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First Published 1993

First Australian Paperback Edition 2006

ISBN 0-733-56748-7

CALAMITY MOM © 1993 by Diana Palmer

Philippine Copyright 1993

Australian Copyright 1993

New Zealand Copyright 1993

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Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter One

The beach was crowded. A group of college students on spring break were gathered around a ghetto blaster, happily unaware of the vicious looks they were getting from older sunbathers.

"Turn it down," Shelly Astor suggested, grinning as she nodded toward two glowering faces behind them on the beach. "You're creating enemies for us."

"Don't be a wet blanket," the boy chided. "We're young, it's spring break, no more biology and English and algebra for a solid, sweet week!"

"Yeah, right," another student muttered. "I might as well drown myself. I flunked my first exam in prealgebra!"

"Less fun, more pencil-to-paper contact," another suggested.

"Right, Mr. Egghead," came the reply and a glare. "Edwin here blew the curve in biology 101," he added, jerking his thumb at the tall, thin, redheaded boy. "He made 100."

"Dr. Flannery says I'm the best student he's ever had. Can I help it if I'm brilliant?" Edwin sighed.

"You're not brilliant in trig," Pete murmured to him, then said to the others, "I had to tutor him or he'd never have passed Bragg's exam."

"Can't you turn that damned thing down?" An exasperated bellow broke the silence.

"Have a heart, man!" Pete wailed, facing his attacker. "We just survived eight weeks of hell, not to mention trigonometry!"

"And one of us failed it!" Edwin yelled, pointing at Mark.

"We're all on the cutting edge here," Pete agreed, shaking his head. "If we don't get a music fix, God only knows what we might do to the world at large!"

The irate man began to laugh and threw up his hands. He made a dismissive gesture and lay back, closing his eyes in defeat.

Shelly grinned at her friends. "Pete's a sociology major," she whispered to Nan, who was her best friend. "Minoring in psych. Isn't he great?"

"A true credit to his alma mater," Nan agreed. She got up and went to dive into the surf, with Shelly at her side.

"Isn't it wonderful here?" Nan sighed. "And you weren't going to come!"

"I had to fight to get to go to college, much less come to Florida with the group for spring break," Shelly said quietly. She pushed back her windblown blond hair, and her soft blue eyes echoed the smile on her full lips. "My parents wanted me to go to finishing school and then join the young women's social club back home in Washington, D.C. Can you imagine?"

"You haven't told them that you want to become a caseworker for family and children's services, I guess?" Nan fished.

"My father would have a nervous breakdown," she mused. "They're sweet people, my parents, but they want to give me a life of luxury and serenity. I want to change the world." She glanced at dark-eyed Nan with a mischievous smile. "They think I'm demented. They have a nice husband picked out for me: Ivy League school, old family name, plenty of money." She shrugged her slender shoulders. "That's not what I want at all, but they won't take no for an answer. I had to threaten to get a job and go on the work/study program to get my father to pay my tuition."

"I wonder if all parents want to live through their children?" Nan asked. "Honestly my mother has pushed me toward nursing school since I was in grammar school, just because she got married and couldn't finish nurses' training. I get sick at the sight of blood, for Pete's sake!"

"Did someone mention my name?" Pete asked, surfacing beside them with a grin.

Nan sent a spray of water at him with a sweep of her palm, and all the serious discussions were drenched in horseplay.

But later, when they went to the motel to change before supper, Shelly couldn't help wondering if she was ungrateful. Her father, a wealthy investment counselor, had given her every advantage during her youth. Her mother was a socialite and her brother was an eminent scientist. She had an impeccable background. But she had no desire to drift from luncheon to cocktail party, or even to do superficial charity work. She wanted to help people in trouble. She wanted to see the world as it was, out of her protected environment. Her parents couldn't, or wouldn't, understand that she had to feel useful, to know that her life had a purpose of some sort beyond learning the correct social graces.

She enjoyed school. She attended Thorn College, a small community college in Washington, D.C., where she was just one of the student body and accepted without hassle, despite her background. It was the kind of atmosphere that was friendly and warm without being invasive. She loved it.

Living off campus did limit some of her participation in social activities, but she didn't mind that. She'd always thought in her own mind that she was rather a cold woman—at least where men were concerned. She dated, and boys kissed her from time to time, but she felt nothing beyond surface pleasure at the contact of warm lips on her own. She had no desire to risk her life for the sake of curiosity, experimentation or for fear of ridicule. She was strong enough not to flinch at the condescending remarks from one of the more permissive girls. Someday, she thought, she would be glad that she hadn't followed the crowd. She stared at her reflection and smiled. "You-stick-in-the-mud," she told herself.

There was a quick knock on the door followed by Nan's entrance. "Aren't you ready yet?" she grumbled. She glared at Shelly's very conservative voile dress, yellow on black, with sandals and her long hair in a French braid. "You're not going like that?" she added, groaning. "Don't you have any idea what the current style is?"

"Sure. Spandex skirts or tights and funny smock blouses. But they're not me. This is."

"Wouldn't catch me dead in that." Nan sighed. Her curly hair sported a yellow-and-white bow, and her white tights were topped off by a multicolored short dress.

"You look super," Shelly said approvingly.

Nan struck a pose. "Call Ebony magazine and tell them I'm available for covers." She chuckled.

"You could do covers," came the serious reply. Nan really was lovely. Her skin had a soft cafe au lait demureness. Combined with her liquid black eyes and jet black hair and elegant facial structure, she would have been a knockout on the cover of any magazine. She looked like an Egyptian wall painting. "I've seen gorgeous movie stars who were uglier than you are," she added.

Nan chuckled. "You devil, you."

"I'm not kidding. Why haven't you ever thought of modeling?"

Nan shrugged. "I have a good brain," she said simply. "I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. I'm going to be an archaeologist."

Shelly groaned. "Don't remind me that I have two more exams to go in introductory anthropology or I'll scream!"

"I'll coach you. You'll do fine."

"I won't! I barely passed biology! We've still gol fossil forms of man and kinship systems and subsistence patterns to go...!"

"Piece of cake." Nan dismissed it. "Besides, you got Dr. Tabitha Harvey, and she's the best. Oops, I mean Dr. Tabitha Reed. Can you imagine her getting married? And to such a dish!" She shook her head. "But to get back to the subject, don't you realize thai anthropology is part of sociology? How can you understand the way we are as a culture today without understanding how we came to be a culture in the first place?"

"Here you go again."

"I love it. You would, too, if you'd let yourself I've taken every anthropology course Thorn College offers. I loved them all!"

"This stuff is hard."

"Life," Nan reminded her, "is hard. You can't appreciate a good grade in anthropology until you've had to dig for it." She looked surprised. "I made a funny!"

"On that note, we're leaving," Shelly murmured, dragging her friend out the door.

They had supper in the same restaurant each night. It was their one extravagance, and mainly because Nan had a crush on one of the other diners, a student from Kenya whom she'd met on the beach.

Shelly looked forward to the evening ritual because of another patron who frequented the restaurant. She ran into him everywhere, accidentally. He nodded politely and never stopped to talk, but she watched him with open fascination, to the amusement of her friends. In fact, her fascination was a ruse to keep her friends from trying to pair her off with Pete. She liked Pete, but her attitudes weren't casual enough to suit him. By pretending infatuation for a stranger, she elicited not only sympathy for her unrequited love, but also avoided well-meaning matchmakers among the group she'd accompanied on spring break.

Her unwilling object of affection was beginning to notice, and be irritated by her, though. It had become a challenge to see how far she could push him before he exploded. The thought was oddly exciting for a woman who almost never took chances. In fact, in all her twenty-four years, he was the first man she'd ever pursued, even in fun. It was unlike her, but he wouldn't know that. Her flirting seemed to disturb and irritate him.

To complicate matters, he had a son, about twelve or so, and the son spent considerable time staring at Shelly. She was afraid he was developing a crush on her and she worried about trying to head it off while keeping up her facade of being infatuated with his father. Showing up here for dinner every mght wasn't helping her situation, 'even if it did seem to be doing wonders for Nan's social life and give Shelly the opportunity to stare longingly at the man she'd singled out for public adoration.

As if she'd conjured him up in her thoughts, a movement caught Shelly's eye, and she saw him. He was tall and elegant, a striking man somewhere in his middle or late thirties with thick dark hair and pale silvery eyes. He had his son with him. The boy was a younger and much more amiable version of him Shelly found herself wondering what the man did for a living. He was very handsome, but he didn't look the male-model type. He was probably someone who carried a gun, she thought. Maybe a secret agent, or a hired assassin. That thought amused her and she smiled mischievously. Before she could erase the smile, the man turned his head and saw it, and his glare was thunderous.

How could someone that handsome look so vicious and unfriendly? she wondered vaguely. And those silver eyes looked like cold steel in his unsmiling face. An ugly man might have an excuse for that black scowl, but this man looked like every hero she'd ever dreamed of. She put her chin in her hands and stared at him with a wistful smile. She was always so friendly that it was hard to accept that anyone could hate her on sight for no reason.

He looked taken aback by her refusal to be intimidated. But even if the scowl fell away, he didn't smile back. He turned his attention to a movement of white silk beside the table and abruptly stood up to seat a thin brunette. The boy with him glowered and made some reluctant remark, which prompted an angry look from his father. Undercurrents, Shelly thought, and began to analyze them. She felt a wave of sadness. She'd overheard a tidbit of gossip about him in the restaurant the night before—that he was a widower. She'd known that a man so handsome would have women hanging from both arms, but she had hoped he was unattached. It was her fate to be forever getting interested in the wrong man. She sighed wistfully.

"Stop staring at him," Nan chided, hitting her forearm with her napkin as she put it into her lap. "He'll get conceited."

"Sorry. He fascinates me. Isn't he dreamy?"

"He's years too old for you," Nan said firmly. "And that's probably his fiancee. They suit each other. He has a half-grown son, and you are a lowly college student, age notwithstanding. In point of fact, you are barely higher on the food chain than a bottom feeder, since you aren't even a sophomore yet."

"I'll be a sophomore after summer semester."

"Picky, picky. Eat your salad."

"Yes, Mama," she muttered, glaring at the younger woman, who only grinned.

The next day it seemed to Shelly that providence was determined to throw her into the path of trouble. She always got up early in the mornings, before Nan stirred, and went down to the beach to enjoy the brief solitude at the ocean before the tourists obliterated the beach completely. She threw on her one-piece yellow bathing suit with a patterned chiffon shirt over it and laced up her sandals. For once she left her blond hair loose down her back. She liked the feel of the breeze in it.

This morning, she didn't find the beach empty. A lone figure stood looking seaward. He was tall, and had thick black hair. He was wearing white shorts that left his powerful, darkly tanned legs bare and a blue-and-white checked shirt, open over a broad, hair-roughened chest. He was watching the ocean with eyes that didn't seem to see it, a deep scowl carved into his handsome face.

Shelly gave him a wistful glance and took off down the beach in the opposite direction. She didn't want to infringe on his privacy. Since he was obviously attached, it would do her no good to go on mooning over him, for appearances or not. She was giving him up, she thought nobly, for his own good. That being settled, she strolled aimlessly down the beach, drinking in the sea air.

The stillness was seductive. The only sounds to be heard were the cries of the sea gulls and the watery growl of the ocean. Surf curled in foamy patterns up onto the damp beach, and tiny white sand crabs went scurrying for cover. They amused her and she laughed, a soft, breathy sound that seemed to carry.

"What can you find to laugh about at this hour of the morning?" came a rough, half-irritated deep voice from over her shoulder. "The damned coffee shop isn't even open yet. How do they expect people to survive daybreak without a dose of caffeine?"

With the vestiges of her amusement at the crabs still on her face, Shelly turned. And there he was, as handsome as a dark angel, his hands deep in the pockets of his white shorts.

He was devastating enough at long range. Close, like this, he was dynamite. She could hardly get her breath at all. Some sensual aroma exuded from him, like spice. He smelled and looked clean and fastidious, and she had to force herself not to stare at the physical perfection of his body. Hollywood would have loved him.

"I like coffee, too," she murmured shyly. She smiled at him, pushing back her pale, windblown hair. "But the sea air is almost as good."

"What were you laughing at?" he persisted.

"Them." She turned back to the crabs, one of which was busily digging himself a hole. He dived into it like a madman. "Don't they remind you of people running for trains in the subway?" She glanced at him wickedly. "And people who can't get their coffee early enough to suit them?"

He smiled unexpectedly, and her heart fell at his feet. She'd never seen anything so appealing as that handsome face with its chiseled mouth tugged up and those gray eyes that took on the sheen of mercury.

"Are your friends still in bed?"

She nodded. "Most of us have eight o'clock classes during the semester, so there isn't much opportunity to sleep late. Even if it's just for a week, this is a nice change."

She started walking again and he fell into step beside her. He was very tall. The top of her head came just to his shoulder.

"What's your major?" he asked.

"Sociology," she said. She flushed a little. "Sorry I was staring at you last night. I tend to carry people-watching to extremes," she said to excuse her blatant flirting.

He glanced at her cynically, and he didn't smile. "My son finds you fascinating."

"Yes," she said. "I'm afraid so."

"He's almost thirteen and a late bloomer. He hasn't paid much attention to girls until now."

She laughed. "I'm a bit old to be called a girl."

"You're still in college, aren't you?" he mused, obviously mistaking her for someone not much older than his son.

"Well, yes, I suppose I am." She didn't add that she'd only started last year, at the age of twenty-three. She'd always looked young for her age, and it was fun to pretend that she was still a teen. She stopped to pick up a seashell and study it. "I love shells. Nan chides me for it, but you should try to walk across tilled soil with her. She's down on her hands and knees at the first opportunity, wherever she sees disturbed dirt. Once she actually climbed down into a hole where men were digging out a water line! I'm glad they had a sense of humor."

"She's an archaeology student?"

"Other people are merely archaeology students— Nan is a certifiable archaeology student!"

He laughed. "Well, that's dedication, 1 suppose."

She stared out at the ocean. "They say there are probably Paleo-Indian sites out there." She nodded. "Buried when ocean levels rose with the melting of the glaciers in the late Pleistocene."

"I thought your friend was the archaeology student."

"When you spend a lot of time with them, it rubs off," she apologized. "I know more than I want to about fluted points and ancient stone tools."

"I can't say I've ever been exposed to that sort of prehistory. 1 majored in business and minored in economics."

She glanced up at him. "You're in business, then?"

He nodded. "I'm a banker."

"Does your son want to follow in your footsteps?"

His firm lips tugged down. "He does not. He thinks business is responsible for all the ecological upheaval on the planet. He wants to be an artist."

"You must be proud of him."

