Ocean's Touch (10 page)

What am I going to do with him?
she wondered, for about the fourth time that morning.

I can tell you what to do with him
, that sly, freshly-awakened part of her brain suggested, then proceeded to dazzle the rest of her brain with a series of unadulterated, if very adult, images.

The elevator
ping
ed and the doors opened. Immersed in her fantasies, Meredith took a step forward without looking. Only to run flush into the man stepping off the elevator she was trying to enter.

Ladislaw smiled when he saw Meredith as the elevator doors slid open, but her gaze was turned inward. He took a step forward to greet her, not expecting the normally careful woman to come flying forward to crash into him.

He chuckled. “Well, hello there, Meredith,” he said as she looked up, startled. To his surprise, her face was flushed and her eyes, a little glassy. He knew that look.

Desire
, he thought, and he felt his cock harden even though he knew she probably wasn’t thinking about him. But still, to see Meredith Casaubon with a look of lust in her eyes…

Alex suddenly wanted, very much, to tear open that horrible cardigan and rip off that god-awful turtleneck. If he did so, he’d reveal the full breasts that he knew, from seeing her on the running trails around Seal Harbor, were lurking under her frumpy clothing. She only ever wore anything remotely revealing while working out, a fact that had helped keep Ladislaw fit and trim throughout the long Maine winter.

“Alex,” Meredith breathed, her brown eyes meeting his green. She felt the knot of sexual tension that had been building in her belly nearly explode upon seeing the artist. She couldn’t, however, read the look in those inscrutable jade eyes.

For a split second, she imagined herself leaning in to kiss him, just to see how he’d react.

Instead, she took a hasty step back, pulling her cardigan closer around her before smoothing her turtleneck higher up under chin.

Ladislaw followed her out of the elevator, stepping rather too close to her for her current liking. Or, to be more accurate, she liked him being that close, which disturbed her. Deeply.

First Dylan. Now Alex? What am I becoming?

But a small voice in her acknowledged the truth.

First Alex
, it whispered,
now Dylan
. For she recognized now the real meaning of the nervousness, the anticipation, the strange feeling of queasiness and hunger that she’d always felt around Ladislaw. She recognized it because it was the same way she felt around her selkie lover.

She wanted Alex. She always had.

She’d ignored that fact—sublimated it, buried it, denied it—and had convinced herself it was both ridiculous and naïve to feel something, anything, for the man in front of her. But this time, upon seeing Alex so soon after leaving Dylan’s presence, she couldn’t deny the truth. What she felt around Dylan was what she’d always felt around Alex. And those feelings were lust, desire, and something more… A curiosity deep enough that it frightened her.

For Meredith wasn’t a stupid woman. She knew the selkie legends; she knew that Dylan’s first mistress would always be the sea. Just as she knew that Ladislaw was not a man for settling down. He could never give her the emotional connection that she craved.

Neither man is for me,
she thought.
At least, not in anything more than body.

But why can’t that be enough?
another part of her whispered.

“Alex,” she said with a firmer tone to her voice as she hushed her unsettling thoughts. “How are you?”

“I’m well. And you?” he asked, his green eyes so intent it felt like they were absorbing her.

“I’m fine. Tired,” she added, hoping to excuse her clumsiness in bumping into him.

“Everything all right?” he asked, genuine concern lacing his question.

“Oh, yes. I just finished up a meeting with Teddy’s estate lawyers.”

“Was the Dragon in attendance?”

Meredith couldn’t help it; she let slip a giggle before carefully schooling her features. “If you mean Teddy’s mother, then yes.”

“Is she still going after you about spending Teddy’s money?”

Meredith’s sigh was her only answer.

Alex grinned, but with little humor. “She’s an evil old witch, always has been. You’ve a right to your money. You earned every penny you inherited, taking care of Teddy the way you did. And now working like a dog for his estate…” Alex only just managed to curb his tongue when he saw the expression on Meredith’s face. She looked genuinely disturbed—but whether it was at the truth of his words or at him for saying them, he couldn’t tell.

“Anyway,” he amended, using a gentler tone. “You’ve a right to spend any money you wish on yourself. You should pamper yourself. You deserve it.”

She laughed again, but it was a well-trained social laugh. “I’ll think about it,” she said, although he knew she wouldn’t. She was probably planning on going home, exercising herself into a stupor, and then sleeping.

Not going to happen,
he thought.
Not if I can do anything about it.

“Well, at least buy yourself a new dress,” Alex told Meredith.

“A new dress?” She asked nonplussed.

“Yes. For my party tonight,” he reminded her. He could tell she’d forgotten.

“Oh,” she said. “Oh.”

“Yes,” he said. “I expect to see you there, young lady. And I expect to see you wearing something gorgeous. Something clingy and absurd and entirely too expensive.” Meredith giggled again as he continued. He considered himself a lucky man. He’d not heard her laugh in a very, very long time, and today he’d made her giggle twice.

“I don’t know,” she started, but he cut her off.

“I won’t take no for an answer—not to attending my party, and not to buying yourself something audacious.” Alex took out his wallet and rooted around inside it. “Here,” he said, handing her a business card as he replaced his wallet in his back pocket. “This is for my friend Wendy, who owns a gorgeous boutique over in Bar Harbor. I expect you to visit her within the hour and spend atrocious amounts of money. Scandalous amounts of money. I want you dripping in…what does the Dragon call them? Fripperies?” Meredith laughed outright then, and Alex grinned in response. “Fripperies, yes. I want you positively dripping in fripperies.” He took a step closer, touching the back of her hand that clutched her briefcase very gently with the tips of his fingers.

Meredith bit back a gasp. For while she knew his fingers were actually cool, she felt as if she’d been branded.

