Read Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers Online

Authors: Cait London

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #Fiction - Romance, #Contemporary, #General, #Romance: Modern, #Adult, #Romance - Contemporary, #Romance - Adult, #Bodyguards, #Widows

Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers (7 page)

BOOK: Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers
12.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Willow seemed to be desperately trying to conceal her anxiety. Alexi dutifully smelled the soap and handed it back to her. At the dance she’d seemed relaxed and delightful; now she was obviously tense and distracted. “Is something wrong, Willow?”

She shook her head and that hair, parted in the middle, quiv
ered softly around her head. “Nope,” she seemed to squeak in a high-pitched voice. “Just busy. I’m working on genealogy, you know, just getting the families of Amoteh, and I worked late last night. I have an apartment in the back and I heard a noise, and I—oh, it was nothing of course, but still I had a difficult time going back to sleep. It really was nothing, Alexi.”

Too earnest in her denial, Willow was evidently hiding something. “The dance at the resort last week was really nice,” she said quickly. “Thanks for dancing with me. I’m pretty clumsy. Um…did you come here for a special reason? I don’t want to take up your time by chattering on and on, and I do that, chatter on and on—and I know you’re busy working at the old Matthews place, fixing it up. And you bartend in your spare time, filling in. That’s sweet of you. Oh, I’m supposed to go get Mrs. Black and take her to the beauty shop, and I—something came up and I forgot. I’d better call. Look around.”

She hurried through the curtains behind the counter and Alexi heard her punching telephone buttons. “Mrs. Black, I’m sorry I’m late, but something happened last night—yes, I live alone, too, and I thought I heard someone at the door. No, I didn’t call the police. It’s just been weird here lately. I’ll be right over. I just have to close the shop.”

Alexi looked down at the computer-printed note on the counter: “W. You have made me angry. You will pay.”

Jessica had been right; someone was bothering Willow, and she was obviously tense and upset. The telephone rang again and Willow answered cautiously, her voice hushed. “Please don’t call again. Please,” she pleaded.

Alexi picked up the bar of soap and compared the printing on the label to that of the warning note. It matched, but it could have been another machine like Willow’s. Or someone who had access to hers.

When Willow pushed through the curtains, she was obviously upset, tears in her eyes. The odd smell of onions wafted from her and she pushed a cell phone into her pocket.

“I’ll take these,” Alexi said, and placed one of Ed’s worry stones on the counter with some scented soap wrapped in raffia. “Do you know Jessica Sterling very well?”

Willow seemed nervous as she rang up his purchase. Then she looked over her glasses to Alexi and said very firmly, “She’s my dearest friend. I think the world of her, and she’s terrific. She’s very special. Her beauty isn’t only on the outside. I can’t tell you the amount of times she’s stepped in to help me, financially and emotionally. She needed a rest badly and I recommended the Amoteh Resort.”

The onion scent was strong near Willow, but Alexi followed the obvious hint she had delivered. “You’ve been crying, Willow. Is there something I can do to help?”

He’d given her the opportunity to explain the onion scent, that she’d been cooking and that the smell had made her cry. Instead Willow glanced fearfully back at the curtains concealing the back room. “No…I…There’s nothing wrong.”

She turned and with a frown stared at the young man peering into her shop window. She made a hand-swishing “shoo, get away” motion at him. “That’s Kapolo Jones. He’s Ryan’s friend—Ryan, Jarek’s brother-in-law. Kapolo and Ryan surfed together and Kapolo just came up from Australia. He’s told everyone he’s a direct descendant of Chief Kamakani. He isn’t. Kamakani was devoted to his one wife and Makamae died childless. That is well-documented, and he’s angry with me for disproving his claim. It’s like Elizabeth Price at the library telling everyone she’s a direct descendant of—never mind, but that can’t be true, either. I’ve got to go. Mrs. Black wants the discount the beauty shop offers today for tinting all-gray hair. Apparently blue is better. Do you mind?”

By two o’clock, Alexi had visited the library. The mention of Willow’s name had struck fire in the librarian’s eyes. She slammed down the Date Due stamp into the book of a waiting child. “I don’t who she thinks she is, but that Willow person is dead wrong. I know my family tree.”

Clearly, Willow had antagonized at least two locals—but she wasn’t afraid of them. Her tears were probably due to the strong onion scent, and Alexi had begun to doubt danger to her.

Not ready to go back to his house, Alexi fought the memory of Jessica in his bed. He walked along the beach, inhaling the
ocean-scented air. In the distance, a warning buoy rode the dark waves, clanging softly.

