through her veins in spite of the fact that she didn’t want to be attracted to him. She ignored the warmth still blossoming inside her and said, “There’s a restaurant in town. Diego’s. I’ll meet you there at seven.”
“I’m agreeing to dinner,” he said with another half smile. “Not marriage.” He stood up and looked down at her. “Diego’s. Seven.”
When he walked away, Melinda watched him. He was tall and lean and moved with a kind of lazy grace that men with lots of confidence seemed to adopt. Sean King was more than she’d expected.
She only hoped he wasn’t more than she could handle.
“Lucas, what do you know about Melinda Stanford?” Sean spoke into his cell phone as he stood out on the end of the pier, watching the fishing boats head into the harbor.
“She’s Walter’s granddaughter.”
“Yeah, I know that much.”
“Well, what else is there?”
Way too much to go into over the phone, Sean thought. “Did you meet her when you were on Tesoro?”
“Briefly,” Lucas said. “But then, my whole trip was brief. Walter said ‘No’ so fast, I didn’t even get to unpack my bag before I was on the launch taking me back to civilization.”
“Right.” Sean nodded thoughtfully and kept his gaze fixed on the ocean.
“So what’s this about?” Lucas asked. “Problem already? The great Sean charm not working?”
“In your dreams.” Sean laughed, turned around and headed back down the dock. “I told you I’d get the land and I will.”
“Yeah … good luck with the old man. I think he got a charm immunization.”
“We’ll see,” Sean said.
Diego’s was small and bright and popular with both locals and tourists. Seafood was the specialty and it was served at small, square tables decorated with brilliantly colored tablecloths that shone like jewels in the candlelit atmosphere. Patio dining offered more privacy, as there were fewer tables and those were spread far apart, but even the customers who stayed inside had a breathtaking view of the ocean and the pristine beach through a wide bank of windows. Moonlight glowed in the night sky and dazzled the water with silver light.
A sigh of a cool breeze slipped in off the ocean and danced around Melinda as she sat on the patio. Fall weather on Tesoro was capricious at best. Warm during the days, the nights could be cold or as it was tonight, almost sultry.
But then, Melinda thought, taking a slow sip of her ice-cold wine, maybe it wasn’t the weather making her feel hot and uncomfortable. Maybe it was Sean King.
No, she told herself immediately. That couldn’t be it. Because she refused to be attracted to him. She wasn’t interested in a man and didn’t think she ever would be again. This was strictly a business proposal and it would really be better for both of them if they could keep sexual heat out of the mix entirely.
Nerves skittered in her stomach. She trailed her fingertips up and down the stem of her wineglass and told herself that she was doing the right thing. The only thing.
She needed a husband.
Now all she had to do was convince Sean King that he was the man for the job.
“No pressure,” she whispered.
She wasn’t sure what caught her attention. The sound of leather soles scraping against the stone floor of the patio? Or was it something more elemental than that? Was it the feel of Sean King’s gaze locked on her?
Whatever the reason, Melinda looked up to see the man walking toward her. His features were carefully blank, but for the half smile curving his mouth. He wore black slacks, a white, button-down shirt, open at the throat and a black jacket—and somehow, he managed to look both casual and dangerous.
Two
“Romantic setting for a business deal,” Sean commented as he sat down opposite her.
Melinda took a long, deep breath and forced a smile she wasn’t quite feeling. The nerves jumping inside her were now racing at a gallop. This was too important for her to make a mistake. Somehow, she had to convince Sean to marry her—temporarily.
“I wasn’t going for romantic,” she told him. “Just quiet.”
“You got both,” he said, nodding to the waiter when he stepped up to the table to pour wine. He waited until the server had moved off again before lifting his glass to take a small sip. Then he set the glass down, leaned his forearms on the tabletop and looked at her. Waiting again.
His gaze was steady and the expression on his face unreadable. Good sign? Bad sign? Melinda didn’t know. But there was one sure way to find out.
“I’m really sorry I dumped all of this on you out of the blue this afternoon.”
He shrugged. “No good way to propose to a stranger, I suppose.”
“True.” Shaking her head, Melinda said, “I know this all seems really strange, but you have to understand that my grandfather is very protective of me.”
“So much so he tries to barter you off to business associates?” Sean quipped.
Melinda stiffened. She could complain about her grandfather all she wanted, but she wouldn’t let someone else—especially someone who didn’t even know him—take a shot at him. “He’s trying to see me taken care of.”
Sean leaned back in his chair and scraped one hand across the back of his neck. “And if you were a simpering maiden trapped in the middle ages, that would make sense.”
This wasn’t starting off very well, she told herself and then decided to ignore whatever comments he made. He didn’t understand yet, that was all.
“Okay, yes,” she agreed, “he’s a little old-fashioned.”
Both of his eyebrows arched.
“Fine. More than a little.” She blew out a breath and explained. “I grew up here on Tesoro. My grandfather raised me when my parents died in a small plane crash when I was five.”
He frowned at that, then took a sip of wine. Still not giving anything away. Not letting her get even a hint of what he might be thinking. He was probably an excellent poker player, Melinda told herself. She, on the other hand, was terrible at card games. She couldn’t bluff to save her life. She was much more up-front and honest—well, she admitted silently, she wasn’t exactly being honest with her grandfather in all of this. But then, she had tried to talk him out of this husband hunt he was on. Sadly, she hadn’t been able to change his mind.
At the thought of Walter Stanford, she smiled in spite of her frustration. Her grandfather had been the one constant in her life. The one person who had always loved her no matter what. He was only trying to see her married because to him, that meant she would be protected and loved even when he was gone.
Which she so didn’t want to think
