As Hot As It Gets (11 page)

He was just closing his e-mail program when the
reception desk buzzed him. Mason pressed the intercom button. “Yeah?”

“Mr. Cayhill is here to see you.”

“Send him back.”

A few seconds later, there was a tap on the door.

“Come on in.”

Carter stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “Hey, you have time to look over the entertainment schedule for the next season with me?”

“Sure.” Regardless of whatever else was going wrong at Escapade, at least Mason could always be assured the entertainment was taken care of. Carter had handled his job as entertainment director for the resort flawlessly from day one.

Carter sat down across from him. “You're looking a little stressed, man. What's going on?”

Was Claire really getting to him so much that casual observers could tell he was losing his mind?

Mason shrugged. His first instinct was to tell Carter about his problem with Mike D'Amato, but then he heard himself blurt, “Woman trouble.”

“Ah, that hot little redhead I saw you with over the weekend?”

Mason couldn't recall having seen Carter, but it was a small world at the resort, and it was hard to go more than a few days without spotting just about everyone he knew.

“She's a serious source of trouble.”

Carter laughed. “Most of them are, you know.”

“Actually, there's nothing serious going on there,” Mason said, backtracking. He suddenly wasn't interested in discussing Claire with anyone. “The real problem is here at the resort. Maybe you could give me some advice.”

“Sure, man. What's up?”

“Have you heard any wild rumors going around about dominatrix services for hire here at Escapade?”

Carter blinked, then after recovering from his speechless state, he laughed. “That's crazy.”

“I got my information from a trustworthy source,” Mason said.

He sobered. “Okay, I'll sniff around and see what I can turn up. It has to be an inside job, since we're the only ones living on the island full-time.”

“Right. I'm just pissed off that my own employees would risk ruining the image of the resort this way.” Mason hesitated, not sure if he should tell Carter everything he knew.

But if Carter was going to help rout out the problem employees, he'd need all the information he could get. “Listen,” he said. “There's more. You familiar with Mike D'Amato, the bartender at the Cabana Club?”

“Sure, I know him.”

“He appears to be running this thing. I've also got a physical description of a woman involved in it, but no name yet.”

“So how do you want to handle them?”

“I'll let our security guys decide what to do with
Mike. He'll be fired, of course, but on top of that, I'm not sure what they might be able to do to get him to talk.”

Carter shook his head. “Never surprises me the things people do. But don't you worry, because if anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's me. People trust me—they'll talk.”

“Thanks, Carter. I really appreciate your help.”

“Why don't you let me talk to Mike D'Amato before you fire him?”

“I don't know. I'm afraid he'll run if he figures out we're on to him.”

“Hey, it's your call. If you give me the physical description of the other woman, I'll see what I can do to track her down.”

“Security's on that, too. They've got a photo database of all the resort employees, so it's just a matter of time until they get a match.”

“All right, man. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.”

“I will, thanks.”

Mason felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. With Carter keeping his ear to the ground, there wasn't any reason for him to dwell on the problem. People were handling it, and if there was one thing Mason knew was crucial to good management, it was delegating responsibility.

“You sure you feel like talking business right now?” Carter asked.

“Absolutely. What've you got for me?”

He listened as Carter went over the planned events for the next season and highlighted problem areas he was still working on. But Mason's mind wandered after a while, and he found himself thinking about Claire again.

About his comment to Carter—woman trouble.

No two words could have summed up Claire more succinctly, and yet, they nagged at him. Why had she been the first subject he blurted out, when he hadn't even wanted to talk about her?

Why was he letting her get under his skin? And if she did, then what?

Then she'd walk away, cured of her desire for his services in bed, and he'd be left here wanting more. Theirs was a no-win situation, and he'd be best off remembering that fact.

Claire was a temporary fling, nothing more.

