does, but it’s the only option we have at the moment.”
She stabbed a finger at him, vindication zipping through her like an electric charge. “Exactly. Dex is the damn professional; you’d think he could see that.”
“Maggie. You really don’t understand why he can’t put you in danger?”
Her eyes wandered toward the bar.
“You don’t want to see. He hurt you, and you won’t be hurt again,” Hold said as if he’d read her mind. “No one can guarantee that, Maggie, not even Dex. But are you really better off this way?”
“I’ll be better off when this business is finished and my life gets back to normal.”
“You don’t believe that. Neither does he. You both just have to face up to it.” He held up a hand. “Before you get all het up, I’ll see to the DNA test because I agree with you. But I won’t run interference between you and Dex.”
“I’m not—” She blew out a breath. “Yeah, I guess I am. But—”
“He’s sticking close because he’s worried about you, Maggie. Maybe you should ask yourself why that is.”
She settled back into her seat, knowing she was sulking and not caring. “Maybe he should work up the nerve and tell me.”
“You’ve never been a man, have you.”
She snorted softly. “I’ve never been crazy, either, but it sounds about the same to me.”
Dex watched Maggie make her way to the door, stopping to greet people much as he had when he walked in. Although it was tempting to confront her, he knew she wouldn’t talk to him. So when Hold held up two fingers then gestured him over, he ordered a couple of beers and made his way to the booth.
“You could’ve brought the beers,” Hold said when Dex slid in across from him.
“Now that you’re alone you’re free game.”
Hold looked around the room, shrugged. “I don’t see that as a problem.”
“You will when you’ve had a little more experience on Windfall.”
“I don’t need more experience, son,” Hold said with the kind of wicked smile that made Dex glad the man had his back to the room. If the women in the room saw that smile there’d be another riot.
“You invited me over, remember?”
“Sure, and I’ll
get right to the point. I’m going to send Maggie’s DNA to the lab. Save your objections.” Hold snagged one of the beers Helen dropped off on her mad race around the room, took a long pull. “We both know why you’re holding off, and we both know you can’t protect Maggie from a bullet if you don’t know who’s firing the gun.”
The word bullet made Dex’s blood run cold; he’d been on the receiving end of a sniper’s rifle, and there was nothing quite as terrifying as taking fire when you didn’t know where it was coming from. Unless the target was someone you loved. He took a swig to cool his suddenly burning throat, but he couldn’t quite manage to banish that picture from his mind. “I’ve been trying to come up with a way around it. Can’t find one.”
“There is no way around it, Dex. She deserves to know the truth. She’ll either match or she won’t. Question is, which outcome are you afraid of?”
Either, Dex thought. Both.
If she was related to the Stanhopes, she’d become a member of one of the richest families in the country. It would change her, no matter how strong she was. When the truth came out, and the media descended on her, she’d have no choice but to run, either to the Stanhope family or to someplace she could find obscurity. Both destinations would take her from Windfall Island, and either way she’d hate him for ruining everything she’d built.
If she wasn’t a Stanhope, she’d hunker into her life and shut him out. Hell, she’d already shut him out. And either way, there was someone out there trying to ensure that Eugenia’s descendants never came to light. Someone who wouldn’t wait for the outcome of a DNA test to see that Maggie didn’t survive for her ancestry to be an issue.
“Let’s put the lady out of her misery, and drag the black-hearted S.O.B. who’s causing trouble out into the open before somebody gets hurt.” Hold took Dex’s silence as agreement. “ ’Course, that’s not Maggie’s only misery.”
Dex got to his feet. “Stick with science, Abbot.”
Hold looked over his shoulder, saw several pairs of female eyes glued to him, and said, “Biology always was one of my stronger subjects.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Maggie heard the distinctive throaty rumble of the Roadster as it pulled up in front of her house. Never should have repaired the thing after the rock slide, she thought bitterly. Then it wouldn’t grate so much that he continued to drive her car, now that they were… apart. But she’d be damned if she gave him the satisfaction of knowing it bothered her by asking for the keys back. She could have locked her front door, but that would have been cowardly. She wasn’t a coward. Stupid, yes, misguided, certainly. Foolish enough to fall in love with a man she’d known would never love her back? Definitely. And it would be a whole hell of a lot easier to deal with her own folly once Dex Keegan was gone.
Until then, she’d handle it, and him, face to face.
“Are you ever going to talk to me again?”
His voice, so close behind her, was bad enough. He touched her, and it was worse. Just a fingertip feathering over her shoulder, and she began to tremble. She sidled away from him, then turned when she had enough distance.
Face to face didn’t have to mean toe to toe. She could still see Dex, still hear him, but he couldn’t touch her.
“I love you, Maggie.”
Okay, he couldn’t touch her physically.
“This is where you tell me you love me, too.”
“What would that accomplish?”
He shrugged slightly. “We could kiss and make up.”
“And sleep together?”
His lips tipped up, just at the corners. “I could convince myself.”
“I wouldn’t object to the sex, but I think we need to get a few things straight first.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to say, Maggie. We need to talk.”
“No, you just have to listen.” Without thinking, she took a step forward, wanting desperately for Dex to hear her this time, hear and understand why she couldn’t let him in again. “You were right about me. I learned about love from a man who doesn’t have the first clue what it is. You were there the other day. You heard him use love as a bargaining chip. If I were a good, dutiful daughter, if I loved him, I’d be willing to do what he wanted when he wanted it and be ignored the rest of the time.”
