by Helen Conrad
He shrugged. “Your fame precedes you, Summer.” He stretched his long legs out before him. “More wine?” he asked quietly.
She had the sudden impression that he was trying to change the subject, but she couldn’t imagine why he would want to avoid it. “What do you do all day, Jack?” she asked suddenly.
He turned his dark face toward her slowly. “Why? Did you have a suggestion of some way in which I might better use my time?”
He was refusing to rise to the bait she kept dangling. He was obviously determined to keep their relationship off the running battle level they had dropped to in the past. The glint in his eyes told her this could quickly turn back into a teasing exchange that could lead to danger.
“No,” she said. “I just wondered what you do for a living.”
“You mean besides governing an island and managing a large plantation?” he said wryly.
“Do you really do those things?” She turned her hands up in question. “All I see is you wandering the beaches.”
“I do have other interests.” He had shifted his weight so that he was leaning toward her now, and she instinctively backed away. “In fact, there’s a new hobby I’ve been thinking very seriously of taking up.” His hand reached out so quickly, she didn’t have time to evade it before it snared the back of her neck, preventing her from moving farther away. “It would take a lot of time, though,” he said softly, drawing her closer, gazing steadily into her wide eyes. “It might just take all my time and concentration from now on.”
She turned her head, avoiding his eyes. “That would be a shame,” she said, cursing the tremor she could hear in her voice.
“Wouldn’t it?” His breath was tickling the hairline behind her ear, and then his lips were making warm, exploratory forays all along her neck. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensations he created as though it was all a part of the warm tropic breeze that ruffled her hair and tossed the scent of the plumerias against her face.
“You don’t play fair,” she murmured into his shoulder, feeling the sun warmed skin with her cheek. “You know I didn’t want this to happen.”
His fingers raked into her hair, holding her face before him while he looked directly down into her blue-green eyes. “Don’t you see that it’s too late?” he whispered huskily. “What you want, what I want, they don’t matter. It’s happened. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
She stared up into his cloudy gaze, wondering what he was talking about, vaguely alarmed at his words. His lips came down softly upon the line of her chin, then traveled lower, visiting the arch of her neck, the pulsing point at the base of her throat, the planes of her chest, down to where her breasts began their swell. Rippling tremors of delight were running through her in silken waves, and she gasped, pulling back away from him.
“No,” she breathed hoarsely. “Please don’t.” All her bravado had evaporated. There was nothing left but fear.
He frowned. “What are you afraid of, Summer?” he asked tenderly. “Surely not lovemaking. Not a woman like you, with a body so perfectly molded for it.”
She drew her legs up and leaned her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms around the legs and holding tightly. “I’m not afraid of anything,” she muttered, avoiding his dark eyes. “Men always say that when they aren’t getting what they want.”
He leaned closer. “Is that it, then?” he said in a voice so soft, so low, she could hardly hear him. “You don’t give men what they want?” His fingers touched the tips of her hair as they flew against her tanned back. “But when do you get what you want?” he whispered.
She tossed her hair away from his touch. “I do just fine, thank you,” she said calmly. “I make sure I get everything I need.”
“I don’t believe you.” His smile was almost sad. “How can you when you don’t even know what that is?”
He was right. She had never been so confused before. She really didn’t know what she wanted, what she needed. Or if she did know, she tried to deny the knowledge. She tried to pretend she didn’t really want them. It was becoming increasingly apparent that one of those desires was Jack. But she couldn’t reach for him. She would be so vulnerable if she did!
She turned to resume battle and found something that surprised her. He was no longer sitting behind her plotting her seduction. He had reached out for a piece of fine fishing line that someone had left behind and was cutting off a length with his pocket knife.
“What are you planning now?” she asked sharply.
He grinned. “I’m not the island strangler, if that’s what’s worrying you,” he said casually, judging the length of his wire, then standing and breaking off a spike of the palm frond from a young coconut tree close by. Quickly scraping away the fleshy part of the leaf, he was left with the stiff midrib, the end of which he split, inserting the fishing line into the fork.
“You won’t take the loving I try to offer you outright,” he said evenly, so evenly that she had to look at him quickly to see if he was serious, or only teasing. “So I’ll offer it to you the island way.”
One by one, the plumeria blossoms came off in his hand and he deftly stuck the improvised needle through them, inserting it through the golden heart of the creamy white blossoms, until there was a row of them on his instrument. A smooth movement carried them down near the end of his line and he repeated the action.
Summer watched, fascinated to see this virile man working with flowers in a natural manner that exhibited his familiarity with the medium. He was making her a lei. That much was obvious. And he said it was an embodiment of his love.
No, of course he hadn’t said that. He’d said lovemaking. He meant it as just another way to entice her. But she had to admit it had its appeal.
“There.” The garland was full and he tied the two ends of the line together. “Stand up.”
She did as he asked, ducking her head to receive the perfumed gift.
“Let it lie this way, just over your breasts.” He adjusted it needlessly, but she found herself smiling in spite of herself.
“And now,” he said moving nearer, “the kiss.”
