It had galled him to see Alexa standing so intimately near Vane. Watching his former friend paw at her, as he had also done that morning before breakfast. As he did a lot, could do a lot.
And knowing Alexa was willingly in his arms. Planning a wedding with him in two months.
Give her the benefit of the doubt, a voice inside him cautioned. But it was a very small voice.
You gave her the benefit of the doubt once before, shouted the larger voice that was his sense of self-preservation.
There could be an innocent reason for that little scene, as well as the one he’d witnessed earlier that day. Alexa and he had made a bargain. She was going to help him by trying to get information from Vane. Therefore, she would need to be close to him. Her fiancé.
Two months until their wedding? Was everything to be over by then?
Could Cole stop it in time?
Cole took the steps two at a time, hearing his own clumping footsteps on the rust-colored runner at their center. At the top, he turned toward the lake side of the inn.
As he reached the sliding glass doors to the balcony, he glanced out at the bright blue sky dotted with only occasional wisps of clouds. Skytop Lake shimmered and danced in a mild breeze. People were taking advantage of the great summer day. He heard the hum of the half-dozen visible motorboats through the thick glass.
He unlatched the door and walked out. Jill Fuller sat on a plastic chair, gazing out over the water.
“Hi, Jill,” he called in his jovial John O’Rourke voice.
She started in her seat, turned toward him. The frown on her beautiful face quickly changed into a broad smile. “Hello, John,” she said in her heavy accent.
Cole couldn’t help comparing her with Alexa. Jill Fuller, if that was her name, had an olive complexion and black hair, an exotic look that would drive some men wild.
Cole preferred women who looked more wholesome and down-to-earth. Like Alexa. It was one of the things that had attracted him to her before. Still attracted him…too much.
“Is it okay if I join you?” he asked Jill. “I was just down at the village and intend to do some hiking this afternoon, but wanted to relax in between.”
“Please.” She gestured toward a chair beside hers.
Cole sat, then leaned forward, hands clasped between his knees. “Is everything all right?” he asked. “You looked a little upset when I came out.”
“Upset? No. I am not upset.” But there was a catch in her voice. Once again, her gaze wandered toward the water.
She looked more like a pretty woman nervous about her next date than a terrorist trained in blowing up buildings—and people.
“Even though it’s obvious I like to gab a lot, I’m a good listener, too,” he said. “Of course, I don’t know how long we’ll be in the same neighborhood. I hope to stay for another week, if I don’t get kicked out first.” He grinned. “How about you?”
When she glanced at him, he saw fear in her expression. But it segued quickly into solemnity. “I do not know yet. Maybe we will have more time together. But now—” she looked at her watch “—I need to go.” She stood hurriedly and walked toward the glass door.
She gasped audibly when her husband walked out onto the balcony. “Oh, here you are, Jill. I was looking for you.”
“I was sitting here by myself, and Mr. O’Rourke just joined me.” Sounding nervous, she glanced at Cole as if requesting his confirmation.
He nodded. “I’m planning a hike for a little later. Would either of you like to join me? Of course, we’ll have to figure out the best place to go. Something not too strenuous. I haven’t hiked in a long time.”
Ed Fuller gave him an assessing look. Still, Cole believed his salesman-like prattling disarmed the man’s suspicion. Was he unhappy that his wife was flirting?
Or was he afraid she would reveal something about what was going on?
“Hi, everyone.” Cole heard Alexa’s voice from somewhere behind Ed Fuller. “How great you’re taking advantage of the view. It’s the main reason I fell in love with this place.”
And what about the memories we made here? Cole thought, feeling an irrational pang of regret. He looked Alexa full in her tantalizing blue eyes as she appeared behind Fuller on the balcony. She seemed to sense his question, and her lovely face reddened.
But her small, determined chin lifted as she reached the railing. “A day like this makes me want to go out on the lake with the boat,” she said. “Is anyone game?”
