Gentlemen Prefer Nerds (20 page)

“Home?” Maddie shrieked. “What do you mean, home?”

“Cape Town,” he said as if talking about an afternoon outing. “We’ll be safe in the southern ocean. No one will think to look for the Rose out there. Even if they did, they’d never find us in that vast expanse of water.”

“You’re scaring me.” He was serious. She had to do something and she had to do it now. She had two options—stay on board, abducted by a madman on a long sea voyage through storms, pirates and God knows what other dangers to the ends of the earth. Or—

Jump overboard.

Maddie began to shake with whole body tremors. Her teeth clattered and her knees knocked. Both options were unthinkable, impossible. She went to the railing and clasped her bare arms tightly, trying to get a grip as her brain threatened to explode. Outside the sanctuary of the boat, the night and the ocean merged in wild, wet blackness.

“Get below,” Roland ordered. “There’s no point looking for him. You can’t do anything.”

There’s nothing more we can do.
The leader of the search and rescue team had said that after her mother had been lost at sea. Emergency personnel had combed the area for hours. Helicopters had ranged over the wide bay, beams of light playing over the choppy water until well into the early hours of the morning. Maddie had huddled in the bow of the motor launch wrapped in a blanket, refusing to go home without her mother. Only when she was shaking with exhaustion and hypothermia had Grace finally dragged her away. ‘You’re only a child,’ her aunt had said. ‘You couldn’t have saved her.’

But to Maddie, who’d watched her mother drown, no amount of reassurance could assuage the guilt. All her life she’d lived with the knowledge that maybe if she’d been smarter or braver or more adventurous she could have done something to save her mother.

She hauled herself back to the cockpit. “Okay, I’m going.”

“I’m glad you’ve decided to be sensible.” Roland held out his hand. “Give me the purse. I’ll keep it safe.”

Maddie ignored him and heaved up the lid of the bench seat, hoping, praying… Yes! Life jackets. She grabbed two and one more for good measure. Her heart thumped against her ribs.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Roland lunged sideways, stretching out an arm out to grab her.

Dodging his grasp, Maddie edged toward the stern. “I’d rather drown that stay on this boat with you.”

“You’ll never jump. You don’t have the guts.”

“You’re wrong.” A buckle on a life jacket strap got caught on a stay. She tore at it with numb fingers, trying desperately to untangle it.

“You’re just a nerd in glamorous clothing, a girl pretending to be a woman,” Roland went on scornfully. “You’ll stay here where it’s safe, then you’ll go back to your books and microscopes.”

“I’m not listening to you.” The wind whipped the loose ends of the straps. Like octopus legs they coiled and clung to the wires, anchoring her in place.

“You’ll slave away in the back of a shop and grow old and shriveled, sucked dry by wistful thoughts about what life could have been like.” Roland’s laugh was full of mockery and derision. “Leave the riches of the world to adventurers with the courage to go after their dreams. I know you. You don’t have it in you to jump.”

His contemptuous appraisal glommed onto every inner fear she’d ever had and dragged it out of her subconscious. Maddie blinked back angry tears as she fumbled with the straps. One life jacket fell out of her grip and she stepped on it to keep it from sliding overboard. Books and microscopes were looking pretty good right now. If she hadn’t tried to be something she wasn’t, she’d never have gotten herself into this predicament, believing that Fabian could fall for her or that she could pull off the whole glamazon thing.

The straps came free. With a surge of relief Maddie gathered up the fallen jacket and crawled across the top of the after cabin to the stern. She stuck her head through one of the life jackets as she went and slipped the other two over her arms. Ruthlessly forcing down the terror that threatened to choke her, she slung her legs over the rail and lowered herself to the transom. Poised on the narrow ledge, she gazed at the boiling ocean. Every terror in her pantheon of nightmares reared up at her from its black depths.

Roland was wrong about one thing. She was going to leap.

