Real Men Do It Better (31 page)

Coincidentally, Jock’s call had come on the very same day Duncan had discovered the Siren’s Call. When he told his old friend about his find, they came up with an elaborate plan. Question was, would the underhanded ploy they’d cooked up work? Or would it drive an even bigger wedge between Duncan and Annie when she discovered what he was up to?

Annie moaned softly.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured, stunned by the tenderness sweeping through him.

Her eyelids flew open. She jerked to a sitting position. “What happened? Why are you staring at me like that?”

Duncan swallowed hard, struggling to hold on to some semblance of self-control. He couldn’t reveal too much too quickly or he’d chase her off. He’d hurt her once, and he knew she’d be nervous about letting him get close to her again. “You passed out.”

She raised a hand to her head, smoothing her riotous curls. “I did?” Her face paled as she remembered. “It’s true, then? You’ve really found the Siren’s Call?”

“I found a treasure map on the
Lorelei
leading to the Siren’s Call,” he lied, feeling like an utter shit, but knowing this was the only thing that could convince her to give him a second chance.

She sucked in her breath. He wanted so badly to take her in his arms and kiss her, but it was too soon. If he touched her now, she would resist.

“I can’t believe I fainted.” She pressed her palm against her forehead. “How silly was that?”

He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t silly at all. It was perfectly understandable to faint when you learned the artifact your parents had died trying to find not only existed, but was actually within reach. But he couldn’t say it. Her father had been Duncan’s boss, but he’d also been his mentor and even something of a father figure. He understood the depth of emotions running through Annie—nervousness, suspicion, anticipation, confusion—but he didn’t know how to address it.

Instead, he said, “You probably had your knees locked. You shouldn’t lock your knees.”

“You’re probably right,” she echoed. “Locking my knees was a bad idea.”

“I remember when you used to lock your keys in your car. Trying to be safe, but ending up shutting yourself out of your own vehicle? Remember how many times you called me and my trusty Slim Jim to the rescue?” He wondered who came to her rescue now. Was it Hammond? He hated thinking about it. “Do you still lock your keys in your car?”

“I live in Manhattan. I don’t own a car.”

It disturbed him to realize how little he knew about the life she led. It was an unpleasant sensation. Once upon a time he’d known every detail of her daily routine, but no more.

Their eyes met.

The look was hot. Electric. Full of expectation and regret and yearning and hunger. It was a look that sent his balls feverishly drawing up tight against his hardening shaft. He watched her eyes spark, the verdant green turning mossy as she struggled to control her own arousal. Duncan spied the flare of wide-eyed panic she tried to camouflage.

She canted her head and studied him, pulling her bottom lip up between her teeth in a gesture that never failed to drive him to distraction. He wanted those full, rich lips between
his
teeth. She swung her legs. Back and forth. The rhythm matching the desperate pounding in his dick.

Duncan fisted his hands to keep from touching her. “How much do you remember about your parents’ search for the Siren’s Call?”

She made a funny little noise, half sigh, half chuckle. “You were there. You know how they were.”

“Yeah, obsessed. But I came late on the scene. How did it all start? Or were you too young to recall?”

“I was probably six or seven at the time. My mother was studying myths and legends for some class she was taking. Mom was always taking classes.” A faint smile flitted across her face. “In fact, I ran across her textbook when I was straightening up the storeroom.”

Annie hopped off the table and went to the shelf beside the file cabinets stacked with books. She studied the titles, pulled out the one she was searching for, flipped it open, and tapped the illustration. “Here.”

Duncan gazed over her shoulder at the fabled Siren’s Call. It was a cylindrical piece of glass with the face of a beautiful woman etched into the surface and a fish tail curling up at the end of the figurine. The inset where the mermaid’s heart should be was a star-shaped magnetic lodestone. According to legend, the Siren’s Call had potent aphrodisiac qualities. Purportedly, whoever possessed the idol became sexually irresistible to the object of their affections.

“She was a sharp woman, your mother, and very brave,” Duncan said. “You’re a lot like her.”