No one jumped at the idea. She appeared momentarily taken aback. “Oh, well. Maybe another time.”
“Maybe,” said Ed Fuller. “Right now, we must go get ready for a ride we are going on with Minos. Come, Jill.”
She followed him off the balcony without a second look at Cole.
Alexa said loudly, “This is the kind of day I’m sure you hoped for when you came to the mountains, John. Isn’t it?”
“Definitely.” He also allowed his voice to carry.
They drew closer together at the railing. He smelled her citrus scent wafting toward him in the soft breeze. Her honey-brown hair wisped becomingly about her face, and her white shirt waved enough in the wind to hint at her sensuous curves beneath.
She was a damn attractive woman. The tautness of his body didn’t let him forget it.
But her sex appeal had never been an issue. Her integrity was.
“I…I was trying to get some information from Vane, when you saw us together before.” She looked not at him but at the water. Their shoulders nearly touched.
One step to his left, and they would be in contact.
Two steps, and he would be right behind her. He could press her curvaceous back against him, feel her buttocks against the growing tenseness in his groin, reach for her full breasts, the way he had done on this very balcony two years ago….
He was crazy. She was talking about her fiancé, Vane.
He forced himself to stand absolutely still. “No need to apologize to me,” he said. “I’m sure Vane and you have been closer than that many times. A lot closer.”
“Don’t bait me, Cole,” she said through gritted teeth. “My relationship with Vane isn’t your business—though I’ve already explained it to you.”
“Yeah, you did. It’s all over now, and you’re just being threatened by him.” He didn’t even try to keep the scorn from his voice. “That’s why you’re planning your wedding, and he had his hands all over you this morning, this afternoon—”
“He didn’t— Never mind. I only wanted to report to you what happened.”
“Besides the little love scenes?”
She ignored him. “I suggested again that I might be willing to help him with whatever he’s doing, rather than fight him. He’s setting the damn wedding date, and I didn’t stop him because I was hoping he’d confide in me.”
“And did he?”
She shook her head, tilting it as she looked over at him. She appeared so winsome, so sorrowful, that he had another urge to pull her into his arms.
Alexa was his, damn it!
At least, he had thought so. Until loving her had nearly cost his life.
“No,” she said. “Vane didn’t confide anything. I don’t think he trusts me any more than you do.” She laughed at the irony. “But when I turned the conversation to how long our current ‘guests’ would be around, he said they weren’t leaving for a while. That doesn’t help you much, but at least it’s something.”
“Yeah,” he said sarcastically, “that’s something.”
Actually, it did help. There would be no need to tell Forbes to hurry to get a team together to follow these terrorists off the mountain and into their new lairs.
“I don’t know yet when we’ll be able to be alone together here,” Alexa continued. Her eyes widened as they looked into his, and she blushed again. “To search for information, I mean. And Vane’s file.” Obviously she remembered a time long ago when they had been here together. Alone.
And all they had
shared…
Damn! If he didn’t get his mind back on business, he might do something he would really regret.
Like reenact the love scenes of two years earlier. When they had made love in their room here at the inn. In the shower.
Even in the dead of night, while all but the lake was still, up here, on this very balcony—
Wake up, Rappaport, his inner voice commanded. Get your body back under control or you’ll need a cold shower, all right. Or a dip in the lake.
Alexa cleared her throat, then repeated softly, “I don’t know when we’ll be alone together here so I can get you into Vane’s room to search it.”
“Fine,” he said. “We’ll have to work on that.”
And I’ll have to work on not wanting you, Alexa, he nearly said aloud. He turned and stalked back into the inn.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT ME to carry into the dining room?” Minos Flaherty stood at the kitchen door, arms folded. His eyes were trained on Alexa the way they usually were—forceful. Intimidating. As if they could see through her.
