So much for his instincts. On the one hand, he was convinced that Keith, back onshore, would never cause the least danger to the people Ben loved. And on the other hand…
“C’mon,” Lee urged. “Come see the fish finder on this beauty. We’ll be hauling in our dinner at turbo speed.”
Amanda disentangled herself from Ben, yawning. “You know, I was thinking maybe I’d take a little snooze.” She laughed softly, looking at Ben. “We were all awakened in the middle of the night,” she reminded them.
“No way,” Lee protested. “We’re striking out to sea, all for one and one for all. Everyone topside!”
Amanda pouted prettily. She would have spoken again, Ben was certain, except that Lee was striding toward them, ready to herd them all up, as if he were a friendly sheepdog keeping the masses together.
He wondered if he was just creating a sense of something that wasn’t there, more spooked by Beth’s unease than he’d realized.
She was worse than he was, worrying about Amber, worrying about him, spending the majority of her time at work. For most young women, the club would be a smorgasbord of rugged, tanned, athletic professional men. But not for Beth, who didn’t date where she worked. It was as if she was oblivious.
Tall, tanned, perfectly fit in a feminine way—stacked—with her dark hair and exotic eyes, she was probably the greatest catch on the island. But even here, she was proving adept at keeping her distance.
“You’re mean,” Amanda teased Lee, and clasping his arm, a pretty moue on her face. “I’m just so sleepy.”
“I’ll set you up on deck. You’ll love it,” Lee assured her.
At that moment Ben knew for a fact that his suspicions were correct.
No one, for any reason, was going to be left in the cabin alone.
So just what were they up to?
“SHH!”
Beth found the sound absurdly reassuring. Though she couldn’t see the man whose hand was on her mouth, she knew it was Keith Henson. Was it the feel of him? A certain chemistry? It didn’t matter. She just knew.
She felt his other hand spanning the bare flesh of her midriff. He was tense but no longer forceful, and the hand on her mouth eased, then moved away. She could feel the thud of both his heart and her own.
As they stood there, silent, strangely bonded, Brad and Sandy appeared in the clearing.
And Brad was the one wielding the machete.
It was a wicked-looking weapon, and yet…boaters planning to put ashore on an island might readily have one. In fact, he was using it for the exact purpose one might expect in such a circumstance—chopping away at the heavy growth.
“I think it was here,” Sandy said wearily.
“Here is an awfully damn big space,” Brad said irritably.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a small island.”
“Way too small, at the moment. We should have realized. It’s a weekend.”
“Should we just quit moaning and start looking?”
Beth adjusted her footing ever so slightly. Behind her, Keith did likewise. He seemed to have no intention of letting her go, accosting the pair or letting his own presence be known. She could feel the coiled tension in him. He was listening intently.
Were they looking for a skull?
And if Keith Henson didn’t know about the skull, why would he be so worried about a young couple searching a clearing on the island?
She turned slightly, looking up at him as Brad hacked away at overhanging fronds and branches. He shook his head, warning her that she shouldn’t move, shouldn’t give herself away.
A fly buzzed near her nose. She began to wonder just how long she could stand so perfectly still. Yet, her own heart continued to race, and her suspicions were hiked to the limit, every fiber of her being attuned to danger.
“I hear something,” Sandy announced suddenly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Brad told her.
“No, no, I hear something. From the beach.”
“They’re fishing.”
“They’re not all fishing.”
“So what? We’re just walking around the island.”
“I don’t like this, Brad. Let’s go back.”
“Are you scared?”
“You bet.” She looked at him pleadingly. “Come on, they all have jobs. They’ll have to get back to work in a couple of days. The island will be all ours again. Please, let’s just get out of here for now.”
Brad let out a long sigh. Then he slipped his arms around her, letting the machete dangle.
“Ooh, nice sword,” Sandy teased.
“You bet, baby.”
He started to kiss her. Then, with his free hand, to fondle her.
Beth held her breath, feeling acutely uncomfortable. She could still feel the hand on her own midriff, and watching these two get more and more intimate…
I thought you were scared, Sandy! she longed to shout.
Then things got worse.
“Want to really fool around?” Brad whispered.
“Maybe.”
“Then you won’t be scared? Worried about getting caught?”
“There’s something kind of exciting about it,” Sandy whispered in return. Her hand slid from his chest.
Lower. Lower.
Beth could feel her cheeks flaming to a bright pink.
“Then again…I should be punishing you,” Sandy said huskily. “You were all over the blonde today.”
“The blonde was all over me today,” Brad protested.
“You didn’t seem to mind.”
“Hey…she was determined to let me know she was full-bodied.”
“You and every other guy there.”
“Um, true, but you shouldn’t let her worry you.”
“No,” Sandy agreed. “It’s the other one I’m worried about. You were looking at her.”
“I was looking at her?”