“What are you doing?” Roland called. When she didn’t answer, he glanced back and saw her ready to jump. “Fucking bitch!” Leaving the wheel he scrambled after her across the top of the cabin. “Stop or I’ll shoot.”

Surely he wouldn’t. Maddie glanced over her shoulder.

Roland raised the pistol. He pulled the trigger. There was a bright flash followed by a deafening report. A bullet ricocheted off the aluminum mast next to her ear.

Al had told her not to underestimate what a man would do with twenty million dollars at stake. Maddie didn’t wait for Roland to fire again. She clutched the spare life jackets tightly to her chest and, with a strangled cry of terror and triumph, launched herself off the boat.

* * *

She gasped with the sudden shock of cold as she hit the water. The life jackets kept her from sinking but stinging salt water splashed into her mouth and nose, making her cough and splutter. The swell rolled around her like black mountains, lifting her high in the air before carrying her down, down into the trough.

The swiftly moving boat had traveled about a hundred meters past the place where she’d jumped in. She turned in the opposite direction and started kicking as hard as she could. A flapping of sails made her spin in the water. Roland was turning into the wind and coming about. He was going to search for her. Not her, of course—the Rose. He called her name. A powerful flashlight beam slowly, systematically moved across the water. She was directly in its path.

She suddenly knew without a doubt that he’d never intended her to survive the voyage to Cape Town. She had proof he’d stolen the diamond. If he saw her, he’d shoot to kill. Then all he had to do was fish her dead body out with a grappling hook.

Quickly, she wriggled out of the life jacket, wound the straps of all three around her wrists and let out all her breath so she would sink. Suspended three feet below the surface, clinging to the ends of the belts, she prayed he wouldn’t be able to see her through the rough dark water.

The beam of light passed overhead, pausing on the floating jackets. Pressure built in her chest. Still the flashlight beam lingered, as if he knew she was under there and he was waiting for her to run out of breath.

Her fingers cramped. One strap slipped from her grasp. That life jacket drifted. She sank a little lower. The ocean swell buffeted her back and forth as if she was a lifeless rag doll. How long had it been, a minute? Two?

Every cell in her body burned for oxygen. Her eyes were blurred and stinging. The light briefly moved away over the rippling surface of the water only to return to the floating jackets. Dots danced across her field of vision. Brain…fuzzy around the edges. Seconds stretched into eternity. Darkness beckoned below. Holding on was hard, painful. Easier just to let go. Sink into oblivion…

No, dammit, Roland was not going to win. Letting go seemed like a betrayal of her mother. Maddie tightened her grip on the straps. Using the last of her vanishing strength she reached out to recapture the lost jacket. Just when she thought her lungs would explode, the flashlight beam moved on.

Maddie surfaced, gasping like a dying fish. Salt-scented sea air flooded her airways bringing sweet relief. She clung to her life jackets, filling and refilling her lungs, watching in case the flashlight beam came back. It played over the water in a wide radius around the stern of the sailboat. Fragments of her name borne on the gusting wind came over the waves as Roland called her. Every minute that passed carried her farther away from the boat.

She waited for the swell to carry her up so she could get her bearings. The small island she’d seen earlier was a dark lump on the horizon. From the safety of the boat it hadn’t looked all that far—now the distance seemed impossible. She kicked hard in that direction. If she kept going and didn’t get eaten by a shark, sooner or later she might reach it.

Her hands were cramped from gripping the jackets, so she put one back on and looped her arms through the neck holes of the other two. She clipped the belts together, turning herself into a sort of raft. A whistle dangled next to her jaw but she didn’t dare risk blowing it for fear Roland would hear. Nor could she turn on the tiny lights attached to front of the life jackets.

When she got back to civilization, she was going to hunt Fabian down—if he hadn’t drowned—and rip his aristocratic heart out of his perfect body. How dare he lie to her and use her for his own ends? Despite the chilly water, her cheeks flamed with humiliation as she imagined him chuckling over her naivety. He’d humored her, stringing her along, making her think he was attracted to her, making her think he cared for her.

