Her First Vacation (7 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Colin paused as he stepped out onto the deck and lifted a hand
to rub at his temple. He’d done enough drinking
himself
to leave him with a definite ache this morning. He could hold a hell of a lot
of liquor, but Garret put it away like it was water, and he liked everyone
around him to drink with the same enthusiasm. Colin would have thought the man
was an alcoholic if he hadn’t already figured out that control was something
Garret prided himself on maintaining. He boozed and partied with the best of
them, but he never let himself lose control. That’s what made him such a tough
man to target. He wasn’t going to get drunk and start babbling about details
that would put his ass in prison. Nor was he going to trust anyone he didn’t
know or at least have damn good reason to trust. Colin knew that the only
reason Garret had anything to do with him was because he enjoyed having another
man around to be impressed by his prowess with the women. Colin gave him what
he wanted. He was Garret’s audience, and he made all the appropriate sounds of
appreciation. That was good enough for now. Eventually, Colin would up the
ante. The plan was already made. He’d give Garret graphic evidence of his utter
lack of moral fiber and with any luck at all, Garret would decide that his
skill with women wasn’t the only thing he’d enjoy having admired. Garret Palmer
had only one weakness that Colin could find, and he was going to use it to
destroy him. There was a reason that pride was one of the seven deadly sins. It
was going to be Garret’s downfall.

Colin shoved thoughts about Garret Palmer away as he
spotted Claire in her usual spot. She was leaning against the rail, and the
wind was playing with the single tendril of hair that had somehow managed to
escape her bun and was flittering around her face. She kept tucking it behind
her ear and it kept working free. She wore another one of her long, shapeless
dresses today. This one wasn’t made of denim, however, which he’d already
guessed was her favorite fabric. This one was made from something a hell of a
lot lighter than denim, which meant the breeze had no trouble at all molding
the fabric to her body. His gaze slid over her of
its own
accord. She was every bit as slender as he’d guessed, but her body had more
curves than he’d suspected. It was hard to tell exactly what she looked like
beneath the tents she evidently favored. His gaze strayed to her breasts and he
quickly decided that they weren’t nearly as flat as he’d first thought. They
weren’t huge, but they were big enough that he guessed they would fill his
palms nicely. His fingers twitched at the thought, and he immediately tore his
eyes off her.

What the hell was he doing? He couldn’t use her in his
plans to get to Garret, and he sure as hell knew he didn’t have any business
wanting her for anything else. So what if she was the most intriguing woman
he’d ever met? She was not the kind of woman he got involved with. He kept
telling himself that as his feet started carrying him toward her.

“Been spending some time in the sun, I see.”

Claire cursed the leap of her heart as his voice washed
over her. She cast him a quick sideways glance.

“Too much time, as it turns out.”

“It doesn’t look too bad. By tomorrow I’ll bet it will be
already turning brown.”

“Yeah, then it’ll all peel off.”

“Aloe.”

She focused on him. “What?”

“Aloe Vera.
Get some lotion with
Aloe in it and keep your skin moisturized. That’ll stop the worst of the
peeling, if not all of it.”

She shot him a frown. “Somehow, I can’t quite manage to
make myself believe that’s a piece of information you came up with all on your
own.”

He shrugged. “You’re right. I dated a dermatologist once.
She tended to give out all kinds of advice on the proper techniques for
maintaining the perfect complexion. She also insisted that I take way better
care of my skin than I felt was strictly masculine. I think it was right about
the time she started trying to convince me to try out a mask made of seaweed
that I decided our relationship was over.”

She was trying not to smile. He could see it in the twitch
at the corner of her mouth. He felt an inordinately strong desire to see that
smile break free.

“Of course, it didn’t help that she also wanted me to go to
family therapy with her and her cat. Apparently the little darling was having
‘issues’ over my invasion of his space, and his therapist believed we should all
work through the problem together.”

She stared at him for a moment,
then
burst out laughing. Colin felt his heart do that odd little skip in his chest.
God she was beautiful when she laughed like that. He was shocked by how good it
felt to know he was the one responsible for the laugh. It made him want to make
her laugh again. It made him want to do a lot of things that would be better
off forgotten.

“I think you were right to get out when you did. Otherwise
you might still be in therapy.”

“That’s exactly what I was afraid of. I mean, it was clear
the cat had some serious problems, and I just don’t think I would have been the
best one to help him deal with them.”

She shook her head as her mouth widened in another
heartfelt smile. “Just how bad was this cat?”

“Let’s just say he had a longstanding prescription for
kitty Prozac and leave it at that.” She laughed again and Colin reached out to
catch the stray strand of hair and tuck it behind her ear when it once again
slipped free. The moment his fingers brushed her skin he felt a jolt of
awareness. The instant death of her laughter was all the proof he needed to
know she’d felt it too. He forced himself to pull away from her after only that
brief touch. She was staring up at him out of those wide, innocent eyes of
hers, and he cursed himself for acting without thinking. He should know better
than to touch her. He should know better than to get anywhere near her. It was
becoming abundantly apparent that his common sense went right out the window
when he was close to her. If he had any sense at all he’d turn around and walk
away and never even look at her again. Unfortunately, it was also apparent that
his normally reliable common sense had gone on some kind of hiatus.
Because he didn’t walk away.
Instead, he gave her a warm
smile.

“Had breakfast yet?”

She shook her head and he offered her his arm.

“Shall we, then?”

