Blame It on Paradise (5 page)

The sweat rings wetting the armpits of Jack’s starched white shirt rapidly began to expand. “We weren’t skinny-dipping. We weren’t naked.”
Not completely
, he grumbled to himself.

Lina picked up a covered wicker basket of muffins that Jack had failed to notice before, and brushed past him. “I meant tonight.” After hanging her basket over one arm, she stepped onto the side of the road and headed in the direction of the town center. Jack stood in the road, watching the shift and sway of her rear until she disappeared.

* * *

Lina waited until she had rounded the bend and was well out of sight before she sank heavily onto the black volcanic boulder that doubled as a road sign. A muffin bounced out of her basket when she set it heavily at her feet. She rested her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands and whispered, “Just once. It was only supposed to be one time.”

She’d seen Jack, in Levora’s company, walking into the town center as she herself had been leaving yesterday. Had Levora been alone, she would have drawn attention to herself, but the sight of Jack had paralyzed her for a moment. There was no shortage of tall, handsome, interesting men on Darwin. The bulk of the island’s visitors were ordinary tourists, but a small percentage were more dangerous. They were adventurers drawn by Darwin’s unusual landscape, treasure hunters looking to pick at the submerged wrecks of ships that had come off the worse against Darwin’s deep, ragged harbors, or romantics looking for creative inspiration in one of Earth’s lesser known corners. No matter their reason for coming, that sort typically left Darwin, but not before leaving a part of himself—usually a child—behind.

Unable to determine which sort Jack was, Lina had stood in the shadow of the news kiosk, tracking his progress alongside Levora. At first glance, he seemed the most destructive visitor of all to her island—the kind who came to take advantage of any and all native women foolish enough to succumb to his physical charms.

People from all over the world had settled in Darwin, producing a gene pool so wide and varied that most natives never knew what their children would look like upon birth. Lina herself had the nose of a French ancestor, the eyes of an English one and the dark complexion of her grandmother, an Australian-born Aborigine. Darwin tea brought women to the island all year round, but Darwin’s women drew the men.

Even before she’d asked around about him, Lina had known that Jack was American. Levora loved Darwin, but she’d never surrendered her American citizenship, and she always befriended the Americans she encountered on the island. Jack had been stingy with information regarding his reason for coming to Darwin, but Lina wasn’t especially interested in it. For what she had in mind, the less she knew about him, the better. Past experience had taught her and every other Darwin resident that stiffs in suits meant nothing but trouble. So she’d followed Levora and Jack, eyeing him with suspicion from a distance.

His impatient gaze had roamed right over her when he was looking around while Levora emptied her boot of road grit. Unreasonably insulted—he was the first man she had ever encountered who’d failed to at least notice her once she’d turned her eyes on him—she’d continued to watch him as he spoke to Levora. She couldn’t hear what he was saying. She hadn’t cared to, not when simply looking at him was so enjoyable. His honey-gold hair, easy to spot amid the shorter, darker heads around him, was on the long side of business professional. It was the hair of a busy man who cared about his appearance for professional reasons, rather than vanity. He had the strong, straight and square features of a movie star, but his shrewd, jewel-colored eyes radiated intelligence and cool cunning.

Unlike most visitors to Darwin, he hadn’t looked awed or intimidated by what must have been a totally alien environment. His confidence was apparent in the way he moved, and Lina had found that brand of self-assurance mouth-watering.

She’d gone about the rest of her day after he disappeared into the old factory building. Later, a few careful inquiries had directed her to his homestay, where she had been able to study him discreetly through the thick foliage surrounding his temporary residence. When he’d popped into the shower, she’d arranged to have dinner brought to him, and she’d waited just beyond his terrace, hoping to steal another look at him.

She’d gotten a look all right, and it had been a pair of knit sports briefs short of a Full Monty. She had stared at him, stunned at how a man could be so beautiful in both form and movement. He possessed an elegant strength she wouldn’t have expected from a man of his size and build, and her desire for a look had evolved into the need to touch.

Like most American men she’d met, he’d started talking and kept on talking once she’d approached him. The only difference with Jack was that he’d actually had something to say, interesting, intimate things that aroused her mind as thoroughly as his presence and touch had aroused her body.

Her simple desire to see him up close had taken an impulsive and unexpected turn. She’d attempted a feeble escape, by swimming across the lagoon. But he’d followed her, and in so doing he’d erased any reservations she might have had. The most stunning man she’d ever laid eyes on had followed her to her favorite spot on Darwin, and the combination had worked a spell that forced surrender to her hungriest carnal instinct.