She glanced at her watch. It was nearly seven in the evening. “Well, you could bring the salad bowls for each table.” She pointed to the row of ten wooden bowls heaped with the Caesar salad she had just thrown together. “We don’t have reservations tonight for anyone other than the inn’s guests, and I’m going to have them serve themselves.”
“Fine.” Rather than using the tray she had left out, Minos picked up three of the large bowls and headed for the other room. He would be back in a minute. Alexa sighed. She felt terribly uncomfortable around the short, husky man with the unwavering stare.
She needed to find a way to get on his good side, too, as she was trying with Vane. Minos didn’t talk much, but there was always a possibility that he’d let something slip if his guard were down.
Alexa stirred the large stockpot on the stove that contained the evening’s beef stew. She inhaled the aroma. She had flavored the sauce, in which potatoes, carrots and onions simmered with the meat, with chervil, seasoned salt, her secret ingredient—German bock beer—and a hint of ginger.
“It smells good.”
Alexa spun to find Cole standing in the doorway. His head was raised as if he had been enjoying the scent, and there was an appreciative smile on his face.
He was dressed in khaki slacks and a short-sleeved cotton shirt that revealed his brawny forearms. His dark hair was damp. Alexa thought of their outing on the lake, when his contours had been outlined by his soaked clothing.
Whatever the explosion had done to him, it had apparently not changed the breadth of his powerful physique.
He was still the sexiest man she had ever met.
“Thanks,” she said quickly, making sure her tone was steady and revealed none of her inappropriate thoughts. “I hope it tastes good, too.”
A couple of years ago, she had been fully aware of the old adage “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Although she had only occasionally helped the chef at the Santa Monica Kenner Hotel, where the chain had its offices, she had cooked often for Cole. In her own apartment in the hotel. In her own private kitchen. Where they could be alone.
He had appeared to like her cooking—among her unrelated skills that involved her hands and other body parts. He had allowed her to think that she had, by one means or another, gotten to his heart.
He had called her “his sky” then, as he had when he had rescued her from the shooter. He’d claimed she was his heaven on earth.
She realized she was staring into his eyes. He was watching her with an expression of…not longing, certainly. Recollection? Was he remembering, too?
Minos clomped back into the room. He muttered greetings to “John O’Rourke,” whose demeanor was once more friendly but impersonal.
This time Minos used the tray to pick up all but one of the remaining salad bowls.
“You’re forgetting one,” Alexa called to him.
“No, I’m not. We’re going to have an empty table tonight.”
“Really? Is someone eating elsewhere?” Alexa was surprised. Since their arrival, the guests had gone out now and then for breakfast and lunch but had seldom missed dinner here.
“Yeah. From now on. A couple left today.” Minos turned his back to her and left the room.
“Who?” she called, but he didn’t reply.
“Damn!” Cole muttered under his breath. His eyes hardened. “I thought you said Vane told you they all were staying for another couple of weeks.”
“He did,” Alexa said, angry that she felt so defensive. But she might as well have saved her breath.
Cole was gone.
Chapter Ten
She hated this.
It was nearly two o’clock in the morning. Alexa crept along the inn’s upstairs hallway, her back against the wall. She carried a pen-size flashlight. Its beam played on the wooden floor beside the long rust-colored rug that looked ash gray in this dim light.
The world was nearly silent, except for the faint, normal noises: the distant hum of the water heater. An owl hooting outside. A single car that drove by the street out front.
And Alexa wanted to scream.
Instead, she continued her stealthy journey until she reached the doorway to the room she had been seeking. She lifted her hand to knock, then stopped. No matter how lightly she tapped, the noise would sound like gunshots in the stillness.
Besides, there was precedent. She reached into the pocket of her floral quilted robe for the passkey and let herself in. She closed the door behind her.
Cole’s room was dark. She knew the layout of the furniture, but used her light, anyway, to make her way to the bed. She looked down. In the faint illumination pointed toward the floor, she could barely make out the large lump on the bed that was Cole.
