by Ryanne Corey
“This is so…different,” she managed, unable to take her eyes off the alligator. “I’ve traveled all over the world, but I’ve never seen anything like this room before. Never.”
Billy had been watching her closely, knowing this had to be a first for the pampered princess. Her soul-searing eyes were lavish with curiosity and apprehension, taking in everything all at once. Outwardly, Billy’s manner was well-seasoned and somewhat amused; inwardly, his senses were prickling with sensual awareness. She was so damned beautiful, so endearing in her glittering dress and ridiculous high-topped sneakers. Her figure was petite and quite perfect, bright hair tumbled and rich against her porcelain-doll complexion. Every thought she had was reflected in her expression. She hadn’t learned yet to hide it all, not like Billy had.
A first for him as well, he thought. After three or four hours she had him right where it hurt. No one had ever affected him with so little effort and so much force. With all his experience, he had no understanding of how this untried woman-child had managed it. His hooded gaze strayed to the single bed covered with a thin chenille spread. Mentally he slapped himself and looked at the broken curtain rod instead.
“I’ve been in worse,” he commented.
She stared at him. “Good heavens. How much worse?”
“Much worse.” He raked a hand through his hair, looking at the old-fashioned rotary telephone on the desk and wishing he could use it. It was time to face the music. His only chance of talking to Harris was the cell phone in his car. “Look, I’m going outside to lock the car up. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll go with you,” she said immediately.
“I can make it on my own.”
“I’m sure you can, but this is a strange place where they nail alligators to the wall. I don’t like the idea of being alone in here.”
“I thought you were high on adventures?” Billy retorted.
“I’ve had my quota for today,” she replied. “Besides, I think you would be safe leaving the car unlocked.” She bit her lip, the full impact of the recent emotional assaults catching up with her in one overwhelming wave of fatigue. “Don’t you? We’re not exactly in the South Bronx here.”
It looked as if poor Harris would have to wait a little longer, Billy thought, looking at the shadows beneath her eyes. Given a choice between worrying about him or taking care of Julie, he knew Julie would always win. “All right. We’ll catch some sleep. A few hours more won’t matter at this point.”
Julie’s face clouded over. “What do you mean, a few hours more won’t matter? Are you that anxious to get rid of me?”
Billy couldn’t answer that one. For whatever reason, he didn’t want to tell her yet another lie. The more time he spent with her, the less anxious he was to return her to the gilded cage. Not that it mattered. “Never mind. That wasn’t what I meant. I do want to ask you something,” he added, deliberately trying to distract her. “I don’t mean to be nosy, but…do you always dress like that?”
“Dress like what?” Confused, she looked down at her dress. “What’s wrong with it? It’s Versace. You can never go wrong with Versace.”
“I wasn’t talking about the dress. What’s with the sneakers? Are you trying to be a high-society trendsetter, or is it a grunge thing?”
Intrigued, she tilted her head to one side, her hair falling softly over her shoulder. “I changed from my heels before I left home. My feet were killing me. Tell me, what’s a grunge thing?”
She was adorable. Billy stared long and hard, tiny smile lines etching his mouth and eyes. One moment she was a siren, albeit an innocent siren, the next she was a curious schoolgirl. She had a thriving interest in all things, a quality Billy found rare and irresistible. The thought came to him how very much he would like to be the one to answer her questions. All her questions.
“I really should go out to the car,” he said suddenly, needing the cool air more than the privacy to call Harris.
“I told you, I’ll go with—”
“Actually, I think I need a nice cold…uh, warm shower to help me relax before I hit the floor.” He was fairly certain the bathroom was one place she wouldn’t follow, and he needed time to remember who he was and what he’d been hired to do. He had the unsettling feeling that Julie needed someone to protect her from the man who was protecting her. “Do you need to—?”
“I’m fine,” Julie said quickly. This sharing a room thing was more intimate than she’d realized, even when separate beds were involved. Bodily functions were not easy for a Palm Beach hermit heiress to discuss. “You just go right ahead. I’ll…tend to things later.”
