“All right. But that’s all I’m promising.” That deep south Texas drawl of his was deceptive. It didn’t denote an easygoing disposition. Quite the opposite, in fact. “And I’m not kicking out Ward Johnson.”
“I wouldn’t really want you to go that far,” she confessed. “He has problems at home.”
“And you collect broken things and broken people,” he said perceptively. “Like the stray cat that was badly bitten by a neighborhood dog and had to be taken in,” he recited. “And the pigeon with a broken wing. Then there was, of all things, a garter snake that the gardener cut with a weed eater!”
“It was only a little snake,” she defended herself.
“The bleeding heart of the world,” he scoffed. “You care too much about the wrong things.”
“Somebody has to.”
“I suppose. But don’t look at me. I’ve got a business to run.” He turned his wrist abruptly and glanced at his watch. “I have to get ready to go into Nassau.”
“You wouldn’t like to take a day off?” she asked. He looked surprised.
“A
day off,” she began, a grin lighting up her face. “It’s when you don’t work for an entire day. You go snorkeling or sunbathe or sight-seeing
…
”
“A hell of a waste of time!”
“You’re going to wear yourself out from the inside,” she pointed out. “First your brain, then your stomach, then your heart. In no tim
e you’ll be a walking bone-and-
skin frame with nothing inside.”
“You don’t say?” He took a handful of her long black hair in one hand and tugged on it as he had done when she was a kid. Only now her head eased back gently, and his eyes dropped to her soft pink mouth and lingered there before he spoke. “You’re sassy,” he said.
“I learned by watching you,” she said. Her voice sounded husky. She couldn’t breathe properly when he was this close, and she was afraid that it might show. “Joshua, you’re hurting my hair,” she whispered unsteadily.
His grip lessened, but only slightly. He actually leaned toward her, so that his coffee-and-smoke-scented breath cooled her parted lips. “Be careful that I don’t decide to take you over,” he said deeply. “You’d make one hell of an acquisition.”
“Don’t be silly. I wouldn’t match the decor in your
office at all,” she said with forced lightness. Her body was already burning. “You like dark Mediterranean, and I’m French provincial. Besides, you’re too busy.”
“Is that what you really think? That I only have a cash register for a brain and a slide rule for a heart? You, of all people on earth, should know better,” he added, his voice as sensuous as velvet against bare skin. “I taught you to fight, but I guess you’ll have to learn just about everything else on your own. I’m too jaded to make a proper tutor.” He let her hair fall back to her shoulders and turned away from her.
She studied his long back with pure pleasure. “I have to get my education somewhere, Josh,” she murmured, striking just the right note of amused honesty to raise one of his eyebrows. “If you won’t sacrifice yourself for me, I guess I’ll have to advertise for someone who will.”
“No, you won’t. You don’t know how to play that kind of game. When you give yourself, it will be for keeps.”
She looked up at him openly, appreciating the hard lines of his face, the faint weariness there. “You’re tired. Why don’t you send Brad to Nassau and get some rest?”
Her concern almost pushed him over the edge. He didn’t want it, he didn’t need it! His hand clenched at his side. He took a draw from the cigar and sent up a cloud of smoke.
“Because Brad wouldn’t get any farther than the casino across the bridge on Paradise Island, and you know it,” he said flatly. “I’m going to keep him away from temptation, at least until we close this Saudi Arabian contract.”
Amanda had her own suspicions about how well Brad
was avoiding temptation, but she couldn’t sell him out to his brother. Josh made no allowances for weakness. “You’re hard to argue with,” she commented.
“Then stop doing it. I don’t have time, anyway.” He checked his watch again. “I’ll try to be back in time for dinner.”
“I haven’t seen you for thirty minutes at a stretch since I’ve been here. And I really do have to think about getting back to San Antonio.”
“It’s only a week since the funeral,” he said. “Stay a while longer.
Why not fly over to Jamaica wit
h me tomorrow? I’ll make sure I have time for you.”
“Don’t strain yourself,” she said, annoyed at his patronizing one.