“Yeah, you know. Looking.”
“Well, she is really sexy. Legs that go on forever. Imagine what she could do with those legs.”
Beth could feel the flames deepen in her cheeks, and she imagined that Keith had to be aware of it, too. She couldn’t stand much more of this. Self-preservation had kept her silent so far. Embarrassment might well send her flying from cover.
“Hey,” Sandy protested.
“Am I turning you on yet?” Brad demanded.
“Seriously…I keep hearing something.”
“What happened to the idea of being caught in the act of being so hot and sexy?”
“Those girls are underage.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, the last thing we need now is to be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” Sandy said.
“Good point,” Brad agreed seriously. But then he quickly returned to his lighter tone. “Hey…the tent is exotic and hot, you know.”
“So let’s get back to the beach—please! In a couple of days, they’ll all leave. It will be our island again, Brad. Then we can take care of things.”
At last the two of them left, disappearing across the clearing, taking the same trail Beth had used.
Behind her, Keith remained still for what seemed like an aeon. It was all she could do to keep from wrenching away. And yet he was right—they needed to let Sandy and Brad put some distance between them.
Finally, however, she could stand it no longer. He was still touching her, his hand still on her midriff, her body backed flush against his.
She stepped away and turned, staring at him, tense and wary.
“What was that all about?” she demanded.
His eyes were as dark as ebony. He wasn’t wearing his sunglasses, but his eyes still gave no clue of what thoughts lurked in his mind.
“Shh,” he warned her.
“They’re gone,” she reminded him.
“The trees may well have ears,” he said quietly, studying her.
She lowered her voice. “What were they looking for?” she demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you accost them?”
“Do you really think it’s a great idea to accost a man carrying a machete?” he cross-queried.
“But…” She shook her head. “Now we’ll never know what they were doing.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
She backed away another step, frowning. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking.”
“Looking for what?” she demanded sharply.
He leaned back against a tree, crossing his arms over his chest. “Whatever you were trying to hide when we met.”
Startled, she hesitated, then came back at him far too late. “Don’t be ridiculous. I wasn’t hiding anything.”
“Then I wasn’t really looking for anything, was I?”
She let out a sigh of irritation and started to turn away. Then she swung back and collided with him once again. Embarrassed, she braced her hands against his chest and regained her footing quickly.
“Why aren’t you out fishing?” she demanded. “I thought you went out on the boat.”
“Obviously I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“There was a full crew.”
“But you snuck around to come back here,” she accused him.
“I didn’t sneak anywhere.”
“Then why didn’t I see you before?”
“Probably because you weren’t paying any attention. There was no secret about me staying behind. I didn’t jump off the boat when no one was looking and swim back.”
She stared at him, shaking her head. “There’s something wrong with you.”
That brought a wry smile to his lips. “I’m not exactly sure how you mean that, but…You should certainly hope not. You’re alone with me on an island, and all help is far away.”
She took a step back again.
He sighed, reaching for her. She jumped; he let his arm fall, shaking his head.
“I’m going to give you some advice, whether you want it or not. Stay away from this area of the island. Obviously it’s of interest to someone, and we don’t know why. Keep your mouth shut about seeing Sandy and Brad looking around here. In fact, if you have any suspicions about anyone, pretend that you don’t.”
She narrowed her eyes, staring at him hard. “Someone might have been killed here.”
“And you wouldn’t want to join them.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Good God, no. It’s a warning.”
“Right. And you should be trusted?”
“Actually, yes.”
She studied him long and hard. He was a man in the prime of his life, muscled and hard. She was suddenly certain that, if he had chosen, he could have wrenched the machete away from Brad without breaking a sweat.
To her discomfort, she also remembered the strength with which he had held her.
She spun around, striding for the trail.
He caught her arm, swinging her back. She didn’t open her mouth to protest, only narrowed her eyes at him in serious warning, arching her brows slowly as she gazed from his eyes to the place where his hand rested on her arm.
“I was serious. Keep your mouth shut.”
“You know something, so you’d better be planning on talking to the police,” she warned him.
“If I knew something, I wouldn’t need to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.”
“I think we should call the police.”
“And tell them what?” he demanded.
She faltered. “That…that…”
“That there might have been a skull on the island? That a young couple was scrounging around, looking for something? So far, they haven’t done a thing that’s illegal. And so far, you haven’t got anything at all to tell the police. Guess what? You need to get your nose out of it. You need to keep your mouth shut and pretend that you haven’t seen a single thing on this island.”
“You are threatening me.”
“I’m not the threat!” he protested angrily. “But just maybe there is a threat out there.”
“Then we need to stop them. Now.”
“There’s this little thing called the law. You think you can just tie up Sandy and Brad and call the Coast Guard, and they’ll arrest them for acting in what you’ve decided is a suspicious manner?”
