by Bianca D’Arc
“Tell me something, doc. Do you make house calls?” He tilted his head and looked speculatively toward the open door to his private domain. “Or in this case, office calls?”
The grin on her face was all the answer he needed, but she leaned in and kissed him for good measure. She then stepped out of his arms to precede him into the room with a slight sway in her hips that was clear invitation.
“You know I do, Commander.” The saucy wink she sent him over her shoulder made his heart race in anticipation.
He followed her into the office and kicked the door closed.
They had a lot to do, but it could wait. Loving his woman would come first, last, always…and forever.
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“Hello?”
Katie froze at the sound of the familiar male voice. Then her head whipped around. The main door was open, but the metal security screen was closed and locked. It would be hard for people to see inside and impossible for anyone to break it down, but, oh boy, could she see out.
It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.
She repeated the refrain as she stared at the outline on the other side of the steel screen. Dark hair, broad shoulders, and relaxed stance. She’d know that body anywhere.
That would teach her to want fresh air. If the stifling heat hadn’t bothered her, she’d be hiding in the storage closet and ignoring him right about now.
“Can you hear me?” He looked right at her as he said it. Clearly he knew she was there. Could see her, despite the promises in the sales brochure about the door providing protection and privacy. It didn’t seem to be doing either at the moment.
With wet hands dripping on the floor beside her sneakers, she stood there. “Uh…”
“Not sure if you can see me.” He waved his hand. “We met at the Armstrong-Windsor wedding.”
Met? Now there was an interesting word for what they did. “Oh, I know who you are.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Eric chuckled in a rich open tone that vibrated down to her feet.
She could hear the amusement in his voice. Figuring out how to take it was the bigger issue. She rubbed her hands on the towel hanging out of the waistband of her khaki shorts and adjusted her white tee to make sure everything that should be covered was. “What are you doing here?”
“I can explain if you’ll let me come inside.”
Talk about a stupid option. “No.”
After a beat of silence, he spoke up. “Really?”
He sounded stunned at the idea of being turned down. Apparently the big, important man didn’t like it when people disagreed with him.
That realization was enough to make her brain reboot. While running held some appeal, it wasn’t very practical. They lived on an island, after all. And she needed to know how he’d tracked her down. “I mean, why do you want to come in?”
She could see his broad shoulders through the thick safety mesh and the way he balanced his hands on his lean hips. He was a man in control of his surroundings, even though this part of town didn’t fit him at all. He wore tailored suits and walked into a fancy high-rise office every day.
Many of the folks in the Kalihi neighborhood never ventured near the expensive restaurants and exclusive communities around the island. This was a working-class area with an increasing crime rate, older and lined with warehouses, a little rough. A place where words like “redevelopment” were thrown around but never brought to fruition. In other words, not the place where one would expect to find Eric Kimura.
“I wanted to talk with you,” he explained.
She’d been afraid he would say that. “Okay.”
He pressed his face close to the screen. “And people are starting to wonder why I’m screaming into a door, so could we take this inside?”
Last thing she needed was for him to be mugged. She tried to imagine explaining that bit of news to the cops…and to Cara.
“I’m coming.” Katie rushed over, jangling the keys in her hand as she tried to find the one for the top deadbolt. “Here we go.”
Eric didn’t hesitate. The second she opened the screen, he pushed his way in and closed the solid door behind him. The controlling move should have made her nervous. Instead, she was strangely intrigued. Hunting her down took some work. Stepping into this neighborhood at five o’clock, which probably qualified as the middle of his workday, created a bit of mystery. Clearly he wanted to find her. Now he had.
He held out his hand. “Eric Kimura.”
She stared at his long fingers before sliding her palm inside his. “Oh.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “But you knew that, right?”
“Pretty much.” The feel of that smooth skin against hers brought a rush of heat to her cheeks. She looked down at their joined hands, wondering at what point long turned to too long and she had to let go. “I watch the news now and then.”
“Ah, yes. Not always the most flattering place to pick up information about me, but not a surprise.” He frowned as if the notoriety didn’t sit all that well with him. “So, do you have a name?”
“I figured you knew it since you tracked me here and all.”
“I have my sources but the exact name was tougher.”
Yeah, he had something all right. “Katie Long.”
“The caterer.”
Looked like he didn’t quite know everything. She dropped his hand and backed up a step. No need for them to be this close, sucking up all the air in the room, when there was a big No-Eric zone right behind her. “Her assistant and sister. I’m surprised you went to the trouble to find me.”
His head tilted to the side. The wide-eyed look made him look younger, less imposing, if only for a few seconds. “Why?”
This qualified as the strangest morning-after type conversation she’d ever had. “I guess this is the part where I say I’ve never done that at a wedding before.”
He nodded. “For the record, me either.”
“And where I insist I’m not the kind of woman who engages in thirty-minute sex romps with strangers.” She actually wasn’t but there was no way to sell that as a convincing story after the way they’d met.
“I’m not judging.”
