Eden's Spell (23 page)

Katrina's eyes narrowed lazily. “No, she won't.”

“How—”

“Toni is baby-sitting.”

“How—”

“Oh, please shut up and let me explain later! We're supposed to be back for dinner, so I'd say an hour is all that we have.”

He stared down at her, a little incredulous, a little doubtful. The answering flame in her eyes assured him, the touch of her fingers along his arms decided him.

“You're right,” he murmured, tugging at the halter tie around her neck. “I've an hour to make sure you can barely move—doubting my prowess!”

Her dress fell to the floor. She stepped outside of it, then kicked it and her sandals away. Clad in the flimsiest excuse for panties he'd ever seen, she took a step toward him and started on his buttons once again. He slipped his fingers beneath the panty rim, stroking her rounded buttocks.

“Stop!” she whispered. “I'll never get these buttons!”

“Oh, the hell with them!” Mike laughed, ripping his shirt open. She laughed; her fingers fell to his belt buckle and he lost patience completely, sweeping her into his arms.

He locked the door to the lab, swung around, and carried her to the bunk in the back, hobbling in his efforts to remove his shoes. Katrina awaited him on the bunk, stretching luxuriously, wondering why and how she had ever denied herself this happiness. It didn't matter, she was with him now.

He was finally naked, but she could wait no longer. She sprang to her knees and enwrapped his torso, relishing the tremor and constriction of muscle. Her kisses fell over his chest, darting whispers of heat and moisture. She clutched him, and loved him, coming alive at his hoarse whispers, deviously determined to make him half crazy, determined to give herself the ultimate pleasure of driving him mad. She wanted to love him, love the wonderful, potent force of his desire.

“Katrina …” He breathed her name as the splendor of her kiss racked through his body. And he clutched her shoulders, drawing her up, hard against his chest, and then beneath him. His hands cupped her breast, her breast filled his mouth. She moved deliriously beneath him, and in a frenzy his hands molded her body, his mouth tasted all of it. In moments she was whimpering, a wildcat, twisting, arching, a fury of sensuality, longing to be a part of him.

“Hmmm,” he groaned delightedly, holding her still to watch her face as he moved over her.

“Are you sure you weren't into the drug cabinets?”

She heatedly clasped his neck, bringing his lips to hers. “You are the drug, my love. Your hands, your touch, your eyes, your—”

“My what?”

“Come here, I'll whisper. Oh!”

He was inside her, shuddering, remembering. Loving her now more than he ever could have before. Whispering her name. Relishing the sound of his own on her lips.

Knowing that love was real, and that it was theirs.

Mike rose first; Katrina tried to snuggle beneath the covers.

“Up!” he told her, tapping her bottom.

“Stop!” she moaned.

“We have to get back to the dinner. To the children, remember, Mrs. Denver?”

She tried to rise and failed. His arms came around her to support her, and she cast him a baleful glance.

“When you take revenge, you take revenge!”

“Complaining?”

“No!” she laughed. “No, never.”

“I can always carry you. Thank God you're so light.”

“Don't be ridiculous! What would the children think?” She groaned. “Oh! And Frank is there too! He's going to taunt me to death!”

Mike shook his head. “He's a great guy,” he said a little huskily. “Very special.” He caught Katrina's hand suddenly. “Katrina, you don't have to lose them, you know. You're marrying me—not giving up anything, none of the love that came with a past life.”

She touched his cheek, warmed by the care in his eyes. “I know. Maybe it just took me a while to understand it.”

He smiled and released her. Back in the lab he picked up her dress and threw it at her.

“Come on! I have to make the announcement before you chicken out on me.”

Katrina stumbled into her dress. “I won't chicken out!”

He cocked his head to the side and grinned at her. “Keep 'em hungry!” he teased. “Works every time.”

“Oh, do shut up! And let's go!”

Dinner was nice. Jason was ecstatic. Toni was a little stunned, but she handled it all well.

And Frank didn't tease her at all. He broke out a bottle of wine, and wore a self-satisfied smirk all night as if he had planned the entire thing himself.

