'Definitely.' The single word was crisp and incisive.
'Then I gather the guest cabin I had readied won't be needed,' Seifert said lightly. 'What a pity.'
'I have to see Julio and Jeffrey and tell them I'm on board and safe,' Kate said, biting her lip worriedly. 'Julio won't be able to rest until I do.'
Beau shook his head. 'Not tonight. You can see them tomorrow morning.' He turned to the captain. 'I'm taking her to my cabin. Drop in and let Rodriguez know she's safe, will you?'
Seifert nodded. 'Right away. I suppose it would be rudely inquisitive of me to ask what she's safe from?'
'I'll tell you later.' Beau's hand on her elbow was propelling her forward. 'You'll be sorry you missed it.'
'Possibly,' the captain drawled. 'Your companions in deviltry aren't generally as charming as Miss Gilbert.' He watched Beau open the door to the passage to the lower deck. 'But haven't you forgotten something?'
Beau glanced over his shoulder impatiently.
'What?' 'Where am I to get under way for? Trinidad?' Beau shrugged. 'Just get out of Costellano territorial waters PDQ. We'll decide our destination tomorrow.'
Three
The master cabin was surprisingly large and luxurious for a sailing vessel. The bunk against the far wall was oversized and covered with a denim spread in a cheerful melon color that contrasted with the rich oak of the walls and the brown and beige tweed of the carpet. The built-in bookcase was enclosed with doors that were carved with a fretted openwork design that gave the modern room a pleasing touch of Mediterranean opulence.
'This is very nice,' Kate said, her gaze lingering on the bookcase. 'I can see what you mean by being comfortable.' All those lovely books. The doors offered tempting glimpses of everything from leather-bound weighty-looking tomes to bright slick jacketed novels. What wouldn't she give for a week with that bookcase.
Then with a little sense of shock she realized she might very well have that week. That was why she was in this cabin. To make herself available to Beau Lantry in that bunk she'd been admiring so impersonally. Tonight. He'd said he wanted to consummate their bargain as soon as possible and brought her to his cabin for that purpose. Why wasn't she more nervous at the thought of that consummation with this total stranger? The only thing she seemed capable of feeling was this chilling weariness and lethargy that seemed to be seeping into every bone.
'I'm glad you like it,' Beau said crisply. With his hand beneath her elbow, he steered her across the room toward the bed. 'Since you'll be spending a good deal of time here in the future. Sit down.' He gave her a nudge that reinforced the invitation that was more of a command and she found herself sitting on the edge of the bunk and gazing up at him wearily. His hands were on the buttons of her chambray shirt and he had three of them unbuttoned before she fully realized what he was doing. So soon? Evidently he was too impatient to wait any longer for his payment.
She looked up into his intent face bent close to her own. She didn't try to interfere with his deft disrobing of her. He was perfectly entitled to claim his rights to her body at any time he chose, she thought tiredly. She just wished he'd given her a chance to rest a little first. 'If you don't mind, I'd like to take a shower before we do it,' she said quietly. 'It's been quite an evening in a number of ways.'
His eyes flew up to meet her eyes and she saw a flicker of surprise in their depths. 'Do 'it'?' There was a thread of barely repressed anger in his voice. 'What the hell kind of men have you been sleeping with, for Lord's sake? Do they all jump your bones when you're so tired and hurt you're practically ready to pass out?'
She looked down at her half-opened shirt in confusion. 'But then why-'
'I'm going to get you cleaned up and into bed,' he interrupted harshly. 'And not to 'do it,' blast it! But first I want to take a look at your head. That bastard clipped you pretty damn hard in spite of what you said. I wanted to examine it back at the warehouse, but I didn't think you'd let me without putting up a fight and that would have been worse for you than the walk back to the ship.'
'There's nothing wrong with me. I told you…'
He finished unbuttoning the blue shirt and pushed it off her shoulders, his hand reaching around to unfasten her plain white bra with experienced skill. 'Bull. I was a professional athlete too long not to recognize the signs. You were carrying yourself all the way back here as though you'd break apart at any minute.'
'You were an athlete?' she repeated, surprised. 'No wonder you looked so coordinated when you dove through that window.'
'Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I wasn't a circus acrobat as you thought,' he said wryly. 'I was a featured skater in an ice revue for a while and then a coach for an Olympic contender the next six years.'
'And what do you do now?'
'At the moment I appear to be acting as a combination lady's maid and ship's doctor,' he said crisply as he lowered the bra straps over her arms. 'But usually I'm a glorified bum. The glory resulting when you're properly endowed with filthy lucre.'
'I see.'
'Do you?' He glanced up, his eyes narrowed on her face. 'No recriminations for being a worthless playboy, no attempts at reformation of my wicked dissolute ways?'
'I don't have any right to do that,' she said gravely. 'And you don't seem all that dissolute.'
'Perhaps not in comparison with some of your companions,' he agreed grimly. He pulled the bra away from her breasts and then froze. He inhaled sharply. 'Liane was wrong. You're not thin at all.' He reached out and touched one breast with a hesitant, gentle finger. 'You're full and beautifully, perfectly round.' His eyes darkened to a smoky hazel. 'And so silky.' His finger traced a circle about the dark pink nipple. 'Golden silk. Lord, I've never seen such skin, warm and soft and silky as a small child's. The first time I saw you in the bar I wondered if you'd feel like this.'
'Well, now you know,' she said shakily. She felt as if that lazy finger were scorching and searing as it moved and suddenly she forgot about the weariness and throbbing ache in her temple. She moistened her lips. 'Have you changed your mind?'
'No,' he said thickly. 'My mind is still as resolute as ever, it's my body that's undergoing all the changes. Are you this tan all over?'
She nodded. 'I like the sun. There's a little pool in the rain forest where we keep the Cessna that I sunbathe next to sometimes.'
His finger touched the perky pink tip. 'Nude?' he asked huskily.
'Yes.' She could barely get the word out. 'There's never anyone around.' Her throat was dry and tight and she was sure he could hear the beating of her heart caused by his gossamer light touch. She hadn't realized before how sensitive her body could be, how a tentative caress could send hot signals to her entire body. She didn't have to look down to realize that her nipple was budding and her breast flowering for him. She could see it in the darkening of Beau's eyes. Strange, she felt as if all their responses were now curiously linked.
'I'm going to watch you do that someday,' he said, his voice as velvet soft as his finger. 'I'm going to sit and watch the sun pour down on you like golden rain, caressing you and making you glow.' His thumb and index finger pinched gently and she felt an aching incompletion in her loins. 'And then I'm going to come to you and make you glow for me. I want to feel you open and flower and tremble.' She could see the wild
