Heiress Under Fire Page 4

Farren sighed and sat on the floor. The Marmaris Yacht Festival started tomorrow. If she was stranded much longer, she might never know who owned the yacht called Lucky. Putting her feet on a towel, she twisted the cap off a bottle of berry-colored nail polish.

  As soon as they reached shore, she’d part ways with Elam and charter another yacht. He was suspicious of her, but her attacker was dead, so what reason would he have to stick around? He didn’t strike her as the heroic type. He’d accomplished what he’d come to do and would be on his way. Then again, she didn’t know anything about him. Her attacker had been a bad guy. What if Elam’s methodical way of killing was clouding her judgment and he actually was the heroic type? His hardened self-assurance could be hiding a warm heart.

  Her cold and loveless youth made it easy to recognize people like that, the ones who never let anyone in. Her heart was buried. Better that than suffer the consequences of exposing too much, feeling too much. Every time she’d done it as a child, allowed herself to show love, she’d been brushed off like an unwanted old dog. That kind of conditioning was hard to overcome as an adult. No wonder she was always settling for men who didn’t love her. It was familiar.

  Had Elam endured a similar past? Is that what drove him into such a deadly profession?

  Hearing a hissed curse between songs, she looked toward the salon door. The sound came from above, on the flybridge. She put her nail polish aside and fanned her toes one last time before standing. Still holding the metal nail file, she hummed along with the song that was playing on her way up to the flybridge.

  Elam sat with his legs spread, the bashed radio before him on the floor. He’d removed it from the console and taken the cover off to expose the inner electronics.

  “Oh. Good thinking,” she said, wishing she’d have thought of it herself.

  He looked up.

  “Are the parts still intact?” she asked.

  “Aren’t you sick of that music yet?” he all but snapped.

  She smiled, knowing his annoyance came from the smashed radio and not her music, at least not this time. “You don’t listen to music, either?”

  “I listen to music, just not the same thing over and over again.”

  “I just got the CD before I came on this trip.”

  “And that’s why you play the same music all the time?”

  “If it’s good. I like to listen to good music.”

  His intense blue eyes dropped to her Nautica swimsuit top. She’d changed and planned to sit in the hot tub after her nail polish dried. She tensed while his look heated up and lingered on her breasts cupped in lime-green nylon and spandex. His gaze dropped to her abdomen and her insides fluttered in response. She watched his eyes trail down the lime-green sarong tied around her waist, take in the length of leg peeking through the opening, then slowly come up again.

  Ignoring the blatant inspection, she turned and started searching the broken instrument panel for a loose wire. She found a tin-plated copper wire from the tangle of a smashed gauge and sat cross-legged on the floor. Leaning forward, she used the nail file to scratch some conformal coat off the circuit board near the tuning knob. It hadn’t been bashed all that bad. The channel knob and display were destroyed, but the guts of the radio were still intact.

  Setting aside the file, she put one end of the wire to the metal she’d exposed and gently tapped the other end against another wire coming from the inner part of the channel knob. The radio crackled, but no one was talking on the channel she’d found.

  Elam put his hand over hers, stopping her. She looked up, startled by the jolt of awareness caused by his touch. Blue eyes held her riveted. She wanted to run her fingers through his dark chocolate hair, feel the warmth of his scalp. Feel those sensual lips on hers.

  “I’ll take it from here.”

  She let him have the wire, flustered by her reaction to such a man. It must have dawned on him that he could change channels by tapping the channel knob wire. He’d have to work at finding a channel of his choice without a display, but eventually he’d find one.

  “Where did you learn how to do that?” he asked, holding the wire but not moving to try the channels.

  “I have a masters in electrical engineering.”

  He looked surprised. “You’re an engineer?”

  It always irritated her when people were surprised that she had an engineering degree. “What’s the matter? Don’t I look like one?”

  He made a show of taking in her chest and the leg that peeked through the opening of her sarong. Then he shook his head.

