“Tch.” Kerry smoothed her hand over Dar’s hip. “You look cute in it,” she protested. “But no, what?”
Dar closed her teeth around one of the ties holding Kerry’s wrap closed and tugged on it, pulling it loose. “They come off easy.” She peeled back one edge, exposing Kerry’s chest, then went for the lower tie. She pulled it slowly, her eyes tracking up Kerry’s body to meet her eyes. “See?”
Kerry felt Dar’s hair brush against her thighs as she undid the fastening and laid her body bare to the soft breeze coming in from the window. She eased up onto her elbows, watching Dar’s back arch as she prowled her way on up. “Sweetheart?” Kerry murmured.
“Yeees?” Dar rested her chin against Kerry’s navel.
“I would love to spend the next few hours being ravished by you, but don’t you think we should pick up Mark’s stuff first?”
Dar sighed, a rush of very warm air that caused goose bumps to rise across Kerry’s breasts. “No,” she growled softly. “But…” She slid all the way up Kerry’s body, bringing a rush of raw sensuality with her, then dipped her head to capture Kerry’s lips for a long moment. “I guess we have to.”
As Dar lifted herself up and off the bed, Kerry regretted having said a word. She exhaled and rolled over, then stood and trotted after her taller partner as she went to the briefcase tucked between the dresser and the wall. She waited for Dar to unlock the top, then 106
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slid her arms around her partner and started playing with the strings on Dar’s shift as she pulled out the laptop and put it on the table.
Dar glanced over her shoulder. “Thought you wanted me to set this up.”
“I’m helping.” Kerry untangled a cable and plugged it in, still with her arms around Dar’s body.
“Ah.” Dar booted the laptop and flipped up its cellular antenna. “Thought we weren’t bringing this.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kerry poked her head under Dar’s left arm, watching the screen. “But I figured if something catastrophic did happen, and the office needed us, we’d have to have this to do anything about it.”
“Good thought.”
“And if they called us for something stupid, we could toss it overboard and make Mark get you a new one in that snazzy blue color you like so much.” Kerry found another string to tug on, and Dar’s shift fell as open as hers was. “Ooh… nice desktop.”
“I could put this one on.” Dar casually clicked a few keys and replaced her peaceful forest scene with one of Kerry on the beach.
Naked.
“EEEK!” Kerry slapped at the mouse pointer. “Get that outta there, Dar!”
“Heh.” Dar relented and switched back to the forest. “You’re so cute.” She started the laptop into its dial-up routine. “Now,” she turned around and gathered Kerry into her arms, “before I was so rudely interrupted by logic, where was I?”
Kerry pressed her body against Dar’s. “Here, I think.” She wound a hand around Dar’s neck and was about to kiss her when a knock sounded at the door. Kerry paused, looked at her partner, then at the door in visible outrage. “What the heck?”
“Hotel better be on fire,” Dar muttered, then raised her voice.
“Yeah?”
There was a moment of silence, then a voice answered,
“H…hello? I’m looking for Kerry?”
Kerry fell forward against Dar’s chest and shook her head.
“Bob.”
“Bob,” Dar repeated. “You stay here. I’m gonna bob Bob.” Dar headed for the door with determined strides.
“Ah…bu…bu…Dar!” Kerry scuttled after her, grabbed hold of her loose shift, and pulled her to a halt. “Whoa!”
Dar turned, her eyebrows lifting in outraged question.
Kerry tied the shift closed. “Blind eunuchs have it tough in the job market, sweetie,” she whispered. “Let me handle him, okay?”
She adjusted her own dress and slipped ahead of Dar, grasped the door handle, and turned it. “Yes?” She leaned on the jamb, opening
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the door just wide enough to make eye contact.
“Kerry! Great, I found you.” Bob beamed. “Can I come in?”
Kerry got her thoughts in order and assumed one of her more no-nonsense expressions. “Bob, it’s late. Is there something you need? We’re pretty tired.” She tried not to hear the low, vibrant growl that was buzzing the air behind her.
“I was hoping we could talk,” Bob explained shyly.
Okay, Ker, Dar’s right. Polite ain’t cutting it this time
. “About what?” Kerry asked.
The hallway was empty, though Bob glanced to either side just to be certain. He put his hands in his pockets and managed an almost engaging expression. “Look, I know we barely know each other…”
“Grrooowwwwll!”