“The kiss?” She pulled her head back. “What is this, bribery?”
His eyes were laughing. “Absolutely. The best kind.”
How could she refuse? His lips were gentle, almost tentative, as though he were afraid of frightening her again, and at the thought, she could feel her own lips trembling slightly.
He felt it too. “Come on, Summer,” he coaxed softly. “Kiss me back. I know you can do it. You’ve done it before.”
Suddenly, she was. She was taking him in as though he were to be devoured, her hands sliding up into the dark hair of his chest, the fingers clutching almost convulsively, pulling him closer.
His hands slid down her naked back and under the edge of her swimming suit, cupping the cool skin of her hips, massaging gently. Desire was flashing through her again. She knew it was only a matter of time before she let it overwhelm her.
What had Wayne called her? Frigid? And she had been almost ready to agree.
But that had been before she had found the man who knew how to unlock the stone she’d been encased in. Frigid? Smoldering was more like it.
The sharp blast of a whistle far off penetrated her mind, but she shook it off. She was immersed in bliss. She had no time for anything else.
But Jack was pulling reluctantly away. “That whistle is for me,” he said, brushing back the silver hair that had blown forward over her cheek. “I told them to call me when they had the main kiln repaired. I’ll have to go.” His smile was rueful. “If I don’t they’ll come looking for me.”
She was ashamed of how much she wanted to stop him. And looking at him, she knew that she could. All she had to do was reach out and touch him just so. . . But no. She couldn’t. She’d done too much already.
“Will you wait for me here?” he asked huskily. “I have to check on the kiln as I promised.” He looked down into her blue-green eyes. “Wait for me
,” he said again, then turned to pull on his slacks and shirt before leaving the hideaway.
Chapter Seven
Summer watched as he walked off down the beach, then cut in through a grove of mango trees. Her heart was still pounding and a strange dizziness seemed to be hovering around her. Slowly, her crimson lips curved into a smile.
The sound of a footstep in the brush behind made her turn.
“I thought he’d never leave.” Karl came pushing his way through the jungle into the grotto.
“What are you doing here?” Suddenly, Summer realized just how far from sanity she had traveled in the last few magic-filled hours. She’d forgotten all about Karl and Valima and about her own problems. The growing bond between her and her seductive host had filled her mind, pushing out everything else.
Instead of answering her question, Karl stopped before her and glared reproachfully. “The two of you sure are getting very friendly, very fast,” he accused. “I don’t think you know what you’re getting into.”
Indignation surged in her. “You were watching?” she demanded in fury. “What were you doing, hiding in the bushes and eavesdropping?”
“No.” He turned from her with a look of disgust. “Of course not.” He ran a distracted hand through his thick hair. “I came out looking for you and saw you come in here with Jack, so I waited out by the river until I saw him leave.”
He looked at her sharply. “What were you doing in here all this time?”
She raised her chin. Karl had no claim on her. “Believe it or not, we were having a picnic,” she announced, her turquoise eyes narrowed and distant. “Jack’s been helping me search out some shells I need.”
“Summer ...” He reached for her, his eyes wide and troubled, and she saw again the love-struck boy she had known in Texas. “We’ve got to talk. You can’t let him win you over.”
“Nobody is winning me over.” She frowned. “But I wish you would explain to me what all this business with Valima is about. Are you really going to marry her?”
His hazel eyes avoided hers, shifting out to gaze over the rippling waters inside the reef. “I guess so,” he muttered. “I . . . well, we’d been talking about getting married before, and now with the baby coming...”
The dread was back, the cold, seeping dread. Where had her mind been all morning? She’d taken a trip through wonderland, but it was time to go home.
“It’s his baby, isn’t it?” she demanded harshly.
He looked up at her in surprise. “How did you figure that out?” he asked slowly.
She shrugged her brown shoulders, shaking back her silver-blonde hair. “It was more than obvious at the table the other night,” she said sharply. “I just don’t understand why you want to take care of something that is his responsibility.”
He hesitated. “I do care for Valima,” he answered weakly.
Her eyes flashed. “Enough to take over another man’s child? When that man is right here and perfectly able to take care of it himself?”
Karl looked very uncomfortable. “Look, Summer, let’s leave Valima and the baby out of this. I didn’t come to talk about them.”
Once again, she was angry with him. Why was he so subservient to Jack? Why did he hang back and refuse to assert himself?
“What did you come to talk about then?” she asked in frustration.
Karl rested a hand on either one of her shoulders and looked earnestly into her face. “I’m worried about you,” he said firmly. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Hurt?” She let out a short laugh. “Hadn’t you heard? Summer Davis can’t get hurt. She’s made of iron with a heart of steel.”
His smile was compassionate and he squeezed her shoulders gently. “We both know what hog-wash that is,” he warned her lovingly. “You’re just a little girl with a very tough shell to protect you from the world.”
Summer grimaced, wondering where Karl came up with his sappy notions, but before she could complain, he’d launched into his explanation.
“You’ve got to get out of here, Summer,” he said anxiously. “If I’d realized how fast he was going to go to work on you, I’d have insisted you come with us that first night.”
