Escapade

by Diana Palmer

  Amanda stared toward the cay, where Josh’s gray Lincoln was parked at the two-story garage along with at least three other luxury cars. Two launches were moored at the long pier that led up to the white stone house. Dozens of blooming shrubs surrounded the mansion, everything from bougainvillea to hibiscus and jasmine. Opal Cay had satellite cable, an international network of telephone and fax lines, a computer system with its own power supply, and a larder that was always full. Even Amanda, who was born to wealth, couldn’t remember seeing anything comparable to Josh’s island estate.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked lazily.

  “Isn’t it expensive?” Brad teased.

  She glanced at him over her shoulder, pushing her windblown hair out of the way as she smiled. “Cynic.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe I am. Josh is rubbing off on me.” He moved toward the bow of the launch. “Ease her up to the pier, Ted, and I’ll tie her up.”

  Amanda felt self-conscious in her white Bermuda shorts and simple gray tank top and sandals. Brad was at least wearing white slacks and a designer shirt, but neither of them was properly dressed to mingle with the crowd Josh was entertaining today. She caught sight of Josh’s blond head towering over dignified men in suits and women in designer dresses, and she beat a hasty retreat upstairs to change. Anyone who was privileged to get an invitation to the cay was automatically included in parties and even social business meetings.

  “Did you see the Arab’s wives?” Brad whispered as they darted up the staircase.

  “How many has he got?” she queried.

  “Two. Don’t put on anything too sexy,” he cautioned with a grin. “You might be targeted for number three.”

  “He’d fall short of the mark,” she replied mischievously. “I’ve got it in mind to become a corporate giant, not a used wife.”

  Brad burst out laughing, but Amanda was already behind her closed door.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE DIN OF voices and the kaleidoscope of mingled colognes and perfumes gave Amanda a roaring headache. She’d come back downstairs long before Brad, who returned with a worried look and went straight to the bar.

  Amanda, clad in a silver sheath with diamanté straps and matching shoes, put on her best party smile for the curious elite of Josh’s business group. Most of these people were executives of his company and bankers. But two of the men were Arab entrepreneurs whom Josh was hoping might introduce his newest business computer into Saudi Arabia for him. Even Brad’s personable coaxing hadn’t budged the men, so Josh had invited them along with the bankers and two of his executives back to Opal Cay for a buffet dinner. It provided him with a more congenial setting in which to wheel and deal. But this time his hospitality didn’t seem to be working, because the Arab’s black eyes were as cold as anything Amanda had ever seen.

  Josh had nodded to her when she came downstairs, but his attention had been on his victims. She felt a little slighted, and that only aggravated her headache. Because she had always looked up to Josh, he could hurt her as no one else ever had. Over the years she’d managed to keep him from knowing it, however.

  She watched his guests as they inspected the house with covetous eyes. The enormous white stone mansion in its grove of acacia and silk cotton and sea grape trees was a showplace, tangible evidence of Josh’s business acumen. The Lawson Company had branches in every major city in the United States and was moving slowly into Europe and the Middle East. This year Josh was adding a software division line to the Lawson offerings. His was a profitable public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and although he was answerable to stockholders and a stiff-necked board of directors, he ran the whole organization himself, with key executives from every branch answerable only to him.

  He ran his business with the same arrogant bearing and cool efficiency of a military commander. His employees stood in awe of him, as did Amanda. Some of the time.

  In the beginning of Josh’s partnership with Amanda’s father, it was Harrison who had the business acumen and the contacts. But for the past few years Joshua had been in almost complete control. That had angered Harrison, who hated the thought of being outdone by a younger man. As a result, he’d tried to break away from the Lawson Company.

  The attempt had been disastrous, culminating in Amanda inheriting a minority forty-nine percent of the newspaper that had been in her mother’s family for a hundred years. Before Amanda’s birth, and her own death in childbirth, Amanda’s mother had given Harrison Todd control of her part of the baby’s inheritance until the unborn child was twenty-five, but now Joshua had it. Amanda knew she was going to have to fight to convince him to let her inherit a controlling interest.