Of course he was. Hell, she was. When she’d vowed to turn her life around, she’d promised the days of putting herself at risk were over. She wouldn’t do dumb things or get involved with the wrong guys. Eric didn’t appear to be a loser, but he was most definitely wrong. He was her assignment. She was supposed to keep a safe distance and being under him didn’t cut it.
“Maybe just a little judging?” She held up two fingers and squeezed them together.
“Any name I call you would apply to me.”
“Very logical.”
“You weren’t alone in that room.”
She tried very hard not to conjure up a visual image of his hands up her skirt. “Oh, I know.”
“I admit, that sort of thing isn’t a weekly occurrence for me.”
She laughed. The contrast between the serious way his brows came together and the humor in his tone did her in. He might be good at sex, but he wasn’t all that comfortable with the way they’d met.
That made two of them.
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Her mind was a blank. What had she been dreaming about?
Her face suddenly flooded with heat when she remembered. She’d been dreaming of a sexy, very naked, male god, worshipping at his feet like a horny woman who hadn’t been laid in over a year. That wasn’t true. She’d actually had sex eleven and a half months ago.
Except the man she’d drooled about in her dreams might very well be a corpse right now. Her heart began to pound.
Had Ms. Abernathy buried the body? Did the housekeeper know that would make her an accessory? Darcy grimaced when she thought about sharing a cell with her. Not that she disliked the housekeeper. She’d been almost as mu
ch of a mother to Darcy as her adoptive mother. Hmm, and bossy, now that she thought about it. But still, she didn’t want Ms. Abernathy to go to prison because she was being overprotective.
Darcy flung the cover aside and jumped out of bed, glancing at the clock. It was barely six. She rushed toward the closet, but stopped at the French doors that led to her balcony. Her room was directly across from the guest house. If something had happened to Surlock during the night, she would be able to tell from her room—maybe.
She opened the double doors and rushed out onto the balcony, then stumbled to a stop. The swimming pool was between her room and the guest house. Surlock stood on the diving board, his arms raised. The sun peeked over the horizon, casting everything in a hazy early morning light. There was enough light that she could see him, though.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. The man was truly magnificent, and very naked. Right now, she didn’t really mind that he disliked clothes. Boy, did she not mind!
His muscles weren’t so big that he looked deformed. No, they were just right. His chest was broad with just a sprinkling of dark hair. Her gaze dropped lower. Nice. Very nice.
A burning need grew inside her. For just a moment, she wondered what it would feel like to lie naked in his arms, to have his body pressed against hers. The ache inside her grew until she trembled with need. Her last few dates had been losers. She had a feeling Surlock would be good in bed. He would know how to please a woman.
Her hands curled into fists, nails biting into her palms as she stifled the groan that threatened to explode from her. She needed good sex. Maybe Surlock was a gift from the sex gods and she was meant to have him. It could happen. Before she could get too far into her fantasy, he dove into the water, causing barely a ripple.
She leaned over the balcony. Nice ass. Firm. Hmm, with a tattoo on the upper right cheek. Or a birthmark. Odd, she had a birthmark in the same place. She squinted her eyes, but he was too far away for her to tell exactly what it was. What were the odds it would be the same as her birthmark? She quickly dismissed the thought as she lost herself watching him swim the length of the pool.
The muscles in his back tightened and relaxed as he reached forward in the water. He swam to the end of the pool, then turned and swam back. His movements were those of a professional.
Maybe that was what he was—a swimmer.
Yeah, right, he’d been running around naked in the woods looking for a pool. With a wolf at his side.
What if he’d been raised by wolves? He’d growled at Dr. Wilson. Surlock did come across as a little wild, untamed. A fantasy formed in her mind. Surlock was Tarzan of the wolves, and he was looking for a woman he could steal away and take back to his den.
She shook her head. Ridiculous. Besides, since she had hit him over the head, Darcy kind of doubted she would be in the running as someone he would whisk away. The thought of spending time lying in his arms was nice, though.
Surlock popped out of the water, levering himself to the side of the pool, slinging his wet hair out of his face. He sat there for a moment, catching his breath, before getting to his feet. Rather than go immediately back to the guest house, he looked up, their gazes locking, as though he’d known she watched him the whole time. He seemed quite unconcerned he was naked.
He didn’t smile or wave. Not even a nod. He only stared at her for a long moment, his gaze slipping down her body, caressing her with his eyes, causing goose bumps to pop up on her arms. For a brief moment, something passed between them. He wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
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“I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation.” He wanted to steer their chat to his purpose, but the back of her neck was white and long. He’d never noticed that long slide of skin before, so pale against the vivid color of her locks. He’d gone away before she’d been old enough to put up her hair. And nowadays the fashion seemed to be for masses of loose ringlets covering the neck. Trust Lizzie to still sail against the tide.
“Yes, you could.” Her breezy voice broke into his thoughts.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Help it. You could have helped it, as any polite gentleman should, but you obviously chose not to.” She didn’t even bother to look back at him as she spoke and walked on but he heard the teasing smile in her voice. Such intriguing confidence. He could use it to his purpose. She had always been up for a lark.
