Serpent in Paradise

by Rosemary Carter

At any other time Teri might have agreed with him, but now her throat was dry, and there were no words that came to her lips.

  'Glad you came?'

  'Mm,' Teri murmured on a sigh of pleasure. The beach-sand was soft and warm beneath her thighs and her toes and the skin of her midriff where it was left bare by the bikini. The crash of waves was a sound of which she never tired, and the sun was just pleasantly hot. She could feel the warmth on her back, her skin seemed to be soaking it in. It was a wonderful feeling.

  'Better than spending the day doing research?'

  'Fantastic. I missed my vocation. I should have been a beachcomber. Oh, Bruce, this is the life!'

  He laughed. 'Beachcombers look better without stripes on their backs. Why don't you undo the clasp of your bikini top?'

  Why not indeed? Her favourite sun-dress plunged deeply at the back, and the white stripes the bikini would leave on her skin after a day in the sun would mar its effect, while she lay face downwards on the sand her breasts would not be seen. Besides, this was such a lonely strip of beach, almost private.

  'Let me,' said Bruce, and without waiting for her consent he unclasped the bikini and pushed down the straps. Then he let his hand rest on the bare skin of her back, before sliding it down to her hips. 'I feel nothing,' Teri said to herself not for the first time. 'Absolutely nothing.'

  'Don't,' she said quietly.

  'Couldn't resist it, honey.'

  'Jill's here. I don't want her to see…'

  An excuse. Jill was busy making a sand-castle, and even if she had noticed what Bruce did, the little girl was too young to know that the touch of a man's hand could be suggestive. I don't enjoy being touched by Bruce, Teri thought.

  She ached with sudden longing as a picture of Sloan came into her mind. She lay very still. In the distance there was the sound of voices, but they made no impression on her. 'I must stop thinking of Sloan,' she told herself fiercely. I can't control my dreams at night, but I must try to think of other things when I'm awake.'

  'You'll burn,' said Bruce, as the voices grew louder.

  'I do need some suntan lotion,' Teri conceded. She had oiled Jill well, but for some reason had neglected herself. Reaching behind her, she made to refasten the clasp of her top prior to sitting up.

  Bruce forestalled her. 'Let me. Jill won't be corrupted by this.'

  Dropping a little oil on her back, he began to rub it in. Teri lay still, her head averted, and wished the hand belonged to Sloan. Wished thus despite her resolve not to think of him again.

  The voices grew louder. Women's voices. And then a laugh, a man's laugh, low and husky and seductive. Teri would have known that laugh anywhere. Her stomach muscles contracted in sudden alarm.

  'Bruce!' Virginia's voice. 'Had you given up on us?'

  'Not quite,' he called back.

  'Sloan and Virginia? You knew they were coming?' Teri twisted her head to look at Bruce, who was bending over her lazily, rubbing the oil into her back. Her breathing was shaky, and her eyes and her mouth felt stiff.

  'Of course I knew. Miranda's with them.'

  Teri's muscles were so tight now that breathing was painful. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

  'I suppose I didn't think of it,' Bruce said blandly.

  He was lying. He'd kept the knowledge from her deliberately. But why?

  The question fled her mind as a pair of legs suddenly filled her vision. Powerful legs with well-shaped feet and muscled calves, so close to her that she could see the dark hairs curling on the tanned skin. Fascinated, her eyes lifted, and now she could see Sloan's long thighs, and the narrow hips encased in white swimming trunks. Slowly, involuntarily almost, her eyes went further, to the trim waist and the broad chest, coming to rest at length on a face that was tanned and ruggedly chiselled with a jawline that was relentlessly grim.

  He was all male, she thought, on a surge of primeval pleasure. Male in a way that she had never encountered before. He was also the picture of displeasure.

  'Hello, Sloan,' she managed on a jerky indrawn breath.

  'Hello, Teri.' His tone was as grim as his face.

  The reason for his attitude came to her suddenly. In the last minutes she had been oblivious of the open bikini top, of Bruce rubbing oil into her back. So indifferent was she to the younger man that the situation had meant almost nothing to her. She had been conscious only of Sloan's approach. Now, looking at the scene with Sloan's eyes, she recognised its sexual overtones for the first time.