Alexi promised that he would forget her expression as he’d kissed her hand, how her eyes had rounded, and the scent of her had filled his senses.

He looked out at the huge waves, the layer of clouds obscuring the horizon. Jessica Sterling was exactly the kind of woman who could tear him apart—and Alexi didn’t need a second go-round in that painful arena. He pushed back his hair and shook his head. But Jessica was nothing like Heather, not beneath the surface. There was too much heat, too much caring, too much sensuality. Or was that just one more deceitful example of how a woman could twist a man’s insides?

And he knew he couldn’t leave her alone. Not until he’d reached all the depths of her, explored them….

Alexi sat on a driftwood log, watched the seagulls forage amid the strands of seaweed and tiny shells. He poured the coffee from the thermos that Mary Jo had sent. He lifted his face to the wind and thought about the ancient Hawaiian’s curse upon Amoteh, damning it for eternity because he’d been shipwrecked and stranded in a land that wasn’t his.

Maybe the chieftain was lucky to live without the nettling presence of women, Alexi thought darkly.

And if Alexi had a curse, it was Jessica Sterling—as she had been this morning, sweet, vulnerable, a kitten at play. Alexi had seen his ex-fiancée at the same game—but with Heather, it was usually followed by a costly demand.

Jessica Sterling wanted something, too, but not for herself. She was all woman, soft and fragrant, and she knew how to bite back, how to defend herself, just the kind of woman who could tear a man’s pride into shreds.

“Alexi?” Willow’s soft voice interrupted his dark thoughts. “Mind if I share your log? You look so lonesome sitting here. The ocean makes this a peaceful spot, doesn’t it?”

Alexi nodded, but he doubted that with Jessica around that he would be having “peace” anytime soon. Jessica had stirred his deep need for sex, and he wasn’t a casual man, accepting one-night affairs to feed that elemental passion.

Moisture had steamed Willow’s glasses and made her hair stand out in a huge ball around her head. “Do you like it here? I do. You seem to like the ocean. I’m surprised, really. I’d think you’d miss the mountains. I really didn’t expect you to stay too long. The Stepanovs could have repaired that old house for your father.”

“I like the mountains. I was raised in Wyoming. But I like it here, too.”

“Good. I can’t wait to meet your father. It’s great that you’re remodeling his place, though…I’m worried about Jessica. She seems upset about something today, all off-center, and that’s not like her at all.”

Alexi turned to the slight noise of someone walking over the wet sand. Jessica was marching toward them, her expression disdainful as she picked her way over the clumps of seaweed. One strand caught her shoe and she paused, lifting her foot to pick it away. She released the seaweed to the sand with a look of distaste and impatiently brushed her hands.

A rich woman, Jessica was out to make trouble for him, determined to get her way, no matter what the cost.

“Oh, hi, Jessica. Sit down with us.” Willow looked up at Jessica, who was now scowling at Alexi.

“Are you sure I won’t be interrupting?” Jessica said tightly as Alexi blandly met her furious stare.

In an upscale fleece jacket with a hood and designer jeans, she had replaced her cosmetics and her steely veneer. Her eyes blazed at him, her mouth tight within its gloss. Those silky waves weren’t framing her face, an indication that she’d drawn it back into that sleek knot.

The sensual image of releasing that coil of hair into his hands stirred Alexi—just as he wanted to undo the woman, strip away all civilization between them, leaving nothing but heat and passion and pleasure.

Every instinct within Alexi told him that this woman could arouse and fascinate him like no other….

On the other hand, he’d already been torn apart by a woman just like this—one who knew how to get what she wanted….

Had Jessica used Howard, the man who had called her, and then moved on?

And had that affair been worth it to the man involved, the pleasure of having this woman?

Alexi lifted his face to the cold mist, inhaling it. She wanted something from him—to protect Willow, her friend. But what would Jessica want to sacrifice, to pay, other than money?

Jessica sat down beside Alexi, her anger simmering. She’d told him to stay away from Willow, who was sweet and innocent and not up to Alexi’s overpowering male appeal. Jessica didn’t seem to know that “potent” was a compliment to a man and her blushes had surprised him. For a sophisticated woman, Jessica had surprisingly innocent edges to her.

Had his relationship to Heather been romantic? Or was it the satisfaction of needs—sexual and his biological needs for a home and children? And just maybe, the answer came back, Alexi did not want to know why he had planned a life with Heather. He’d known the reality of her coldness and yet—Was he so arrogant that he had thought he could make a loveless relationship become more?