The next afternoon Mike took Katrina over to an out-of-the-way place in Largo.

Katrina wanted at least a month to plan for a wedding. “It really is so sudden! And—”

“And what?”

“I can't help it. I'm very traditional. I want organ music, flowers, and wonderfully solemn vows, blessed by God. I want the Denvers there—Frank and Ted and Nancy, and—oh, Mike! I hope they really understand. They mean so much to me. It wasn't just James, you see. I grew up spending half my time in their house. Either I was there, or James was at my house. Oh! And speaking of my mother”—Katrina suddenly laughed—“she's going to want to take charge. I'm not going to let her, of course.”

“Your poor mother!” he sympathised, but then he shook his head. “Such a whirl of energy—and she gave you such a lovely temper!”

“I haven't got a bad temper.”

“I have endured a few slaps that say differently.”

“You deserved a lot more than slapped cheeks!”

After a long lunch they strolled along the dock. Rock Cay was a small dot in the southern distance.

“It's going to be hard to leave.” Katrina sighed, leaning against him.

He frowned, resting his chin on the top of her head. “Where are we going?”

“I don't know. Where
are
we going?”

“Wherever you get sent next,” Katrina murmured, and he whirled her around to face him.

“You mean you were ready to pick up and go—anywhere?”

Katrina blushed, staring out at the horizon. “Well, of course, you're in the Navy.”

She was startled when he swung her back around, hugging her fiercely. “Kat … I can't tell you how damn good it feels to hear that. But we're not going anywhere.”

“We're not?”

“Oh, on a honeymoon, yeah. But we're going to stay on Rock Cay. I'm retiring.”

“Mike!” she gasped. “No! That's your life, your career! I can't ask you to—to give it up.”

“I don't intend to give up what I do, any more than I expect you to stay out of the reefs. I thought I'd start up a small private practice. On Largo, or Islamorada. Just for a few days a week. Because I never intend to quit with the 44DFS project. And I've a few other—”

“Bless us and save us!” Katrina prayed vehemently. “Go on.”

“Go on? That's it. We'll just leave the lab where it is. What do you think?”

She chuckled. “I don't know what I think about the lab, but, oh, Mike! If you're serious, I'm thrilled.”

“I am serious. Jason won't have to change schools, and Toni will be in Miami. It's perfect. And you won't have to leave Frank and your business.” He hesitated just a second, stroking the length of her hair. “Katrina, I went to see Nancy Denver this morning.”

“You—did?”

“I told her that I wanted her to know that I loved you very much, and that I love her grandson too. And that I hoped that I wouldn't change anything, that she'd be every bit as welcome on Rock Cay as she has always been.”

“Oh, Mike! What did she say?”

“That she loves you too. That she hopes we'll be very happy.”

“Oh, Mike.” Tears stung her eyes, tears of happiness and pain. “It was his island, really. James's. His dream. His Eden. And it killed him.”

Mike wrapped his arms around her tightly. “The island didn't kill him, Katrina. Life is something which we have to live with faith. You have to really believe sometimes. Damn, Katrina, I was the one in the service! Yet Margo was the one who was killed. There's no justice to it. I stayed sane by believing that there was a greater world beyond ours, that she was beyond all pain. And by believing that I could make a change in this one.”

Katrina turned and hugged him very tightly. “You're a dreamer!” she accused him softly. “But you do make it a better world!”

“If I can have you in it, then that's all I really want.”

Stan had let Mike know that Al Stradford was going in to Islamorada to the bar.

Mike followed him over.

He waited until he was seated alone at a booth, idly sipping at a whiskey. Then he slipped across from him.

Al glared at him warily. “What are you after, Taylor? You managed to get things your way—so what more do you want?”

“Actually, I want to thank you. Then warn you.”

“You are crazier than a Cheshire cat!” Al accused him. He watched him for a moment, certain that Mike meant to lash out at him any second.

“Settle down, Stradford,” Mike said, smiling. “If I'd wanted another brawl, I'd have said so.”