"Proud? I graduated from the Harvard school of business," he said, glaring at her. "What's good enough for me is good enough for him. He's being enrolled in a private school with R.O.T.C. When he graduates, he'll go to Harvard, as I did, and my father did."

She stopped. Here was someone else trying to live his child's life. "Shouldn't that be his decision?" she asked curiously.

He didn't bat an eyelash. "Aren't you young to question your elders?" he taunted.

"Listen, just because you've got a few years on me...!"

"More than fifteen, by the look of you."

She studied his face closely. It had some deep lines, and not many of them were around the corners of his eyes. He wasn't a smiling man. But perhaps he wasn't quite as young as she'd suspected, either. Then she realized that he was counting from what he thought her age was.

"I'm thirty-four. But that still makes me an old man compared to you," he murmured. "You don't look much older than Ben."

Her heart leaped. He was closer to her age than she'd realized, and much closer than he knew. "You seem very mature."

"Do I?" His eyes glittered as he studied her. "You're a beauty," he said unexpectedly, his silver gaze lingering on her flawless complexion and big pale blue eyes and wavy, long blond hair. "I was attracted to you the first time I saw you. But," he added with world-weary cynicism, "I was tired of buying sex with expensive gifts."

She felt her face go hot. He had entirely the wrong idea. "I'm..." she began, wanting to explain.

He held up a lean hand. "I'm still tired of it," he said. He studied her without smiling, and the look he gave her made her knees go weak, despite its faint arrogance. "Do your parents know that you're making blatant passes at total strangers? Do you really think they'd approve of your behavior?"

She almost gasped. "What my parents think is none of your business!"

"It certainly is, when I'm the man you're trying to seduce." He glared at her. "So let me set you straight. I don't take college girls to bed, and I don't appreciate being stalked by one. Play with children your own age from now on."

His statement left her blustering. "My goodness, just because I smiled at you a time or two...!"

"You did more than smile. You positively leered," he corrected.

"Will you stop saying that?" she cried. "For heaven's sake, I was only looking at you! And even if I was after that kind of...of thing, why would I pick a man with a son? Some father you are! Does he know that his father wanders all over the beach accusing people of propositioning him? And you must be attached—"

He was oddly watchful, not at all angry. He was studying her face with keen, faintly amused interest. "My, my, and you're not even redheaded," he murmured, watching the color come and go on that exquisite complexion. "My son is too smitten with you to consider my place in your thoughts, and I don't have a wife. She died some years ago. I do have a fiancee—almost," he added half under his breath.

"The poor woman!"

"She's quite well-to-do, in fact," he said, deliberately misunderstanding her. "So am I. Another reason to avoid college students, who are notoriously without means."

She wanted to tell him what her means were, but she was too angry to get the words out. She flushed furiously at being misjudged and insulted. She decided then and there not to tell him about her background. He'd have to get to know her for herself, not her "means."

"Thinking up appropriate replies?" he asked helpfully. "Something along the lines of feeding me to the sharks?"

"They'd have to draw straws so the loser could eat you!" she blurted out.

She turned and set off back down the beach, hot all over from her surge of fury.

She ran along the beach in her haste to get away from him. She'd been playing mind games with herself. She hadn't realized that he mistook her rapt regard for serious flirting. She'd certainly be more careful in future to keep her fantasies to herself! Never again would she so much as glance at that man!

It was a pity she didn't look back. He was standing where she left him with a peculiarly predatory look in his pale eyes, and he was laughing.

Shelly and Nan stuck to the beach and the shops for the rest of the day, and that evening she persuaded Nan to go to a fast-food joint with some of the other students instead of the restaurant. She didn't dare tell anyone why, or confess the result of her stupid behavior. If Nan suspected, she was kind enough not to say anything.

Two good things had come out of the experience, Shelly thought as she now walked by herself along the beach. It had been two days since she'd run into the man. She'd managed to avoid the worshipful glances of Mr. Sexy's son, and she'd learned a painful lesson about obvious flirting. He was a banker. Wasn't he supposed to be dignified and faintly reticent and withdrawn? Her father was an investment counselor, and he was like that. Of course, he had inherited wealth, too, and that made him faintly arrogant. Mr. Sexy almost cornered the market on arrogance, of course, and conceit. She had to add conceit to the list, since he thought she couldn't wait to jump into bed with him!

I might have known, she told herself, that no man could be that perfect to look at without having a few buried ugly flaws. Conceit, stupidity, arrogance...

As she thought, she walked. There was a long pier that ran down from the hotel, and usually at the end of it were fishermen. But this particular day the pier was deserted. A sound was coming from it. A series of sharp cries.

Curious, Shelly walked onto it and started out toward the bay. The sounds grew louder. As she quickened her pace to reach the end of the pier, she heard splashing.

She stopped and peered over the edge.

"Help!" a young voice sputtered, and long, thin arms splashed for dear life. She knew that voice, and that face. It was the teenage son of Mr. Sexy, the one she'd been dodging for two days. Talk about fate!

She didn't stop to think. She tugged off her sandals and dived in after him, shoes, cutoffs, sleeveless white blouse and all. She'd taken a Red Cross lifesaving course and she knew what to do.

"Don't panic," she cautioned as she got behind him and caught him under the chin to protect herself. Drowning swimmers very often pulled their rescuers down with them, causing two deaths instead of one. "Stop flailing around and listen to me!" she said, moving her legs to keep afloat. "That's better. I'm going to tow you to shore. Try to relax. Let your body relax."

"I'll drown!" came the choking reply.

"No, you won't. Trust me."

There was a pause and a very exaggerated bout of breathing. "Okay."

"Good fellow. Here we go."

She struck out for shore, carrying the victim she'd appropriated along with her.

It wasn't that far to shore, but she was out of practice towing another person. By the time they reached shallow water, she was panting for breath along with the boy.

They flopped onto the beach and he coughed up water for several seconds.

"I thought I was a goner." He choked. "If you hadn't come along, I'd have drowned!" He looked at her and then grinned. "I'm sure you've heard the old axiom about saving a life."

She frowned Her brain wasn't working. "What axiom?"

His grin grew even wider. "Why, that when you save a life, you're responsible for it as long as you live!" He threw his arms wide. "I'm yours!"

Chapter Two

"Thanks," she said. "But you can have your life back."

"Sorry, it doesn't work that way. You're stuck with me. Where are we going to live?"

She knew her expression was as perplexed as her thoughts. "Look, you're a nice boy..."

"I'm twelve and a half," he said. "I have all my own teeth, I'm in good health, I can do dishes and make beds. I don't mind cooking occasionally. You can trust me to feed and water whatever pets you possess," he concluded. "Oh, and I'm an Eagle Scout." He raised three fingers.

She glared at him. "Two fingers, not three fingers! Three fingers mean you're a Girl Scout!"

He snapped his fingers. "Darn." He looked at her. "Does that mean I have to give back the green dress?"

She burst into laughter. After the shock of seeing him almost drown, and the strain of rescue, her sense of humor came back in full force. She fell back onto the beach and laughed until her stomach hurt.

"I can't stand it," she choked.

He grinned down at her. "Great. Let's go and feed me. I do eat a lot, but I can get a part-time job to help out with groceries."

"Your father is not going to give you to me," she told him somberly, and flushed when she remembered what his father had said to her two days ago, and what she'd said back. She'd been lucky, because she'd managed to avoid him ever since.

"Why not? He doesn't want me. He's trying to give me to a school with an R.O.T.C. and after I get out of there, he's going to sell my soul to Harvard."

"Don't knock college fees," she told him firmly. "I've had to fight every step of the way for mine."

"Yeah, Dad and I saw you with the other college students," he agreed. "Dad was right. You really are pretty," he added critically, watching her look of surprise. "Do you like chess and can you play computer games? Oh, you have to like dogs, because I've got one."

She looked around to make sure he was talking to her.

"Well?" he persisted.

"I can play chess," she said. "I like cats, but my dad has two golden retrievers and I get along with them. I don't know about computer games..."

"That's okay. I can teach you."

"What am 1 auditioning for?"

"My mother, of course," he said. "Dad's business partner has this daughter, and she's done everything but move in with us trying to get Dad to marry her! She looks like two-day-old whitefish, she eats carrot sticks and health food and she takes aerobics. She hates me," he added curtly. "She's the one who thinks I belong in a school—a faraway school."

"And you don't want to go."

"I hate guns and stuff," he said heavily. They were both beginning to dry out in the sun. His hair was dark brown, a little lighter than his father's. He had those same silver-gray eyes.

"I know what you mean. My parents didn't want me to go to college." She leaned toward him. "My dad's an investment counselor. All he knows are numbers and accounting."

"Sounds just like my dad." He scowled. "Listen, you won't hold that against him? I mean, he's real handsome and he has good manners. He's a little bad-tempered," he confessed, "and he leaves his clothes laying all over the bedroom so that Jennie—she's our maid—fusses. But he's got a kind heart."

"That makes up for a lot," she said, thinking privately that his father hadn't been particularly kind to her.

"He likes animals, too."

"You're very nice to offer me your life, and your father, to boot," she said pleasantly, "but I've got at least three more years of college to go, and I can't think about a family for a long time. I want to be a social worker."

"My dad's real social," he remarked. "You can work on him."

"God forbid," she said under her breath.

"He'll grow on you," he persisted. "He's rich."

She knew about being rich. She came from old money herself. His father seemed to think that she was after his. That was almost laughable.

"Money can't buy a lot of things," she reminded him.

"Name three."

"Love. Happiness. Peace of mind."

He threw up his hands. "I give up!"

"Try to give up swimming alone," she advised. "It's dangerous."

"Actually," he confessed, "I didn't just jump in on purpose as much as I tripped over a bucket and fell in. But I would have been just as dead."

"Indeed you would. Keep your mind on what you are doing," she admonished.

He saluted her. "Roger, wilco."

"You might like R.O.T.C," she said.

He shrugged. "I like to paint birds."

"Oh, boy."

"See what I mean? My dad hunts ducks. He wants me to. I hate it!"

This boy had a real problem. She didn't know what to tell him. His father was obviously rock-headed and intractable.

"Have you been without your mother for a long time?" she asked gently.

"All my life. She died just after I was born. Dad and I get along all right, but we aren't close. He spends so much time at work, and out of the country on business, that I almost never see him. It's just Jennie and Mrs. Brady and me most of the time. They're good to me. We had a wonderful Christmas together...."

"Where was your father?" she exclaimed.

"He had to fly to Paris. She found out and got on the plane when he wasn't looking. Since he couldn't send her home, she went with him," he muttered.

"She?"

"Marie Dumaris," he said curtly.

"Maybe he loves her," she suggested.

"Ha! She comes from an uptown family and he's known her since Mom died. She was a cousin or something. She's always around. I guess he was too busy to notice other women, and she decided to acquire him. From the way she acts lately, she has."

Shelly could have debated that, about his father being too busy to notice women. From what little he'd said to her, she gathered that he was no stranger to brief liaisons. He'd even thought she was angling for one. The brunette's skinny form flashed into her mind and she wondered absently how a man could find pleasure in caressing ribs and bones with skin stretched over them.

"If he marries her, T'll run away," the boy said quietly. "It's bad enough that I don't get to say what I want to do with my life, or where I want to go to school. I can't stand having her for a stepmother as well." He looked up at Shelly. "We'll have to work fast, since you're only here for a week."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I really don't want your father," she said.

"That leaves me," he said worriedly. "Look, I'm only twelve. I can't get married for years yet, and I'm too short for you. My dad's a much better bet."

"I don't want to get married," she said kindly. "Couldn't you settle for being friends?"

"That won't save me," he moaned. "What am I going to do? My whole life's an ongoing calamity!"

She knew how it felt to be young and helpless. She still had to fight her own well-meaning father to live her own life.

"Have you talked to your father? I mean, have you really talked to him, told him how you felt?"

He shrugged. "He thinks I'm just a kid. He doesn't talk to me, he talks at me. He tells me what I'm going to do and then he walks out."

"Just like my dad," she mused.

"Aren't fathers the pits?"

She chuckled. "Well, from time to time they are." She studied his wet profile. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine. Are you?"

She nodded. "Just wet. And I think it would be a good idea if we both went and got dried off."

"Okay. I'll be back to see you later," he promised. "My name's Ben. Ben Scott. My dad's first name is Faulkner."

She shook the hand he offered. "I'm Shelly As-tor."

"Nice to meet you. Shelly Scott would have a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Listen..."

"A life for a life," he reminded her. "Mine belongs to you, and you're responsible for it."

"I didn't do anything except pull you out of the ocean!"

"No. You saved me from a calamity," he said. "But we have several calamities to go. Calamity Mom—that's you," he added with a grin.

She glared at him. "I'm not a mother."

"Yes, you are."

"No!"

"Are so, are so, are so!" he called, and ran away, laughing.

She threw up her hands in frustrated impotence. Now what was she going to do? And how was she going to explain what had happened if his father came gunning for her after he was told that his son now had a mother? She didn't know where they came from, or anything about them.

She almost wished she'd never agreed to come with the other students on the trip. But it was too late now. She'd jumped into the ocean, and into the frying pan—so to speak.

That evening, she and Nan walked through the lobby of their motel and came face-to-face with a haughty Marie Dumaris, with Faulkner Scott at her side, and a subdued Ben trailing behind.

The boy brightened at the sight of Shelly. "Hi, Mom!" he said brightly. Faulkner's eyebrows shot up and Marie bristled.

"She is not your mother!" Marie snapped.

"She is so," Ben told her belligerently.

Shelly colored, and Nan patted her on the shoulder. "I'll meet you at John's Burger Stand, okay?" she asked quickly, and retreated.

Shelly would have a few things to tell her later about desertion under fire, she thought wickedly. She didn't look at Faulkner. She was barely composed and painfully aware of her shabby attire She and Nan had decided to have a casual supper, so she hadn't bothered over her appearance. She wasn't even wearing makeup. Marie had on a green silk pantsuit with designer shoes and bag. Last year's style, Shelly thought with gentle spite, but trendy enough. Shelly herself was wearing faded jeans and a worn blue-striped top with a button missing at the top.

"She says you shouldn't send me to military school." Ben set the cat among the pigeons, grinning as he retreated toward the television on one wall.

"I did not!" Shelly gasped.

"You have no right to comment on Faulkner's decisions about his son," Marie said with cool hauteur and a speaking look at Shelly's attire. "Really, I can't imagine that Ben's education is of any concern to a tacky little college girl." Her cold green eyes measured Shelly and found her lacking in every respect.

Shelly's eyebrows rose. Tacky college student? This social climbing carrot-eater was looking down her nose at Shelly? She could have burst out laughing, but it was hardly a matter for amusement.

Faulkner wasn't saying anything. He was watching Shelly with those devil's eyes, smiling faintly.