  An explanation tumbled on her tongue, and she opened her mouth to speak—only to close it firmly. No matter the sensations Sloan aroused in her, she owed him nothing in the way of apologies, excuses, or explanations.

  'That's enough,' she said quietly to Bruce. With all the dignity she could summon she reached behind her, fastened the clasp of her bikini top, and sat up.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  'Teri, I don't believe you've met Miranda.' Virginia made the introductions as she put her towels and bags on the sand.

  'Glad to meet you, Teri,' said Miranda with a cold smile. 'Darling,' to Sloan, 'hold the towel straight while I lie down. You know how I hate to get sand all over me.'

  She was beautiful, Teri thought numbly. Tall, with her auburn hair coiled in a sophisticated chignon, and with a figure that matched the perfection of her face, Miranda had as much the look of a model as had Virginia.

  Somewhere in the inner recesses of Teri's mind there had been the unacknowledged hope that she might compete with Miranda. The unseen Miranda, she had thought of her in the past. Well, she was unseen no longer. I'm no competition for her, Teri decided. Not for Miranda, not for Virginia.

  She shifted on her towel, and flinched as she came in contact with a man's hard thighs and chest. Bruce. In her confusion, she had not noticed that he had positioned himself so closely behind her. Her first impulse was to move away. And then she met Sloan's eyes, and their expression was more grim than ever. Grim and contemptuous.

  An expression which stirred her to defiance each time she saw it. Sending a provocative smile Sloan's way, she moved an inch nearer to Bruce, and had to stop herself flinching again as she felt his arms close around her waist. 'Nice,' he murmured in her ear, yet just loud enough for the others to hear. 'Very nice!'

  Teri saw a muscle move in Sloan's jaw, as Miranda remarked, 'I'd no idea Emma had taken on such an attractive companion.'

  'Not only attractive.' Virginia gave her brittle laugh. 'Teri has winning ways too.'

  'She does?'

  'Didn't you know that Aunt Emma has given Teri an equal share of Vins Doux?'

  'Darling, you didn't tell me.' Miranda looked reproachfully at Sloan, and then, with new interest, at Teri. 'Winning ways with men too, it seems, if the little scene we interrupted when we came down is any indication.'

  'Why don't we change the subject?' Teri asked restlessly, with a glance at Sloan's furious face. 'I think it's getting a little boring.'

  'I'm not bored, honey.' Bruce's breath fanned her ear. 'I can confirm your winning ways with men.'

  'Has Teri won you over too, Sloan?' Miranda's voice was husky.

  Copper-tanned shoulders gave a dismissive shrug. 'It's you I brought to the beach, remember?'

  'So you did.' As Miranda laughed, the tone not unlike Virginia's, she looked at Teri, and there seemed to be a warning in her eyes. Sloan is not for the taking—remember that.

  'Why, Miranda,' Virginia said lightly, 'don't you think Sloan has enough on his hands with the two of us?'

  A gauntlet? One woman's way of telling another that they were in the field for the same man? Teri stared at Virginia, amazed at the blatancy of the remark. But Miranda, it seemed, was a woman who could handle it. Her responding smile was radiant as she said, 'Ah, but Sloan has the virility of two men. Don't you, my darling?'

  They're rivals, Teri thought, dazed, and in some strange way that I can't begin to conceive they are also friends. Perhaps it's because they understand each other.

  'What it is t
o be desired by two females!' Bruce chuckled as he bent forward and dropped a kiss on Teri's ear. 'For myself, I find one woman more than enough.'

  This time Teri was unable to quell the shiver of repulsion. From behind her came the hiss of Bruce's indrawn breath, and she felt him tighten. Her reaction had not escaped him.

  She had been aware of undercurrents at Vins Doux, and here on the beach there were different ones. She understood them, but only dimly. She was out of her orbit, out of her league. She looked at Sloan.

  His eyes met hers steadily. And then he moved his gaze deliberately, from her eyes to her mouth, and then to her throat and to the swell of her breasts. There his eyes seemed to linger a moment, before travelling to the slim stomach and shapely thighs. Teri's bikini was not as revealing as those worn by the other two girls, and yet she felt undressed and humiliated.

