by Spear, Terry
“What about you? You said you work for the government,” she asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“Secret agent stuff.”
Dale coughed and hacked in the living room, apparently inhaling his soda by accident. Inwardly, Allan smiled.
Jenny’s lips curved up, devilishly sexy. His hormones stirred. “So you’re my secret agent man. Do you have a phone in the heel of your shoe?”
He smiled back at her. A woman who could take a joke appealed, but when she found out it was true, what then? He berated himself. First and foremost, he was a professional, there to protect her. Nothing more. Relationships were built on trust. Theirs was a total lie.
“Phone shoes went out with the dinosaurs. Now all we have is a plain old cell phone like everybody else uses.”
“Except remember to tell her it’s got a scrambler on it, too, so the villains can’t monitor our calls,” Dale hollered from the living room, his voice couched in irritation.
“Yeah, well, that was a secret,” Allan retorted, winking at Jenny.
“Have you two known each other long?”
“Too long,” Dale replied.
She chuckled. He loved the sound of her light laughter. Blast it all. Just the fact he had to keep reminding himself he was bound to protect her from Wilson and his cohorts meant he was losing his focus. Her eyes sparkled in a way that should have been forbidden, making it virtually impossible for him to concentrate on the mission.
Again she smiled, as if she read the turmoil escalating in his mind. “Allan, what about your sisters and brothers?”
“None. Like you, I was a spoiled rotten only child.”
Her lips curved up. She had no right teasing him with her feminine wiles. “So how did we meet?”
“You rescued me from the clutches of the I.R.S.”
Her brows rose. “Serious business.”
“Yeah, you did a marvelous job on my taxes. After that, I knew I couldn’t afford to lose you.” When it came to taxes, he left it up to accountants, but he’d never had the luck to get one who looked as good as her.
“I don’t remember doing tax work. I guess then it was strictly a financial arrangement between us.”
Dollars and cents had nothing to do with the kind of arrangement his body wanted with hers. She raked her long, shimmering pink fingernails over the comforter, tracing the hibiscus designs. He wanted her to apply those wicked nails to his back and scratch the itch she’d created in him.
“Somebody had to keep the money straight,” he said, trying to maintain the conversation and focus on business.
“Were we going to wait to have children? I mean, since the two of us were spoiled rotten?”
He groaned inwardly at the notion of her belly swelling with his child. The woman was undoing him in bits and pieces. Dale chuckled when Allan didn’t respond.
“Reading something funny in there, Dale?” Jenny asked.
“Yeah, real funny.” Dale’s words dripped with amusement.
Allan knew it wasn’t the last he’d hear of it either.
Jenny reached over and patted his leg. “Do you think I can go for a walk on the beach?”
Dale appeared in the doorway like a sprinter at the finish line.
She looked up at him. “Are you sure you’re not my husband?”
He laughed. “My wife and three kids wouldn’t be happy with that arrangement.”
Her cheeks colored. “Sorry.” Then she frowned. “Are they here on vacation with you?”
Allan turned in his chair, glad to see Dale on the hot seat for a change. Yeah, smart ass. How do you backpedal out of that one?
“This is our once-a-year fishing excursion.”
“Your wives get to stay behind and take care of the kids?” She glanced from Dale to Allan. The look on her face indicated she wasn’t impressed that the men would take off for the islands and leave their wives behind with the children.
Dale said, “We switch off and the guys take care of the kids while the wives go to a resort they’d prefer. But at other times we enjoy family vacations. Went to Disney World this last summer. My wife’s been here once. She grew tired of how messy the kids got. Said it wasn’t a vacation for her at all.”
“What about you, Allan? You come here to fish, too?”
“Not me.” The last time he’d come here was to recuperate from a bullet in the shoulder. Nice relaxing vacation. Being here with Jenny this time was sure to be anything but relaxing.
“Sun and surf?”
“Not much surf.”
“I want to take a walk on the beach. Maybe swim.”
“Let me call the doctor.” Dale stepped away from the door.
She sighed. “Handy man to have around.”
“He can be useful sometimes.” Allan ran his hands over his thighs trying to think of a way to tell her the truth about their situation without her going ballistic. “Listen, about us—”
Dale peeked into the room. “The doctor said if she feels fine, to take it easy. He warned against swimming yet, though. Her equilibrium might be a bit unstable.”
She smiled. “I’m ready then.”
Allan didn’t budge from his chair. “Are you sure?”
“You can throw me over your shoulder and carry me back to the room if I collapse.”
Primitive cave man notions filled his mind with wicked thoughts. Her dressed in a loincloth, her breasts exposed, rosy pink nubs waiting for his touch, and him wearing nothing more than—
Her lips curved up. “Or a lifeguard can, if there are any available.”
Hell, he didn’t need some muscle-bound, deeply tanned, Tarzan taking care of Jenny.
She started to pull her covers aside, then hesitated. “Can I have some privacy?” She asked Dale, but Allan rose from his chair so suddenly, he nearly knocked it over.
“We’ll be waiting for you.” Allan strode across the floor and bumped Dale out of the room, then shut the door.
