Whirlpool (3 page)

Braden hid his smile. Shit, the man could babble. “Just an estimate.”

“At least a month to start, but the rest of the sorting could take six months to a year.”

Braden swore lightly. “You’re planning on staying in Jaffrey’s Cove for up to a year? Buddy, you’ll need something more than the campground, or even the hotel. Tell you what. I’ve got an apartment you can rent. It’s being renovated, but should be done within a month. Until it’s ready you can stay at my place since I’m at the house with Chelsea.”

Jamie flushed at the mention of her name. Yeah, the man had it bad. “I don’t know what to say, except thank you. I certainly didn’t expect this kind of help. Not after my deplorable behavior at the house. I really do apologize—”

“Your things still in your car?” Braden interrupted again. The reminder of Jamie and Chelsea wrapped together made something inside him ache.

Jamie nodded. “I wanted to check in first. I’m parked down the street.”

“I need to deal with a fender bender, then I’ll take you to my place to get you settled.”

They walked outdoors together. Jamie brushed against him as they pushed through the crowd still assembled before the reception desk. An itch of an idea rose at the back of his brain. Chelsea was right; she needed a little male attention. Braden couldn’t stomach the idea of seeing her with any of the local merfolk, but maybe he could handle it if it was a human with her. One he’d handpicked and approved. Jamie was an attractive guy, and he was already interested in Chelsea. Besides, she was pretty damn gorgeous.

So why didn’t
you
take her up on her offer? Especially now that she’s staying in town?
Braden dealt with the cars in the lot, only concentrating with half his mind. The other half continued to worry about his problem—blonde, stacked and way too beautiful for her own good.

No, it wasn’t her. He’d had this argument with himself a million times over the years. Merfolk were a sensual race. They had a lot of their dolphin form in their human bodies—sex was fun and they had no problem with the sharing of that pleasure in a far more relaxed manner than humans normally did. Except for him…with Chelsea. He just couldn’t bend his head around casual with her. It pissed him off no end, frustrated her and even had him wondering if there was something wrong with him at the root of his nature.

He sated his urges with other members of their community, leaving them extremely happy and himself vaguely satisfied. There was always something missing, and he’d suspected for a long time that
something
was Chelsea.

It wasn’t right to get involved with her. She’d talked about college for so long that he’d gone out of his way to ensure she didn’t get distracted from her goal by anyone local, including himself. Making sure nothing stopped her from stepping out into the world. Just because he loved Jaffrey’s Cove, he still understood there was a lot more to see and do away from their tiny village.

Now that she was staying, the thought of being with her obsessed him. He still couldn’t risk getting involved with her until he figured out what his own issue was. Imagining her with any of the local merfolk—jealousy raised its head damn quick. But Jamie? Could he handle seeing Chelsea with him? Heck, the guy was only a human. It might be a possible solution.

Thirty minutes later the collision was dealt with and Braden hopped in his truck and waved for Jamie to follow him. The man held up a hand and ran back into the hotel. He returned with a set of keys dangling from his fingers. Great, an absent-minded professor. Braden chuckled and led the way through the sleepy tourist town of Jaffrey’s Cove to his home above one of the harbor-side shops. A light breeze blew around them as he unlocked the door. Jamie’s aftershave carried on the air and Braden fought back the urge to lean over and take a closer sniff. Chelsea was right—something about the man really was very attractive. Braden opened the door and ushered Jamie in.

“I really do appreciate this.” Jamie placed his bags down carefully and headed toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Braden smiled. The ocean view was the first thing everyone admired. He grabbed the spare set of house keys from the side table. When he turned back he was surprised to see Jamie had ignored the view and instead knelt to examine the collection of shells piled on one coffee table.

“Fascinating. Where did you find a
Conus gloriamaris
in such good shape? And is that a reverse-coiled Lightning Whelk? Mr. Marley, this is an amazing collection.”

“Braden, please. We don’t go for very formal around here.”

Jamie peeled his gaze off the shells and glanced around the room. “Very comfortable. I like your style.”

