Her First Vacation

by Leigh, Jennie

  He shot a quick glance at his target, just to make sure he hadn’t disappeared, then turned back to Claire. Before he even realized what he was doing, he was moving toward her.

  Claire had spent the night dreaming about her sister’s mocking laugh and reliving all the most horrible times in her life. Her father’s death, the nearly constant humiliation of being the daughter and sister of the most beautiful women in the county and not being able to hold a candle to them. She’d crawled out of bed this morning with a headache and an overpowering urge to cry. She did not cry. She’d learned long ago that she wasn’t one of those women who came through a crying jag looking fragile and delicate and utterly feminine. Her eyes swelled up like she’d stuck her face into a barrel full of something she was deathly allergic to, her nose turned Rudolph red, and the effects lasted for hours. It was far better to just hold the tears back than to let them loose and then have to endure the recovery.

  She’d come out onto the deck because she hoped the activity would occupy her mind while the wind cleared it. Unfortunately there was virtually no breeze at all and even the crowds wandering around as they waited for the first boats to leave for shore didn’t snag her attention, much less hold it. So she was staring out at the harbor, not really seeing anything there. The sailboats, the crystalline water that reflected the brilliant blue sky, it was all lost on her. She was caught up in an unpleasant circle of what-ifs, and it appeared that nothing was going to snap her out of it.

  Colin leaned against the railing beside her, but she didn’t move. She didn’t even acknowledge that he was there. He studied her profile for a moment, then spoke.

  “It’s an awfully beautiful morning to look so unhappy.”

  Claire just about jumped out of her skin when the deep voice sounded so close beside her. She gasped as she spun around and met the dark gaze of the only man on the ship who appeared to even know she was there. He was as handsome as ever. His light brown hair looked mussed, as if he hadn’t bothered to do more than run his hand through it. His jaw was freshly shaved, though it still bore a hint of shadow. It always looked shadowed. She imagined that if he let it grow for just a few days, he’d be close to having a full beard. She saw his lips move, saw the flash of his teeth as he smiled at her, and all without breaking their locked gazes.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  She had to force herself not to drop her gaze as she shook her head. “It’s okay. I was just lost in my own thoughts.”

  His smile faded a bit. “Not happy ones I’d guess by the expression on your face.”

  Claire shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

  He didn’t push her. Instead he turned and leaned against the rail as he looked out at the harbor just as she’d been doing moments before. He sighed. “You know, I don’t think I would ever get tired of looking at a scene like this.”

  Claire turned to scan the harbor. There was quite a bit of activity, even this early in the morning, but it wasn’t anything that a person couldn’t see at countless other harbors in the world. She shot him a frown.

  “You like boats that much?”

  He smiled a bit. “Not the boats. The water, the sky, the scent of sweet, tropical flowers in the air.” He turned to catch her looking at him and met her gaze once more. “It’s so wild and free. It looks pristine, in spite of all the traffic. That’s not something I see much of in the city, and I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of nature when I get a chance to see it.”

  She remembered that he’d said he was from Chicago. She couldn’t imagine living in such a large city. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than where she lived. Then again, a few months ago she couldn’t have imagined herself going on a cruise. She turned to look out at the water and at the sky. She drew a long, deep breath into her lungs and caught the sweet scent he’d mentioned. Her eyes swept over the expanse of beach she could see curving around the far edge of the harbor. Palm trees leaned out over the sand, their green fronds swaying ever so slightly in a gentle breeze that didn’t reach her. He was right. It was beautiful. In spite of the people and the activity in the harbor, there was a wildness to the place, as if nature had agreed to tolerate the invasion of humanity but was biding its time until the day when it would once again reign supreme. She turned back to Colin.

  “Thank you for pointing out the beauty I was too preoccupied to notice.”

  Colin was immensely surprised by her words. He hadn’t been trying to make a point. He’d just been giving voice to the things he felt. Yet she was standing there, thanking him as if he’d gifted her with some arcane secret. And the gratitude in her eyes was genuine. He straightened.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  She turned away from him, staring out at the sea once more. She said nothing for so long that Colin wondered if she was waiting for him to leave. Then, just when he was ready to turn away, she spoke up.

  “This is the first time I’ve ever been out of my hometown.”

  He couldn’t say it was exactly shocking, considering her reserved nature. But in this day and age, he imagined that it had to be an exaggeration. People didn’t spend their entire lives in a single small town anymore. Even if it was just a vacation once in a while, people traveled. Everyone traveled these days. Didn’t they?

  “The first time?”

  She nodded. “I’ve never even been out of the state. Not until I got on the plane that brought me here. I went to college, but chose one near to home. I had,” she hesitated, “obligations. So I stayed local and then after graduation I got a job, and I’ve been working ever since.”