Claire told herself to tell him no. Colin was too appealing
a man by far. She knew he was out of her league and she knew she was in danger
of letting herself start forgetting that fact. He was too good at making her
feel at ease. And when he’d tucked her hair behind her ear the look in his eyes
had made her feel downright shaky. He was looking at her the way a man looked
at a woman he wanted. The expression was unmistakable, yet it had to be a
mistake. She knew he couldn’t want her.
Which meant she was
fooling herself into seeing things that weren’t there.
She ought to run
as far and as fast as she could. But she wasn’t going to. As she lifted her
hand and slipped it into the crook of his arm, she felt an inner voice warn her
that she was playing with fire and that she would most certainly get burned.
Because as much as she wished it
were
possible, she
knew fairy tales didn’t happen in real life. There was no prince waiting to
tell her she was actually the princess he’d been searching for his whole life,
and even if there was, Colin Montgomery certainly wouldn’t be him. If the day
ever came that he decided he wanted a woman in his life permanently, it would
not be a woman like her. Sooner or later he’d get bored with her, and he’d walk
away without a second thought. It was going to hurt like hell when it happened,
but at the moment she decided she didn’t care. She had no idea why Colin was
bothering to give her his attention. She wasn’t sure she truly wanted to know.
She just wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. So she forced herself to relax and
tried her best to think of him as just a person instead of the gorgeous man he
was.

Surprisingly, the tactic worked and their breakfast that
morning was far less strained than the first they’d shared had been. He didn’t
say he’d meet her the next morning, and she didn’t ask him to. It was safer
that way. By mutual unspoken consent they chose to just let things happen or
not. It kept them both from feeling any pressure, which was exactly what each
of them wanted.

Three days later Colin knew he was in deep trouble. He’d
met Claire on the deck every morning, and they would talk for a while, then
have breakfast together and talk some more. Every morning he got up and told
himself he wasn’t going to meet her, and every morning he did it anyway. He
knew the odds of Garret ever spotting them together were virtually nonexistent.
The man partied into the wee hours every night and slept until at least
nine-thirty every day. Some days he didn’t drag himself out of his room until
almost noon. And the rest of the bunch that shared their dinner table was
pretty much the same. Still, it went against every professional instinct he possessed
to keep meeting her when he knew it might jeopardize his mission. She didn’t
fit his cover. She would never fit his cover. There was no way in hell that he
would ever be able to make Garret believe the man he was supposed to be would
so much as look twice at Claire. But he couldn’t make himself stay away from
her and that was starting to make him more than a little nervous.

They’d talked about everything under the sun and nothing
whatsoever that bordered on truly personal. She mentioned her mother and sister
occasionally but never so much as hinted at what her problem was with them. He
made a concerted effort to not slip up the way he had the first time they’d had
breakfast together, which meant he kept strictly to the background story that
went with his cover. Yet for all their avoidance of their pasts, they seemed to
cover every topic that most people would have strayed away from. Colin realized
just how far things had gone when he heard himself telling her that he thought
she was born to be a mother. The depth of longing in her eyes when she met his
gaze after the comment sent a ripple of something indescribable through him.
For about twenty seconds he got lost in imagining her body swollen with a baby,
and then he was thinking about that baby in her arms and there was no doubt at
all that it had his hair and her eyes. He’d damn near jumped up and run from
the room then and there. Instead he’d managed to keep himself still for another
fifteen minutes while they finished up their coffee.

Five hours later, sitting in a hole in the wall local bar
well off the beaten path, Colin was still reeling from the content of that
single fantasy. Never, in his entire life, had he felt even the slightest urge
to be a father. He didn’t want a wife, much less a kid. Which didn’t explain
why he’d let himself imagine Claire holding their child. He shook his head and
muttered a curse as he ran his hand over his face and through his hair. It had
to be exhaustion or stress or something. Almost every night he partied with
Garret,
then
he was up at dawn the next morning to
meet Claire. He’d always been able to run for extended periods of time on
little or no sleep, but maybe his age was finally catching up to him. It had to
be some kind of stress related glitch that was responsible for the wild
ramblings of his mind that morning. Because there was no way in hell that he
was ever going to turn into the kind of man to give Claire the life he knew she
dreamed of.

He glanced up when he felt someone slap him on the back.

“What’s wrong, buddy? You’re looking damned depressed for a
man who has at least one woman in this joint panting after him.”

Colin forced his features into an easy smile as Garret
dropped into the chair beside him. Colin knew very well who Garret was referring
to. There was a dark haired, dark eyed native girl working behind the bar who
hadn’t stopped making eyes at him since he’d walked in the door. She looked to
be just about fourteen, though it was sometimes tough to judge physical age in
places like this. There was a definite innocence in her eyes, however, that
suggested she was inexperienced whatever her age. Unfortunately it reminded him
a little too much of the way Claire looked at him sometimes. Even if it hadn’t,
there was no chance that he’d go after the girl. He’d never been into robbing
cradles and that was one line he wasn’t going to cross even for the sake of the
role he was playing for Garret. He shook his head.

“That one’s just a little too close to jailbait for my
tastes.”

Garret leaned forward and gave him a suggestive grin. “Oh,
but you know she’d be sweet.
All that virginal innocence just
waiting to be tasted.”
He shook his head as he leaned back, keeping his
voice surprisingly low. “Besides, down here there’s no reason to worry about the
law. Her daddy would probably sell her to you for the right price.”

Colin wasn’t sure what turned his stomach more; the vulgar
innuendo or the fact that Garret was probably right. This wasn’t the typical
tourist stop on the picturesque little island. It was a local hangout, the kind
of place that tourists usually had enough sense to stay far away from. Colin
had come there with Garret, and it had been immediately apparent that he was
known to the owner. The girl in question was sweeping the floor and drawing all
sorts of leering glances from the handful of men in the bar. Sooner or later
one of them was going to make a grab for her. Today or tomorrow or next week or
next year, if she kept working there, one or more of them was going to drag her
into a back room and tear every bit of the innocence from her eyes. Colin
clenched his beer tighter as Garret nodded toward a drunk slumped over a table
in the corner.