‘I can’t tell you,’ he sighed.
Whitney shrugged. ‘Then how do you expect me to help Hawk when I don’t even know what’s happening half the time? You and Hawk have been involved in this together for months; I don’t even know who the “good guys” are and who the “bad guys” are!’
Glyn gave a derisive smile. ‘It isn’t always as black and white as that any more.’
She pulled a face. ‘In other words, you don’t really know either!’
He laughed softly. ‘You know, Hawk completely underestimated you.’
She frowned warily. ‘In what way?’
Glyn shrugged. ‘I think he imagined you’re still a little girl he has to protect.’
Not any more he didn’t. Hawk could be in no doubt of her maturity after the night they had spent together. But he had been avoiding her most of the day, and she knew he regretted losing his temper with her in such a way that he had ended up by making love to her. But no matter how he tried he couldn’t deny what had happened between them, and she didn’t intend letting him forget it.
Glyn was watching her with narrowed eyes when she glanced back at him. ‘But perhaps that isn’t true any more, hm?’ he prompted curiously.
She raised black brows. ‘Just why did Hawk ever agree to help you in this?’ She attacked, rather than defended, knowing her expression must have given her away.
Glyn’s face was suddenly like a closed book, no emotion showing. ‘You’ll have to ask Hawk that.’
‘A lot of good that would do me!’ she snapped. ‘He’s about as confiding as a clam!’
‘Did it ever occur to you that he’s only trying to protect you?’
‘Did it occur to either of you that I don’t want to be protected!’
His eyes were bleak. ‘This isn’t some damned children’s game—’
‘As you guessed seconds ago, I’m no longer a child,’ she bit out.
‘That’s between you and Hawk,’ he rasped, standing up to leave.
‘Just don’t let it interfere with your work, right?’ she scorned.
He leant down until his face was only inches away from hers. ‘Don’t attempt to sharpen your claws on me, Whitney; I’ve been known to savage the best of them in my time!’ he warned.
She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘If anything happens to Hawk you’ll find out just how sharp my claws actually are,’ she returned challengingly.
A ghost of a smile lightened his eyes, easing the tension a little. ‘Hawk has definitely underestimated you,’ he murmured.
‘Why don’t you try telling him that?’ she taunted. ‘Maybe then the two of you will stop treating me like some sort of imbecile!’
Glyn whistled softly through his teeth. ‘I’m glad we’re on the same side…’
She smiled in spite of herself, sighing as her tension eased. ‘Shouldn’t you be getting back to the others now?’ she suggested without rancour. ‘You’ve probably been missed.’
He shrugged. ‘I’m allowed to be as susceptible to a beautiful face as the next man.’
‘I’m glad one of you is.’ She settled her sunglasses more comfortably on the bridge of her nose, her face raised to the sun. ‘Hawk seems to be having no trouble resisting.’
‘Resisting what?’
Her hands tightened on the arms of her lounger, but otherwise she gave no sign that Hawk’s unexpected appearance had disturbed her. ‘A beautiful woman,’ she drawled. ‘Or have you already checked how Geraldine is today? Silly me, of course you have,’ she dismissed tartly. ‘It seems to be the male pastime of the day!’
Hawk looked at them questioningly. ‘Who else—Alex?’ He frowned.
‘He went down to check on her half an hour ago,’ she answered him abruptly. ‘Don’t tell me he hasn’t come back yet?’ she derided waspishly. ‘Dear me, her husband isn’t going to like that, is he?’ she taunted. ‘But the question is, which husband?’ she added hardly.
‘Whitney—’
‘I think it’s very inconsiderate of you, Hawk,’ she continued, as if he hadn’t interrupted her in that steely voice. ‘You could at least have brought an equal amount of women and men on board. Poor Geraldine and I are having trouble coping with you all.’
‘Tom wants you,’ he rasped to the other man, his jaw rigid with anger.
Glyn gave a terse nod of his head. ‘I enjoyed our chat, Whitney,’ he mocked. ‘And I’ll keep a look out for the claws.’
Hawk turned back to her once the other man had gone. ‘What was that about?’
Whitney gazed her fill of him from behind the protective shield of her sunglasses, loving the way the short sleeves on his shirt showed the muscular length of his bronzed arms, his dark trousers snug to his lean waist and thighs.
