The Millionaire Claims His Wife(21)

Chase knocked on the open bedroom door.

"Come in," Annie said politely.

He stepped into the room.

She was sitting in the rocker, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Her  face was pale but her features were composed, and she smiled when she  saw him.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Did you go for a walk?"

"Yeah, I did." He hesitated. "Listen, about all that stuff we said before. I'm really sorry-"

"Me, too. There's no reason to quarrel over the past."

Chase nodded. "No reason at all."

They smiled at each other, and then Annie cleared her throat. "So," she said briskly, "I'll bet the island's beautiful."

"It is. I was here before. Tanaka bought the place from some computer  megamillionaire. He flew me out to see it after he'd signed the papers.  He wanted to know what I thought of his plan."

"What plan?" Annie asked politely.

"He's going to tear this place down, build a kind of retreat."

"Ah." She looked down, and plucked a bit of thread off her jeans-clad leg. "Buddhist?"

Chase smiled. "Top-class hotel, would be closer to the mark. What he's  got in mind is a kind of hideaway for his executive staff. You know the  sort of thing-elegant but rustic. Simple food, prepared by a Cordon Bleu  chef. Simple suites, with a Jacuzzi in every bathroom and a wet bar in  every sitting room. Simple pleasures, starting with a nine-hole golf  course, tennis courts and an Olympic-size swimming pool."

"A bigger, even more elaborate version of this, you mean."

"Yeah." Chase grinned. "Incredible, isn't it?"

"Incredible's the word, all right. So, you're going to build this Shangri-la for him?"

"Well, not quite the way he'd envisioned it, no. I told him that he'd  ruin the feeling of the land and the sea, if he went overboard on the  luxuries."

"No wet bars?"

Chase grinned. "And no suites, no golf courses, no tennis courts, and why put in a pool when Puget Sound's outside your door?"

"That's darned near a pool in the bathroom already," Annie said,  smiling. "Heaven knows, it's too big for just one pers..." Color swept  into her face. Her eyes met Chase's, and she looked quickly away. "I'll,  uh, I'll bet you had a tough time, convincing him."

Chase shrugged. "Well, it took a while, yes."

Silence filled the room. Finally Annie spoke.

"Chase?"

"Yes?"

"Well...well..." She took a deep breath. "Listen, I know it'll be  embarrassing for you to have to admit to your Mr. Tanaka that you and I  ended up in the plane together by mistake, but you're going to have to  do it. Tell him anything you want. Whatever's easiest for you. Lay it  off on me, if you like. Say that I suddenly thought of something  important back home."

"Your fiancé," Chase said politely. "I could say you forgot about him. How's that sound?"

Annie refused to acknowledge the gauntlet, much less stoop to pick it up.

"I don't care what you say. Just-just get me off this island, please."

Chase nodded. She was right. They both needed to leave this place. "I'll take care. of it."

"You could tell him the same thing," Annie blurted as he turned toward  the door. He looked at her, and she ran the tip of her tongue over her  lips. "You know," she said, because it was too late to back down, "that  you have to get back to your fiancée, too."

Chase looked at his ex-wife. Sitting on the edge of the rocker, ankles  crossed, hands locked together, with the rays of the late-afternoon sun  streaking her hair with gold, she looked soft, sweet and undescribably  vulnerable. He saw himself going to her, taking her in his arms, kissing  her and telling her that she was the only woman he'd ever wanted, the  only woman he'd ever loved.

"Chase?"

"Yeah," he said gruffly. "Uh, the thing is-we've both forgotten something."

"I don't think so," Annie said, fighting against the tears that  inexplicably threatened. "Believe me, Chase, we haven't forgotten a  thing."

"No flight back until tomorrow, babe. No hotel rooms, either."

"Oh." Annie chewed on her lip. "Well, that's okay. I'll wait at the airport."

"That's not a good idea."                       
       
           



       

"It's a fine idea." Annie smiled brightly. "I've always liked airports. I  can buy myself half a dozen magazines and a hot dog, curl up in a  corner and-"

"Listen, we'll stay right where we are. But we'll start over. New ground rules. No talking about the past, or about us. Okay?"

"The past, and us, are the only things we've got," Annie said quietly. "I don't see how we can avoid talking about them."

Chase looked at her for a long moment. Then he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I'll go find the guy who brought us here. He can take us back to shore.  And I'll phone Tanaka and see if he can pull some strings to get you a  room somewhere. Or I'll stay with you at the airport, until you can get a  flight out."

"That won't be necessary."

"Look, we can argue about it later. Right now, let me just put the wheels in motion."

"What'll you tell him? Your Mr. Tanaka? About why we want to leave the island, I mean?"

His mouth twisted. "Don't start worrying about how I handle business at this late date, Annie. It's my problem, not yours."

Chase strode from the room and slammed the door after him. Annie sat  back in the rocker. She was shaking, and she felt like crying, which was  stupid. It only proved how much pressure she'd been under, the last  couple of days.

She took a deep breath, heel-and-toed the rocker into motion and settled  in to wait for her liberation from this island, Chase, and a thousand  unwanted memories.

* * *

"He's gone."

Annie blinked her eyes open and swung her legs to the floor.

"Who?" she said, in a hoarse voice. She frowned and rubbed her hands over her eyes. "Who's gone?"

Chase leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. His face looked as if it had been chipped from granite.

"The guy who brought us here."

Annie's head was swimming. "I'm not-I'm not following you. The guy with the boat, you mean?"

"Uh-huh."

"How can he be gone? Where could he have gone? He couldn't have walked  to..." Her breath caught at the expression on Chase's face. "You mean,  he took the boat?"

"You've got it."

Annie stared at him. "We're stuck here?"

"Right again."

"Well-well, phone your Mr. Tanaka. Tell him-"

"Will you stop calling him that? He is not my Mr. Tanaka." Chase glowered at her. "Anyway, I already tried to phone him."

"And?"

"And," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "it's not a regular phone they've got here, it's a radio thing."

"So?"

"So, it doesn't seem to work."

Annie bit her lip and fought down a rising tide of hysteria. "If this is your idea of some kind of joke, Chase..."

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Chase smiled tightly. "The guy left a note, in the kitchen. It seems we're trapped until tomorrow."

"That's impossible. Why would he strand us here?"

"I don't know why. I don't much care, either. All I know is that we're  going to have to make the best of things, until the jerk with the boat  shows up tomorrow morning at eight."

"At eight," Annie repeated, through lips that felt numb. She looked at  her watch. Sixteen hours to get through. Sixteen hours, alone with her  ex-husband.

"Just get this through your head," Chase said. Annie looked up. "This  setup. This-this honeymoon hotel. I assure you, it wasn't my idea."

"I certainly hope not. Because if it was, you're in for a heck of a disappoint-"

Annie gasped as Chase grabbed her shoulders and hauled her to her feet.

"Lady, I have taken all the insults I'm going to take! I promise you,  I'm not so desperate for a woman to warm my bed that I'd go to all this  trouble to arrange it."

He was right, and she knew it. Her accusation had been dumb. He couldn't have arranged this fiasco if he'd wanted to.

And he was right about all the rest, as well. Chase wouldn't have to  resort to subterfuge, to get a woman into his bed. He was-what had Deb  called him, the day of the wedding? Hunky, that was it. He was hunky and  he always had been, especially now that he was in his prime. Chase was a  man who'd turn women's heads without even trying.

No wonder she spotted his photo in the paper so often, with some smiling bimbo on his arm.

Except they weren't bimbos. She might as well admit that, too, while she  was going for the truth. She liked to tell herself they were, but the  women in the photos with her ex-husband were invariably beautiful and  elegant.