Heather Graham - Protector, Lover...Husband?

And it had disappeared.

“Maybe you’d like to explain it to me,” she said.

He stared at her for a long moment. “I keep thinking you’re better off, the less you know,” he said quietly.

“Why? You already think I’m in some kind of danger.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Why?”

“You found a body on the beach. A body that disappeared.”

She shook her head, watching him warily. “We’ve been through this. Jay and the sheriff were both certain I was duped.”

“But you know it was true.”

She wished so badly that she didn’t feel such a desperate desire to keep her distance from him at all costs. Because she did know him. And she knew that he believed her. It wasn’t necessary for him to have been there—he believed her.

“If you’re so convinced, there must be a reason,” she said flatly.

“Want to put some coffee on?” he suggested.

“No.”

“Mind if I do?”

“Yes.” Even as she spoke, she knew he would ignore her. He gave her a glance as if she was behaving like a spoiled child and moved into the kitchen. His arm brushed hers as he strode past her, and she felt as if she’d been burned.

Apparently he hadn’t even noticed. He was heading for the cupboard above the coffeepot.

“Would you stop making yourself at home here, please?” she said, walking past him and shoving him out of the way. “I’ll make coffee. You talk.”

“What did she look like? The woman on the beach. What did she look like?”

She turned around and stared at him. “Like…a woman. Blonde.”

“You didn’t recognize her?” He stepped past her, impatiently taking the carafe and starting the coffee.

“Recognize her?” Alex said, startled.

“Yes, did you know who she might be?”

“No. She was at a strange angle. And she had long…or longish hair. It was covering her face. I touched her throat, looking for a pulse. And then…I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but there was no way not to know she was dead.”

“But you let them convince you that she couldn’t have been, that you were wrong, and she just got up and walked away?” he demanded.

There was a note of disappointment in his tone.

“The sheriff was there,” she told him sharply. “He doubted me. There was no body. What the hell was I supposed to do?”

He turned his back on her, opening a cupboard door.

“Cups are over here,” she said impatiently, producing two from another cabinet.

He poured the coffee. He drank his black, so she was startled when he went to the refrigerator, absently taking out the milk to put a few drops into hers.

She accepted the coffee, watching him, feeling again an embarrassed awareness of his crisp, tailored appearance and her own tattered T-shirt. Ridiculous to think about such things when they were talking about a corpse, she told herself.

“Did you mention your discovery to lover boy?” he inquired, sounding casual as he put the milk back in the refrigerator.

“I don’t like your tone,” she told him.

“Sorry, I don’t like what’s happening.”

“Are you actually jealous?” she demanded.

“I’m not trying to run your life, if that’s what you mean,” he assured her. “I just don’t like what’s happening here.”

“You haven’t explained a damn thing yet, David.”

“Did you tell him?” he persisted.

She let out a sigh of irritation. “No, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. For tonight…tonight I’m waiting. The sheriff will get back to us, let us know if anybody’s missing from one of the ferries or the Middle Keys. He and Jay might have made me feel a little foolish today, but Nigel Thompson is a good man and no fool. And I could accuse you of many things, but being a total idiot isn’t one of them. So get to it. What’s going on?”

“I’m afraid I might know your corpse,” he said quietly, his eyes a strange cobalt by night, and steady upon her.

Her heart seemed to skip a beat.

“Who?”

“Alicia Farr.”

“Alicia?” she exclaimed. “Why…why would she be around here? There’s not much to attract a woman of her reputation at a place like Moon Bay…but then again, there’s not much here for you.” She stopped speaking suddenly, staring at him. “I see. Great. You would have told me about this ‘technicality’ in the divorce, but only because it would have been convenient while you were here. You came to meet Alicia.”

“No,” he told her.

“You liar,” she accused him softly. “Get out—now.”

“I didn’t come here just to meet her.”

“David, I’ll call security if you don’t leave.”

He arched an eyebrow, fully aware that “security” at Moon Bay meant two retired cops who were happy to putter around the grounds at night in retooled golf carts. There had never been serious trouble at Moon Bay—until today. And then they hadn’t bothered with security; they had called the sheriff’s department immediately.

“David, get the hell out.”

“Alex, will you listen to me—I think Alicia is dead.”

An eerie feeling crept along her spine. How could she be jealous of a corpse?

But she had been jealous of Alicia. The woman was—or had been—a free spirit, intelligent, beautiful and filled with knowledge, curiosity and a love of dangerous pursuits that nearly equaled David’s own.

Could she be dead? That would be terrible.

But it wasn’t sinking in. At the moment, Alex felt betrayed. She had to admit, it had felt nice to have David following her as if he was desperate.

“Alex?” he said, and his tone seemed to slip under her skin, no matter how numb she was suddenly feeling.

Then he walked over to her, put his cup down, and his hands went to her shoulders again, the whole of his length far too familiar against her own, his eyes piercing hers in a way she remembered too well. “Damn it, Alex, believe this—I don’t want you ending up dead, as well.”

They were talking about life and death, and all she felt was the texture of his jacket, the heat emanating from him. She breathed him in and remembered the way his hands could move. He was almost on top of her, and she felt a physical change in herself, a tautness in her breasts, with way too much of her body pressed there against his.

She wanted to shove him away—hard.

She managed to get a hand between them and place it firmly on his chest, pushing him away from her, and slipped from the place where she had been flush against the counter.

“Talk, David. Do it quickly. I have a nine o’clock dive in the morning, which means I have to be at the docks at eight.”

Her voice sounded tight and distant. She wasn’t sure if it was the effect she wanted or not. She should have been concerned, she knew, about Alicia. She had known the woman, after all, even admired her. But she hadn’t liked her.

But that didn’t mean she would have wanted harm to come to her. So why wasn’t she more emotionally distressed? She was just too numb, unable to accept the possibility.

“Alicia called me a few weeks ago. Do you remember Danny Fuller?”

“Of course. He came here frequently, and he was charming.” He had been. An octogenarian, the man had been in on the earliest days of scuba diving and helped in the later development of some of the best equipment available. He had loved dolphins, and that had naturally endeared him to Alex. “Yes, I knew Daniel fairly well. I was very sorry to hear he died about a month ago, at a hospital in Miami. Of natural causes.”

“I know.”

“They were natural causes, right?”

“Yes. But Alicia was with him a lot at the end.”

“I can see it—him dying, and Alicia quizzing him about everything he knew until he breathed his last breath,” Alex murmured. She hesitated. Alicia Farr was—or had been, if any of this was true—everything that she had not been herself. She found herself remembering the woman and the times they had worked together. Alicia was the epitome of a pure adventuress, courageous beyond sanity, at times. She was also beautiful.