Temptation (7 page)

“It better. Salmon is one of our customer’s favorites, and you cook it better than any of us.” Atalanta stared at her for so long, Meryl squirmed. But she’d had confirmation from her body that she wasn’t pregnant. She hadn’t known whether to be happy or sad. Finally, Atalanta nodded.

“Well, okay, then if you’re not pregnant, you can stand a shock. Check your emails and see if you have the same one as me.”

Meryl switched on her laptop. “From whom? What does it say?”

“Check and see,” Atalanta advised her. “Then we can decide what to do.”

“Now you’re really worrying me.” Meryl keyed in her password and waited as her emails opened. “You mean the one from Mia,
holy cow.
She’s stopping on for longer? Shit, what the hell is going on?”

“Well, we’re both invited to go out and see. Are you up for it? We’ve a slow two weeks and the others can cope. I’d like to go back again, but I need chumming.” Her voice was bleak.

Meryl looked at her and saw the clouds in her eyes and the shadows under them. “Why?”

“I’m scared what I’ll find.” Atalanta did her best to smile. “I might be a happy tiger or I might be a scaredy-cat.”

“Yeah, hold on, say that to me again.”

“I’m scared and I need you to hold my hand.”

“No, the tiger bit. Have you been holding out on me?” Meryl stared at her friend and saw her amber eyes glint.

“Er, yeah, I guess so. I’ve got a message. It arrived inside my mind and on my phone just as we got into here. Someone was determined I got it. I guess you know all about that sort of thing now, don’t you?”

Meryl nodded.

“Good, well it’s from a mutual friend and it’s short and sweet. Love. Come and let’s complete this. Ah . . . er, well, look . . . .” She tilted her head to one side.

“From M—” Meryl didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence. Atalanta put her finger over her lips.

“From my friend, yes.” She winked. “Shall I confirm the flight? I’ve sorted the Rota.”

Meryl blinked. “Were you that sure I’d say yes then?”

Atalanta rolled her eyes. Her reply was so low, Meryl had to strain to hear it. “Someone was. And I don’t mean Mia. I suspect that’s a bonus.”

Meryl could only hope the someone was Marloth. Except, why was he calling Atalanta ‘love’? Apart from that, she needed to know why Atalanta was acting so strangely, and had the impression her friend didn’t want her to ask in the office. Atalanta wandered around the room, and as far as Meryl could see she was sniffing the walls and furnishings. She waved her hand to attract Atalanta’s attention.

“Yeah, I’ll leave it in your capable hands and go and hunt out the sun cream. I hardly got to use it last time, and let’s face it, we need anti-rust lotion here.”

Atalanta laughed. “True. I’ll come with you.” She linked her arm through Meryl’s and almost pushed her out of the office and down the stairs to the outdoors. It wasn’t until they reached the street that Atalanta spoke again. “Sorry, but I’m getting shit awful vibes in our office at the moment. I think we need to do nothing but basic work in there. Anyway.” She shook her head and Meryl was reminded of the way Marloth shook himself as he emerged from the sea or the pool. Even the slight tilt of the head was familiar.

“Are you related to Marloth?” The question was out before Meryl even knew she was going to ask it.

Atalanta stopped walking and turned Meryl to face her. “I wish I was. It would make life a lot easier. My relations are crap.”

“They’re coming,” Dylan closed his laptop and looked at the other three men who sat next to him in a small but comfortable lounge.

Marloth stood up and began stalking across the room like the predatory animal he was. Three paces one way, turn, and three back. “Will it work?”

“I hope so. I want Mia to be happy, you want Meryl to come back, and—”

“And I want the time to try and win my lady,” Faran finished. “What about you, Blaine?”

Blaine looked uncomfortable. “I want to know what the hell I want.” He shrugged. “Not likely to happen. Not yet, anyway. So let’s get you lot and that shitebag sorted, eh? Then Marloth can stop wearing a hole in the carpet. Dylan can decide if he’s taking over or not, and Faran can, oh, I don’t know, be all macho and demanding.”

“He’s that anyway.” Marloth sniggered and winked to show he was joking. How he’d have managed these last few weeks without those men he had no idea. They’d discovered more plots against the Island and themselves than you’d find in a series of mystery books, and it seemed they all stemmed from the same place. “So when’s D-Day?”

Dylan checked his watch. “In about four hours give or take. The plane seems to be on time, and then there’s the boat ride. Papa, Elizabeth, and Mia will go to the airport. Blaine is going to man the control room with me, and you two will need to do a very comprehensive sweep of the island. How Semper got away, I have no idea, but he has.”