Shelly glared at him with bitter memories on her face. "Ben is my friend," she said, turning her eyes to Marie. "I have a vested interest in his future. Or so he says," she added under her breath. "He hates military school and he doesn't want to shoot things."

"Don't be absurd, they don't have to shoot anything! Besides," Marie added, "people have hunted since time began."

"They hunted when they had to eat," Shelly agreed. "That was before supermarkets and meat lockers."

"Faulkner enjoys hunting," Marie countered, smiling up at him. "He's very good at it."

Shelly nodded, staring at him. "Oh, I don't doubt it for a second," she agreed readily. "Drawing blood seems to be a specialty of his. You don't have any vampires in your family lineage...?"

Faulkner was trying not to smile, and Marie was about to explode, when Ben came running back up blowing a huge bubble.

"Throw that stupid bubble gum away," Marie told him icily. "And stop slouching. Must you dress and act like a street person?" She glanced haughtily at Shelly, beside whom Ben was standing. "It must be the influence."

How dare that woman talk about Ben that way, and in public! The youngster went scarlet and looked as if he wanted to go through the floor. That was the last straw. Shelly glared at her, her eyes deliberately noting Marie's silk jacket. "That particular jacket was on sale last fall, wasn't it? You do know that it's out of style this season?" She smiled deliberately, having delivered an insult calculated to turn the other woman's face white. It did, too.

Marie took an indignant breath. "My wardrobe is no concern of yours. Speaking of which...!"

"Ben, I want to know what's going on between you and Ms. Astor," Faulkner drawled, leaving Shelly stunned because she hadn't realized he knew her name.

"Nothing is going on. Ben and I are friends," Shelly said firmly.

"I don't want Ben associating with her," Marie said coldly.

"I hardly think that's your decision to make, Marie," Faulkner interrupted. "Ben told me what you did this afternoon," he added quietly, searching Shelly's eyes. "I'm in your debt. You're no shrinking violet when the chips are down, are you?"

"No guts, no glory," she quipped. He was making her nervous. The way he was watching her made her knees week. She had to get away. "Sorry, but I have friends waiting. See you, Ben."

Ben waved, but he looked miserable. And that haughty brunette treating him like a pet animal...! Shelly's blood boiled.

Ben ground his teeth together. He'd wanted to drag Shelly into his family circle, but Marie was spoiling everything!

"That was terrible of you, to involve your father with a haughty, ill-bred little tramp like that," Marie scolded Ben. "How could you... ?"

"She saved my life," Ben told her curtly, his voice firm and authoritative, amazingly similar to his fa-ther's.

"She did what?" Marie asked, taken aback. They hadn't told her.

Ben sighed. "I fell off the pier. She jumped in and pulled me out."

Faulkner studied his son with new eyes. He'd done a lot of thinking since Shelly had exploded into their lives. Now he was regretting what he'd said to her. Her comments the other day had helped him to realize that he had a son he didn't even know. He'd spent years making money, traveling, letting business occupy every waking hour of his life. And in the process, Ben had become a stranger.

"Can we go and eat now?" Marie asked petulantly. "I'm hungry. We can have salads and spring water."

"I'm not having a salad and spring water," Ben told her belligerently. "I'm having a steak and a soda."

"Don't you talk that way to me!" Marie shot back. "And you're not having red meat...!"

"He can have a steak if he wants one," Faulkner told her coldly. "In fact, I'm having one myself. Let's go."

Ben and Marie wore equally shocked looks. Faulkner moved ahead of them toward the restaurant. He spared a sad, regretful glance toward the door where Shelly had vanished. He supposed he was going to have to apologize to her. He wasn't looking forward to it.

A little while later, Shelly had worn out her meager supply of bad language on Marie's behavior and was catching her breath when Pete came up to join the two women at the burger place.

"There's a beach party tonight, dancing and beer. You two coming?" he asked.

"Sure," Nan said. "How can we resist dancing?" Pete glared at her. "Well, there's me, too." "I can resist you," Nan said, smiling. "I can't," Shelly said with a theatrical sigh. "You make me swoon!"

Pete grinned. "Do I, really? What a treat! That's radical!"

"She's acting," Nan whispered loudly. "She's already promised to an investment broker back home." Pete stared at Shelly blankly. "Are you?" "My father keeps trying," Shelly said ruefully. "He wants to see me settled and secure." She laughed. "Well, I've got long legs and I can run fast. Not to worry. I'll escape."

"Make sure you escape by way of the beach," Pete made her promise. "We're going to have a ball."

"The last time he said that, six of us spent the night in the holding tank down at Fort Lauderdale."

"I gave you an intimate look at life in the raw," Pete said, wounded. "You learned incredible things about people."

"Three hookers, two drunks and a man accused of murder were in there with us," Nan translated. "The drunks were sick at the time," she added pointedly. "One threw up on me."

"Oh, my," Shelly mused.

"No police this time," Pete promised. "No drugs, no trouble. Drugs are stupid, anyway. We'll just drink beer and eat pizza and dance. Okay?"

"In that case, I'll come," Nan said.

"Me, too, I guess," Shelly said. "I don't have much of a social life these days."

Nan was looking past Shelly's shoulder. "I wouldn't say that."

Shelly followed the wide-eyed stare. Mr. Sexy was walking toward her, resplendent in his white slacks and electric blue silk shirt and white jacket. He looked very sophisticated, and women up and down the strip of developments were openly staring at him.

"Wow," Nan sighed softly.

Shelly had time to wonder what he'd done with Marie and Ben before he stopped in front of her.

"I'd like to speak to you. Alone," he added with a meaningful stare toward Nan and Pete.

"I'm a memory already," Pete said quickly.

"Same here." Nan followed him, leaving Shelly alone at the table with Faulkner.

He sat down, giving his surroundings a cold appraisal. His silver eyes settled on Shelly's face in its frame of windblown, wavy blond hair. Her complexion was perfect, softly pink, and her blue eyes were like pools at midnight. He studied her in reluctant silence, drinking in her beauty.

"Ben told me that you saved his life. I want to apologize for the things I said to you."

"Don't apologize for your bad manners, Mr. Scott," she said gently. "It would ruin your image." He grimaced. "Is that how I sounded?" "Despite what your woman friend thinks, I am neither a street person nor a lady of the evening," she said quietly. "As for Ben, I pulled him out of the water and we talked for a few minutes. That is the extent of our acquaintance. 1 have no desire to become his mother, despite the impression he may have given you."

"I appreciate what you did for Ben," he said quietly. "You may not think so, but he's very important to me."

"Is he?" she asked with faint sarcasm, and a ruddy flush ran over his high cheekbones.

"Yes, he is," he returned curtly. "1 can do without any more insults from you."

"Isn't turnabout fair play? You've done nothing but insult me since the first time you spoke to me. All right, I shouldn't have flirted with you. I made eyes at you and pretended unrequited love to get my friends off my back, and it was wrong. But you had no right whatsoever to assume that because I smiled at you, I was eager and willing to warm your bed!" "No, I didn't," he agreed surprisingly. "Perhaps I'm more jaded than I realized. You're very lovely. It's been my experience that most women with looks find a market for them."

"Perhaps you've known the wrong kind of women," she said. "And while we're on the subject, whether or not she's your fiancée, that woman has no right to talk to Ben as if he's a pet dog!"

His dark eyebrows arched and he smiled. "My, my."

"He's a fine boy. Better than you deserve, and a walking miracle considering the lack of guidance he's had."

He sighed slowly, watching her through narrowed eyes. He toyed with a plastic fork on the table and muscles rippled in his broad chest, dark hair visible through the thinness of his shirt as they moved.

"I've been busy supporting us," he said.

"Your son will be away from home for good in about six years," she reminded him. "Will he want to come back for visits then?"

He scowled. "What do you mean?"

"Ben doesn't want to be a military man. He doesn't want to go to a school with rigid discipline or become a hunter. He wants to be an artist. Is it really fair of you to try to relive your life through him?"

He looked shocked. "I wasn't."

"Ben doesn't see it that way." She grimaced. "Neither do I," she said honestly. "My father is just like you. I've had to fight him constantly to get to do anything my own way. He's got a husband all picked out for me. College, you see, is a waste of time for a woman."

He lifted an eyebrow and didn't reply.

"You think that way, too, I gather. A woman's place is in the bedroom and the kitchen—"

"I wouldn't know," he said curtly. "My mother was a corporate executive. She was never home."

She stared at him warily.

"Surprised?" he asked mockingly. "My father worked himself to death before he was fifty. Mother inherited the company. In order to keep it going, she decided that I was expendable. She stuck me in a private school and devoted the rest of her short life to high finance. She died when I was in my final year of college. She dropped dead of a heart attack in the middle of a heated board meeting."

She was shocked. "I see."

"No, you don't see anything. My father thought my mother was a home-loving woman who would want to give him children and love and care for them until they were old enough to live alone. But she never wanted children in the first place. God knows, she said so often enough when I was growing up!"

"Oh, you poor man," she said softly, and with genuine sympathy. "I'm so sorry!"

He glowered at her. "I don't need pity!"

"Some women aren't suited to domestic life," she said gently. "Surely you know that by now?"

"Then they shouldn't marry."

She searched his hard face. A lot of things were clearing up in her mind. He was raising his son as he'd been raised, in the only way he knew.

"There are other ways to make a boy self-sufficient and independent," she said. "You don't have to banish him to make him strong. He thinks you don't want him."

He got to his feet, towering over her. "I can manage my own private life."

"Heavens, what kind of life is it?" she asked, searching his silver eyes. "You aren't happy. Neither is Ben. Haven't you learned that business isn't enough?"

Her assessment of his life hurt. He'd already had enough of Marie's criticism that he was too soft with Ben, and here was Shelly telling him he was too hard. He reacted more violently man he meant to. "What is enough?" he asked abruptly. "To turn out a penniless, scruffy little college student like you?"

Probably if his assumption about her had been right, his attitude would have hurt. But it didn't. She smiled mockingly. "I wouldn't presume to think so," she said. "Marie's just your style. But I feel sorry for Ben. He's sensitive, despite his brashness. She'll destroy him if you let her."

He gave her a speaking glare and strode off with anger evident in every line of his hard body.

She drank too much that night. She hadn't eaten right, she'd been too annoyed at Mr. Sexy, and before she knew it, she'd had much too much beer. Three cans of it, when she hardly ever had more than a sip of white wine. If Nan hadn't been there to look after her, her carelessness could have had terrible repercussions. Pete, who'd had four cans of beer on his own, was more than willing to take advantage of her condition. But Nan warded him off, parceled up Shelly and herded her back to the motel.

"Idiot," she muttered as she helped a swaying Shelly into the lobby. "What on earth would you do without me?"

"I'm not drunk, Nan," Shelly said, and smiled vacantly.

"Of course not! Come on, hang on to me." She got into the elevator with her heavy burden and was about to select the proper floor number when Faulkner and his ladylove joined them.

"Of all the disgusting things I've ever seen," Marie said with a haughty glare. "You college girls have no morals at all, have you?"

Nan stared at the other woman without speaking, her liquid black eyes full of muffled insults. Marie flushed and looked away, but Nan didn't stop staring. "Hello, Miss Ribs," Shelly said, smiling at the thin brunette. "If you had a little meat on those bird bones, you'd be much more attractive. I expect Mr. Sexy over there bruises his fingers every time he touches you."

"How dare you!" Marie exploded.

"Here's our floor. Out you go, my dear," Nan mumbled, helping Shelly out of the elevator.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Marie. Go on up." Faulkner got off the elevator and, without breaking stride, lifted Shelly in his arms. "Lead the way."

The elevator closed on Marie's startled gasp, and Nan hesitated only a minute before she started off down the hall toward their ocean-facing room.

Shelly looked into Faulkner's hard, dark face with dazed curiosity. "I'm sorry you don't like me."

He smiled gently. "Don't I?" he asked. "Hold tight, little one. I wouldn't want to drop you."

He pulled her very close and eased her hot face into the curve of his neck, enveloping her in his warm strength and the seductive scent of his cologne. She felt like heaven in his arms. He had to stifle a groan.

Shelly was barely aware of his reaction, but she was feeling something similar. Smiling, she sighed and drifted into a warm, wonderful sleep.

Chapter Three

Shelly woke the next morning with a frightful headache and vague memories of being carried to bed in a man's hard arms.

Nan held out a bottle of aspirin and a cup of black coffee the minute Shelly walked into the living room. "Here," she said curtly. "And next time you pull a silly stunt like that, you'll be sharing a single room at this motel, all alone, by yourself."

"Don't yell," Shelly groaned.

"I'm whispering, can't you tell?"

"Oh!" Shelly put her hands over her ears. "You're horrible!"

"One of us is, that's for sure."

"I dreamed that I was being carried," she murmured, holding her aching head.

"That wasn't a dream."

She stared blankly at Nan. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes. Your nemesis carried you in here and put you to bed. He was pretty nice, considering what you said to his fiancee."

Shelly groaned aloud. "I don't want to know, but what did I say?"

"You're right. You don't want to know. Sit down and drink your coffee."

Shelly sat down and held out her cup. "Have you got any hemlock?"

Nan only shook her head.

Ben was lying in wait for Shelly when she came out onto the beach much later, wearing dark glasses and feeling vaguely sick. Nan had promised her that some sea air would cure her. So while Nan was having a shower, Shelly slipped into her yellow one-piece bathing suit and her terry cover-up and oozed down to the beach.

"Marie's really mad at you," Ben said, and grinned. "I knew you'd make a great mother!" He scowled. "You look terrible. What's the matter with you?"

"Excess," she said.

"Excess what?"

"Beer." She found a single bare spot between tourists and sat down gently on the sand. She groaned at the blazing sunlight, which hurt her eyes even through the dark glasses. "It's your father's fault."

"My dad made you drink beer?" he asked hesitantly.

"He drove me to it. He's a terrible man!"

"Well, he isn't, really. I exaggerated a little because I was mad at him," Ben said pleasantly. "But he's rethinking sending me to that school. Thanks, Mom!" He grinned at her.

"Think nothing of it. Is there a facility near here? I think I have to throw up."

"Why don't you lie down?" Ben suggested. "It might help. Where did your friends go?"

"They are going sailing." She took off the robe and stretched out on a towel, grimacing as her head contacted the ground. "I feel awful."

"I can imagine. I'm glad I don't drink," he observed. "Neither does Dad, except for a glass of wine occasionally."

"Delighted to hear it. I'm sure your future stepmother doesn't approve of wine."

"She only hates things that taste good," he agreed. "I hate wine."

"Haven't you got something to do?"

"Sure. I have to look after you. Poor old Mom."

"I'm not your mother," she croaked.

"Yet."