“Thank you.”
It seems we have the same taste in many things, including women.
“Let me grab a few things from the bedroom, then you can get settled.” Braden paced off, wondering if he was a touch insane to be planning to allow a virtual stranger to get involved with the woman he wanted more than his next breath.

He dug into his chest of drawers, tossing clothes into a gym bag haphazardly. There was no logic in it, but for the moment, logic be damned. He just needed a few days’ reprieve. Surely granting Jamie permission to pay a little attention to Chelsea wouldn’t hurt anyone in the long run.

Would it?

Chelsea watched with fascination as Jamie dove into another section of the chaos. The day he’d begun work she’d been surprised to have Braden ask her to act as assistant to Jamie.

“You want me to help catalog the collection?” The real unspoken question was totally different.
You want me around a human male all day long, alone?

Braden wrinkled his nose. “If he’s going to get the first stages done before Alexia and the guys return, he’ll need help. Since you’re not leaving for school anymore, I assume you need work and this should be right up your alley. After your years at the museum, I thought you’d enjoy seeing how a trained archaeologist works.”

“Of course, but…”

She checked Braden’s expression. He seemed serious. After he’d walked out on her, leaving her frustrated beyond belief
again
, she’d decided she needed to try a completely different tactic. Inspiration had not hit yet, but there had to be a way around whatever his reason was for keeping them apart. It was time to put the excuses aside.

Now, three days later, she and Jamie had fallen into a comfortable working relationship. He was fun to talk to, with his mischievous turn of phrase, and worked like a packhorse without stopping for hours at a time. He also refused to take apart any of the piles without her jotting down copious amounts of notes.

“Even though chances are the items have no relationship to each other, I’d hate to lose any clues to the identity of an object by moving it too quickly. Since the owner of the collection is dead, and his widow can’t tell us much about the items, we need to create as much of a record of history as possible. If we do find anything valuable, we’ll need to establish evidence of provenance—essentially documenting the items were honestly acquired for this private collection.”

So Chelsea sat with a notebook, writing down his comments as he picked through items one at a time. What was in the pile, what it sat on, where in the room. He took the notebook from her every now and then and scribbled down a few technical phrases, Latin terms, or dashed off a sketch on the page.

“You’re an amazing artist,” she commented as he handed back the book.

He blinked in surprise. “You think so? I’m just an amateur, really.”

She turned the book around and pointed to the open page. “You drew that in less than two minutes and you don’t think you’re talented?” The sketch of the ornate jewelry box was perfectly proportioned, the details easily identifiable.

He gave a wry grin. “I should be taking digital photographs but…I lost my camera.”

A small snort escaped her. “I believe that. Did you find your cell phone? You couldn’t find that yesterday.” Jamie shook his head and she smiled. He knew at a glance what era most of the items in the room were from, but he hadn’t made it to the house once yet without forgetting or losing something.

“A lot of people use their computers for note-taking as well, but there’s something I appreciate about using pen and paper. Or in this case, you using pen and paper. I hope you don’t mind.”

Chelsea laughed. “It’s not like you’re making me slave out under the hot summer sun, Jamie. This is fascinating. Really.”

She settled back and got ready to take more notes. Instead, he sat next to her and tugged the notebook from her fingers, flipping through the pages, adding small notations in the margins. She breathed in his scent, clean sandalwood teasing her nostrils. His thigh pressed tight against hers, the warmth of his body spread like a blanket. It was tempting to lean closer and press their torsos together.

But it wouldn’t be fair. She’d kept a very tight rein on herself as they worked, not wanting to torment him like she’d accidentally done at their first meeting. She struggled to find a distraction. She needed to control herself this time.

“Do you travel a lot with your work?”

“I was in New Mexico last, Greece before that, and the Isle of Man at the start of the year.”

He said it so casually, but Chelsea’s heart thrilled. “Greece? Isle of Man? Oh, I’d love to see those places. It must be so exciting.”

