Do that again, she breathed joyfully.
He lifted her clear off her feet this time, his mouth hot and wet, moving across hers as if he was devouring a feast. What have you done to me? he muttered, an almost desperate note in his voice.
I was about to ask you the same. She plunged her hands into his thick, dark hair and tugged. Kiss me again. Please.
His hand slid down to her buttocks, lifting her tighter against his unmistakable reaction to her. She groaned, crawling even closer to him if it was possible, all but purring her pleasure. Her hands crept around his ribs to his back, kneading his ridged musclesand encountered something wet.
He hissed into her mouth and lurched upright, arching his back away from her touch.
What did I do? she asked quickly in distress.
My back. I got cut, he gritted out between clenched teeth.
How?
To her dismay, he released her and stepped back, frowning down at her. She felt terribly cold and alone without his arms around her.
He answered reluctantly, Some nutcase tried to stab you a few minutes ago and sliced me instead.
Stabme? And then the rest of it hit her. Youve been stabbed? she cried. Fear ran cold in her blood, chilling her all the way through. Let me see.
He turned to face her when she wouldve darted around behind him to see how badly he was hurt.
Its just a scratch, he bit out, his gaze skimming down her body and back up again. A flash of something hot and forbidden glinted in his gaze. Damn, youre beautiful, he murmured. As much as Id like to tear off the rest of your clothes and make love to you right here, weve got to get off this beach.
She glanced down at the remnants of her clothes and gasped. Scraps of sodden cloth clung to her chest enough to provide a minimum of modesty, but not much more than that. Her silk Chanel blouse, no less. It had cost her a weeks pay and the neckline draped exactly perfectly. Drat. Shed loved that blouse.
The man in front of her shifted impatiently, peering suspiciously over her shoulder as if he expected the attacker to come back any second. Abruptly, the pieces fell together in her head. Theyd been lying on a beachit was nighttime and he said that out of nowhere a stranger had tried to attack them
She exclaimed, I bet that was the Sex on the Beach Killer!
The who? Tom responded blankly.
This guy hadnt heard about the psychopath roaming the South Pacific killing pairs of lovers on beaches? Hed have to be a complete hermit to have missed that news flash. The killer had last struck on Fijis big island a couple of weeks back. He was due to strike again, according to Agent Griffin Malone, the FBI profiler whod saved Alicias life.
The Sex on the Beach Killer, Maddie repeated. Cold chills that had nothing to do with being wet and nearly naked snaked down her spine. A psychopath had tried to kill them? A fine trembling erupted throughout her entire body.
How Her voice broke. She tried again. How did you scare him off?
He shrugged.
Did you get a good look at him? Police have been chasing him all over the place. No one knows what he looks like. Well, besides the fact that hes Caucasian and around six feet tall. I know that because my friend found a pair of his victims, and she got involved in the investigation and met the FBI profiler and she told me a little about the case, you know, what to look out for and And she was babbling. She did that when she got really nervous.
He stared down at her as if she was jabbering a foreign language at him.
She huffed, You have heard of him, right? The guy whos been running around the South Pacific stabbing lovers on beaches while theydo the deed.
His eyebrows lifted at that, but he made no comment. Not real talkative, her handsome pilot. But, hey, the guy kissed like a god. She swayed toward him once more.
Cmon, Tom growled. He took off striding down the beach, his long legs outdistancing her quickly.
Wait up! she called after him. She ran through the heavy sand, feeling as clumsy as a drunken chicken. Ugh. Style noteto self: never run on beaches.
He stalked onward without slowing down to wait for her. Not exactly the most social guy on the planet when he didnt have his arms around her and his mouth on hers. Exasperated, she tagged along, wishing hed slow down, but too unaccountably annoyed at her uncontrollable attraction to him to ask it of him.
Eventually, they came to a stretch of beach bordered by tall, rocky cliffs. Before long, he veered away from the water and headed for a pale shape zigzagging up the face of the black, wet rocks. Her gaze followed the jagged line upward. She spied a dark, rectangular hulk at the top of it, perched not far from the edge of the cliff.