“And I want to see you tonight,” he concluded, latching his green eyes onto hers.

Meredith panicked. The heat in that gaze, the promise—she didn’t know how to react. She heard herself blurt out, from what felt like a mile away, “Can I bring someone?”

Alex frowned for just a split second, before recovering his smile—or a semblance of his smile.

“I’m sure that would be fine. Who is it?” he asked nonchalantly.

“A friend,” she said, blushing. “Named Dylan.”

“Dylan,” was all that Alex replied.

“Yes, Dylan.”

“Of course you can bring a date,” Alex said, taking a step back and tugging gently on the lapels of his coat.

“It’s not…” she started, unsure what she wanted to say. “He’s not…” she tried again. “Thank you,” she finished, giving up.

“So I’ll see you tonight?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Meredith replied, “I’ll see you tonight.”

“And you promise to wear something new?” His mischievous smile was back, but it wasn’t as strong as it had been before. Nonetheless, she was happy to see it.

“Yes,” she said, kicking herself as she did, but still wanting to please him. “I’ll wear something new.” He stage-glowered at her, and she chuckled. “I promise.”

And with that, they took their leave of each other. Alex went in to do his own business with Ron, and Meredith went home.

“You look troubled, lass?” Dylan said, upon Meredith’s arrival. He was where she knew he’d be—sitting on her beach. He stood when he saw her approaching, and she noticed he was wearing his sealskin and nothing else. A fact that made her mouth water.

Without thinking, she went to him, and let him put his arms around her and stroke her hair.

“What happened, Mer?” he asked again.

After a moment, she spoke into his chest.

“I have to go to a party,” she said the way other people say they have to enter a war zone.

“And?” he asked, confused at her apprehension over something that should be enjoyable. Instead of answering, she peered up at him.

“Will you go with me?” she asked.

“Of course,” he replied, feeling a complex knot of emotions roiling inside her. He’d have to tease that knot out over the rest of the day.

“And I have to buy a new dress,” she said, showing him Ladislaw’s card, which she’d kept clenched in her hand almost the entire ride home.

To her surprise, Dylan’s face lit up. He took a step back and clapped his hands together in joy.

“We get to go shopping?” he asked with all the enthusiasm of a kid at Christmas.

She raised her eyebrows, unable to respond. But her brain was whirring.

Who knew selkies were so metrosexual?

Chapter Eight

“Alex sent you?” Wendy asked, cocking her head at Meredith.

“Yes,” Meredith replied. “I’m…”

“You’re Meredith Casaubon,” Wendy interrupted, extending her hand. It was petite and immaculately groomed, just like the rest of her. But Wendy’s handshake was also firm and warm, and despite her obviously expensive taste she had the air of someone friendly and open.

“And I’m Wendy Wheeler,” she said, then added, “I had no idea you were a friend of Alex’s.”

Meredith couldn’t help but smile at Wendy’s curiosity, which the woman was doing a very poor job of containing.

“My husband and Alex were…” she paused, trying to think of the correct adjective for Teddy and Alex’s relationship. The two men had always had a great deal of respect for each other’s careers and minds, but absolute disrespect for the other’s chosen lifestyle.

Rivals?
she thought, before dismissing that word as too dramatic.
Frenemies?

“Colleagues,” she said, choosing a more polite, if less honest, truth.

“I was sorry to hear of your husband’s death,” Wendy said, ratcheting down her curiosity with visible effort. “He was a generous man.”

Meredith smiled. “Thank you. And yes, he was.”

“Well,” Wendy said, shifting into sales mode. “What can I help you with today?”

“I, er, we need something for Alex’s opening tonight,” Meredith said.

“She needs a new dress,” came Dylan’s smooth, deep voice from behind her. He’d hung back to let Meredith introduce herself to Wendy, but he stepped up as he spoke, extending a hand to Wendy as he did so.

Wendy’s mouth dropped open at the site of Dylan, who’d clothed himself in a glamour of jeans and a dark woolen sweater that was just tight enough to show off that big body without looking cheap. She only just managed to return his polite greeting without choking on her own tongue. Meredith couldn’t help but smile at the elegant businesswoman’s discomfiture. To be honest, Meredith was glad to see it wasn’t only she whom Dylan impacted so powerfully.

“I know what I’ll be wearing. But Mer needs something new—something that will show off her beauty,” Dylan finished.

Meredith gulped. Dylan might be content wearing magic and a smile, but she was hoping to get out of Wendy’s boutique with something a bit more concealing. Perhaps a burka with some tasteful sequins to accent her eye screen.

Wendy only just managed to tear her eyes away from Dylan and focus back on Meredith.

“Wonderful,” Wendy said a little breathlessly. “Would you like to start on the inside or the outside?”

“I’m sorry?” Meredith asked, having no idea what Wendy meant by “inside or outside”.

Wendy smirked knowingly. “Did Alex tell you anything about my shop?” she asked.

“No,” Meredith replied. “He just recommended it as a place I might find a dress.”

“Well, we do something a little special here. We specialize in the full evening’s ensemble. Meaning we try to dress you from the inside out, and from top to bottom.”

“And what does that mean?” asked Meredith, growing suspicious. She had noticed an awful lot of lingerie on display throughout the store, much of it paired with what looked like a complementary outfit.

“It means that we sell full looks. So we sell the under things, the outer things, the shoes, and the accessories. That way, ladies don’t have to drive into Portland to shop for the extras. You can find everything you need right here.”

Meredith frowned. “But I won’t need any…underthings,” she told Wendy quite firmly.

“Oh yes, she will,” Dylan said with equal force, but also with an undertone of laughter. He also physically switched sides to stand with Wendy.

Turncoat
, Meredith thought, knowing this was not going to be an easy battle.