Undertow (15 page)

Minimal, immense, wide. Was one of Zane·s guests the thief? Because in spite of security on board, and intermittent inspections of the surrounding boats, stuff was stil being lifted right under their noses. And that was just things they noticed.

They had no idea
what
they were missing from their find because not everything had been photographed and documented yet.

Nick was right. Zane was just too freaking trusting. Zane·s little plan to throw them off the scent was merely an invitation to rob him blind.

Zane was being passed around like a damn pul toy. Clearly he liked it. His smile was wide, and he moved with lithe grace as he fast danced with a tal bare -breasted chick with dreadlocks who wore nothing more than a short red sarong and a come-hither smile. He looked up, caught Teal·s eye, and broke away from his clearly disappointed partner.

Oh hell,
Teal thought, a little panicked as Zane wove across the crowded deck, heading her way, doing the samba as he made his circuitous route between the dancers gy rating to the compel ing beat of Lady Gaga·s Śamba Rock.µ

Now what?
She was here, wasn
·
t she?

There was a gaggle of gorgeous women on board. A veritable feast for a guy like Zane Cutter. He·d danced nonstop al night. Trying to cul one from the herd?

Teal wondered sourly.

´Hey,µ he said quietly, reaching for her bottle of beer and taking a swig. He handed it back.

´How you doing, Wil iams?µ Sweat gleamed on his chest and trickled down his throat. His damp hair curled like licks of black flames around his neck. She had an insane urge to jump him, wind her legs around his waist, and lick his throat. To hel with decorum or al these people. Fortunately she hadn·t lost her mind. Yet.

Ńow what?µ she asked, waving him aside as if she wanted a better view of the dancers. He stayed right where he was, foursquare in front of her so that she was eye level with his inny and rock-hard, gleaming six-pack.
No fair.

She went completely deaf as her gaze, reluctantly, tracked up his chest to his face. She managed the feat without once taking a breath. Her lungs felt constricted, and her heart was manic. With annoyance, guilt, and self -loathing, she assured herself.

She gave him a fierce, don·t-mess-with-me look. ´Whatever you want, my work day is over.

I do
not
want you to make me do another command performance and stay up until the cows come home again. I·ve already lodged a complaint with the labor board and my congressman about the crazy hours you insist I keep. I·m exhausted. I·m going down to my cabin now.µ

Ńo, you·re not. You sleep in the engine room like the Mad Hatter.µ

Breathe, lungs
.
Do not respond to that humorous glitter in his eyes. Do not
be charmed by him
.

Charm, she reminded herself, was this guy·s default setting.

´That was the Mad Hatter, and it was in a teapot, not an engine room.µ

He gave her a stern look. Í think that wal knows how to stand al by itself now.µ

He knocked on it twice. Ńice and solid.µ He held out his hand. Ćome dance with me,µ he ordered, a hint of laughter in his deep voice a s he wiggled his fingers.

Said the spider to the fly. No way.
She did not want to be in his arms. She could smel his subtle and expensive soap and the clean, male sweat was an aphrodisiac. And not only for her. She was fine right where she was, thank you very much.

Teal slouched down in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She was acting like a five-year-old because she was as scared as one. Í don·t want a pity dance, thank you, I·m perfectly happy sitting here minding my own business and commu ning with nature.µ

Stil blocking her view, he spread his feet like the freaking King of Siam and laughed.

´There·s not much about any of them that·s natural, do you think? I bet they have their plastic surgeons on speed dial.µ

Áre you their second number?µ she asked sweetly, but without any heat.

She·d been deluding herself to think that she could maintain the equanimity with which she·d been treating him for the past two weeks. Her love for this «

charmer
« was fathoms deep. But it was also mixed with a healthy dose of reality and resentment. How could she have returned to the scene of the crime and
not
resent Zane for what he·d done to her eighteen months ago? He didn·t
remember
her. But her stupid heart didn·t give a damn, b ecause she·d never fal en
out
of love with him. Even as a shy, unwanted, six-year-old kid, she·d seen something in him that had captured her heart. She·d fal en helplessly, hopelessly in unrequited love with him then. And even given his lapse in memory, she loved him now. Teal was so mad at herself she wanted to jump overboard and swim to Florida. She gave him a stony stare.

