In the Dead of the Night (6 page)

Dale laughed. “Not only will she expect it, she wants it. I see the way she looks at you.”

Allan snorted.
“She thinks
you’re
her husband.”
Hell, if that didn’t sound childish
.

“That’s because you’
re acting so distant. You’re newlyweds for heaven’s sakes.”

Allan rolled his eyes.
He wasn’t Jenny’s husband, newlywed or otherwise. That was the problem. And he
was
sleeping on the couch tonight.

“There you two are,” Jenny said sweetly from the living area.

The men whipped around to see her.

An aqua bikini top cupped her rounded breasts, the nipples aroused against the thin fabric.
Allan took a ragged breath. A hot pair of pale denim short shorts resting high on her long tan legs and low on her hips, nearly had him drooling. The remainder of her satiny skin was naked, begging to be kissed.

Dale said under his breath, “You’ll owe me twenty, as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow.”

Primal male possessiveness threatened to control Allan as he fought the urge to tell Dale to quit undressing her with his eyes, like he was doing.

Allan and Dale stepped back into the living room.

She smiled when neither he nor Dale said a word, just gawked at her like a couple of women-starved idiots. “Are you going to wear those clothes, Allan? Or change into some swimwear? I have my bathing suit on underneath my shorts.” She grasped her shorts zipper and pulled it down low enough to reveal the bikini bottoms.

“Twenty dollars,” D
ale mumbled under his breath, his eyes fixed on her zipper.

Swimming with the mermaid in the surf was certain to get Allan into all sorts of trouble.
Not only that, he wasn’t sure she could handle the physical exertion. Hell, now that brought some more interesting visuals to mind. Only she wasn’t wearing that bathing suit. And the idea of licking all that saltwater off her skin was bound to give him hypertension.

Allan had to get his libido under control.
He folded his arms, intent on dissuading her and saving his sanity. “I’m not sure about you swimming yet, Jenny.”

“I can splash around.
Do we have beach towels?”

“I’ll get them,” Dale offered.

Allan took a deep breath. He was getting in way over his head on this. If he got near her in the water with her wearing something that skimpy, he’d lose it. “I’ll get some swim trunks on.”

When Allan shut the bedroom door, Jenny watched Dale pull towels out of a linen closet in the bathroom.
She was determined to get to know her husband, but she also wanted to know about his best friend. She studied Dale and his red hair and the freckles that bridged his nose, trying to recall anything about him that seemed familiar. His green eyes caught her watching him, and he smiled.

Not a flicker of memory stirred in the recesses of her mind.
Her heart sank with the notion she might never get them back.

“Here’s some su
n lotion, too.” He dug into a drawer.

She leaned against the doorjamb.
“Are you staying with the guys downstairs tonight?”

“Most assuredly.”

She mumbled under her breath, “Good. Three would be a crowd.” She couldn’t understand why Dale would be here when she and Allan were on their honeymoon, unless Allan had asked it of him because of her being injured like she was and wanted to ensure she would be all right.

She spun around when Allan stepped behind her, a strange sensation filling her with unnamed dread.
Maybe the mugger had increased her sensitivity to someone sneaking up behind her unaware, making her jump out of her skin.

Allan had evidently caught her words, but not her reaction to his coming up behind her, and looked over at Dale, waiting for his response.

Dale shrugged. “Your wife doesn’t want me to spend the night.”

“No, Dale,” she said, “as you already mentioned, Allan and I have to spend some time getting reacquainted.”
She very much wanted to get to know Allan all over again, and quickly, to extract the memories that now eluded her in the darkened cave of her mind.

She considered Allan’s naked broad shoulders, powerful enough to carry her home, just in case she wasn’t able to make it on her own.
Even dressing had made her dizzy and walking through the apartment had wearied her, but no way was she going to stay cooped up in the condo when she and her husband were on their honeymoon.

Her gaze followed his well-built chest and the smattering of dark hair that drew the eye down like a pirate’s map, the path lightly marked to where the treasure was located.
Where the “x” would have marked the spot was bulging with treasure beneath the dark blue swim trunks he wore.

He suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the door.
“Be back later.”

Was he embarrassed he’d become so aroused over his close proximity to her in front of his friend?

Though she had every intention of making love with him tonight whether her head hurt or not, the idea of having sex with a perfect stranger nagged at her. She had to keep telling herself that he was her husband, and they had undoubtedly made love numerous times before this. Plus anything that might help her remember her past, had to be explored.

But what if her past hadn’t been all that great?
What if she didn’t really want to remember it? She vaguely recognized her clothes, except for that awful, oversized, green nightshirt she’d worn in bed. But that was about all.

The air conditioner switched on with a click, and the hum made her turn toward the sound.
She touched her head. What was the sound she’d heard that followed the clicking of the air conditioner? Her heart beat rapidly as her skin prickled. Something followed the sound and…and…

Suddenly, Allan dropped the beach towels and grasped her arms.
“Jenny?” He pulled her toward the couch with a hurried step.

All the blood seemed to rush out of her face at once
, making her lightheaded. Allan’s concerned voice seemed miles away.

“What’s—
,” Dale said, but Allan motioned for his silence.

Allan sat her on the couch
and knelt in front of her. “Jenny, what do you remember?”

Her throat grew parched.
She tried to swallow and touched her forehead. God, the pounding would never go away. “Noth…nothing.”

