Intend To Seduce(11)

Pausing, she leaned on the balcony railing to watch one of the air balloons make a soft landing on the valley floor. Then she smiled. Lucas would have a lot of trouble finding her even if he did discover that she wasn't in that dreadful spa. A bonus to switching identities with Mac was that she'd been able to make all her plane and hotel reservations in Mac's name.

Reaching for the coffee that room service had just delivered, she raised her cup in another toast. "To real freedom, at last."

*

The moment that Mac turned and strode back into the cabin, Lucas frowned and went back to polishing the brass trim that edged the deck of the Adventurer. Performing repetitious physical tasks always helped him to think and to put things in perspective. But he was no closer to sorting out what he was going to do about MacKenzie Lloyd's proposition than he'd been yesterday when he'd left her in his bedroom.

Could the doc possibly be as honest and disingenuous as she seemed? Gut instinct told him she was.

But experience told him that women usually had a hidden financial agenda.

That was the one lesson he'd learned from watching his father bounce through five marriages. He'd been ten when his mother had walked out for good. His father had reacted by marrying again on the rebound. It had been up to Lucas to help Sophie negotiate the emotional trauma. It wasn't until marriage three or four that he'd become aware of the financial toll that his father's behavior was taking on the company his grandfather had founded. By the time wife number five had departed, Wainright Enterprises had been deeply in debt. Not even Sophie knew how close they had come to losing everything.

When he'd taken over the company, he'd made a vow to himself never to make the same mistake his father had. He would never marry because he already had a family – Sophie and the stepbrothers his father had left behind.

MacKenzie Lloyd had seemed to understand and accept that. But maybe it had been the beer. Either way, she'd made him an offer he was finding it very difficult to refuse. The whole idea of researching men's fantasies and then offering to make them into a reality for some lucky guy was … almost irresistible.

When his cell phone rang, he put down his cloth and pulled it out of his pocket. "Yeah?"

"As far as I can tell, Sophie Wainright is somewhere in this damn spa," Tracker said.

"As far as you can tell?"

"I'm about fifty yards from the gates right now. The guard on duty says Sophie Wainright registered about three o'clock yesterday afternoon, but the people who run this place are a bunch of amazons who clearly have an aversion to men. If you have a Y chromosome, you can't set foot on their sacred ground. I'd feel more certain if I could get in there and see for myself."

"A little paranoid, are we?" Lucas asked.

"I'd prefer to think I'm being thorough," Tracker said. "I don't like that she pulled that switch on me, and I'd like to make sure she hasn't pulled another one."

"Your pride is wounded."

There was a slight pause at the other end. Tracker's drawl when it came was laced with humor. "Could be that. Could be the challenge too. I haven't figured a way in yet."

Lucas grinned. "I told you your policy on not hiring women would come back to bite you."

"No way, boss. I only hire people I can trust, and I don't trust the female of the species."

Lucas's grin faded. "Should I be worried about Sophie?"

"Not yet. If I thought she might he in danger, I'd go in there, grab her and get her out. And if you're worried about Falcone, he and his son have both flown to California. I've got a man on each of them. If there's any problem, I can be at the airport in an hour. Unless you want me out there right now."

Lucas considered it for a moment. "No. As long as you've got Falcone covered, you can indulge yourself with the challenge of getting into that all-female spa."

"Go ahead. Rub it in. What about the little doc? You find out what her problem is?"

"Yeah."

"You want me to do something about it?"

"No." The sharpness of his own tone surprised Lucas.

"You want me to butt out."

"Yes. No," Lucas said on a sigh. Tracker was a man he'd trust with his life and the only man he'd ever trusted with details of his business deals. "I think I'm going to have to tackle it myself."

"It's personal, I take it."

The delight in his friend's voice had him frowning. "It's complicated. And … it's confidential."

"Goes without saying."