Alexi looked down at Jessica’s running shoes, now covered with wet sand. “If you stay here very long, you might think about getting a suitable pair of shoes,” he said, reminding her of the expensive pair that had been ruined while hunting him last night.

Willow leaned in front of him to study Jessica on the other side. “Honey, you look absolutely drained. More business problems?”

“Not a problem in the world. I’ve just been sleeping and relaxing too much. I need something to do.” Jessica hadn’t been able to rest and she’d finally set out to run off her tension, caused by Alexi’s body holding her close on the ride to the Stepanovs’ and that burning, unforgettable kiss in her hand.

Jessica noted how close Willow leaned against Alexi, trusting him. That wouldn’t do. Willow formed deep attachments instantly and she was vulnerable and sweet. Alexi wasn’t. Jessica had seen his true, dark, brooding, tormenting, irritating
personality. And he was obviously sexually hungry—his arousal was hard to miss.

His blue eyes were searching her face now and deeper, to the things Jessica wanted to hide. He slid her jacket hood back from her head and studied her hair, brushed into its neat chignon. “I like you better without all that paint.”

“Do you?” Suddenly, Alexi and Jessica seemed alone, tension sparking between them. “I…”

His hand had framed her face while the other hand was carefully removing pins. He dismissed her hands on his wrists, those soft fingers trying to waylay him. Alexi eased her waves around her face and he smiled softly, intimately, and Jessica’s heart flip-flopped slowly, heavily, in her chest. “Hi,” he said quietly.

“Hi,” she returned breathlessly.

She glanced at Willow, who was obviously interested in the quiet exchange and leaning close. Jessica recognized Willow’s expression from the last time Willow was infatuated; it said she was falling in love. It said that Willow pictured herself as the heroine of the Western movies she watched, riding off into the sunset with the cowboy.

Wounded in love, Alexi might need Willow’s sweet, tender care for a rebound, but eventually he’d hurt her and Jessica couldn’t have that. Jessica did the only thing she could to temporarily save her friend from Alexi Stepanov. “Willow, I’ve just got to get some gifts in the mail. Your soaps would be perfect. Do you think you could open the shop now, please? Sorry, Alexi, but I really need Willow now. You don’t mind, do you?”

She stood abruptly and nudged her shoe to Alexi’s boot, a warning to him to play along. His expression didn’t waver, his steady brilliant-blue eyes startling amid his tanned face.

Jessica didn’t want anyone to see inside her past the protective barriers to the private guilt and hurting edges. Alexi was circling her now, searching in emotional fields she wanted to forget—

He stood slowly in front of her, forcing her to look up at him, to be aware of how feminine she was in contrast to his
size and force—the contrast of a man and a woman, the physical differences….

His hand raised to frame her cheek, his thumb stroking her skin. Jessica shivered, not from the chill but from that quiet, steady search of her eyes, as if he were seeing deeply inside….

“It is cold, Willow. I’ll talk with you later,” Alexi said without removing his gaze from Jessica’s, and then he walked away.

“See you later, Alexi,” Willow called cheerfully. “I just love the Stepanov men, don’t you, Jessica?”

Not that one,
Jessica decided silently. She rubbed her cheek briskly, trying to erase how easily those fingers had held her, how gently they had removed her hairpins.
Alexi wasn’t at all what he seemed to other people.

In the shop Jessica collected a few assorted soaps and paid for them. “I’ll call the addresses where you can send these. Is that okay?”

Willow carefully began to wrap the fragrant seashell-shaped soaps into tissue, then tied raffia around them. “Great. Thanks. You’ve helped me so much. Goodness, I’ve gotten so many orders from the people who know you. I’ve been pouring molds ever since the holidays ended, and I’ve reordered some great scents and colorings, more seashell molds, too—the small kind, like for guest soaps. I think they’ll sell well, don’t you?”

“Yes, I think so.” Jessica studied Willow. She seemed flustered and hurrying through her words, her hands fluttering over her work, dropping one soap to the floor, raffia tangling in her fingers. “Willow, I want you to tell me what is troubling you. I know something is.”

BOOK: Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers
12.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Howling by Gary Brandner
My Hollywood by Mona Simpson
Never Resist Temptation by Miranda Neville
Sweet Seduction Surrender by Nicola Claire
Nemesis and the Troll King by Ashley Du Toit
ONE SMALL VICTORY by Maryann Miller