The Island. Heather Graham
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Keith decided wryly. He wasn’t letting it get to his ego, since she also liked to tease Lee—she’d seen the boat, and they’d all said it was his. She didn’t much mind brushing against Brad, either, even though he was here with his girlfriend. But so far, no one had taken their makeshift volleyball game too seriously. So far, everyone was laughing.
He, Amanda, Brad, Lee and Kim were one team. Sandy, Amber, Gerald, Matt and Ben made up the other. Roger Mason sat on the sidelines, being the ref.
So far today, they hadn’t even seen Ms. Beth Anderson.
“Outside!” Matt yelled in protest of Keith’s serve.
“It was not outside—you just missed it,” he returned.
“Where’s our referee?” Matt demanded.
“Sleeping, despite the noise,” Amanda said, chuckling affectionately as she pointed to her father.
It was true. Roger had leaned back in the hammock and gone straight to sleep.
“It was definitely outside,” came a voice.
Keith spun around. She was up at last, yawning despite her late appearance. She held a cup of coffee. Sunglasses covered her unique marble-toned eyes, and she was in a bathing-suit top and chopped-off Levi’s pedal pushers.
His serve hadn’t been outside, and if she had been watching, she had seen that. He wondered why she had decided that they were enemies from the first moment she had seen him.
Other than the fact that she’d been trying desperately to hide her discovery from him.
He forced a smile. “Hey, Matt, the lady says you’re right.”
“Beth Anderson, you’re blind!” Amanda protested irritably.
“It’s just a game, isn’t it?” Beth asked politely.
“I’m going to have to speak to the commodore and make sure you don’t ref any games at the club,” Amanda said, a teasing note in her voice that was meant to hide her still-obvious dislike.
Beth managed an icy smile and an easy laugh. “You do that, Amanda,” she said.
“Aunt Beth, come play,” Amber urged.
“I think I like Roger’s idea best,” she said.
“Sure—wake the rest of us up in the middle of the night and then sleep all day,” Matt teased. “I don’t think so.”
“No, of course not, come play,” Hank urged. “And you can ref my game any old day,” he teased.
“Come on, Beth, play,” Ben urged.
“I’d make the teams uneven,” she protested.
Roger, who had appeared to be so peacefully sleeping, rose. “I’ll join in and make it even,” he offered.
He walked past Beth, smiling. “Fifty-eight, and I guarantee I can take on you kids.”
It was interesting, watching the group dynamics, Keith thought. Everyone seemed to get along fine except for Amanda and Beth.
Was Beth jealous?
Or was it vice versa? Amanda was petite, ultrafeminine. Beth seemed…
Elegant, he found himself thinking. A strange adjective, since she was in beachwear, as casual as any of them.
The teams readjusted. Beth took the serve.
It was wicked.
From the rear corner, he barely returned it. Ben caught the ball, and Roger, bless him, attempted a slam. Amazingly, Beth caught it low, setting it up for her brother, who went in for the kill.
“Point,” Beth said calmly, reclaiming the ball.
The game was neck and neck from then on. Sandy was the weakest link, but she made up for it with her good humor and refusal to give up.
Beth was a superb player, in excellent physical condition. She wasn’t just shapely, she was sleek. Perfectly toned. She played not so much to win as simply to play hard. There was a vibrance about her, a love of life, of activity, a passion that seemed to come through in everything she did and said, in the way her eyes seemed to burn like a crystal fire when they met his across the net. She clearly loved a challenge.
He had the feeling she would always meet one headon.
At last Beth’s team took the final point, and they all collapsed, laughing.
“What’s up next?” Hank asked, lying flat on the sand in exhaustion.
Lee was up and staring at Keith. “Fishing?” he suggested.
“Yeah, fishing,” Keith replied.
They were fishing, all right.
“Not me, boys. I’m for lazing in the sun now,” Amanda said, rolling sinuously to her feet.
Ben nodded toward Lee’s yacht. “You asking us out on that?”
“Would you like to see her?” Lee offered.
Keith looked at Lee and knew just what he was thinking. Keep the current denizens of the island with them, occupied. Keep an eye on them. Know what they’re up to at all times.
Keep them fishing, not diving.
He stayed silent. In the end, there wasn’t anything they could do about people diving these waters. Still, if discoveries here had been easy…well, they wouldn’t be here now.
“You bet,” Ben said enthusiastically. “Looks as if she’s got every new electronic device known to man.”
“I like my toys,” Lee said with a shrug.
“I’m with you,” Ben said.
“Hell, I’d like to see her, too,” Hank said, grinning.
“Me, too,” Gerald agreed.
“Little boys, little toys, big boys, big toys,” Amanda teased.
“Me, I’d like to see the hammock again,” Roger said.
“I think Sandy and I are going to take a walk, explore…” Brad said. “But thanks for the offer.”
“Beth?” Lee inquired. “Girls?”
“I’d love to see the boat,” Amber said.
“Yacht,” Beth murmured beneath her breath.
“But actually,” Amber admitted a little sheepishly, “I hate fishing.”
“That’s cool,” Lee told her.
“Beth?”
“I’ll stay with the girls,” she said. “But I do appreciate the offer.”
“You don’t care if I go?” Ben asked his sister.
“Not at all!”
But she did. She cared like hell.
“Maybe I will join you men,” Amanda said with something like a purr. “The sun is actually much better on the water. And I can always escape below if all the testosterone proves to be a bit too much. I’ll just get my things.” She started to walk away, then turned back. “I am not, however, cleaning any fish.”
Keith watched her sashay toward her tent.
When he turned to study Beth again, she was studying him. The way she was looking at him caused a little pang to creep into his heart.
She was so suspicious of him.
Well, she had every right to be.
But this was a game he played often. And he knew how to play it.
And he knew damn well that he couldn’t let her get in his way.
Her eyes swept over him.