By the time Carter was finishing up his report, Mason had become preoccupied with more than just his problems with Claire. His mind had wandered straight into the bedroom, where all his energy with her should have been focused. No more intimate conversation, if he could help it. He'd focus on the task at hand—curing Claire before all hell broke loose.

C
LAIRE SPENT HER FIRST
free day on the island trying to work out the tension in her shoulders. She'd gone to the spa for a massage, a manicure and a pedicure. She'd walked along the beach enjoying the sunshine—while trying to avoid the many single guys out looking for easy sex—and she'd read a paperback novel beside the pool.

But try as she might, she hadn't managed to put Mason out of her thoughts for more than a minute or two. And he was most definitely the source of all the tension in her shoulders.

She'd enjoyed herself partly because she liked traveling alone and partly because Escapade was a fabulous resort, but she couldn't kid herself. She'd been looking forward to tonight like crazy, hoping it would be the night that would finally do the trick—but mostly just looking forward to it.

A knock on the door alerted Claire to Mason's arrival. She did a quick check in the mirror, mussed her hair a bit, and adjusted her satin robe so that it gaped open ever-so-enticingly in the front.

There. Now he'd have no choice but to attack her at the door.

She'd already showered, put on her makeup and laid out an outfit for the evening, but first she'd made sure to be prepared for the pre-dinner appetizer he'd mentioned.

Mason was a little early, but that was okay.

She smiled as she opened the door, grasping the loosely tied belt of her robe and preparing to pull it free so that her robe would fall all the way open.

“I've been waiting—” The words died on her lips when she saw her best friend standing in the hallway, Mason nowhere in sight. “Lucy! What are you doing here?”

“I might ask you the same thing,” Lucy said, blinking at Claire's barely dressed appearance so close to dinnertime.

Shock quickly gave way to giddiness at having such an unexpected pleasant surprise, and the two women embraced. Claire hadn't realized how much she'd missed Lucy until now. With no siblings of her own, and her parents gone, Lucy had become not just her best friend but also her family.

When they finished hugging, Claire tugged her robe closed tighter and stepped aside for her friend to come in, then shut the door behind her.

“You're supposed to be running the travel agency,” Claire said, hoping to divert attention from her own questionable behavior.

Lucy raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “I left it in the capable hands of Gill.”

“But, why are you here?”

“I've been telling Judd to bring me here since before the resort opened. When he wrapped up a case this weekend sooner than expected, and you made your little unexpected voyage here, I finally convinced him we needed to show up and support his brother's latest business venture.”

“So you came to keep an eye on me?” Claire said, feeling oddly flattered at the notion.

“No, we came to have a much-needed vacation,” she answered, then smiled sheepishly. “And to keep an eye on you.”

“Well, I'm glad you're here, regardless.”

“Tropical Storm Macy almost kept us away, but here we are. Now tell me who you were expecting to show up at your door dressed like this.”

“Room service.”

“Right.”

“Where's Judd?” Claire asked.

“He's off looking for Mason.”

“Does Mason know you're here?”

Lucy smiled, looking mischievous. “It's a surprise for him, too.”

“You look great,” Claire said. “Did you get highlights or something?”

Lucy's light brown hair sparked with silvery blond streaks that made her warm brown eyes look even
warmer. Ever since she'd met Judd, she had the habit of looking ridiculously happy, but today, she was positively glowing.

She smiled and ran her fingers through her wavy shoulder-length hair. “I went to your stylist on Saturday. He did something amazing that cost way too much money, but you're changing the subject.” She narrowed her eyes at Claire. “
Who
were you expecting at your door just now?”

“Are you sure that's all there is? Did you get some sun this weekend?”

“Would you stop with my appearance? I didn't get any sun, okay!”

“Okay, fine. I was expecting Mason. Does that make you happy?”

Lucy sighed, not looking nearly as smug as Claire had expected. “What's the deal with that dominatrix service you told me about?”

“Mason's investigating, and I'm helping. Sort of. I think we've found the guy who's orchestrating the thing, but so far no one is talking.”

