Bachelor Unclaimed (5 page)

“Then I want to hear it from him.”

“He’s busy.”

“I’ll wait. You’re his bodyguard, not his spokesman.”

Winston chuckled as he leaned back against the wall again. “He values anything I tell him, trust me.” Every muscle in his body went rigid when a suspicion Winston didn’t like floated across his mind. Had she been on to him that night? He looked at her and frowned. “That night you told me you were in Hilton Head on a vacation.”

“I was for two weeks. My boss called and since I was in the area, he offered me a chance to do the interview.”

And it was an interview she wouldn’t be getting. “I really don’t know what to tell you, Red, but Chambers—”

“My name is Ainsley. You know it now so use it,” she said harshly.

He smiled. The woman was feisty but then he’d known that. That night they’d practically had a sex marathon and she had bit him a couple times with her teeth, clawed his back with her nails and nearly sucked him dry with her mouth. Winston felt a tightening in his gut when he remembered the latter. She had gone down on him in a way no other woman had. His gaze lowered to her mouth. He loved that mouth. It was sexy with full lips. He loved kissing it, tonguing it, nibbling on it...and he also enjoyed what she could do with it.

“Winston?”

He glanced back at her eyes. “Yes,
Ainsley
?”

Ainsley drew in a sharp breath.
Why did he have
to say her name like that? Like it was a breathless whisper
from his lips combined with a husky groan from deep within his throat.
And then there were those penetrating dark eyes that could take your breath away, hypnotize you into thinking about doing all sorts of naughty things.

“I need you to put in a good word for me with Dr. Chambers.” She didn’t want to beg and she wouldn’t. She would just ask nicely. If he had any pull with Chambers then she needed whatever leverage she could get.

She watched the way his mouth twitched in a slow grin showing those same dimples that had turned her on that night. Those same dimples that were turning her on now.

Ainsley turned away to glance out at the ocean. It was beautiful from here. She bet the view was simply gorgeous from anywhere on this island. She glanced back at Winston and thought, yes, he was a bodyguard and he would make a good one. He was definitely physically fit with muscles galore. She could recall running her hands over his biceps plenty of times that night. She doubted there was an area of his body she hadn’t touched...or tasted.

She glanced away again, not ready to recall just what they had shared and how deeply they’d shared it. She hadn’t acted herself that night. She had let loose, which was something she didn’t do often. She had needed it. And it had definitely helped. Other than when visions of him would creep into her dreams, she’d been sleeping like a baby since.

She forced her gaze back to him. He hadn’t responded one way or the other. Hadn’t he heard her? “Winston, I asked if you—”

“I heard you.”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t sure since you didn’t say anything.”

“I was thinking.”

“Oh.”

He was still staring at her and she wondered what thoughts were going through his mind. Hopefully, they weren’t the same ones that had been going through hers. Sometimes it was best to move forward and not look back. In their case, she knew it to be true.

“I’ll call you tomorrow with my answer,” he said, breaking into both her thoughts and the silence.

She frowned. “Tomorrow? But I wanted to talk to him today.”

“That won’t be happening. If he agrees to see you then I’ll call you.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then I won’t. It’s just an interview. If you can’t interview him, then I’m sure you can move on to someone else. I hear George Clooney will be on the island sometime this week.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand. I need to do a story on Dr. Chambers. I’ve been assigned to get an interview from him.”

Winston drew in a deep breath. “It’s going to be hard for him to agree. Like I told you, he doesn’t do interviews.”

“Then I need for you to make sure I’m his first.”

He tilted his head and looked at her. “And why should I do that, Ainsley?”

She shrugged and then said, “Because we’re friends?”

He held her gaze steadily. “No, we’re not friends. As you reminded me earlier, it was just sex that night. Friends don’t have sex. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”

Deciding not to push, she walked with him to where her car was parked, not saying anything. They walked slowly and she was fighting hard to force back the desire that was pounding deep inside her. What was there about him that could make her want to do crazy stuff? She glanced down at his outfit, a brown shirt and a pair of khaki walking shorts. He had nice legs.

She cleared her throat deciding to strike up a conversation, since her car was parked on the other side of the estate. “Nice place.”

