Man Overboard. Karen Leabo

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СКАЧАТЬ there were no eavesdroppers lurking about. He and Harrison were going over the details of the break-in that had occurred last night, proving that the Mermaid cat burglar was on the prowl.

      “What exactly was stolen?” Harrison asked.

      “A sapphire-and-diamond necklace, worth a cool twenty-seven thousand dollars,” James said. “Fortunately the owner isn’t the hysterical type. She reported the theft very quietly, and I’ve convinced her to keep mum so our chief suspect won’t know we’re on to her. Which leads me to...did you get lucky with Aurora last night?”

      Harrison sighed tiredly. “No. An elderly gentleman, a Dr. Waller, walked her back to her cabin at about two. I followed them, then stuck around in the passageway long enough to be sure she didn’t take a late-night stroll.”

      “Then she isn’t responsible?” James asked, frowning.

      “I didn’t say that.” Damn, he almost wished he could serve as Aurora’s alibi. He was growing fond of her, and it was getting harder and harder for him to believe she was a world-class jewel thief.

      What was even harder to swallow was how Paige would handle her mother’s arrest. “Aurora went to the ladies’ room shortly after you were called away,” he admitted. “She was gone more than twenty minutes. I should have followed her, but I didn’t. She said she’d be right back, and I didn’t think that much of it.” He’d been too intent on dancing with Paige to think clearly, anyway.

      “Twenty minutes would be enough time, barely,” James said, his irritated frown fading. Clearly he was eager to close this case, which had plagued him for more than a year.

      “How did the burglar get into the cabin?” Harrison asked.

      “A glass cutter was used on the terrace door. It was a clean, quick job. And, Harrison, the cabin that was hit is next door to Aurora’s.”

      “Well, hell, that clinches it, then.” Aurora must have climbed over the railing of her veranda and worked her way over to the victim’s. Although the woman was fifty-eight years old, she was trim and athletic. The caper wasn’t inconceivable. “Any fingerprints?”

      “Nope. Like I said, clean and fast.”

      “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as the theft was reported?” Harrison asked.

      James’s expression hardened. “Silly me. I thought you were making some progress with Aurora, and I didn’t want to mess that up. I was hoping you’d get into her cabin and find something useful.” He was clearly disgusted with Harrison’s lack of success on that front.

      “Hey, you think this is easy? Aurora’s no pushover.”

      “That’s not what I hear.”

      All right, so maybe Harrison hadn’t tried all that hard, especially when Aurora seemed to be having such a good time with the doctor. “Don’t worry, she’ll invite me in.”

      “You know, we could use a passkey. If we knew where the necklace was ahead of time—”

      “Forget it,” Harrison said, cutting him off. “I work strictly by the book. We can’t search without the captain’s say-so, and he won’t give us that without stronger evidence. So Aurora has to invite me in.”

      James laughed without humor. “Sometimes I wonder about you, Harrison. I’d be willing to bet I can get into Paige’s bed before you get into Aurora’s.”

      Harrison’s hand clenched into a fist beneath the table. He longed to punch that self-satisfied smirk off James’s face. God, how he hated the other man’s attitude. At least Harrison had a halfway defensible reason for romancing Aurora. But James’s only motivation for putting the moves on Paige was so he could chalk up another conquest.

      “Yeah, the more I think about it,” James continued, oblivious to Harrison’s suppressed anger, “the more I believe it’s essential for me to keep Paige occupied and safely out of the way. Aurora’s more likely to tip her hand if she doesn’t have to worry about her daughter. Not that Paige is really my type, but she’s not half-bad.”

      Not half-bad? Harrison had to exert excruciating self-control not to lunge for James’s throat. Paige Stovall was the sweetest combination of strength and vulnerability Harrison had ever encountered, demurely feminine one minute and fierce as any lioness the next, especially when it came to protecting her mother. Fire and ice. How could anyone think she was less than magnificent?

      With a jolt, Harrison realized he was jealous. That’s what he’d felt last night, all the way to his gut, when he’d watched Paige dancing with James, laughing with him, touching him. And when Aurora had unwittingly answered his fantasies by practically thrusting Paige into his arms, he’d felt as if the angels had smiled on him. Even though she’d danced with him under protest, he’d enjoyed staring down into those luminous eyes, watching the sparkling night-club lights play against her auburn hair, feeling the firm flesh at the small of her back beneath her silk dress.

      She had enchanted him, and he’d completely forgotten himself. It had seemed as natural as breathing to caress her as they danced. It had also been a near-fatal blow to his investigation. He’d have to do a lot of fence mending if he wanted to salvage the operation.

      He hadn’t confessed that blunder to James. He might still be able to pick up the pieces.

      He allowed his hands to relax. It wasn’t worth getting thrown off this case just for the satisfaction of breaking James’s nose. Besides, there was no reason for him to worry about James getting to Paige. She might be an innocent, but she wasn’t stupid.

      “Say, speak of the devil, look who’s in the buffet line,” James said.

      Harrison looked, scanning the crowd, uncomfortably eager to catch a glimpse of Paige. There she was, wearing sunglasses and a bulky terry robe that hid her curves, her sun-bright hair tucked beneath a floppy hat. A huge canvas beach bag hung from one shoulder. She was trying to be inconspicuous, no doubt, but he would have recognized those legs anywhere. They might not be terribly long, but they were trim and shapely. For an instant his imagination conjured up an image of those legs wrapped around— No, no, no. He had to stop thinking along those lines.

      Aurora, he noticed, was nowhere around.

      “Why don’t you leave Paige alone?” he said, when he noticed James smoothing his hair and flicking an invisible speck of lint from his razor-creased trousers. “She doesn’t deserve this.” But as always, James didn’t listen. He quickly made his move, swooping down on Paige like a dive-bomber, picking up her tray from beneath her nose and carrying it back to their table despite her protests.

      She had little choice but to follow her breakfast.

      “Oh, good morning,” she said coolly when she spotted Harrison. “You’re up early for having been out so late.”

      James drew back in surprise. “And just how do you know how late Harrison stayed up?” he asked. Although he appeared to be teasing, there was a hard edge to his question.

      “My aunt got back to her cabin after two,” she said. “I just assumed she was still with Harrison.”

      Although she was answering James, she looked straight at Harrison as she spoke. Was she challenging him, daring him to contradict her? Getting into her good graces wasn’t СКАЧАТЬ