He caught her elbow and steered her into an unused parlor. She came easily, without resisting the intimacy or the presumption of the brief contact of hiis hand against the soft, vulnerable skin of her inner arm, but once through the door she just seemed to disolve away, out of his grasp. His empty fingers prickled from his sudden loss. He let her move away and closed the door.
No lamp or candle branch illuminated the room, only the moonlight streaming through the tall casement windows. Lizzie looked like a pale ghost, weightless and hovering in the strange light. He took a step nearer. He needed her to be real, not an illusion. Over the years she’d become a distant but recurring dream, a combination of memory and boyish lust, haunting his sleep.
He had thought of her, or at least the idea of her, almost constantly over the years. She had always been there, in his brain, swimming just below the surface. And he had come tonight in search of her. To banish his ghosts.
She took a sliding step back to lean nonchalantly against the arm of a chair, all sinuous, bored indifference.
“So what are you doing in Dartmouth? Aren’t you meant to be messing about with your boats?”
“Ships,” he corrected automatically and then smiled at his foolishness for trying to tell Lizzie anything. “The big ones are ships.”
“And they let you have one of the big ones? Aren’t you a bit young for that?” She tucked her chin down to subdue her smile and looked up at him from under her gingery brows. Very mischievous. And very challenging.
If it was worldliness she wanted, he could readily supply it. He mirrored her smile.
“Hard to imagine isn’t it, Lizzie.” He opened his arms wide, presenting himself for her inspection.
Only she didn’t inspect him. Her eyes slid away to inventory the scant furniture in the darkened room. “No one else calls me that anymore.”
“Lizzie? Well, I do. I can’t imagine you as anything else. And I like it. I like saying it. Lizzie.” The name hummed through his mouth like a honeybee dusted with nectar. Like a kiss. He moved closer so he could see the emerald color of her eyes, dimmed by the half light, but still brilliant against the white of her skin. He leaned a fraction too close and whispered, “Lizzie. It always sounds somehow…naughty.”
She turned quickly. Wariness flickered across her mobile face, as if she were suddenly unsure of both herself and him, before it was just as quickly masked.
And yet, she continued to study him surreptitiously, so he held himself still for her perusal. To see if she would finally notice him as a man. He met her eyes and he felt a kick low in his gut. In that moment plans and strategies became unimportant. The only thing important was for Lizzie to see him. It was essential.
But she kept all expression from her face. He was jolted to realize she didn’t want him to read her thoughts or mood, that she was trying hard to keep him from seeing her.
It was an unexpected change. The Lizzie he had known as a child had been so wholly passionate about life, she had thrown herself body and soul into each and every moment, each action and adventure. She had not been covered with this veneer of poised nonchalance.
And yet it was only a veneer. He was sure of it. And he was equally sure he could make his way past it. He drew in a measured breath and sent her a slow, melting smile to show, in the course of the past few minutes, he’d most definitely noticed she was a woman.
She gave no outward reaction, so it took Marlowe a long moment to recognize her response: she looked careful.
It was a quality he’d never seen in her before.
Finally, after what felt like an infinity, she broke the moment. “You didn’t answer. Why are you here? After all these years?”
Her quiet surprised the truth out of him. “A funeral. Two weeks ago.” A bleak, rain-soaked funeral that couldn’t be forgotten.
“Oh. I am sorry.” Her voice lost its languid bite.
He looked back and met her eyes. Such sincerity had never been one of Lizzie’s strong suits. No, that was wrong. She’d always been sincere, or at least truthful—painfully so as he recalled—but she rarely let her true feelings show.
“Thank you, Lizzie. But I didn’t lure you into a temptingly darkened room to bore you with dreary news.”
“No, you came to proposition me.” The mischievous little smile crept back. Lizzie was never the sort to be intimidated for long. She had always loved to be doing things she ought not.
A heated image of her white body temptingly entwined in another man’s arms rose unbidden in his brain. Good God, what other things had Lizzie been doing over the past few years that she ought not? And with whom?
Marlowe quickly jettisoned the irrational spurt of jealousy. Her more recent past hardly mattered. In fact, some experience on her part might better suit his plans.
“Yes, my proposition. I can give you what you want. A marriage without the man.”
For the longest moment she went unaturally still, then she slid off the chair arm and glided closer. So close, he almost backed up. So close, her rose petal of a mouth came but a hairsbreadth from his own. Then she lifted her inquisitive nose and took a bold, suspicious whiff of his breath.
“You’ve been drinking.”
“I have,” he admitted without a qualm.
“How much?”
“More than enough for the purpose. And you?”
“Clearly not enough. Not that they’d let me.” She turned and walked away. Sauntered really. She was very definitely a saunterer, all loose joints and limbs, as if she’d never paid the least attention to deportment and carriage. Very provocative, although he doubted she meant to be. An image of a bright, agile otter, frolicking unconcerned in the calm green of the river Dart, twisting and rolling in the sunlit water, came to mind.