Dale headed for the kitchen.

She wrung her hands, not even noticing until Allan separated them and held them in his own.

“You seemed to remember something.”

“The air conditioner came on. That’s all. It just made me feel funny all of a sudden.”

Dale crossed the living room and handed her a glass of water.

“Thanks.” She sipped it while the two men watched her. She took a deep breath. “I don’t know. It was…it was nothing.”

Allan patted her leg.
“I think you need to return to bed. You turned as white as the sand on the beach. I thought you were going to pass out.”

“No.”
She handed her glass to Dale. “Thanks, Dale.” She grabbed Allan’s shoulder and helped herself up. “I want to see the ocean. I hate the thought that I’ve only seen the water in photos and never…well, I mean I don’t remember seeing them in real life.”

“Jenny, really…
”

She strode toward the door, biting her lip.
She wasn’t letting any mugger stop her from enjoying her honeymoon.

Allan scooped up their towels
and reached for her hand. She slipped her fingers through his and smiled. He turned back to Dale. “We’ll be at the beach for a short while.”

“Got you.”
Dale pulled his cell phone off his belt and punched buttons.

With his arm protectively around Jenny’s waist, Allan led her
out of the condo down a carpeted hallway where pictures of sailboats skimming across the aqua ocean hung on display. The hall ended in a flight of stairs. When they reached the bottom of the three-story building, he pushed the door open with a squeak.

She squ
inted in the brilliant sunshine reflecting off the snow-white sand beach. They stepped outside of the air conditioned building, and she breathed in the fresh, warm sea air.

“I guess it was your terrific idea to come here.”
She sighed deeply as they walked along the sidewalk to the beach. Hibiscus crouched at the feet of towering royal palms, their green fan-like fronds, shading the walkway. “It’s just lovely.”

She squeezed his hand when
she spied a sailboat, its colorful striped blue and green sails full of the wind as it scooted along the top of the water.

They trudged through the hot white sand, the granules feeling like powdered sugar it was so soft.

He hadn’t said a word in response to her comment, and she glanced at him. He seemed deep in thought, his forehead creased. Was he worried about her condition still? Or that someone would attack her again? She loved how concerned he seemed for her welfare, though she truly didn’t want him to waste his time worrying about her constantly.

She studied the beach.
Swimmers half a mile down frolicked in the small waves. The same in the other direction. Their area of beach was virtually empty except for a couple walking along the shore. They held hands, smiled, and shared a private conversation. They were maybe in their mid-forties and seemed very much in love. Jenny smiled, hoping she and Allan would return twenty years from now and still look like newlyweds.

When Allan and Jenny reached the blue loungers beneath blue and white striped umbrellas set out for the condo guests, he spread the towels out.
She unzipped her shorts, catching his eye. If she’d had a little music, she would have felt like an exotic dancer the way he watched every move she made.

How many times had she already peeled her clothes off in front of him before this?
Yet, he acted like he’d never seen her do it before. Would he always be that enraptured with her?

Though she felt slightly self-conscious, she hoped he’d still find her attractive years from now as she handed him the lotion.
“I know it’s kind of past the burning hour, but I love the smell of coconut butter, don’t you?”

He glanced at the condo sitting several hundred yards from the ocean.
Was he worried the guys watched them?

She smiled.
“Let them eat their hearts out. Next time they’ll bring their wives.”

“I’m worried about your head injury.”

His hands worked the lotion over her back as she pulled her hair aside. Each masculine stroke kneaded away the tension. She hadn’t realized how keyed up she was. She purred in ecstasy, and he stopped.

She turned her head to see what was wrong.
“Is something the matter, Allan?”

“No.”
His voice was tense, almost hoarse. And he swallowed hard.

He was lying.
Every time she tried to get close to him, he acted like a scared rabbit. Had they been having trouble with intimacy all along?

This time she swallowed nervously.
What if he wasn’t a great lover? Or he now seriously considered marrying her had been a big mistake?

She sighed deeply, intent on making it over the hurdle that seemed impossible for them to navigate.
She took the lotion from him. “Here, let me do the honors next.”

He shook his head.
“I really don’t need any. It’s late enough and—”

“All right.”
Jenny couldn’t curb the irritation in her voice this time. She dropped the container on her towel and headed for the water. How could they be newlyweds when he acted like he was so afraid to touch her?

Allan jogged after her.
“Tell me if your head is hurting, and we’ll go back in.”

Jenny wasn’t going back inside.
If he didn’t want to be with her, fine. And for his information, her head
was
hurting, had been since she got out of bed. The worry over their relationship was making it pound even harder, so much so she could barely see straight. But she wasn’t going to let it keep her down. And she wasn’t going back into the condo to act like an invalid.

At first the water felt cold, and she gasped, but the farther out she waded, the warmer it seemed as her body grew used to it.
A school of blue fish swam around her legs and she laughed. “Oh, Allan, look at the fish!”

She looked up to see him watching her, standing waist deep in the water.
His eyes were dark and full of worry. What was the matter with him?

Wading back to him, she
took his hand in hers. “Allan, you’re scaring me. What in heaven’s name is wrong?”

Allan glanced back at the condo. Jenny quashed the annoyance running through her that he remained silent and wouldn’t tell her what was wrong. Two blond-haired men about Allan’s age sat in the chairs on either side of the ones he’d laid the towels on.