Deep Blue (15 page)

Conn took a drink of his wine. Hope noticed the way one of his long fingers absently played with the glass, and her stomach muscles tightened. She couldn’t believe just looking at a man’s hands could do that to her.

“Even if we got lucky enough to find the mother lode, like Mel Fisher did, the money wouldn’t come all at once. First you’ve got to bring the treasure up, bit by bit, and that can take a good, long time. You’ve got to get the artifacts cleaned up and identified and find people who want to buy them.”

“Yes, but if you wound up with, say, even a couple of million, what would you do?”

“I’d buy a resort on the beach. I’d want a good-sized complex that includes a hotel and restaurants. I want to specialize in diving, have a diving school and boats that take people out. Someplace nice, maybe in the Florida Keys, or maybe down here in the islands.”

“Sounds like you’ve given this some thought.”

“It’s always been my plan. I had a good bit of money saved up before I got married. Unfortunately, my wife managed to wind up with most of it.”

“Didn’t you have a prenup?”

Those intense blue eyes lasered in on her face. “Don’t tell me that creep, Richard, asked you for a prenuptial agreement?”

Hope shrugged her shoulders. “That’s the way it’s done these days. Richard worked hard for his money. If things didn’t work out between us, he wanted to protect himself.”

Conn snorted a laugh. “He was setting you both up for failure from the start. Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, two people working together to build a future. If either party isn’t willing to do that, why bother getting married?”

He had a point. It was certainly what she had always believed, and at the time, though she never let Richard know, his asking for that kind of agreement had hurt her very badly.

“You may be right. I kind of thought so, once. Still, if you’d had one, you might not be so bitter about your divorce.”

“I’m bitter because Kelly went into the marriage with the same attitude Richard did. She was never really committed. Mostly, she wanted what she could get for herself and in the end, she did pretty damned well.”

“So now we know what you’ve got against women.”

His mouth edged up. “Not all women.” Reaching over, he caught her wrist, hauled her down on the blanket, and came up over her. He started kissing her and she sighed into his mouth. The kiss went on and on, his tongue sliding over hers, their lips melding, teasing and coaxing and sexy.

The tank top left his shoulders bare. Her fingers dug into the muscles there and she felt them tighten. His hands found her breasts, softly cupped them. He unbuttoned her blouse and pulled it open, then looked down and saw the minuscule top of the yellow flowered bikini underneath.

Conn hissed in a breath. “This I’ve got to see.”

She laughed as he helped her shed the blouse, unsnapped her shorts and buzzed down the zipper, then urged her to lift her hips so he could slide the shorts down over her legs.

He surprised her by coming to his feet and tugging her up beside him, then taking his time with a long, thorough perusal of her body.

“Sweet God have mercy. You’re practically naked. If you wear this in front of Joe, I’ll have to kill him.”

Hope laughed, enjoying the desire she read in those fierce blue eyes. “You’re drooling a little. Let’s see if you like the view from the back.” She turned around, flashing the tiny square of fabric that didn’t quite cover the crack of her behind.

“Oh, yeah,” Conn said. “I like it just fine. Why don’t we see how practical it is?”

He stripped off his tank top and shorts and she saw that he was wearing a Speedo, smaller and more comfortable, under his shorts. God, he had a body to die for, a swimmer’s body, vee-shaped and solid muscle. The sinews across his stomach rippled as he swept her off her feet and into his arms. Hope shrieked as he waded into the pool.

The water was cool, but not cold. When he let go of her legs, she slid the length of his body and her toes curled into the sandy bottom. In this spot, the water came just above her waist.

“I love your bathing suit,” Conn said, his eyes fixed on her breasts. “As long as you only wear it for me.”

She gave him a flirty smile. “I’ll think about it.”

“One more thing.” He lowered his head and started to kiss her.

“What’s that?” She let her head fall back as his mouth drifted over the side of her neck.

“Don’t expect to have it on long.”

She laughed as he pulled the string on her top and it fell into the water. Conn plucked it up, tossed it up on the bank, then replaced the fabric with his mouth. Hot, tugging pulls on her nipple made her quiver. His tongue slid out, curled around the end, and she moaned.

She tested the muscles on his chest, ran her fingers through his softly curling chest hair, moved lower till her palm covered the thick bulge barely contained by the tiny swimsuit.