  Damn you, Sloan! The words thundered in her head, so loudly that it seemed as if the others must hear them. And damn you too, Bruce!

  Pushing herself away from Bruce, she got to her feet.

  'Honey, where are you going?' she heard him ask.

  Anywhere! I have no idea. I just want to be alone. Away from you and Virginia and Miranda, from a game which I don't like or understand. Away from Sloan who humiliates me and looks at me with contempt.

  'I'm off for a swim,' she said, amazed that her voice sounded so natural.

  'Might be cold, honey.'

  She smiled. 'I'm warm-blooded.'

  The water was cold. It was also wonderful, exhilarating. A wave rose and fell against her hips, and she laughed aloud as the water splashed her. Already she felt better. Turning, she saw the group she had left on the beach. They looked so far away, so small, so unimportant. She should have left them earlier.

  She went further. A wave was rising, and she took it in a clean dive. The ocean soared and dipped, and she lay back and let the water carry her. The sky was a metallic blue, with a glare that hurt her eyes, so she closed them. Dipping, soaring, body weightless on the rhythmic swell, Teri felt lulled, totally relaxed.

  She did not know which came first, the hand that touched her back or the voice that exclaimed, 'Little fool!' Gasping, she made to stand, and found that her feet did not touch ground.

  'You are out of your depth.' Sloan's hand was still at her back, and he was so close to her that she saw the drops of water glistening on the hairs of his chest.

  His eyes were a deeper blue than the sky, and the lashes were long and fair. His lips were slightly tilted, his teeth white and strong against his tan. The sexual aura that was with him at all times was even more potent now, when his body was wet and the fair damp hair was burnished by the sun. He looked like a pirate, a pirate who pillaged the heart of every girl he encountered.

  Oh yes, she was out of her depth. And in more than one way.

  Aloud, she said, 'I'm a good swimmer.'

  He laughed as his arm passed from behind her forwards in one swift movement. 'Glad to hear it. Start swimming.'

  'I intend to and you won't…' The words choked in her throat. 'My bikini!' she exclaimed.

  'Yes?' A mocking drawl.

  'You've taken my bikini top!' She stared at him disbelievingly as she trod water.

  'I saved it.' White teeth glinted wickedly as he waved the tiny piece of emerald cloth he held in his hand. 'If it weren't for me, this tantalising scrap of nothing would be half-way to China by now, sea-nymph!'

  Sea-nymph. It had the sound of an endearment. And now she really was imagining things.

  'You saved it?'

  'I'm holding it, am I not?'

  So bemused had Teri been by his unexpected arrival on the scene that he could have unfastened the clasp without her noticing it. But even Sloan would not do such a thing. Would he?

  'Give it back to me!'

  'In a moment.'

  She was acutely aware of her nakedness. The water swirled and crashed around her, and she felt it strong on her nipples. It was an amazing sensation, incredibly sensuous. She was glad that Sloan did not know how she felt, relieved that he could not see her body beneath the water.

  'Give it to me now!'

  'We'll talk first.'

  'Talk! Are you crazy?' She lunged for her bikini and watched enraged as a long arm lifted, taking the garment out of her reach. 'We've nothing to talk about. Sloan, you can't do this to me!'

  He laughed, and even over the sound of the waves she could hear the husky seductiveness. It was fire to nerves that were already maddened.

  He was teasing her, and he was enjoying it. As she was enjoying it, she acknowledged shamelessly to herself after a moment of startled self-revelation. But she would not let him know it, and she would not play along with him. She would make a grab for the bikini when she could catch him off guard.

  She forced herself to go limp. 'What do you want to talk about?'

  'Bruce.'

  He was crazy. He was also sexier than she had ever thought it possible a man could be.

  'Ah, Bruce.' She smiled. 'He's a nice person, Sloan.'

  'Nice!' Blue eyes shot sparks of steel, and the laughing mouth was suddenly grim again.

  She'd said the wrong thing. The time to catch him off his guard was now, before he became even angrier.

  Treading water quickly, she made another lunge towards his hand—which was just out of reach. She had not bargained on his reactions being so swift.