“He’s a toe rag,” Marloth said. “It’s a mystery how none of us picked up on it before. But now we have, he’s gone and I’m wondering just where to. It all comes together doesn’t it, once you realize what he was up to?”

Dylan nodded. “Afraid so, and you seemed to have borne the brunt of it. Why you and not Faran?”

“I’m one step too close to his family,” Faran replied as he walked to the patio door and opened it. “Marloth is one further way. That’s a perfect distance. Though I’d love to know just who that branch had picked out to mate with Marloth and secure their status.”

Marloth agreed with him. He’d love to know as well. “Well, it wasn’t going to happen, not once I’d met Meryl, even if he did do his best to put a spanner in the works. Sneaky and conniving scumbag.”

Faran turned to face the room. “And on that note, I’m off to do a security sweep. You ready to go the opposite way?” he asked Marloth.

“Yeah, and heaven help him if I ever get my hands on him.” Marloth stepped outside and shook himself in preparation before he shifted. Behind him heard Blaine laugh.

“You’ll have to join the queue I reckon.”

* * * * *

As he ran around the island with his senses on high alert for anything untoward, Marloth thought about the revelations of the past weeks. To discover Meryl again had been perfection. To find out that someone had deliberately kept them apart and for what reason had almost broken him. It was only the strength of his love for Meryl and hers for him that had stopped him committing murder. The fact he knew he’d do it when shifted, and Semper would be just one more mangled animal’s skeleton when it was found, was one of the things that stopped him. That, and the wrath of his family. The whole species of Tiger shifters had their own way of dealing with miscreants, and Marloth had grudgingly agreed to act like a responsible adult and follow the code.

It had been easier when he and his colleagues—and good friends—were able to keep an eye on Semper. To find he’d given them the slip had caused some anxious moments, especially as no one had been able to follow his trail. It stopped at one of the docks where a speedboat was missing. Even though the speedboat had been found on one of the other atolls, no scent could be traced. There were no tracks other than Semper’s, and no signs of a boat. Not one of them believed he was drowned, but no one could work out what had happened. It seemed as if he’d vanished into thin air.

Marloth completed his circuit and stopped to sit on his haunches to look up at the sky. High above, a vapor trail hung like tiny pearls strung across the deep blue sky. A plane heading to some far-off place. He jumped and his tail swept the ground in a violent movement. Why on earth hadn’t they realized? A helicopter. It could have lifted Semper away and no one would know. Obvious and simple. They were all so preoccupied with complicated plans they’d overlooked the basics. They’d slipped up big time, if in all their searching no one saw where it’d landed. Unless, it was a ‘grab a rope and be hauled up from the sea’ job? He doubted they’d ever know the whole story and concentrated shifting to human.

Dylan walked up to him. “What’s up? You have a weird look on your face. I’ve just been told ETA fifteen minutes. When things happen round here, it’s all systems go, isn’t it?”

“Want to go back to your old, boring but quiet life, Dyl?”

Dylan shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got Mia with me again, and I’ll take her and this over my old life any day. I’ve been given a second chance, and by our gods, I’m taking it.”

He could understand that. Marloth hoped he could say the same thing before long.

“Was everything okay your way?” Dylan asked him. “Faran’s shifted and gone to the control room. For some reason, he’s decided Blaine should go with you to the dock.” Dylan’s eyes bore into him. “Now I wonder why? Any clues?” His stare showed he knew fine well what might be going on, but wasn’t going to share what he knew.

Marloth now accepted the way Dylan could read everyone, but it had taken some getting used to. Why he decided to ask for verbal confirmation, Marloth had no idea. “About why Blaine needs to come with me? Not a one. About Semper? Yeah. Nothing, except I’m convinced he got away in a chopper. Has to be.”

Dylan nodded. “Yes, you must be right. He’s such a slippery little bastard, and holy shit—” He hit his forehead with his hand.

Marloth blinked. That wasn’t something you saw everyday. Talk about over the top. “Er, Dyl? You okay?”

“Easson MacFarlane. Helicopter pilot. Works out of the mainland. Total human, Total mercenary bastard. Remind me to tell . . . no, don’t bother, hold on” —his eyes misted over for a few seconds, and then he shook his head— “Right, Papa knows and will see what he can find out. Anyway, you ready to head on down to the dock?”

Marloth looked down at his naked body. Dylan sniggered.