“Oh no. Mom was way more adventuresome than I’ll ever be. I think that’s why she was so attracted to my father. They had a rare passion for life. You have it, Duncan. The kind of fearless courage it takes to make a living as a deep-sea salvage diver.”

“You have it too, Annie.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t, and furthermore, I don’t want it. Passion that intense is destructive.”

“Not always,” he disagreed, feeling as if her argument mired him in quicksand. If she didn’t believe in passion, how could he convince her the passion they shared was worth fighting for?

“Always,” she said. “I remember this one time, Mom was pushing me in a swing at the park and chattering about the Siren’s Call. She was so caught up in her own story that she didn’t even realize how high she was pushing me on the swing, or that I had gotten scared and was begging her to stop. A stranger had to come over and grab her by the shoulders to make her snap out of it. It’s that kind of obsession that drove my parents to keep diving wrecks in search of the Siren’s Call. It’s why they died. Because they couldn’t let go. It was like an addiction.”

“I know. That’s what was so inspiring about your parents. They never, ever gave up.”

“And because of their stubborn obsession they left me orphaned at sixteen.”

“You weren’t alone. You had Jock and you had me.”

“I had my grandfather. I never had you.”

Her words sliced deep. Did she really believe that? It hurt. Five years ago, he’d crossed a line he shouldn’t have crossed. She’d looked up to him and he’d taken advantage of her vulnerability. But hell, he’d been vulnerable, too. Years of fantasies, of desperate need, had worn down his resolve. He hadn’t been able to resist her kiss. He’d stumbled and fallen. But here he was, ready, willing and able to make amends, if only she would give him a chance.

“You taught me a lot, Duncan. You reiterated the painful lesson I should have learned from my folks, and I have to thank you for that.”

“I don’t understand. What lesson are you talking about?”

“Never let your heart rule your head.” The weary note in her voice tore at him.

“Take a look at this.” Duncan drew a plastic bag from the side pocket of his cargo shorts. He eased out the tanned animal hide etched with the treasure map. Carefully he unfolded it, passed the map to Annie, and held his breath.

She examined it, tracing her fingers over the etchings. “You found this in the wreck of the
Lorelei
?”

“It leads to where Captain Remy stashed the Siren’s Call in an underwater cave off Dead Man’s Island, a deserted atoll, just below the Keys.”

“I still can’t believe it’s real.” She raised her head and looked at him again. “The Siren’s Call. After all these years.”

Annie was one helluva a siren herself, even if she didn’t seem to know it. She possessed the face of a madonna, but the body of a red-hot vamp. To Duncan, she was far more potent than the purported aphrodisiac qualities of that overrated mermaid idol. His hands burned with the urge to grab her full rounded hips and squeeze them tight as he pushed himself into her. He yearned to hear her scream his name with reverential fierceness. He raked his gaze over her.

“What?” she asked.

“What do you mean ‘what’?”

“You’re staring at me funny.”

Twin pink flushes rose to color her creamy white cheeks gone too long without Florida sun. Her lips parted, giving him a peek at her straight pearly teeth. It took all he had inside him not to throw her across his shoulder and carry her off to his boat like some lust-crazed pirate.

Patience, he told himself. But patience was hard won, especially since he’d already waited five long years for this. Changing her mind about him was going to take time. He had to accept it. That’s why he was counting so hard on help from the Siren’s Call. Sexual magic was precisely what they both needed.

“Who else knows about the map?” she asked.

“Only you.”

“No one else on the Triangle dive was with you?”

He had to be careful. He was treading deep water, and he had to tell her what she needed to hear or this wasn’t going to work. “I found it when I went diving alone.”

“Duncan Stewart!” A scandalized breath escaped her lungs. “You know better than that. My father taught you better.”

He shrugged. “What can I say?”

“Still the maverick, aren’t you? Still have to be the hotshot. If Jock knew about this he would bawl you out but good.” She sounded like the girl he remembered. No controlled, businesslike Harvard in her voice now. She was upset.

“Jock would want us to go after her.” Duncan thumped the map.

“Well, it’s a moot point because we’re not telling him.”

“Why not?”

“I won’t have you turning his world upside down. He’s sick. He might not pull through this. I won’t get his hopes up and risk dashing them.”