"Ever!" She let out a pained sigh.

"How about something cold to drink?"

"Anything, as long as it isn't beer!" She dug into her pocket for change and handed him some.

"That's too much."

"Get yourself something, too."

"Gee, thanks!"

He darted off. She lay quietly on the sand, trying to breathe, and a dark shadow loomed over her.

"Nan?" Shelly said.

"Not Nan," came a familiar deep voice. He dropped beside her on the sand. "How do you feel?"

"Sick."

"Serves you right. If you can't hold your liquor, don't drink. You could have ended up in severe circumstances last night, except for Nan."

"Rub it in," she muttered.

"I intend to. Nan's had a go at you already, I'm sure."

"Several. My head hurts."

"No wonder." He smoothed back her windblown hair. His hand was big and warm and surprisingly gentle. She opened her eyes and looked up. She wished she hadn't. He was wearing white swimming trunks and nothing else, and he looked better than the sexiest suntan commercial she'd ever seen. He was beautiful, just beautiful, and she was glad she had on dark glasses so that he couldn't see her appreciation.

"Where's your shadow?" she muttered, closing her eyes again. "Or does she sunbathe? It must be disconcerting to have men screaming 'put your clothes back on!'"

"Not nice," he said firmly. "Being thin is fashionable in our circles."

"It is not," she said, forgetting that he didn't know she frequented the same circles he did. "Thin is fashionable only with models and—" she sat up, taking off her sunglasses to glare at him "—your ladylove."

He shrugged, powerful muscles rippling in his chest and arms. "Some men like well-endowed women, I suppose. I never have."

She was too aware of her full hips and generous bosom. She glared at him. "Then don't waste your time sitting here talking to me."

He laughed mirthlessly. "I have a vested interest in you, and kindly don't take this as a sign of sexual intent. Even if you appealed to me, which you do not physically," he added pointedly, "the fact is, you're still in school."

She started once again to correct his assumption about her age, and stopped. Plenty of time for confidences later, if he stuck around. Otherwise, pretending a lesser age than she owned might not be a bad form of protection. He was obviously pretty experienced, if the look he was giving her body was any indication. He wasn't blatant, but he had seductive eyes and a voice that was more than a little persuasive. His words denied any interest or intent, but his eyes belied that. She wondered if he even realized it. "I'm back...!" Ben hesitated before he sat down beside his father and Shelly. "Oh. Hi, Dad. Where's Marie?"

"Sleeping late, I suppose." He watched as Ben handed Shelly a soft drink.

"Delicious," she whispered, holding the icy can to her temples.

"Are you assimilating it through osmosis?" Ben asked. "We studied that in biology."

"You don't know what biology is until you've had to study DNA, enzymes, proteins and genetics in college."

Ben blinked. "What happened to animals?"

"You study them in zoology."

"You study enzymes in biology?" Ben muttered.

"That's right. And if you really want to understand biology, taking chemistry helps. I haven't yet." She grinned. "I'm a sociology major. I only have to take biology. Since I passed it, I don't have to take chemistry."

"How far along are you?" Faulkner asked.

"Oh, I'm still a freshman."

He didn't reply. His face grew thoughtful, and he turned his attention seaward.

"Where are you from?" Ben asked her suddenly.

"Washington."

"State?" he persisted.

"D.C."

"So are we!" Ben said excitedly, and Shelly was aware of his father's interested gaze. "Where do you go to school?"

"Thorn College," she replied. "It's very small, but nice."

Faulkner knew the college and the area in which it was located. A nice, middle-class community. Nothing fancy. Older homes on small lots near the interchange.

"Oh," Ben said. "We live several miles away from there. Some of our neighbors are senators."

"Are you on vacation?" she asked hesitantly.

"No," Faulkner replied. "There's a convention here this week—bankers."

"Dad's the keynote speaker," Ben said proudly. "Shelly, didn't you say your dad was good at numbers and accounting?"

He certainly was. He was on the board of directors of two banks. She hoped Faulkner's wasn't one of them. "Sort of," she said.

"What does he do?" Ben persisted.

"Actually very little," she said, feeling her way.

"I see," Faulkner said quietly, and his tone indicated that he was developing an impression of Shelly's father that classed Mr. Astor as a street person. Shelly had to bite her lip to keep from laughing ■ at the picture that came to mind. Her father contributed to several charities that helped street people, but he was far from being homeless.

"What are you going to do with your degree when you get it?" Faulkner asked with genuine curiosity.

"I'd like to be a social worker," she said. "There are plenty of people in the world who could use a helping hand."

"No doubt about that," he replied.

"Well, I want to be a wildlife illustrator," Ben said firmly.

"He wants to do his duck shooting with a camera,"

Faulkner said with a sigh.

"Good for him. I think it's atrocious the way people treat our living natural resources."

Ben grinned from ear to ear. "You tell him, Mom!"

"I am not your mother," she said shortly, and then groaned and held her head.

"She's much too young to be anyone's mother," Faulkner agreed, and there was, just briefly, a wistful look about him. He quickly erased it and got to his feet. "I've got to go and collect Marie. We have a luncheon engagement. Ben..."

"I can stay with Mom. Can't I?"

"I'm not—!"

"—your mother! I know, I know!" Ben said chuckling. "Can I stay with you?"

"She's not able to look after you," Faulkner said.

"I want to look after her," Ben replied solemnly. "She certainly needs looking after, and her friends are going sailing. I don't think she can go sailing, do you?"

Shelly swallowed and made a moaning sound.

"Good point. Is it all right?" Faulkner asked Shelly.

"Just as long as he doesn't talk too loud," she agreed.

"Don't give her any trouble," Faulkner cautioned the boy.

"Isn't Marie going back home today?" Ben asked with glee.

"She's leaving with her father. If he goes today, so will she, I imagine."

So they weren't sharing a room, Shelly thought. She was surprised that a woman of Marie's age would travel with her father, especially when she was apparently all but engaged to Faulkner.

"Marie's father is one of the bankers at the convention," Ben explained. "We flew down together."

"None of that is of any interest to Ms. Astor, I'm sure," Faulkner said. "Stay out of trouble. We should be back around three o'clock."

"Okay, Dad."

Faulkner wandered off, absently thinking that he'd much rather be on the beach with Ben and Shelly than sitting around talking business. But that was part of his job.

Shelly and Ben left the beach half an hour later and after two pain tablets and another icy drink, Shelly felt well enough to go fishing off the pier with Ben.

"Isn't this fun?" she asked on a sigh, lying back on the boards with her eyes closed and the fishing pole held loosely in her hand. "I'll bet that fishing concession makes a fortune without selling a single worm."

"Your hook isn't baited," Ben muttered. "That's not fair."

"I don't want to catch a fish, for heaven's sake! I just want to lie here and drink in the smell of sea air."

"Well, I want to catch something. Not that I expect to," he said miserably when he pulled up his hook and it was bare, again. The minnows under the pier kept taking the bait in tiny nibbles and missing the hook.

"Don't fall in," she said firmly.

"Okay."

The sound of footsteps didn't bother her, because there were plenty of other tourists dropping lines off the pier. But these came close. She looked up and there was Ben's father, in jeans, a gray knit designer shirt and sneakers. He didn't even look like the same man.

"Catch anything?" he asked.

"Some sleep," Shelly remarked.

"I'm catching cold," Ben grumbled as he baited his hook for the fourth time.

Faulkner's narrow silver eyes slid over Shelly's trim figure in tight white jeans and a pink sleeveless blouse tied at the midriff. Her glorious hair was tamed into a French braid and even without makeup, her face was lovely. He couldn't stop looking at her.

She flushed a little and sat up. That level stare was making her self-conscious. "Since you're back, I'll leave Ben with you. I have to try to find Nan and the others."

"I thought they went sailing."

"They did," she agreed. "But Nan's a much worse sailor than I am. I expect she's lost breakfast and lunch by now, and is praying for land."

He reached down a big, strong hand and helped her up. Oddly his fingers were callused; her fingers lingered against the tough pads on his and she looked up at him with kindled interest.

"Your hands are callused," she remarked.

He smiled slowly, closing his fingers around her own. "I have a sailboat," he remarked. "I love sailing."

"Oh."

"And you don't like the sea," he murmured dryly.

"My stomach doesn't like the sea," she corrected.

He searched her soft eyes and she didn't look away. Currents of electricity seemed to run into her body from the intensity of that stare, until her breathing changed and her heartbeat doubled. He still had her hand in his and unexpectedly, he brought the soft palm up to his lips and pressed them hard into its moist warmth.

She felt the color run into her face. "I, uh, really have to go." She laughed nervously and extracted her hand from his.

He smiled at her, without rancor or mockery. "Thanks for taking care of Ben."

"He sort of took care of me," she replied. Her eyes searched his, and there was a little fear in them.

His smile was indulgent, faintly surprised. "It's all right," he said softly, his voice deeper than ever, his eyes narrowed and intent.

She gnawed on her lower lip, understanding his response in her subconscious even if it sounded odd to her conscious mind. She turned away. "See you, Ben!"

"Sure. Thanks!"

She almost ran the length of the pier. She dated, and boys liked her. But she'd never liked them. Now, in the space of a few days, a man who thought she was much too young for him had blazed a path to her most secret self, and she didn't know how to chase him out again. There were plenty of reasons she should keep her distance from him, and she wanted to. But Ben was making it impossible.

She walked into the motel, almost colliding with a very irritated Marie Dumaris.

"You again," the older woman said curtly. "Stay away from Faulkner. I don't know what you think he'd see in a ragamuffin like you, but I don't like the way you've attached yourself to him and Ben."

The attack was staggering. Shelly stared at her blankly. "I beg your pardon?"

"If you don't leave Faulkner alone, I'll make you sorry. My people are well-to-do and I have influence. I can have you kicked out of school if I feel like it." She smiled haughtily at Shelly's expression. "Faulkner told me that you go to Thorn College. So watch your step. You don't know who you're dealing with."

Shelly looked her in the eye, and she didn't smile. "Neither do you," she said with quiet dignity.

Marie started to say something else, but Shelly turned and kept walking. She couldn't imagine why Marie would warn her away from Faulkner, who wasn't interested in her that way at all. Besides, she was only going to be here for four more days. That was hardly enough time to capture a man's heart. She overlooked the fact that hers was slowly being chained already....

That evening, after they'd eaten fish and chips, she and Nan were startled by a knock at the door.

Shelly went to open the door and found Faulkner. He smiled gently at her surprise. She was still wearing her jeans and pink blouse, but he'd changed into white slacks and a patterned shirt.

"Do you like Latin music?" he asked.

She was flustered, and looked it. "Yes."

"Come on. There's a live band down the way. Nan?" he added, looking past Shelly. "Want to come with us?"

"I'd love to, but there's a PBS special on about a dig in Egypt," Nan said apologetically. "I love classical archaeology."

"Indulge yourself, you stick-in-the-mud," Shelly grumbled.

"I will. Have fun!"

Faulkner waited while Shelly tied a pink knit sweater loosely around her neck in case it got cooler, and found her purse.

She waited until they were in the elevator headed down to the ground floor before she spoke. "Isn't this sudden?" she queried. "And where's Ben?"

"He's staying with some friends of mine for a few hours."

She lifted both eyebrows.

He chuckled. "You know how I feel about May-December relationships. I've already said so. I don't have anything indiscreet in mind. I thought you might like the impromptu Latin concert on the beach, so I came to get you."

"Am I substituting?"

He tilted her face up to his and shook his head, holding her eyes. "Oh, no," he said quietly. "Not you."

She smiled gently. "That was nice."

"I am nice," he replied, letting go of her chin. "It takes some people longer than others to notice it, of course."

She laughed. "Conceit, yet." "I am not conceited. In fact, my modesty often shocks people."

"I'll let you know if I feel in danger of being shocked."

His silver eyes twinkled. "You do that."

"You aren't what you seem," she said with faint curiosity. "1 thought bankers were staid and businesslike."

His powerful shoulders rose and fell. "I am, when I'm in the office." He glanced down at her. "I'm not in the office tonight, so look out."

She chuckled. "I can hardly wait."

The music got louder the closer they got to the beach A boom box was blasting Latin rhythms and food and beer were being passed around while couples danced in the sand. A crowd of merrymakers had gathered to watch, including some of the students Shelly was travelling with. One of them, unfortunately, was Pete.

"So this is where you went to!" he said impatiently, glancing warily at Faulkner. "Want to join us?"

Faulkner slid a possessive arm around her waist, and smiled at Pete. It wasn't a pleasant smile. "She's with me," he said quietly.

"Yes, I am," Shelly added. "Thanks for the invitation anyway."

Pete didn't say another word. He stalked back off to the other group.

"He's been drinking again," she said. "Ordinarily he's very nice."

"Nan told me that she was barely able to peel him off you last night," he said curtly. "I don't like that. A man who'll take advantage of an intoxicated woman is no man at all."

She stared at him. "Which means that you wouldn't seduce me if I got drunk?"

"Of course not. Besides, even cold sober, a college freshman is a little green on the tree for a man my age," he added, and his voice was unusually soft.

She should have been glad that her subterfuge had been successful. But instead, she was miserable that he thought she was too young for him.

"Will you relax and enjoy the music?" he chided.

"Sorry." She smiled. "I'm glad you asked me. I love music."

"So do I."

"Elevator music and classic rock and roll?" she teased.

He cocked a thick eyebrow. "Axl Rose and Aero-smith," he shot back.

She chuckled. "Mr. Scott, you are nothing like your image."

"Thank God for that."

The music got louder and couples moved into the circle to dance. Because her parents were ballroom dancing fans, she'd grown up knowing how to dance the mambo and tango. Faulkner seemed surprised that someone of her tender years would know how to do a sophisticated tango, but after he gauged her style, they seemed to flow together to the passionate refrain.

The music was wild. What she felt with every sensual brush of his body against hers was wilder. Her heart ran away with her. There was no tomorrow—

only tonight. She began to act as if the moment was all that existed, deliberately tempting him with the brush of her breasts against his broad chest, the soft glide of her thighs beside his, the intoxicating fencing of her steps with his.

She hung beneath his narrowing gaze, feeling the effect she was having on him in his quickened breath, the tightening of his hands on her waist and then, sliding lower, on her hips as he brushed her body against him.

It was arousing and she was too hungry to hide her reaction to him. As the music built to a climax, her eyes found his and held them. By the time it wound down, she was clinging to him, like a life preserver.

They finished the dance with a trembling Shelly draped over one powerful arm. Faulkner's mouth poised scant inches above her own The whole crowd applauded, but they were so lost in each other, in the intoxicating magic of aroused awareness, that they barely noticed.

"Oh, for a few seconds of privacy," he murmured huskily, searching her eyes as he slowly drew her back up again, the sensual brush of his hard body against her soft one arousing her suddenly and violently.

