An Innocent In Paradise

Four

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Logan said to the others participating in yet another conference call. “With the opening of the new Alleria sports center, the island will become a premier destination for world-class sporting events such as tennis, gymnastics and boxing.”

Aidan, sitting in the brothers’ penthouse offices two thousand miles away in New York City, picked up the conversation. “As you’ll note in the prospectus we’ve sent you, the main court will have a tiered seating capacity of five thousand. We’ll have ten deluxe private-viewing suites, a press booth, locker rooms, a four-thousand-square-foot commissary and private dining rooms for players and visiting dignitaries.”

Eleanor, their senior vice president who was working out of the New York office with Aidan, jumped in. “There are six adjacent practice courts, as well. And the main court is easily converted to a boxing ring, gymnastic floor, a concert stage, or whatever is required. This project is shovel-ready, gentlemen. As soon as the contracts are signed, construction can begin.”

“We’ve more than proven the viability of Alleria as a sports destination,” Aidan said. “The Alleria Palms Golf Tournament is now third in worldwide television viewing audience, surpassed only by the Masters and the British Open. Our airport is world-class and we’ve recently expanded the resort by another five hundred rooms.”

Part of the prospectus they’d sent their handpicked investors included a pictorial story of the island itself. It mainly featured their own bayside resort as well as the tiny Victorian port town of Tierra del Alleria. There, attractive shops and eclectic restaurants lined the beach and pier that formed the harbor where multimillion-dollar sailboats docked side by side with the local fishermen who sold their daily catch.

Logan and Aidan had created a ten-year, slow-growth plan to attract small businesses and specialty tourist groups. The sports center would attract the type of high-end traveler who, in theory, would appreciate the eco-friendly environment and rustic charm of the island.

There was silence on the line for a moment, then Tex McCoy spoke up. “You boys have got yourselves a pretty decent situation down there.”

Logan had known Tex forever and could hear him puffing on his Cuban cigar as he participated in his favorite sport: wheeling and dealing. Logan could almost smell the thick, expensive cigar smoke. The billionaire Texan was one member of the consortium of wealthy investors who had invested in the brothers’ past projects.

“You know you can count on me and my boys,” Malcolm Barnett said amiably. “The wives are all itching to get back to Alleria since visiting this past year.”

“That’s always nice to hear, Malcolm,” Logan said to the man who was regularly featured on the pages of Forbes and Fortune. Malcolm’s two sons had gone to college with Logan and Aidan.

“Count me in, too,” Tex said. “I’ll have my people look over the contracts and get back to you.”

Aidan said, “You know we appreciate it, Tex.”

“Thank you, Tex,” Logan chimed in. “You won’t be sorry.”

“You can both thank me by shaving a few points off my next golf game with y’all.”

“Not sure we can do that, sir,” Logan said with tongue in cheek.

“Sorry, Tex.” Aidan chuckled. “We know you’d never want us to cheat.”

The older man grumbled. “Damn your straitlaced father for raising such a pair of sticklers.”

Everyone laughed, then several other investors jumped in to voice their desire to get in on the action. The conference call ended fifteen minutes later and Logan quickly called his brother on his cell phone.

“I think that went well,” he said, grinning as he stated the obvious. Eleanor was probably in the New York office kitchen, popping open the champagne as they spoke.

Aidan ignored the statement. “What’s going on with you?”

“What’re you talking about?” Logan asked, stretching back in his chair. From here, he could see a catamaran drifting across the bay and wondered how soon he could get out of this suit and tie and into a pair of running shorts. “Everything’s fantastic.”

“I hear it in your voice, man. Something’s bugging you.”

“You’re delusional,” Logan drawled. “Everything’s fine. Perfect. We’re about to close on a billion-dollar deal. Life is good.”

Aidan paused, then said, “I’ll drag it out of you eventually so you might as well save us both the trouble and tell me now.”

Logan stared at the phone, wishing for once that he and his twin brother didn’t have quite so tight a bond. It had been that way all their lives. They often finished each other’s sentences and there were times when they could practically read each other’s minds. They usually used it to their advantage, but right now, Logan didn’t need anyone homing in on what he was thinking. Namely because he wasn’t so sure of what was going on himself.

“Nothing’s wrong, dude,” he said, trying to convey a relaxed attitude he no longer felt.

