Man from Half Moon Bay (16 page)

“No,” Jordan said dryly. “You seem to have been very busy.” He shouldn’t have been surprised. He knew that beneath Cam’s good-humored facade was a steel-sharp mind and a drive that equaled his own. “And what’s Maria going to do?”

“She’s contacting the San Francisco police department and requesting them to gain entrance to Penny Lassiter’s apartment and see if they can find any clues as to where she went. She’ll radio me as soon as they report back to her. Satisfactory?”

Jordan shook his head ruefully. “My God, Cam, if you formed an army of all your conquests, you could rule the world.”

“I’ve never liked the world
conquest
,” Cam said with distaste. “I like women and I’d never want to beat them down.” An impish smile suddenly lit
his face. “And besides, with an entire army of women I’d be too busy to rule the world.”

Jordan chuckled and felt a little of his tension leave him. Cam had always had that effect on him since the time they were teenagers together. Cam’s warmth had always seemed to be able to lighten any burden. “Point taken. Did your detective tell you when she’d be likely to call?”

“No. Do you want me to stay with the launch until she contacts us?”

Jordan hesitated before shaking his head. “I’ll stay here. You go back to the hacienda and keep Sara company. Try not to tell her anything about Penny that will worry her.”

“I don’t think it’s my company she wants. My God, Jordan, forget Bandora. This is what you’ve wanted since the first day you met Sara. Reach out and take it.”

Jordan started across the pier toward the gangplank. “I’m through taking from her. She’ll be better off without me.”

“Isn’t that her choice?”

“No, it’s mine.”

Cam stood watching him resignedly as Jordan crossed the deck. “When shall I come down to relieve you?”

“Don’t come. There are blankets and an inflatable mattress here. I’ll bunk down in the cabin.”

“Is that really necessary?” Cam asked, surprised.

Jordan glanced back over his shoulder. “I’m not sure, but I don’t like not being able to get in touch with Penny. This is the only place on the
island that’s accessible by helicopter or launch, and it might be best to mount a twenty-four-hour guard.”

“But why not alternate watches? Suppose I come down at sundown and relieve you and then you can—”

“No! I’ll do it myself.” He tried to temper the sharpness of his tone. “You just stay with Sara.”

“But will Sara stay with me?” Cam asked, gazing after him. Jordan didn’t answer, and Cam shrugged resignedly as he started along the pier toward the rocky shore.

The breeze was chill and crisp, and the crashing surf pounded against the launch, causing it to buck and heave against its moorings.

The deck shivered beneath the rubber soles of Sara’s tennis shoes as she moved toward the cabin. The deck wasn’t the only thing that was shivering, Sara thought. The temperature had plummeted since this afternoon and each breath she expelled sent mist into the air.

“Who’s there?”

Sara blinked as the powerful beam from Jordan’s flashlight momentarily dazzled her. “Do you mind turning that off? I’m seeing black spots in front of my eyes and this moonlight makes it almost as bright as day anyway.”

Jordan muttered something under his breath and switched off the flashlight. “Go back to the house. It’s freezing out here.”

“Cam said you had blankets,” she said cheerfully as she strolled toward him. “And body heat is even better. I’m sure we’ll make out. Did you eat the supper I sent down with Cam?”

“Yes.” He frowned. “This is crazy, Sara.”

“I agree. But what else can I do? If Mohammed refuses to come to the mountain …” She shivered. “I hope you still have some coffee left in that thermos I stuffed into the picnic basket. We’re going to need it later.”

“Later? You need it now. Why didn’t you wear a jacket?”

“I was afraid it would get in the way.” She smiled as she stopped before him. “I told you that you couldn’t run away from me.” She stripped off her white cable-knit sweater and dropped it on the deck. “It’s time for the seduction to start.”

She was naked to the waist, her breasts full and beautifully taut in the moonlight.

He stared at her, feeling an aching tightening in his groin. “Dear heaven, Sara, put your sweater on. You’ve got to be freezing.”

“You’re right, I’ve got goosebumps.”

His gaze was fixed in compulsive fascination on her naked breasts. “I can see you do.”

“Perhaps if you’d put your hands on me I’d be warmer.” She took a step closer and took both his hands in her own. They were cold, hard, and a shiver trembled through her that was only half due to the cold as she imagined his hands on her flesh. “Hold me, Jordan.” She put his palms on her naked breasts. “Keep me warm.”