The dance had been sensual. She could feel her heart, and his, pounding in rhythm. "What would you do?" she challenged.

"I think that you're not quite that naive," he said, and his silver eyes fell to her soft mouth, lingering there until her lips parted and a tiny, frustrated moan escaped them.

His breathing was suddenly audible. "Shelly, stop it!"

She wanted to, she really did. But for the first time in her life, she wasn't quite in control. The feel of his chest against her soft breasts made them swell and she felt a sweet trembling all through her body. She was young and untried and hungry for her first taste of physical ravishment. All that was in the eyes she lifted bravely to his.

His jaw clenched. He swallowed. "All right. But not here," he said roughly.

He took her hand in his and drew her along with him. Her head was spinning; he'd read her thoughts as surely as if she'd spoken them. She'd never before experienced that kind of communication. It was frightening, similar to the headlong rush into passion that made her legs tremble.

"People. Damn people!" he muttered under his breath as he searched for a single uncrowded place. There wasn't one. He looked toward the beach, where the sea oats and sand dunes gave at least the illusion of privacy.

If he'd been thinking rationally, he'd have taken her straight back to the hotel and left her with Nan while there was still time. But she was wearing some sort of tangy perfume that made his senses whirl, and the thought of her softly rounded body in his arms made him reckless.

He led her along the dunes and then helped her down to the level of the beach with him, holding her so that, for an instant, her eyes were even with the aroused glitter of his.

He let her slide gently against his muscular body until her feet touched the sand. Behind him was the roar of the surf with moonlight glistening like diamonds along the waves that ran into the beach. But louder even than that was the frantic beat of her heart as he drew her to him with a self-mocking smile and bent his head.

"Every man is entitled to make a fool of himself once," he whispered into her mouth as he took it.

Chapter Four

Shelly wasn't rnodel-lovely, but her wealth had guaranteed that she'd had suitors in the past. None of them, not one, had made her mouth ache for his kisses, her body plead to be touched and caressed. But Faulkner did. Her response to him was instant and alarming.

Once, she tried to draw back, but his big hands slid to her hips and pushed them hard into the changing contours of his body while his lips teased around her trembling mouth.

He felt her instinctive withdrawal and checked it expertly. His nose brushed against hers and there was no urgency, no brutality in the touch of his mouth on her face. He was remarkably tender for the level of arousal he'd already reached.

"Don't be afraid of me," he whispered, his voice gentle, indulgent. "You can stop me whenever you like. Force is for bullies."

The calm tone pacified her. For just an instant she'd counted her folly in coming out alone with him, when she hardly knew him. There was a very real danger in being secluded with a strange man. The papers were full of tragedies that a little common sense, caution and wise counsel could have prevented.

"I read too many newspapers, I guess," she said unsteadily.

"Some women should read more," he replied flatly. He pushed the hair back from her flushed cheeks and stared down at her in the faint light. "You're quite safe with me. I wouldn't advise you to come out here with your friend Pete, though."

She smiled at the dry tone. "I know that already, thanks." The smile faded as she studied his broad, rugged face. It had lines that an artist would have loved. She reached up hesitantly, and stroked his thick eyebrows. He had big, deep-set eyes that seemed to see right through people. His nose was a little large, not oversize, and very straight. She traced it down to the wide, sexy line of his mouth, to the chiseled lips that had teased her into reckless response.

"This isn't wise," he said quietly, a little regretful. "You taste of green apples, young Shelly."

She reached up and caught his full lower lip gently in her teeth, acting on pure instinct. His big frame shuddered a little. "Teach me," she whispered unsteadily.

His hand tightened on her waist. "Teach you what?" he asked roughly.

Her lips opened and brushed against his. "How to...make love."

"That would be dangerous," was all he could get out. His body was burning; his heartbeat shook him.

"Yes." Her hands went to the front of his shirt. Holding his eyes, she gently undid the top button. He didn't say a word. Encouraged, she opened the next, and the next, and the next, until she'd bared his hair-covered chest to her fascinated gaze.

"Oh, my!" she whispered. She pressed both hands into the thickness of the hair and felt the hard, warm muscle through it. He was strong. She could feel it. He indulged her, letting her explore him, until the needs she kindled became unmanageable.

"That's enough," he said softly, stilling her hands against him.

"Why?"

"Because I'll want equal time."

Her eyes met his; her gaze was curious, a little shy. "I haven't let anyone see me like that. Not yet."

His eyes fell to her pink blouse and he saw the hardness of her nipples through it.

"I didn't have time to put on anything under it," she whispered softly.

"Oh, my God!" He ground out the words.

That deep groan, she decided, was pure frustration. As she thought it, he looked around to make sure they were still isolated. Then, with a total disregard for sanity, he dropped her sweater to the beach and began to unfasten her blouse.

His lips parted, as if he was finding it hard to breathe while he worked the tiny pearl buttons. So was she. But she wanted his gaze on her so badly that she banished common sense. When he pulled the edges of the blouse apart and looked at her, it seemed that she wasn't the only one with that terrible need.

His eyes were narrow and hot with admiration as he savored the firm, beautiful curve of her pink breasts.

"You said you liked...small women," she whispered unsteadily.

"Did I? I must have been out of my mind! Shelly," he whispered. "Oh, Shelly...!"

She didn't know what she'd expected, but it wasn't the sudden descent of his dark head and the warm moistness of his open mouth on her breast. His tongue pressed against her while she cried out in a strangled voice and clutched his head closer. Her whole body throbbed, ached, shook with an avalanche of uncontrollable need. She whispered to him, pleaded with him for more, more, her eyes closed, her body in anguish.

Vaguely she felt the cool sand at her back and the weight of Faulkner's body as he lifted his head to find her mouth. He kissed her with open passion, his tongue pushing deep inside her mouth while his hair-roughened chest rubbed over her bare breasts and made the ache intolerable.

Her hands found his hips and pulled him to her, trembling as she pleaded for something she'd never experienced. As far gone as she, he indulged her for one brief ecstatic second, levering down between her soft thighs to press himself hard against the very core of her hunger. She cried out and shifted to accommodate him, and the stars seemed to crash down on her.

But he groaned and threw himself over onto his back, shuddering, openly vulnerable to her hungry, fascinated eyes.

She looked at him as if he belonged to her already, sketching him with eyes that adored the power and sensuality of his aroused body. He seemed to be in agony and she wished she were more sophisticated, that she knew what to do for him.

She sat up, hugging her knees to her bare breasts. Probably she should fasten her blouse, she thought dazedly, but everything seemed a bit unreal now.

He sat up beside her and glanced sideways, noticing the open blouse. "Put your knees down," he said quietly. "I want to look at you."

She obeyed him, watching his eyes stroke her with pure pleasure, feeling sensations that made her tingle.

"You make my head spin," he said, leaning close to put his lips softly over her breast. "Do you like this?" he whispered, teasing the nipple with his tongue. "Or is it better for you...like this?" His mouth opened and suckled her with tender ferocity.

"Faulkner." She lay back on the sand, her arms spread, her eyes welcoming, her body completely open to him. She wanted him so badly that nothing else mattered for the moment.

He studied her with banked-down hunger for a long time while he fought his better judgment and lost. "It would be the first time, wouldn't it, Shelly?"

"Yes."

"If you've said no to men before—and I must assume that you have—why are you saying yes to me?"

She didn't want to think about that. She felt uncertain, when she'd been out of her mind with need of him only seconds before. Embarrassed now, she sat up and tugged the edges of her blouse together, buttoning them up in an excruciating silence.

She had to say something. Words were difficult in the cold sanity of the aftermath. "Listen, I want you to know...I don't go around doing things like this..." She faltered. "I'm sorry. I feel...rather ashamed."

He turned her face toward his and searched her eyes with a somber, intense scrutiny. "You did nothing to make either of us ashamed or embarrassed. We both know I'm too old for you. That doesn't make me regret what happened just now." He traced her lips slowly with his hand, and there was a faint unsteadiness in his fingers. "I'll dream of you as you were tonight for the rest of my life," he said through his teeth. "God, Shelly, why do you have to be so young...?" He caught her to him and his mouth burned into hers for endless moments while he fed an impossible hunger. He forced himself to lift his head. She lay against him, her lips swollen, her eyes wide and soft and willing. He groaned audibly. "You'd let me, wouldn't you?" he asked in a hoarse, agonized tone. "You'd lie here in the moonlight and let me undress you. You'd open your arms and lie under my body and envelop me in your softness..."

She blushed at the images he was creating in her mind, shivering as she pictured his muscular, hairroughened body pushing hers into the sand while he possessed her. She moaned.

"Shelly!" His cheek lay against her soft breasts and he shivered in her arms. "Shelly, I want you so badly, honey!"

"I would let you," she whispered brokenly. "I would, I would...!"

His arm contracted and he rocked her against him with rough compassion, his face lifting to nestle against her throat, in the scented softness of her hair, while the wind blew around them and the surf crashed.

"I'm years too old for you," he said quietly, looking past her at the ocean. "And while my son wants a mother, I do not want another wife."

"Then why are you marrying her?" she asked.

"I'm not. And she knows it. She likes to pretend that things will change, and so does her father, who owes me money and thinks that my marriage to his daughter would negate his debt."

"I see."

His cheek nuzzled her hair. "I'm in my middle thirties and you're a college freshman. We're a generation apart. I come from a social set that you couldn't begin to cope with," he added when she was tempted to speak and deny what he was saying. "I come from money. Plenty of it." He laughed bitterly. "You'd have to organize and plan luncheons, dinner, business gatherings. You'd have to know how to dress, how to defend yourself at social functions, because I have enemies and former lovers who would savage you." His chest rose and fell heavily. "Marriage is out of the question, and I can't offer you an affair because my conscience would beat me to death."

"I see."

"Will you stop saying that?" He lifted his head and searched her eyes, looking for secrets that they wouldn't yield. She looked odd. Faintly amused and bitter, all at once.

"You want to make love to me, but that's all it is." She summed up what he'd told her.

"Basically that's about it." He couldn't tell her what he was beginning to feel for her. The cost was too dear. She'd forget him and he'd forget her, because they had no future together. Let her think it was only physical with him. It might make it easier for her to get over him.

She smiled with controlled dignity. "In that case, we'd better break this up and go back to the motel, hadn't we?" She got up, brushing off her jeans. She retrieved her sweater, shook the sand out of it and slipped it on. She was suddenly chilled.

He got up, too. "I'll walk you back to your room," he said formally.

"Thank you."

They didn't touch. She felt betrayed. He thought she was several years younger than she really was, and that she was beneath him socially. She could have told him the truth, but if he couldn't accept her as he thought she was, then he obviously didn't care about anything except her body. In fact, he'd said so. Thank God he was too much a gentleman to take advantage. She'd been crazy for him. It was embarrassing to remember how wanton she'd been. The memory was going to hurt for a long time.

She couldn't love him, of course. It was impossible to think that when she'd only been around him briefly. It was physical infatuation, surely, and she'd get over it.

They were at her door all too soon. "Thanks for the music," she said, without quite meeting his eyes. She even smiled. "Tell Ben good-night for me. Nan and I have plans, so I don't imagine I'll see much of him until we leave for home."

He frowned. Until now, he hadn't remembered how close Ben was getting to her. "You don't have to jettison Ben because of what happened tonight," he said curtly.

"I'm not."

He tipped her face up to his, scowling at the way she avoided his eyes. "Look at me, damn you!" he said sharply.

The anger shocked her into meeting his eyes, and she wished she hadn't. They were blazing.

"I didn't want to hurt you," he said shortly. "I never meant to do more than kiss you. You deliberately baited me until I made love to you, so don't put all the blame on me!"

She went scarlet. She was too sick with embarrassment and too flustered to even answer him. Jerking away from him, she fumbled the door open and went through it, locking it nervously behind her.

Faulkner stood staring at the closed door with shocked self-contempt. He couldn't believe he'd made a remark like that to her, when she'd been so generous and uninhibited with him. He hadn't meant to make her ashamed of such a sweet giving, but the look on her face had hurt him. He cared deeply for her, even if he didn't want to. He had no right to wound her, to scar her young emotions by taunting her with her responsiveness.

"Shelly," he said quietly, one big hand against the door. "I'm sorry."

He didn't know if she'd heard him, but he hoped she had. He turned and walked away, aching with regrets.

Shelly went to bed, pleading a headache from the music. She figured that Nan wasn't fooled, but she couldn't face questions now. She'd moved away from the door so quickly that she hadn't heard Faulkner's apology. She climbed under the covers, and her pillow was wet when she finally slept.

She meant to avoid Ben, so that she could avoid his father, but the boy was waiting for her in the restaurant the next morning. He stood up, beaming, when she and Nan came in.

"I've already ordered coffee for both of you," he said with a flourish. "Do sit down."

Shelly and Nan chuckled involuntarily as they took their seats.

"What am I going to do with you?" Shelly asked softly.

"Adopt me," he said. "She saved my life," he told Nan. "Now she has to take care of me for as long as I live." He frowned. "She's sort of reluctant, but I'm working on her. I really do need a mother, you know. And don't say I'll have one when Dad marries Marie," he added gruffly when Shelly started to speak.

"Where's your dad?" Nan asked, because she knew Shelly wouldn't. Something had happened the night before, and it must have been something major for Shelly to be so tight-lipped about it.

"Dad's gone to a meeting," Ben said. "He sure was upset. He didn't even want breakfast. I guess he's missing her," he added miserably. "He said something about us going home earlier than expected."

Shelly felt her pulse leap. So he was that anxious to be rid of her. Did he think she'd make trouble? Embarrass him with confessions of undying love? He needn't have worried. She wasn't that sort.

"I'll miss you, Ben," she replied, smiling. "But life goes on."

"You look sick," Ben remarked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just fine. No more hangovers," she promised.

But she wasn't fine. She went through the motions of having a good time, joining in a volleyball game on the beach and sunbathing and swimming. But her heart wasn't in it. Nan had paired off with a nice student from New York she'd met on the sailing trip, and Shelly wished she had someone, if only to keep Pete at bay.

"We could go back to my room and have a drink or two," he suggested. "Come on, Shelly, loosen up!"

She looked straight at him. Courtesy wasn't working. Perhaps stark honesty would. "I don't want to have sex with you."

He actually flushed. "Shelly!"

"That's what you're after," she said flatly. "Well, it isn't what I'm after. I came down here to have a good time. I'm managing it, barely, in spite of you!"

He got up, looking embarrassed, and shrugged. "Okay. You don't have to get upset. No hard feelings." He walked off, and very soon he was talking up another girl. Thank goodness, she thought. One complication resolved.