He looked tired, lines beside the dark shadows under his eyes, and Whitney couldn’t help smiling as she recalled every moment they had spent awake together in her bed last night.
His eyes narrowed with suspicion at her humour. ‘What’s so funny?’
Her smile deepened at his wary aggression. ‘Not funny,’ she denied huskily. ‘Beautiful.’
Colour darkened the leanness of his cheeks. ‘Whitney, last night—’
‘Was wonderful; I know.’ She stood up to drape her arms about his neck, curving her body into the hardness of his. ‘The best yet,’ she added throatily as she raised her mouth to his.
‘Best yet?’ he repeated dazedly, holding her away from him. ‘But—’
‘It was lovely while we were here alone,’ she nodded, her gaze warning. ‘But there’s something deliciously erotic about knowing there are other people aboard while we make love,’ she murmured seductively. ‘In fact, why don’t we go down to my suite right now? I’m sure no one will miss us.’
A nerve pulsed in his cheeks at the deliberate way she was rubbing against his thighs. ‘Whitney—’
‘Sorry to interrupt.’ The embarrassed voice of Alex Cordell cut in on them. ‘Mr Beresford would like to talk to you,’ he awkwardly told the narrow-eyed Hawk.
Hawk nodded dismissively. ‘Tell him I’ll be there in a moment.’ His eyes glowed golden as he gazed down at Whitney once they were alone again. ‘Thanks.’ He sighed ruefully. ‘Since you came on board I seem to have lost my taste for subterfuge.’
She ran her fingertips lightly down the rigidity of his jaw. ‘How much longer does this have to go on?’ she asked in a pained voice.
He sighed. ‘It will all be over soon. I hope,’ he added fervently.
Sadness darkened her eyes. ‘Because of last night,’ she guessed.
He looked away. ‘I never meant for last night to happen—’ He was silenced by Whitney’s fingertips lightly placed against his lips. He firmly took her hand in his. ‘I need to talk to you,’ he told her gruffly. ‘I’ll come to your suite later tonight.’
Whitney smiled to herself as she fell asleep in the afternoon sunshine. Hawk may think he could come to her tonight, logically discuss and dismiss the change in their relationship, and then leave, but she knew better. Once he was alone with her in her suite he wouldn’t be able to leave. Her body was filled with a warm ache at the thought of another night in his arms.
It was her new relationship with Hawk that gave her the confidence to call in and see Geraldine on her way to change for dinner. The other woman looked awful, a greenish tinge to her cheek, looking every one of her thirty-three years.
‘Come to gloat?’ she snapped, struggling against the pillows to sit up, the peach colour of her nightgown doing nothing for her sallow complexion.
Whitney’s mouth quirked. ‘Don’t judge everyone else by your own actions.’
The green eyes narrowed venomously. ‘Why did you come here?’
Whitney shrugged. ‘As your hostess,’ she deliberately baited, ‘I thought it my duty to come and see how you are.’
‘As you can see, I’m lousy!’ Geraldine choked self-pityingly. ‘I never could understand why Hawk actually enjoyed going away for days at a time in this float
ing hell!’
Whitney frowned, sitting down on the chair near the bed; she was wearing a loose robe over her bikini. ‘We both know you’ve always suffered from seasickness, so why did you subject yourself to this trip?’
‘I have my reasons,’ Geraldine snapped. ‘And in the meantime enjoy your relationship with Hawk. Such as it is,’ she sneered. ‘Because the moment I decide to break you two up I’ll do it, just like that!’ She snapped her fingers together in satisfaction.
The other woman had always had the ability to hit out at a person’s weakest spot, and Whitney’s uncertainty of her relationship with Hawk had been encouraged just enough to unsettle her.
She stood up. ‘Your vitriolic tongue hasn’t changed a bit,’ she said disgustedly.
‘Neither has your oh-so-transparent love for Hawk,’ Geraldine jeered. ‘As I said, enjoy it while you can—while I let you.’
Whitney was shaking with reaction by the time she reached her own suite. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a fighter—no one who really knew her could ever accuse her of that!—but her own relationship with Hawk was so tenuous, and Geraldine’s hold over him had always been so destructive. As arrogant and self-assured as Hawk was she wasn’t sure that this time it was going to be any different.