“Maggie—”
“There’s no use tilting at windmills, Dex,” she said over him. “People are who they are, and they don’t change.”
“They can fall in love.”
“Maybe that’s true, but I won’t leave here, and you won’t stay.”
“Shouldn’t that be my decision?”
“You made it before you ever set foot on this island, and you made it clear to me before I fell in love with you.”
“So it’s your fault I hurt you?”
Her eyes lifted to his, and in them she saw a world of regret. “Yes.”
“Bullshit.”
“You may be close to solving a case that will make your career. Are you telling me you would turn your back on that now?”
“I’m telling you I can make my life anywhere.” When she opened her mouth, he said, “No, my turn to talk.”
She snapped her jaws closed, bit back on the argument she’d been about to make. The sooner Dex had his say, the sooner he’d leave her alone.
“People go missing all over the world, Maggie,” he began, dark eyes imploring hers, deep voice washing over her like a warm, soothing blanket she hated to shrug off.
“No matter where I live I’ll have to do some travelling. Or hell, I can take on cold cases like the Stanhope kidnapping. There’s something about closing the books on a case no one else has been able to solve, bringing peace to a family that has been searching for a lifetime.”
“There’s probably not a lot of money in that,” Maggie pointed out coolly.
“So I’d be thankful to have a wife who’s bringing home the bacon.”
Her ears began to buzz, her heart to pound. She swayed as her mind took a long, dizzy whirl. None of it convinced her she hadn’t heard what Dex said. Or understood his meaning.
And when it finally sunk in, she backed off a step, then a couple more for good measure. “Jesus, now who’s jumping the gun?”
He gave her that one-shoulder bump she used all the time. It only pissed her off coming from him.
“I love you,” he said. “You love me. What else matters?”
She threw hands up in the air, started to pace. “How about the fact that you don’t want to live on a tiny little speck of real estate, populated by people who think the world isn’t right without a little crazy in it? How about there’s someone out there watching and waiting to see if a Stanhope heir is found, and it’s probably one of those crazies? One of my friends,” she amended, “who may be ready to kill.” The thought of it, along with all the other emotional upheaval, was almost enough to break her.
Instead she fought back the tears, ruthlessly steadied her voice. “How about I’m not the easiest person to live with? I’m a pain in the ass at the best of times, contrary, sarcastic, hardheaded, and I’m focused on building something here. I don’t have time for a husband, let alone kids.”
“How about this?” He crossed the room in a flash of movement she failed to anticipate before he caught her around the waist, pushed her back against the wall, and kissed her.
She tried to fight him off. But her heart wasn’t in it.
Dex swung her up into his arms, headed for the stairs.
“No,” she said simply. She could withstand his words, she could even make love with him and stick to her guns, as long as it was fast and hard and physical. If he was gentle with her, she’d be lost. “Put me down, Dex.”
He dropped her feet to the floor. He didn’t let her go. “We love each other, Maggie. We’ll figure the rest out as we go along.”
His fingers rubbed a circle, warm and soothing, on the side of her waist, his eyes met hers, and she wanted to believe him. “I don’t know…”
&nbs
p; “Then I’ll convince you.”
He held out his hand.
Maggie froze; even her heart stopped beating. But as Dex’s fingers started to curl over his palm, she couldn’t stop herself. Maybe it was understanding the pain she was causing him, maybe it was impossible for her not to hope one more time. Either way, she moved into his arms, felt them tighten around her, and with a small sigh, she surrendered.
And still he waited.
She eased back, looked into his eyes, and saw everything in the midnight depths. Need tempered by control, patience warring with hunger, vulnerability bolstered by the strength to let her set the pace.
She held out her hand this time, and when he took it, led him up the stairs. When they got to the top she turned into his arms, just held him and let him hold her while the sorrow and heartache of the last few days slipped away.
“Dex,” she began, but he took her mouth, pulled her into a kiss of such sweet tenderness everything in her seemed to bloom.
She wasn’t a woman who’d ever dreamt at all, let alone in terms of flowers and bluebirds and little circling hearts, but she could see it all now, and her heart simply sang.
“Let me,” he said, brushing her hands aside to remove her flannel shirt, feathering his fingers along her shoulder and making her tremble. Then her tank was gone, her bra, too, and he was touching her everywhere with hot hands and hotter lips. He bent and took one aching breast into his mouth, running his tongue across her nipple as he drew her deeper into the heat, and she felt the tug of his mouth everywhere.
Need gathered, filled her, building into an ache that only grew as he slipped a hand into her jeans, beneath her panties, inside her. And shot her to peak where she stood.
And when her knees gave out, Dex swept her up again, and it felt like she was floating, even after he laid her down on the bed. He touched her again, everywhere this time, and the need rose in her, impossibly higher until she twisted her body against his just to feel his strength.
She slid her hands over him, smooth skin and hard muscle, drifting down to wrap her hand around him. Dex groaned, head thrown back, the muscles in his neck corded. He caught her wrist, and she said, “I want you inside me,” and then he was, surging into her, deep and hard. And not moving.
Temptation Bay (A Windfall Island Novel) Page 28