“Don’t
worry. I
won’t,” he said with a pleasant smile.
She threw up her hands. “Every time I’m around you, I feel as if I’ve been dragg
ed backward through a hedge.”
His face seemed faintly troubled. He touched her hair again, but this time he drew his hand away at o
nce. He searched her eyes intentl
y and held them until her heart ran away.
“I’m not a child, Josh,” she said huskily.
“You aren’t superficial, either,” he replied. “You’re as deep as the ocean, as enigmatic as a budding rose in a briar patch. I admire your values as much as I admire your spirit. I could never soil that.”
“You pirate,” she
accused softly. “You’re as old-
fashioned as I am.”
He nodded slowly. “Don’t tell anyone,” he said with a half smile, and started walking again. “I’d hate to ruin my image.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
B
rad
didn’t go to Nassau. Josh went himself. But that evening at dinner, Josh did ask his brother to travel to Montego Bay.
“All right,” Brad said pleasantly. “I’ll go to Jamaica for you. But I do need to be back in San Antonio by the end of the week. I’ve got a prospective client to court, an aerospace executive.”
Amanda caught the flicker in Brad’s eyes that Josh missed. Perhaps she simply knew him better, but his reason for going home to Texas didn’t sound completely honest.
“Suit yourself, as long as you hold up your end,” Josh replied. “I have to admit that you’ve made some startling gains in new territory this year.”
Brad fingered his wineglass and didn’t look up. “Enough for a raise?”
“You still owe me six months’ salary,” Josh reminded him. “And you’re paying off a hell of a loan.”
Brad’s dark eyes flashed in anger at his brother. “Go ahead. Rub it in. So I lost. But sometimes I win. When I do, I win big!”
“Nobody wins at a gambling house,” Josh said coldly. “It’s a narcotic. You’re addicted, but you won’t admit it.”
Brad tossed down his napkin and got
to his feet. “I’ll take the Lear
jet to Mo’ Bay in the morning. When I’ve finished there, I’m going home.” He dared his brother to argue.
Josh didn’t. He simply stared at the younger man ending that argument. Brad glanced at Amanda with a strained smile and left the room.
“You ride him hard,” she told Josh.
“Try the quenelles,” he said, ignoring her comment. “They’re delicious.”
“He’s your brother.”
“That’s why I want him to wake up, before he squanders his inheritance and ruins his life.”
“You can’t drag him into some clinic, Josh,” she persisted. “He’s not a chair that you can send off to be reupholstered.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t want to start this tonight,” he said firmly, a faint threat in his voice.
She wasn’t going to change his mind. As usual, it was already solidifying as quickly as concrete. She lifted her fork to her mouth. He was right: the quenelles were delicious.
W
hile a taciturn, uncommunicative Brad flew to Jamaica, Josh took Amanda out in the launch to another island, an uninhabited one near Opal Cay.
“You yourself said that I needed some time off,” he reminded her when she seemed surprised at his choice of
location. “Harriet packed us a delicious picnic lunch and a bottle of wine.”
She smiled. The prospect of an entire day with Josh was devastating to her senses. Heaven.
Josh dropped the anchor and they disembarked. It was autumn back in San Antonio, but here it was eternal summer. The beach was as white as refined sugar. The sea was every shade of aqua and blue in existence. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was, Amanda thought as she waded ashore, a perfect day for a picnic.
She glanced at Josh, trying not to be obvious as she noticed his long, muscular legs in white Bermuda shorts. He was wearing a blue knit shirt with them, one that showed off the breadth of his chest and shoulders. He wore deck shoes and deftly unloaded their things in a few, easy strides. Amanda enjoyed watching him. She loved his hands. They were large and powerful, his fingers ending in broad, flat nails that were immaculately clean.
She’d tied her long hair back in a ponytail for comfort, but she felt smaller and younger than ever as she walked along in his shadow to the shelter of palm trees and sea grape trees along the beach.
“Was this an impulse?” she asked.
He spread the white linen cloth on the ground and put the big wicker hamper on it, leaving Amanda to get out the plates and silverware while he removed the covered containers of food.