Billy left her without another word, closing the bathroom door behind him with what seemed to be unnecessary force. Julie blinked the little room into focus, as if his absence put the strange spell she’d been under on Pause. She walked slowly around the room, picking up the Gideon Bible, reading a Gator Getaway postcard on the desk, bravely staring the wall alligator straight in the eyes. It certainly wasn’t the Trump Tower. Odd, how it was growing on her.
She sat down on the bed, listening to the water running in the bathroom.
“Billy,” she whispered, just to hear the sound of her voice saying his name.
She saw him in her mind’s eye, his brown skin glistening with rivulets of water, his long dark hair swept back from his face, hard muscles beautifully defined with water, soap, light and shadow. Since her experience was very limited, her imagination was also, but she managed to do a fair bit of damage to her composure. She stirred fitfully on the bed, all too aware of the tension in her body. He was so far removed from the men she knew. There was an unmistakable sexiness to Billy, a raw masculinity mixed with a renegade boyish charm. His eyes were breathtaking when he smiled, the sunburst of tiny lines at the edges taking away ten years and a thick layer of cynicism. She closed her eyes and touched her lips, trying to relive the fleeting sensation of that accidental touch. It had given birth to an irresistible curiosity that grew with every minute she spent with him. She was feeling so much all at once, so many things awakening inside of her that were desperately needy and long-suppressed. And she knew somehow that it wasn’t boredom, it wasn’t simple restlessness taking her over. It was this man.
The shower was suddenly shut off. Julie scrambled back to reality, unlacing her sneakers, whipping off her dress, slipping beneath the sheets in her bra and panties. Billy came out of the bathroom with a towel slung low on his hips. His dark hair was wet and tangled over his forehead, a marked contrast to the silver-flecked brilliance of his eyes. He enveloped the room with the half-dangerous sensuality that had worried and pulled at her from the very beginning. For a moment she forgot the basics of breathing.
“You’re all eyes, little girl,” he said, attempting a light tone. “You look like poor Goldilocks in bed facing the bears. I hope I don’t have to tell you—”
“You don’t,” Julie said quickly, pulling the covers up to her chin. “Of course you don’t. I know I’m perfectly safe.”
“Look, if I had something to sleep in—”
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t have anything on, and I’m just fine. I’m really—” a crack in her voice here “—comfortable. Well, I have something on. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I only took off my—”
“Let’s not talk about what you’ve been taking off,” Billy suggested tightly. He grabbed a blanket from the closet and shook it out on the floor. “Toss me the extra pillow, would you? Thanks. Now, let’s get some shut-eye. Good night.”
“Billy?”
He was already rolled up in the blanket like a cocoon, concentrating on not concentrating on Julie. “What?”
“Well…one of us has to turn off the light. If you’ll close your eyes and promise not to peek, I’ll—”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Billy muttered, getting back on his feet with the blanket pulled around his shoulders. “We’re not in sixth grade here. ‘I promise not to peek’ is not in my vocabulary.
” He padded over to the wall, putting his hand on the light switch.
Julie waited. Billy’s hand remained on the switch, but the light stayed on. “What?” she said curiously.
Billy heaved a deep sigh and slowly turned his head, looking at her over his shoulder. His crystal-blue eyes were unblinking, his body still, a thoughtful furrow etched between his brows. He stared at her as if she were the most compelling and fascinating creature he had ever seen.
“I just wanted one more look at you,” he said softly.
The room went dark. Julie heard him walk back towards her, then settle on the floor near the bed. Her breasts were heaving and her was skin prickling up and down her body, as if she was beginning to emerge from a chrysalis. No one had ever said anything like that to her before, completely without artifice or calculation. No words had ever had such a physical and emotional impact. She was caught; she felt as if she were lit from inside with something sparkling and fiery and sensual.
Sleep had never been so far away.
