by Sandra Field
“Lilacs or not. I’m out of here, Travis,” she gasped. “You’re too much for me.”
“Scared, Julie?”
“Chemistry never was my strong point.”
He said softly, running his hands over the silken darkness of her hair, “Did you like biology better?”
She managed a credible laugh, forcing herself to step backward from the heat of his body. “Physics was my forte,” she said, and abandoned any attempt at humor. “Travis, I’m not looking for an affair. Whether it’s just this weekend, or the rest of the summer, it’s not in my plans.”
“Didn’t your chemistry professor ever tell you about spontaneous combustion?”
“I must have missed that lecture.”
“We don’t need a lecture. Just you and me under the stars.”
She was suddenly exhausted. She couldn’t take anymore. “I don’t want to do something we’d both regret,” she said sharply.
“Don’t speak for me, Julie… I wouldn’t regret it. Some guy must have hurt you really badly, am I right?”
If only it were that simple. But if that’s what he wanted to think, let him. “Good night,” she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Then she picked up her skirts and ran away from him across the grass.
Travis watched her go. He could easily have caught up with her, and certainly he could have physically overpowered her. But was that what he wanted? Or did he want Julie to walk into his arms of her own volition? Clear-eyed and willing.
He had at the most two months in which to achieve that aim. But he’d never backed down from a challenge in his life, and he wasn’t going to start now. Not when the prize was a woman whose body called to his in the most powerful way possible.
He had to possess her. And he would.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The woods were lush and green, her feet sinking into a thick carpet of sphagnum moss, ferns brushing her bare knees. As Julie stood still, relishing the silence and peace, a bright yellow warbler landed on a branch just above her, looking at her with its dark eye.
Once again, she’d slept badly. And once again, she’d dreamed about Travis. Unrepeatable dreams. X-rated. No one under the age of eighteen admitted.
But at least she’d had the sense to run away from him last night in the shadow of the lilacs.
Julie sighed. Hadn’t her expedition this morning also been related to Travis? Another attempt to put distance between him and her? She was on the island offshore to Manatuck, the kayak she’d borrowed from the boathouse pulled up on the shale beach. As far as she could tell, this island was completely unspoiled. No one living on it, and certainly no stone castles. It had a serenity Manatuck lacked; idly she found herself wondering who was lucky enough to own it.
With a quiver of unease she wondered if her wandering lifestyle was starting to pall. Certainly she missed the rocky shores and crisp blue waves of home more and more with each departure.
Settle in Portland? No way.
She’d explore for a few minutes, then head back to Castlereigh in lots of time for breakfast. Quite a few of the guests had stayed overnight; breakfast would be a very sociable affair. Again, all the better to hide from Travis. And then she’d leave Manatuck on the launch, and go back to her daily life.
She wished Travis was leaving Portland this week, as his father wanted him to.
Her illusory peace shattered, Julie wandered back down the slope, picking her footholds with care, because the rocks among the moss were wet with dew. As she emerged from the trees, she saw with an unpleasant tightening of her nerves that a second kayak had been pulled up on the beach. Brent was striding up the shale toward the trees. Brent. Not Travis.
“Good morning,” she called. “You’re up early.”
He didn’t bother answering, too intent on closing the distance between them. She stationed herself beside a fallen log, feeling her heartbeat quicken. There wasn’t another soul on this island other than herself and Brent. She didn’t like Brent, nor did she trust him.
He stopped two feet away from her. “This island belongs to Travis,” he said. “Did you know that?”
“No.”
“Yeah… our grandfather left it to him. Along with a big bundle of money.”
She stated the obvious. “You hate your brother.”
“Did you see him and Dad last night? A touching little display of filial love. Of course Travis wants a reconciliation, he knows which side his bread’s buttered on.”
Julie might be terrified of making love with Travis; but she wasn’t blind to his character, and somehow she doubted that he was driven by mercenary motives. “You’re judging him by your own standards,” she said with more truth than wisdom.
“Clever little Julie… you dropped me as soon as you saw him, didn’t you?”
“I dropped you when you forced your way into my room.”
“You should have thought twice before coming out to this island all by yourself.”
“Come off it, Brent,” she said sharply. “Strong-arm stuff is punishable by law, or hadn’t you noticed? And just to keep the record straight, I’m no more interested in having an affair with Travis than I am with you. I told him so last night.”
“You expect me to believe that? I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“If you weren’t born yesterday, then use your common sense and go back to Manatuck. I’ll be along in time for breakfast.”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
As his eyes narrowed and his muscles tensed, Julie had a split-second to react. Pivoting, she raced for the shelter of the woods. Brent wasn’t in good shape like Travis; she was almost certain she could outrun him. She could hear him close behind her, too close, swearing in a steady monotone that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She leaped a fallen trunk, slipped on a rock, regained her balance and dashed between two trees. A snag tore at her arm; all she could hear was the drumming of her heart in her ears, and Brent’s harsh breathing.
Still too close. And she dared not look back.
