Protector, Lover...Husband?: In the Dark / Sure Bet / Deadly Exposure. Heather Graham
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is a special case?”
“I was a navy SEAL. This is a sea-related investigation.”
“Well, as we both know, IDs can be easily faked.”
“I’m telling the truth,” he said.
“So you went after Laurie?” she said, still polite, but her tone conveying that she didn’t believe a word.
“I didn’t go after Laurie. There was nothing personal between us. Besides, you were back with your ex-husband,” he said flatly, then added a careful, “And far too trusting of him, far too quickly.”
“Well, rest assured, I’m not sure if I trust anyone anymore. And now I see Jay. I have to lock up a few things and get up to the lodge. Excuse me, please.”
She walked by him as if she had all the confidence in the world. His eyes followed her, and he could see that she hadn’t been lying. Jay Galway was there.
Was he to be trusted?
There was little else he could do but hurry back for his own things and get to the storm room to join the others.
He looked at the sky just as the rain began.
Chapter Ten
As soon as David got back to Moon Bay, he raced to look for Alex at the dolphin lagoons. The dolphins were swimming around in an erratic manner, but there was no sign of Alex.
He decided that she might have gone to her cottage. Jay had ordered that the six of them remaining on the island had to gather in the storm room by ten that night, when the worst was due to hit, but it was nowhere near that late, and she might well have gone to her cottage for a bath, clothing and necessities.
But she wasn’t at the cottage when he arrived. Running his fingers through his hair and taking long, jerky strides, he went through the little place, room by room.
Then he heard the door open and close. He hurried from her bedroom, relief filling him.
“Alex!”
“Hey,” she murmured. She didn’t sound hostile, just tense—and wary.
“Are you all right?” he demanded.
She frowned. “Of course.” She eyed him up and down. “You don’t look too good.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been worried about you. I told you to stay in a crowd.”
“I was with someone all day,” she said, still watching him carefully. “I’ve been busy…just opened the lagoon gates. Uh, I think I need a shower. So if you’ll excuse me…”
Was she suggesting that he leave her? Not on her life. Maybe literally.
“I’ll be right here. Hey, want coffee? Tea? The electricity will probably go out soon. Of course, there’s a generator in the storm room. I guess it’s not like you can’t have tea later, if you want. But I think I’ll make some coffee, anyway.” He turned his back on her, walking to the kitchen area, reaching into the cupboard. He could feel her watching him. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling.
After a minute, he heard her walk to the bedroom. Her behavior was disturbing. She wasn’t fighting him or arguing with him—it was almost as if she were afraid to.
She reappeared just a minute later, obviously perplexed.
“When did you get here?” she asked him.
“About two minutes before you walked in. Why?”
“Did you…move things around in here today?”
“No, why?”
“Oh, nothing. The maids seem to be getting a little strange, that’s all. The maid’s been in, right? Bed is made, towels are all fresh,” she said.
“Then the maid must have been in. I didn’t clean up,” he said without apology.
She shrugged and stared at him. Studied him. As if she could find what she was looking for if she just kept at it long enough.
“All you really all right?” he asked her.
“I’m fine. But you really look like hell.”
“I need a shower, too. I took Zach and Ally out on the Icarus. Then I took her around to the dry dock on the Gulf side and had to get back here.”
“You didn’t have to get back here,” she corrected him. “You don’t work here.”
“I knew you’d be staying with your dolphins, and I wasn’t about to leave you here alone with…Alone.”
She nodded. Suddenly, to his surprise, she walked up to him, put her arms around him and pressed against him. Instinctively, he embraced her, smoothing back her wet hair. “What is it?” he asked, at a loss.
“I do know you, don’t I?” she whispered.
“Better than anyone else,” he said. “Alex, what is this?”
She pulled away slightly, a strange smile on her lips. “You’re not good husband material, you know.”
That hurt. “You were the best wife any man could have,” he told her.
“You do love me, in your way, don’t you?”
“In my way?” he said, finding it his turn to seek an explanation in her eyes. “In every way,” he said, passion reverberating in his tone, his words vehement. “I swear, I never stopped loving you, Alex. Never. I would die for you in a heartbeat.”
She slipped from his arms. “I have to shower,” she murmured. “Get a few things together.”
She walked into the bedroom. Five minutes later, he couldn’t stand it anymore and followed.
The water was streaming down on her. Here, as in the other bath, the glass doors were clear. He should give her space, so that she wouldn’t decide to send him away. Now, when he needed so desperately to be with her.
You look like hell, she had told him.
Hell yes. Because I found your disappearing body, and it is Alicia Farr, and, oh God, what the sea can do to human flesh…
There was no way he would tell her about his discovery now. Not until the storm had abated and the sheriff had come. They were all alone here now, at the mercy of the storm. And maybe of a murderer.
Her head was cast back as she rinsed shampoo from her hair. Back arched, limbs long, torso compelling in its clean-lined arc. He felt the sudden shudder of his heart and the iron tug on his muscles.
Taking a step forward, he opened the glass door. She looked at him and waited.
“I told you, I need to shower, too.”
“There is another shower.”
“But you’re not in it.”
He was startled to see her smile. Then her smile faded and a little shudder rippled through her. She backed up, inviting him in. He stripped in seconds and followed her.
“Shampoo?” she offered.
“That would be good.”
“On your head?” she asked.
“Where else?”
“Should I show you?”
Her tone was absolutely innocent, and still strange.
And then he realized that she wanted him—and was afraid of him.
He set the shampoo down on a tile shelf and took her into his arms, ignoring the blast of the hot water on his shoulders. “Alex, what’s wrong?”
“I’m in danger. You told me so yourself,” she assured him, eyes amazingly green in the steamy closeness of the shower.
“But