Harlequin Desire June 2020 - Box Set 2 of 2

by Karen Booth

  “All these years I’ve known you and I had no idea what talents you were hiding,” she said. “You’ve been holding out on me, haven’t you?”

  He laughed quietly, but it felt forced. He nuzzled her cheek with his nose. She lowered her legs a bit and stroked the back of his thighs with her ankles. Come on, Zane. Don’t let me down.

  “I, uh…” His voice faltered.

  “What is it?” She was careful to keep her voice warm and soothing. She did not want to witness another of his panics.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t know what?”

  “I’m so sorry. So incredibly sorry.” He turned away, avoiding eye contact. “I can’t do this.” Seeming defeated, he climbed off the bed and plucked his swim trunks from the floor.

  Meanwhile, Allison was knee-deep in confusion. “Zane. What’s wrong? I thought we were good.”

  “I thought we were, too. But I can’t do it. I can’t betray my best friend.”

  Naked on the bed and reeling from the pleasure Zane had just given her, the rejection still landed on Allison like the proverbial ton of bricks. Zane, the man she’d dreamed of for years, had just told her no. Logic said she should be incredibly hurt. Devastated. But right now, with this beautiful man still standing in her bedroom with an obvious erection, she was nothing but flat-out mad. It didn’t have to be this way. And he knew it.

  “Please don’t do this,” she said. “Don’t leave.”

  “I have to. I’m sorry, but I do. I shouldn’t be here in the first place.”

  His apology didn’t do much to quiet her anger. “You’re doing this. You’re seriously putting on the brakes.” She rolled onto her stomach, head and arms dangling off the side of the bed, and grabbed her sarong from the floor, where she’d tossed it earlier. Let him have a perfect view of her backside. Let him see what he was missing.

  “I don’t know why you’re mad. From where I’m sitting, I just gave you a pretty mind-blowing orgasm.”

  “It was amazing. And not the point. I want you, Zane. All of you.”

  “I can’t give you that. Not now.”

  A deep grumble was forming at the base of her throat. “Then when? Later tonight? Tomorrow morning? Please don’t tell me we’re going to leave this island without having sex.” She wanted to applaud herself for truly putting it all out there.

  “I’ve thought about it, and it’s not a good idea. We’ve already gone too far.”

  She knew what that really meant. “You’re going to let my brother come between us here? Nobody needs to know about this, Zane. Nobody. I don’t kiss and tell. And I certainly wouldn’t kiss and tell about you to him.”

  Zane turned away from her and stalked over to the French doors. His heavy steps were born of frustration, which seemed like an awfully good argument for him getting back in bed with her. But apparently not. “I would know it had happened. That’s all that matters. I can’t violate that trust.”

  “I would like to know where in your friendship agreement it says that you can’t sleep with your friend’s sister, when she’s a consenting adult and so are you.”

  He whipped around, his eyes full of an emotion she couldn’t put a label on—it wasn’t anger and it wasn’t hurt. It was something in between. “It’s a guy thing. Plus, you and I both know that this would be nothing more than a hookup. Is that really what you want?”

  “Are you saying that because it’s all you’re capable of? Hookups? Why is that, Zane? Why do you seek out one-night stands with women, but never actually commit?”

  “Now is not the time for us to discuss the rest of my personal life.”

  “Oh. Right. Because you’re always beyond reproach.” She was so angry, it felt as though her blood was boiling. She hated that this was her reaction, but it was the only thing that made sense right now.

  “That’s not what I was saying. You just came off a breakup, Allison. You told me yourself that it was bad. I’m not the cure for that. The cure for that is time.”

  Allison jumped off the bed and wrapped her sarong around herself, tying it at the shoulder. Her breakup had been a distant thought until then, and she didn’t appreciate him bringing it up or, worse, using it against her. “I don’t need to be cured. I need the chance to move on.” She stormed past him into the living room. Out of habit, she picked up her phone from where she’d left it on a side table. She had a text from Kianna. Nothing of paramount importance, but she replied. She watched as the bar moved across the screen, then she got an error message. Not delivered. That was when she saw she had no bars. “Service is out.”

  “You said you were going to turn off your phone.”

  “Well, I didn’t.”

  Zane’s eyes went wide with disapproval, and Allison was struck with a horrible realization. This really was all a mistake. Zane still saw her as a kid. He’d always see her as Scott’s little sister. He’d never think of her as an actual woman.

  “I love how you just come out with it,” he quipped.

  “I’m being honest. I told you I’d turn it off because I knew that it would be the sensible thing to do on a vacation where you’re supposed to truly relax, but the reality is that Kianna and I are just barely keeping our heads above water with our business and we have an important new client that could turn into a long-term retainer. I need to be able to work.”

  “Oh, give me a break. That guy you were talking to yesterday? That was not work. If it was, you wouldn’t have sneaked off into your bedroom and closed the door. It’s not like I know a single thing about your company or what you’re doing.”

