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She sat upright, pulling the sheet over her breasts self-consciously, and looked at the smiling fisherman with his tray of food.
“Eat!” he said, thrusting breakfast toward her.
“What time is it?”
“About seven. I’m already late for my normal rounds. You have a half hour to eat and get dressed.”
She looked around still trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes and get her bearings.
“I suppose, there’s no shower here,” she groaned, having smelled the sweet sexy stench of her flesh.
He laughed. “’fraid not. But your hotel won’t be far away. You can wash the night from you there.”
Alex sat the tray in her lap and moved off. “I’ll see you in a half hour.” He nodded to her clothes, now folded neatly on a nearby chair with her backpack sitting beside it. He’d obviously been busy while she slept.
“Thanks.” She watched him leave, too aghast to say anything else.
Laney listened as Alex’s feet hit the stairs, and heard him walk across the hardwood floor in the living room below. She looked outside the window, where she’d seen him disappear the night before, and saw him again in her sights, striding cross the sand toward the grassy knoll and the boat beyond. Yes, he had come back for her. She recalled her earlier hysteria with some amusement. Of course, he hadn’t left her.
Although her stomach was growling with hunger, and smelling the steamy food made her want to dive right in, she suddenly remembered the book, the Marquis’ book. This might be the only chance she’d have to swipe it from the bookshelf in the library. Forgetting the food and her hunger, she quickly scrambled into her clothes and darted down the stairs, quietly—in case Alex might have turned back. As she moved into the library, she breathed a sigh of relief, spotting the book right where she left it after briefly thumbing through the incendiary text. With just a twinge of guilty panic, she grabbed it from the shelf, and moved back through the library to the staircase, returning to the upstairs bedroom. Moments later, both the Marquis’ Book of Pleasure and the strange diary, which she hadn’t yet had a chance to read, were safely stuffed at the bottom of her backpack, zipped inside.
The eggs tasted delicious to her now that her mission was safely accomplished. She ate quickly, while gazing out the window and seeing Alex returning to the house. The gods of the island had spoken, she smiled to herself. Obviously, they wanted her to have that tainted book and made it possible for her to steal it with little effort. Then again…there had been some effort in her night on Marquis Island. She’d given herself up to a stranger again. Although now, in the light of a new day, the crude sex she shared with the fisherman seemed little more than a dream, part of the shadows lurking at nightfall on this strange island, and the ghosts of those who’d been here before and left their imprint.
She shook off the image, disturbed by its meaning. She’d think of it later, not now.
Now it was time to leave.
“I don’t have all day, Ms. Priestly!” Alex’s voice rang out from below.
“Yes, yes, I’m coming,” she called to him, and she gathered her backpack and the tray with her half-eaten breakfast and swept down the stairs, smiling warmly.
***
The fishing boat rocked along the waves, moving at a steady but not speedy clip back toward the harbor. Not a word had been said as they trekked down the beach to the boat, and they had barely spoken to each other since they boarded and set off.
But there were things to say. Laney was sure that Alex Greenwood held the key to finding her ‘owner’, and she would not let the opportunity to discuss her still very pressing need pass her by.
“You’ll be going out fishing after you drop me off at the dock?”
“That’s my plan.”
“It’s a business for you, I guess.”
“It is. I love the water and the open air.”
“I’ll be going back home for awhile,” Laney mused absently.
He nodded, as he steered the boat, his squinting eyes looking toward the horizon over the calm blue water. He wore a faded red baseball cap that shaded his eyes from the blistering morning sun, and like her, the same clothes he’d worn the day before.
“I’ll still continue my search for the Marquis,” she said.
“Didn’t learn much for your time and money, did you?”
“Oh, I disagree,” she objected. “Last night I learned a lot about you.”
“Really?”
“You are very guarded about yourself, Alex Greenwood, but I’m guessing that you’re in the Marquis’ circle, whether you want to admit it to me or not.”