Instead of answering, he nodded. She decided to ask something that would elicit a response. “Have you worked for Dr. Chambers long?”

He glanced over at her. “Long enough.”

At least that was a start. “How long?”

“Several years.”

Ainsley didn’t say anything for a minute and then asked, “Is there only the two of you here?”

He lifted a brow. “Why do you want to know?”

“Curious.”

“Curious or nosy?” he asked as they went down some steps. He touched her elbow to assist her and desire flared to life within her again.

“A little of both, I guess. After all, I am a reporter.”

He didn’t say anything for a minute and then announced, “Charley’s here, too.”

“Charley?”

“Yes.”

“What does he do?”

“Security. He runs the command center. Any time someone shows up on this property uninvited, Charley lets us know.”

This time she nodded. “I’m looking forward to meeting both Charley and Dr. Chambers.” He didn’t say anything as he opened the car door for her but she made no move to get inside just yet. He had an unreadable expression on his face and Ainsley didn’t know if she could depend on him being an ally or not.

“If you really want to meet Chambers, then maybe you need to think about what I’ll want out of this,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.

His words spurred a tightness in the pit of her stomach. “What do you mean?”

“I think you know what I mean.”

She had a sinking feeling that she did, but in situations like this it behooved a person to play dumb. “I don’t really so please clarify.”

“No problem.” He moved in close, brought his face down to hers. “You want something from me and I want something from you.”

He was so close that it wouldn’t take much for him to kiss her if he had the mind to do so. The thought of him doing such a thing—planting a hard and powerful kiss to her lips—had her heart pounding in her chest. “And what exactly do you want from me?” she asked, hoping he was gentleman enough not to say what she was thinking.

“That morning you skipped out on me...I wasn’t happy about it, especially when you agreed that we would spend a day and another night together.”

His reminder sent a gush of heat flooding her cheeks. “You and I both know we probably said a lot of stuff that night we didn’t mean,” she said, suddenly feeling ill at ease with the memories.

“Aah...probably, but not about that,” he said, his mouth quirking in dry humor. “You gave me your word and I was looking forward to more time with you.”

She hadn’t given her word...not exactly. She just hadn’t done what she’d said she would do. “It was time for me to leave, Winston,” she said, hoping he would see reason.

“No it wasn’t and not like that. Not without the courtesy of letting me know you’d changed your mind. Not without even a goodbye.”

Seriously, dude? Had you expected to come out of the shower to find me on the bed waiting for you, spread-eagle?
She studied his features, saw the hard flint in the eyes staring her down and figured he probably had. Her mind began struggling for something to say since he was intent on being difficult, and a difficult bodyguard to Dr. R. J. Chambers was something she didn’t need right now. To be quite honest, she’d rather not discuss this, but since he brought it up... “We didn’t need a goodbye. You got what you wanted and I got what I wanted.”

He shrugged. “Then call me greedy because I wanted more. And if I remember correctly, so did you at the time.”

She could only stare at him thinking he was remembering correctly. She
had
wanted more. But that was before she’d come to her senses and realized more with him would only be asking for trouble. “I changed my mind. Get over it,” she snapped.

“Easier said than done, Ainsley.” He took a step back and let his eyes roam over her. She felt the heat of his gaze in places she wished she didn’t.

Just when she thought she would combust from a simple look, he cocked his head to one side and said, “To get what you want, you’ll need to give me what I want. What you owe me. I want a day and a night with you...with no interruptions.”

“It won’t happen.”

“Is that your decision?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Your final decision? If you need more time to think—”

“I don’t need any more time,” she interrupted. “That’s my final decision.”

He nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Then this is goodbye. And there’s no need for me to mention your visit to Dr. Chambers.”

Ainsley felt her stomach sink. He was letting her know he was playing hardball. He wouldn’t give her what she wanted with Chambers, unless she slept with him again. Well, he could forget it. She didn’t want the story that bad. But, she thought, with dread curling her stomach, she did want her job back. She needed her job back. There was nothing for her in Claxton and the sooner she could resume her life in New York, the better.

