Asking For Trouble (5 page)

"Nothing, I'm fine," she told him with a
watery chuckle, then added, "Just still in shock, I guess...I wish
we had more time here." She dragged her eyes from his and looked
down at her hand on the table and fiddled with the fork beside her
plate.

"I only booked the motu for two hours, and
that's about up," he said and looked down at his watch. He would
love more time with her too, but he wasn't going to let himself
have it, even if he'd booked the island for all night. Jazzie Ramos
was dangerous to his peace of mind, and the life he'd built for
himself in Lubbock. Just then he heard the faint sound of a boat
motor break the stillness of the night, and breathed a sigh of
relief.

"Sounds like our ride is here," he said and
got up quickly, then picked up the duffle and held his hand out to
her. The faster he could get off this island and away from the
temptation that was Jazzie Ramos, the better.

Jazzie sat there looking up at him with
vulnerability in her eyes and her lips wobbled then she said,
"Yeah, I guess it's time to go. Thank you for the surprise, it was
wonderful."

Beau nodded, and forced a smile, then
grabbed her hand and all but dragged her to the dock.

Manu pulled the boat along the dock and got
out then tied it to a post and waited for them to make their way to
the boat. He smiled brightly and asked, looking sincerely
interested, "Did you have a good time?"

"Yes, we had a great time...thanks Manu,"
Beau told him offhandedly, in a tone that contradicted his words,
as he helped Jazzie step into the boat.

"Someone named Jess Sparks was looking for
you Miss Ramos...she said she had an important message. I told her
I'd let you know when I came to pick you up."

Jazzie wondered how Jess knew where she
was...she hadn't told her best friend where she was going when she
left the bandstand. She looked over at Beau, who had been brooding
and distracted, since after they made love. "Did you tell Jess
where we were going?" she asked curiously.

"I told her I rented a motu to surprise you
with dinner, yeah," he said then looked out over the water, as Manu
pushed away from the dock. Jazzie was sitting across from Beau in
the boat for the trip back, because he hadn't pulled her into his
lap like he had when they were headed to the island. Something was
wrong with him, that was for sure. He wouldn't even look at her. It
was obvious that he was having regrets...with his attitude now, she
was having some of her own.

Jazzie gnawed her lip to stop its trembling
as a thought flitted through her mind and horrified her. Maybe
she'd disappointed him, and he'd been bored with their lovemaking.
It seemed like he would have cut her some slack though, because he
knew she didn't know what she was doing.

She pushed those thoughts aside, because at
this point it really didn't matter, she wasn't ever letting him
touch her again. Instead, she focused on why Jess might be looking
for her. "I hope everything is alright with Jess..." she said
quietly, and twisted her fingers in the wrap around her hips.

For her best friend to track her down, it
had to be important. Usually, Jess was so tied up in Wade, and the
baby, she barely noticed when Jazzie came and went. Their
relationship had changed so much recently, Jazzie felt a little
bereft. For so long, they'd only had each other to depend on, and
had been as close as sisters. Now, they were redefining their
relationship. Jess didn't need her like she used to, taking care of
her was Wade's job now. She missed helping Jess and spending girl
time with her best friend.

"She only came to my station thirty minutes
ago," Manu said and glanced at her, smiling kindly, his eyes
sympathetic. It seemed he felt the tension too. "So she might still
be waiting there when we get back."

"I hope she's still there," Jazzie said and
crossed her arms under her breasts, then looked out over the
gorgeous moonlit aqua water that had lost some of its enchantment
for her. The whole night that had started with so much promise, had
quickly dulled for her. A chill skittered along her spine and she
shivered as the hair on her arms stood up.

Beau evidently noticed, because he asked
shortly, "You cold?" then reached into the duffle and pulled out
his white shirt and held it out to her.

She looked at the shirt dangling from his
hand, then up into his troubled green eyes and shook her head, then
wrapped her arms tighter around herself, as she fought back the
tears that burned her eyes. This was definitely not the same man
she'd left the dock with earlier. Something had changed
drastically, because the charming, loving guy she'd been with
earlier had left the building. Jazzie didn't like this new man...at
all.

The air between them was tense and
uncomfortable, and she really was cold, so she untied her mesh wrap
from around her hips, then put it around her shoulders and tied it.
Her new pearl bracelet snagged in it and she cursed, then carefully
tried to untangle it, but the dainty clasp broke and pearls
scattered along the bottom of the boat.

Jazzie gasped, then fell to her knees trying
to gather them up, and the tidal wave of tears she'd been holding
back started to fall, and she couldn't stop them, or the sob that
escaped with them. She forgot about the pearls, and sat on her
knees on the bottom of the boat and covered her face with her
hands.

Her body was trembling, and when Beau put
his hands on her shoulders, she shook them off, then pushed back up
to sit on the seat again. This wonderful romantic night, a
momentous night in her life, had gone to crap. The man she thought
gentle and caring enough to initiate her into womanhood had turned
into a morose, cold asshole after he got what he wanted.

"Jazzie, what's wrong?" he asked her with
concern, then said frantically, "I'll buy you another
bracelet..."

"I don't care about the bracelet...and I
don't want you buying me anything. If I want another one,
I'll
buy it," she told him, then sucked in a breath to calm
herself.

"What the hell is wrong with you then?" he
asked in an exasperated tone, and shoved a hand through his thick
dark hair.

Manu pulled the boat up to the dock, and she
saw Jess at the end pacing, and knew something was terribly wrong.
She jumped out of the boat without waiting for Manu or Beau, and
ran toward Jess, with tears racing down her cheeks. When she
reached her tall, blond friend, she launched herself against her
and hugged her tightly.