“Good thing Judd's here then. He'll get it all figured out, and that'll be one less thing Mason has to worry about.”

“Is that how you really lured Judd here?”

“No, believe it or not. He wanted to come even before I told him about the service.”

Claire thought of her and Mason's costumed foray into private investigating and laughed. “It's a good
thing he's here, because Mason and I aren't exactly pros at this P.I. stuff.”

Lucy smiled, oh-so-casually. “What's going on between you two?”

“Why don't you ask your brother-in-law that question?”

“Will his answer be different from yours?”

“Yes, because I'm not going to answer.” Claire stalked over to the window and frowned at the sky, which had the nerve to be looking absolutely breathtaking at that moment, alight with the soft early evening glow that invited romantic strolls with lovers.

For some immature reason, she wasn't keen on having her actions over the weekend examined under Lucy's magnifying glass.

“You are such a liar,” Lucy said, sitting down on Claire's bed, ever the patient friend. “You know you're dying to tell me every scandalous detail of your weekend with him.”

Under normal circumstances, Lucy would have been right. Claire supposed she couldn't exactly tell her best friend nothing about the weekend.

“I guess things just got a little out of hand. I might be violating some kind of brother-in-law, sister-in-law bond if I tell you
everything.
”

Lucy started looking a little queasy. “I don't
want
you to tell me
everything.
Just the important stuff.”

Claire gave up and sat down beside her, reclining back on a pile of pillows. “Okay, important stuff to
you means, am I in love? Have we set a wedding date yet? The answer to both those questions is no.”

“I wouldn't expect anything more from you. I was hoping you'd say something like, ‘We really like each other. We've finally stopped arguing long enough to see that we have a lot in common.'”

Claire started to protest, but then she realized Lucy was right. When they weren't arguing—and even when they were—she had fun with Mason.

Now what the hell was she supposed to do with that annoying little fact?

“I'll admit he's not the complete jerk-off I originally thought he was.”

Lucy peered at her from the corner of her eye. “And?”

“And we may have experienced a few pleasant moments over the weekend.”

“Pleasant enough that you might both have dinner at the same table as Judd and me tonight?”

Claire shrugged. Her plans for pre-dinner sex clearly weren't going to happen now. “Sure, I think we can sit through dinner together.”

It would just give them the energy they needed to do what would happen later, when they finally got each other alone.

“Well, then I have instructions to hurry you down to the seafood restaurant near the resort entrance. We're supposed to meet Judd there in twenty minutes.”

Claire got dressed while Lucy filled her in more
on how she'd managed to convince Judd that they needed to take a vacation on such short notice, but Lucy was a notoriously bad liar. There was some important fact she was leaving out of the story.

Claire turned and watched Lucy as she paced impatiently around the room. It wasn't like Lucy to pace impatiently or talk a mile a minute. Something about her had changed, that was for sure, and Claire couldn't begin to name what it was.

 

M
ASON HAD WATCHED
Judd and Lucy exchange knowing glances all through dinner, so when they both announced at the same moment, “We have some news to tell you,” it didn't exactly come as a surprise.

Claire looked up from her bananas Foster. “What kind of news?”

“We're pregnant!” Lucy said, beaming.

Claire froze with a spoonful of banana and ice cream hovering inches from her mouth, her eyes wide. “Pregnant?”

“Yes! It's a little sooner than we expected, but we're so excited, we thought we'd fly out here to tell you both at the same time.”

“Congratulations!” Mason stood up and hugged Lucy, then Judd, and sat back down as he let the news settle in his brain. He was happy for them, and he loved the idea of having a kid in the family. But…

But what?

He was also suddenly feeling a little off. Like he'd
eaten some bad seafood. And then he realized what was bugging him. If his little brother had kids first—just as he'd gotten married first—and if Mason continued on his current path toward eternal bachelorhood, he'd eventually become one of those eccentric old guys who never married and never had kids.

