His shorts floated away as he pressed himself between her legs, grinding his hardness against her still clothed crotch.
Again, his mouth tasted her skin, relishing the extra warmth spilling from her center and she wrapped her sinewy thighs firmly about his broad hips, locking her ankles together.
She moved one hand between her legs, pushing aside her bottoms to allow for him to maneuver himself inside her as he licked her erect nipple.
A flow of water gushed inside her with him, and Dylan gasped aloud at the feeling. Her eyes widened in surprise and Garret could tell she had never been taken in a pool before. The realization aroused him further, and he pushed her back up against the wall, determined to make her remember the experience.
Together the melded, the density of the water making speed impossible but slowly, Garret thrust inside her, full and deep, savoring the gasps escaping her lips with each jab.
Her fingers closed around his buttocks, and she bucked her waist toward him. Garret could read the naked desire in her expression. She wanted to release, but she needed more.
He rose to his full height, her legs still wrapped around him and walked toward the half-moon gradation. Each step he took added to her ecstasy, until he placed her atop the first stair, their waists now out of the water.
His blue irises clashed with her green ones, and he did not need to be told what she needed. Instantly he jabbed into her, furiously and unrelenting.
Dylan screamed out, grabbing her lower lip with her front teeth to stop from doing it again but the cries she was emitting could not be silenced in the frenzy of Garret’s fevering movements.
In seconds, he watched as Dylan’s eyes rolled back, her lips soaked and her fingers grasping desperately at his slippery skin. She exploded against his shaft, over and over, the feral yelps of pleasure falling from her lips.
Garret could take no more, his orgasm erupting from him, juices flowing forth to meet the steady stream of nectar flowing from Dylan’s core.
Grunting loudly, he thrust one final time, Dylan’s legs like a vice around his hips.
Panting like thirsty puppies on a hot day, the two lay otherwise still in one another’s arms, waiting for their heartbeats to synch to a normal beat.
It was Dylan who let go first, turning her head so Garret could not read her expression, but he could feel a sudden sense of regret emanating from her.
“I should get back to my suite,” she murmured, pulling herself out from the pool and Garret was filled with a sense of desperate loss as he watched her straighten her clothing.
Wait! He wanted to call out after her. Don’t go!
But he did not say anything. He was Garret Elgin after all. He did not need to beg women to stay with him.
Without meeting his eyes, Dylan hurried back toward the house, snatching her towel from a bamboo chair near the back entrance, leaving Garret to look at her longingly.
That was stupid, he chided himself angrily, following her lead. He stalked toward the house, his mind in turmoil. He could not reconcile what had made him touch Dylan in the first place.
It’s been too long since anyone has looked at you the way she did, he realized. A beautiful, intelligent woman who can take care of herself – of course, you needed to possess her.
An influx of memories flooded him, freezing him in his spot at the back door.
“You ruin everything you touch!” Sonia had screamed at him. “You spoil everything from your children to your business!”
“Garret, sometimes it’s okay to let an opportunity slip you by.” Hunter’s words echoed through his mind.
“You are a deviant and a snake!” Paul shrieked, storming from the office. “But one day, it will come back on you a tenfold!”
“Daddy, you already have everything, what else could you possibly want?” Yvette asked sweetly, her blue eyes wide.
“Maybe you should leave something for the rest of the world,” Zave muttered. “You know before you explode.”
“One day, Garret, you are going to realize that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence because your neighbor’s lawn is fertilized with bullshit. Hopefully, by then, you wouldn’t have lost everything,” Lisette sighed.
Garret swallowed, turning back to stare toward the Caribbean Sea rolling softly to the shore. His eyes traveled toward the sky, his heart pounding slightly.
They have all called me out on my desire for more. Were they warnings? Advice? Did I sleep with Dylan McMaster to placate my desire to have it all?
He could not reconcile that to be true as a flash of Dylan’s supple body writhing beneath him overcame him again.
This is not going to help my insomnia in the slightest.
He turned back toward the darkened back entranceway just as the bullet crashed into the glass doors beside his head.
Someone was shooting at him from the beach.
Chapter Six
In Virginia, dawn started as a hazy, kind whispery finger, rolling in from the Potomac and embracing Colonial Beach with a soft caress.
In Urchin Caye, the sun exploded over the horizon like a fireball of passion, seizing the sandy island the way Garret Elgin had taken Dylan the previous night in the pool.
Dylan saw none of the beauty in the morning as the household gathered in the study, a mass of nervousness. Retrospectively, she did not see war in the sunrise either, even though she should have.
One of you is a killer, she thought, staring at the group through half closed eyes but carefully avoiding Garret’s blazing blue gaze.
She was still coming to terms with what she had done with him in the pool.
Since Ollie, she had never let herself become intimate with another man. There could be no one else, not after everything they had been through together.
She saw her dead lover’s face in every corner of the world, heard his voice in the wind and apparently saw his eyes in the man whom she was hired to protect.
And you’re already failing at that, she thought bitterly. You are here on a contract, not to play footsies with Garret Elgin. Because of your moment of weakness, he was almost shot on your watch.
