Summer Mahogany (2 page)

"I've been looking for you." Justin slid an arm around the back of her waist. His hand tightened slightly on her hip in a faint caress.

"I've been right here all along." Her husky laughter sounded false as it echoed mockingly in her own ears. She tipped her head back to gaze into Justin's handsome face. "What do you want?"

His brown gaze lingered briefly on her curved lips, then shifted to the man watching them. "There's someone I want you to meet. Rhyder, this is—"

"There's no need for an introduction." The interruption was smooth and low as Gina was forced to acknowledge Rhyder with a look. The hard blue eyes sent a cold shaft of fear plunging down to her toes. "We are already acquainted, aren't we, Mrs. O—"

"The name is Gaynes," Gina broke in with a rush. "Miss Gina Gaynes." She underlined her single status.

A dark eyebrow flicked upward in sardonic mockery." My mistake."

"We all make them," she shrugged in an attempt at lightness.

But Gina and Rhyder knew secretly how accurate her response was, even though it was veiled in ambiguity. Electric currents vibrated the air between them. The high voltage was jarring her and Gina needed to end it.

"Who did you think Gina was?" A half smile of curiosity was in Justin's expression.

An aloof mask was drawn over the tanned features. "It doesn't matter." Rhyder let his gaze swing blandly to Justin. "I think you were going to offer me a drink, weren't you, before we were sidetracked by Miss Gaynes."

"Sure," Justin nodded, removing his arm from around Gina, pocketing his curiosity for the time being. "What will you have, Rhyder?"

"A beer."

"Wait here. I'll get it," he told him and moved toward the opposite side of the crowd.

Gina stood uncertainly for a moment in front of Rhyder, her fingers clenching and unclenching the bag of clams. His alert gaze picked up the nervous movement and she immediately stilled the betraying motion.

"Excuse me," she murmured stiffly, then turned away, taking the few steps necessary to carry the clams to the molding trough.

Rhyder followed leisurely. Gina tried to pretend he wasn't there as she again began to help Katherine, but she was disturbingly conscious of him. He stood apart, watching the preparations with absent interest.

There was little color in her cheeks as she spread another layer of seaweed over the clams while Katherine went after the sweet corn. When she returned with an armload of foil-wrapped ears, Gina took them from her and began woodenly distributing them atop the seaweed-covered clams. Katherine disappeared again for more corn.

An ear of corn rolled to the ground. Gina moved to retrieve it, but it was Rhyder's sun-browned hand that reached it first as he bent beside her. He didn't immediately offer it to her, forcing her to extend a hand, her gaze averted from his chiseled features.

"I wasn't aware you'd changed your name." Rhyder placed the ear of corn in her outstretched palm, speaking low and cynically for her hearing alone.

"I wasn't aware that it was any of your business," Gina retorted bitterly.

The creases around his mouth hardened. His cutting gaze slashed to the gold ring on her left hand. "What about that?" he challenged coldly.

"This?" She lifted her hand, letting the precious metal flash in the sunlight. "The truth is it's my grandmother's wedding ring, the only thing I have that was hers. I have to wear it on my left hand because it's a little too small for my right."

She straightened, feeling a glow of malicious satisfaction at his inability to dispute the truth. Before she could replace the ear of corn, his hand closed over the crook of her elbow. Anger smoldered in his gaze.

The harsh grip dug into her skin, but Gina didn't try to pull away. Her eyes were as cold and green as the winter sea when she lifted her contemptuous gaze to his.

"Let go of me." The order was issued in a demanding undertone. "Or would you rather I called for help?" They were brave words considering the hammering of her heart at the way he towered beside her.

But her words had the desired effect as Rhyder abruptly released her, his mouth twisting in a vicious, jeering line. "You still can't come up with anything more original after all these years, can you?"

Inwardly Gina flinched, but she turned away before Rhyder could see that his sarcastic gibe had hit its target. Justin and his sister arrived almost simultaneously.

There was someone else Justin wanted Rhyder to meet. After handing him the cold beer he had requested, Justin led Rhyder away, pausing to suggest that Gina accompany them. She refused, insisting she wanted to help Katherine.

Katherine was too preoccupied with the arranging of the sweet corn, potatoes, onions, sausage and hot dogs to notice Gina's unnatural silence as she assisted. For Gina, it was a relief when, the moistened burlap bags were tucked around the heaping mound of food and canvas covered the burlap. She didn't stay for the lighting of the fire beneath the shallow trough, hurrying to the beachside house with the excuse of washing her hands.

Almost the very instant she stepped inside the quiet house, reaction set in. Her legs trembled so badly she could hardly stand. She collapsed in the nearest chair, feeling nauseated, pain screaming in her temples. Her mind reeled as she tried to take in the implications of this second meeting.

Rhyder had been invited to the clambake by Justin. The two men were obviously on a first-name basis. Rationally, Gina knew the two facts did not mean the men were friends. Justin's gatherings were generally business and pleasure.

Since she could not recall Justin's ever mentioning Rhyder's name in the past—and that was certainly something that wouldn't have escaped her notice—it was possible that Justin was only now attempting to cultivate Rhyder's friendship for business purposes.

It seemed a logical explanation. And it would also provide a reason for Rhyder to be in Maine in September instead of summer. There was no comfort in that knowledge. Gina didn't want him involved even in the remotest sense with her life. She ran a shaky hand across her damp forehead and down a cool cheek. Her concern at the moment was in how long he would be staying.

The irony of the thought twisted her lips in humorless amusement. Nine years ago she had been concerned about the same thing for an entirely different reason. Nine years ago she had dreaded the day he would leave. Now it couldn't be soon enough.