In the end, as she’d watched him sleep, she’d been glad that he’d shown a bit of crucial restraint. God knew that she hadn’t been able to.

One of the island’s treasured black robins glided to an easy landing beside the lost muffin. “Two nights, then,” Lina said, directing the words at the bird as though seeking its counsel. The robin eagerly pecked at the muffin as Lina carefully scooped up her basket and started down the road.

CHAPTER 4

Jack paced the bedroom, his loafers making no sound on the polished, bamboo flooring as he clicked off the floor and desk lamps and the ceiling fixture. Then he opened the drapes and sheers as far as they would go, flooding the room with moonlight. He had already opened the glass doors so he could easily hear outside noises.

So he could hear Lina.

He peeked at his watch even as he told himself that he wouldn’t check the time again: 11:37.

He wrung his hands together. It was a myth that toilets swirled backwards in this part of the world, but time sure seemed to. This had been the longest day of Jack’s life, despite how busy he’d been.

Once Lina had left, he’d had muffins and coffee at Levora’s, at her insistence, and he’d listened as Levora told him about her baking business, which specialized in softball-sized muffins that shipped daily as far as Sydney and Canberra. The coconut-lime muffins Levora had served were unbelievably good, but Jack was more interested in learning more about J.T. Marchand than muffins. But every question he had asked about Marchand had been answered with some inane observation about Lina, who appeared to be Levora’s favorite topic.

As if he needed her help in keeping Lina on his mind. He had another reason for being so determined to find Marchand. The faster he clinched the deal for the tea, the sooner he’d be free to devote a little time to Lina.

He’d once secured the rights to an herbal antihistamine produced by a tiny company in Seattle. Pharmaceutical reps from hundreds of companies had descended upon Seattle, each vying to get the drug. After three days of bargaining, negotiating and competing, Jack had gotten the deal done despite heavy competition from Carol Crowley. Jack had put millions in Coyle-Wexler’s coffers and earned himself a hefty six-figure bonus. His winning record had withstood its fiercest challenge, and the victory had given Jack a feeling of self-assurance and joy that he’d never known.

Until last night.

Until he’d spent a night on a hunk of black glass with a woman who had appealed to his every sense.

Until Lina, Jack had never known the thrill of complete surrender, and instantly he’d become addicted. He’d moved through the minutes of the day, thankful that each tick of the clock brought him closer to midnight, yet snappish over the slowness with which each minute arrived. He’d almost wished that he could have just gone to bed and slept until midnight.

The idea of climbing into bed only made his thoughts circle more tightly around Lina, so Jack forced himself to review his day instead.

Hoping to learn more of what his newly arrived competitors knew, he had accepted Carol’s invitation to join her and a group of lawyers for a late lunch at The Crab and Nickel, one of the island’s two restaurants, and to Jack’s surprise, a three-star Michelin rated establishment.

Jack had sat down to his second meal on Darwin, and it was exquisite. Yet it couldn’t compare to his first with its dessert of Lina’s kisses. It wasn’t like him to lust so after a woman. He’d never had problems satisfying his physical needs, but this time the urge was specific. He wanted Lina, plain and simple.

Plain and simple. The two words described her perfectly, though she was anything but plain, and clearly not simple. Despite her skill with languages, she was an island girl untempered by MTV, McDonald’s, Botox and
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issues. She was natural, beautiful, the most precious treasure he had ever discovered. To be more accurate, he conceded that she had discovered him.

He had been able to push Lina out of his head just far enough to function with his fellow attorneys and pharmaceutical reps, and he’d learned far more than he’d anticipated. Most of them had heard of a tea with miraculous weight loss properties and they’d come for samples to take back for testing and research. With boxes of dried Darwin mint already purchased, most of them had planned to fly out of Darwin the next day.

Carol, as usual, was ahead of the game. She already knew that the boxed product had dismally failed Coyle-Wexler’s laboratory testing and, like Jack, she wanted to buy the rights to the actual plant in its native habitat. And like the savvy attorney she was, she was digging her heels in for the full ride. She’d rented a cottage near the center of town and had paid for two weeks in advance.

Jack hoped it wouldn’t take that long to find and deal with Marchand…but as he wore circles in the carpet, he decided that he might not mind two weeks in Darwin, not if they were spent with Lina.