That fact hadn't really bothered him when it was just the opinions of his peers he had to consider, many of whom were still swinging singles. But now there'd be a kid in the family, possibly more than one. And when viewed through the eyes of a child, his eternal bachelorhood could seem…well, odd.

He'd be
Weird Old Uncle Mason.

He wasn't sure that's who he wanted to be.

“Mason? Are you okay?” Lucy asked.

He snapped out of his daze. Claire had gotten up to hug Judd and Lucy too and was offering them her congratulations.

“I'm fine, really. I guess I'm just getting sentimental over my little brother having a baby. Have you told Mom yet?”

“I'm not even sure where she is right now,” Judd said. “Pakistan?”

Mason shook his head. “I got an e-mail from her last week. She's in Bali.”

After their parents' divorce, they'd had occasional awkward visits with their father that had eventually ended when he married again and started a second family. Neither of them had heard from him in nearly
fifteen years, so that left their mom as the person to tell about major life events like a baby.

That is, if she were ever around to hear the news. She'd spent her retirement years globetrotting, and her distance was part of what had kept Judd and Mason close. They stuck together through everything, and Mason realized with a start that he wanted to be around to watch Judd's kid grow up.

Which would mean living in Arizona.

Near Claire.

The bad-seafood feeling came back with a vengeance.

Judd, Lucy and Claire were discussing due dates and baby names and such, so they didn't notice what must have been the shade of green Mason was turning. He decided if he didn't want to seem like a complete jerk, he needed to snap out of his funk and get into the baby talk.

“If it's a boy,” he joked, “I'll cast my vote for the name Mason—strong, distinctive, simple—”

“Actually, Lucy already suggested that,” Judd said, much to Mason's surprise. “I told her it would give you too much of a big head.”

If Mason wasn't mistaken, he would have sworn Claire was working just as hard as he was to disguise a queasy feeling over the whole notion of parenthood. He watched her as she neglected the dessert she'd been attacking only minutes ago. After their dessert plates were cleared away, he was sure he saw
relief on her face when Lucy said she was tired and wanted to go back to their room to get some rest.

“I'll see you in the morning then,” Claire said, standing up from the table a little quicker than everyone else.

They said their goodbyes to Judd and Lucy and found themselves alone on Escapade's main promenade that led down to the beach. It was dark out now, but the resort's walkways were lit, and the sound of the ocean beckoned.

A few hours ago, he'd had little on his mind but getting Claire alone in her room, but now… A walk seemed more appropriate given his weak stomach.

“Want to go for a stroll on the beach?” he asked as Claire brushed a wild curl out of her eyes.

“I'd love to.” She was wearing a slinky white dress with a sweater draped over her shoulders, so he took the liberty of removing it and helping her into it.

After a few minutes of walking, he said, “You seemed a little shocked by the baby news.”

“I wasn't the one turning green.”

Mason laughed. “I'm actually thrilled for them. I don't know why the news threw me so off-kilter.”

“I'm thrilled for them, too.” She looked down at the sand and hugged her arms around herself as she walked. “I guess it's just that when you're our age and someone you're close to has a kid, then it makes you think, you know?”

“Believe me, I know.”

Mason knew better than to have the kid conversa
tion with a woman he wasn't planning to marry, but he and Claire were so far from being an actual dating couple that he felt safe asking, “You want to have kids someday?”

She shrugged. “I'm not opposed to the idea of procreation. I guess I've always assumed I would someday when I'm too old to worry about stretch marks.”

“Which will be when? When you're eighty?”

“Something like that.”

She smiled, and he found a whole new reason to like her. She could talk about kids without getting that glazed, desperate, my-clock-is-ticking look so many women got.

“How about you? Any paternal urges?”

“I'm pretty much with you on the whole parenthood issue, except for the part about stretch marks, of course. I've always considered it one of those events that would happen in the unforeseeable future.”