When She Was Bad...

“Will do. I don’t like this turn of events one bit.” Luke disconnected.

Ditto, Cole thought. There was nothing to like about Atwell’s presence on the island. He couldn’t get rid of the feeling that there was more going on here than Irene Rossi’s scheme to lure back an old boyfriend.

He strode to the wide window that looked out on the beach. Then he moved back into the bedroom and peered through the slats in the window that looked out on a forest of palm trees. The hairs on the back of his neck rose to attention. Someone was out there all right. But who and why?

PEPPER USED THE SLEEVE of her Escapade Island robe to wipe off the steam that covered the bathroom mirror. She’d finished her shower fifteen minutes ago, and then she’d rubbed herself with lotion, brushed her teeth, and done what she could with her hair. Phone calls had been next. Irene wasn’t booked to fly in on tomorrow’s flight, and she hadn’t chartered a flight from the Miami airport. That didn’t mean that she hadn’t been able to find another charter company, but Pepper was beginning to have the same bad feeling she’d had in the penthouse suite.

She glanced at the bathroom door. Cole might have some ideas. But she wanted to handle this herself. Besides, she was stalling. Nerves were dancing little jigs in her stomach. She looked down at the book she’d dug out of her duffel, the one that Gari had given her on the island’s history. She’d leafed through it to postpone going back into the bedroom, but when she discovered herself caught up in the story of Adam, a plantation owner’s son, who’d fallen in love with Elena, one of his slaves, she’d closed the book in disgust. She just couldn’t seem to escape from tales of star-crossed lovers.

And what was she doing sitting here reading when she could be making love with Cole? When was she ever going to stop worrying that she would never measure up?

“Stupid,” she whispered to the image she saw in the mirror. Still she hesitated. Glancing back down at the book, she couldn’t help wonder if the island slave girl Elena had faced the same fears the first time she’d made love with her young master. Probably.

But this wasn’t going to be the first time she made love with Cole. Strictly speaking, if she was keeping score, it would be the third time. Slowly, she ran her finger down the spine of the book. It was one thing to make love on impulse and quite another to know it was going to happen—to have to think and to plan.

Had Elena had some sort of plan the first day that Adam had summoned her? Probably.

But Pepper was lousy at plans whether it had to do with making love or anything else. Following her aunt to Escapade Island was a prime example. Her idea of how she was going to recover the Monet and return it to the Atwells without involving her aunt was vague at best. Her grandmother’s main complaint about her echoed through her mind—that she always rushed headlong into things without thinking them through.

Come to think of it, that’s what had gotten her into her current situation. If she hadn’t gone with the impulse to kiss Cole to distract him, and if she hadn’t gone with impulse again and made love with him on the beach, she wouldn’t be here in the bathroom hiding.

Lifting her chin, Pepper fisted her hands on her hips. Hiding in the bathroom was just ridiculous. She wanted to kiss Cole Buchanan again, and she wanted very much to make love to him. They only had the next twenty hours or so, and she was wasting precious minutes wallowing in self-doubt. Yet again.

She didn’t doubt for a minute that Elena probably had her act together from the first moment she’d seen Adam. Meeting her own gaze in the mirror again, Pepper whispered, “Coward.” Then another thought occurred to her. Hadn’t she gotten the courage to ask Cole to kiss her that first time by pretending to be someone else?

Why couldn’t she pretend to be Elena, the slave girl? Inspired, she rose, opened the door, and stepped through it.

The bedroom was so dim that it was the scent that hit her first. Vanilla and some other more exotic spice. Her eyes were drawn to the candles. Then she saw Cole standing at the foot of a huge bed that was draped in a sheer, gauzy fabric. He was wearing black briefs, and even in the candlelight she could make out his broad shoulders, the lean waist, and those strong, muscled legs.

Elena would have met her lover in much the same kind of room, and also during the day and in secret. And their time together would have been similarly limited—the curse of all lovers who came from different worlds.

A soft breeze made it through the slats of a shutter, stirring the gauze draping the bed and making the candlelight flicker. But she couldn’t take her eyes off of Cole. Hunger for him built at a speed that she was still struggling to get used to. Hunger to touch him. All over.

“I was just about ready to come in and get you,” Cole said. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“No.” But she didn’t move toward him yet. “Not about making love to you again. I want to do that. It’s just that…my nerves are…”

He held out a hand. “What can I do to help?”

A warmth moved through her at the gesture and the words. He was kind. Why did that surprise her—and why hadn’t she noticed that before? Without thinking she blurted out, “Do you ever like to act out fantasies? I mean when you’re making love with a woman?”

“You want to pretend you’re someone else?”

Even in the dim light, she could see his eyes narrow slightly. He was going to think she was nuts.

“You already know that pretending helps me cope with nerves. And you probably think that’s crazy.”

“No. I’ve used the same coping device myself on occasion. What do you have in mind?”

She moistened lips that had suddenly gone dry. “There was this book I was reading in the bathroom. Gari gave it to me, and it’s filled with stories about the early settlers of the island. One of them was a story of forbidden love between the son of the plantation owner and one of his slaves. Adam and Elena. For days and days, he watched her in the fields, stole out to speak with her, left her secret gifts, before he finally sent for her the first time.”

“Once he laid eyes on her, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.” With one finger, Cole traced the line of her throat, and Pepper felt the touch right down to her toes. “She filled his dreams at night and filled his thoughts all day.”

“Yes.”

“His feelings for her grew so strong that he wasn’t quite sure how to handle them. But finally, he could no longer resist the attraction. So he sent for her.”

“Yes.” Pepper moistened her lips again. “And she longed for him too because she’d learned what a sweet and gentle man he was. She wanted nothing more than to feel the warmth of his touch and to touch him in return.”

“I think I can understand that,” Cole said, his eyes never leaving hers.

She cleared her dry throat. “Well, I was just thinking that they must have met secretly in a place just like this, and I thought—I mean, if you wouldn’t mind…”

“You’re my mistress, Elena, and I’ve just sent for you.”

Pepper let out the breath that she was holding. He didn’t think she was nuts. “Yes. And I’ve made it clear that I desperately want this too. In fact, this isn’t the first time we’ve met. Each day guards fetch me from the fields and bring me here to you.”

He moved toward her then, slowly. “Each day when you get here, I take your clothes off and bathe you first. I like to touch you. I enjoy making you come just by touching you.”

With the fantasy spinning in her head, Pepper struggled to find her voice. “Each time we meet the threat of discovery is heightened, and we know our time together is slipping away.”

“I can have my pick of the slaves, but I’m not supposed to favor one. I can’t help myself. Each time you leave, I know that I’ll have to ask for you again because I have to touch you again.” Cole reached out to her then, running one finger down the column of her neck to her collarbone. “I have to have you again. I’ve become addicted to you—to the pleasure we can give each other. I can’t stop. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop.”

Pepper was surprised that she could walk when he took her hand and led her to the side of the bed. She’d never before been seduced by words alone.

Cole lifted a glass of champagne from the nightstand. When he touched it to her lips, she took a sip. Then he turned the glass and sipped from the same spot that she’d used. Her knees went weak.

“Have I told you how much I like your taste?” he asked.

“I like yours, too. I…want more.” Pepper wasn’t quite sure whether she was speaking as Elena or herself.

“Yes,” Cole murmured as he set down the glass and reached for the sash of her robe.

She had one brief feeling of regret that she didn’t have on something sexier underneath, and then she pushed it aside. Elena wouldn’t have had anything fancy to wear. Like the slave, she was going to live in the moment.