His hands tightened on her breasts, cupping and squeezing, and suddenly the cold was gone. Heat streaked through her in rivulets of flame. Her lips parted to allow more air into her constricted lungs. “Yes that’s it. Help me to—”

“Damn!” Jordan wrenched his hands away. “I’m as crazy as you are. In another minute I’d have had you rolling around naked on this blasted deck.” He bent down and snatched up her sweater before his hand encircled her wrist and he pulled her into the cabin. It wasn’t really a cabin at all, Sara noticed, but little more than a shallow area beneath the controls of the launch. But at least they were sheltered from the dampness and the wind. Jordan dropped her sweater beside a blanket-covered mat to pick up a dark blue woolen throw and drape it around her naked shoulders. Then he knelt by the picnic basket and rummaged for the thermos. “Sit down. I’ll get you some of that coffee.”

“I’d rather have you.”

He froze, then stood up, holding out a plastic cup filled with steaming liquid. “This will help.”

“Jordan …” She took the cup and sipped the hot coffee. “As a seductress I’m obviously a washout. If I’d been good at this, we
would
have been rolling around on that deck.”

“You were damn good at it,” he said dryly. “The temperature was the only thing that saved me.”

“That’s reassuring.” She took another sip of coffee. “You know, we’ve never made love on a boat before.”

“And we’re not going to do it now.”

She sat down on the inflatable mattress, clutching the blanket with one hand, and crossed her legs Indian fashion. “You don’t like the idea? I think all the bucking and rolling might be quite erotic.” She smiled up at him. “Why don’t we try it?”

“Will you stop this, Sara?” Jordan asked roughly as he sat down across from her. “Just finish your coffee and get the hell out of here.”

“I can’t. I’m trying to beguile you.”

He froze. “Beguile? You said something about me beguiling you right after you were hurt.”

“Did I? I vaguely remember something about that, but I was pretty much out of it.”

“You asked why I had beguiled you. I felt as if you’d stabbed me.”

Sara experienced a sudden rush of pity. “I was out of my head. I didn’t know what I was saying.”

“No, you were right. I
had
deceived you.”

She suddenly moved to kneel before him, her eyes glowing softly in the moonlight. “Will you stop whipping yourself? I don’t even know if that was what I meant. You know,
beguile
has a meaning other than deceit.” Her index finger touched his cheek with infinite gentleness. “It also means to tempt or charm. You do beguile me, Jordan, and you always will. Even when all your dark corners are lit and I learn everything about you, you’ll still have that magic for me. If I wasn’t sure of that, do you think I’d be risking a rejection on
this scale?” She made a face. “It isn’t all that good for my ego.”

He moved his head and her palm was suddenly pressing against his lips. “You don’t have any ego.”

She laughed. “Maybe I have a few dark corners left for you, too, if you think that. I most certainly do have an ego, and what’s more, I can be very competitive.” She tapped his lips with mock sternness. “So don’t think I’ll tolerate any of your shenanagins with other women.”

“There’s never been any other woman.” His voice was low. “Not really. With other women it was only sex but you were …” He trailed off and briskly tucked the blanket more tightly around her. “Finish your coffee and then run back to the house, where it’s warm.”

She shook her head. “Not unless you come too.” She drained the last of the coffee and set the plastic cup back in the picnic basket. “Which isn’t a bad idea. We’d be much more comfortable in my bed.”

He shook his head.

“Your bed?”

He shook his head again.

She sighed. “Okay. Then it’s this hard deck and nature in the raw. You’re a very difficult man, Jordan.” She stretched out on the mat and tried to make herself comfortable. “At least come and hold me.”

“Go back to the house.”

She lifted herself on one elbow to meet his gaze.
“No way.” There was a steely edge to her tone. “I’m never going to sleep away from you again. Your bed is my bed.”

“Your bed is likely to be in the hospital if you try to sleep out here in this damp cold,” he said in exasperation. Then, when she didn’t answer, he gave a low exclamation and moved to lie next to her. He snatched two blankets from the pile beside the mat and spread them over her before gathering her in his arms to share the heat of his body. “This is a mistake.”

She burrowed closer. “No, it’s just right. It feels … sweet. I’m almost glad you didn’t let me seduce you.”

