LITMIR.BIZ

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one. I’m going to take a shower.”

      “Wait a minute,” Nigel said. “I’m not ignoring this. I’ll make a check on passengers who took the ferry over today, and, Jay, you check your guest lists. We’ll make sure that everyone is accounted for.”

      Alex stood in stony silence.

      “Alex, that’s all I can do since there’s no body,” Nigel said patiently. “We’re not New York, D.C., or even Miami. I don’t have a huge forensic department or the manpower to start combing every strand of seaweed, especially since the tide is coming in. Alex, please. I’m not mocking you. It’s just that there is no body.” He turned to Jay. “Get busy on the paperwork, Jay. I’ll handle the ferry records. And, Alex…don’t mention this around, all right?”

      She frowned curiously at him. “But—”

      “Don’t you dare go alarming the guests with a wild story,” Jay said.

      “Actually, I was thinking that if there was a corpse and someone’s hidden it, it might be a very dangerous topic of conversation,” Nigel told her.

      “He’s right,” Jay said. He pointed a finger toward Alex. “No mention of this. No mention of it for your own safety.”

      “Oh, yeah, right.”

      Nigel turned around, looking at the beach. He shook his head and started away.

      “Where you going, Nigel?” Jay asked.

      “To check on the ferry records,” Nigel called back.

      He reached his launch, gave it a shove back to the water and waded around to hop in, then gave them a wave.

      Jay stared at Alex and Laurie again. “Not a word, you understand? Not a word. It doesn’t matter if there were a dozen corpses on the beach, Alex, they’re not here now. So keep quiet.”

      “Fine. Not a word, Jay,” Alex snapped, walking past him.

      “Hey! I’m your boss, remember?” he told her.

      She kept walking, Laurie following in her tracks.

      “I’m still your boss,” he called after her. “And you owe me a new pair of shoes.”

      They were soon out of earshot. “Alex, there really was a corpse, wasn’t there?” Laurie asked. But she sounded uncertain.

      “Yes.”

      “Perhaps…I mean…couldn’t you have been mistaken?”

      “No.” She turned. “I’m going to go take a hot shower and a couple of aspirin. I’ll see you later.”

      Laurie nodded, still looking uncertain. “I’m sorry. Jay has a way of twisting things,” Laurie said apologetically.

      “I know. Forget it. I’ll see you later.”

      She lifted a hand and turned down a slender trail that led through small palms and hibiscus, anxious only to reach her little cottage.

      She slid her plastic key from the button pocket of her uniform shorts and inserted it into the lock. The door swung open.

      The air was on; the ceiling fan in the whitewashed and rattan-furnished living-room area was whirling away. The coolness struck her pleasantly.

      She walked through the living area and into the small kitchen, pausing to pull a wine cooler from the refrigerator. She uncapped it quickly and moved on, anxious to flop down on the sofa out on the porch. She opened the floor-to-ceiling glass doors and went out, actually glad of the wave of warmth outside, tempered by the feel of the night breeze and the hypnotic whirl of another ceiling fan.

      But even as she fell into a chair, she tensed, sitting straight up and staring across to the charming white gingerbread railing, too startled by a figure looming in the shadows of coming twilight to scream. Then she took a deep breath of relief when she recognized who it was.

      It wasn’t just anyone planted on her porch.

      It was David.

      He was wearing nothing but swim trunks, broad, bronzed shoulders gleaming, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the rail. He was very still, and yet, as it had always been with him, it seemed that he emanated energy, as if any moment he would move like a streak of lightning.

      Her heart lurched. He was so familiar. How many times had she seen him like this and walked up to him, wherever they were, sliding her fingers down his naked back, sometimes feeling the heat of the sun and sometimes just that of the man? She had loved the way he had turned to her in response and taken her into the curl of his arm.

      How many times had it led to so much more? There had been those days when, just in from the water, he had been speaking to a TV camera, holding her as he talked, then had suddenly turned to her, and she had seen a sudden light rise in his eyes. She could remember the way he would move, his attention only for her, as he excused himself, smiled and led her away. By the time they reached a private spot, they would both be breathless, laughing and pulling at the few pieces of clothing they were wearing. He could move with such languid, sinewy power; the tone of his voice could change so easily; the lightest brush of his fingers could evoke a thousand rays of pure sensuality. And she had been so desperately, insanely eager to know them all.

      But then, that had been in the days when it had mattered to him that she was with him.

      He didn’t smile now. His deep blue eyes were grave as he surveyed her. She’d seen him cold and distant like this, as well, the light in his eyes almost predatory.

      “David,” she said dryly, pushing away the past, forcing herself to forget the intimacy and remember only what it had been like once she had determined to pursue her own career and he had begun to travel without her. Days, weeks, even a month…gone. Not even a telephone call, once he was with his true love. The sea.

      And those who traveled it with him.

      “Alex,” he responded. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

      “So it appears. Well, how nice to see you. Here. On my porch. My personal porch, my private space. Gee, this is great.” Her tone couldn’t have held more acidity.

      “Thanks.” Her welcome hadn’t been sincere. Neither was his gratitude. But there was no mistaking the seriousness of his next words.

      “So,” he said, “tell me about the body you found—the one that disappeared from the beach.”

      Chapter Three

      “What?” she said sharply.

      “You heard me. Tell me about the body.” He uncoiled from his position, coming toward her, taking a chair near hers. He was close, too close, and she instantly felt wary and, despite herself, unnerved. They’d been apart for a year, and she still felt far too familiar with the rugged planes of his face, the bronzed contours of his hands and fingers, idly folded now before him.

      She managed to sit back, eyeing him with dignity and, she hoped, a certain disdain.

      “What the hell are you doing on my porch? There’s a lobby for guests.”

      “Get off it. You must have been in a panic. And Jay probably behaved like an asshole.”

      “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      “I’m trying to help you out.”

      “If you want to help me out, get off the island.”

      “Am I making you uneasy?”

      “You bet,” she told him flatly.

      That drew a smile to his lips. “Missed me, huh?”

      She sat farther forward, setting her wine cooler on the rattan coffee table, preparing to rise.

      “I assume you have a room. Why don’t you go put some clothes on.”

      “Ah,

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