She felt tired and drowsy, and she began to doze. A sudden sharp movement brought her awake.

"This is stupid," Faulkner said roughly. "You're baking yourself. Haven't you put on any sunscreen at all?"

"Of course I have."

"Not on your back."

"Well, I can't reach it, can I?" she asked angrily. She sat up. "And don't offer to do it for me, because I don't want you touching me. Go away."

He searched her eyes slowly. "I apologized, but you didn't hear me, did you?"

Her eyes dropped. She didn't like looking at him in swimming trunks. He was disturbing enough fully clothed.

"I have to go back to the room," she said stiffly. "Nan and I are going shopping with some other-Faulkner!"

He had her up in his big arms and he was carrying her lazily down the beach to the water.

"Listen, you...!"

He put his mouth softly over hers, closing the words inside it, while he waded far out into the ocean until they were up to their shoulders in it. Only then did he release her, just enough so that he could bring her body completely against his and deepen the long, slow kiss that locked them into intimacy.

"Oh, don't," she pleaded, but her arms were already holding him, her mouth searching for his.

He gave it to her. His big hands slid down to her hips and his fingers teased under the brief yellow bikini bottom as he pulled her to the hard outline of his body and moved her against him.

He nibbled her lower lip while he positioned her in an intimacy that made her gasp and shiver.

"I can't get you out of my mind," he whispered into her mouth, groaning. "You torment me."

"Faulkner...!"

"I want you so, Shelly!" He kissed her hungrily. His hands released her hips and slid up to untie her top. It fell to her waist and his hands caressed her while his mouth teased and tormented hers. She felt his fingers teasing her nipples into even harder arousal, and she moaned sharply.

"Come here."

He caught her against him, rubbing his chest against her breasts in a soft, sweet abrasion that made her cry out. His arms enfolded her and he buried his face in her wet neck, holding her, rocking her in an intimacy she'd shared with no one else.

"You feel of silk and it excites me when I touch you and you make those sharp little noises deep in your throat. Shelly, you want my mouth on your breasts, don't you?" he whispered, letting his cheek slide down hers until he could reach her mouth.

The thought of it made her body ache. "Yes," she moaned. "But we can't!"

"I know. I'd have to lift you out of the water to get to you, and we'd be seen. Shelly...!"

His mouth fastened onto hers and his hands slid down her back, under the bikini briefs. He touched her with slow, deft intimacy. He held her like that, feeling her shiver and moan against his mouth as the intimacy took away all her inhibitions.

But he was too hungry for her. He had to pull back while he still could. An unwanted pregnancy was a terrible cost for a few minutes of pleasure.

For her, he thought as he restored her bathing suit to belated decency, it probably wouldn't be very pleasant at all, after the foreplay. Because she was virginal. Virginal. His head spun wildly at the thought of initiating her into sex, teaching her how to feel and give the ultimate sensual pleasure. But she was young. Too young, and too far away socially and economically.

"Why did you do that?" she asked miserably when he was holding her, soothing her in the heated aftermath.

"For the same reason you didn't stop me," he replied quietly. "Because I needed to touch you. Just as you needed to be touched by me."

"I'm too young and I don't know anything and there's Marie...!"

He bent and brushed his mouth softly, softly, over hers. "Open your mouth," he whispered tenderly. "You know already that I like to touch the inside of it with my tongue while we kiss."

She moaned. He could have thrown her down on the beach and made love to her in full view of the population and she didn't think she'd have a protest in her.

He drew back with evident difficulty. His face was drawn and wan as he looked down at her. "There are just too many obstacles," he said, thinking aloud.

She knew it. Standing in his arms, with her whole body screaming to belong to him, she realized that after the pleasure would come regret, shame, hurt. "Far too many," she agreed sadly.

He sighed heavily. "You deserve more than a man's lust."

She swallowed. "Are you...sure...that's all it is, Faulkner?" she asked miserably.

His face closed up. He let go of her. "Yes," he said flatly, ignoring the denial building deep inside him. "An uncontrollable, feverish lust that makes me ashamed. I'm sorry. I genuinely meant to apologize, not to compound the problem."

"I know."

"I go mad the instant I touch you." He laughed coldly. "It's a quirk of nature. Fate mocking both of us." He grimaced. "This can't happen again."

"I know. It won't. I was trying to avoid you," she confessed.

"So was I," he agreed ruefully. "And you can see where it got us both."

She flushed, averting her eyes as she remembered with unwanted vividness exactly how intimate they'd become in the water.

"I'll try to think of it as a reality-based exercise in sex education," she said bitterly.

He turned her face up with a long sigh. "Oh, no," he said. "It wasn't that." His eyes dropped to her soft lips. "It's been years since I've enjoyed a woman's body, since I've indulged the need to touch and stroke and arouse. You make me want to find out how gentle I could be, Shelly." He stopped, looking puzzled and irritated and even a little vulnerable.

Shelly searched his face with sad, quiet eyes. "Do I?"

He touched her face with something like wonder. "In the very beginning, I loved Ben's mother. I felt such tenderness for her, such aching need. But she wanted what I could give her in a material sense. For her it was a business deal, and Ben was my price." He winced. "She never loved me. She died in the arms of another man, and I hated her and loved her and mourned her for years afterward. Since then, women have been nothing more than an amusement. I've used them," he confessed, lifting his eyes to hers. He searched her face slowly. "But, I couldn't use you. And that being the case, I think it's better for both of us if we forget everything that's happened."

Chapter Five

Shelly lowered her eyes to his chest and tried not to appear as devastated as she felt. She was already looking ahead to a time when she wouldn't see him again. He wanted her, but wanting was not going to be enough. She knew that and so did he. His mind was clouded by the desire he felt. Once he satisfied it, the clouds would vanish and he'd hate them both. Even if she were tempted, and she was, it wouldn't be wise to let things go any further.

"You mean we shouldn't see each other again," she said miserably.

"That's about it." He moved away from her, pushing the wet hair from his damp face. "We won't be here much longer," he added. "We'll muddle through." He searched her face quietly. "Somehow. "

She forced a smile. "What about Ben?" she asked.

"He's crazy about you. Don't deny him your company."

"I hadn't planned to. "

He touched her soft cheek gently. "Shelly," he said huskily, "you know it wouldn't work. Even if I took a chance on your age, our social backgrounds are too far apart."

"And that would never do," she agreed, averting her eyes.

"I'm a banker I have a position that requires discretion." He shrugged. "I've never cared much for convention, but when the jobs of other people depend on it, I can give the image I need to give. Besides," he added bitterly, "it isn't as if marriage would ever enter into any relationship I had. Do you understand'?"

She lifted her eyes to his hard face, seeing the resignation and stubborn determination there. "You don't trust women. Is that why you let Marie get such a hold on you? She was safe?"

"I know all about Marie," he said, without taking offense. "She's devious and snappy, and selfish to a fault. She has grown up around wealth. She enjoys throwing her weight around. "

"So I noticed," Shelly said.

"Ben thinks you're very special," he said, his voice deep and soft. "So do I, Shelly. I'm sorry I wish I really wish things had been different. We seem to have a lot in common. We might discover even more. "

"So we might .But taking risks isn't your specialty, is it?"

He shook his head. "I only bet on a sure thing. This isn't." He touched her mouth and slowly drew back. "I'm sorry. "

"So am I. But," she added, drawing in a steady breath as she struggled for something light, "whatever happens, we'll always have Paris. "

It took a minute for that to sink in. By the time he started to laugh, she was already halfway to the beach #

Faulkner, true to his word, didn't come near her again. Ben did. He haunted her.

"Can't you find something else to do?" she wailed.

He grinned and shook his head, because he knew she liked him. Her face was an open book. "You can't banish your only child."

"But you're not!" she cried.

"How do you know?" He looked very serious. "I mean, you could have had me and forgotten about it. You might have advanced amnesia."

"I couldn't have become a mother when I was twelve," she muttered. "And besides that, I'd remember having had a child. It isn't something anybody forgets."

Ben didn't say a word, but he could add. His father thought Shelly was in her teens, but she'd just subtracted his age from hers and come up with twelve. That made her twenty-four. He pursed his lips.

"How old are you?" he persisted.

"How old do you think I am?" she asked foxily.

"Twenty-four."

She glared at him. "How in the world..."

He told her how in the world, and she let out a long, slow breath.

"I won't tell Dad. But why don't you want him to know?" he asked.

She couldn't explain that without giving herself away. "I have my reasons," she said. "So it's our secret. Okay?"

"Okay. After all, a boy can't afford to argue with his own little mother."

She opened her mouth to protest, groaned and closed it again. Arguing did no good.

The night before they were to leave for home, Ben maneuvered Nan and Shelly into a leisurely supper with him and his father. It was a less than sparkling evening, with Shelly and Faulkner trying to ignore each other and act normally. They failed miserably. Finally Nan and Ben went in search of souvenirs at the shop next door to the motel office, leaving them alone.

"This wasn't my idea," he said gruffly. "I know." She stared into her coffee cup with eyes that barely saw it. She was leaving and so was he. They'd never see each other again.

"Damn it, you know it's for the best," he said through his teeth. "Will you look at me?"

She lifted her eyes and winced at the temper in his. "Yes, I know it's for the best!" she muttered.

His lips parted on a rough breath. His silver eyes searched hers until she flushed. "I want you," he said unsteadily.

She glared at him. "That's it, reduce it to the most common terms you can!"

"What else is there besides lust?" he demanded. "That's all we really have in common. And we wouldn't have that if you hadn't spent your entire holiday here coming on to me!"

"That's right, blame it on me," she raged. "Tell the world I tried to seduce you!"

"Tell me you didn't," he shot right back. His hand curled around his wineglass and tightened until the stem threatened to snap. "Every time I turned around you were making eyes at me."

"I told you why..."

"You lied," he said flatly, his smile world-weary and full of cynicism. "Don't you think I know when a woman finds me attractive? I'm rich. I've spent my adult life fending off willing women."

"Including Marie?" she asked sweetly, with blazing pale eyes.

"I don't need to fend off Marie," he returned. "She has status of her own."

"You mean, her parents do," she shot back.

"It's the same thing."

"No, it isn't," she replied seriously. "Life is about making choices on your own, taking your own chances, making your own way. A life-style should be earned, not inherited."

"Ahhh," he murmured sarcastically. "A budding socialist."

"Hardly." She glared at him. "Haven't you been listening? I think people should earn what they get."

"Marie earns it," he said, his tone faintly suggestive.

She remembered how it felt to be in his arms, and she flushed, averting her eyes.

"I keep forgetting how young you are when you bait me," he said angrily. He drained his wineglass.

"I'm not so young that I don't know what you were insinuating about your relationship with Mane,"

she said shortly. "If she's what you really want, why were you kissing me on the beach?"

He searched her eyes. The memories were darkening his. "Maybe I wanted to see how far you'd go."

She felt her cheeks becoming even ruddier. "As you said, I'm young," she muttered. "A pushover for any experienced man," she added pointedly.

He wanted to believe that, but he couldn't. He toyed with the empty wineglass, watching the light from the chandelier reflected in the faceted crystal. "No," he replied. "It was much more than that, for both of us." He lifted his eyes back to hers and felt the heat shoot through him like fire as he saw his own hunger reflected in her soft, sad eyes.

His breathing roughened; quickened. "I want to make love to you, one last time."

Her lips parted. "Faulkner..."

He signaled the waiter and paid the bill. Scant minutes later, he'd asked Nan to take a delighted Ben back to the girls' motel room, and he and Shelly were walking down the dark, deserted beach.

Shelly was much too aware of the brevity of the strappy little green sundress she was wearing with high-heeled sandals. She felt vulnerable as she thought about his strong, callused hands on her bare skin. But she had no pride left and she couldn't pretend that she didn't want this. It would be their last time together.

He turned to her when they were along a sheltered bit of beach, elegant in his white dinner jacket and dark slacks. He seemed bigger somehow, towering over her, unsmiling.

"You came with me," he reminded her. "I didn't drag you here by the hand."

"I know." Her voice was almost drowned out by the crashing of the surf. She searched his dark eyes in the faint light. "I'm not taking anything," she said abruptly.

He drew in a long breath. "Shelly, we can't make love to each other here. And I can't take you to my room because Ben might decide to come back on his own, without Nan." He caught her shoulders in his lean, warm hands and drew her to him. "You're a virgin," he whispered softly, drowning her in his strength and the drugging, delicious scent of masculine cologne as he moved closer. "I'm not quite that much of a rogue..."

His mouth opened as it touched hers, teasing her lips apart. He felt them tremble softly as he began to increase the pressure of his mouth. She moaned, pressing against him, and he felt his body react sharply to her proximity.

She tensed and started to draw back, but his hand swept down to the base of her spine, gently preventing the withdrawal.

"You're safe," he whispered into her mouth. "This feels good. Don't ask me to stop."

It felt good to her, too, but it was embarrassing. She tried to tell him, but his mouth became slowly invasive, and she clung to him as the intimacy of the kiss grew suddenly and exploded into something approximating possession.

He felt her nails through the thick fabric of his jacket. He wanted to feel them on his skin.

With a rough sound, his hand moved between them, his knuckles brushing over the tops of her breasts as he worked at fastenings. Seconds later, he coaxed her hands into the thick mat of hair that covered him and let her caress him.

"Oh, God, it isn't enough," he whispered shakily, his mouth harder now, hungrier. "Shelly!"

His mouth covered hers again. He moved the thin straps of her dress away from her shoulders and abruptly stripped her to the waist with deft, economic movements of his hands. Before she could utter a protest, he had her against him, inside the folds of his shirt and jacket, her breasts rubbing with exciting abrasion against his bare skin.

His thumbs caressed her breasts while he kissed her, his teeth nibbling, his tongue probing deeply. She was trembling and so was he, and the surf was hardly louder than their erratic heartbeats.

"Please!" she sobbed against his mouth.

He barely heard her. His body throbbed where hers touched it. His hands were possessing her, exploring her exquisite softness in a silence that was total and overwhelming. None of the differences between them mattered when they were this close. He'd never felt this way. Not even with his late wife when he was in the throes of first love.

He lifted his head a few inches and looked into her rapt, vulnerable face.

"If you were on the pill," he said roughly. "Would you let me?"

"I don't know." She rested her forehead on his chest, shivering with reaction. "It's a big step. I've always believed that it belongs in marriage, between two people who are committed to each other for life." She lifted her eyes to his. "Is that unrealistic, in a world where love is nothing more than a euphemism for sex?"

"What a profound question." He smiled, but a little bleakly. "I'm not the one to ask. Anyway," he added with a forced note of humor, "where would we make love? This is hardly a deserted place, and Nan and my son are in your room. If we went to mine..." He sighed heavily. "I couldn't. I want to, and if you were even faintly experienced, I would. But this isn't for you, Shelly. As I've already told you, I have nothing else to offer."