He was rigid against her. “Are you?”

“Uh-hmm. This may be even cozier. I don’t remember a time when we’ve just lain together without making love. I probably shouldn’t have tried to seduce you anyway, because that’s not what this is all about. I guess I figured I needed all the help I could get, so I tried to use the same weapon to manipulate you as you did me. You have a perfect right to resent me doing that.”

“I don’t resent it.”

“That’s good. Now we can just lie here and hold each other and talk.” She paused, waiting. “Why aren’t you talking to me?”

“I can’t think of anything to say.” He was surprised he could put two words together, with her nipples poking so saucily against his chest. He tried to think of something, anything, to take his mind off the softness of her. “Go to sleep.”

“Hmm, that will probably be nice too.” She relaxed against him as confident as a small child and nestled her head against his shoulder. She smothered a yawn. “The movement of the boat is kind of soothing, isn’t it?”

“You think so?” He didn’t feel at all soothed. He felt exasperated and tormented and horny as hell. And tender. He found the tenderness sweeping through him was submerging all the other emotions. He sighed and drew her closer. “This isn’t going to do you any good. I’m not changing my mind, Sara.”

“It’s bound to do some good.” She yawned again. “If only to show you that I’m acting as I mean to go on. Besides, I’m enjoying this. Aren’t you?”

The pleasure was exquisitely bittersweet but he couldn’t deny it existed. Tomorrow he would have to think of a way to keep her at a distance but tonight, perhaps, it would do no harm to embrace the pleasure and pain of her nearness. “Yes,” he said thickly. “I’m enjoying it.” His hand reached up to stroke the silkiness of her hair. “I like this.”

“Do you find me beguiling too?” she asked drowsily. “In the nice way, I mean.”

Beguiling, enchanting, his life, and his torment. His lips feathered her temple. She gave a soft murmur of pleasure and he knew she was almost asleep. “In the nicest possible way.”

“Good.”

Jordan gazed into the darkness for a long time after Sara had drifted off to sleep. She was fragile, almost weightless in his arms, but tenderness
and desire twisted inside him like a burning corkscrew. It was all very well to say he would accept half a loaf, but he wasn’t accustomed to refusing to take what he wanted, and he wanted Sara like a man dying of thirst craved water.

Water. His mother’s face twisted and contorted, her lips cracked and bloodless.

He shuddered and his arms unconsciously closed with iron force around Sara. She murmured a protest in her sleep and he forced himself to relax his grasp. Lord, he had hurt her again. He would always hurt her, whether he intended to or not. He would grab and hold and suffocate and in the end it would be the same.

Sara was wrong. They had no chance for a future together. There was only tonight.

“What are you doing?” Sara raised herself on one elbow to look at Jordan standing by the radio. How satisfying it was to wake up and find someone you loved nearby, she thought contentedly. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed that pleasure in the last eighteen months.

He switched off the radio and turned toward her. “A message just came though from Santa Barbara,” he said quietly. “Did you hear it?”

She shook her head as she sat up and rubbed her eyes with her fists. “I just woke up. Was it important?”

“Yes, it was important. And definitely unsettling.” He stood there frowning thoughtfully for a moment before coming to a decision. “We’re getting out of here.” He picked up her sweater from the deck beside the mat and tossed it to her.
“Run up to the hacienda and tell Cam to bring our suitcases down here right away. I’ll have the launch ready to go when you get back.”

The underlying urgency in his tone brought her wide awake. “What’s wrong? Did Penny call?”

“No.” He paused. “Penny’s disappeared.”

Her eyes widened with shock. “Oh, no!”

“She may be okay,” he said quickly. “The police didn’t find a—”

He didn’t have to complete his sentence, Sara thought in horror. He had been going to say they hadn’t found Penny’s body. “Tell me what’s going on. There’s more, isn’t there?”

“There didn’t seem any sense in worrying you,” Jordan said gently. “We only had suspicions.”

And Jordan had been trying to protect her again, Sara thought in exasperation. “Tell me.”

“We weren’t able to contact Penny, so we arranged for the police to gain entrance to her apartment. They found signs of a hurried departure.” He paused. “And something else. The stub of a Greyhound bus ticket.”

Sara felt as if an icy hand had closed around her heart. “Kemp.”