  She also knew Josh didn’t usually fight fair, but that he would with her, because of their friendship. There had been no hope of her gaining control while her father was alive. But Josh would see things differently now. The Gazette was the only bright spot in her life. She would no longer have her family home because her father had mortgaged it, and the insurance that had saved the newspaper wasn’t going to save the house. Amanda had moved into a small cottage on the property that was free and clear.

  Surely Josh would not let her lose control of the newspaper by a tiny percentage after all she’d been through. She desperately needed to retain that precious family heirloom.

  She pushed back her long black hair and let it fall against her bare shoulders. Despite the fact that she was still a virgin at twenty-three, she sometimes felt a sensuality as overwhelming as night itself. She felt it most often when Josh was nearby.

  Cradling her fluted crystal glass in her slender hands, she walked out into the hall. Secreted in a small alcove, all alone beside a potted palm, she watched Josh hold court in the grand living room.

  The sound of footsteps close by broke her trance.

  “Mr. Lawson wanted me to ask if you needed anything,” Ted Balmain asked with a smile.

  “No, thanks,” she said, grinning up at him. “I have advanced training in this. I spent a lot of time sitting in the hall outside the principal’s office in high school.”

  “Not you!” he chided.

  “I never stopped talking. Or so they said.” She peered around him. Brad was trying to charm a young Arab woman. “Ted, do you know what some societies in the Middle East do to you for seducing innocent women?”

  Ted cleared his throat. “Well, uh...”

  “I think they cut off body parts,” she continued. “You might get Brad to one side and jog his memory.”

  “I’ll do my best, but women love him,” he murmured.

  She laughed. “Well, he’s handsome and kind and rich. Why wouldn’t they?”

  He didn’t remind her that Brad had gone through two nasty paternity suits over the years. “I’ll educate him,” he promised. “Hopefully this party won’t go on too much longer. We’ve had this Middle East computer deal in the works for weeks, and today they wanted to discuss closing it. But, unfortunately for us, not in Nassau. They had a yen to see the house. Josh didn’t really have much choice, but it must be difficult for you to mingle with all these people right now.”

  “Well, I suspected the house would be full. Isn’t it usually like this?” she asked gently. “Josh is always surrounded by business people.”

  “In his income bracket, who isn’t?” Ted asked with a chuckle. “Staying rich is demanding. And I don’t need to tell you how many people depend on the company’s solvency.”

  “No,” she agreed. “I’m only a guest myself, remember. I don’t expect preferential treatment.”

  “All the same, your father just died.”

  “Ted, I lost my father a long time before he died,” she said wistfully. “I’m not sure I ever had him in the first place. But I do know that if it hadn’t been for Josh, my life would have been unbearable. When Dad got hard-nosed about things I wanted to do, Josh was my only ally.�
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  “He thinks highly of you,” Ted had to admit. He glanced over his shoulder. “They’re not going to be here much longer,” he promised. “Then we might have a whole day of peace and quiet. Well, you will,” he amended with a grimace. “Josh has a meeting in Nassau tomorrow and in Jamaica the day after.”

  “He needs to delegate more,” she mused.

  “He can’t afford to,” he said. “Not on his level. His father did, but he was something of a playboy. In the process, he almost lost the business.”

  “Balmain!” an impatient voice roared down the hall. It was deep and commanding, rough with authority and just a hint of a Texas drawl.

  “Be right there, Josh!” he called back, flushing a little. Obviously he’d strayed too far.

  “You’d better go,” Amanda murmured. “Thanks anyway, but I’m fine. I thought I might walk down on the beach for a few minutes. I need a little peace and quiet, even if that does sound ungrateful.” She leaned forward and glanced toward the elegantly dressed and jeweled women present. “Some of these women smell as if their husbands make a living from selling perfume! I’ve got the most dreadful headache.”

