Her Secret Treasure

“No.” He’d been fantasizing about her, but that wasn’t the same. “Has anything like this happened to you before?” he asked.

“Never.” She whirled to face him. “And if you tell a soul, I’ll insist it’s because you drugged me.”

“I won’t tell anyone.” It stung that she’d think him that low. “You don’t seem to have a very high opinion of me,” he said. “First you think I’d drug you, now you think I’ll go telling your private business to the world.”

She bowed her head and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve this. I really don’t know what to think about any of this.”

“Maybe you should go back to the States and have a doctor check you out.”

“Why? Because you think I’m cracking up? Or because you’d love not having me and my film crew in your way?”

Again she made him sound like a jerk. Though maybe he had been a little bit of a hard-ass about her filming him. The truth was, he’d agreed to the documentary and accepted her station’s money, so he had no right to complain. “When you know me better, you’ll learn to ignore anything I say when I’m focused on a job,” he said. “I really don’t mind having you here. And my intern, Tessa, probably appreciates having another woman around.”

“I haven’t met Tessa yet. In fact, I haven’t met any of your interns or crew.”

“I guess we should have some kind of get-together where we all can meet.” He scratched his head. “I’m not used to having to think about these things.”

She tilted her head, studying him. “There has to be more in your life than work,” she said, relaxing. “Tell me about what you do when you’re not teaching or sailing.”

“I read and do research. For the past two years I’ve been searching for the Eve and planning this trip.”

“But what do you do for fun?”

He’d known she wouldn’t understand; few people did. “I enjoy my research,” he said, trying not to sound defensive.

“But don’t you have a social life? Friends. Women?”

“Of course I have all those things.” He went out with other professors at the university, and people like his long-time friend, Nicole, though she was in England with her new boyfriend, Ian, now.

“So you have a girlfriend waiting back home?”

“No. I’m not seeing anyone in particular right now.” His last serious relationship had been with one of the secretaries in the dean’s office, a single mother who took night classes with the intent of earning a degree in accounting. It had been a low-key affair. He never spent the night at her house because of her children, but he’d sometimes show up early on Saturdays and fix things around the house or they’d all spend the day at a ballpark. He’d been comfortable with her until she’d started hinting at wanting to make their situation more permanent. He couldn’t see himself in that role, and they’d broken things off. Since then he’d been too busy to date. “Most women don’t like to compete with my work,” he said.

She looked at him intently, as if she could see past his outer self to his very thoughts. He began to feel nervous and had to fight the urge to step away. “So you don’t believe there’s any woman who could distract you from your work,” she said.

“I didn’t say that.” She’d been distracting him plenty lately.

She moved closer, her voice low. Seductive. “You said you were tempted to take me up on my invitation to come to bed with me last night.”

“Yes. You’re a very tempting woman.”

She laid her hand on his chest, her palm flat over his heart. “Then why are you so set against us enjoying ourselves while we’re on the island?” She laughed. “I’m not expecting you to marry me, for goodness’ sake.”

“I told you. I have a lot of work to do. I don’t like to be distracted.”

“I’d think being horny all the time would be far more distracting than knowing you had a good time waiting at the end of the day.” She moved her index finger up and down, stroking him. “We had a good time together last fall, didn’t we?”

He couldn’t think straight when she was so near. Her argument sounded so logical, his so lame. His first instinct was to tell her he hadn’t come to the island to have fun, but that made him sound like the worst sort of dork—someone he’d never hang out with and certainly not someone he intended to be. Besides, if they both accepted that they’d be together only for the duration of this project, they could avoid messy complications.

She moved her hand up higher, caressing his neck. “You can’t deny there’s a certain chemistry between us. A connection. I can’t explain it, but then, I don’t see any need to. Why not just enjoy ourselves?”

Why not, indeed? Away from her, he’d probably be able to think of a dozen reasons, but here alone with her, the rain walling them off from the rest of the world, his body had overwhelmed all attempt at reason. He wanted Sandra more than he’d ever wanted any woman.

She stood on tiptoe and pulled his head down to hers. When their lips met, his arms automatically went around her. There was nothing frantic in this embrace and nothing tentative. It was the leisurely kiss of experienced lovers, though perhaps lovers long parted; he couldn’t deny the urgency with which he delved his tongue between her lips, or the strength of his desire as evidenced by the erection that swelled the front of his swim trunks.

In his arms she was pliant and playful, everything about her fascinating. When he began to unbutton her shirt, she stepped away from him, teasing him with the slow unveiling of her body. First the shirt, one button at a time, until he was all but panting to see what lay underneath.

Then the shorts, sliding oh-so-slowly down her shapely legs. She kicked off her sandals, then slid her thumbs in either side of the bikini bottoms. “Should I take them off?” she asked.

“If you don’t, I will.”

She removed her thumbs and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know. I think you should go first.”

“Fine by me.” He untied the drawstring of the trunks and shoved them to his ankles, then stood before her, naked and aroused, and feeling only a little like a piece of merchandise on display, waiting to see if he met with her approval.

The way she looked at him was worth any momentary embarrassment, though. He’d never had a woman look at him with such an expression of awe and wonder—as if she’d never seen a naked man before. Which was absurd. And it wasn’t as if he was hung like a horse or something. He was a perfectly average man. Then again, maybe she’d been dating a lot of losers lately.

“What do you want me to do now?” she asked.

At first he thought she was teasing again, then he saw her whole posture had changed. She was standing sideways to him, trying to cover herself with her arms, as if she was truly embarrassed.

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