They drew a little closer and she saw that the pale line was a set of stairs. It led to a bure, a traditional Fijian dwelling made of stucco, logs and thatch. The house nestled within a grove of banyans and palm trees.
Who lives there? she asked cautiously. The last thing they need to do was walk into the Sex on the Beach Killers hideout.
Tom tossed over his shoulder, The weathers about to get nasty. We need to seek shelter now.
But
Ladies first, he interrupted gently.
With a sigh, she set her feet to the long staircase. Something inside her was disappointed that theyd found civilization. For a minute there, she couldve really enjoyed being stranded in a deserted paradise with a hunky pilot who made her knees weak when he kissed her.
Not that the fantasy ought to do a blessed thing for her, of course. Madeline C. didnt go for sand, drinking out of coconuts and building palm-frond shelters. She was a city girl all the way. She liked her plug-in creature comforts and was never caught without a makeup kit or the perfect shoes. Of course, she had neither at the moment. Her hair was a sodden mess, and her clothes were destroyed. Shed have to extract a promise out of the pilot never to reveal to anyone that hed seen Madeline C. without her chic armor polished and firmly in place. And no cameras! If he took a picture of her looking like this, the Sex on the Beach Killer wouldnt be the worst of his worries!
The Plan. She had to stick with the Plan. Build a new life for herself firmly anchored in the bright lights and big city. Find herself the richestand nicest, of courseguy she could find and marry him with all due haste. No way was she spending the rest of her life working her fingers to the bone through drought and freezing cold and searing heat to scrape a living out of the ground. She was absolutely not repeating her mothers mistake. No, sir. She was Madeline C.
She took a deep breath and peered upward, trying to catch a glimpse of the dwelling above her. Even if Tom did kiss better than ought to be legal, there was no room in her life for heavy panting with some beach bum bush pilot. Focus. It was all about focus. It was how shed dragged herself out of the ocean, and it was how she would drag herself off the farm and into a new life.
She tromped up the stairs, her already exhausted legs burning fiercely. Her personal trainer back at the gym would be appalled that a simple set of stairs was doing her in like this. But hey! Shed spent a couple hours fighting the Pacific Ocean in all its fury. That had to count for something.
Man. What a day. This trip had been jinxed from the moment she and her fellow Secret Traveler reviewers left Chicago. She just wanted to get home, go to her favorite spa, get a mani-pedi, a full body wrap and a facial and forget shed ever been to this miserable corner of the world with its cyclones and serial killers and tempting strangers.
She glanced at the ocean pounding behind her. The waves were getting bigger by the minute, swallowing a few more inches of the beach with every crash of surf upon the shore. She didnt know a whole lot about the South Seas, but common sense told her that spending the night down on the beach might not be the smartest thing in the world to try with a storm rolling in. Reluctantly, she continued up the long line of steps.
Finally, several stories above the ocean, she set foot on level ground once more. Tom took her elbow and escorted her firmly to the houses front door. He fiddled with the doorknob for a few seconds, and then the door opened under his hand. Good grief, the guyd just broken into the place! She stared, appalled.
Are you coming or not? he tossed at her.
I dont think we should just walk in there like this.
Why the hell not?
Well, the owner might be scared if we barge in. What if hes got a gun?
Tom snorted. The owner has several guns.
Her eyebrows shot up in alarm. How do you know that?
He bit out, Im the owner.
She stared. What?
He glanced over at her and didnt bother to repeat himself. A girl could get tired of listening to herself talk, trying to have a conversation with this taciturn guy. She followed him inside. If she thought it was dark outside, it was inky black in here. She banged into something about knee-high and yelped.
Stand still, he ordered.
She was more than happy to oblige. A light flared on the far side of the room as he lit a match. He held it to the wick of an old-fashioned oil lamp and put a glass globe down over the flame. A dim, but warm, glow suffused the open space. The hard thing that had attacked her knees turned out to be a beautifully carved wooden end table.
The bures interior was bigger than shed expected. A vaulted ceiling high overhead added to the impression, giant logs forming an inverted V of cantilevered support beams. If she wasnt mistaken, that was a thatched roof on top of the log frame. Lovely. Grass for shelter from an approaching hurricane.