Karl insisting? she thought resentfully. It was a little late for him to pretend he would have done anything of the kind. He’d walked off and left her with Jack as though he had no choice. She gazed back levelly. “Why?”
Karl took a deep breath. “I’m really sorry it’s worked out this way. If I’d known you were coming, maybe I would have been prepared ...”
Summer moved impatiently. “Will you please get to the point?” she demanded.
His eyes showed his hesitation, but he forced himself on. “He’s going to try to marry you, Summer. You’ve got to get out of here.”
There was a strange sensation, a fluttery sort of excitement building in her stomach, but she tried to deny its cause. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said weakly.
He shook his head earnestly. “It’s true. I figured it all out last night.” He dropped his hands from her shoulders and turned away from her, facing the jungle. “When I first came here, I had your picture on my dresser. Jack saw it and asked about you.”
He turned back toward her. “When I told him who you were, and about your father’s oil company, he was very interested.” Karl’s hazel eyes glowed with an ominous light. “Very interested,” he repeated significantly, “From then on, every time he came to my house, he looked at your picture and asked me questions about you and Davis Oil— especially about Davis Oil.”
The fluttery excitement had stilled to a faint whisper. She didn’t think she wanted to hear the rest, and at the same time, she knew she had to.
“He’s in big trouble financially. I told you that.”
She glanced down at the edge of her beach coat, brushing the tiny bits of flower stem that clung to it. “So?” she said quietly. “Isn’t everyone?”
He grunted. “Sure. But everyone doesn’t have an entire island depending on him for its existence.”
She looked up sharply. “The entire island?”
He nodded. “If the copra plantation goes, so does the income of most of the people in the village.”
“And you think that is a real danger?”
“I know it is.” He moved restlessly. “The copra market isn’t what it once was. And the yield is way down anyway.” He laughed shortly. “Jack’s even had the gall to blame that on me. But he knows better. The trees are old and under his father, there wasn’t enough replacement planting. We’re changing that now, but it will be years before we catch up.”
A breeze off the ocean wafted Summer’s flaxen hair high about her face. Reaching out a slender hand, she pushed it back into place and tilted her head to look at Karl again.
“And you’re trying to tell me he needs money in the meantime?”
He frowned. “It’s not only that. It’s these trips he takes. They started when things began to go bad. I guess everyone needs to get away and forget his troubles, but the rest of us might be better off if he’d just drown them in a bottle instead of at the tables in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Gambling?” she said softly.
He shrugged. “That’s my guess. I haven’t been asked along, of course.” He put a hand on her arm. “He needs the money. Don’t you see? He knows what kind of fortune you’ve got, and he wants to get his hands on it.”
Of course, she had known it, hadn’t she? She’d sensed an ulterior motive in his actions. He needed the money, and suddenly she had dropped into his lap from out of the sky. There had been only that little problem with Valima, but he’d put her out of the way conveniently by sticking Karl with her. And Karl was no threat to him.
The fluttery feeling had turned very sick. She didn’t want to believe what her mind was telling her. She didn’t want to bring the thoughts and feelings that had been filling her head and her heart into a nose dive. In fact, she refused to. Karl had an
overactive imagination.
Jack hadn’t given her any hint that he wanted to take over her life and her money. He had stated quite baldly what he wanted. And there had been no talk of commitment or marriage.
No. Karl was wrong.
She felt a vast relief as she made that judgment. She’d been frightened for a moment. Just how frightened, she didn’t like to think. But it had all been a piece of hysterical conjecture.
Summer smiled at her earnest friend. “Oh, Karl,” she said affectionately, “don’t worry. I’ve dealt with fortune hunters all my life. I think I can deal with anything Jack may come up with.”
But Karl did look worried. “He can be so damned unbending. You’ll see what I mean if you stay.” He shook his head. “I can radio Jeeter to send out a boat for you if you’ll only promise to take it. Go back to Pago Pago and I’ll meet you there ...”
Summer shook her head firmly. She was not about to go sneaking off with Karl, especially not when he was planning to marry another woman. “No,” she told him. “I think I’ll stay for a few days. I really do want to finish this book of my father’s.” She smiled to herself, reaching into the pocket of her beach coat and touching the smooth shells. “I haven’t felt so close to him in a long time,” she said musingly.
Karl kicked against the fragments of lava rock beneath his feet. “You could do that just as well in Pago Pago,” he argued. “In fact, there’s a museum there that could help you. And photographers ...”
She nodded in agreement. “I know all that. And I will be stopping there on my way home. But for now, I want to experience the fun of finding the shells.” She smiled wistfully. “I think my father would have appreciated that. He loved doing it himself.”
Suddenly, she realized how true that was. She’d never understood his attachment to the beautiful little gifts from the sea until this very morning. And Jack had helped give her that insight.
“Jack is going to take me skin diving inside the reef tomorrow. He says we’ll find a ton of different shells in some little hollow he knows about.” She didn’t realize how she was glowing with the anticipation until Karl snorted in disgust.