Kerry felt Dar move closer, and the heat of her body warmed Kerry’s back. “That’s right,” she answered Bob. “We don’t.”
“But I was thinking maybe we could see each other a few times, you know… I think you’re a really—”
“Bob.” Kerry opened the door a little wider and straightened, holding both hands out in a stopping motion. “Hold it.”
“No, I know you’re really modest, but I think—”
“Bob!” Kerry’s voice lifted.
He peered at her anxiously. “Yeah?”
“Thank you, but I have a significant other,” Kerry stated firmly. “One that I’m very attached to.”
“Rowwwrrrll.” Dar’s growl turned to a purr.
Bob took a breath and gave her a determined look. “I figured you had a boyfriend, but I really think we can get to know each other better, after all—”
“Bob.” Kerry sighed. “I don’t have a boyfriend.” She spoke slowly, enunciating carefully, “I told you before—I have a partner.”
His brows contracted in puzzlement. “A partner?”
Dar’s patience, never really extensive, snapped. She poked her head above Kerry’s as she raised a hand over Kerry’s shoulder.
“That would be me.”
Bob looked from one of them to the other, his head cocking to one side in patent confusion.
Kerry turned and looked at Dar. “See what happens when you eat too much Wonder Bread?” she asked, then turned back. “Bob, Dar and I are lovers,” she painstakingly clarified for him. “We’re gay. Am I making a connection here?”
Very slowly, comprehension dawned. “Oh,” Bob finally murmured, turning a deep, brick red. “Sorry. I didn’t…um…”
Kerry felt a little sorry for him. “It’s okay.”
“Okay, well then, have a good night. I’m sorry,” Bob babbled, backing away. “Sorry.” He escaped down the hallway, almost 108
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crashing into the corner in his haste to get out of sight.
“Mmph.” Dar watched the last of him vanish and issued a satisfied grunt. “What an analog mindset.”
Kerry nudged her backwards and shut the door. “Aw, he’s not that bad. He meant well, Dar.”
“No he didn’t,” Dar objected. “Kerry, did you hear what he said after you told him you had an SO? He didn’t care! What a creep!”
Kerry chewed the inside of her lip. “Ew. Yeah,” she admitted.
“That was pretty scuzzy.”
Dar shook her head and ambled over to where the laptop had finished downloading. She picked it up and took it to the bed, then rid herself of her shift and settled on the covers, stretching her naked body out as she studied the screen. After a second, she glanced up over the LCD and crooked a finger at Kerry. “C’mere.”
Kerry put thoughts of Bob and his scuzziness out of her mind, removed her own clothing, and joined Dar in bed, snuggling up next to her lover. “What did he send?”
“Look.” Dar pointed. They read together in silence, tanned faces outlined in the light of the screen.
THE NEXT MORNING, Kerry woke up first for a change. She let her eyes drift open as the sunlight poured in the slatted windows and made stripes across the bed. For a few minutes, she just lay there in a lazy half doze, watching Dar’s chest move rhythmically. The sun made the soft, fine hairs on Dar’s torso glisten, and Kerry rubbed her thumb over a few of them as she pondered the information they’d obtained the night before.
She’d expected…well, to be honest, she hadn’t really had any idea what to expect. Maybe that the big black boat and the little white wiener following it were international jewel thieves, or something. Instead, what they’d discovered was that the boat was owned by a wealthy broker of art and collectables who was known for his aggressive acquisition and auction of just about anything he could get his hands on that was worth good money.
Nothing illegal
about that.
Kerry nuzzled Dar’s shoulder, and her nostrils picked up faint traces of coconut from the tanning oil she’d spread all over Dar the day before. But they’d read some clips about how the man had forced his way into excavations and bought up rights for salvage, often taking valuable goods out from under the eyes of the original, and sometimes rightful, owners.
John DeSalliers. Not a nice guy. But that wasn’t illegal, either.
What Kerry couldn’t figure out was why they’d been so set on chasing after her and Dar. After all, if they could get this information on who was registered to that boat, it was just as easy for the black boat to get the same information about Dar.
“I just don’t get it.” Kerry sighed. All they’d done was dive on a decrepit wreck. Surely they didn’t think there was anything valuable on an old fishing vessel, did they? Why bother? It didn’t make sense.