She pressed her cheek against the warm, heavily throbbing flesh of his chest. The thick hairs tickled her nose as they stood together in the semidarkness, unspeaking.

"If I were older," she began. "Richer..."

"You'd still be a virgin," he replied simply. "And I've had all I want of marriage." He tilted her chin up to his eyes. "I'll regret this night until I die."

"That you kissed me'?"

He shook his head. "Oh, no. That I couldn't strip you down to your silky skin and ease you under me, here in the sand," he whispered, tracing her soft, swollen lips. "As intensely as we want each other, I don't think I'd ever hurt you."

She nibbled on his thin upper lip, her fingers stabbing into the hair that covered him. "It would take a long time, wouldn't it?" she whispered. "For me, I mean."

"Yes." He kissed her back, lazily, tenderly. His hands found her soft breasts and caressed them in a warm silence.

"They feel good."

"What?"

"Your hands on my skin," she said at his lips. "Do it...harder."

"I can't."

"Why?"

He teased around her mouth with the tip of his tongue. "You know why. Your breasts are very delicate, and I'm no sadist. I don't want to hurt you."

She smiled. "It wouldn't hurt. 1 meant like this."

She guided his thumb and forefinger to the hard, dusky tip and showed him what she wanted. She gasped as it sent a wave of heat through her body.

"Shelly," he whispered roughly, "does it make you hot all over when I do that?" he asked at her lips. He asked something else, something very intimate and explicit. "Does it?" he persisted huskily.

"Yes," she confessed shyly.

It wasn't wise. He knew it, even as he bent his head and took the nipple between his teeth. But the sensations she was describing very closely resembled those of fulfillment. It excited him to think he could give her complete ecstasy with such a small demonstration of love play. He had to know...

When he felt her convulse and cry out in his arms, he groaned and kissed her with slow anguish. He'd never been able to do that to another woman. Was it because she was a virgin that she reacted so violently to his ardor? Or was it something more?

He lifted his head and she hung in his arms, her body trembling, her face flushed with embarrassed shame.

He held her up, slowly replacing her bodice and refastening the soft straps. His hands were a little unsteady. He was still blatantly aroused.

"You shouldn't have...!" she managed to say, flustered.

"I think I should." He tilted her eyes up to his quiet, wise ones. "You do understand what happened?"

She flushed and averted her eyes. "Well, yes..."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. You're one in a million," he said, his voice deep and slow and tender. "Most men would kill for a woman as passionate as you."

"It's embarrassing!" she groaned.

"That you should reach fulfillment because I suckled your breast?" he asked, his voice explicit but somehow comforting. "Shelly, I feel ten feet tall. I've never felt so much a man."

She looked up, slowly. "You don't think I'm odd?"

"I think you're dynamite." He smoothed back her disheveled hair with hands that weren't quite steady even now, although he was less tormented. "I'm flattered that you want me that much."

She lowered her eyes to his chest. "But this is all there is."

"That's right." He held her close for a long time, savoring the scent and feel of her in his arms. "Shelly?"

"Yes?"

He kissed her hair. "We'll always have Paris."

Despite her sorrow, she smiled.

They went home the next day. Shelly hadn't seen Faulkner again, and she hadn't tried to. She'd said her goodbyes to Ben when they'd returned to her motel room, a little tearfully. Ben had wanted to keep in touch, but Shelly didn't dare do that. She couldn't risk having them find out the truth about her background, about her parents. Washington was a big city, and despite her father's wealth and influence, he was one of many wealthy investment bankers in the city. She didn't remember her father ever mentioning Faulkner Scott, so it was unlikely that they knew each other. For the sake of her sanity, she had to keep it that way. After all, Faulkner had admitted that the main problem was his inability to make a commitment. He wanted an affair and she wanted forever. It wasn't easy to compromise on two such wide viewpoints.

She was going to miss him. And Ben. She'd lived her whole life without knowing either one of the Scotts, but she knew she'd live the rest of it without forgetting them.

Nan had noticed her friend's pallor and unusual quietness, but she hadn't remarked on it.

They boarded the plane and with adjoining seats, had time to talk, away from the rest of the students they traveled with.

"I'm sorry it didn't work out for you," Nan told her. "Really sorry. He was a dish, and the boy was special."

"Thanks. I'm sorry, too." She leaned back, closing her eyes. "Nan, if only I were liberated."

"You are."

"You know what I mean."

"Liberated as in sharing one night of explosive passion and spending the rest of your life living on it?"

Shelly glared at her. "Stop confusing me."

"You don't live the rest of your life on one night, no matter how explosive it is," Nan said firmly. "And in that one night, you could catch a disease that would kill you or make you untouchable. You could sacrifice all your principles and have nothing left except the certainty that the man you worshiped felt justified to treat you like a fast-food plate."

"A fast-food plate?"

"Something you use to feed yourself from and then throw away."

"Nan!"

"Well, it's true," the black girl said firmly. "You won't catch me risking my life or my health for the sake of a romantic one-night stand. Not me. I'm saving it all up for one lucky man who's going to thank God daily, on his knees, that I waited just for him." She leaned close. "That's romantic."

Shelly grimaced. "You have this nasty way of making me feel like pond scum."

Nan frowned. "Speaking of pond scum, where's Pete?"

"He got on the plane just behind you," Shelly said, chuckling. "Shame on you for calling him that."

"But he is pond scum," the other woman said seriously. "He seduced one of the freshman girls and then wouldn't have a thing to do with her the next day."

"You're right. He is pond scum!" Shelly exclaimed.

"So are a lot of other men, whispering sweet nothings so that they can have their way."

"Not all of them," Shelly said miserably. "There are men who feel protective toward women with no sense of self-preservation."

"So that's why he looked like that last night," Nan mused dryly.

"How did he look?"

"Frustrated. Confused. Puzzled. Delighted," she added softly. "The way he looked at you when you didn't see him!" She sighed. "Oh, Shelly. If you'd had another week together, there would have been wedding bells."

"I'm afraid not. He doesn't want to get married." "What man does?"

Shelly closed her eyes. "Well, it doesn't matter, does it? Spring break is over and I'll never see him again."

"He knows that you go to Thorn College," Nan remarked. "And he lives in D.C., too."

"It won't matter." Shelly said it with conviction, but deep inside, she hoped she was wrong... The semester was finally over, and Shelly went home to sweat out her grades until the registrar notified her on what they were. She felt pretty confident about her subjects, but she always worried.

"Darling, must you wear that dress?" her mother muttered.

"It's perfectly respectable..."

"It's so old-fashioned, Shelly," Mrs. Astor replied, glaring at the deep blue velvet gown that covered Shelly from neck to toes, except where it dipped seductively in the back.

Tonia Astor wore a black silk dress that flattered her still-youthful body, helping the contrast between her naturally black hair and its streak of pure silver. She looked elegant and chic, which she was. Shelly despaired of ever having her mother's unshakable poise at society gatherings.

The Astors were giving a gala party tonight in honor of a new president at one of the banks where Bart Astor was a member of the board of directors. Shelly had been persuaded into helping her mother hostess. She had no excuse, because she wasn't going to attend summer semester at the school.

"You've just been on holiday," her mother reminded her. "This is just a small get-together, darling. You'll enjoy yourself. It's time you stopped this silly college idea and got married. Charles is a delightful man, very settled and influential."

"Charles is a bore. He likes to quote stock averages to me."

"He's settled," her mother repeated.

"He should be, he lives with his mother."

"Shelly, really! Oh, there's Ted."

Her mother moved away, dragging Shelly with her across the crowded room where a full orchestra was playing. With her upswept salon coiffure and discreet but expensive sapphire choker and matching bracelet, Shelly's subdued elegance matched the tone of the party.

"Ted Dumaris," Tonia exclaimed, taking both his hands in hers. "So nice to see you again!" she added, totally unaware of Shelly's shocked expression and sudden panic as a tall, dark-haired man with a familiar thin brunette in tow made their way through the crowd to Antonia Astor and Shelly. "And is this the daughter you were telling me about?" she exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Yes, this is my Marie and her...our...friend, Faulkner Scott. This is Antonia Astor."

Faulkner's expression was faintly curious. He hadn't seen Shelly, standing just to the side and behind her mother. He was obviously connecting the name.

"How lovely of you to have invited us," Marie Shelly closed her eyes. "Well, it doesn't matter, does it? Spring break is over and I'll never see him again."

"He knows that you go to Thorn College," Nan remarked. "And he lives in D.C., too."

"It won't matter." Shelly said it with conviction, but deep inside, she hoped she was wrong...

The semester was finally over, and Shelly went home to sweat out her grades until the registrar notified her on what they were. She felt pretty confident about her subjects, but she always worried.

"Darling, must you wear that dress?" her mother muttered.

"It's perfectly respectable..."

"It's so old-fashioned, Shelly," Mrs. Astor replied, glaring at the deep blue velvet gown that covered Shelly from neck to toes, except where it dipped seductively in the back.

Tonia Astor wore a black silk dress that flattered her still-youthful body, helping the contrast between her naturally black hair and its streak of pure silver. She looked elegant and chic, which she was. Shelly despaired of ever having her mother's unshakable poise at society gatherings.

The Astors were giving a gala party tonight in honor of a new president at one of the banks where Bart Astor was a member of the board of directors. Shelly had been persuaded into helping her mother hostess. She had no excuse, because she wasn't going to attend summer semester at the school.

"You've just been on holiday," her mother reminded her. "This is just a small get-together, darling. You'll enjoy yourself. It's time you stopped this silly college idea and got married. Charles is a delightful man, very settled and influential."

"Charles is a bore. He likes to quote stock averages to me."

"He's settled," her mother repeated.

"He should be, he lives with his mother."

"Shelly, really! Oh, there's Ted."

Her mother moved away, dragging Shelly with her across the crowded room where a full orchestra was playing. With her upswept salon coiffure and discreet but expensive sapphire choker and matching bracelet, Shelly's subdued elegance matched the tone of the party.

"Ted Dumaris," Tonia exclaimed, taking both his hands in hers. "So nice to see you again!" she added, totally unaware of Shelly's shocked expression and sudden panic as a tall, dark-haired man with a familiar thin brunette in tow made their way through the crowd to Antonia Astor and Shelly. "And is this the daughter you were telling me about?" she exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Yes, this is my Marie and her...our...friend, Faulkner Scott. This is Antonia Astor."

Faulkner's expression was faintly curious. He hadn't seen Shelly, standing just to the side and behind her mother. He was obviously connecting the name.

"How lovely of you to have invited us," Marie was gushing to Antonia. "I adore your home. So impressive!"

Shelly wasn't impressed. Marie's fawning made her nauseous. And seeing Faulkner again wasn't helping.

"Where's Shelly? Oh, there you are, darling, do come and be introduced. She's a college freshman, you know, at twenty-four! We were absolutely horrified...!"

Her mother rambled on, but Shelly wasn't listening to the explanations or introductions. She was lost in Faulkner's glittering silver eyes. He stared at her with shock and dawning realization, barely aware of her mother or his surroundings.

"Twenty-four?" he asked gruffly.

"Yes, isn't she ancient to be starting college?" Tonia laughed. "But she has a high grade point average and we're very proud. What do you do, Ms. Dumaris?" she asked Marie.

"When she isn't looking down her nose at other people, I expect she goes to parties, don't you, Ms. Dumaris?" Shelly, diverted, fixed her cold blue gaze on the shaken older woman. "Ms. Dumaris mentioned just recently that she could use her influence to have me booted out of college."

"Shelly," Tonia began uncertainly, because she'd never seen her daughter lose her temper.

Mane swallowed, blushing and back-stepping. "I never meant it that way!" She laughed nervously, chattering. "I'm sure you must have misunderstood me!"

"I didn't misunderstand a single word, unfortunately for you."

She turned her back on Marie and her eyes found Charles. She motioned to him, ignoring Faulkner and Marie's almost pitiable attempts to smooth over her vicious attitude in Daytona Beach with Shelly's mother.

Shelly caught tall blond Charles by the hand and turned to face the others. Her face was pale but she was as composed as she'd ever been.

"I'd like you all to meet Charles Barington," she said with a forced, dazzling smile. "He's my fiancé!"

♥ Scanned by Coral ♥

Chapter Six

"I can't believe you're finally willing to marry me," Charles blurted out when they were out of earshot of the others. "Shelly, what a surprise!"

"I hope you aren't going to be upset, Charles, but I really didn't mean it," she said gently. "I'm sorry, but I was in a very tight spot. I'll explain later."

He looked torn between disappointment and relief. His eyes glanced toward a young woman named Betsy, for whom he was slowly developing deep feelings. "What will everyone say?" he asked.

"Nothing at all," she assured him. "And I'll simply say that I wasn't quite enough for you, if anyone asks why we got unengaged."

"That's very nice of you," he said, surprised.

"Not really, and I'm sorry I had to involve you. But we've been friends for a long time, and I hoped you wouldn't mind."

"Of course I don't."

"I'm glad." She smiled, watching him blush. He was a sweet man, in his way, but he had no imagination and no stomach for a fight. Shelly knew instinctively that she'd spend her life walking on him if they got married. And that wouldn't suit either of them, especially Charles. She noticed a familiar younger woman watching him with covetous eyes and an idea was born. "Do go and have something to drink, Charles, and we'll talk later. Oh, there's Betsy, remember her? She's looking very lonely. Wouldn't it be nice if you asked her to dance?"

"Yes, of course," he said eagerly.

"Why don't you, then? She's a dear girl."

Charles nodded. He'd never understand Shelly. But Betsy was sweet, and she seemed to like him very much. She only danced with him at parties. He smiled as he approached her and she blushed. He wondered if he hadn't been turning his interest in the wrong direction all along as he took a radiant Betsy into his arms on the dance floor.

Shelly, meanwhile, went to the drinks table and poured herself a large brandy. She made a face as she sipped it.

A big, lean hand shot past her, took the glass and put it down on the table. "You can't hold your liquor. Leave it alone."

She whirled, her eyes angry. "Don't tell me what to do. I don't like it."

His eyebrows arched. "My, how you've changed. A young, virginal, college freshman with no money— isn't that how the story went?"

"All lies," she skid, smiling up at him. "I had fun. Didn't you?"

"Not all lies," he replied, reading fear through the bravado. Her eyelids fell quickly. "I may not be able to tell a poor student from a socialite, but I damned sure know a virgin when I make love to one."

"We didn't," she said sharply.

"Make love? No, we didn't," he replied quietly. "You're twenty-four and wealthy. There are no barriers, isn't that what you expect me to say?"