  Ted laughed politely, but he hesitated. “Josh won’t like you going alone.”

  She stood up, tall and elegant. “Oh, I know that,” she said with a gamine grin. “But I’m going anyway. See you.”

  She walked toward the front door, her mind blocking out the sounds, the noise, the smells. Ted grimaced, because he would probably catch hell for this. He turned and, stomach tied in knots, went back to join his boss.

  “What kept you?” the elegant blond man asked curtly. His dark eyes were intimidating in a darkly tanned face as sculptured and aesthetically pleasing as a Greek statue.

  “Amanda wanted to talk,” Ted said reluctantly. “She’s lonely, I think.”

  Joshua Cabe Lawson glanced around him impatiently at the Middle Eastern businessmen and their expensively dressed wives, chattering and laughing and drinking his best imported champagne. He wanted to be rid of the lot of them, so that he could comfort Amanda. He knew it was difficult for her just now. That’s why he’d insisted she come down here. He hoped a rest would help her get over the shock of her father’s death as well as the reality of her financial situation. But it wasn’t working out as he’d planned. He was smothered by business demands that had all seemed to come due at this inconvenient time. And these talks were the one thing he couldn’t postpone.

  “I’m almost finished here,” he told Ted Balmain. “Tell her I’ll be along in ten minutes.”

  “She, uh, said she wanted to walk on the beach. She has a headache.”

  “I’m sure the noise bothers her.” He glared at his guests. He lit a cigar and puffed on it irritably, his blond hair catching the light of the chandelier overhead and burning like gold. He was tall—very tall, with a broad, muscular body that was as powerful looking as if he spent hours a day in a gym.

  His thick, dark blond eyebrows collided as he considered that he hadn’t spent five minutes with his houseguest since she’d arrived. Not that she complained. She never did. She was spirited, but she was the least demanding woman he’d ever known. All the same, he felt vaguely guilty.

  “Start hiding liquor bottles,” he told Ted. “And jerk Brad away from that terminal fascination in the corner and tell him I want to talk to him. Now.”

  Ted whispered something to Brad, who quickly excused himself to join his brother.

  The difference between the two brothers was striking: one blond and tan and handsome, the other a little shorter with brown hair. But both had dark eyes, and their builds were equally strong.

  Brad held up his hand and grinned before Josh could speak. “I know I’m risking assorted body parts, but isn’t she a little dish? She speaks French and likes to go riding on her father’s Arabians, and she thinks that men are perfection itself!” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  Josh was amused, but only briefly. “She’s engaged to one of the Rothschilds, and her father has an army.”

  Brad shrugged. “Easy come, easy go. What do you want?”

  “Wrap this up,” he said, jerking his head toward the balding sheik he’d been talking to all day. “Tell him the last price I quoted him is rock bottom. He can take it or go home and dust his camels. I haven’t got the time to bargain any further.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” Brad asked. “This is an important market.”

  “I know it. So does he. But I’m not going to sacrifice my profits. There are other marketing avenues open to us. Remind him.”

  Brad chuckled. He loved watching his older brother in action. “I’ll make your wishes known. Anything else?”

  “Yes. Get Morrison on the phone. Tell him I’ll want him to fax me those last cost estimates for Anders’s new operation in Montego Bay by midnight. I don’t care if he’s not through,” he interrupted when Brad started to speak. “I want what he’s got by midnight.”

  “You got it,” the younger man said with a sigh, his mind drifting away to a disturbing phone call he’d made before coming downstairs. His worries were playing on his mind, but he couldn’t afford to let his brother find out what they were. At least not yet. He forced his attention back to Josh.

  The older man misread his expression. He narrowed his dark eyes and smiled sardonically. “You think I’m a tyrant, don’t you, Brad? But business is best left to pirates, and we’ve got two in our ancestry. Cut and thrust is the only way.”

  “As long as you’re sure the other guy isn’t wearing plate armor,” Brad reminded him.