Duncan looked into her eyes and knew it wasn’t her grandfather’s life she feared getting turned upside down, but her own. Annie was scared. And if Annie was scared, that meant she cared, and if she still cared, that meant he had to keep pushing.

“But what if we find it? It’d be the best medicine Jock could have.”

“And if this map is a hoax?” Frowning, Annie held it closer to her face.

Terror gripped him. Duncan froze.
She knows
!

He’d weathered the leather for two weeks in salt water, but was it long enough to fool her? His gut knotted and he held his breath, waiting for her accusations.

But it never came. Finally, she put the map aside. “My family has suffered enough over that cursed figurine. Let’s keep the past buried.”

“What are you saying?”

“Destroy the map. We’re not going after the Siren’s Call.”

“Wah?” The noise strangled from his throat. He couldn’t believe she wasn’t taking the bait. Everything he’d plotted and planned was falling apart. Then again, he should have known Annie wouldn’t make it easy.

“You heard me.”

“But we have to go after it.” He did his best to sound cool. He couldn’t let her know exactly how much power she held over him. “To honor your parents.”

“I’ll honor them more by staying far away from that damn idol.”

“How do you figure?”

Annie didn’t answer his question and marched for the door. “I’ve got to get back to work. This store won’t run itself.”

Duncan went after her. Just the sight of her swaying ass lit up his circuit boards in a hundred different ways. No matter how hard he’d tried, no matter how many adventures he’d lived or women he’d bedded, he could not stop craving her. This time he did not deny the demanding urge rampaging through him. In two long-legged strides, he caught up with her, grabbed her by the arm, and whirled her around to face him.

Annie’s eyes widened. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“If you have to ask, then it’s been too long since you’ve had a proper kiss.” He yanked her into his arms, forcefully crushed her lips underneath his.

Her lush breasts were smashed against his chest, her firm thighs nudging his. She gasped, but he swallowed her protest. Initially, she struggled, squirming in his arms to get free, but seconds later, she relaxed and started kissing him back. Just like he knew she would.

Delight detonated in his mouth. A wildfire burned through his nerve endings. She was more essential to him than oxygen. God, he’d forgotten just how good she tasted. How plush and warm she felt in his arms. How she smelled so hot and sassy. He wanted to fuck her so badly his cock hurt.

Something dark and dodgy fisted inside him.

If he had the slightest doubt that what he was doing was wrong it vanished. He tightened his arms around her. Her teeth parted and he speared his tongue deep inside her.

Moaning softly, she slid her arms around his neck.

She tasted so delicious. Like heat and those cinnamon breath mints she adored. More, he had to have more. Craving her, he tipped her back. He inhaled her, merged with her. She dizzied his head like champagne bubbles. She was amazing. Smooth as honey and twice as sweet.

Her breasts were soft against his chest, her hair tickled his shoulder. He traced her spine to the small of her back, then gently kneaded her shapely ass. Her body, which seconds before was tense and resistant, turned fluid, supple at this touch.

“Annie,” he whispered into her mouth. “Annie.”

She twisted away from him, breathing heavily, her eyes glazed with the sheen of lust and surprise. She splayed her palms against his chest and pushed him away. “You don’t get to do that. You gave up your right to do that five years ago. Now please, just go.”

She stared at him hard with those dazzling green eyes, but he could not read her thoughts.

This was different. This new ability she’d developed to hide her feelings from him. He didn’t like it. Once upon a time he could read her like a book. But no longer. Had he lost her for good?

“Annie,” he beseeched.

Fiercely, she frowned and pointed toward the door. “Just leave, Duncan. We both know it’s what you do best.”

3

The Siren’s Call was luring Annie to her ruin, just as surely it had lured her parents ten years earlier. The legendary mermaid idol lay in an underground cave off the coast of the Florida Keys. Not so far from the very bed she was lying in.

She couldn’t stop thinking about it. She was already under the spell of the passionate Scot who’d brought the treasure map to her. Annie groaned, overwhelmed by fear, trepidation, embarrassment, and a healthy dose of excitement. Dammit, she shouldn’t be excited, but she was. This couldn’t be happening at a worse time.