“That can’t be comfortable,” she said. “I think you had better take it off.” She slid her hand inside the elastic band and pulled it open, freeing his arousal, and Conn made a low, hissing sound in his throat. She slid the suit down over his hips and a faint tremor ran through him. He tossed the swimsuit up on the sand next to her top and zeroed in on her bikini bottom, pulling the strings on the sides, yanking it off, and tossing it up with the rest.

Hope moaned as his hands moved over her flesh, cupping her breasts, moving lower, testing the springy curls between her legs, his fingers parting her sex and sliding inside. He stroked her all the way to a crushing climax; then, as she spiraled down, lifted her up, wrapped her legs around his waist, and filled her with a single penetrating thrust.

They made love there in the pool, a fierce mating that built swiftly to climax. Afterward they climbed out of the pool, up on a mossy bank, and lay down side by side. Overhead the sky was as blue as Conn’s eyes, and not a whisper of a cloud to block the heat of the sun.

From beneath her lashes, Hope studied the man beside her, the beautiful golden-brown tan, the curly dark chest hair barely hiding the slabs of muscle underneath. Her gaze moved lower and she saw that he was as hard as he had been before.

“I think you need a cold shower,” she teased.

Conn smiled. “Good idea.” Taking her hand, he tugged her toward the pool and both of them slid back into the water. Naked, they swam toward the falls on the opposite side and Conn climbed up on a rocky ledge beneath the misty spray. Reaching for her hand, he pulled her up beside him and straight into his arms.

His kiss was slow and deep, a long, wet kiss that had her moaning. The waterfall thundered in her ears, even louder than the rapid beat of her heart. A cool spray washed over her and yet she felt on fire. She kissed him and kissed him, couldn’t seem to get enough and neither could he.

She felt his mouth on her breasts, lapping, tasting, teasing. He lifted the fullness into his palm, suckled and tugged until her knees felt shaky. His hands slid down her body, through the thatch of reddish curls at the juncture of her legs. Beads of water sparkled there, glittering in the sun slanting down through the lush growth of trees.

She was damp inside as well, as Conn soon discovered. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but she found herself turned toward the slick rock wall, Conn’s hard body pressing against her back. Catching her wrists, he lifted them above her head and flattened her palms against the wall.

Hot kisses rained over her shoulders and along the side of her neck. Nudging her legs apart, he stroked her until she was trembling. She felt the head of his erection replacing his talented hands, then he was filling her, surging deep inside.

Dear God!
Hope arched her back, lifting her hips, taking him deeper still, and heard him groan.

Conn set the pace and his rhythm caught her up, the heavy thrust and drag, the feel of his hardness inside her. The heat was overwhelming. The power of him seemed to surround her, absorb her into his very skin. One of his big hands slid around her waist, moved down to part the soft folds of her sex. He stroked her in rhythm with each of his heavy thrusts, his hips pounding into hers, skin against skin, the pleasure building until she wanted to scream.

Her body shook. Her womb contracted and she started to come.
So sweet,
she thought. So incredibly sweet she couldn’t seem to stop.

She was calling his name, she realized, as her senses slowly began to return, repeating it over and over like a prayer, and Conn was whispering soft words in her ear.

“Easy. I’ve got you.”

Tears welled in her eyes. It was ridiculous. Their mating had hardly been tender. It was wild, almost primitive. Perhaps that was the cause. He had reached deeper inside her, claimed more of her than any man ever had.

“It’s all right,” he said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe with me.”

The words slithered through her head like a snake in the garden, bringing a cold wash of reality. Men said those things to women all the time. They didn’t really mean them. She closed her eyes, tried to close herself off from him, but Conn turned her around and gathered her up in his arms.

“You don’t have to be afraid. We’re good together, that’s all. It surprised me a little, too.”

She swallowed past the tears in her throat, began to feel like a fool. He was right. It was just that the sex was so good, so powerful. She had never experienced anything like it.

“I’m sorry.” She managed a wobbly smile. “It was just…I wasn’t quite prepared, is all.”

Conn caught her chin, lifted it, and very softly kissed her. “Neither was I.”

He slipped down off the ledge, back into the water, reached up to help her down. They swam back across the pool and climbed out on the mossy bank.

“I didn’t think of everything,” he said, looking down at the blanket. “I forgot to bring towels.”