Dylan was humiliated, and she vowed that it would not happen again, no matter how much Garret Elgin stared at her with Ollie’s eyes.
“Well it’s obviously someone on the island,” Yvette declared. “Has the security team done a sweep of the staff quarters for weapons.”
Dylan eyed the teenager and stifled a comment.
Was I ever that young and stupid? She wondered. We are in Central America. Chances are there is an arsenal of weapons in the staff quarters. It’s not like we can run a ballistics report on the weapons we find.
Once more, Dylan got the sense that she may be in over her head with protecting Garret Elgin.
You can handle this if you keep your focus on protecting him, not bedding him.
“Get everyone off the island,” Dylan said. “Send the staff back to the mainland.”
Garret, Zave, and Hunter gaped at her.
“What about security?” Hunter demanded.
Dylan scoffed.
“A lot of good they are doing if someone is shooting at the house in the middle of the night,” she retorted. “Get them out. Today. Now.”
“Make the arrangements, Hunter,” Garret said, and his assistant opened his mouth to protest.
“Do it!” Garret snapped before Hunter could speak. Hunter did not argue and hurried from the room, casting Dylan a baleful look. She smiled mirthlessly at him.
You can hate me all you want, but if one of those bullets bounced off you, you’d be screaming bloody murder…if you lived, she thought.
She turned her attention back to the Elgin family.
“I think it would be best if the children go elsewhere also,” she offered. “For their safety.”
It was not necessarily so much for their safety but to clear the island. The attempts were becoming more desperate, more pointed. Someone was becoming frustrated waiting f
or the proper opportunity and firing bullets. Garret Elgin could only be lucky for so long.
And what’s more is I am going to be collateral damage.
“No way!” Yvette said firmly. “I am not leaving daddy here when someone on the island is trying to have him killed.”
“Ms. Elgin – “
“Call me Yvette,” she interrupted inappropriately, whipping her blonde head around to stare defiantly at Dylan. “And I am not leaving my father here when there is a madman on the loose.”
“Princess, you – “
“No!” Yvette countered. “I am not a baby.”
“Yvette,” Dylan started again, meeting the girl’s passionate gaze. “The idea is to get everyone off the island and leave your father and me in seclusion.”
Zave snorted, and the women gazed at him, surprised by the uncharacteristic rudeness.
“I bet it is,” he muttered, glancing furtively at Dylan.
Dylan felt a hot stain reach her cheeks.
“What does that mean?” Yvette demanded.
“You didn’t hear them last night?” Zave asked. “I guess I was the only one kept awake by the splashing since only my suite overlooks the pool.”
Garret’s jaw tightened, and Dylan felt her eyes drop in shame.
“Don’t worry – I don’t think anyone else saw anything,” Zave said as if suddenly very embarrassed by his words. He looked apologetically at Dylan, but Garret was incensed.
“Last time I checked, this is my island,” Garret hissed at his son. “And if I want to splash, I can damn well do so.”
“All I’m saying,” Zave countered. “Is that it’s interesting that you got shot at just after all those waterworks, don’t you think? What do you know about Miss McMaster except that she wasn’t who you expected when she got here.”
A heavy silence fell over the room, and Hunter Burnwich walked back into the study. He paused as if sensing the undercurrent.
“Are you suggesting that Dylan is responsible for the attempt on my life?” Garret scoffed. Zave stared at him, his dark eyes questioning.
“You don’t find the timing odd?”
Dylan shot Garret a warning look. The children did not know about the other attempts on his life, not according to Hunter.
“I’ll go. Sonia is in Belmopan anyway,” Zave continued, rising. Dylan’s head jerked toward the boy.
“Your stepmother is in Belize?” she asked, glancing at Garret. He lowered his eyes guiltily, and Dylan suddenly realized there was much more to the story than she had been told.
“She lives in Belize,” Zave replied, arching an eyebrow in surprise. “That’s where she’s lived since the separation.”
“That’s a good idea, Zave,” Garret interjected. “Go stay with Sonia. I’ll tell her to expect you.”
A strange sense of jealousy swept through Dylan, and she was furious with herself for experiencing it.
So, his estranged wife is living in close proximity. I wonder why he never mentioned that fact to me. Maybe because he is still seeing her? Did she make her way to the island and see us last night? That would make a good motivation for wanting to kill someone.
Her mind wandered to the previous attempts on his life. There had been a poisoning, and as any good Greek tragedy will contest, that method of murder indicates passion.
You do not poison your business partners, Dylan thought. But you might poison your parents.
Again, she studied the younger Elgin for telltale signs of deceit. If she had to wager money, Dylan would think Yvette to be the more cunning of the two. There was something about the meek Zave which unsettled her.
There had also been that staged ski doo accident, the one where there had been no rider.
An unmanned ski doo is slipping past naval security. That sounds like someone either knew the checkpoints or was allowed entry by the guards. In either case, much more professional than a poisoned smoothie.
Dylan realized she was talking herself in circles.
There are too many suspects. Everyone must go.