Fear lending her wings, she took what looked like a pathway through the trees straight up the slope, still trusting that she could outlast him. Inwardly giving thanks that she’d attended her fitness club so faithfully, she ran hard for several minutes. Then, her lungs heaving for air, she dodged some shrubs, ducked under a couple of low branches and scrambled up a sheer face of granite with an agility that, even in the moment, amused her. She couldn’t have done it in cold blood; she’d never liked heights. Darting through some pines, their soft needles giving her a better foothold, she ran on.
She didn’t even see the hollow in the ground, burrow of some unknown animal. One foot went down the hole, throwing her off balance. By flinging herself sideways, Julie managed to avoid twisting her ankle. But she landed hard, a broken branch ripping at her leg. With a gasp of pain, she struggled to her feet and staggered on.
But there was no heavy breathing behind her. Had she, despite her fall, outrun Brent?
She threw a glance over her shoulder. Boughs gently waving in the breeze, ferns and rusted needles on the forest floor, and no sign of her pursuer. She was alone in the woods. More slowly, she went further into the pines, then changed direction to throw Brent off in case he was still following her. When she was certain she really was alone, Julie sank down on a granite boulder, her eyes still darting this way and that.
Her leg was bleeding very messily, she’d scraped her palm when she landed, and her cheekbone was bruised and sore. But at least, she thought, cheering up, she hadn’t twisted or broken her ankle. All she had to do was wait for a while, then creep back down to the shore. If there was only one kayak left on the beach, then Brent was gone.
Taking her time, limping slightly, Julie put this plan into action twenty minutes later. But when she finally emerged from the trees, she saw to her dismay that both kayaks were gone.
Wrong beach. It must be.
It wasn’t. She recognized the reef that she’d rounded to approach the beach. B
rent had towed her kayak away.
She said every swearword that she knew, in every language she’d ever been exposed to. While this made her feel better, it didn’t produce a second kayak. The tide had turned, the current streaming past the rocks. She couldn’t swim back to Manatuck, she’d be swept out to sea.
Great, she thought. Just great. Now what should she do?
Her mad dash through the trees had made her thirsty and given her an appetite; but her water bottle and trail mix were tucked down beside the seat of her kayak. Her only option was to swim back once the tidal rip subsided. In three or four hours, she thought glumly.
How long before she was missed? Would Travis notice she was gone? Or would he assume she’d already left on the launch without saying goodbye? Which, after the way she’d run away from him last night, he’d be entirely justified in doing.
Maybe he’d already left Manatuck himself.
One thing was sure. Brent wouldn’t tell anyone where she was.
Travis, unusually for him, slept late that morning, so it was well past nine when he went down for breakfast. He hesitated outside Julie’s bedroom door, tapped on the panels, and knew intuitively from the silence that the room was empty. So she must be downstairs.
He ran down to the dining room, crowded with those guests who had spent the night rather than be ferried out to their yachts at two in the morning. Tables and chairs had been set out on the patio, overflowing onto the lawn. Julie was nowhere to be seen. He cornered Charles by the coffeepot. “Have you seen Julie?”
“No, come to think of it, I haven’t.” Charles chuckled. “I showed her a new spin on her serve, maybe she’s practising.”
Corinne hadn’t seen her, either. She said coolly, “Brent left for the mainland an hour ago with Oliver. Maybe she went with him.”
His gut lurched. “Did she say goodbye to you?”
“No. But there’s been such a crush of people… oh, there are the Hallidays, I must speak to them. Excuse me, Travis.”
Travis stared after her, fighting down a confusion of emotion. Would Julie have left with Brent, without saying goodbye to her host and hostess? He didn’t think so; but then, what did he really know about her?
The key question was whether she’d left with Brent. She’d promised to stay away from him; but was she trustworthy?
If she hadn’t left with Brent, where was she?
He checked the tennis courts and the pool, without any luck. Then he hurried down to the boathouse. Alongside a small powerboat, four kayaks were moored. A pair of dark glasses was tucked under the bungee cords of the red one. Julie’s glasses. She’d been wearing them yesterday afternoon.
A water bottle and a bag of nuts and raisins lay on the seat. His head swiveled around as the door creaked open. But it was one of the groundsmen, not Julie. He said urgently, “Did anyone go kayaking this morning, Russell?”
“I saw Mr. Brent about an hour ago, towing a second kayak from Bear Island. I thought it was kinda funny at the time.”
“Towing it—empty?”
“Yep. Just him. Then he took off in the launch with Oliver.”
“By himself?”
Russell kept his face expressionless. “Him and a blond lady, sir.”
That would be the blonde who’d been wrapped around Brent most of last night. So Julie hadn’t left with Brent. “Thanks, Russell,” Travis said and knew exactly what he was going to do.
Twenty minutes later, Travis was paddling around the northeast shoals of Manatuck, Bear Island now in sight. Brent was smart enough to know that he couldn’t get away with violence. He wouldn’t have hurt Julie and left her on the island. Would he?
If he had, there’d be hell to pay, Travis thought grimly. There was a cold lump of dread lodged in his gut; it was taking a huge effort to prevent that dread from turning into outright terror. What had Brent done to Julie? Why had he towed an empty kayak back to Manatuck? Julie was no pushover, she wouldn’t have sat by meekly and allowed his brother to leave her stranded on an uninhabited island.