  Allison’s heart was hammering in her chest. She’d thought it would seem reasonable that she’d want some privacy during a work call, but she had to admit to herself that it was solely because she was working for the one person on the planet Zane would hate forever. “It actually was business. I owe it to my recruits to exercise discretion. I’m sometimes going after very high-level people who already have important positions with big companies. I’m sorry if it’s my regular practice to conduct those phone calls out of earshot of anyone. It’s nothing personal.” Except that it was, because the conversation was about Black Crescent. She regretted tacking on that last comment. Everything before it had been nothing less than the truth.

  Zane reared his head back and held up his hands in surrender. “You don’t have to get so angry, Allison. I’m sorry. If it really was work, I’m sorry I said anything, okay?”

  She knew then that she’d overreacted, but it was only because she was so deeply frustrated. “Do you want to know why I’m so mad?” She felt her entire body vibrate from head to toe. Could she really come out with it? Tell him about the feelings that were tucked deep down inside her? These were things she’d never told anyone. Not her mom or Kianna. The pages of the diary she’d kept in high school were the only place where she’d ever come clean about Zane. And maybe that was part of her problem. She felt as though Zane needed to let go of his feelings about his past. Maybe she needed to set loose the things that kept haunting her, too. “I’m angry because over on Mako Island, and back there in my bedroom, I was so close to what I’ve wanted for fifteen years, and you decided to yank it all away.”

  Zane stood there, frozen, blinking like he had far more than a speck of dust in his eye. “Hold on a minute. What did you say?”

  She couldn’t suffer any more humiliation today. She’d had more than her fill. “You heard me. And you can feel free to go now. I just want to be left alone for the rest of my trip.” She stormed off into the kitchen. That was when she saw a note on the counter. Even from across the room, she could tell it was Angelique’s handwriting. She beelined for it.

  Dear Allison,

  I’m not sure where on the island you are, and I couldn’t get a text to go through, so I’m leaving a note. Hubert was having chest pains, so I’ve taken him to the doctor in Nassau. Don�
��t worry. This has happened before. I think it’s stress. I considered staying on Rose Cove, but I wanted to be with him, and our remaining guests have opted to leave because of the weather. I don’t think the storm will hit the island, but we will feel some of its effects. I would not leave if I didn’t think it was safe for you and Zane to be here. You have lived through many storms at Rose Cove and know what to do. Stay safe and hunker down if necessary. I’m sure Hubert and I will be back on the island tomorrow.

  Love, Angelique

  Zane hadn’t left her cottage as Allison had asked. In fact, he was standing right behind her. “Have you looked outside? The sky is getting menacing. I guess we didn’t notice it since we walked back inland in the shade.”

  “The weather can turn on a dime here.” Allison handed him the note from her aunt. “And we were busy for a little while after that, too.” She watched as Zane scanned the note.

  “Whoa. I hope your uncle is okay.”

  “Yeah. Me, too.” Everything about this day had gone so wrong. Right now, she just wanted to go to bed and try to sleep it off. “Not much we can do right now but wait.”

  “But the storm. Don’t you think we should figure out what’s going on?”

  She’d been through dozens of false alarms with storms on this island. The weather was the least of her worries. “You do whatever you want, Zane. For me, I’m going to get some sleep and try to forget that you don’t want to have sex with me.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  By late the next morning, the rain was coming down in torrential sheets, and Zane was deeply concerned about what might be in store for Allison and him on Rose Cove. He couldn’t get a signal on his phone. The other resort guests were all gone. Zane had been to the dock several times, hoping there would be a boat there, but he’d had no luck. Either they’d missed them all or no one was coming to get them. Angelique had told Allison to hunker down, but Zane wanted to make one more attempt to look for a way off this island. And he wasn’t going without Allison. He had to keep her safe. Even if she hated him, he was going to drag her along.

  He trudged down the beach to her cottage, rain pelting his entire body while the wind pushed against him, forcing Zane to dig his feet deeper into the sand with each step. His thighs burned from the effort; his skin stung from the sheets of rain. He squinted through the drops but could see up on Allison’s patio. Her doors and windows were closed. Once he arrived at her back door, Allison was nowhere in sight, so he had to knock. As he waited for an answer, he turned back to the ocean. The waves that had been so lovely and calm a day or two ago were now starting to rage. The water was at a full-on churn like a washing machine. Best-case scenario as far as Zane could guess would be that the storm would only skirt the Bahamas and they wouldn’t sustain a direct hit. But with no access to a forecast, it was impossible to know what they were waiting for, whether this was as bad as things would get or if this was only the beginning.

  He turned back to the door and pounded again. “Come on, Allison. Answer the damn door.” Impatient, he turned the knob and stepped inside just as she stumbled out of her bedroom.

  “Zane. What the hell? You just walk in here? I was taking a nap. There’s nothing else to do with this weather.”

  Zane hated how beautiful she looked. He especially hated the way his entire body had gone warm and his face had flushed. He might have been struck by a sudden case of best-friend guilt yesterday, but that didn’t change the fact that he wanted her badly. “It’s getting worse out there, and I have no cell service, so I don’t know what’s going on. Are you able to get any bars?”