* * *

“You’re not dressed for skinny dipping,” Jack said, Lina’s emergence from the shadows stealing all but the obvious from his lips. He absently licked them as she neared him. With each step she took, her bare toes peeked from beneath her long, silky skirt. Rather than concealing the lines and hollows of her hips and legs, the sheer, floral-printed fabric of the low-slung skirt emphasized them. A glittering thread of gold loosely circled her bare midriff, the dangling end unerringly drawing Jack’s gaze to her lower abdomen and the soft angles of her exposed hip bones. Her hair hung loose and floated on the breeze generated by her movements. She was standing toe-to-toe with Jack before he realized that she wore nothing other than the skirt, the gold chain and her luxurious wealth of hair. Her hair cloaked her bare breasts, but Jack caught teasing peeks of plum as she raised her face to his.

“Neither are you,” Lina responded. She sidestepped him at the edge of the lagoon and went to the rattan table. A basket of Levora’s banana-kiwi, honey-raisin, cinnamon-oat and coconut-lime muffins made a fragrant centerpiece surrounded by a grand assortment of fresh fruit, a carafe of mint tea and a chilled bottle of Peterson’s Botrytis Semillon, a sweet white wine Jack had heard of but never tasted.

Lina ran her fingertip through the condensation beading on the chilled carafe. The film of moisture tempered the burst of heat she’d felt upon seeing Jack. He’d gotten some sun in the course of his day’s travels, and his crisp white shirt highlighted his new tan. Pleated khaki trousers, a dark braided leather belt and Cordovan loafers completed his apparel. His clothing was average to the point of bland, yet Lina was captivated by the simplicity of his attractiveness.

“I didn’t come to Darwin Island for this.” Jack flicked a hand in her general direction.

“For muffins?” She sat on the edge of the table and elegantly crossed one leg over the other. The high slit in her skirt allowed it to part and fall away, revealing her legs from toe to hip.

Logical thought eluded Jack for as long as he stared at the way her smooth legs gleamed in the moonlight. He tore his gaze away to stare at the interlocked canopies of the tall nikau palms. “I didn’t come here to get involved.”

“Why
did
you come here?” She plucked a ripe kiwifruit from the platter. She brought the soft little oval to her mouth. With excruciating delicacy, she used her front teeth to break its furry bronze skin and her lips and tongue to peel it back, exposing the gold flesh. Her left cheek dimpled in a tiny grin as she caught a drop of sweet juice on the tip of her tongue.

Jack’s body responded fiercely to her actions. “This isn’t something I do. I don’t allow myself to be seduced by strange women in strange places.”

A tiny smile curled one corner of her mouth. “Am I seducing you?”

“Don’t insult my intelligence, Lina.”

“Certainly not. Although I’m afraid I may prick your ego a bit. I’m not trying to seduce you, Mr. DeVoy.”

“Then why did you come here tonight?” he almost yelled, but only because he wanted so much to feel her lips against his once more.

“Why did you wait for me?” she calmly countered.

He marched toward her. She uncrossed her legs and sat up straighter, expectant. He didn’t stop coming at her until he stood at the table, one of his legs wedged between hers. “You have the annoying habit of answering a question with a question. You should have been a lawyer.”

“Mr. DeVoy—”

“Jack.”

“Jack…” She held his gaze and dared to slide her hands along his shirt front as she stood to face him. “I seduced you last night. I’m here now because it’s your turn to seduce me.”

Jack gritted his teeth, breathing a little heavier through his nose. His hands went to her hips and found handfuls of her filmy skirt. Her soft, citrusy scent whittled away what little willpower he still possessed.

“This isn’t something I make a habit of, Jack.” She swallowed hard, and Jack was pleased to see that she was as intensely affected by their proximity as he. “I saw you in town yesterday and I wanted you.”

He groaned low in his throat. His fingers splayed over her backside and he gave her a short, easy tug that brought her pelvis into contact with his.

“If I see something I want, I go out and get it,” she said quietly. “I’m rather self-centered in that regard.”

“No more than I am.” His words caressed her lips, sending tremors of anticipation through her. She passed her hands over Jack’s unyielding chest and shoulders on her way to threading her fingers through the hair at his nape.

“Welcome to my island, Jack.” Her eyes closed as she caught his lower lip in a kiss. He took a deep breath, inhaling her, reveling in the tropical taste and softness of her mouth. He pushed one hand into her hair and wrapped an arm around her middle, drawing her still closer. She tilted her hips, angling the center of her desire directly against the hard knot behind his fly.