“Here, when I realized how tight the time was, I brought you a shirt and some shorts. Go on, get a move on. Blaine will be around the front.”

Marloth took the clothes and shrugged into them. “Yeah, thanks. Are you not coming?”

Dylan shook his head. “No, I’ve got things to concentrate on, especially now you’ve mentioned a chopper. We’ll get together as soon as you’re all up here. Now shoo.” He made a shoving motion with his hand. Marloth laughed and clapped Dylan on the shoulder, before he set off at a jog to go round the building.

As Dylan had mentioned, Blaine waited for him by the path to the jetty. He looked white. He ran his hand over his short-cropped hair, and Marloth saw it shake.

“What on earth’s wrong with you?” Marloth came up next to him as they headed toward the water. “It’s only Meryl and her mate. I’m the one who should be worried. I have to tell them Semper has buggered off.”

Blaine shrugged, and punched one fist into his other palm. “Well, not quite all that there is to worry about, to be honest. Er, Atalanta, how did she get involved?” The uninterested, not really important tone he obviously tried for didn’t quite come off.

The question took Marloth by surprise. “She’s been a mate of mine for years, in a non-mating friend way. We were at uni together, and stayed in touch. When I left Meryl, because dad told me someone was gunning for me—not literally, but trying to make trouble—I asked Tally to help me. Then someone told me all that other stuff, and god help me, I was too fucking proud to ask Tally to find out more.” Over the past few weeks, Marloth had been open about Semper’s efforts to prove Meryl a liar and a cheat.

“Yeah, well Tally and I have unfinished business, and the more we learn, the more I’m convinced a lot of our problems are down to that fucktard as well.” Blaine smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “I think there’s a lot of explaining and apologies to be made when we’re all together.”

They’d reached the jetty, and Marloth leaned against a capstan. Tally had never mentioned Blaine. Marloth wondered if Blaine had been responsible for the shadow of sadness he’d often seen in his friend’s eyes. “Shit, and it isn’t gonna be easy.”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “Ain’t that the truth? Oh well, here comes the launch, so let’s get ready to rumble.”

Marloth watched the boat as it got ever closer. He felt more alive than he had since he and Meryl had put their plan into operation. His body tingled with the thought that soon he’d hold Meryl again, feel her warmth and her love surround him, and make long hot love to her. He ignored the stirring of his cock. Now was not the time.

Their plan had worked, in that once Meryl had staged her major hissy fit and left, Semper had begun to send messages to someone that they’d intercepted. They’d learned enough to know he and his family were behind the problems, but unfortunately not why. That was when Christophe and Dylan decided to get Meryl back to the island. Mia had agreed and sent the email and at Christophe’s insistence, demanded Atalanta came as well. Marloth had reiterated that by his mind message to Atalanta, even if he hadn’t exactly said why she was needed. If she thought it was for him, all the better. Now it was time to try and unravel everything.

The boat glided toward the jetty, and Marloth caught one rope as Blaine took hold of the other. Together, they secured it and pushed out the gangplank.

Meryl was first off and ran down the gangplank and straight at Marloth. She dropped her bag, and he picked her up to swing her around and around.

“Oh god, oh god, I’ve so missed you.” She pressed tiny kisses all over his cheeks. “I want you. Can we go and lose ourselves?”

He laughed and took hold of her mouth for a kiss that made him tingle. Little pinpricks of desire bombarded his skin and he held her close. “Soon, later, hell, I hope so,” he mumbled into her mouth, before diving in for another deep tongue-tangling kiss.

The tap on his back made him jump. He pulled back from Meryl and appreciated her moan of disapproval.

“Get a room.” Blaine smirked. Marloth looked up and saw Atalanta a few feet away. She looked as if she was about to be sick.

“I intend to as soon as this is finished.” Marloth turned Meryl, and patted her bum. “Go to Tally. She looks ill.”

“Tally? How do you know her as Tally?” Meryl asked him.

“Long story, we’ll sort it all out once we get back to the house.”

 
Meryl’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded and took Tally’s arm to walk up the gentle slope to the building ahead. “We’ll walk to get the non-rolling type of ground under our feet.” Mia and Elizabeth joined them and the four women ambled away. The different colored hairs all shone and gleamed in the sun. Marloth knew he’d pick Meryl’s red head out, even amongst a room full of redheads. It was simply—her.

Marloth helped the other men load the luggage. “Bloody hell, have they brought the contents of their houses?” The number of bags seemed a good omen for a long stay.