He’s got another woman, one he won’t give up.
Roland’s words stung with a bright, sharp pain. Fabian had told her his affair with the older woman was over but Maddie knew in her gut he still cared. The past few days he’d been building Maddie’s confidence so she would seduce Roland and get the Rose back. That was forgivable. But he’d also played with her heart and he knew it. She had no idea what his game was with his brother, or if he wanted the Rose for himself, but she knew one thing—sophisticated men like Fabian didn’t go for nerds like her.

Fine. She hated Suits, anyway. Arrogant, superior pricks. She’d been a fool to think Fabian was different. He was worse than all the rest put together.

Maddie swiveled in the water to check on the sailboat. Roland was still calling but his voice was hoarse and the flashlight beam could no longer reach her. The flashlight went out. A few minutes later the sails flapped again. The boat was turning around. He’d given up trying to find her. He was leaving.

She ought to be relieved. She was relieved. But without the sailboat, her last link to humanity had gone. There was no sound anymore but for tiny slaps of water on the life jackets and the howl of the wind. The night ocean was dark, desolate.

She was alone. Completely, terrifyingly, alone.

The Rose was tucked safely in her purse, still strung around her neck and clamped between her ribs and the life jacket. Much good it would do anyone if she drowned at sea. Knowing it was probably pointless, she clicked on the lights on the life jackets, three tiny beacons in the night. They did nothing to dispel the host of fears nibbling at her. Sharks, stingrays, sea snakes, deadly jellyfish…

When she’d been a little girl afraid of the dark, her mother had taught her to sing to cheer herself up. A song to inspire courage and determination would be good right about now, something about climbing every mountain and following her dreams. But she could never remember the words to those kinds of songs. So she sang what she knew.

“‘Who let the dogs out?’
Arf, arf, arf, arf—
” Water splashed into her mouth, making her splutter. She spit it out and carried on. “’Who let the dogs out?’
Arf, arf, arf, arf.
” It wasn’t inspirational or even very melodic, but it kept her mind off sharks.

She swam on, kicking in the direction of the island because there was nothing else she could do. No one knew she needed rescuing, so no one would be coming to save her. She calculated the time to be about 10 p.m. Hours and hours left till daylight. She was tired. And hungry. And thirstier than she’d ever been in her life. Her fingertips were wrinkled up like prunes. This whole seawater-mineral thing was overrated in her opinion. She was going to tell Amanda so the first chance she got.

Would she live to see another dawn? Or would she be carried out to sea by the current? She might float all the way to Papua New Guinea or maybe even the Antarctic. If only she’d studied oceanography, she’d have some idea of which way the ocean currents ran. She pictured herself, a lonely speck on a limitless ocean. Planes flying overhead, cargo ships passing in the distance, all of them oblivious to her weakening cries for help. She would never be found. In a few weeks her family would hold a memorial service. She hoped they would choose good songs to play, something upbeat.

“Arf, arf, arf, arf.”

Finally the wind stopped but with thick clouds covering the moon and stars, the darkness was absolute. She could barely make out the island any longer. Still she kept on swimming even though her legs were numb and so sore she could barely move them. She must have fallen asleep because she found herself dreaming about reaching land only to wake up and find that what she’d thought was a beach was, in fact, coral reef.

It was like waking into a nightmare. The surge pushed her back and forth across the rough coral in a scant foot of water, scraping her bare legs and elbows. When she tried to stand, she stepped on the sharp spines of a sea urchin. The spines penetrated her heel before breaking off. She fell to her knees, then the surge pushed her onto her side. Her palms, her forearms, her knees and thighs were scraped and scoured. Every time her hand or foot dropped into a hole in the coral she imagined a moray eel closing its sharp teeth over her soft flesh. In every direction she crawled, the torture of the reef seemed to go on forever.

Weakened by exhaustion, she gave up hope of ever getting off the reef. Then the clouds parted and the moon showed her the edge of the coral. A big wave caught her and lifted her up. She swam like crazy. When she came down she was in the relative safety of deep water.