  Why did men have to take her C-cup boobs and blond hair as signs of stupidity? It didn’t help that she felt that way anyway, at least when it came to men. “You really should try to open your mind a little.”

  He chuckled. “That’s not the problem.”

  “What is it then?”

  He refrained from replying. Smart man. Instead, he ran his gaze fore and aft over the hundred-foot yacht.

  “You must have a really good job to be able to afford to charter something like this,” he said. “What are you? CEO of some Fortune 500 company?”

  Reminded of her inheritance, her mood sank lower. “No.”

  “Entrepreneur?”

  “No.”

  “Daddy set up a trust fund?”

  She shook her head.

  “What’d you do, embezzle it?” He chuckled. “Someone like you could probably get away with it. One look and nobody’d guess you were capable.” He paused. “Not that…It’s just that…”

  His fumbling saved him a defensive retort. “My mother left me the money.”

  “You inherited it?”

  “I didn’t even know where she lived until her lawyer called me.” The animosity came out in her voice.

  He didn’t say anything, but he was no longer smiling.

  “She probably felt guilty for abandoning me so she could marry a wealthy man who didn’t like kids,” she went on, giving vent to the hurt inside her. “He was twenty years older than her. She never contacted me. I was only four when she left me in front of the emergency room of a hospital. I don’t remember much about her. Mostly I just remember the day she left me. She was wearing a yellow sundress and she was crying. I wanted to make her stop. I thought I did something wrong. The police never found her. I became a ward of the state and was put in a foster home.”

  “How did she die?” he asked softly.

  “Her husband shot her. But she got a shot off herself before she died and ended up killing him, too.”

  “Not a happy marriage, I take it.”

  She nodded and wondered what he’d do if she told him she thought it was more than that. Help her? It was tempting to tell him. He was obviously capable. But she was only here for answers. Once she went to the yacht festival, found the Lucky and got answers from whoever was on it, she’d go home. She could finish working through the emotions that had sprung to life after inheriting a fortune from a mother who hadn’t cared what happened to her as a child. Talking about it had put an ache in her chest.

  “Let me know when you reach someone who can come and get us.” Pushing herself to her feet, she headed for the stairs, thoughts of her mother hanging in her mind like low fog.

  She made her way to the main deck and walked to the stern. Stopping near the rail, she folded her arms and stared at the sea.

  “Farren.”

  She turned with the sound of Elam’s voice.

  “I’m sorry about your mother.”

  Warmth spread through her, unexpected and coming at her in a strong wave. She hoped he couldn’t tell.

  The next morning Farren woke to the yacht’s gentle rocking. It was quiet. Shoving the covers aside, she climbed out of bed. The sheer material of her light pink nightgown floated around her thighs. Slipping into a robe, she left the master suite and entered the dining area. Coffee would be delightful.

  Light brightened the sitting room from the sliding glass door that led to the aft deck. She stepped into the open ro
om. On the coffee table lay Elam’s gun and holster. A slight shift of her gaze made her stop.

  Stretched out on the long, curving couch was Elam. He wore only jeans and the top two buttons were unfastened. The blanket that once had covered him was on the floor. So was a pillow. He lay with one muscled arm bent above his head. His other arm draped over his bare and broad chest. She drank in the sight of him. His stomach and waist rippled with sinewy muscle. A soft protrusion mounded his jeans, the open buttons giving her a glimpse of his underwear. The jeans didn’t hide the strength of his thighs. She tried to avoid looking at the open buttons again, but awe drew her back there. A deep, warm response stirred in her.

  Sensing his awareness, she moved her eyes. His looked back at her, the radiant blue of them glowing in patient but heated question. A tiny gasp accompanied her alarm.

  She spun around and walked quickly into the galley. What was he doing sleeping in there? It wasn’t as if there was a shortage of beds aboard this yacht. There were other cabins on the lower deck.