He’d gone far enough north for the tide to carry him toward the beach on the island that he owned. Steering with all his strength, because he was alone in a double kayak, he passed the reefs and saw the long stretch of shale in front of him. Using rudder and paddle, he headed straight for it, jamming the prow of the kayak up onto the rocks. Swiftly he climbed out and hauled his craft out of reach of the tide.
Then he looked up. A woman was walking from the shade of the trees onto the sun-drenched shale. She was limping.
His first reaction was a relief so overpowering that he felt almost dizzy. Julie was safe. Alive and well. It wasn’t until now that he could admit to himself how terrified he’d been of the alternative, despite his inner conviction that Brent was too self-serving to do real harm.
His second reaction, predictably, was anger. He strode across the beach toward her, his soft-soled sneakers crunching the shale. “Are you okay?” he rapped.
Julie nodded. “I’m glad to see you,” she said with a small smile.
He didn’t smile back. “Did Brent leave you here?”
“Yes.”
“If he laid as much as a finger on you, I’ll have his hide for a floor mat.”
“He didn’t. I ran away,” she said economically.
“Your leg’s bleeding.”
“I tripped and fell. Can we go back, Travis? I’m hungry, thirsty, and in dire need of a shower.”
“We’ll go back in a minute,” he said, each word dropping like a stone. “Will you kindly explain to me what you and Brent were doing out here in the first place? You promised to stay away from him.”
Her chin snapped up. “Are you insinuating I came out here with him?”
“The thought had occurred to me, yes.”
“And why would I have done that?”
“You tell me.”
“I came out here by myself to get some peace and quiet before breakfast. Brent must have seen me and followed me. Although why I’m bothering to explain this to you when you persist in thinking the worst of me, I have no idea. Take me back to Manatuck, Travis—now. And spare me the sermons, I don’t need them.”
“If you’d stayed away from Brent in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this mess,” Travis said furiously.
“And I wouldn’t have met you. Which certainly would be a bonus.”
“Your cheek—did he hit you?”
“I told you—he didn’t as much as touch me!”
“Dammit, Julie, ever since I saw your dark glasses on the kayak in the boathouse, I’ve been picturing you drowned, raped and murdered,” Travis said in a voice raw with emotion.
Too much emotion, he thought distantly. Far too much. But it was too late to take it back.
She let out her breath in a long sigh. “I’m hungry, thirsty and sore. Not drowned, raped or murdered. So why are we standing here yelling at each other?”
“Because I was worried sick about you.”
“I get the message.” She scowled at him. “I bet all the bacon and eggs will be gone by the time we get back.”
“I’ll have Bertram order you a breakfast all of your own. He owes you, after leaving the room keys hanging in the pantry.”
Looking somewhat more cheerful, Julie said, “You’d do that for me?”
“I’d do a lot more than that for you,” Travis said harshly; and listened to the words echo in his head.
“Bacon and eggs would be plenty, thank you.”
“Are you warning me off?”
“I don’t know!”
Travis took a step back. “Let’s go.”
“I’ve hurt you, haven’t I?” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Travis, I—”
“Your imagination’s working overtime.”
“So you don’t hurt, like ordinary people?” she lashed.
“I quit that a long time ago.”
“I don’t believe you!”
“That’s your choice,” he said curtly. “In the meant
ime, we can argue half the morning, or we can paddle back to Manatuck.”
“Arguing with you is a lost cause,” Julie snapped, and turned away, marching down the shore toward the kayak.
Travis stayed where he was. He hated how easily she could get to him. On top of that, he wanted to kiss her so badly he could taste the sweetness of her lips against his. He didn’t want to think what he might have done had Brent harmed her. He was a doctor, for God’s sake. He was supposed to heal, not hurt.
Raking his fingers through his hair, his footsteps crunching on the barnacles, Travis followed Julie down to the kayak. Once there, he passed her the water bottle and trail mix, watching the movements of her throat as she swallowed. Added to the terror and rage he’d felt earlier was another, disturbingly new emotion: a fierce instinct to protect her from further harm.
Coupled with, of course, the ever-present gnawing of desire. Not that yelling at her on a lonely beach was the way to entice her into his bed. He had to come up with a better strategy than that.
Julie took a handful of nuts from the bag. “Nothing like a few raisins and almonds for making life worth living. Want some?”
Desire wasn’t on her mind. For sure.
Travis chewed a few peanuts that might as well have been wood chips and said abruptly, “We’d better get going. We’ll follow the beach and the reefs north, then cut across the channel above Manatuck.”
Which is what they did. Julie was an adept and strong kayaker, their paddles flashing in unison; Travis knew better than to see this as a metaphor.
They docked in the boathouse, then Travis led the way through the trees to a side door where they’d be unlikely to meet any of his father’s guests. The back stairs took them to the far end of the wing where their bedrooms were located. Outside her door he said, “I’ll wait for you while you shower. Then I want to check that gash in your leg, you don’t want to risk infection.”
“I can look after it.”
“Julie, I’m a doctor,” he said coldly. “This isn’t a come-on.”
She flushed. “You’ve got a practice in Portland?”