Four
In his past life, Billy Lucas had never had the time or the inclination to sleep late. Sleeping was boring…which was why he was so surprised when he opened his eyes to an obscenely bright and sunny room. He looked at his watch, blinking the digital reading into focus: 11:30 a.m.
Eleven-thirty?
The floor was harder than it had been when he had gone to sleep the night before. His back ached. His neck was stiff. He could feel tiny little groans from all four of his war wounds. He sat up slowly, knuckling his eyes. It never occurred to him that Julie might have awakened before he did, let alone that she might have showered and left the room without him knowing. No way. He had always slept lightly, like a cat. If anyone made a move, day or night, Billy would know it. That quality had served him well on many stakeouts.
Unfortunately, Julie’s empty bed told him he had left that quality behind in California, along with his career. The bathroom door was half-open, a wet towel lying on the floor. Billy felt sick, as if he had lost a dangerous suspect in his custody.
He scrambled to his feet and grabbed his jeans from the bathroom, hopping across the room first on one foot, then the other while he tugged them on. He was on his knees looking under the bed for his sneakers when Julie walked into the room. At least, he thought it was Julie.
She had the same eyes. Everything else was different.
She wore sandals, baggy khaki shorts and a cropped-off T-shirt that left her Florida-tanned midriff bare. A baseball cap was tugged low over her head, her hair swinging behind in a sassy ponytail. A brand new vinyl purse was slung over her shoulder. As far as Billy could see, every single thing she wore bore the less-than-famous logo of Gator Getaway.
“What are you doing down there?” she asked innocently. “Looking for me?”
“Very funny,” he growled, getting to his feet. “I was looking for my shoes so I could start looking for you. You disappeared on me! I thought you were gone.”
“I was—duh.” Brown eyes sparkling, she held up a clear plastic sack, stuffed with her sequined dress and sneakers. “This place is so cute in the daylight! It’s like a really little Disneyland, only not so clean and with alligators instead of Mickey Mouse. Actually, they only have one ride, but they have a gift shop and they take American Express!”
“Don’t you dare act like nothing is wrong!” Billy shook back his hair angrily, his expression fierce. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he was overreacting, but he couldn’t seem to put a lid on his temper. “While you were throwing your plastic around in mini-Disneyland, did it occur to you that I might be wondering what the hell had happened to you?”
“Don’t be silly. How could you be wondering anything while you were asleep?”
“Does it look like I’m asleep?” Billy demanded. “Does it?”
“Not now,” she said stiffly, losing her exuberant mood in a rapid free fall. “But twenty minutes ago when I checked on you, you were sawing logs like Rip Van Winkle. And twenty minutes before that, and twenty minutes before that. You sleep like the dead.”
“I am a policeman,” Billy said, visibly offended. “I do not sleep heavily. None of us do. We are constantly alert!”
Julie dropped her plastic sack on the floor, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn’t know quite what she had expected of him this morning, but it wasn’t this. “That’s ridiculous. Everyone needs to sleep, even policemen. I was beginning to wonder if you were in a coma.”
“Well, if I was sleeping heavily, it was because you completely wore me out last night.” Billy played that back in his mind and winced. “I didn’t mean that the way it—”
“Excuse me.” Julie pushed her way past him, her lower lip slightly protruding. “I need to call Harris. I was waiting for you to wake up. No offense meant, Mr. Alert Policeman.”
“Harris?” Immediately Billy switched channels. “Your brother? Wait. Not until I have a chance to…never mind. What are you going to tell him?”
Julie looked at him as if he had sprouted wings. “What is with you today? I’m going to tell him the truth, of course. I went for a drive, got lost, and ran out of gas. He’ll send someone to pick me up. I’ve thought about it and I don’t think I’ll mention I spent the night with you. Harris might…have apoplexy or something. He’s terribly sensitive where I’m concerned.”
Aren’t we all? Billy thought. He was feeling incredibly guilty about taking the frosting off her cheerful mood, but she was the one who had disappeared on him. “And when he asks where you are, you’ll tell him…?”