Where was her sense of humor, Gina wondered. She should laugh at the situation instead of being unnerved by it. The nine-year-old episode should be part of the past, an experience to be filed away as part of growing up.

Summer mahogany. He had seemed like a god to her. The sea wind and sun had chiseled the masculine planes of his face in smooth and powerful lines. If Gina had been given to romantic flights of fantasy, she might have regarded him as a knight in shining armor. Perhaps in her subconscious, he had been.

At the time, Rhyder had simply been the most compelling man she had ever met, virtually the first man she had ever been aware of in a physical sense. His latent virility had awakened her femininity as none of the attention from boys in her age group had done. Rhyder had been twenty-six that summer nine years ago. His lifestyle alone set him apart from everyone else.

Within a few days after seeing him for the first time, Gina had begun subtly trying to attract his attention. Sometimes she was conscious of what she was doing, but mostly she was guided by instinct. Fate and a misbehaving engine in his sleek sailing yacht had put him into the port where her grandfather trapped lobsters. Gina had dozens of ready-made excuses for being around at any hour of the day.

From being a nodding acquaintance, she graduated into passing the time of day and on to chatting briefly. At sixteen, Gina was attractive and unconsciously alluring. The combination of long black hair and green eyes was eye-catching to any male. Rhyder wasn't an exception.

Gina had often seen his veiled gaze running over her face and figure in silent admiration. But he was also aware of her youth and the nearly ten-year difference in their ages.

She remembered the afternoon she had gone to the beach for a swim, with the full knowledge beforehand that Rhyder was there. In her effort to establish a more personal relationship, she discovered a streak of guile within herself that she hadn't known existed.

It enabled her to feign surprise when she saw him in the water, send him a friendly wave, and swim alone as if she didn't mind sharing the secluded cove with him. Later, when she had waded ashore, he was sunning himself on the sand, his muscled chest and legs already tanned a mahogany brown.

The sandy beach area of the cove was small, so it was perfectly natural that she had to sit within a few yards of him to dry herself off. His gaze had flicked to her briefly, faint amusement in the blue depths, as she toweled the excess water from her skin.

"It's a beautiful summer day, isn't it?" she had declared artlessly.

"Mmm," had been his sound of agreement, closing his eyes.

For a while Gina had said nothing, hoping to indicate a companionable silence. Then she asked with false idleness, "Have you repaired your motor yet?"

"I'll find out tomorrow," Rhyder had answered. "We're taking it out for a test run."

"We?" Gina had repeated blankly, then nodded understanding. "You're referring to Pete."

She hadn't figured out just exactly what relationship the man was to Rhyder. At times she thought he might be an employee, a deckhand or something. Other times they seemed like the best of friends.

Yet Pete didn't strike Gina as the outdoor sailing type, so if he was a friend, she couldn't imagine him volunteering to have a sailing vacation. He was more at home with books than he was with anything to do with the yacht.

Rhyder was lying on his back, arms raised to rest his head on his hands. He shifted slightly to allow his alert gaze to sweep over her, taking in the jutting firmness of her breasts beneath the one-piece bathing suit of canary yellow.

"How old are you, Gina?" One corner of his mouth lifted in a gesture of mocking amusement.

"Seventeen. I'll be eighteen in August," she had lied, advancing her age by a year.

The lines around his mouth had deepened. "Sometimes you barely look sixteen."

"'Sweet sixteen and never been kissed?'" Gina had laughed throatily. "That's hardly true."

"You look amazingly untouched by all your experiences," Rhyder had replied with deliberate mockery.

Gina's heart had beat faster. She knew Rhyder was beyond her experience. There was an exhilarating sensation of danger in the way she was flirting with him.

"I never said anyone had taken me into the bushes." She had met his gaze levelly, her eyes as clear and as bright as the unplummeted, green ocean depths. "I was only talking about kissing," she had retorted, implying that he had referred to more worldly things of which he knew a great deal more than she did firsthand.

"You've done a lot of kissing?" He had made it a question, a dancing light moving over his face.

Gina had leaned back on her hands, a smug half smile curving her mouth as she lifted her face to the sun. "Oh, once or twice at least."

"Are you good at it?" There was suggestion of amusement in his low voice.

"I'm learning." She had darted him a laughing glance, fielding his teasing questions with lighthearted abandon.

She was enjoying this conversation with its stimulating undertones. She had never traded words like this before, not about making love. It made her feel daring and gloriously wicked.

"Why don't you come over here and show me what you've learned?" Rhyder hadn't shifted from his position—flat on his back, hands under his head, only the blue of his gaze turned to her.

Gina's breath had caught in her throat at the suggestion. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to find out what it would be like to have Rhyder kiss her. Luckily, before she submitted to his invitation, she had realized that he was only making fun of her. It had hurt, but not as much as it might have if she had childishly taken him seriously.

She had laughed, a forced sound, not quite natural, but she didn't think he had noticed. "No, thank you, Rhyder."

She had rolled gracefully to her feet, holding an end of the beach towel in her hand and letting part of it trail in the sand. She had shaken her head and smiled, her refusal very adult.

"What's the matter? Are you afraid?" The taunt had been gentle and not really argumentative.

"I'm wary." There had been a great deal of truth in that statement. "That's how I've managed to stay out of the bushes." Her hand had flicked blue black hair away from her cheek. "I'd better be getting back so I can start supper for gramps."

To get to the path leading from the beach, Gina had too walk past Rhyder. He had levered himself onto one elbow at her last remark. As she had walked past him, his hand had reached out and caught the trailing end of the towel. He had made a pretense of using it to pull himself to his feet. Once upright, though, he hadn't released the towel.

Something elemental had seemed to hover in the air, charging it with an unknown tension. Absently, Gina had been aware of the pulse beating wildly along her neck, but she hadn't been able to move.