She nervously licked her lips while she held his gaze. Her mind taunted her.
He’s such a good-looking man. Would sharing a bed again with him be so awful when you enjoyed it so much the first time
?

Yes, it would be awful. Having an affair of her own choosing was one thing; being coerced into one was another. “Goodbye, Winston.” She slid into the car and he closed the door while she snapped on her seat belt.

And then without saying anything else, she started the car and drove off, going back the way she came. She couldn’t stop herself from looking through her rearview mirror at him. He was standing there, watching her leave.

It was only when he was no longer in sight that it occurred to her that he now had her full name, but the only thing she knew was his first name.

Chapter 7

W
inston’s hand wasn’t quite steady as he took a drink and it was a drink he needed. Seeing Red again—or Ainsley since that was her name—had done him in. She had been the last person he’d expected to see when he’d left his lab to nab a trespasser.

And less than thirty minutes later he had let her go.

Watching her drive away had made him realize just how isolated it was out here. His godbrothers as well as Grady always joked about him being out on Barrett Shores alone. He always ignored their teasing because the seclusion had never bothered him...until today.

And what was that kiss about? A kiss he’d initiated that she’d returned with as much greed as he’d put into it. He liked stroking his tongue inside her mouth. Loved her taste. Loved the way she felt in his arms. And he was totally into her scent. He liked the way her flesh felt when he ran his tongue over her bottom lip. If he wasn’t careful, she could become addictive.

Every muscle in his body suddenly went rigid. What the hell was wrong with him? No woman—and he meant
no
woman—got next to him or under his skin. And he’d be damned if he let her set a precedent. Three of his godbrothers had gotten whipped, and he’d sworn, along with Virgil and Zion, not to let it happen to them.

Winston smiled at the thought that he was up one on her. She had no idea that he was the very man she wanted to interview. He was Winston Coltrane, aka Dr. R. J. Chambers. He could have easily told her the truth, but had decided there was no way he would do so. After all, she was a reporter and they were known to spill any secrets a person might have.

And he had placed her between a rock and a hard place. She wanted a story and he wanted her. He hadn’t realized just how much until he’d seen her again. And it was obvious his offer hadn’t set too well with her. He had backed her against the proverbial wall and he had a feeling she wasn’t one to be backed, no matter how badly she wanted a story. As far as he was concerned, he had every right to ask for more time with her. She had agreed to give him that and hadn’t.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out her business card and looked at it. Plain, definitely not like her. There was nothing plain about Ainsley St. James at all. As far as he was concerned, she had looked just as hot today as she had that night. And so damn beautiful.

Suddenly a thought came into his mind and placing down his glass, he glanced over at Charley. “Need report on Ainsley St. James.”

He heard the beeps and watched as lights on the board began flashing, which meant Charley was going furiously through data stored in his memory bank wired to the Google website. That was another bright idea of York’s to aid with the research Winston did from time to time.

Charley interrupted his thoughts to ask,
“Male or female?”

Winston raised his brow. There was a male? Were they related? Father and daughter perhaps? Curiosity had him saying, “Male.”

“Male. Ainsley St. James. Born 1843 and died 1903. Founded Claxton, New Jersey. First mayor in 1870. Married Edna Boyd. Sons Edgar and Harry.”

He’d heard enough. “Female.”

“
Female. Ainsley St. James. Age twenty-six
.
Former employer—
The New York Times.
Candidate for mayor of Claxton, New Jersey. Lost
.”

He sat up straight. Ainsley had a stint in politics? “When?”

“Repeat command. Failed communication.”

He had to remember he wasn’t talking to a human. “When did she lose the election?”

“Lost election in November. Two months ago.”

Winston took a swallow of his drink and sat back in his chair. “Print report.” This he had to read. “Good job, Charley. You keep it up and I’ll hook you up with Siri.”

Charley made a noise.

Winston chuckled. Seriously? Was that a grunt he heard? He wouldn’t be surprised. At the time York had been creating Charley, he had been antifemale and had probably wired up Charley the same way. Personally, Winston liked hearing Siri’s voice whenever he pulled out his iPhone.