Their friends Christen and Juan turned out to be registered private detectives, apparently on a hefty retainer from DeSalliers.
They were both very well off, and Christen was purportedly quite the wild woman of the world, if you believed the society gossip clips Mark had pulled off of God-only-knew-where.
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But…
Kerry kept coming back to the same question: why bother her and Dar? If they were looking for something, why take the time out to tangle with a pair of IT execs out on vacation? It just didn’t make sense.
Dar’s voice interrupted her musing. “Whatcha frowning about?”
Kerry tilted her chin up and looked at her newly awakened partner. “Trying to figure out what’s going on.”
“Ahhh.” Dar nodded solemnly. “How about we figure out breakfast first?” She arched her back and stretched. “For one thing, thinking requires my brain to boot up, and for another, I’m not sure I want to waste the synapse firing on them.”
“Even after what happened the other night?” Kerry asked.
Dar shrugged. “They ended up grounding their boat,” she reminded Kerry. “We won. Why push it?”
Kerry eased up onto an elbow and studied Dar. “You’re not curious as to why they did it?” Her voice rose in surprise. “Or what they’re after?”
Another shrug indicated Dar’s ambivalence. “Yes, I’m curious, but I don’t know that I’m curious enough to waste part of our vacation on tracking it all down and sorting it out,” Dar answered honestly. “If I really wanna know, I can find out when we get home and make their lives miserable retroactively.”
Kerry ran her fingers through her hair as she considered that.
“Well, yeah,” she said. “I can see your point, but what if they do something else?”
Dar half turned on her side to face Kerry, and perched on an elbow, mimicking her posture. “I’d say they’d be stupider than I thought they were, but if they do, then we’ll have to deal with whatever happens,” she said. “But I’d rather forget about them until then.”
Kerry’s brow puckered. “I don’t like it,” she admitted, thinking about the angles as Dar waited for her with commendable patience.
“I want to know what they were up to, and why they were chasing us, and what’s so important about that patch of water.”
Dar relaxed onto her back and put her hands behind her head.
“Okay,” she said. “How?”
“Hm?”
“Aside from chasing them down and demanding they tell us what they’re up to, how do you figure on finding out what’s going on?”
Kerry sat up cross-legged and rested her elbows on her bare knees. “Well…” she began, then stopped.
“We planning on following them around?” Dar inquired, with the barest hint of a twinkle in her eyes.
“No.” Kerry shook her head. “I guess you’re right. Unless they
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approach us again, there’s really no way to do this.” She looked up at Dar, who was gazing back at her. “You already figured all that out, didn’t you?”
Dar pointed a finger at herself. “Me?”
Kerry poked her in the ribs. “Yes, you, little Ms. Ice-Cream-won’t-melt-in-my-mouth.” She sprawled across Dar’s middle, pinning her to the bed. “It just bites my shorts to let those scurvies mess with us and walk away.”
“They didn’t,” Dar reminded her. “They’re probably laying out ten grand for patched fiberglass right now, remember?”
“Mm,” Kerry grunted. “But won’t that make them want to get back at us?”
“Maybe,” Dar conceded. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Kerry gracefully bowed to the logic of it. Dar’s points were good ones. Unless they were willing to get the local authorities involved and press charges—of what nature she didn’t know—there really was no investigating they could do outside of direct confrontation or some back alley skulking. She didn’t feel like skulking, and while she had every confidence that they could present a very effective direct confrontation, she understood Dar’s reluctance to engage in conflict. “Okay,” she agreed. “Now, weren’t we discussing breakfast?”
Dar grinned.
“How about we toss on some clothes and go foraging?” Kerry suggested. “I think I saw a little place out by the beach we could try,” she said. “Right next to the windsurfing area.”
“Ah ha.” Dar chuckled good-naturedly. “I sense an ulterior motive.” She took hold of Kerry’s hand and held it, for no particular reason other than wanting the contact. “I don’t want to hear you complaining tonight about getting bounced off the ocean the whole day.”
Kerry smiled. “Yeah, but if I whine enough, you’ll give me a massage,” she countered. “Besides, maybe I’ll have better luck than I did last time. I’ve been doing some upper body work at the gym.”
Dar’s eyes wandered over Kerry’s upper body and a cheeky grin appeared. “I’ve never had a problem with that part of you,”
she drawled. “To hell with windsurfing.”