Dinner seemed to drag on endlessly, even Sean’s attempts to tease her receiving only a ghost of her usual returned humour. She wanted to talk to Hawk, desperately, and trying to be polite to one man she despised, another she was indifferent to, despite his friendliness this afternoon, and another man who alarmed her because he and Hawk seemed to be working in the dark, was hell when all she wanted was to be alone with Hawk.
‘This trip seems to be having an adverse effect on the ladies,’ Tom Beresford drawled when Whitney made her excuses because of a headache. ‘Thank God we reach Amsterdam tomorrow.’
Amsterdam? Whitney gave him a sharp look. They were going to Amsterdam? But why? What on earth had Hawk got himself involved in!
‘Ssh,’ he warned just over an hour later when he knocked on the door to her suite.
‘But—’
‘Let’s get inside,’ Glyn Briant advised impatiently. ‘We’re very conspicuous out here!’
Whitney frowned as the other man followed Hawk into her suite and firmly closed the door behind him. She had wanted to be alone with Hawk, not listen to him and Glyn Briant discussing Tom Beresford again. The regret in his golden eyes told her Hawk knew of her feelings and that he sympathised with them. But that didn’t stop him sitting in her lounge spreading the file and photographs she had got together all over her coffee-table to go through it all very closely with Glyn Briant!
‘Don’t mind me,’ she snapped after several minutes of their intense conversation over each photograph.
Glyn looked up at her with amused eyes. ‘How about getting us some coffee; it’s going to be a long night!’ He looked pointedly at the tray of coffee she had had brought to her suite for Hawk and herself.
Her eyes flashed. ‘There are only two cups,’ she dismissed.
‘That’s all right,’ he grinned. ‘There are only two of us!’
She drew in an angry breath, wrapping her robe more firmly about her. ‘Pour your own coffee, I’m going to bed!’ She slammed into the adjoining room, refusing to turn around as she heard the door softly open before closing again, knowing by that elusive lime smell that Hawk had followed her.
His hands came down to rest gently against her shoulders. ‘You shouldn’t let him get to you,’ he chided. ‘Teasing you is fast becoming his favourite pastime,’ he told her ruefully.
Her eyes were awash with tears as she turned to face him. ‘I thought we would be alone tonight,’ she said, voicing her disappointment.
‘So did I.’ He sighed. ‘But Glyn hasn’t been able to find anything detrimental in your file or photographs on the Beresfords either; he thought that a combined effort might help us solve the mystery of why it became so important you were actually threatened for it.’
‘In my suite!’
He shrugged. ‘We thought it might be less obvious. Why don’t you come and help us?’
‘The rule being, “if you can’t beat them join them”!’ she said caustically.
Hawk grimaced at her frustrated anger. ‘Something like that,’ he nodded.
She shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t even know what I was looking for.’
Hawk gently touched her cheek. ‘Then just come and sit with me,’ he encouraged softly.
Her anger melted as if it had never been as she drowned in the warmth of his eyes. And Glyn Briant couldn’t stay in her suite all night—he had better not try anyway! ‘Just let me put some clothes on first,’ she complied huskily.
His eyes darkened as he looked at the bareness of her flesh above the V-neckline of her robe. ‘What do you have on under that?’ His voice was gruff.
She smiled as a nerve pulsed in his cheek. ‘Absolutely nothing,’ she murmured.
‘God!’ His hands shook slightly as he held her. ‘For me?’
‘I told you, Hawk, it’s always been just for you.’ She became lost in the golden depths of his eyes. ‘Are you sure you can’t go through those things with Glyn another time?’ she encouraged breathlessly.
He drew in a ragged breath, shaking his head regretfully. ‘We reach Amsterdam tomorrow—’
‘But what’s going to happen in Amsterdam?’ she groaned in her confusion.
‘We aren’t sure yet,’ he grimaced. ‘We can only keep hoping.’
‘But—’
‘Let me just take one look at you.’ He released the belt at her waist to push aside her robe, his breath catching in his throat at the golden beauty of her slender nakedness. One hand moved instinctively to cup her breast, knowing the full weight of her. ‘One look isn’t going to be enough!’ he groaned, bending his head to claim the nipple held up to him.