He stood. He had dolphins to feed and pregnant turtles to track. The report on Ainsley would be there to read before he went to bed. Right now he wanted to put her out of his mind just like it seemed she had put him out of hers.

* * *

Ainsley entered her room at the resort and angrily threw down her purse on the first table she came to. She was fuming and the more she thought about Winston’s proposition, the steamier she got. The nerve of the man!

Pushing open the French doors, she walked through them to stand on the balcony. She needed a breath of fresh air. It was a beautiful day but thanks to Winston whatever-his-name, she was in an ugly mood. The only way he would let her see Dr. Chambers was if they spent a day and night together? Uninterrupted? And what if after all of that Chambers still refused the interview? Winston would have gotten what he wanted and she would be left out to dry. Did she have the word
fool
tattooed on her forehead?

She cringed when her phone rang, hoping it wasn’t Tessa or, even worse, Bobby. He’d already called her that morning to verify she would be making a trip to Barrett Shores to try and meet with Dr. Chambers. She hoped he wasn’t calling back to find out how it went.

Walking into the living room, she pulled the phone out her purse, checked caller ID and cringed. It was Bobby. She started to ignore the call but figured he would only call back so she might as well talk to him now and get it over with.

She clicked on the phone. “Bobby?”

“You got good news for me, St. James?”

“Depends on how you look at it,” she said, trying to make light of his question.

“Meaning?”

“Barrett Shores is private property. I did make it across the most god-awful bridge you could possibly imagine. You would not believe how rickety it looked. Like it was built in the early 1900s. It was made of wood and—”

“You’re rambling. Did you or did you not get Chambers to agree to an interview?”

She paused, nibbled on her bottom lip a minute and then said, “Although I made it to Barrett Shores, I didn’t get to see Chambers. I couldn’t get past his bodyguard.”

“His bodyguard? Come on, St. James. Surely you’re not going to let one little bodyguard stop you from seeing an old man.”

Ainsley rolled her eyes. “He’s not exactly little, Bobby. In fact he’s pretty big.” Well-built, she thought to herself. She of all people should know since she had licked every inch of that well-built body one night.

“Then come up with a plan. I’ve already told Jones you’re covering the story.”

“What! Why did you do something like that?” Edwin Jones was Bobby’s boss, the managing editor.

“Because I assumed you would be. Besides, I needed a bargaining chip when I asked him for your old job back. At first he bucked the idea, because like I said, your replacement has connections. But he’s seen the reviews as well and agrees that something needs to be done. Getting a story on Chambers will give him the leverage he needs to go to Wendell to bring you back on.”

Ainsley felt her gut tightening. Wendell was Jones’s boss, the editor-in-chief. Jeez. Bobby had assumed she had the interview in the bag and that was so far from the truth it wasn’t funny. She needed time to think, plan and execute.

“St. James?”

She drew in a deep breath. “Yes?”

“Is there something I need to worry about? You will get the scoop from Chambers, right? This is big news. They’ve already reserved a spot for Valentine’s weekend. Our inside source says the FDA will approve Chambers’s drug, so once he decides which pharmaceutical company he plans to marry, it will be front-page news and we want to have the scoop.”

She drew in a deep breath, knowing now was the time to level with Bobby. But knew she could not do that. Too much was at stake and she had to come up with a plan.

“No, there isn’t anything you need to worry about. I’ll check in with you in a few days. Bye, Bobby.” She quickly hung up the phone before he could question her about anything.

Placing the phone on the table, Ainsley moved back to the patio and stood at the rails and looked out at the ocean. The bottom line was that she had to come up with a plan.

* * *

The next day Winston leaned on the top railing of the huge tank that contained his sea horses. He watched them swim as they would in the ocean, upright, tails up, heads down. He’d always been fascinated by sea creatures so his family hadn’t been surprised when he’d decided to pursue a career in marine biology. He’d decided on the University of Miami; after that he got both his grad and doctorate degrees from Cornell University.

When his parents had made the decision to move farther south to be close to his maternal grandparents, they’d left Barrett Shores to him with their blessings. He’d seized the perfect opportunity to resign from a job at a pharmaceutical company whose regulations, guidelines and policies were impeding all the things he felt he could accomplish. With his parents’ approval, he had converted a part of his home into a sanctuary to further his studies on marine life.