"What's wrong, Jess...tell me," Jazzie said
in a panic.

"Your mom called me, when she couldn't get
you on your phone. It's Frankie, he's missing."

"What!" Jazzie choked out loudly. Beau
walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, and she
stepped away, then asked Jess frantically, "What do you mean he's
missing?"

"That company he went to work for had him
working on something shady, and he didn't like it. A friend of his
there, Charlie Pence, who's also his roommate in Austin, told your
mom that he went to lunch yesterday, and didn't come back. He
didn't show up at the apartment last night either, and Charlie
thinks it has something to do with what he was working on."

Jazzie fell to her knees and wailed, "I told
him he needed to check out that company better...an offer like they
made him right out of college was just too good to be true! When I
asked him what they did, he said he didn't really know...he's so
gullible!"

"What's the name of the company?" Beau asked
in a solemn voice behind her.

"Al-Godon Biotech," Jazzie replied, then
wiped her eyes, and mumbled, "I've got to get to Dallas, my mom is
probably a mess...and I've got to find someone to help us." Jazzie
scrambled to her feet and took off running through the trees.

"Jazzie wait!" Beau yelled after her, but
she didn't stop.

Her goal was clear, she was going to get her
stuff packed and be on the next flight to Dallas. Her family needed
her, and she was going to find her brother, before something
happened to him.

CHAPTER TWO

Jazzie made it to her bungalow and tossed
her suitcase on the bed then started emptying the closet and
drawers into it. She was tossing shoes on top of the suitcase, when
Beau walked in. She lifted her hand with a stiletto and without her
permission, her hand launched it at him, hitting him right in the
midsection. He grunted, then bent down to pick it up and tossed it
on the suitcase.

"Jazzie, you need to slow down a minute and
think, sugar," he told her calmly. "Running off half-cocked into
something like that could get you hurt...let me do some checking
first."

She ignored him and tossed her underwear on
top of the shoes, then slammed the lid shut and ran the zipper
around to close the big wheeled case. With a grunt, she pulled it
off the bed and set it on the wheels, then grabbed the handle, and
her purse, and pushed past Beau to head down the dock.

"You can't board an airplane in that bikini,
Jazz!" Beau yelled behind her and she stopped then looked down and
realized she was still in her white bikini, and he was right.
Reversing direction, she headed back to the bungalow, then stopped
by the bed and laid the case on the floor. Unzipping it, she pulled
out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a heart in the middle, her
bra and a pair of red stilettos.

Without worrying about who might be
watching, Jazzie quickly dropped her bikini top and tossed it into
the suitcase. Wrapping her bra around her, she hooked it then
pulled the straps over her shoulders, before stepping into white
lace thong underwear, then she tossed her bottoms in the suitcase
as well.

She heard a groan and looked up to see Beau
in the doorway with his face flushed and his jaw clenched. Leaning
over, she put her feet in the legs of her skinny jeans and shimmied
into them, then sucked in and zipped, before she grabbed the
t-shirt from the bed and pulled it over her head. Once she slid her
feet into the shoes, she grabbed the suitcase again and pushed past
Beau to walk out the door. He grabbed her shoulders and stopped
her, then pressed her against the door frame.

She wiggled against him then told him
angrily, "Get off of me!"

"No, you're gonna stop and talk to me," he
grated then pinned her with his angry green gaze.

"We've done all the talking and
anything
else we're ever gonna do! Now get the hell off of
me!" she demanded then tried to bring her knee up between them.

"You sure as hell weren't saying that an
hour ago!" he said in a frustrated tone.

"An hour ago I was with a charming man, who
I thought liked me, not an asshole who got what he wanted and then
treated me like crap! Now get off of me!" she said and shoved his
big body as hard as she could.

He finally stepped back, but held her gaze,
and admitted softly, "I do like you, Jazzie...too much, that's the
problem."

"That's
your
problem," she hissed,
then stomped down the dock and said over her shoulder, "Goodbye,
Beau..."

Beau watched her, until she stepped off the
end of the dock and took off her shoes, then walked across the
beach toward the resort, dragging that huge suitcase through the
sand behind her. When she disappeared into the darkness a few yards
later, he huffed out a frustrated breath and admitted to himself he
had
been an asshole after they made love.

The intensity of the feelings she stirred up
in him had freaked him out, and he'd taken it out on her. What
they'd shared on that island wasn't just casual sex, to her, or to
him. In the end, she'd paid the price for the woman who'd been his
fiancé hurting him, and the crappy example of love he'd had from
his parents.

Of course, he couldn't blame anyone else,
but himself, for this fiasco. He should have just walked away, when
he found out she hadn't had sex before. He hadn't mastered the art
of walking on water yet though, and she had been too much of a
temptation for him trapped on that island like they were.

He'd be lucky if she ever spoke to him
again...he needed to apologize. He was a screwed up mess, and she
didn't deserve how he'd treated her.

Beau started down the tiki-torch lit dock,
then saw Jess Sparks-Roberts stalking toward him in her
long-legged, loose-limbed way. Her face told him she had a bone to
pick with him, and he groaned then stopped in his tracks to wait.
When she reached him, she pushed his chest with her palms and
demanded, "What the fuck did you do to my friend?"

"It's between me and Jazzie, so please let
me handle it," Beau told her calmly, but firmly. He wasn't going to
answer to Jess like some errant schoolboy. He didn't owe her any
explanations, but he
did
owe Jazzie some.

"Jazzie is more than my friend, she's my
sister
, and if
our
brothers find out what you did to
her, you're gonna be toast!" she yelled at him and put her finger
in his chest, then narrowed her eyes and hissed, "You slept with
her didn't you?"

"That is none of your business," Beau told
her defensively, and took a step back.