“Yes. I do get them every once in a while,” he said. He glared teasingly at her over a tub of chilled tuna salad. “If you make one false move, so help me, I’ll bury you up to your pretty neck in the sand and leave you here.”
She laughed, because he looked so menacing. “Would you, really?”
“Probably not.”
Her eyes met his. “I was only teasing, you know,” she said gently.
“I don’t think of you as a…
well, I really am old-fashioned about some things.”
“I know.” He took a plate and handed her an open container with a service spoon. “Here. Eat something. You’ve been living on your nerves for too long already.”
“It still hurts, a little,” she confessed, looking up. “Dad didn’t care very much for me, but he was all I had.”
“That isn’t true. You still have Brad and Mirri and
me.”
“Yes. Yes, I do.” She took the container and filled her plate.
Josh hadn’t brought swimming trunks, but that was just as well, because Amanda was more than content to lie in the sun. She was determined to get an even tan before she went home.
Josh had stripped off his shirt and was lying on the beach bare-chested. She stared at him covertly, enjoying the power and masculine beauty of his body. He was very tan and muscular without being misshapen, as some overenthusiastic bodybuilders seemed to Amanda. He was long and lean, but not thin. His chest had a wedge of dark blond hair that ran in a wide band down to the waistband of his shorts. And probably beyond.
“Are you tanned all over like that?
”
she asked without thinking.
He didn’t open his eyes. He smiled, and one big hand went to the fastening of his shorts. “Want to see?”
She laughed. The sound was silvery and sweet in the quiet of the island, unbroken except for the bubbling of the surf and the sound of sea gulls sweeping down onto the beach. “No. Thank you,” she added politely.
He yawned. “Brad and I don’t bother with bathing suits when we’ve
got the island to ourselves.”
He glanced at her. “I don’t doubt that you’ve got white stripes all over, though.”
Without looking at him she said, “With my luck, one of my neighbors would be hiding in the bushes with a videocamera, and I’d be on the six o’clock news for indecent exposure
.”
“There are spoilsports everywhere,” he murmured. “I’m tired.” He sounded faintly surprised.
“You never sleep,” she said. “I’m amazed that you haven’t collapsed.”
“I’m indestructible.”
“Nobody is. When was the last time you had a physical?”
“I’ve got one scheduled in two weeks,” he said. “My board of directors insists on it once a year.”
He didn’t add that this year he’d gotten the courage to request an additional, private test. He wished now that he’d left it alone. Part of him didn’t want confirmation of something that he’d suspected for several years; another part wanted to be sure.
“Good for them,” Amanda said. “None of us want you to drop dead, you know.”
“Are you sure about that? I’m the only thing standing between you and the
Gazette.”
“You and my father’s will,” she emphasized. She sat up, looking down at him with soft green eyes. “And I
wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Not ever. Not for money or any other reason.”
His eyes were very dark. They narrowed and ran slowly down to the V neck of her sleeveless T-shirt and back up again to her oval face with its exquisite expression. He found that looking at her gave him pleasure. It also kindled a curiosity that he was tired of fighting.
Something inside him caught fire, burned. She was untouched, and he wanted her. Needed her. Was desperate for her. He could stand only so much, and the temptation she’d unwittingly offered him had made him restless and unable to sleep, even to work these last few days. He let out a slow breath and gave in to it. Just once, he told himself
. No heavy stuff, and just…
this once.
He sat up, very slowly. His hand went to her mouth. He drew the tip of his forefinger softly over the curve of her lower lip, smearing lipstick and nerves as he held her eyes. His gaze fell to her soft mouth, and he bent his head. “This is not the best idea I’ve ever had. But kiss me anyway, Amanda,” he breathed as he leaned forward and his hard mouth fit itself slowly over hers.
Amanda’s whole body clenched with tense pleasure. It was the first time—the very first time, despite her dreams of years past. The sweet shock of his mouth on her soft lips made her whimper and curl into him like ivy. She reached up, straining to get her arms around his neck. The kiss she’d wanted so badly was hers now, and she was drowning in it, being seared by it. Her body felt as if it were on fire. It throbbed and ached in the oddest places, and she felt her long, elegant legs trembling as he drew her across his body and began to deepen the kiss.