Allan grabbed his arm, then headed onto the balcony. With the warm breeze blowing in their faces, he said, “Jeez, Dale, you’re worse than me on this job.”
Dale smiled. “You know they say to tell as much of the truth as you can. It’s easier to fabricate around it. There’s something about her that makes me want to be honest with her.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.”
“Well, don’t tell her the truth about the husband thing.” Dale leaned over the wrought-iron railing. “What are you going to do about tonight?”
Allan knew what Dale was getting at, and frankly, he didn’t want to say. But there wasn’t any hiding anything from him. They’d been friends for too many years. Not only had Allan been the best man at Dale’s wedding, he’d stayed with Dale at the hospital, one overwrought father, when his first two kids were born. Allan had missed being there for the third child while he was on assignment, but by then, Dale was getting the hang of it.
A seagull screeched while another skimmed above the sea.
Allan glanced over at Dale. “I’m sleeping on the couch.”
Dale nodded, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Don’t give me that smug look.”
Dale grinned. “Yeah, well, I’ll bet a twenty you’ll join her in bed tonight.”
“I wouldn’t do that to her.”
Dale laughed. “Not only will she expect it, she wants it. I see the way she looks at you.”
Allan snorted. “She thinks you’re her husband.” Hell, if that didn’t sound childish.
“That’s because you’re acting so distant. You’re newlyweds for heaven’s sakes.”
Allan rolled his eyes. He wasn’t Jenny’s husband, newlywed or otherwise. That was the problem. And he was sleeping on the couch tonight.
“There you two are,” Jenny said sweetly from the living area.
The men whipped around to see her.
An aqua bikini top cupped her rounded breasts, the nipples aroused against the thin fabric. Allan took a ragged breath. A hot pair of pale denim
short shorts resting high on her long tan legs and low on her hips, nearly had him drooling. The remainder of her satiny skin was naked, begging to be kissed.
Dale said under his breath, “You’ll owe me twenty, as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow.”
Primal male possessiveness threatened to control Allan as he fought the urge to tell Dale to quit undressing her with his eyes, like he was doing.
Allan and Dale stepped back into the living room.
She smiled when neither he nor Dale said a word, just gawked at her like a couple of women-starved idiots. “Are you going to wear those clothes, Allan? Or change into some swimwear? I have my bathing suit on underneath my shorts.” She grasped her shorts zipper and pulled it down low enough to reveal the bikini bottoms.
“Twenty dollars,” Dale mumbled under his breath, his eyes fixed on her zipper.
Swimming with the mermaid in the surf was certain to get Allan into all sorts of trouble. Not only that, he wasn’t sure she could handle the physical exertion. Hell, now that brought some more interesting visuals to mind. Only she wasn’t wearing that bathing suit. And the idea of licking all that saltwater off her skin was bound to give him hypertension.
Allan had to get his libido under control. He folded his arms, intent on dissuading her and saving his sanity. “I’m not sure about you swimming yet, Jenny.”
“I can splash around. Do we have beach towels?”
“I’ll get them,” Dale offered.
Allan took a deep breath. He was getting in way over his head on this. If he got near her in the water with her wearing something that skimpy, he’d lose it. “I’ll get some swim trunks on.”
When Allan shut the bedroom door, Jenny watched Dale pull towels out of a linen closet in the bathroom. She was determined to get to know her husband, but she also wanted to know about his best friend. She studied Dale and his red hair and the freckles that bridged his nose, trying to recall anything about him that seemed familiar. His green eyes caught her watching him, and he smiled.
Not a flicker of memory stirred in the recesses of her mind. Her heart sank with the notion she might never get them back.
“Here’s some sun lotion, too.” He dug into a drawer.
She leaned against the doorjamb. “Are you staying with the guys downstairs tonight?”
“Most assuredly.”
She mumbled under her breath, “Good. Three would be a crowd.” She couldn’t understand why Dale would be here when she and Allan were on their honeymoon, unless Allan had asked it of him because of her being injured like she was and wanted to ensure she would be all right.
She spun around when Allan stepped behind her, a strange sensation filling her with unnamed dread. Maybe the mugger had increased her sensitivity to someone sneaking up behind her unaware, making her jump out of her skin.
Allan had evidently caught her words, but not her reaction to his coming up behind her, and looked over at Dale, waiting for his response.
Dale shrugged. “Your wife doesn’t want me to spend the night.”
“No, Dale,” she said, “as you already mentioned, Allan and I have to spend some time getting reacquainted.” She very much wanted to get to know Allan all over again, and quickly, to extract the memories that now eluded her in the darkened cave of her mind.
She considered Allan’s naked broad shoulders, powerful enough to carry her home, just in case she wasn’t able to make it on her own. Even dressing had made her dizzy and walking through the apartment had wearied her, but no way was she going to stay cooped up in the condo when she and her husband were on their honeymoon.
Her gaze followed his well-built chest and the smattering of dark hair that drew the eye down like a pirate’s map, the path lightly marked to where the treasure was located. Where the “x” would have marked the spot was bulging with treasure beneath the dark blue swim trunks he wore.
He suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the door. “Be back later.”