Still trying to get back on track, she made a feeble attempt to smile. “That’s all right. We’ll sun-dry, just like tomatoes.”

Conn laughed. “That sounds good to me. But if you don’t put something on—something more than that tiny bikini, I can’t be responsible for my actions.”

Her gaze swung toward him. “You don’t mean you could—” She broke off as she realized he was already hard again.

“Yeah, I could. I can’t exactly figure out what you do to me, but it’s pretty amazing.”

Hope felt a wave of relief. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t the only one who was caught a little off guard by the incredible attraction between them.

After they had dried a little in the sun, she put on her shorts and blouse and began to feel a little better.

Then she thought of the intense emotion she had felt when Conn had made love to her beneath the falls, and all her old fears rose up again.

The Jeep carried them back to The Villas. The roads around the island were narrow but mostly paved and the views were spectacular, turquoise water rolling up on white-sand beaches, the sea darkening to a crystalline blue farther offshore. As they pulled through the gates of The Villas, there were more guests than usual milling in front of the lobby, pool area, and restaurant, the beaches dotted with more people than Conn had ever seen before.

He wondered if the article Hope had written in
Adventure
, now out on the stands, combined with the stories of finding the
Rosa
that had started appearing in the newspapers, were responsible for the increase.

If so, he imagined Emperor Eddie would be pleased.

Conn sure as hell wasn’t.

He flicked a glance at the woman sitting next to him. She hadn’t said much on the ride back to The Villas. He had a hunch she was running scared again. In a way, he didn’t blame her. He couldn’t remember having a more powerful sexual encounter with a woman.

And he was afraid it wasn’t just body chemistry that made the attraction between them so strong.

He was pondering the notion when he pulled down the lane that led to the units they were occupying and noticed another of the island Jeeps driving up in front. Hope’s villa sat next to his. Conn pulled up there and turned off the engine.

“Looks like you’ve got company.” Hope was staring at the Jeep.

Conn followed her gaze to the tall, statuesque blonde who climbed out of the passenger side and started walking toward him. For an instant, he figured she was one of Joe’s numerous conquests. Then she turned, flashed a perfect white smile and an astonishing set of dimples. Conn cursed.

“Conn! Conner! Hey, Conn, it’s me!” The blonde started toward them, waving and smiling, obviously glad to see him.

“Old friend?” Hope asked, a burnished eyebrow arching up. Her expression, stiff before, had turned completely to stone.

“I guess you could say that. Listen, Hope—”

“Conner!” Gloria Rothman rushed toward Conn’s side of the Jeep. Hoping to head her off, he climbed out as she approached.

“Oh, Conn, I’m so glad to see you!” Glory threw her arms around his neck and gave him the female version of a body slam. “I missed you so much!” Then her lips covered his in what was meant to be a steamy kiss. Conn grabbed her arms and tried to pull himself free, but she hung on like a leech.

“Cut it out, Glory!” He was finally able to extricate himself by holding her arms down to her sides. “For God’s sake, what are you doing here?”

She looked crestfallen. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“Well…sure I am, but…” From the corner of his eye, he saw Hope walking rigidly toward her villa, and he swore a silent oath. “The problem is, since I didn’t know you were coming, I made plans with someone else.”

“Someone else?” Her big brown eyes went huge. “What do you mean,
someone else?
”

“Listen, Glory, there was never anything exclusive about our relationship—you know that. We only went out for a couple of weeks, just while you were in Jamaica on vacation. We had a lot of fun, but I wasn’t even sure I’d ever see you again.”

Fun
meaning they had spent most of the time in bed. Glory was twenty-seven, beautiful, and bored. She came from a wealthy Jewish family who lived in Florida. By the time he met Glory, Kelly had been gone for months and he had badly needed some sexual relief. Glory was definitely good for that.

He heard the front door of Hope’s villa open and slam closed.
Son of a bitch.

“I thought you’d be glad to see me,” Glory said, her bottom lip quivering. “I thought I would surprise you.”

He took hold of her slim shoulders. “Look, Glory. I never meant to hurt you. If things were different…if I’d known you were coming, I could have made other plans. As it is, at least for the time being, I’m committed somewhere else.”

She sniffed, stuck her perfect little nose into the air. “I can’t leave until tomorrow. I’ll have to stay with you until then.”

“I’ll talk to Eddie, find another place for you to stay.”