The only men she’d ever kissed had been, for the most
part, students at college. One or two of them had been experienced, but the majority had been like her—shy and introverted and not very experienced. She couldn’t ever remember being tempted to go to bed with any of them.
But with Josh she felt differently. Perhaps their long friendship made him more acceptable to her, or perhaps it was the barely tamed s
ensuality of his mouth that de
vast
at
ed her senses. Whatever the explanation, she collapsed like an alcoholic drowning in liquor the minute he touched her.
He seemed to know it, because he tempered his ardor to match her lack of experience. She stiffened when he gathered her hips against the aroused thrust of his own. He loosened his hold, concentrating instead on teasing her mouth with his tongue, nipping it gently with his teeth. She relaxed, and when she did, his hands slid back to her hips and tugged coaxingly until her belly was completely against his.
Memories of his hands on another woman’s hips, pulling her to him as he loomed over her in the moonlit darkness filtered through Amanda’s mind.
She gasped under his mouth, and he lifted his head with obvious reluctance.
“Does it disturb you that I’m aroused?” he asked huskily.
“Yes,” she confessed with embarrassment, hiding her face in his chest.
He took deep breaths. His heartbeat was Shaking his powerful body, but he didn’t try to force her to accept anything she didn’t want.
He lifted her chin and searched her eyes slowly, seeing the desire and fear mingling there. That, and the adoration
that she was too inexperienced to hide. She was deeply infatuated with him. He’d known it for years, but until now he’d managed not to do anything about it.
He drew in a long, ragged breath and moved away from her. “No,” he said quietly. “I can’t handle this, Amanda.”
She licked her lips and tasted him on them. He looked as unsettled as she felt, but he was fighting the feeling. And winning. He got to his feet and lit a cigar as he walked down to the surf.
By the time he came back, Amanda had everything in the hamper. She tried to act as if nothing had happened.
He reached down to pick up his shirt, knowing Amanda watched his nude torso.
Still aroused he turned away, dragging the shirt over his head. This wouldn’t do. It really wouldn’t. Her mouth was the closest he’d ever been to heaven, but he wouldn’t start something he couldn’t finish.
“We’d better go,” he said quietly. “Brad should be back soon. I want to know how he made out.”
“I’m ready when you are,” she said pleasantly.
He took the hamper, and she walked silently beside him back to the launch.
On the way back, their uncomfortable silence was broken by a sudden gale. It wasn’t at all frightening to her. Nothing was, with Josh at the controls. She’d seen him in all sorts of dangerous situations over the years. Once, a sudden squall had come up when they were in the twin-engine plane he’d owned before the Learjet. His cool nerve and unruffled competence had stayed with her as he’d turned what could have been a tragic accident into an adventure.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked on the way across to New Providence, his voice sounding odd in the purr of the engines.
“About how well you handle danger,” she replied honestly. “You’re very cool under fire.”
“I had extensive training, having to face my board of directors with expansion proposals,” he said dryly. “It takes nerve to make money.”
“Don’t I know it.” She grimaced. “I don’t know if I’ll have anything to inherit when I’m twenty-five. It looks as if Ward Johnson is going to lose it all,” she said irritably. “His mind isn’t really on the job lately.”
“Give it up,” he advised. “You ought to know by now that I don’t budge when I think I’m right.” His fingers danced over the controls as Opal Cay came into view on the horizon. “Hold tight.”
He pushed the throttle forward, and his dark eyes danced as he fought the squall and the whitecaps on the way in to the small marina.
When they were on the pier, he smiled with wicked amusement at the look on her face. “I thought you trusted me at the controls.”
“I do. But I really don’t like getting into anything that’s over my head.”
“Don’t you?” In his dark eyes there was a soft, sensual threat that made her pulse leap. But he didn’t follow up on it. He took her arm and the hamper and walked briskly toward the house.