A Man to Remember (16 page)

"They had some, but not your size. Not to fit your boat."

"Oh, great! Then what do we do?"

"I will order one from Guaymas for you, señor. It should be here in a week."

"A week?" Jake sputtered and threw up his hands. He turned to Alyse, frustration written in every line on his face. "We could swim home by then."

Alyse drew on her inner resources and smilingly took Jake's arm. "That's okay, darling. It just means we have a few extra days to go shopping. I saw some leather huaraches I wanted to buy. Now we'll have plenty of time to go back and get them." She led him out of the crowded shop.

Jake acquiesced and let her pull him along. She was right, and he knew it. There was nothing they could do about the situation except wait. And the more quietly they did that, the better off they'd be.

Alyse clung to his arm, playing the part to perfection. To anyone watching, they were two lovers, stranded on the Baja. Jake looked down at her and forced a smile. Perhaps even they were starting to believe it.

They went back to the Skye Command, where Alyse started gathering her clothes. "This is ridiculous. I'm not staying here another night with no running water. If we have a week to wait, I'm going to make it as pleasant as possible. Come on, Jake. We're going to a hotel. I want running water and a hot shower in my room. Don't you? All we have to do is walk up there to one of those hotels on the beach. I have a credit card to pay for the rooms. Believe me, it's no big deal."

He shrugged and gave her a sidewise grin. "First time I've ever been accused of abducting a woman and had her offer to pay for the hotel room. The offer sounds too good to be true."

Alyse closed the lid to her cosmetic case. "Okay, ready?"

"Almost," he said, crawling onto the forward berth and lifting the mattress corner.

Nothing there!

Jake whirled on Alyse, his brown eyes suddenly seething. "Okay, Alyse! Where is it?"

"What?" Her blue eyes grew innocently round.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! The box, dammit! Where's the box?"

"It's safe," she told him. "Safer than under a mattress."

"Well, where?" He gripped her shoulders and almost lifted her off the floor.

"Why don't we just leave it hidden here?"

"I don't go anywhere without it. Get it now, dammit, Alyse!"

"Okay. Take it easy, Jake. I'll get it. You don't have to be so rough."

She rubbed her shoulders when he released her arms. He watched closely as she went to the head and withdrew it from a hidden niche behind the toilet. "See? You could have torn this place apart and still not found it." She gave him a maddeningly smug look.

He jerked it from her hands and fumbled with a key in his pocket.

"Oh it's all there," she muttered disgustedly. "Don't worry about it, Jake."

He ignored her and opened the box. Satisfied with his assessment, he tucked it inside his shirt and motioned with an impatient hand. "Let's get going."

"You could thank me, you know."

"Don't touch it again, Alyse."

"You'd better watch it, buster, or you'll have to pay your own way."

"This was all your idea. Lead on. And we're staying together. I can't let you out of my sight."

"Together? No way!"

He grabbed her arm. "That's the only way. My darling."

She jerked free and marched ahead of him, disgusted with his stubborn and strange behavior. By the time they trooped to the third hotel, they were almost desperate for a room.

"We'll take a suite, please," Alyse requested in perfect Spanish.

"Sorry, we have no suites available."

"Adjoining rooms then."

"Sorry, señorita. Only one room has not been reserved. At the far end of the hotel. It has a nice view."

"Señora." Alyse corrected the receptionist quickly. "Only one room? We'll take it. Mr. and Mrs. Skye." She slid a credit card across the counter.

Jake smiled at her quickness and handed then-meager luggage to the bellhop. Not a bad arrangement actually. Who would think to look for him in a resort hotel? Using the name of Mr. and Mrs. Skye was a great ruse. He slid his arm around Alyse's waist, and they followed the bellhop to the room.

Immediately the pleasures of resort living were at their fingertips. They spent the afternoon beside the crystalline pool. After a sumptuous dinner they danced to a live band playing on the pavilion. It was lovely and under other circumstances could have been quite romantic.

But neither Jake nor Alyse admitted to any romantic notions.

However, the ultimate test of their steel-plated emotions would be going to the single room with one giant bed. Alyse emerged from the bathroom ready for bed in a lacy nightshirt. She slid quickly beneath the sheets and pulled them up to her chin.

Jake exited the bathroom smelling faintly of clean sea spray and dressed in his beige shorts. He flipped the lights off and stripped to his comfort level: nothing.

Alyse squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think of him lying nude in the bed next to her. Tried not to think of him at all. But it was impossible. She could hear him breathing and found it erotic and exciting. Finally her voice was soft in the black velvet night. "Jake? You asleep?"

"No. Just thinking."

"About leaving?"

"Yeah. And . . . other things."

"What?"

"Tomorrow is Riana's birthday, and I completely forgot about it. Didn't send her a thing. Hope she won't be too disappointed."

"She will be. No gift from Daddy?"

"What? How do you know about my children?"

"I just know that kids, little girls especially, crave hearing from their fathers. And I'll bet Riana would love to get something from her father on her birthday."

"What do you suggest?" His voice grated wearily. "In case you've forgotten, we're on the tip of the continent in a place where we can't even buy a damned water pump."

"But I'll bet we could send her a message. What would be more exciting than to receive a message from Daddy in Mexico saying, 'Happy Birthday to my darling daughter'?"

"Maybe you're right, Alyse. First thing tomorrow."

"Then we'll go shopping for your kids. Christmas is right around the corner, and we could get them some unique gifts from the Baja. How about a piñata filled with toys and candy? All kids love that sort of thing."

"Why are you doing this, Alyse?"

"It'll help you improve your relationship with them."

His voice stiffened. "Who said I needed to? Or wanted to?"