  In the galley, she banged through cupboards and drawers until she had everything she needed to make coffee. Her hand jerked when she heard Elam enter the galley. His presence generated sexual energy. She felt naked underneath her robe. The halter-style nightgown gathered into delicate pleats where it held her breasts, but was sheer all the way to her thighs. She shut off the water and kept her back to him as she finished preparing the coffeemaker.

  “I couldn’t reach Osman last night.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Who’s Osman?”

  “Someone I know. He’ll come and get us. I’ll try again this morning.”

  “Okay.” She retrieved two coffee mugs from a cabinet and set them on the counter, still keeping her back to him.

  “I should have told you I was going to sleep on the couch,” he said.

  She looked at him over her shoulder, catching him checking out her butt in the robe. When his hungry eyes met hers, her heart tripped into a hotter beat. He’d buttoned his jeans but his chest was still bare. She wondered how it would feel to put her hands on him.

  “Why did you?” she asked.

  “I didn’t want to be too far away from you.”

  She wanted to fan her face.

  “In case something happened,” he added.

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” she said.

  “I’m not worried.”

  She looked past him into the salon and saw the coffee table where his gun lay and understood why he wasn’t. Then she turned her attention back to the coffeemaker and waited for it to finish brewing. She listened to Elam move around in the salon. She glanced at him once and saw him putting on his holster. He wore it against his bare skin. Rather than put on his shirt, he slipped the weapon into the holder and headed toward her.

  When the coffee was done, she poured him a cup. He took it from her with a murmured thanks, looking at her over the rim of the cup as he sipped.

  Feeling a notable response to his interest, she took her cup and hurried to her cabin.

  After a long shower she changed into a navy-blue Leilani swimsuit with big, overlapping white circles. She couldn’t push the memory of Elam’s eyes from her mind. It was definitely good that they would part ways. He’d devour her and she’d be left with another desperate reach for affection.

  She clasped the back of her suit. It had a gold ring at the center of the bandeau top and a neck tie for support. She wrapped a matching sarong around her waist and headed outside with a book and a tube of sunscreen, propping a pair of sunglasses on top of her head. Maybe reading in the sun would take her mind off what was going on. Climbing the stairs to the sundeck, she spotted Elam in the flybridge, holding the binoculars to his eyes, chest still bare except for the gun and holster.

  She hesitated, uncertain how much more of his nearness she could handle.

  He lowered the binoculars and saw her. “Did you get a hold of Osman?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I’m not sure how far we’ve drifted, but he should find us before too long.”

  Pulling her sunglasses over her eyes, she passed him, feeling him watch her as she put her book and sunscreen down and removed her sarong. After draping the sarong over the back of the bench seat that divided the sunbathing pad from the flybridge, she applied sunscreen and then reclined on the pad, her back against the bench seat. Telling herself there was no reason to be nervous, she put on her sunglasses, opened her book and started to read. That lasted all of thirty seconds.

  Elam climbed onto the sunbathing pad and reclined next to her. She looked over at him. He wore sunglasses so she couldn’t see his eyes, but his mouth was curved into a licentious grin.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Catching some sun.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  He just kept grinning. “What are you reading?”

  She showed him the cover.

  “The Good Girl’s Guide to Bad Men?” he read.

  “I caught my fiancé sleeping with someone else.”

  “And you think that book is going to help you avoid men like that?”

  “I’ll try anything once.”

  “Why don’t you just live alone for a while? Maybe you’re trying too hard.”

  His insight surprised her. She eyed him from behind the security of her sunglasses, taking in his bare chest and gun. “Does that work for you?”

  “I’ve never had a woman cheat on me.”

  “Have you ever had one long enough to give her the chance?”

  He turned away, looking out to sea.

  “You have.” And from the looks of him, it hadn’t gone well. “Were you married? Are you still?”

  “No.”

  “You were married to her?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What happened?” She knew it might be too personal, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

  “I should have known from the beginning that it would never work.”

  “But you wanted it to.”