Obviously his alias was no longer deterring those determined to find out his identity. At least for now Ainsley thought Winston and Chambers were different men. But her appearance yesterday meant it was just a matter of time before others showed up wanting the same thing she did—a story. He couldn’t help but wonder who or what had tipped her off when he’d gone to great pains to build his false identity. In all honestly, it really didn’t matter since he had no intention of granting her or anyone else an interview.

Before going to bed last night, he had read Charley’s report on her and had found it rather interesting. For some reason she had made the decision to run for mayor of the town where she’d grown up. Given her great-great-great-grandfather founded the town and she was a hometown girl, she should have been a shoo-in and probably assumed that she was. Her rival, a relative newcomer to town, had obviously won over the good people and had even gone so far as to run a rather nasty campaign against her. The man claimed Ainsley had been a stripper at some New York nightclub while in college. Ainsley had denied the allegations and said she’d only been a dancer at the club. But in the small town a lot of the
good
people evidently thought a paid dancer was just as bad as a stripper and she had lost the election. Then it seemed her father had gotten hospitalized due to a heart attack the day after the election. Reports had speculated that the negative campaign against his daughter had been too much for the old man.

From all accounts, it seemed Ainsley wanted to return to the job at
The New York Times
that she had resigned from and figured he would be her first interview.

Like hell he would! No matter how good she’d been in bed—and she had been off the charts—nothing would make him change his mind.

What about that offer you made to her? About giving you a day and a night
?

His thoughts burned deep in his mind. He’d only thrown that out there because he’d known she would refuse to do such a thing. And she had.

But what if she had agreed?

She hadn’t and that was that. When they’d said their goodbyes yesterday, they’d both known they were final. Neither of them intended to budge.

A few moments later he had washed up and was in the kitchen about to prepare lunch when Charley’s security buzzer went off.
“Warning! Warning! Intruder!”

Winston rubbed his hand down his face. For crying out loud, not another reporter. That was all he needed. “Scan perimeters, Charley.”

“Vehicle left parked. South meadows. Oceanside.”

That meant the person was on foot. Did the person actually assume they could scale the fence and not be seen? “Find and scan.”

“Female. Same from twenty-four hours ago.”

Winston frowned. Ainsley was back? “You sure?”

“Charley always sure.”

Winston’s frown deepened. Arrogant machine.

“Intruder scaling flagpole.”

She was scaling the flagpole? This he had to see. “Display on monitor.”

The screen flickered to life and within seconds he could see a curvy, feminine figure using her slender, lithe body to climb the flagpole. Damn. He felt his body get hard just watching her. She was more acrobatic than he’d imagined or remembered. She had worked that body of hers that night, but now he realized she had skills he hadn’t even tapped into. Now he was beginning to wonder if perhaps she had been a stripper at one time like her mayoral opponent had claimed. Dressed in a black full-body leotard, she looked good with her legs wrapped around that pole, and a part of him wished they were wrapped around him instead.

He figured he had seen enough when she finally jumped down on other side of the fence and grabbed the duffel bag she’d tossed over earlier. On the other hand, he thought, maybe he hadn’t seen enough when she started to strip off her leotard, down to her bra and panties.

“Notify authorities?”
Charley barked out.

Winston’s pulse rate escalated and heat surged through him. He found it hard to look away when she opened the duffel bag and pulled out a blouse and a pair of jeans and slid her curvaceous body into both.

“Notify authorities?”
Charley asked again.

He wiped sweat from his brow. “No need,” he said, pushing away from the kitchen counter. “She’s about to be greeted by a welcome party of one.”

“Repeat command. Didn’t understand. Failed communication.”

“No authorities.” A smile touched his lips as he strode quickly to the nearest door.

* * *

Tucking her shirt into her jeans, Ainsley reached down to zip her duffel bag. Hopefully by the time she was detected she would have made her way to—

Her breath caught at the same time her heart leaped. She looked down at the hand clutching hers, and then raised her gaze to stare into the dark penetrating eyes she was getting to know so well. Where on earth had he come from?