Al watched him for several seconds, then decided that he was telling the truth. “Want a drink?”

“Yeah. I'll take a beer.”

Al kept watching him as they signaled for the waitress.

“What is it?” Al suddenly exploded. “Come on, Taylor, you've already proven you could beat me.”

Mike laughed. “Is that it, Al? Hey, life is always like the rungs of a ladder. So I can beat you. Maybe the next guy will be able to beat me.”

“Oh, yeah?” Al arched a brow as he lifted his glass to Mike. “Not you, Taylor. You're always the damn hero. And nobody likes a damn hero time after time.”

Mike made an impatient gesture. “I'm not a hero, Al.”

“No? You pulled me out of a sinking ship.”

“Damn it, anyone would have done that, Al!” He shook his head. “Is that it? You've spent all these years working behind my back to sabotage projects because I pulled you out of a ship? Hell—maybe I should have let you drown!”

Al hesitated, then shrugged, apparently having decided it didn't matter much anymore what he said. “All right, maybe that started it. But if I came to the admiral with one idea, damned if you didn't give him another one. A better one. If I saw a woman I liked, she was already sleeping with you. When bombs were exploding around us, you just kept working without missing a stroke, and I thought I'd die of fright every damn time. Every damn place I wanted to be, Taylor, you'd reached it already. Everything I wanted to be—you already were.”

Mike shook his head. “Al, you ass! I've been so scared I was afraid I'd run away with someone's wound half sewn up. And I've been on the admiral's black list, and I've been turned down half a dozen times on what I thought were brilliant ideas.”

Al hadn't seemed to have heard. “Even the girl the other night. What was it with you, Taylor? She was out with me—so you just had to have her instead.”

Mike shook his head, then drained the beer the waitress had brought him. “That's what I came to thank you for. I'm marrying her, Al.”

That caught Stradford's attention.

“You—you're getting married again?”

“Yeah. And it's thanks to the fact that you arranged to see that she wound up stuck on the island with 44DFS.”

“That's a crock! You can't prove it!” But he had been caught off guard, and his voice lacked conviction.

“No, I can't prove it. But I know it. You called and told her we'd canceled, and you told the Marines she was gone.”

“I—yeah, I did it,” Al rasped out wearily. “You can't prove it, though. What—what are you going to do?”

“I'm going to retire.”

It seemed that Al held his breath for a long, long time.

“And you're going to let me off? Just like that.”

Mike stood, grimacing down at him. “Maybe. We'll see. I expect you to do something yourself, Stradford. Let your conscience be your guide.”

Mike left him, squaring his shoulders, his smile just a little bit bitter.

Katrina was there when he returned to the island, waiting for him on the beach. The wind rippled her hair; her feet were bare. He beached the launch, then came to her, wrapping his arms around her, feeling long silken tendrils of her hair blow and weave about him like a delicate web.

She kissed him lightly, slipped an arm around his waist, and started for the trail.

He pulled her back. “Wait a minute, Katrina. I have to tell you something.”

She paused, smiling a little hesitantly at his tone.

“What?”

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Katrina, I found out who called you about the project. It was Al Stradford. He wanted the project blown.”

Katrina stared at him searchingly. “Can you prove it?”

“No.”

“But?”

“I just talked to him.”

Again, her beautiful sea eyes searched his. “And?”

“It's difficult; he's a good doctor, and a good scientist. I'm hoping that he'll turn himself in, and that the Navy will go easy on him.”

She touched his hair. “Let's wait and see, shall we?”

He nodded.

A secret smile was on her lips as she took his arm again and they walked back to the house.

Jason and Harry were playing a game of backgammon in the living room. They could hear Toni humming in the kitchen.

Mike had barely closed the door when the phone started ringing. Toni answered it, then came around the kitchen door.

“Oh, Dad! You are back.”

“Was it for me?”

“Yes, and it was rather peculiar. It was Captain Stradford. He said he wanted to volunteer his services for the 44DFS project. For whatever you may need.”

Katrina and Mike stared at each other, then grinned.