He nodded, his hands gentle as he picked up a Japanese float resting beside him. He examined it in the light before rising to lay it in a box with other cataloged items. “I love traveling, but it’s been a little stressful. It means I’m off the North American continent a lot of the time, and my family hates that. My mom in particular doesn’t like that I’m not available to visit as often as she wants.”

“Moms never want their kids to go away. I’d love to travel someday. I’m saving up.” Well, she had been saving. After she had finished helping the family pay off her dad’s emergency medical bills, and contributed to keeping her sister in school, the funds had dried up and disappeared. All her plans were completely turned around now that she couldn’t afford to head to college.

He winked at her and his beautiful smile warmed the coldness that had begun to creep inside her chest. “Good for you. There are a lot of interesting places in the world.”

“I know, but some people don’t see it that way at all.” She sighed. Jaffrey’s Cove was nice, but she wanted to be able to visit some of the places she’d read about. Experience them for herself. The stolen opportunity twisted her gut tight, and she fought to keep the bitterness from coming through as she spoke. “I still think you’re lucky your job takes you around the world. I bet your family is proud of you.”

Jamie snorted. “My family hates what I do for a living.”

“You’re kidding? But you’re so good at it.” She stared after him as he paced.

“It has nothing to do with how good I am, it’s more to do with being a common laborer and getting my hands dirty.”

That made no sense. “They would prefer you didn’t work?”

“No, no, it’s just that I didn’t go into the family business, and that, my dear, was like kicking them and saying they weren’t good enough for me.”

Ahhh
. “Oh, now I get it. My family doesn’t like what I do either. So I just try not to talk about it with them.”

Jamie brushed his hands together as he turned to frown at her. “I’m a complete idiot. I never even thought to ask if you helping me would cause problems. I assumed since Braden said you were available—”

“Oh, this isn’t the problem. I had quit my position at the museum since I had planned on leaving…” She coughed lightly and brushed at imaginary lint on her shorts. She didn’t want to talk about her aborted college attempt. It still hurt too much. “Helping you is not a trouble at all. I needed to find a new job. No, it’s my side job they don’t like.”

He raised a brow.

“I dance.” Holy cow, were her cheeks getting hot? She was blushing.

She never blushed.

His gaze darted over her again, quick, impersonal this time. “I don’t think you’re built right for the ballet. You could belly dance, or do modern jazz. I can easily see you in a funk ensemble, or then you could—” He broke off, dipping his head in embarrassment. “Damn, sorry. You’re not something to catalog.”

Chelsea smiled to reassure him. “I said you were good. You’re right, although I did train ballet before I hit my growth spurt in my teens.”

He perched on the arm of the loveseat, staring at her. “Chelsea, can I ask a personal question? Feel free to tell me to take a hike, but…what’s up with Braden?”

“What do you mean?”

He checked his watch. “He’s going to arrive in twenty-seven minutes. He’ll pace around the room, look you over carefully, grunt in my direction, then disappear into the kitchen.”

The giggles in her belly started to rise. How had Braden thought he could slip anything past this observant man? “He comes home to make lunch, that’s all.”

Jamie’s expression betrayed his disbelief. “He’ll call out to see if you want anything, remember at the last second that I’m here and add my name to the question. After we both turn him down he’ll sit there…” Jamie pointed to the table, “…and watch us while he eats. Actually, he’ll watch
you
. Then he’ll clean up, come and ask me if I need anything, tell you to behave yourself and he’ll leave after one final dirty look in my direction.”

She couldn’t hold it in anymore. Her laughter rang throughout the room and Jamie joined in. When she could speak again her amusement still sounded in her voice.

“Three days and you know what he’s going to do?”

Jamie pulled his wallet from his pocket and drew out a twenty. He slapped it on the coffee table. “If he deviates from the norm, you win the twenty.”

Chelsea smiled. “I’m not betting against you. That’s exactly what he’s going to do.”

“So the question remains, what’s up?”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Immaculately dressed in dark slacks and a crisp cotton shirt, he looked like he should be in a New York office, not digging through fishing nets and seashells. He was night and day to Braden’s casual jeans or sweats when out of uniform. Damn if she didn’t find them both attractive.