of her male guests were of a similar height. Tall. Six-one, six-two. All about the same build.
She glanced quickly from Adam to Jim, then to Liam, before moving on to Joey Emerson and Lew Walker. Even Avery Smith stood a good six-one.
She looked at Adam. He was still watching her. Reading her thoughts. She turned quickly away from him, telling herself that she had a busy evening ahead. And in fact, for the next several hours she was so busy that she didn’t dare take time to think.
Jacques summoned her to the kitchen, along with Yancy and Jem. She poured spoonfuls of the delicate white wine sauce on the dinner plates in an assembly line just before Jem slipped servings of the perfectly baked snapper Jacques had prepared atop them. Yancy served.
When it was actually time for her to sit down and eat, she found herself beside Jim Santino. As she ate, she couldn’t help but notice that Sukee had maneuvered into position beside Adam.
The evening wound down slowly. The Walkers—all four of them—were the first to retire for the evening. Jerry seemed more interested in staying at the main house than in the concept of a return to her cottage—with Liam. Liam, however, seemed tired, irritable and ready to go, so Jerry went along.
The others slowly followed suit; Sukee, Jim and Adam holding out the longest. Sukee and Adam seemed to be getting along quite well.
Sam finally gave out herself, wondering if Adam would make an attempt to follow her.
Surely he’d feel compelled to keep her safe.
“Good night, all,” she said, suppressing a yawn. “Don’t forget, we all get to sleep in tomorrow. But for those who want to see the Steps on Thursday, remember that breakfast is from six-thirty to nine, and the dive boat leaves at nine-thirty sharp.”
“I’ll be there,” Sukee promised. They were in the bar at that point, and she had a brandy snifter in her hand. She swirled the liquid in her snifter as she leaned close to Adam. Jim leaned closer, as well.
Pretty soon, Sam thought, the three of them would crash into each other and knock each other down.
The hell with them.
“Well, then…good night.”
“G’night, Sam. Thanks for another great day,” Jim told her, winking.
He tossed his hair back. She was sure that he saw it as some kind of a strange compliment to her.
She nodded.
“Good night, Miss Carlyle,” Adam said. He, too, had a brandy. He lifted his glass to her.
She lifted a hand and exited the bar by the porch, muttering to herself as she started across the lawn toward her cottage.
“That rat bastard supposedly saves my life—years after destroying my heart and any belief I might have had in my own sex appeal—then drinks brandy with Sukee all night. Is this fair? Why is he back in my life? Dear God, is this necessary?”
She thought she heard a rustling in the hibiscus bush at her side. She spun around, staring into the shadows created by the blaze of night-lights on the paths around her.
She felt the whisper of the night breeze. Nothing more.
She started walking again, drawing her key from the slim pocket in her knit dress. When she reached her door, she opened it quickly, stepped inside, closed it, locked it, then leaned against it.
She walked through the living room, the kitchen, growing more nervous as she did so. She needed a weapon, she told herself. Just in case Ski Mask came back.
She opened the huge old secretary that stood beneath her father’s treasure map. The secretary had once graced a captain’s cabin on a ship; it had been one of her father’s favorite pieces of furniture.
She found his Revolutionary War flintlock musket. No ammunition, of course—should she know how to manage the antique flintlock to begin with. Still, she could use it as a bludgeon to protect herself if necessary.
It would be better than nothing.
She opened closet doors. She went into her bedroom—then her bath.
Every window was still closed and locked. Her cottage, she was convinced, was empty.
She started turning off lights, then froze as she began to close the living room shutters.
There was a figure standing on the path that led to her cottage. Tall and dark. Watching her cottage.
Watching
She inhaled, exhaled. Then she lightly bit her lower lip. The figure was walking calmly down the path, making no secret of the fact that he was coming to the cottage.
Adam, she thought.
She half-smiled, leaning against the wall. She’d been right—he’d had to come back.
He had to protect her. He had come to her island. After someone or something, true, but he had managed to come into her cottage at just the right time.
And now he was coming back.
To protect her. He would insist, of course, that he couldn’t leave her alone. That she had to be protected, and that there was no one who could protect her the way he could.
He would want to move in.
Well, she would tell him what was what. She would get him this time. He wasn’t coming anywhere near her.
The knock she’d expected sounded on her door.
She threw it open.
And gaped.
It was Jem.
Tall, dark and handsome, all right.
“Jem!”
“Who were you expecting?”
“I, uh…”
“Adam, right?”
“Are you coming in or not?” she snapped. Adam, it seemed, was apparently spending the night with Sukee.
He smiled. “You bet I’m coming in. I’m sleeping on the sofa.”
“Oh, Jem, that’s not necessary.”
“It sure as hell is. You were attacked right here, and I didn’t have the least idea.”
“How could you have? Don’t be silly.”
“Adam suggested that you shouldn’t be left alone. I agree.”
“But, Jem…”
“I’ll be on the sofa, Sam.”
“Great. Make me feel guilty about you getting a sore back sleeping on my sofa.”
“I can’t sleep in the bedroom, Sam. Too kinky. It would be like sleeping with my own sister.”
“Cute.”
Jem grinned. “Go to bed, Sam. You have the opportunity to sleep in, thanks to the weatherman.”
“That much will be nice. If I can get to sleep at all.”
“You’ll sleep. Go to bed.”
She wouldn’t sleep, though. She would lie there, wondering.
She smiled suddenly, ready to laugh at herself. Okay, so she’d wanted the chance to turn down Adam O’Connor and she hadn’t gotten it. So what? Jem was just as good as a brother, and it was wonderful to have a friend who cared so much.
She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll get you a couple of pillows and some blankets.”
She did so, then retired to bed herself, where she tried to sleep.
She kept tossing and turning, tossing and turning.
Adam was back in her life.
Back in her life….
And it felt as if he’d never left. As if she knew him still.