“Arf, arf, arf, arf.” She sang and sobbed and swam, trying not to think about how the blood oozing from her battered body would attract sharks.

Maddie came slowly awake. Something was different. She blinked her eyes open, squinting against the brilliant sunshine. Her lips were cracked and her skin crusted with salt. It was daylight and she was still alive. That was good. Her mind was foggy but she was aware enough to know there was more.

Ah, that was it. She wasn’t moving.

A life jacket was digging into her neck, and something sharp cut into the back of her thigh. She reached down and tugged out a broken shell covered in barnacles, bits of seaweed and grains of white sand.

Sand. Beach. Island.

She sat up abruptly only to fall back onto one elbow, her head reeling. She was lying on her side in damp sand just above the tide line. The coarse fabric of the lifejacket had rubbed her shoulders raw. Sand filled her panties and coated her bare legs and belly. Blood oozed from numerous coral abrasions, and her heel throbbed with festering sea urchin spines. But she was alive.

The white sand beach, empty as a deserted island, curved away to end in a rocky point. Above the beach the land rose steeply, covered in dense eucalypt forest with a few coconut palms at the edge. Before her, turquoise water shimmered in dazzling sunlight, as clean and clear as an ad for a tropical resort.

In the distance a helicopter moved slowly across the sky.

They were looking for her and Fabian—no, that was impossible. Only Roland knew they’d gone overboard at sea.

Wincing, Maddie pushed herself to a half-seated position and glanced down the beach in the other direction.

Fabian was lying facedown only meters away, his feet in the water. The life ring she’d thrown overboard for him was wedged into the sand next to him. He was motionless, clad in a pair of black knit boxers caked with shell grit and seaweed.

Her heart lurched. He couldn’t die on her now, not after everything they’d been through. With fingertips so soft and shriveled the skin tore, Maddie unclipped her life jacket and eased it over her head. One bra strap had broken and the cup hung down like a flap. Tugging it up, she crawled over to Fabian.

She touched his shoulder. He didn’t move. His skin was warm but that could be from the sun. Flies buzzed around the black puckered scab on his left arm where Roland had shot him. Two scabs. One entry, one exit wound. From the angle it appeared as though the bullet had missed the bone. Even so she had to hang her head and breathe deeply till a wave of nausea passed. The good news was, she wouldn’t have to dig a bullet out of his arm.

Planting her heels into the wet sand to gain purchase, she pulled him onto his side and kept tugging until he flopped over on his back. She pressed trembling fingertips against his carotid artery. His pulse beat, faint but steady.

Moisture stung the backs of her eyes.
Thank you, God.

His hair was plastered to his scalp, his olive-toned skin leached of color, and drops of water clung to his eyelashes. Placing one hand on the sand either side of his head, she leaned down and put her cheek near his nose. Breath, light as a butterfly wing, tickled the delicate hairs on her skin. Unable to resist, she turned her head and touched her lips to his.

His eyes fluttered open, dark and dazzlingly alive. “Maddie,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Fabian.” Her voice was rough, too, from all the salt water she’d swallowed. “I’m so glad you’re not dead.”

“Really?” He swallowed.

“Yes.” She sat back on her heels and glared at him. “Because you’ve got a helluva lot of explaining to do!”

“I heard you cry out. Did he push you?”

“No, I jumped.” She was not going to admit to having been even the tiniest bit worried about whether Fabian was alive or dead out there in the dark water. “Roland searched for me for a while—he wanted the diamonds. He gave up and now he’s sailing back to South Africa.”

“Good riddance.” Fabian dragged himself up to his elbows and scowled at her. “You little idiot! No diamond, I don’t care how valuable, is worth risking your life for.”

“Roland had a gun. Once he got the diamonds off me, what would stop him from killing me and tossing me overboard?”

Silence.