  “Point taken. I’ll be on the beach with Amanda. How is she?”

  “Putting up a good front, as usual,” Brad said. “She’s hurting. Harrison wasn’t much of a businessman and less of a father. Still, blood is blood.”

  “Maybe she’s mourning what Harrison never could give her—a father’s love.”

  “When I have kids,” Brad said firmly, “they may not get much else, but they’ll get that.”

  Josh turned away abruptly. “I’ll be on the beach.” He nodded politely to the balding Arab and left.

  Moonlight sparkled on the softly moving water near the white sand. Amanda was standing in the surf, her shoes in one hand, her hair blowing in the breeze. There was the scent of blooming royal poincianas and hibiscus and jasmine in the night air.

  Because of the noise of the surf, she didn’t hear him approach until he was right beside her. She looked up, her green eyes faintly covetous on his tall, powerful body in the elegant dark evening clothes. The white of his shirt made his tan seem even darker. She’d known this man forever. All the long years of her cloistered childhood she’d admired him. Through his public and private affairs, through the anguish of her home life, it was dreams of Josh that had kept her sane. He didn’t know. That was her secret.

  “Sorry I ran away,” she said, feeling the need to apologize in case she’d seemed rude. He’d been kind to her, and she felt ungrateful. “I’ve got a rotten headache.”

  “Don’t apologize,” he replied. “I hate the damned noise myself, but it was unavoidable. They’ll all be gone soon, one way or the other.” He looked down at her. “Why did Ted take so long to ask if you needed anything? Is he the reason you came out here?”

  She stared at him blankly. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Did he do something to make you uncomfortable?” he asked impatiently. “He’s too outspoken sometimes.”

  She laughed in spite of herself. “As if he ever would. Don’t you know how you intimidate your employees?”

  He cocked an eyebrow and smiled. “I don’t intimidate you.”

  “Ha, ha,” she said. “Then why am I here?”

  He shrugged. “You needed a rest. Mirri couldn’t get you out of town, so she called me.” His eyes narrowed. “She’s a good friend. I can’t figure out her wild taste
in clothes, but I like her.”

  She smiled. “So do I.” She stretched lazily, feeling as safe with Josh as she always had. “I love it here.”

  She looked at ease, and that relaxed him. Turning back to the sea, he stuck one long-fingered hand into his slacks pocket and lifted the cigar he’d just lit to his mouth. “I bought Opal Cay for this view,” he remarked. “Prettiest damn stretch of beach and horizon in this part of the islands.”

  She had to agree. In the distance, the dark outline of trees on the next island was plainly visible, along with the colorful neon lights of the casino that had been built there. It was one of Josh’s holdings, and he liked looking at it at night. The brilliant lights shone in the thick darkness that clung to the horizon, yet the complex was barely visible in daylight.

  “I like trees and sunsets,” she remarked.

  “I like the look of money being made,” he mused, watching her.

  “That’s rotten, Josh!”

  “I love to watch you rise to the bait.” His dark eyes admired the low cut of her sleek silver dress with its thin straps. “You shouldn’t dress like that around this sophisticated crowd,” he cautioned. “No wonder Ted took his time getting back.”

  “It’s very modest, compared with what that redhead had on,” she accused, though it pleased her to know he noticed. She wanted to impress him, and she wanted him to see her not as a child, but as a woman.

  “That redhead is a stripper.”

  “Why did you invite her?”

  He shrugged. “One of the sheiks took a liking to her, as they say back home. I didn’t imagine it would hurt the deal to let him bring her along.”

  “That’s disgusting,” she said shortly.

  His face went bland and vaguely wicked. “No, it isn’t. It’s business.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t worry, they won’t be staying the night,” he said knowingly, and smiled.

  She flushed, glad he couldn’t see the color in her face. “Why do you always put me in the room next to the main guest room? The last couple you entertained kept me awake all night. She was a redhead, too. And she screamed,” she muttered.