“All of the units are full. They told me so when I called. I didn’t think I’d need a place to stay. I was planning to come out to the boat.”

“The boat’s under repair.” He looked at Glory, but his mind was on Hope.
Damn.
After that bastard, Richard, she was bound to be thinking the worst.

Glory’s eyes welled with tears. “What am I going to do? I can’t believe you don’t want me anymore.”

Conn sighed. He cast a glance toward the unit he was staying in. There were five big bedroom suites. They were only using three. “All right, you can spend the night. But you’re going back on tomorrow’s plane.”

The tears were gone in a heartbeat, replaced by a bright, triumphant smile. “I knew you’d change your mind. I’ll just go unpack.” She grabbed the handle of the carry-on Chalko had set on the sidewalk in front of the villa and started wheeling it toward the house.

Conn swore under his breath and started walking toward the unit next to his.

Hope heard the determined pounding. For a minute she thought the sound was the ringing in her head. She had a monster of a headache, getting worse by the minute. It had started when she’d seen Conn kiss the blonde.

The noise grew louder, more insistent. “I’m not going away until I talk to you, so you might as well let me in.”

It was Conn. She didn’t want to talk to him. She knew the kind of things he would say, the things men always said. “Go away!”

Conn said a dirty word she would rather not have heard.

The pounding stopped. Several seconds passed. She heard the thud of his deck shoes hitting the ground on this side of the patio wall, then the whoosh of the sheer white curtains as he strode into the living room.

“I’ve got something to say and you’re going to listen.”

“Get out of here before I call security.”

His mouth curved into a nasty smile. “Go ahead. Right now I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to get into a good, old-fashioned brawl with a couple of security guards.”

A thread of uneasiness slid through her. He was an ex-Navy SEAL. He could certainly handle any of the men who worked on the island.

She turned her back on him. “Say what you have to say and get out.”

Conn moved behind her, took a solid grip on her shoulders, and forcibly turned her around. “I went out with Glory when I first got to Jamaica. We dated for a couple of weeks while she was here with her girlfriend on vacation. That’s all there is to it. She went back to Florida and I stayed here. I had no idea she was going to show up on Pleasure Island.”

“Fine. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that she’s here now and she expects you to…to…
entertain
her.”

“I don’t want to
entertain
her. She’s going back where she came from and that’ll be the end of it.”

“She’s leaving?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“On tomorrow’s plane.”

She gave him a tight, knowing smile. “And in the meantime, I’ll bet she just has to stay with you. Right?”

“Goddamn it, Hope! I don’t want her here at all, but the rest of the villas are full and she has to stay somewhere. Unless you want her staying with you.”

“Oh, no. No, thanks. She’s
your
friend. You deal with her.”

“Fine. I’ll remember you said that.” Turning, he stalked toward the door. When he reached it, he stopped and turned. “I’m not interested in Gloria Rothman. I’m interested in you. Maybe that’s what you’re really worried about.”

Lifting the wrought iron latch, he strode out, slamming the heavy wooden door behind him.

Hope just stood there. This afternoon Conn had made passionate love to her. Now he was spending the night with another woman. She told herself she should have known something like this would happen. That was just the way men were.

But her chest was aching, her stomach twisted into a baseball-size knot.

Hope swallowed the tears in her throat and willed herself not to cry.

Women.
Joe Ramirez watched the blond bombshell throwing herself at Conn and shook his head. Conn wasn’t interested. Couldn’t she see that? She was a beautiful girl. Spoiled, for sure, a little bit selfish. But there was something sweet about her.

Angry when she wouldn’t leave him alone, Conn had slammed out of the villa. Joe figured he’d go off someplace where he wouldn’t have to think about anything remotely connected to the opposite sex. Across the room, the girl, Glory, sat in a wicker chair staring out the window toward the beach. She was pouting, furious she hadn’t gotten her way with Conn.

Joe inwardly grinned. A Cuban man would probably put her over his knee. He got up from his chair and sauntered toward her, propped his shoulder against the wall a couple of feet away.

“Odds are, he won’t be back till late—if he comes back at all. You want to go get something to eat?”

She shook her head, blond hair swinging from her makeshift ponytail.

“You know, you two only dated for a couple of weeks. He doesn’t owe you anything. You don’t owe him anything, either.”