  Neither had she realised that the movement would bring her up against him. Her legs were against his, her bare breasts within inches of his chest. She sucked in her breath in shock at the surge of hunger that flamed suddenly through her. For a few moments she could not breathe. Then, recovering some measure of composure, she made to move away from him—and found she could not.

  His free arm had gone around her waist and he was holding her to him. Her legs were so weak with longing that she let them lie against his a moment. And then sanity returned, and she looked at him pleadingly.

  'Sloan…'

  'You want me to make love to you?'

  Yes! Oh God, yes! I want you to kiss me and make love to me more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.

  'Of course not!'

  'Ah,' he said, so lazily that she was unprepared for the head that came down suddenly, for the tongue that traced an experimental line around the shape of her mouth.

  Desire was a tangible thing, a pain, gnawing at her, so that she had to close her eyes lest he see the hunger in them.

  'I think,' he said, 'that I don't believe you.'

  'Sloan…'

  'You do want me to make love to you.'

  'No!'

  'You're angry that I kissed you?'

  Was it possible to feel anger when a pirate's laughing mouth was so temptingly close to her own?

  'Terribly angry,' she whispered. 'Give me my bikini.'

  'When we've talked.'

  She remembered. 'About Bruce…'

  'Nice Bruce, yes.' Another lick of the tongue, around her ear-lobe this time, and then back to her lips, bringing her a taste of salt.

  He pulled her closer to him, and she felt her breasts pushed hard against his chest, her nipples teased by the hair that grew there.

  'This isn't nice,' he said. 'It's delicious.' He lifted her a little, so that her shoulders were exposed, and then his lips slid over the smooth wet skin. 'More than delicious.'

  Teri shuddered. 'Let's talk.'

  'It's what you'd prefer?' The laughter was chased from his eyes by an expression of bleakness.

  'Yes.'

  'All right, then.'

  She thought he would release her, that he would give her back the bikini, but he did not. Let me keep my sanity, she prayed, as they were buffeted by the waves and she felt his legs move against her.

  'About Bruce.' It was not necessary to shout over the sound of the ocean. So close together were they that each could hear what the other was saying, and any words that were drowned out could be lip-read. 'Leave him alone, Teri.'

&n
bsp; She stared at him. 'I don't understand.'

  'You should. That was an intimate little scene on the beach a few minutes ago.'

  Nowhere near as intimate as this one. She laughed. 'You must be kidding!'

  'Teri!' His tone was harsh.

  A little bewildered now, she said, 'Bruce was putting on some sun-tan lotion, that was all.'

  'That's not how it looked.'

  'Well, isn't that too bad.' Her voice rose in sudden anger.

  'Don't encourage him, Teri,' Sloan ordered.

  'Do you think I am?'

  'Maybe.' His thighs moved against her, and she knew for a fact that this time there had been no wave to buffet him. 'God knows you're a tempting little witch. And you've had practice.'

  The slap on his cheek was loud, even over the waves. Beneath his tan, Sloan looked a little pale. 'Don't ever do that again,' he ordered.

  'Then don't accuse me unjustly!'

  There was an odd expression in the eyes that were just inches away from her own. One Teri could not explain. Excitement quivered down her spine.

  'You're very beautiful,' Sloan observed at length, his tone ragged. And then, voice hardening, 'So beautiful that I could almost believe Bruce isn't just out for what he can get.'

  For a moment the idea that Sloan thought her beautiful was uppermost in her mind. It was a few seconds before the rest of the statement made an impact, and Teri said, 'What on earth are you talking about?'

  'You don't know?'

  'What is there to know?'

  'If Bruce marries you, between the two of you, you would own a hefty piece of Vins Doux.'

  She looked at him, her eyes wide and confused. 'The last thing on my mind is marriage. Heavens, Sloan, Bruce is my friend! He'd be as amazed as I am if he knew what you were saying.'

  'There's never been any love lost between Bruce and myself. It would suit him just fine to have eventual control of Vins Doux,' Sloan assured her.

  They couldn't be talking business. Not here, like this! With water swirling about them, and her bare breasts brushing his chest. I don't believe it, Teri thought, I don't believe this is happening.

  There was another thought too. Sloan hadn't followed her into the water because he wanted to be with her, because she stirred him in the way he stirred her. He was thinking solely of Vins Doux, of a way to protect his own interests.