She drew her breath in slowly, silently. For a moment, as her eyes became used to the dimness, she watched the gentle rise and fall of Cole’s chest beneath the sheet. She absorbed the mystery of his face, its new angles forming enticing, enigmatic shadows.
She resisted reaching down to smooth the dark hair from his broad forehead.
Before, his hair had been too short to form those small and adorable curls.
Before, she would not have just stood there. She would have thrown back the sheets, jumped on him to awaken him. After he’d shouted mock curses at her, they would have tumbled together, laughing.
And then the laughter would have turned to moans, as they—
With no warning, the figure on the bed sprang upward, grabbing her wrist, throwing a hand over her mouth so she couldn’t scream. Instinctively, Alexa bit down.
“Damn!” The hand disappeared from Alexa’s face.
“It’s me, Cole—Alexa,” she whispered, glancing around in concern, as if she would be able to tell if anyone had heard them.
“I know,” he growled under his breath. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t still be standing and conscious.”
“Oh.” She was uncertain how to respond. Would he have killed an intruder he didn’t recognize?
With his military training and powerful strength, he certainly would be capable of it.
He remained behind her, his chest pressing into her back. His arm, as it had reached around her, had been bare. Was he naked? Her knees nearly buckled at the heat that suddenly surged through her.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, his voice still hushed.
“I wanted to talk to you.” What about? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t concentrate….
He pulled away. She closed her eyes for an instant, feeling bereft. Again. It was a sensation she knew well.
She whirled to face him. He had taken a few steps away, and she could make him out, standing beside the bed. He reached over and flicked on the lamp on the bedside table. The room was bathed in brightness, and she blinked.
No, he wasn’t naked. But he might as well have been. All he wore was a pair of blue boxers. And beneath them? He had apparently been as aware of h
er nearness as she had been of his, for his shorts bulged in front.
Alexa quickly looked upward—and saw his chest. She recognized well the pattern of dark hair that spread across his pecs and tapered downward, into his shorts.
“Do you still like what you see?” he asked, his voice full of irony.
Heat flooded Alexa’s face, and she quickly sought something to say. “I—I was looking for your scars.”
He turned around, and she gasped. His back was an irregular mass of pink skin interspersed with white, evidence of the severe burning. “Oh, Cole,” she whispered. Without thinking about it, she drew near to him, letting her fingers trace some of the scarring. His skin was warm and only a little rough.
He pivoted and grabbed her wrist. “Admiring your handiwork?” he asked.
She pulled her arm away and stared, horrified. His dark eyes were pinpoints as they glared at her unflinchingly.
She wilted. “I know I’ll never convince you I didn’t know anything,” she said sorrowfully, “so I won’t be foolish enough to try.”
Her legs shook, as did the rest of her. She glanced around. The room was too small to have a chair. But she needed to sit down. She turned and planted herself at the edge of the bed.
“So talk,” he said harshly.
“I realize this is futile, too, but I saw how you looked at me when Minos said some of the guests were gone. You blamed me, as if I hadn’t divulged everything I knew. But I repeated to you what Vane told me. He indicated they were staying for another couple of weeks, and he didn’t mention that any of them might leave before that.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Cole’s murmur was skeptical.
“Tonight, after dinner, he came into the kitchen. I’d told him before that I wanted a truce between us. That I would even be willing to help him if it would mean the difficult situation here would end sooner.”
Cole shifted, and crossed his arms impatiently.
She continued quickly, “I didn’t want to seem too inquisitive, so… But you don’t want to hear my worries. Suffice it to say that I asked, as tactfully as I could, why he hadn’t told me that the Fullers were leaving.”
She had learned who was missing when the rest of the guests were seated. Cole would most likely have learned then, too, that the Fullers had been the ones to depart. Alexa had been surprised. The Fullers, with their accents so thick, had seemed the least likely of their guests to assimilate into anonymity in the U.S.
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