Bamboo and mahogany furniture blended seamlessly with the white gauze curtains and crisp, ice-blue linen upholstery. A kitchen occupied one corner of the space, separated by a gorgeously carved mahogany breakfast bar with a pair of elegantly curved stools before it. It was a shockingly stylish room. And he lived here? Clearly, hed bought the place furnished.
She glanced over and saw him standing in front of a mirror, peering over his shoulder at his reflection. Checking out his deltoids? She knew guys were vain, but sheesh!
And then she saw the dark slash across his back, about two inches below his shoulder blades. The Sex on the Beach Killer. Hed said the guy had scratched him, but the cut extended almost all the way across his back!
Good Lord! she exclaimed. You call that gash a scratch? Id hate to see your idea of a serious wound. Let me see that. She rushed over to examine the cut, which still oozed blood. You need to see a doctor. That thing needs stitches.
No doctor, he replied sharply.
Why not?
Only medic on Vanua Taru is also the sheriff.
She didnt know which question to ask first. Why he wanted to avoid the law, or if they really were on Vanua Taru, which had been her destination this evening in the first place. Caution won out and she asked the second question, for fear of the answer to the first. Were really on Vanua Taru?
He nodded, his lips pressed together in a tight line.
Are you in pain?
He shrugged, a tense move of a single shoulder.
She knew that look. Her brothers and father used to get it when theyd been hurt but didnt want to act like sissies in front of one another. Tom was having a bout of macho maleness.
She rolled her eyes. Well, at least let me clean that cut out. It has sand in it.
Ill take care of it.
You can barely see it, let alone reach it. Wheres your first-aid kit?
He scowled at her for a moment, then moved through a doorway into what looked from a glimpse like a bathroom. He came back in a moment with a big backpack crammed with a shockingly well-stocked first-aid kit. A person could practically perform surgery out of it. Growing up on a farm far from any immediate help, she and her siblings had all learned basic first aid early. It was surprising how much veterinary medicine applied to human beings in a pinch, too. She rummaged through the supplies until she found what she needed.
Lets go into the bathroom. When I flush out that wound, its going to make a mess.
He sighed, but did as she suggested. In the end, they both stepped into the big, Roman-tiled shower, clothes and all. He stood under the water until the sand and blood were gone, then she soaped up his back gently but thoroughly and finally he rinsed off again.
He turned to her, his hair slicked back from his strong, tanned features. He looked like a freaking cover model, even if he was white around the mouth at the moment. An errant urge to kiss away his pain washed over her. Focus, girlfriend. The Plan.
Thanks, he murmured.
Butterflies leaped in her stomach and she took a step backward, her back coming up against the cool, tiled wall. He braced his left hand beside her head and smiled down at her a slow, lazy, sexy smile that promised hours and hours of mind-blowing lovemaking.
Have you got any scratches I can clean out for you? he drawled.
II dont know.
Wed better check. Cuts infect fast in this climate.
He plucked at the scrap of cloth clinging to her shoulder and she glanced down. Then stared down in shock. In the dim light of the oil lamp flickering on the counter outside the shower, the remnants of her silk shirt and her lace bra clung to her breasts transparently, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. She watched, mesmerized as his brown fingers trailed over the pale fabric, around the outside curve of her breast, then lightly along the sensitive underside of the mound. Her nipples puckered hard, standing up proudly, begging for his touch. She closed her eyes in mortificationand longing. Something warm and firm touched her temple.
His mouth. He was kissing her again. Her toes started to curl. Ohboyohboyohboy. The What was it that she wassupposed to remember? He straightened and she tipped her mouth up to his. In the midst of the warm spray of water, he captured her lips with his, sucking her lower lip into his mouth and laving it with his tongue.
Her hands crept up to his shoulders. Urged him closer. His arm swept around her waist, pulling her away from the wall and against his big, hard body. The shower pounded down, raining heat and steam all around them.
He sucked in a hard breath as the spray hit his back and she lurched. His injury. And here she was, crawling all over a wounded man. She sagged against him in frustration, pressing her forehead against his chest for a moment before pushing herself away from him.