“My brother’s people are very efficient,” she replied coolly. “I guarantee they will be able to find me sooner or later. Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment…?”
“I have an idea,” Billy said quickly, thinking hard and fast. “Gator Getaway isn’t exactly a tourist hotspot. If you wait for someone to find you, you could be here forever.”
“I know,” she said, somewhat wistfully. Earlier this morning, she had fantasized about riding the rather rickety-looking Swamp Creature Carousel with Billy. What a shame it would be nothing more than a fantasy. “That’s okay. I can occupy myself.”
Billy felt yet another stab of guilt. “Just tell your brother you’re on your way home. We’ll leave as soon as I shower. Then you’ll be home twice as fast.”
She turned to face him, planting her hands on her hips. She forced herself to look only at his eyes, rather than at the fetching picture he made in the morning light. Bare-chested, hair tumbled from the pillow and blue eyes still lazy with sleep, Billy was a force of nature to be reckoned with. “And of course you wouldn’t have any ulterior motives, would you?”
“Hell and damnation.” Billy threw his head back, staring at the ceiling for a good fifteen seconds. He hated this job more every minute. If he told Julie the truth, she would never forgive Harris. Or Billy, when it came down to it. Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
“We both know the deal,” he said, mentally pulling out his hair. “Gas and a tip. I’ve got a lot of time and trouble invested in you. Still, if you want to back out—”
“Fine. I just hope you can find your way to Palm Beach.” Julie was close to tears, but she wasn’t about to let Billy see. She turned back to the telephone, picked up the receiver and froze. The seconds ticked by. “This is rather unique. Is it an antique?”
“It’s a rotary. And yes, it is sort of…antique.”
Billy sighed heavily. He walked over to Julie, put his hands on her shoulders and gently moved her aside. “I’ll dial. You talk. I have to earn my tip, after all.”
Julie thought the call went well…at least, as well as it could have, considering Harris was unnaturally paranoid and hypersensitive. She told him she was just fine; he wanted to know if she’d been kidnaped. She told him she’d had car trouble; his voice went up a full octave, and he demanded to know if she’d been carjacked. Since his condition was worsening by the minute, Julie contented herself with telling him she was on her
way home, safe and sound. She hung up before he could think of another dire predicament she might be in.
“Okay,” she said, turning to Billy. “Everything’s fine. He’s reassured now. No problems at all.”
“Oh, I’ll just bet,” Billy said dryly. “From what you’ve told me about your brother, I would imagine he’s breaking out into a nasty rash about now. Will he have the FBI waiting for me when I bring you home?”
“I don’t think so,” she said doubtfully, chewing on her lip.
“What a wonderful morning.” Sardonic humor glinted in Billy’s eyes, and he looked Julie up and down, his gaze sticking like Velcro to her tanned, bare midriff. “You’re quite the tourist today. Have you ever owned a plastic purse before? Or plastic shoes?”
“No.” She looked down at her feet. “It’s a first. I’ve had lots of firsts lately.”
“Hey.” Billy reached his hand out and tipped her chin up with a gentle finger. “The tip of your little nose is pink. Are you all right?”
“Of course I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be?” Now her eyes were swimming, darn it all, and she couldn’t blink the tears away fast enough. “I mean, just because I can’t find my way around Florida and can’t put gas in my car and can’t figure out how to use an antique rotary phone doesn’t mean I’m some kind of an idiot. I’m just like everyone else in the world, right?”
Tenderness softened his expression. He shook his head and smiled faintly, allowing his finger to trace a soft line from her chin to the bottom of her quivering lip. “Julie, I can say this with complete and total honesty. You might be a little sheltered, but you are in no way, shape or form like anyone else in the world.”
“Then you do think I’m some kind of an idiot.”
“Shhh.” He pressed his finger gently against her lips. “Do not babble while I’m talking. Let me finish. You are not some kind of idiot. You are unique. You are unpredictable. You are beautiful enough to break a man’s heart at first sight. In short, little girl, you are some kind of amazing.”