Was he embarrassed he’d become so aroused over his close proximity to her in front of his friend?
Though she had every intention of making love with him tonight whether her head hurt or not, the idea of having sex with a perfect stranger nagged at her. She had to keep telling herself that he was her husband, and they had undoubtedly made love numerous times before this. Plus anything that might help her remember her past, had to be explored.
But what if her past hadn’t been all that great? What if she didn’t really want to remember it? She vaguely recognized her clothes, except for that awful, oversized, green nightshirt she’d worn in bed. But that was about all.
The air conditioner switched on with a click, and the hum made her turn toward the sound. She touched her head. What was the sound she’d heard that followed the clicking of the air conditioner? Her heart beat rapidly as her skin prickled. Something followed the sound and…and…
Suddenly, Allan dropped the beach towels and grasped her arms. “Jenny?” He pulled her toward the couch with a hurried step.
All the blood seemed to rush out of her face at once, making her lightheaded. Allan’s concerned voice seemed miles away.
“What’s—,” Dale said, but Allan motioned for his silence.
Allan sat her on the couch and knelt in front of her. “Jenny, what do you remember?”
Her throat grew parched. She tried to swallow and touched her forehead. God, the pounding would never go away. “Noth…nothing.”
Dale headed for the kitchen.
She wrung her hands, not even noticing until Allan separated them and held them in his own.
“You seemed to remember something.”
“The air conditioner came on. That’s all. It just made me feel funny all of a sudden.”
Dale crossed the living room and handed her a glass of water.
“Thanks.” She sipped it while the two men watched her. She took a deep breath. “I don’t know. It was…it was nothing.”
Allan patted her leg. “I think you need to return to bed. You turned as white as the sand on the beach. I thought you were going to pass out.”
“No.” She handed her glass to Dale. “Thanks, Dale.” She grabbed Allan’s shoulder and helped herself up. “I want to see the ocean. I hate the thought that I’ve only seen the water in photos and never…well, I mean I don’t remember seeing them in real life.”
“Jenny, really…”
She strode toward the door, biting her lip. She wasn’t letting any mugger stop her from enjoying her honeymoon.
Allan scooped up their towels and reached for her hand. She slipped her fingers through his and smiled. He turned back to Dale. “We’ll be at the beach for a short while.”
“Got you.” Dale pulled his cell phone off his belt and punched buttons.
With his arm protectively around Jenny’s waist, Allan led her out of the condo down a carpeted hallway where pictures of sailboats skimming across the aqua ocean hung on display. The hall ended in a flight of stairs. When they reached the bottom of the three-story building, he pushed the door open with a squeak.
She squinted in the brilliant sunshine reflecting off the snow-white sand beach. They stepped outside of the air conditioned building, and she breathed in the fresh, warm sea air.
“I guess it was your terrific idea to come here.” She sighed deeply as they walked along the sidewalk to the beach. Hibiscus crouched at the feet of towering royal palms, their green fan-like fronds, shading the walkway. “It’s just lovely.”
She squeezed his hand when she spied a sailboat, its colorful striped blue and green sails full of the wind as it scooted along the top of the water.
They trudged through the hot white sand, the granules feeling like powdered sugar it was so soft.
He hadn’t said a word in response to her comment, and she glanced at him. He seemed deep in thought, his forehead creased. Was he worried about her condition still? Or that someone would attack her again? She loved how concerned he seemed for her welfare, though she
truly didn’t want him to waste his time worrying about her constantly.
She studied the beach. Swimmers half a mile down frolicked in the small waves. The same in the other direction. Their area of beach was virtually empty except for a couple walking along the shore. They held hands, smiled, and shared a private conversation. They were maybe in their mid-forties and seemed very much in love. Jenny smiled, hoping she and Allan would return twenty years from now and still look like newlyweds.
When Allan and Jenny reached the blue loungers beneath blue and white striped umbrellas set out for the condo guests, he spread the towels out. She unzipped her shorts, catching his eye. If she’d had a little music, she would have felt like an exotic dancer the way he watched every move she made.
How many times had she already peeled her clothes off in front of him before this? Yet, he acted like he’d never seen her do it before. Would he always be that enraptured with her?
Though she felt slightly self-conscious, she hoped he’d still find her attractive years from now as she handed him the lotion. “I know it’s kind of past the burning hour, but I love the smell of coconut butter, don’t you?”
He glanced at the condo sitting several hundred yards from the ocean. Was he worried the guys watched them?
She smiled. “Let them eat their hearts out. Next time they’ll bring their wives.”
“I’m worried about your head injury.”
His hands worked the lotion over her back as she pulled her hair aside. Each masculine stroke kneaded away the tension. She hadn’t realized how keyed up she was. She purred in ecstasy, and he stopped.
She turned her head to see what was wrong. “Is something the matter, Allan?”
“No.” His voice was tense, almost hoarse. And he swallowed hard.
He was lying. Every time she tried to get close to him, he acted like a scared rabbit. Had they been having trouble with intimacy all along?
This time she swallowed nervously. What if he wasn’t a great lover? Or he now seriously considered marrying her had been a big mistake?