  Colin searched through the neat mental files in his brain to make sure she’d mentioned what she did for a living. If he started talking about details he shouldn’t know, he had a feeling she’d notice. Once he was sure she’d mentioned her occupation on the night they’d met, he spoke.

  “You’re a teacher, right?”

  She nodded once more. “Yes. Second grade.”

  “Unless things have changed since I was in school, don’t you get the whole summer off? That’s a heck of a vacation. Plenty of time to travel pretty much anywhere in the world.”

  She shot him a sidelong glance. “As I said, I have obligations. I tutor during the summers. A few times I’ve even taught summer school. There just hasn’t been time for me to go gallivanting across the country.”

  “Yet, here you are.”

  She turned away from him again. “Yes, here I am.”

  “You don’t sound all that pleased about it.”

  She sighed. “I guess it just isn’t what I thought it would be.”

  “And what did you think it would be?”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it again when she realized there was no way to explain that without going into a lot of personal history that was far too intimate to discuss with a stranger. She considered for a minute, then finally shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  That couldn’t be true. She’d been about to say something and had stopped herself. For some unfathomable reason, Colin wanted desperately to know what she’d been about to say. Unfortunately, his ever vigilant work ethic flared at precisely that moment, reminding him that he wasn’t there on vacation, despite appearances otherwise. He swung his gaze around to search for his target and felt a momentary flash of alarm as he didn’t immediately spot him. Then he relaxed as he caught sight of the man. He was in the line waiting to go ashore and he wasn’t alone, of course. The man didn’t appear to go anywhere without female companionship. Thus far Colin had seen him with no less than five different women. Obviously he considered himself to be a Casanova, and it seemed that he might just be if his penchant for keeping a woman on his arm was any indication. Colin wondered if any of the women had the first clue what the man really was.

  He watched for a moment as the line began to move, then reluctantly turned back to Claire. He was going to have to leave her. He couldn’t afford to let his target out of his sight. Not while he was off the ship. He gave Claire a
n apologetic smile.

  “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to go. The boat is getting ready to leave.”

  She swung her gaze around to glance at the line of people, then nodded. “Sure.”

  “I’ll see you tonight at dinner.”

  She nodded, then watched as he turned to walk away. Her gaze seemed to take on a life of its own as it slid from the back of his head to his broad back and then down to his narrow waist before coming to rest on the tight muscles of his rear end. He wore shorts and sandals, hardly the kind of clothes she’d expect to find attractive on a man. Yet as she stared at the way the cotton fabric pulled taught when he walked she felt a definite flare of heat in her core that instantly turned to a raging blush. She jerked her eyes away, spinning around to turn her back to him before he glanced back and caught her staring. What was wrong with her? He was a complete stranger. Just because he was gorgeous didn’t mean she had the right to ogle him like some hormone crazed nymphomaniac.

  She closed her eyes and instantly envisioned his face. More precisely, his mouth. It was strong and firm and she knew with some inborn instinct that had no name that he knew how to use it for much more than consuming food and forming words. He’d be a skilled kisser. For a brief instant she imagined what it might feel like to have him pull her into his arms and put that mouth on hers. The shiver that swept through her was shocking enough to make her reach out and grasp the railing. It took several seconds for her to gain control over her rampant imagination. She took several breaths and concentrated on making her pulse and breathing slow. When she finally succeeded, she turned to cast one final glance at the line of people waiting to catch a ride to the shore. Colin was gone, already on the boat and out of her sight. But he wasn’t completely out of mind. Not yet. He would be, though. Because she absolutely did not intend to let herself start fantasizing about a man who was so clearly out of her reach. He might be kind enough to engage her in casual conversation, but she knew better than to even imagine for an instant that he wanted anything more from her. Men like him never wanted anything from her.

  Dinner that night was much like the one the night before. Everyone talked about the things they’d seen and done onshore. Everyone except Claire. Like every night before, she was practically ignored, which left her free to watch the others unhindered. She was annoyed when her gaze kept straying in Colin’s direction. He’d walked into the dining room with Janine, one of the other women at their table, and Claire had felt inexorably irritated by that. She kept telling herself it was none of her business, that she had no right whatsoever to care who he spent his time with. But the irritation lingered and her unruly eyes kept wandering toward him.

  Once she caught him staring at Garret, and the expression on his face was strangely intense. Garret was regaling the table with a tale about a previous cruise he’d taken on which a passenger had been killed. Claire thought it was in very poor taste to describe the incident with such obvious delight, but then the passenger who’d died had been a stranger to Garret, and she was quickly realizing that Garret was nothing if not flamboyant. He, like Cathy, enjoyed being the center of attention. As he replayed the gory details of the death, Claire noticed the way Colin was watching him. His eyes never once left Garret’s face. He was so still that he might have been carved from stone. And though he wasn’t looking in her direction, Claire could see enough of his eyes to recognize the emotion in them as something very close to hatred.

