face like water lapping against the shore. Good Lord. She was blushing and he could see. If he grinned, she was going to have to hate him, and that thought alone made her mad.
To her relief, he was the first to look away. Soon afterward, Ally made her excuses and left, fully intent on going back to her room. She never made it past the lobby.
“Ms. Corbin…Ally…wait!”
She pivoted sharply, surprised that he’d followed her.
“Are you all right?”
The gentleness in his voice was almost her undoing. He was being so kind and when he found out why she was here, it would ruin everything. Then her shoulders slumped. Ruin everything? What was the matter with her? There wasn’t anything to ruin.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just tired.”
East hesitated, for some reason, still reluctant to let her go. “Would you like to take a walk? Maybe some fresh air would do you good.”
Her heart skipped a beat. The perfect opportunity to establish a little one-on-one rapport. For business reasons of course.
“Yes, I believe I would,” she said. “Should I get a sweater?”
His gaze raked her bare, slender arms and then up the length of her neck, to her mouth, before he made himself focus.
“If you get cold, you can use my jacket.”
“You’ve been far too kind already. All this personal service is going to go to my head and now you’re offering your jacket? Are we still on a no-tip basis?”
He grinned. Damned if he didn’t like her attitude as much as that dress she was wearing.
“Something tells me it would be hard to feed you a line,” East said. “To use one of my grandfather’s favorite phrases, you’re a saucy little thing, aren’t you?”
She frowned. “I don’t know. I certainly never thought of myself as saucy. My parents always said I was forthright. Alicia is a forthright child. Not funny. Not pretty. Not even cute. Just forthright.” She smiled, unaware of the poignancy in her voice. “What does it take to be saucy?”
At that moment, she reminded him of his son, Jeff. At least the way Jeff had been when they met. A little wary of East and a whole lot unsure of himself. His heart went out to her then, in a way it might never have done, otherwise.
“I don’t exactly know,” he said gently. “Maybe a little extra gumption and a whole lot of guts.”
Suddenly, the conversation had gotten too personal for Ally and she didn’t know where to go with it. Teasing with the opposite sex in any form, whether it was flirtatious or sexual, was not something she could do.
She glanced toward the door. “About that walk?”
He took off his coat and draped it around her shoulders.
The warmth of his body was still on the fabric as it wrapped around her. She swallowed nervously. “I didn’t say I was cold.”
“Good. Now you won’t have to,” he said shortly, and took her by the elbow and led her out into the night.
Chapter 3
Despite the well-lit grounds surrounding the hotel, East headed directly for the shadows, taking Ally with him. In a way, she understood his need to walk in darkness. In their business, anonymity was often the difference between life and death, and even though East no longer put his life on the line on a daily basis, old habits obviously died hard.
“Is this the way to the beach?”
He stopped and turned, a shadowy silhouette against the night.
“No. Would you rather go down to the beach?”
She started to deny his question, then convinced herself that truth, at least as far as she could take it, would probably work better between them.
“Yes, actually I would, if it’s not too much trouble?”
From the tone of his voice, she thought he smiled.
“Trouble? To walk on a beach in the moonlight with a beautiful woman? Ms. Corbin, you crush my ego.”
Ally stifled a snort of disbelief. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kirby, but your reputation precedes you. From what I’ve been told, both your ego and reputation are indestructible.”
When he answered, the smile was gone from his voice.
“If only that were so,” he said, then took her by the arm. “Allow me. The steps are lit, but uneven. And when we get to the beach, I’m afraid those shoes you’re wearing will be more of a hindrance than help.”
Thankful for the cover of darkness, Ally rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. She’d royally botched her first opportunity to do what she’d come to do. She was supposed to talk him into returning to work for Jonah, not remind him of why he quit in the first place. When his fingers curled around the flesh of her upper arm, she swallowed nervously, picturing the way they’d looked curling around that fragile stem on his wineglass. Long. Strong. Deadly.
As they descended the well-lit steps to the beach below, the silence between them was awkward, but when they reached the sand and Ally bent down to take off her shoes, something changed. Maybe it was the sound of rolling surf, or the path of moonlight stretching upon the water. And maybe, it was just the fact that in that moment, Ally quit thinking about why she’d come and began to focus on where she was. She turned, staring in awe at the luminous majesty before her.
“How beautiful.”
“Yes…beautiful,” East said.
Ally was so caught up in the view, she didn’t realize that he was staring at her and not the moon.
Time passed. The moon climbed higher in the night sky and the wind rose with it. A sense of sadness came upon her, knowing that this night and the spell of it all would never come again in quite the same way. Impulsively, she took a step toward the ocean, but East’s grip on her arm tightened, and he held her back.
“It’s too cold,” he said softly.
She started to argue. All she’d wanted was to feel the pull of the ocean against her feet to see if it matched the rhythm of her heart, and then she realized that coddling a flight of fancy was not why she’d come. And, since she’d already broken the tenuous connection they’d made with her thoughtless remark earlier, she felt obliged to call it a night.
“Of course, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s late and I’m sure you have more important things to do than baby-sit me.” She handed him his sports coat. “Thank you for the loan. I think I’ll go to bed now.”
East found himself holding his jacket as Ally bolted toward the steps leading back to the hotel.
“Well, hell,” East muttered, then followed her ascent, but by the time he entered the lobby, she was nowhere in sight.
East’s