  “Oh, this from the guy who criticized me for using my phone.” She turned on her heel and retreated to her bedroom.

  He had no choice but to follow her. “Don’t be mad about yesterday. This is important.”

  She was standing in front of her dresser, staring at her phone. The bed was disheveled, and good God he wanted to scoop her up and lay her down on it. But this was no time for that. “I’m planning on being mad about yesterday for as long as I feel like it.” She held her phone up over her head at a different angle, then off to the side. “And no. I’m not getting any bars, either.”

  Zane still wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly yesterday afternoon when she’d said that thing about him taking away the thing she’d wanted for fifteen years. Was it really possible that she’d had some sort of crush on him all that time? And if so, what in the world was he supposed to do about that?

  “I think we should grab our stuff and camp out by the marina in the hopes that somebody shows up.”

  She cast a look at him that said she thought he was an idiot. “There’s no shelter out by the dock. We’d literally be standing there in the rain. Quite possibly forever.”

  “Do you have a better idea? I have to think that your aunt and uncle are worried about you. That they would try to send someone to get you.”

  “Angelique and Hubert have a lot on their plates right now, and they know the weather here better than anyone.” She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. “Now, the rest of my family is another case. I don’t even want to think about Scott right now. He’s probably losing it.”

  There was that name again—the reason for this state of torture he was in with Allison. “They’re probably all worried sick. I’m also thinking there’s no way they’ll let you stay here if there’s a way to safely get you back. Which is why I think we need to stay as close to the dock as possible.”

  “Okay. Fine. Let’s go. It’ll just take me a minute to pack up.”

  “Perfect. I’ll be back in five.” Zane ran over to his place as fast as the rain and wind would allow, and chucked everything into his backpack. By the time he returned, Allison was waiting for him.

  “This is a terrible end to what should have been a perfect vacation,” she said.

  Somehow, Zane sensed that she wasn’t merely talking about the weather. “I know. But I’m not going to die out here, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you, either.” Not thinking, he took her hand and led them around to the path that would eventually take them to the main office. When they arrived up at the clearing, the ground was littered with palm fronds. The trees were bowing with every new gale. “The wind is only going to get worse,” he called out, still pulling her along.

  “I’m not worried about wind so much as I’m worried about the water. If there’s a big storm surge, the sea level will rise considerably. Ten feet. Maybe more. I don’t know how smart it is to wait by the dock.”

  She had a point. When Falling Brook was hit by Hurricane Sandy, the storm surge had been overwhelming, flooding countless homes and businesses. People had died. It had been a disaster in every sense of the word. “We have to find a way to leave a message at the dock to let someone know we’re still here, but then we need to find the high point of the island.”

  “That’s going to be the honeymoon cottage up on the hill. The one they’re renovating.”

  “Won’t we be sitting ducks up there? If there are tornadoes, it could pluck the building off the top of the cliff and toss it out into the sea.” It seemed that no matter what they did, they were in deep trouble.

  “It’s somewhat protected, because the back side of the building is built into the rocks. And it’s on the western side of the island, where the winds won’t be quite as strong.”

  “You really know a lot about hurricanes.”

  “My brother is a weather nerd.”

  “Okay, well, let’s focus on the message first. Any ideas?” Zane asked, setting his backpack on the ground for a moment.

  Allison let go of her small overnight bag and started untying her sarong. She was wearing the same bikini top, but this time with shorts.

  “I’m not sure what kind of message you’re trying to send,” he blurted. This was not the time for him to have another moral crisis prompted by Allison disrobing.


  “Everyone who works on this island has seen me wearing this. I’ll tear it into strips and we’ll tie those onto trees to lead someone up to the honeymoon cottage. We’ll start with one of the metal pilings on the dock. Hopefully that will be enough of a signal that we’re still here.”

  “Do you really want to rip that up? You love it.”

  Allison pulled at the fabric until it gave way and she was able to get a strip of it free. “I don’t love this thing more than I love being alive.” She waved him ahead as she made off in the direction of the small marina. “Come on.”

  Zane’s mind raced as he struggled to keep up and surveyed the island landscape—the wild rustle of the palms above them and the constant sideways pelting of the rain making it seem like they were on another planet right now. It certainly felt like a different place than it had been twenty-four hours ago. This was paradise upended. Gone was the calm serenity he had sought.

  They jogged ahead, breaking out from under the canopy of shade only to learn how much the trees had been blocking the wind. Allison’s hair whipped like crazy. Ahead, the ocean’s churn was an endless sloshing of unfathomable amounts of water. Gone was the crystalline blue. This sea was coal gray and angry. The whitecaps and foam were of no consolation; they only served as a reminder that things were not as they should be. And against that tumultuous backdrop was Allison, looking tiny and defenseless running toward the dock, even when Zane knew very well that she was as tough as nails. If anyone was well suited to survive, it was her. Zane felt as though he was still honing the skill, but he would be damned if this storm was going to hurt her. Not on his watch. Not while he had anything to say about it.