Her attention lifted to his face. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think you’re a beautiful woman and if I were Conn, I’d love to spend the night with you. But Conn’s met someone. He’s involved with a woman he cares about. Sometimes things like that happen.”

“But we had so much fun together. I thought he really felt something for me. That’s why I came to see him.”

Joe shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think you just got bored. You wanted to play and you thought Conn would want to play, too.”

He reached down and caught her hand, tugged her to her feet. “Why don’t the two of us play instead? It’s going to be a fabulous night. They’ll have a steel band playing on the terrace. We could get some supper, then take a walk on the beach.”

She bit her lip, plump and a pretty pink color. Joe felt a tightening in his groin.

“I don’t know…”

“There’s a little sailboat out there on the sand. I could take you out for a midnight sail if you like.”

Glory looked at him and for the first time she actually seemed to see him. “You’re a really good-looking guy, Joe. Maybe if I went out with you, it would make Conn jealous.”

She seemed so hopeful he almost smiled. “I don’t think so.” He lifted her hand to his lips, pressed his mouth against her fingers. “But I do think we’d have a good time. I bet you wouldn’t even think about Conn. You might even be glad you came here.”

She eased her hand away, looked at the spot where his lips had been, then gave him a tentative smile. “I think, Joe Ramirez, you could be even more of a heartbreaker than Conn.”

Joe looked into those deep brown eyes and felt as if he could get lost in them. “You know what I think? I think if you tried, you could break any man’s heart you wanted.”

Glory studied him for several long moments, took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. When she smiled, he felt this funny little pinch in his chest.

“All right, Joe, let’s go out and play.”

Conn spent the night on the beach. It wasn’t the first time, probably wouldn’t be the last. He told himself it had nothing to do with Hope, nothing to do with the fact that he didn’t want her thinking he had spent the night with Glory. It was just that he was pissed at women in general and he needed a little space.

By the time he got back to the villa the following day, Joe was up and gone and so was Glory. Tommy Tyler came stumbling out of one of the bedrooms, scratching the curly red hair on his skinny chest.

“You just get in?” Tommy asked, yawning.

“I figured I was safer on the beach than I was in here.”

“I think Joe kept her occupied.”

“Sounds like Joe.”

The telephone rang just then. Conn picked up the receiver, heard the voice of the woman at the front desk on the other end of the line.

“I’m supposed to tell you the new part you needed for the boat came in early. The plane is bringing it back with them this afternoon.”

Well, at least there was some good news. “Has the plane left yet for Jamaica?”

“They’ll be taking off in just a few minutes.”

“Thanks.” Conn hung up the phone, thinking of Glory, hoping she was with Joe and he was putting her on that plane.

Instead the front door slammed open and the laughter of a familiar female voice floated into the living room. Glory and Joe walked through the foyer, past the big, leafy planter overflowing with tropical greenery, across the deep cream carpet, stopping right in front of him.

“Morning,” Joe said.

Conn looked over at Glory, who was staring up at Joe with that same doe-eyed expression she had formerly reserved for him. “I thought you were leaving.”

“I talked her into staying one more night,” Joe said, looking damn near as starry-eyed as Glory.

“Yeah, well, the part we need for the fuel pump is coming in on the plane this afternoon. We’ll be taking it back to the boat as soon as it gets here.”

“We’re about due to resupply. When do you plan to head back to Jamaica?”

“I’d like to get in at least another day’s work before we leave.” He looked at Joe, clearly reading his mind. “And we won’t be in Jamaica overnight.”

Joe turned to Glory. “If you stay here tonight, you could ride back on the boat when we go. And we’d have most of today together. What do you say?”

Ride back on the boat? Conn wanted to strangle Joe.

Instead, he left them to work out the details and went in to shower and shave. Once he had dressed in a clean pair of navy blue shorts and a loose-fitting shirt, he felt better.

Which was good, because there was something he needed to do.

Conn left his villa and headed for the villa next door.

Hope turned at the sound of the front door opening and closing, saw Conn walk into the entry. “You left the door unlocked. I don’t care where you are, it’s not a good idea.”

“No kidding. You never know what kind of lowlife might come waltzing in.”

His jaw hardened. “If that crack is supposed to piss me off, it does. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I can pretty much guess. The truth is, I’ve been straight with you from the start, Hope. I’ve never lied to you about anything and that includes Glory Rothman.”