She felt herself flush. He was still holding her. She swallowed, strangely far more afraid now than she had been at any time before. Odd, it felt far too good, especially under the circumstances. She wanted to close her eyes. Lean against him. Let the moment go on. She loathed the concept of basic instinct, but she realized that she was feeling one right then. There was something so right about feeling his touch. She told herself it was just because she hadn’t so much as dated in a very long time, but inside she knew it was because she had simply never felt anything so right.
He released her suddenly. “All right, you don’t trust me. Stick with your brother. Tight. And keep your mouth shut.”
He wasn’t touching her anymore. That should mean that sanity would return. Instead she felt startled, like a doe caught in the headlights.
She stiffened, determined to follow a course based on sense and reason.
He started to walk past her, but she wasn’t done with him.
She found herself running to catch up with him, then caught his arm, swinging him back to face her.
“What does all this have to do with you?” she demanded.
“Nothing. I came to this island to camp, just the same as you,” he told her.
“Then why were you searching the clearing?”
“I told you. It seemed obvious you had hidden something.” He had been impatient, almost ready to pull away. But suddenly he became the one determined to carry on the conversation. He moved toward her. There was a tree behind her, and she backed up against it. He set a palm on the trunk to trap her, leaning close.
“What were you hiding?” he demanded.
“Nothing.”
“A skull?” he queried.
“Of course not!”
He pushed away from the tree and once again started back toward the beach. She followed him, irritated and uneasy.
And oddly determined to keep up with him.
To remain close.
They reached the trail. For a moment Beth was afraid they would run straight into Sandy and Brad, but the couple was nowhere to be seen.
Amber and Kimberly were lying on the beach, exactly where they had been when she had left them. Roger, too, seemed not to have stirred from the hammock.
“Hey, girls!” Keith called out.
Amber rolled over and looked back, seeing Keith. “Hi,” she called, smiling.
“Hey, guys,” Kimberly said.
The girls looked at him, then Beth, then one another. They smiled.
No, she thought. They smirked.
“Did you find any good coconuts?” Amber asked him.
It was Beth’s turn to look from him to the girls and back again. Obviously the girls had known that he hadn’t gone on the boat. Where the hell had she been?
Not paying attention. A mistake she didn’t intend to repeat.
“Hey…that looks like a decent coconut right over there.” He pointed in the direction of the hammock where Roger lay sleeping.
“I’ll get it,” Amber volunteered.
Beth bit her lip, not allowing herself to protest. The girls liked Keith. Trying to draw them away and tell them to be wary would only send them flying to his defense.
Kim jumped up to run after Amber.
Beth’s pepper spray lay forgotten on Amber’s beach towel.
Staring at Keith, she went and picked it up. He smiled, shaking his head.
“What’s that smile for?” she demanded, moving closer to him so the girls wouldn’t hear her.
“Pepper spray…machete. Hmm.”
“Don’t kid yourself, this stuff can blind a man.”
“I wouldn’t dream of mocking your strength, Ms. Anderson,” he
told her.
Then he turned and went to accept the coconut Amber had picked up. Beth watched as he slammed it against a tree.
The coconut broke at his bidding. He didn’t look back at her, just offered the pieces to the girls. Only then did he turn.
“Sorry—is it all right if they have fresh coconut?”
Amber giggled. “Silly. Aunt Beth doesn’t have anything against coconuts.”
Beth forced a smile.
She was relieved to see the first of the dinghies sliding smoothly onto the shore, just a hundred feet down on the beach.
The others were back.
“Mahimahi tonight!” Ben shouted. He jumped from the dinghy and dragged it farther up the shore, then reached back to give a hand to Amanda. She accepted it with her usual innate sensuality, managing to bring her whole body against Ben in her smooth effort to step to the sand.
“My recipe tonight,” Ben called to Beth.
He sounded so pleased. Their fishing expedition had clearly been a great success.
Once again, she forced a smile, then waved and slipped into her tent.
She hoped her brother was having a good time.
For herself, it felt as if she had taken the night train to hell.
And, she realized, it could only get worse. She was suddenly longing for something she shouldn’t have.
Perhaps couldn’t have…
But the really scary thought was that he was feeling just the same.
5
BETH SAT ON THE BENT TRUNK of the palm tree, eating Doritos and watching.
It might have been a family reunion.
The light was gone, but three separate fires blazed, and the portable barbecue was working away, as well. The fires, she decided, were mainly for show, for warmth and light, though the moon was full, and the sky was clear, studded with stars. The fires were still nice, she thought.
Ben was talking to Keith and Matt by the barbecue, explaining the secret to his perfect mahimahi, she suspected. A coffeepot was set over one of the fires. Brad was the coffee brewer. Hank, Gerald and Matt were hanging out with him, probably talking about their day on the water.
The Island Page 7