She lifted her eyes. "I still believe in forever after, and you don't want to get married." He looked stunned. She laughed coldly. "I don't believe in fairy tales. You told me yourself that commitment was the real obstacle, not my background. Or, rather, what you thought was my background." She smiled cynically. "I'm much sought after, you know. Men love my father's money."

"So that's why."

"Why what?"

"Why you went back to school without letting anyone know who you were."

"It beats being on the appetizer list."

He searched her flushed face. "Your fiancé is dancing with another woman. Much too close," he added with a glance at Charles and Betsy. "Don't you mind?"

"I would if I planned to marry him. He thinks I do. So does my father, who arranged it. My father wants me to be Mrs. Charles Barington. With all due respect," she added softly, "I hardly think a banker would be high on his list of son-in-law prospects. Unless, of course, you owned all the assets in your bank."

He glared down at her. "You know nothing about me, financially or otherwise. And if I wanted to marry you, the only opinion I'd give a damn about would be yours."

"My father has taken down bigger men than you. I fought him to get to go to college." She glanced towards Charles with sad resignation. "I don't feel like fighting him anymore. You were right. There's no such thing as love and happily ever after. I've been dreaming."

He caught her arm. It hurt to find her like this, so cynical and self-effacing and sad. He'd been lonely, but she looked as if the weeks they'd been apart had hurt her even more.

"Shelly," he said softly.

She pushed his hand away and smiled that social smile that never reached her eyes. "So nice that you could come tonight, Mr. Scott," she said. "If you'll excuse me, I have to circulate."

She took Charles away from Betsy with a murmured apology. "Do you mind being engaged to me for the rest of the evening? I'll square it with Betsy." "No, of—of course not," he faltered. She laid her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes. "Then dance, Charles. Just dance."

The next day, she went to Nassau and checked into a hotel and casino complex overlooking Cable Beach, with its blistering white sand and incredibly clear turquoise waters. She'd told Betsy about the masquerade before she left and hoped that Charles would have enough sense to notice that the young woman was crazy about him.

Shelly herself had no interest in Charles or marriage. Seeing Faulkner again had destroyed her serenity. Now she had to find it again, and she didn't know how she was going to manage. What she'd felt for him hadn't vanished. It had grown stronger.

The yellow bikini was all too brief, but everyone else was wearing things just as skimpy. She closed her eyes with a sigh and let the sun warm her back.

The sudden sprinkle of icy water on her spine made her lift up. "Hey!" she said angrily.

A pair of gray eyes in a young face met hers— laughing eyes. "Hi, Mom!" Ben said chuckling. His hair, and the rest of him, were wet. He was wearing bathing trunks and carrying a towel. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Oh, God," she groaned, laying her head on her forearms.

"Not quite," came a deep, gravelly voice from overhead.

She didn't look up. She didn't have to. She knew who it was. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking a vacation. Marie and her father have flown to England on business and I had some time off due. Ben's just out of school. We like the Bahamas, don't we, son?"

"There are seven hundred islands down here in the Bahamas chain," she mentioned. "Couldn't you like another one?"

"This is great," he said. "There's even a casino. Do you gamble?"

"I don't gamble. I lose. That's all I do." She lifted her head and glared at him. "Lately it's getting to be an affliction!"

"Not nice," he chided, sliding closer to her. He looked as relaxed as his son. He was wearing dark bathing trunks with white stripes down the side, his magnificent chest bare and rippling with muscle and thick black hair. He watched her watching him and chuckled. "Throw me that towel, Ben," he said, and sat down beside her. "Nice hotel. I'm glad you picked one close to the water."

"All of them are close to the water."

"Not really. Ben and I once stayed in a hotel high on a hill overlooking the bay. Very nice. Swimming pool and five-star food. But no ocean."

"That's right. This is a nice hotel, Mom. Dad had to call half the hotels in Nassau to find you...."

"Don't you want to go and swim, Ben?" he was asked.

"Oh. Oh, sure!" He chuckled. "See you later, Mom!"

Shelly groaned, giving up all hope of denying that she was. Nobody listened anyway.

Faulkner lay back and stretched hugely, his powerful legs crossing. "Your mother said to tell you that Charles has asked Betsy for a date. Your father is livid."

"Poor old Daddy," she said unenthusiastically.

"He only wants you to be happy."

"If he did, he'd let me live my own life."

"Parents sometimes take a little convincing that children are capable of making their own decisions. I did," he reminded her. "You'll be glad to know that Ben and I are getting along very well these days. He's hardly the same boy he used to be."

"I hope he gets to stay that way," she said stiffly. "Your Marie strikes me as a woman who wants to reshape everyone around her in her own image."

"She didn't used to be quite so bad," he replied. "You set her on her heels. It did her good. She'll think twice before she acts in an offensive way to strangers again."

"When's the wedding?" she asked, trying to sound casual when her heart was breaking.

"I don't know." He rolled over onto his stomach and looked down at her. "When do you want it to be?"

She swallowed. "Don't make jokes."

"I'm not." He lifted his hand and just the tip of his forefinger began to work its way slowly down the strap of her bikini, teasing the soft bare skin of her shoulder down to the slope of her breast.

"Don't!" she whispered.

"Why not, little one?" He caught her eyes and held them, and still that maddening finger moved, traced, teased. The nipple beyond it grew visibly hard and she bit her lip to keep from crying out as he increased her sensual anguish.

"Faulkner, don't," she pleaded brokenly.

"I wouldn't if you didn't enjoy it so much." He smiled, spreading the radius of his touch until she flinched. "That's nice," he murmured huskily. "I like the way you look when I touch you."

"There are people everywhere, didn't you notice?" Her voice sounded high-pitched, squeaky.

"Yes, but they're sunbathing and swimming. No one's watching us. Not even Ben." He moved, shifting just slightly so that his body was between her and the other sunbathers. "Which means," he breathed, "that I can do this..."

His whole hand slid gently beneath the yellow triangle and over her soft breast. He watched her shiver, felt her nails biting into his arm. He smiled through his own excitement. She was very sensual, and he loved the way she felt under his hand.

"Faulkner, no!" she whispered.

His thumb and forefinger gently caressed the taut nipple and she pushed at him, frightened of the sensations slicing through her body.

She wasn't the only one who was becoming aroused. As he watched her reactions, he felt his own body growing tense.

With a groan, he moved away from her and lay on his belly, trying to breathe normally.

"Are you all right?" she asked when she could speak again.

"Isn't that my line?" He took a slow breath and glanced at her with a rueful, self-mocking smile. "Would you like to make a guess at why I'm lying on my stomach instead of my back right now?"

"Not really," she murmured, averting her eyes.

"Coward."

"You should be ashamed of yourself, trying to seduce innocent women on crowded beaches," she muttered.

"Not women. Woman. Only you."

"Still..."

"But the first time should be on a beach, don't you think?" he mused, lifting his head to watch her. "In the moonlight. Just the two of us, our bodies fitting together as perfectly as two puzzle pieces."

"You're driving me crazy!" she said through her teeth.

"I ache in very unpleasant ways," he remarked. "There's a Jacuzzi in my room. Ben has a room of his own. You could come upstairs with me while he's swimming and we could make love in the whirlpool bath."

"Faulkner!"

"It was just a desperate thought." He shifted his attention to the sand. "A white wedding is going to be horrific. I dread the thought of it. Between us, we know far too many people. That will mean just the right clothes, the right caterer, reception at the country club..."

"Then why don't you and Marie elope?" she asked, trying to hide her misery.

"I'm not marrying Marie and you know it. You knew the night we almost went too far on the beach," he said quietly. "I think I knew, too, but I couldn't quite accept it then. I've had time to get my priorities straight. You and Ben come first with me."

The earth was spinning around her. She was sure of it. She forced her gaze up to his and her eyes widened. "What are you saying?" she whispered.

"Don't you know?" He moved closer and kissed her. His lips were soft, and slow, and tender. "I love you," he whispered. "Say yes and put me out of my misery."

"But...but Marie, and Charles...!"

"Shut up!" he breathed into her mouth, and dragged her close while he deepened the kiss to madness.

Something wet was dripping on them. She opened her eyes and looked up a little blankly.

"Well?" Ben asked impatiently.

"She said yes," Faulkner managed huskily, pulling her back to him.

"Whoopee!" Ben yelled. He turned around and told everyone on the beach that he was going to have a brand-new mother. Everyone laughed and cheered him on. Everyone, that was, except the couple on the beach, who were oblivious to everything except each other.

The wedding was held a month later in the big Presbyterian Church near where Shelly and her parents lived. Her family had belonged to this church for three generations, so it was like home. The minister who'd baptized Shelly at the age of three months officiated at the ceremony, and Ben was his father's best man. Nan, of course, was maid of honor.

It had been the longest four weeks of Shelly's life, and she was certain that Faulkner felt the same way. They'd been incredibly circumspect during the strained engagement. It wasn't Shelly's idea. She'd tried repeatedly to tempt him into her bed, going so far as to remind him that even the Puritans didn't condemn premarital sex between engaged couples. But it didn't work. He was determined that they were going to have a white wedding and a wedding night.

The big day had arrived. Shelly was almost shaking with nerves, and her new husband didn't seem much calmer. They were off to Jamaica on their honeymoon, and Shelly thought to herself that it was going to feel like years before they finally had any time to themselves.

"Take deep breaths," he whispered when they were halfway through the reception. "We'll get through it."

"I hope so." She glanced at him. "You didn't kiss me at the altar."

He searched her soft eyes. He'd lifted her veil, but he hadn't kissed her. He'd kissed the palms of both her hands and given her a look that would have fried tomatoes.

"The way I want to kiss you would be almost indecent in a church," he said quietly. "That's why I'm saving it."

Her lips parted. She searched his hard, lean face hungrily. "I want you," she said unsteadily.

"I want you, too." He traced her mouth with a long finger. "It won't be much longer."

"I know."

Her parents came up to congratulate them again. Her father was more enthusiastic about the match than she'd imagined he would be. Even her mother raved about Faulkner and young Ben. There had been nothing but congratulations and praise from the morning they announced the engagement. It was a little surprising, but Shelly hadn't questioned it.

They were wished well by the others when they drove away in the nicely decorated car, courtesy of a beaming Ben, who was to stay with his new mother's parents for the duration of the honeymoon, and then Nan and some other college classmates. As they were driven to the airport by Faulkner's chauffeur, Shelly kept staring with wonder in her whole expression at the wide gold band Faulkner had slid onto her finger.

It was a long, tiring trip. By the time they got to their hotel in Montego Bay and got checked in, it was time to eat something. Shelly had little appetite, but she sat with her new husband in the dining room and nibbled on seafood while he ate a rare steak.

They walked along the beach on the way back, staring out over the ocean as the sun set. Then he turned her and led her back into their room.

There was a balcony overlooking the bay—a very private balcony, high up and concealed. Faulkner led her onto it, where a big chaise longue was already spread with a beach towel.

Gently he undressed her and laid her on it, standing over her to savor every soft line of her with eyes that shone like beacons with love.

"Do you want me to make you pregnant, or do you want to wait a few months?"

Her lips parted on a shocked breath. This was something they hadn't discussed. She was embarrassed by the heat that accompanied the softly spoken words, by the thought of allowing him to give her a child. She shivered, her eyes lost in his.

"You want it, don't you?" he asked huskily.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Yes...I do!"

"There's nothing to be sorry about," he said, his voice deep and slow. "I want it as much as you do."

"Will Ben mind?"

He smiled. "No. He won't mind."

His hand went to his shirt. He stripped very slowly, letting her watch him. His breathing changed when the last of the fabric came off and she could see the altered contours of his powerful body. Her eyes lingered there, fascinated.

"How does it feel to look at me like this?"

She caught her breath. "Intimate," she whispered, forcing her eyes up to his. "Very, very intimate. And very exciting. I feel hot all over."

"I can take care of that," he said, smiling gently.

He eased down onto the chaise with her, and began to kiss her. At first the kisses were lazy and soft and undemanding. But then he touched her, and with each soft exploration of his fingers, her body shivered even more, until she sought the full length of him with a need as violent as a summer storm.

He indulged her, his mouth as slowly invasive as the fingers that traced her and teased her and discovered her most intimate secrets. When she was ready, he slid her over onto her back and moved his body gently to fit hers.

He kissed her tenderly while he moved between her soft thighs and eased down. She jerked a little, but a few seconds later, she relaxed and shifted to make it easier for him.

"You flinched then," he whispered, lifting his dark head to look directly into her eyes. "Do you want me to arouse you a little more before I take you?"

She flushed at the explicit question. "But you already are...!"

"No." He kissed her eyelids closed and moved forward. As he did, she felt the sting and began to stiffen. "It's going to be difficult," he whispered at her lips. "You need more time. It's all right," he added when she looked set to protest, because he was shivering with a need of his own. "I can wait. Here, Shelly..."

True to his word, he started all over again, his mouth and his hands so tender, so thorough, that he very quickly brought her to a stormy peak of tension. Far from trying to push him away, she went crazy with the need for him. She sobbed against his mouth and pushed up with her hips, completing his possession even before he realized what she meant to do.

He shuddered and suddenly there was a rhythm, a fierce urgency that blotted out the sea and the sky and the night. She heard his voice against her mouth, but she was climbing, climbing, climbing...

There was a sharp explosion of heat that caught her unawares. She clung and stiffened, aware of desperate motion, a harsh cry and the convulsive shuddering of the body so intimately joined to her own. And then, slowly, the world came back into focus.

She lay beneath him, exhausted with pleasure, too shaken to move, fighting to get her breath.

"As first times go," she managed to say unsteadily, "and on a scale of ten, that was at least a twenty."

"Even as experience goes, that was a twenty," he breathed at her ear. "Are you all right? It isn't too bad?"

"It isn't bad at all." She moved against him, glorying in his nudity and her own, at the feel of him so close. "Are you going to roll over and go to sleep now?"

"Yes, and so are you." He chuckled.

He got up, lifting her, and carried her to bed. He slid her under the covers, pulled her gently into his arms and turned off the light. "Try to get some rest," he whispered. "You're going to need it in the morning."

She laughed delightedly, resting her cheek on his chest with exquisite delight.

"Shelly."

"Hmmmm?"

"You haven't said you love me."

"Yes, I have," she murmured drowsily. "I've said it a hundred times, but you haven't heard it. I love you madly. I always will."

He smiled and brushed his lips against her forehead.

"I'm glad. Because you're my life now."

She sighed, stretching as she snuggled closer. "Faulkner."

"Hmmmm?"

"We'll always have Paris."

He chuckled. Just before he closed his eyes, he felt a twinge of sorrow for that fictional character who'd walked away with only a gendarme for consolation. He had something much, much sweeter. He had Shelly...and Ben...and a future full of love.