Ćome on, Wil iams. I dare you. One dance won·t kil you.µ

Little do you know!
Í don·t dance.µ

Zane grabbed her hand, brushing her breast as he wrangled her fingers from their death grip on her upper arm. Electrical sparks flooded her body. There was a couple of seconds of tug of war as she tried to clench her fist against her tightly folded arms. But he won by brute force, and the freaking twinkle in his demonic eyes. It was almost impossible not to give in to his good-humored persistence. He tugged her off her chair until she stood in front of him.

Ćan you shuffle your feet?µ

Keeping her gaze averted from the amusement and chal enge in his, she planted her sneakers, imagining they were spot-welded to the deck. Ĺet me rephrase that.µ She forced herself to meet his blue, blue, wickedly blue eyes. Í. Do.

Not.
Want
. To. Dance.µ

He wrapped his arms around her waist, crossed his wrists in the smal of her back, and drew her against his body. His bare chest touched her breasts. Teal had to lock her knees to remain upright.

´You can·t sit there al night glowering at people.µ

Óf course I can.µ Being this close, it was impossible to look up without getting a crick in her neck, so she addressed the curve of his shoulder. She was tempted to stick out her tongue and take a little lick to see if his skin tasted the same as it had that nig ht. She refrained by biting her tongue until she tasted blood. That worked.

Íf they don·t like it, they can go to their own boats.µ

´That·s not very neighborly.µ

Ńeighbors borrow a cup of sugar, then go home and bake a pie or something.

One of these people could very wel be the one who tried to sink us, and swiped my box of treasure and those amazing candlesticks you were so pissed off about losing yesterday.µ She felt weak with longing and resentment. Easy for him to stroke her back like he was doing .

To him al cats were gray in the dark. Her every nerve ending was attuned to him like little antennae.

Íf that·s the case, they·l be brought to justice. But not tonight. Why are you so cranky?µ he chided softly, resting his chin on top of her head. Teal felt his warm breath through her hair while he swayed to the music, moving her with him, whether she wanted to sway or not.

She felt feverish and itchy on the inside. Zane had that effect on a lot of women.

Í·m
hungry.µ
She tried to use her elbows to put a mil imeter of space between them. Ĺet me go so I can go in and make a sandwich.µ
And sneak down to the
engine room.
The music was giving her a headache. Seeing Zane with al these gorgeous women was giving her a «

heartache. And being in his arms again was heaven
and
hel .
Oh, damn. Damn. Damn.

Heat emanated from his al -but-naked body as he started moving his feet.

´There·s enough food here to feed Haiti.µ

Ńobody we know prepared that food,µ she told him tightly. ´There could be anything in it!µ

Ĺike what? Glass? Drugs? Oregano? Come on, sweetheart. Lighten up and have some fun.µ

The śweetheartµ infuriated her. The ĺighten upµ would keep her up al night plotting ways to light his fuse. ´Fine. Eat whatever you want. I don·t give a damn if you ge t ptomaine from eating any of that crap, or « or
rabies
from kissing so many strangers. Let me go, Zane.

Seriously.µ

Real y. It wasn·t as though he had her held fast with a vise. His strong arms surrounded her loosely. But that casual hold was a prison without locks or screws.

She wanted so badly to pul away, to offer up another snarky remark, to stomp on his foot and run back to the safety of her engine room. But as she stood there swaying with Zane, she was utterly intoxicated. The smel of skin, the heat of his hard, muscled body, the rasp of his whiskers as he leaned in and whispered in her ear.

Í know I scare you.µ His breath tickled her cheek as he whispered softly into her ear. ´But, know what, Wil iams? You scare me a little bit, too.µ

´You don·t scare me in the slightest,µ she assured him, lying through her teeth as she inhaled the heady fragrance of his bare skin, which was right beneath her nose.

Damn it. She·d been here before, in this exact same spot. Let herself get lost in the moment and gave herself to Zane, only to have her heart smashed into a mil ion tiny pieces. No. No.

No. Been there, done that. She had to do better this time.

She tried to pul away. Í can·t do this. I·ve got to go.µ

´Teal³µ

Ĺet me go, Zane. Seriously.µ

She shoved at his chest with both hands. His skin felt ³Warm. Alive. Familiar.

