and close. He hurried from her bedroom, relief filling him.
“Alex!”
“Hey,” she murmured. She didn’t sound hostile, just tense—and wary.
“Are you all right?” he demanded.
She frowned. “Of course.” She eyed him up and down. “You don’t look too good.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been worried about you. I told you to stay in a crowd.”
“I was with someone all day,” she said, still watching him carefully. “I’ve been busy…just opened the lagoon gates. Uh, I think I need a shower. So if you’ll excuse me…”
Was she suggesting that he leave her? Not on her life. Maybe literally.
“I’ll be right here. Hey, want coffee? Tea? The electricity will probably go out soon. Of course, there’s a generator in the storm room. I guess it’s not like you can’t have tea later, if you want. But I think I’ll make some coffee, anyway.” He turned his back on her, walking to the kitchen area, reaching into the cupboard. He could feel her watching him. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling.
After a minute, he heard her walk to the bedroom. Her behavior was disturbing. She wasn’t fighting him or arguing with him—it was almost as if she were afraid to.
She reappeared just a minute later, obviously perplexed.
“When did you get here?” she asked him.
“About two minutes before you walked in. Why?”
“Did you…move things around in here today?”
“No, why?”
“Oh, nothing. The maids seem to be getting a little strange, that’s all. The maid’s been in, right? Bed is made, towels are all fresh,” she said.
“Then the maid must have been in. I didn’t clean up,” he said without apology.
She shrugged and stared at him. Studied him. As if she could find what she was looking for if she just kept at it long enough.
“All you really all right?” he asked her.
“I’m fine. But you really look like hell.”
“I need a shower, too. I took Zach and Ally out on the Icarus. Then I took her around to the dry dock on the Gulf side and had to get back here.”
“You didn’t have to get back here,” she corrected him. “You don’t work here.”
“I knew you’d be staying with your dolphins, and I wasn’t about to leave you here alone with…Alone.”
She nodded. Suddenly, to his surprise, she walked up to him, put her arms around him and pressed against him. Instinctively, he embraced her, smoothing back her wet hair. “What is it?” he asked, at a loss.
“I do know you, don’t I?” she whispered.
“Better than anyone else,” he said. “Alex, what is this?”
She pulled away slightly, a strange smile on her lips. “You’re not good husband material, you know.”
That hurt. “You were the best wife any man could have,” he told her.
“You do love me, in your way, don’t you?”
“In my way?” he said, finding it his turn to seek an explanation in her eyes. “In every way,” he said, passion reverberating in his tone, his words vehement. “I swear, I never stopped loving you, Alex. Never. I would die for you in a heartbeat.”
She slipped from his arms. “I have to shower,” she murmured. “Get a few things together.”
She walked into the bedroom. Five minutes later, he couldn’t stand it anymore and followed.
The water was streaming down on her. Here, as in the other bath, the glass doors were clear. He should give her space, so that she wouldn’t decide to send him away. Now, when he needed so desperately to be with her.
You look like hell, she had told him.
Hell yes. Because I found your disappearing body, and it is Alicia Farr, and, oh God, what the sea can do to human flesh…
There was no way he would tell her about his discovery now. Not until the storm had abated and the sheriff had come. They were all alone here now, at the mercy of the storm. And maybe of a murderer.
Her head was cast back as she rinsed shampoo from her hair. Back arched, limbs long, torso compelling in its clean-lined arc. He felt the sudden shudder of his heart and the iron tug on his muscles.
Taking a step forward, he opened the glass door. She looked at him and waited.
“I told you, I need to shower, too.”
“There is another shower.”
“But you’re not in it.”
He was startled to see her smile. Then her smile faded and a little shudder rippled through her. She backed up, inviting him in. He stripped in seconds and followed her.
“Shampoo?” she offered.
“That would be good.”
“On your head?” she asked.
“Where else?”
“Should I show you?”
Her tone was absolutely innocent, and still strange.
And then he realized that she wanted him—and was afraid of him.
He set the shampoo down on a tile shelf and took her into his arms, ignoring the blast of the hot water on his shoulders. “Alex, what’s wrong?”
“I’m in danger. You told me so yourself,” she assured him, eyes amazingly green in the steamy closeness of the shower.
“But not from me,” he whispered.
She stared back at him. Then, suddenly, she shuddered once again, moving into his arms. He held her there while the water poured over them. He felt the delicious surge of heat sluicing over his body, felt himself becoming molten steel, abs bunching, sex rising, limbs feeling like iron, but vital, movable…
She knew his arousal. Knew it, sensed it, touched it. Her fingers slid erotically down the wet length of his chest and curled around his sex. She ran her fingers up and down the length of him, creating an abundance of slick, sensual suds. Spasms of arousal shuddered through him, and he lowered his lips to her shoulder, her throat, then caught her mouth with his own, tongue delving with sheer erotic intent. He ran his hands down her back, massaged his fingers over the base of her spine, cupped them around her buttocks and drew her hard against him. He was only vaguely aware of the pounding of the water. He was keenly cognizant of the feel of her flesh against his, and the heat rising between them. Catching her around the midriff, he lifted her, met her eyes