The warmth Whitney had longed for all day enveloped her, and she clung to him weakly, supported only by his arm on her back.
The soft rap on the door broke them apart, Glyn barely giving Whitney time to refasten her robe before opening the door. ‘I don’t mean to be a bore, Hawk,’ he sighed, ‘but we do only have until tomorrow to sort this mess out.’
Hawk stood slightly in front of Whitney, partly shielding her from the other man’s gaze. ‘I’ll be there in a minute, Glyn,’ he bit out.
‘That’s good of you,’ the other man rasped icily.
Hawk crossed the room in angry strides. ‘Don’t ever,’ he ground out, ‘ever walk in on Whitney and I like that again,’ he warned harshly, his eyes hard as gold nuggets.
Glyn shrugged. ‘I’m sorry.’
Hawk nodded abruptly. ‘I’m sure Whitney appreciates your apology,’ he said softly. ‘Now I will be rejoining you in a few minutes.’ He watched the other man with narrowed eyes as he closed the door behind him. ‘I’m sorry, Whitney.’ He turned to her once they were alone, regret in his eyes. ‘Once I was alone with you I just couldn’t seem to stop myself.’ He touched her flushed cheeks.
She nodded. ‘I’ll dress and join you soon.’
‘Whitney—’
‘It’s all right, Hawk.’ She smiled tremulously. ‘There will be time for us later—won’t there?’
‘I hope so.’ He nodded wearily. ‘Don’t be too long,’ he added gruffly.
They must have drunk pints, rather than cups, of coffee during the next few hours, Whitney going to the galley to make it as Sean had gone to bed. As the two men laboured over the photographs Whitney sat and watched them, not sure what it was they were looking for, and they seemed loath to confide in her.
‘I think I’ve found the pattern,’ Glyn suddenly exclaimed. ‘My God…!’ He gathered up several of the photographs checking the dates which Whitney had meticulously written on the back of each one. ‘Hawk!’ He thrust the photographs at the other man.
Hawk seemed to pale as he took in the significance of what he was seeing. ‘I don’t believe it,’ he told th
e other man harshly.
‘Check the dates,’ Glyn encouraged grimly. ‘There’s no mistake. It was right there under our noses all the time!’ he added forcefully.
‘What was?’ Whitney frowned at the two men. ‘What is it?’
‘Nothing that need concern you.’ Hawk thrust the photographs back at Glyn. ‘Unless she admits it I won’t believe she was involved,’ he grated.
She? Geraldine? My God, if the other woman were physically involved in her husband’s corruption Hawk would never allow anything to happen to her. This was obviously something he hadn’t planned on happening!
Glyn packed the damning photographs away in the file with the written reports. ‘It explains why we’ve never been able to catch him; we’ve been looking in the wrong places!’
‘She may be selfish and a first-class bitch, but I don’t believe she’s capable of this,’ Hawk insisted again grimly, his face still very pale.
‘Photographs don’t lie, Hawk,’ the other man said regretfully.
Hawk drew in an angry breath. ‘At least give her the benefit of the doubt, man.’
Glyn shrugged. ‘It isn’t me she’s going to have to convince of her innocence, you know that.’
‘You aren’t going to arrest her—’
‘You know I’ll have to,’ Glyn bit out. ‘Look, she isn’t your responsibility any more, Hawk. Let Beresford worry about her. Whitney is the woman in your life now,’ he reminded forcefully.
Hawk looked at her as if he had never seen her before, let alone made love to her.
‘Remember the reason you came in on this,’ Glyn added pointedly.
Hawk’s eyes became dull. ‘I’ll never forget that,’ he rasped. ‘It’s another reason I’ll never accept Geraldine’s involvement.’
She had known it had to be Geraldine’s guilt Hawk was protesting so strongly, and the knowledge that he could so defend the other woman left her with an emptiness inside she had never wanted to feel again, having known that same desolation a year ago when Hawk had put her out of his life. Hawk was never going to get over his love for Geraldine.
‘That isn’t for us to decide,’ Glyn shrugged.
‘But—’
‘Sleep on it, Hawk,’ the other man instructed harshly. ‘You’ll see I have no choice.’
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