“I am not going,” Yvette insisted flatly.
“What purpose will it serve to keep you here?” Garret sighed. “It will only put you in danger also.”
“Daddy, if anything happens to you, I don’t want to live!” the blonde wailed, throwing herself into Garret’s arms. She cast Dylan a sly look, and the security officer suddenly understood; Yvette perceived her as a threat.
She thinks this is a competition for Garret’s affection. She can have him. What happened last night will not happen again. I don’t even know how it happened in the first place. But is she insecure enough to murder? Am I going to be the focus of her rage now?
“Everyone goes except Mr. Elgin.”
“You can probably call him Garret now,” Zave joked, but his face turned crimson when Dylan and Garret shot him disgusted looks. “I don’t need to be told twice. I’m going to stay with Sonia.”
“Yvette, I will tell Sonia you are coming too,” Garret told his daughter, and she pouted in protest.
“No! I am not going to stay with that wretched bitch. I’ll go back to LA with mom if you don’t want me here.”
“Fine,” Garret agreed. “I will call Lisbeth and tell her to expect you this afternoon. Hunter, get the kids out of here.”
Hunter nodded gravely, and the youngest members of the room shuffled after him to pack their belongings.
“The staff is leaving now. I made arrangements for them to stay on Ambergris Caye,” the assistant informed them.
“As long as they know they are not coming back until the orders are given,” Dylan told him. He nodded.
“I will make sure that is clear,” he replied.
“Crystal clear, Mr. Burnwich because once everyone leaves, if I see anyone trying to return, I will shoot to kill.”
Hunter’s face paled slightly, and he nodded.
“I will ensure they know,” he promised, scurrying from the room leaving Dylan and Garret alone.
“What is your plan?” Garret asked as Hunter escaped earshot.
“We have to secure the island. Whomever is after you is becoming desperate. After everyone leaves, I can begin to do a better assessment of our suspects.”
Garret nodded slowly and sighed.
“Do you really think that the kids are in danger?” he asked, frowning.
“No. I think one of them is out to get you,” she answered flatly. Garret’s face turned red.
“Not a chance,” he rejected. “Yvette adores me, and Zave doesn’t have the balls.”
Dylan felt her jaw tighten slightly at his judgment.
No wonder someone wants you dead; you’re arrogant and myopic.
“You would not be the first wealthy man killed by his children for an inheritance,” she assured him. “It’s amazing what kind of balls men will grow for the right amount of money. Also, I have known some women’s love of money to outweigh that of their father.”
“It’s not the kids,” Garret snapped. “If it’s anyone, it’s Sonia. I have suspected she has been making her way back here without my knowledge, looking for leverage in the divorce. That’s why the guards have let her through. Technically, this island is still hers also.”
“Have you spoken to the guards?” she demanded. Dylan had gone through the staff quarters before the sun broke, questioning the bleary-eyed workers but no one claimed any knowledge of a stranger on the island.
He may have a point; they would not forbid Sonia Elgin from approaching the island, but they probably would not tell anyone if she had come. Central America is not the United States. Things are governed differently here. No one will get involved with something like this, not if they fear they will have to speak to the police.
“Of course, I have,” he answered, exhaling. “And of course, they deny it, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“And I suppose your security footage hasn’t caught anything worthwhile.”
The statement was rhetorical; Dyl
an knew she would not be there if the situation was not seemingly hopeless.
“Our electricity is shaky under the best of circumstances. We have been in the middle of summer storms, and eventually, the hurricanes will hit. When the cameras are working, they cut in and out but for the most part…”
Garret trailed off and looked at Dylan imploringly. She could read his next words in his eyes before he spoke them and she immediately held up her hand.
“Don’t,” she stopped him. “This is not the time. It was a mistake and all on me. I shouldn’t have let it happen.”
“Dylan, it wasn’t a - “
“We have more important things to worry about than a quickie, okay?” she snapped with more anger than she had intended. “Like your wife is staying close by and may have seen us last night.”
Garret’s mouth became a firm line.
“My marriage to Sonia is over. Someone has been trying to get me for the last few weeks. If it was Sonia, she was after me well before that.”
“Who will inherit when you die?” Dylan asked bluntly. A look of confusion crossed over his face as he ran through the question in his mind.
“The kids of course and Sonia will get benefits also, at least until the divorce goes through.”
Dylan smirked and rolled her eyes. It was the oldest motivation in the book. Why couldn’t he see that?
Maybe because he is still in love with her, she thought. She stuffed down the bile rising in her stomach. Dylan was losing patience – with herself.
Stop it! He is your employer, nothing more. You acted rashly last night. If he loves his estranged wife, good for him!
The spark of hurt would not go away, not when Ollie’s blue eyes stared at her so imploringly.
Yvette walked back into the study, her face an expression of annoyance.
“Daddy, I would still like to stay,” she pleaded again. “At least until I am sure you are safe.”
“No,” Garret replied, his voice leaving no room for argument. “As soon as we get to the bottom of what is happening, I will send the jet for you.”
The Lost Seal: A Seal Romance Page 15