“He wouldn’t,” Fabian said, a beat too late to be convincing. “He’d have left you on a deserted island somewhere.”

“He shot at me. I can’t believe you’re defending him. Then again, blood is thicker than water.” She scrambled to her feet. Whose side
was
Fabian on? Maybe he and Roland had cooked up this whole plot between them, although why it needed to be so complicated she couldn’t figure. At least not in her present brain-dead state of dehydration, hypothermia, multiple cuts and bruises and impending heatstroke.

“I’m not in league with him.” Fabian rose slowly. Grimacing, he gingerly straightened his injured arm. “Have you still got the Rose?”

The Rose. Maddie reached for her purse. Most of the beads had come off but the fabric was intact and the clasp still closed. Her splayed fingers outlined two heart-shaped lumps—the Rose and the synthetic copy. Thank goodness. “It’s none of your damn business.”

“I beg your pardon?” Fabian used his most aristocratic tone—remote, cool, disdainful. “Without my assistance you never would have recovered that stone.”

Maddie’s fists clenched, matching his iciness with heat. “Was Roland telling the truth? Were you only helping me so you could get the Rose for yourself?”

Fabian drew himself up to his full height and glared down his nose at her. “I’ve got more gems than I know what to do with. I don’t even want them. They’re a curse.”

“That’s it? That’s your whole defense?” She threw up her hands. “I trusted you. I believed what you told me. Then, when it all went pear-shaped, I find out I’m the mug who’d been kept in the dark.” She limped away, kicking up sand.

Then she spun back. “I could have drowned out there. Or been eaten by a shark. Or died from a bullet wound. And all you can say is, ‘I’m above being questioned because I’m rich.’” Maddie stabbed a finger at him. “What exactly is your agenda? Why didn’t you tell me Roland is your brother? Why couldn’t we go to the police? What are you hiding?”

Fabian’s strong jaw set as he turned his profile to her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“No, your kind never does. International man of mystery, that’s you. Well, you can stuff your freaking secrecy up your freaking snuffbox. From now on, leave me alone.”

Maddie limped up the beach, her sore heels digging into the soft sand as she put distance between herself and Fabian. “Snuffbox, that was dumb,” she muttered to herself. “No one uses snuff anymore. But he’s so two centuries ago. He makes me so mad I can’t think straight. Thinks he’s God’s gift. So bloody superior.”

For cripe’s sake, what was she doing still thinking about him? She ought to be looking for water to drink. Her throat was sore from the salty ocean and her mouth was parched. Her lips were chapped and her left breast was already rosy with sunburn above the torn lace. She tugged upward on the broken strap but there was nothing to attach it to. Her wet panties hung so low on her hips that if she hadn’t had that waxing—well, she didn’t want to think about how embarrassed she’d feel.

She wished she’d never kissed him just now. She could only pray he’d been too dazed to know.

Stop thinking about him.

Water. Think about water. She’d read somewhere that a person could survive at sea by drinking a fish’s spinal fluids. Maybe she could unravel the rope on the life ring and attach a pin to use as a fishing line. If only she had a pin.

Fabian strode past her then stopped to study the sky. “Sunrise is at 6:35 a.m. Judging by the angle of the sun, I estimate the current time to be between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Even given that hangovers from the Gala will keep some yachties in bed late, we should see sailboats go past within the next hour or two.”

“How do you know when sunrise is?” Maddie demanded. “You don’t even live in this country. How do you know if sailboats will come past this island? Why won’t you answer my questions about Roland?”

“The times of sunrise and sunset were written on the whiteboard in the harbormaster’s office. I don’t have a clue if sailboats will come past here. I’m trying to be optimistic. As for Roland…” Fabian bent over and scrubbed his hands through his hair, sending out a shower of sand. “It’s complicated.”

“Try me,” she challenged, hands on hips. “I just might understand if you speak in words of six syllables or less.”

Instead of replying, Fabian set off toward the rocky point at the far end of the beach. “I’m going to see what’s around that headland.”