His hungry kisses swept over her face and throat, grazed down to her collarbones and her chest. A distant part of him felt shame—not over the course he’d chosen to pursue with her, but over how desperately he wanted to feel her beneath him and around him. He ached to bury himself in her.

Between the kisses he swept along her jaw line, he mumbled his desires, almost pleading with her.

She unhooked the single fastener at her hip. Her skirt fell away and she draped it across one end of the table, forming a silk tablecloth upon which she became the most tempting treat. Jack eased her onto her back, nibbling his way from her chin to her breastbone, her navel and the neat strip of midnight curls between her legs. He dropped to one knee to kiss her inner right thigh as he guided that leg over his shoulder.

Lina smiled into the night and spread her arms over the table, contentedly offering herself to Jack. She gazed dreamily into the night sky, thrilling in the quickening of her breathing and the rush of her blood.

“I’m going to look at you, Lina.” He spoke to her in a low, almost business-like voice that managed to be incredibly seductive. “And then I’m going to kiss you, first with my breath…and then my lips…and then my tongue.”

Her thighs quivered, her skin goosepimpling as his breath brushed the sensitive flesh between her thighs.

“I’m going to taste you,” he murmured. “And then I’m going to have my fill of you.”

A man of his word, Jack did exactly as pledged. She hadn’t known what to expect, but he surpassed her expectations. He was artful. Unhurried. Thorough…

Loving? His hands trembled as he caressed her hips and thighs, as if he were both afraid to touch her or to let her go.

A low moan of satisfaction oozed from Lina’s throat as her spine arced. Her hands clenched and unclenched, her toes curled and her lower body shivered in response to Jack’s intimate work. His fingers dug into her backside when she convulsed against him, her gasping cries joining the symphony of the hidden wildlife around them.

He spread himself over her nude body, fully aware of the effect his clothed form had on her as he moved over her. He lightly closed his hands around her wrists, his gentle grip whispering along her arms as he brought his head even with her chest. With his nose, he nudged aside the strands of jet lying across her left breast, and his breath alone turned her nipple into a tight bud. But when he closed his lips around it, she arched into him, feeding him as much of her breast as he would take.

He nursed her into a writhing, cooing frenzy before his kisses followed her midline to her navel, and on down to the glistening darkness between her legs. Sumptuous, darting movements of his tongue delightfully tormented its target before it homed in on the bullseye. With a loud, breathy gasp, Lina closed her eyes. Her head and shoulders involuntarily pushed against the tabletop while her hips rose to meet each thrust of Jack’s mouth.

“Jack…Jack, please…”

His name became her plea and she clutched at his shoulders, urging him to rise and continue his invasion more intimately. She half sat up and pulled him to her for a deep kiss that allowed her to tug open his shirt, popping three of its buttons into the shadows.

She locked her ankles at the small of his back and hunched over to grab at his belt. Jack was sure that she would have stripped him and mounted him right there under the stars if he hadn’t scooped her up and carried her to the sliding doors. She clung to him, kissing him, her nude body making Jack clumsy and stupid with desire. He supported Lina with one hand and used the other to tug at the stubborn screen door.

Lina giggled against his lips when the thing wouldn’t budge despite Jack’s blind pulling and tugging. He broke free of Lina’s kiss to give the door handle a hard wrench that yanked it half off its track.

“I’m sure the owner will understand, once you properly explain the circumstances,” Lina teased between the kisses she dotted along the rim of his ear.

Jack’s knees went soft while the rest of him became painfully hard when the tip of her tongue sweetly dipped into his ear.

The cottage was much smaller than any of the hotel suites he had stayed in, but his invisible hosts kept the place exceptionally clean, cozy and inviting, right down to the midnight muffin and fruit platter. The temporary residence was more like a friend’s guest home than a hotel—except for the contents of the hospitality basket in the bathroom.

After positioning Lina on his bed, Jack popped into the bathroom to retrieve the strand of condoms his thorough hosts had included among the miniature shampoos, lotions, mouthwash and disposable razors.

He stood at the side of the bed and forced himself to take his time as he undressed. His leisured, almost indifferent striptease was meant to give himself time to gain a much-needed measure of self-control. As he revealed his chiseled, well proportioned physique, he robbed Lina of her self restraint.