"You did. Night before last when you talked about them. Not in so many words, but in the way you sounded when you mentioned them. I could tell you wanted to see them. And make them happy. Believe me Jake, no amount of money in the world can substitute for your personal relationship with your children. For your love."

"You sound as though you know about that."

"I've had some experience with it. There were plenty of times I'd have given anything for a hug and kiss from my father. And he sent me on an all-expense-paid ski vacation instead." She halted, and the night grew quiet. Then she continued in a low voice. "If you give your kids personal attention and love now, when they are old enough, they'll make their own judgment of you, regardless of what their mother tells them. Don't you make your own judgments of people, even though someone may tell you they're rotten?"

"Of course. But I'm mature."

"Your kids will make mature judgments, too, Jake. They'll remember the little stuff, the fun and time you give them. And the love."

He was silent a while. "I suppose you're right that the kids would love something from Mexico. But I wouldn't know where to begin. I don't even know what kinds of gifts they like."

"I'll help," Alyse said. "It'll be fun." She smiled happily in the darkness. It would give her and Jake a project tomorrow in case the water pump didn't arrive. Secretly she hoped it wouldn't. Not yet anyway.

They lay there in the darkness for a long time, each wishing they could be together. But saying nothing.

Finally Jake's voice rumbled through the black velvet of the night. "Alyse, we're going to have to stop meeting like this. You must know it's driving me crazy, thinking of you lying there. Wanting you."

She didn't answer, and he assumed she was asleep. But he was wrong.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Morning came seductively. Kitten-like kisses on closed eyelids, fluttering kisses on paper-thin skin, light brushes on silky smooth cheeks, fanned by the gentle moss of a beard, lips to lips, not firm but pliant little sips. A flickering tongue touched, dipped between, then edged and savored cherry-colored heart shapes. The lips combined, meshed two on two, pressing open to sup fruity wine.

The kitten-kissed lips smiled, enjoying the tranquil seduction, flicking a pink tongue between the two to taste the seductive flavor again.

The morning sun eased above the windowsill, warming the two figures lying together on the bed, bringing them to life. Awaking their senses.

Alyse drifted awake, floating languidly in and out of consciousness, as if reviving from a hypnotic trance. It was a trance she didn't want to leave, but she was drawn to a marvelous feeling of awareness. She relished the renewed sensations, wanted to feel more. She smiled through the fog, and tantalizing lips covered hers again, then traveled to the slant of her cheek, over the hill of her prominent cheekbones, slightly flushed with pink.

His tongue traced across her soft mauve eyelids, savoring their delicateness. He knew the touch had to be light on such a sensitive area or she would awake alarmed at the abruptness of it. And he wanted her subconscious to record the erotic fantasy of his tongue on her skin and its ultimate pleasure. He would show her gentleness as well as urgency. Then, when she became conscious, she would participate fully and explore the possibilities and enjoy everything fully.

His kisses roamed her face, and he buried his face in the tousled array of chestnut hair spread across the white-cased pillow. His lips moved along her jaw line and playfully pulled on her earlobe. His tongue traced maddening circles on her sensitive skin, and she responded with a soft mewing sound. She was coming awake, and he lifted his eyes to watch.

She stretched her body, feline style, one arm above her head and arching her back, thrusting her firm, well-rounded breasts outward, spreading her legs naturally. When she rolled her head back on the pillow, his mouth covered her lips, melding to fit their smiling shape.

"Oh." Her surprised voice was muffled against his yielding lips. She lay very still, gathering full consciousness, trying to push aside her wildly soaring senses, the intense pulsing of every part of her. She was alive and alert and aroused. But barely awake.

His lips left her mouth free and followed the long, lightly tanned column of her neck. She swallowed as his tongue made a moist, demanding trail across the tops of her breasts, moving from one to the other. She drew in her breath sharply when his lips pressed her pulsating heart, letting that throbbing pass through him too. His breath was hot in the valley of her breasts.

Her skin was aflame everywhere he touched. He breathed like fire on her most sensitive spots.

"Alyse," he murmured low, "you're beautiful, so beautiful. I can't possible resist you." His lips continued over her skin, speaking of his desires and passion, his obsession with her. His words were hot and seductive and heat spread over her, lighting them both on fire.

"Oh, Jake, you devil."

She grasped his face and lifted it to hers. Her fingers splayed through his ruddy beard, and the harshly masculine feel of him excited her even more. His chocolate-colored eyes were hooded and heavy with passion that was all for her. And she thrilled to the notion. She could feel him everywhere, touching every part of her, and she felt aflame with an uncontrollable yearning. "Jake, I—"

"Don't speak," he said. "Don't move." His mouth clamped tightly on hers, this time assuring her of his dominance, of the strength of his passion. He lifted his head, and his breath was hot and sweet on her face. "I'll make you feel as you never have. I'll make it good for you. For both of us."

"Jake, yes… please…" Her whole body was already pulsing with a sweet torment that begged fulfillment. She wanted him, too, and he knew it. He just couldn't know how much she wanted him in her.

"Alyse." He hissed her name softly. "Do you know what it's like to lie there, night after night, listening to you breathe? Hearing you turn beneath those sheets? And wanting your legs tangled with mine? Wanting to be inside you?"

"Yes," she whimpered. "I know. But I don't think—"

"Don't think about anything now but us. But this . . ."He kissed her again, his lips pressing hers apart for the thrusting tongue that dipped into her dark, sweet hollow. Tasting, savoring, pumping.

Instinctively her tongue met his, and her lips closed tightly to form a shaft for his natural thrusting.

She was keenly aware of his heavy-muscled masculine legs alongside hers. His thighs topped hers, their strength capable of overpowering her. Alyse felt the increased pressure of his weight on her. They were separated only by the thinness of her nightie, a piece of lace that could easily be ripped away.