Heather Graham - Protector, Lover...Husband? - In the Dark / Sure Bet / Deadly Exposure

Alone.

She really could look like an angel, David thought, opening the door to her bedroom. She was sound asleep in a cloud of sun-blond hair, her hand lying on the pillow beside her face. Just seeing her like that, he felt both a swelling of tenderness…and a stirring of desire.

Determinedly, he tampered down both.

He had the coffee going; he’d returned to his own place in a flash for clothing, and then put out cereal and fruit for breakfast. He hadn’t forgotten that he’d promised Zach that he would show him—and his mother—the Icarus , and mentioned to the boy that they might meet for breakfast, but it was too early to meet them, and if Alex had maintained her old habits, she would forget to eat during the day, so she needed to start out with something.

And he needed to talk with her.

He walked into the room, ripping the covers from her and giving her shoulder a firm shake. She awoke instantly and irritably, glaring at him as if she were the crown princess, and he a lowly serf who had dared disturb her.

“Breakfast,” he said briefly.

She glanced at her alarm. “I don’t have to be up yet,” she told him indignantly.

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Trust me, you do.”

She groaned, resting her head in her hands. “Really, David, this is getting to be too much. Listen, last night was…nothing but the spur of the moment. You need an ego boost? It was just the fact that you do have nice buns and you’ve managed to ruin my one chance for a nice affair here. At any rate, you can stay here if you want to, so knock yourself out. But I’ve just about had it with you acting like a dictator.”

“Then maybe you should quit lying to me.”

“About what?” she demanded, looking outraged.

“Danny Fuller.”

She groaned. “Now I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Get up. There’s coffee. That always seems to improve your temper.”

“I don’t have a temper.”

“I beg to differ,” he told her, and added, “Come on, out here, and you can eat while you talk.”

He didn’t let her answer but exited the room. Just after he had closed the door, he heard the pillow crash against it.

He turned and opened it. “No temper, huh?” he queried.

She still wasn’t up. Tangled blond hair was all around her face, and she was in a soft cotton T-shirt that didn’t do a thing to make her any less appealing. It should have been loose, but somehow it managed only to enhance her curves.

He closed the door quickly before she could find something else to throw.

In the kitchen, he poured two cups of coffee, then hesitated where he stood, tension gripping his abdomen in a hard spasm.

What the hell had gone so wrong between them? He’d never met anyone like her. He loved everything about her, from her eyes to her toes, the sound of her voice, her passion when she spoke about dolphins, teaching, the sea, and the way she looked when they made love, the way she moved, touched him, the smell of her, sight, sound, taste…

He’d never fallen out of love with her. When he’d received the divorce papers, he’d been stunned. She hadn’t said a word. But it was what she had wanted, so, bitterly, silently, he had given it to her.

He started, putting the coffeepot back as she stumbled into the kitchen, casting him a venomous gaze and reaching for the coffee he had poured for her. She took a seat on one of the counter bar stools, arched an eyebrow to him and poured cereal into a bowl and added milk.

“All right, let’s get to it. What was my relationship with Danny Fuller supposed to have been? Did I have a thing going with the old guy or something?”

“Don’t be flippant.”

“I don’t know what the hell else you want me to be. Of all the stuff you’ve come up with since you’ve been here, this is the most ridiculous. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“All right, I’ll tell you. Alicia Farr spent all the time she could with Danny Fuller during his last days at the hospital. And in their conversations, two things kept coming up, dolphins—and your name.”

She stared at him. He couldn’t believe she had been hiding anything, not the way she was looking at him.

She shook her head at last. “Danny Fuller came here, yes. I liked him. He really liked dolphins, and you know me, I like anyone who likes my dolphins. Sometimes we talked casually in the Tiki Hut. He told me about some of his adventures, but if there was something he wanted to do but never attempted, I swear to you, I don’t have the faintest idea what it was.”

“Did he ever mention a ship called the Anne Marie to you?”

Staring at him, she gave it a moment’s thought, then shook her head slowly. “No. He never mentioned it, and I never heard any stories about a ship named the Anne Marie from anyone else.”

David lowered his head. Too bad. It would have helped if Alex had known something.

He gazed up at her again thoughtfully. Either she really didn’t know anything or she had added acting to her repertoire of talents. Which might be the case. He had just about forced his presence here. And last night…

Well, according to her, it had been the situation, nothing more. Too many days spent on an island.

“So?” she said. “Is that all you wanted? Is that why you were so insistent on ‘protecting’ me? If so, honest to God, I can’t help you.”

“No. You’re in danger. If two corpses haven’t proven it to you, nothing will.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Forget that. You, apparently, have heard about a ship called the Anne Marie.”

“Yes.”

“Well?”

“She was an English ship that went down in the dying days of the pirate era, in 1715. Records have her sinking off the coast of South Carolina. But the story of her sinking was told by a pirate named Billy Thornton—a pirate who apparently expected a reprieve and didn’t get one. As he was about to be hanged, he shouted out, ‘She didn’t really—’”

“She didn’t really what?” Alex demanded.

“Well, people have mused that he was about to say she didn’t really go down anywhere near South Carolina. You see, before he was caught, he claimed to have seen the ship go down in a storm that ravaged the Eastern Seaboard, but some historians believe he attacked the ship himself.”

“He couldn’t have attacked the ship alone,” Alex pointed out.

“Some legends suggest that since he was off the Florida coast, it would have been easy for him to go ashore, and kill his own men with the intent of going back himself for the treasure.”

“And what was the treasure?” Alex demanded.

“There are full records in the English archives somewhere,” he said, “but basically, tons of gold buillion, and a cache of precious gems that would be worth millions today.”

Alex shook her head. “I don’t understand. There must be hundreds of ships with treasures that sank in the Atlantic and are still out there to be found. Why would people kill over this one?”

“Most people wouldn’t kill over any treasure. But the bounty to be found on this particular ship would be just about priceless.”

“Did Alicia think she knew where to find the Anne Marie? If so, she should have announced an expedition and gathered people around her. No matter what, she’d have to go by the laws of salvage.”

“Yes. But she was afraid, I think, of letting out what she knew. Afraid that someone would beat her to it.”

“Why would Danny Fuller have hidden whatever information he had for so many years? If he knew something, why wouldn’t he have gone after it himself?”

“I wondered about that myself. Maybe he just found out. It’s my assumption that Alicia learned something from Danny Fuller about where the Anne Marie went down. She intended to set up an expedition, and that’s why she wanted to meet me here. But she must have talked to other people, as well. And I think someone she brought in on her secret decided that they wanted the secret—and the treasure—for themselves.”