  “I wouldn’t have married her if I didn’t.”

  She believed him. He didn’t strike her as a man who didn’t know what he wanted.

  “She must have been interesting,” she said out loud.

  But she could see he was finished talking about her.

  Farren was strangely touched by the idea of him loving someone. Or was it the realization that he was capable of that?

  She looked at his sunglasses, wishing she could see his eyes. “What would you do if she came back to you?

  His jaw flexed with tension. “She wouldn’t.”

  “But what if she did?”

  “She won’t.”

  “But—”

  The sound of a boat approaching interrupted their conversation. She turned to look out to sea, where the white shape of a boat broke the water.

  “Is that Osman?”

  “Yes, that’s his fishing vessel.”

  She shifted her gaze from the fifty-foot boat with enclosed pilothouse to Elam. So this was it. Pretty soon she’d never see him again.

  As he pulled himself up from the sunbathing pad, his stomach muscles flexed and distracted her. He crawled over her, straddling her as he moved to stand. All that masculinity engulfed her.

  He extended his hand. She took it and he helped her to her feet. She sucked in a breath of air as he put his hands on her waist and she had nowhere else to put hers but on his chest.

  “You should go change,” he said.

  She felt the heat growing between them despite what his sunglasses hid. A few more days with him and where would she be? On her back for sure, but after the days passed? Right smack in the middle of another mistake, that was where.

  After docking at Bodrum Marina, Elam pulled Farren’s luggage toward a waiting car. He got in beside her after handing the luggage to the driver. She looked at him in the same way she’d been doing ever since he’d told her about his wife. Curious and somewhat bewildered.

 
; As much as he wanted to immerse himself in her flowery sweetness, there was no point in starting anything. A night or two wouldn’t be enough for a woman like her, and he couldn’t give her more. He’d just make sure she made it to a hotel before he found a room somewhere else. He wanted to check her out a little more, get some background on her, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and there was a reason Ameen had chosen her yacht.

  When the car stopped in front of the Hotel Karia Princess, Elam climbed out and helped the driver pull Farren’s luggage from the trunk. He rolled it toward her, noticing how she glanced around, as though looking for something or someone. Was she worried? But then she turned to him, and as she watched him come to a stop, a sultry awareness came into her eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said. She rocked onto her toes and back down. Was he making her nervous? “It seems like it’s been more than a day since you came aboard Haven.” She smiled a little. “This reminds me of a movie I saw once. It was an action film that took place over twenty-four hours. So much was going on in such a short period of time…” And on she went.

  He was starting to think all that sweet chatter was a nervous reaction. Instead of listening, he used the opportunity to burn her into his memory. The white halter sundress with a slight flare at her knees. The necklace with a clear stone and the word Sun embedded inside. The light cinnamon-colored gloss on her lips. Femininity radiated from her. He wanted to drown himself in it. Or at least take some home with him.

  “It’s amazing how much you can get done in not so much time. That happens when I go shopping, too,” he heard her say. Yeah, he was going to have to take some of this home with him. “The time just flies b—”

  He took a step closer, watching her eyes widen when she realized what he was doing. Sliding his hand to the small of her back, he pulled her against him. The sound of her breath whooshing out of her sent something dark and intimate rushing through him. Bending his head, he kissed her gently. Because that was the only way to kiss a woman like her the first time.

  Her soft body melted against him, a perfect fit against his. Her hands ran up his chest, catching on the straps of his gun holster. He felt her thumbs glide over his nipples as she opened her mouth against his, asking for more. He gave it to her, kissing her with painstaking gentleness. Slow and sensual. Her fingers brushed the ends of his hair at his collar as she languidly folded her arms around him. God Almighty, she felt good. Bringing his other hand to her back, he held her tighter to him as he reached deeper with his tongue for a soft, sweet taste. Fire roared inside him. If he didn’t stop now, he just might go with her to her room. Reining in the powerful surge of desire swimming in him, he lifted his head.