Lucas kept his gaze on the cabin as he tried to think of the best way to summarize Mac's plan. Finally he began, "Long story short. She's done some research on how to keep a man pleased…" His frown deepened. "No, pleasured is a better word. In bed. So far all her data has come from books and interviews, and now she wants to put it … into practice."

"On you."

"Or on some other volunteer."

There was a beat of silence at the other end of the phone. Then Tracker said, "What's the problem?"

"Maybe it sounds too good to be true."

Tracker laughed. "You got a point there. Your little scenario has just moved to the number-one spot on my favorite-fantasy list. If you turn her down, please mention my name as a backup."

"No."

Tracker gave an exaggerated sigh. "Hands off. I get the picture."

"It's not that." But Lucas was all too afraid that it was just that. For some reason, he didn't like the idea of Mac taking her proposal elsewhere. It was bad enough to picture her with some anonymous man that one of her research contacts fixed her up with. But when he pictured her with Tracker, it was even worse. Tracker appreciated certain things about women, but he didn't trust them. And it occurred to Lucas that he wanted very much to protect Mac from getting hurt.

"If you're worried about her being after your money, I think you're safe there. I ran a financial check on her. She has a trust fund of two million from her parents, but she seems to live on what she makes as a full professor at the university. And she may get an influx of money in the near future. Several biotech firms are very interested in the research she's doing. It's some very promising stuff on slowing the aging process at the cellular level. One of them has been wining and dining her recently. That's all I've got so far, but she sure doesn't fit the profile of a fortune hunter."

"No, she doesn't."

"One other thing," Tracker said. "There was a break-in at her lab at the university. Must have happened when she was at your place on Sunday. According to campus security there was no damage. Whoever it was got into the safe, but she told the police none of her research was stolen. She evidently keeps it elsewhere."

"Who would be after her research?"

"I figured you'd want to know, so I put a man on it. I assumed that might be the problem she wanted your help with. Look, boss, I'm going to give you some unsolicited and probably unwanted advice."

"Tracker…"

"No one works harder for your family than you do. Maybe it's time you relaxed and had a little fun. I say go for it."

Tracker's laughter was still ringing in his ear when he cut the connection. He'd come to pretty much the same decision on his own. If the doc was determined to create fantasies, he might as well be on the receiving end. Hell, he'd come up with several of his own he'd like to try out. And when the time came for the fantasies to end … he'd just have to let her down very easy. It was the one thing besides business that he'd worked to develop a skill for. He knew how to say goodbye.

*

Mac carefully considered the two bathing suits she'd packed. The one still lying on top of her suitcase was a black tank top with a matching thong. The one she was wearing was a whisper-thin piece of silky latex in a shimmering emerald green. It covered her like a second skin from her breasts to her thighs, and it did everything that Madame Gervais said it would – revealing practically everything and suggesting more. More importantly, it fit the particular fantasy she wanted to create.

Picking up a flowered piece of silk, she wrapped it around herself and tied it at the waist. Then she studied herself in the mirror and nodded.

Guilt-free sex with a beautiful, young island girl – that was the fantasy she'd chosen. She'd thought of it when she'd been talking to Sophie. It supposedly appealed to most men. Music from South Pacific hummed at the edges of her mind as she ran through the details in her mind. It would help if she could get Lucas to go into the water with her. Supposedly, men had very erotic fantasies about mermaids too. And since she didn't have the information that the questionnaire would have given her, a backup plan was a good idea.

Moving closer to the mirror, she ran her hands through her hair and studied herself more closely. Madame Gervais had told her that the right clothes could make all the difference. Mac was beginning to believe she was right. The outfit she was wearing did make her feel different, more confident.

When she stepped out that door, she was going to be a young girl who'd been born and raised in a village on this island. Lania was her name. And Lucas was a stranger who had been washed ashore by a storm. A dark handsome stranger she was strongly attracted to, a man whose touch she was beginning to crave. A man who would leave her soon, unless she convinced him to stay.

On impulse, she picked up the string of pearls she'd taken from her bag and fastened them around her neck. They fit well with the fantasy.