The Seduction of Goody Two-Shoes

sacrificing any more paintings for you, lady. At the rate my stock is being depleted, if I hang around with you much longer I’m going to be out of business. We’ll go and unload first, have some lunch and take a look at those directions. Check out a map. Then I’ll bring you back here so you can check out of your floating hotel. How’s that?”

“Fine,” said Ellie meekly. She was wondering what her parents would think of their nice level-headed daughter if they knew she was about to go home with a beach bum she’d only just met.

Chapter 5

McCall’s house was a surprise to Ellie. She’d imagined him living in a rickety beach shack with palm thatch on the roof and no glass in the windows. Instead, his house sat on a small cliff just outside of town, reached by wooden stairs that scaled the cliff in a series of short zigzags, and while it was slightly rickety and did have a thatched roof, it was much too substantial ever to be called a shack. Made of stone covered with dingy white plaster, it rather reminded Ellie of a sulky seagull squatting on a pile of rocks.

On the other hand, she thought, in a way it was just like him-scruffy and eccentric, but with a certain rakish charm.

Rakish charm? She sucked in a breath as somewhere in the back of her mind alarms began beeping a steady warning, like the monitors in an ICU. Not the ones that bring the crash cart at a dead run, more like the ones that cause the nurses on duty to glance up, maybe come over and make a few minor adjustments, then go on about their business. Nothing to worry about, not yet, the alarms said. Just be on the alert.

McCall parked the VW on a widened-out spot on the dirt road, close to the side of the cliff near the base of the steps.

“Do you mind taking a load up now?” he asked as he got out of the car, pocketing his keys, and began pulling canvasses out of the back seat. “Saves a trip.”

“Sure.” Already out of the car herself, Ellie folded her seat forward and began tugging on canvasses.

“Here, take these.” He dumped his own load into her outstretched arms. “I’ve got a system. Go on up-it’s unlocked. I’ll catch up with you.”

“Right,” said Ellie as she cast a dubious look upward.

But the steps were neither as steep nor as rickety as they looked, and she arrived at the top safely and only slightly winded. The steps ended at a flagstone pathway, flanked by bird-of-paradise and lily-of-the-Nile and some drought-resistant succulents, which led to a wide three-arched veranda. The veranda was the same stone and plaster as the house itself, with the same type of thatched roof, and a floor made of flagstone, like the path. Unexpectedly enchanted, Ellie paused in its deep shade to look out on the view of thatched roofs, palm trees, and pale aqua-blue water. Clouds were building along the horizon, where a line of ultramarine marked the beginning of deep water, like a line drawn with a dark blue Magic Marker.

“Nice view,” she said to McCall, who was just then stepping onto the flagstone pathway, canvasses tucked under both arms.

It occurred to her that in spite of being a fairly heavy smoker, he seemed to be in good physical condition. Certainly no more out of breath after that climb than she was. She told herself that was a good thing to know, given the fact that he was going to be her temporary partner in what could very well be a dangerous assignment. She told herself that was the only reason she’d noticed.

“Hadn’t noticed,” McCall grunted, in response to her comment. But he gave her a look as he passed her, and even in the veranda’s deep shadows she could see the bright blue gleam of irony in his eyes.

McCall held his body rigid and hoped she wouldn’t hear his heart beating as he reached past her to open the heavy wooden door, then waited for her to enter his house ahead of him. He held his breath, too, but it didn’t help much; it seemed her orange-blossom scent was already in his senses to stay. He wondered if he’d absorbed it through his pores.

She gave him back the look as she stepped carefully around him, the same amused, sardonic one he’d given her. “You don’t lock your door?”

He followed her into his house and kicked the door shut behind him. “Everybody around here knows I don’t have anything worth stealing. Like I said-my needs are simple. I live a hassle-free life. At least, I used to,” he added darkly, looking around for a place to stash the canvasses. Normally they’d go on the couch, but since it looked as if he was going to be needing that later on, it didn’t seem like a good choice. Finally he just lowered the whole stack to the floor near the front door and leaned them against the wall. Good enough-they’d be going back out soon enough.

He devoutly hoped. If this whole smuggling mess didn’t wind up getting him killed, which, given what he’d seen of these people so far, seemed a distinct possibility.

And this his first Good Samaritan act since he’d adopted this new care-and-hassle-free life. The irony in that made him laugh, a brief and mirthless snort.

“Here-let me have those.” He relieved Cinnamon of her burden-he supposed he was going to have to call her Ellie now that he knew her name, but in his mind she was always going to be Cinnamon-and added those canvasses to the stack on the floor.

Then he straightened, and was suddenly aware of the fact that for the first time in a long time there was a strange woman occupying his house. A woman he was intensely attracted to. And had no business being attracted to. Dammit. He had to resist the impulse to fidget, couldn’t find any worthwhile use for his hands.

“Ah…okay. That’ll do for now. We can get the rest later. You, uh…want to go look at that envelope now, or you want something to eat first?”

“I’m kind of hungry, actually.” She said that absently, with her back to him as she was strolling toward the French doors that opened out onto his garden. Enclosed on two sides by stone and plaster walls and on the back by the same rock that formed the foundation of his house, it was pretty much the way he’d found it-an untamed riot of bougainvillea and hibiscus and lots of other stuff he’d never bothered to learn the names of.

“I believe in the ‘live-and-let-live’ method of gardening,” he explained as he hurried to beat her there, nervous as a new mama dog with one pup, wondering what she’d be thinking about it-about the garden, his house…him. Wondering why in hell it mattered.

She was looking at him, smiling, eyes glowing with it. Then she sort of started and gasped, “Oh-my God!” when he opened the doors. But it was in pleasure, not dismay.

“Meet Carmen,” he said gruffly, as a raccoon trotted huffily past his feet and, pausing only to give him a scolding growl, trundled off toward the kitchen. “She’s not really tame,” he went on to explain, as Ellie turned her fascinated gaze on him. He felt obscurely pleased with her reaction, and awkward and self-conscious because of it. “Just thinks my kitchen is part of her scavenging territory, and gets testy when I shut the door on her and she can’t get to it. Actually, I’m not even sure she isn’t a he-” he batted at a monarch butterfly that was bobbing drunkenly through the doorway just then, managed to shoo it back outside then quickly shut the doors “-but it didn’t seem polite to ask.”

“Live and let live,” Ellie said, in a voice thick with suppressed laughter.

“Right…”

“Won’t he-or she-need to, uh…” she gestured toward the closed doors.

“Oh, Carmen lets me know when she wants to go-” He broke off, swearing, interrupted by a racket of furious squeals and screeches. Ellie was right behind him as he dodged into the kitchen. He wasn’t surprised to find the raccoon on the countertop with her paws up on the side of the refrigerator. From the top of the fridge a pair of round, wide eyes stared down at him in sleepy outrage.

McCall clapped his hands-a futile exercise, he knew, but it allowed him to maintain the illusion that he was still boss of his domain. “Okay, get down from there. That’s not part of the deal. Come on- get.”

From behind him came a whispered, “That’s a potos flavus.”

He waited while the raccoon-taking her sweet time about it-selected a plum from the bowl of fruit on the