Oh, God, oh God. She was in way over her head. ´Please?µ she begged a little desperately.

After a few erratic heartbeats, he let her go. ´Damn it, Wil iams. I don·t understand ³µ

She didn·t stick around to hear it. She turned around and walked away, as fast as her aching heart would al ow.

She·d worked just as hard as everyone else and she deserved a day off, Teal decided the next afternoon as she sat on the deck with Maggie after a fruitful dive.

They were bagging and tagging coins and other smal artifacts mid deck, to the accompanying loud noise of the compressor the dive team was using to move sand on the ocean floor.

The weather was overcast and oppressive. She sipped a soda and tried to keep her mind blank. Hard to do since a herd of squirrels were racing around on a wheel in her brain . Zane.

The way things ended between them last night. The saboteur. Her dying father.

She·d cal ed and left several messages for him, but he had yet to return them.

She supposed he simply couldn·t handle talking to her more than every couple of months.

But she knew this would be her last visit to see him on Cutter Cay. A woman could only handle so much rejection. She might be a slow learner, but it eventual y sunk in. Apparently, the fact that he was dying didn·t give him any sense of urgency to see or sa y good-bye to his only child. So be it.

She wasn·t even disappointed. Much. It was what she·d expected when she·d accepted the invitation to fil in for Sam. The Cutters should have hired a ful -time, permanent mechanic and left her the hel alone. She·d started making a good life for herself in Orange Beach.

Maybe this time she·d try « Denver. She·d buy a fabulous condo with a spectacular view of the mountains. She was pretty much done with wide expanses of exceptional y blue water.

In fact, when she decorated, she·d be sure to exclude any and every shade of blue. Being here just reminded her of what she·d tried for years to forget. Sam didn·t care one way or the other if she were bobbing on the Caribbean or dumpster diving in Kalamazoo.

Oh, boo hoo, didn· t she feel sorry for herself?
Get over it,
Teal told herself firmly.
When I walk
away, I·ll be a very wealthy woman. I can start my own
business. I·ll go anywhere, do anything I
damn well please. Hell. I can buy myself
a sexy boyfriend if I want to.

Speaking of buying things, Teal needed to go shopping. She hated shopping, but her two pairs of pants and a handful of shirts and T -shirts weren·t cutting it.

Maggie wore shorts or sundresses with her cowboy hat. She looked cute and cool.

Two things Teal wasn·t in her khaki pants and chambray shirt. Both of which she now hated. She·d started feeling that her wardrobe was inadequate right after the party, but she didn·t want to read too much into it.

Í need to go St. Maarten to buy to some things,µ she told M aggie. There were only a couple of boats hanging about today, and several people were in the water swimming, and talking loudly.

Óh?µ

Í·d love to get a nice fat rol of duct tape and cover their mouths,µ she muttered as a woman·s maniacal scream pierced her eardrums, making her wince.

She shot Maggie a humorous glance. ´Think that would be seen as antisocial behavior?µ she said, only half joking.

Í·l hand you the tape.µ Maggie laughed.

Teal had to raise her voice a little. ´Would you like to come wit h me?µ

Maggie didn·t look up from her notebook where she was writing. ´
Love
to.

Shopping is my second favorite thing to do. Okay,µ she glanced up with a smile.

´
Third
. Even though I hate to stop there for even a second, I·d love to go and visit my daughter, and see our granddaughter, Jessie, even if it·s only for a few hours ³µ she paused to flip to the back of her notebook where several pictures of a baby were stuck under plastic. She handed the folded book to Teal. ´This is my baby·s baby. Jessica .

You may tel me how exquisite she is for as long as you like.µ

Teal smiled as she accepted the book for a closer look. She knew absolutely nothing about babies. You fed one end and cleaned up the other. That was the extent of her knowledge, but she was wil ing to be wowed. Śhe·s adorab-le«µ her voice faltered.

The child³about two-ish, Teal guessed³had curly black hair and a sweet face. And Cutter blue eyes.
Zane
·s eyes. The DNA evidence staring her in the face was too strong to disprove.

Teal was frozen in place. She presumed her heart must stil be beating because she was stil sitting upright. So this was why Maggie had a śoft spotµ for Zane. He was the father of her grandchild.