  She felt a shiver work through her and blinked as if the action might somehow alleviate the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. In the instant that her eyes were closed, everything changed. When she once again focused on Colin he was nodding, seeming to be as enthralled as everyone else at the table. Claire stared at him, trying to figure out if she’d imagined the things she’d seen in his eyes. Surely, she must have. She couldn’t imagine why Colin would hate Garret. As far as she knew, the two men had never met before the first night they’d all gathered around the table. She tore her gaze away from Colin as Garret finished his story. The conversation soon turned to less morbid topics, and Claire saw Colin laugh at something Garret said. The laugh sounded entirely genuine. She must have imagined the hatred she’d seen in his eyes. If she hadn’t, then either Colin Montgomery was the best actor in the world, or he was suffering from dissociative identity disorder.

  Claire was up just after dawn the next morning. She’d gone to bed early because she hadn’t had anything else to do. She’d always been an early riser, though, and rarely slept past six in the morning. She decided to take a walk around the deck, just to enjoy the relative solitude of the early hour. She was again leaning against the railing, watching the sun as it rose over the water when a familiar voice intruded on her thoughts.

  “We’re going to have to stop meeting like this.”

  She didn’t jump out of her skin this time, though her heart did do a stuttering shuffle before leaping into overdrive. She turned to face Colin.

  “You’re up early.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve always been an early riser. I like the quiet of the morning. Plus I learned a long time ago that I simply get more done if I’m not getting up sometime between breakfast and lunch.”

  She shot him an amused look. “You just said you’d always been an early riser.” She stressed the word “always” and he gave her a comically guilty look.

  “I flirted with sleeping in a few times when I was in college. I couldn’t bear the shame of it, though, and I swore to never do it again.”

  Claire couldn’t help herself. She laughed out loud. He said it with such conviction.

  Colin felt his breath catch in his chest as she laughed. Like any other man, he had a natural tendency to be drawn to women he considered attractive. He wasn’t some shallow lecher, but he was honest enough to admit that he liked pretty women. The first time he’d seen Claire Abernathy he’d thought her anything but pretty. The first impression was not a particularly flattering one. She kept her hair, which was obviously very long and very thick, pulled away from her face in a severe bun. She wore clothes that hung on her like feed sacks and evidently didn’t believe in wearing makeup. The first thought that had popped into his head was that she was from one of those religions with strict rules about the style and dress of women. But the information he’d received when he did a background check on her had made no mention of any particular religious affiliation, and he knew it would have been included if any such connection existed. Which meant she either didn’t like wearing makeup or just didn’t bother. Now that he knew her a little, he was betting it was the latter.

  It only took him a few minutes of watching her, though, to realize that beneath the unstylish appearance lay a woman with the potential to be a true beauty. She was tall and slender with legs that he suspected would go on forever. Her face was as slender as the rest of her, with the kind of cheekbones any model would envy. Her mouth was almost too large for her face, her lips full enough to be enticing. And her eyes were the most amazing shade of blue-gray-green he’d ever seen. She moved with unconscious grace that Colin knew wasn’t something that could be learned. For whatever reason, she’d chosen not to exploit her obvious assets. If anything, she appeared to be making an effort to disguise them. Colin was intrigued by it. Why would she go to such great lengths to make herself plain? Why would any woman?

  It was a mystery, and he’d never been able to resist solving puzzles. Perhaps that was why he’d found himself thinking about her so much, especially since their brief conversation the morning before. He hadn’t anticipated running into her today, but now that he had, he was glad of it. He was especially thankful that he’d seen her laugh. Because at this moment, nothing could hide her beauty. It was so profound that it took his breath away. He felt a tug deep within him, a sizzle of attraction that not only caught him by surprise but displeased him as well. Okay, so she was a Cinderella just waiting for her fairy god mother to come along and transform her into a princess. He sure as hell was no Prince
Charming. And even if he were, the last thing he needed was the complication of a woman. He was working. He couldn’t afford to be distracted, especially by a woman like Claire. He knew she wouldn’t be a one-night-stand. She was a relationship, not an affair. The smart thing to do would be to just walk away now. He had no interest in a long-term involvement. The only thing he cared about was nailing Garret Palmer so hard that he’d spend the rest of his life recovering. He wanted the bastard in prison, preferably on death row for the murder he’d so gleefully described to everyone the night before. Colin had listened intently, hoping he’d reveal some detail that might implicate him legally, but Garret was apparently smart enough to keep his relation of the story simple. He talked about nothing other than the commonly known details. Which meant Colin would just have to stick to his original plan and catch the man in the act of committing the crimes everyone knew he was guilty of. Knowing and proving were two different things, though, and that was why Colin was going to be Garret’s shadow for as long as it took.