Aidan snorted. “Fine, keep it to yourself, but I’ll be back next Thursday and I expect to hear the whole story.”

“Great,” Logan said with a scowl. “I’ll be sure to dream up something interesting to make you think you’re right.”

He disconnected the call and felt a twinge of irritation. He hadn’t fooled Aidan one bit. But what was he supposed to tell him? How could he explain that a hot, sexy, spore-hunting research scientist had invaded their island and sucked up every last ounce of Logan’s common sense?

He couldn’t explain it. But once Aidan got here and saw Grace for himself, he would reach his own conclusions. Whatever his brother concluded, Logan intended to make it clear that Logan had seen her first and Grace Farrell was his.

Logan jerked forward and sat straight up.

“What the hell?” He shook his head in disgust. Where had that thought come from? He was rarely possessive when it came to women. In fact, he couldn’t remember a time when he and his brother had been jealous of each other. It helped that they’d rarely ever gone after the same woman, but the few times they had, one of them had always acquiesced to the other. It just wasn’t that important and, after all, there were plenty of women to go around.

But with Grace, Logan was willing to draw a line. It was mostly about business; after all, he and Grace had a deal. It was his responsibility to handle her situation. Aidan had nothing to do with it.

Okay, fine, he might be willing to admit that something about Grace tugged at him. The passionate way she’d defended her actions that first day still intrigued him. Logan sort of admired her quirky but logical way of thinking, even when it drove him nuts. And, he admitted, there was the basic fact that the woman was gorgeous.

“And scheming, and a liar,” he added aloud, then shook his head in defeat. The schemes and lies didn’t seem to matter. He still wanted to bury himself inside her.

Ever since that damn kiss he’d been unable to get her out of his mind. Several times he’d caught himself daydreaming, for God’s sake, wondering what she was doing. Was she conducting a class in the joys of the G-spot to a new group of unsuspecting honeymooners? Was she hunting down spores in the rain forest? Was she balancing twenty-seven strawberry margaritas on her slim shoulders?

He thought about the other night in the bar, when Clive had trained her how to balance those heavy trays and she’d picked right up on his advice. Logan frowned with the sudden thought that Clive might be watching her a little too closely. He hoped not. He would hate to have to fire his top waiter.

He clawed his hands through his hair in frustration. Hell yeah, he was distracted, as Aidan had been quick to notice. But he was also discreet. Aidan would be the only person in the world who would have ever heard it in his voice. No one else would have a clue, and that’s the way he wanted it. He didn’t want or need anyone on his staff knowing his personal business. And, frankly, right now that included Aidan. Yeah, they were twins; but that didn’t mean he was willing to kiss and tell, especially over the phone.

The main thing was, he didn’t want Grace’s reputation damaged. Not that he particularly cared about the woman one way or the other. He just wanted her. Once he’d had her, all these idiotic distractions would fade away and he would be able to get his head back on business and complete the sports-center deal.

In the meantime, Aidan would be home in three days and Logan was determined to have Grace Farrell for himself before that. It would help if he could just figure out a way to keep her from running in the opposite direction the next time he kissed her.

“Tequila, triple sec, sweet and sour, squeeze of lime,” Dee said, and handed Grace a shot glass.

“Oh, I know this one,” Grace said, taking a tiny sip. “Margarita, right? Mmm, that’s good.”

“That was too easy,” Dee said, her tanned arm flexing as she lifted another bottle and poured. “I still can’t believe you memorized the entire bartenders’ guide but never tasted the drinks before.”

Grace downed the rest of the margarita. “I suppose I’ve always been more of a reader than a doer.”

“Guess those days are over,” Dee murmured, grinning.

They faced each other at the small table in Dee’s hotel room. Between them was a cocktail tray filled with different bottles that Joey had smuggled out of the bar for their enjoyment. But this was business as far as Grace was concerned. On the tray were chunks of fruit and several shot glasses, as well.

She had already taken sips of a martini, a gimlet, a Brandy Alexander, Sex on the Beach and a whiskey sour. She’d written the names down, followed by her own descriptions and reactions to the flavors of each drink, but her notes were looking a little fuzzy. Still, she was determined to learn as much as she could from Dee.

Mixing a new concoction in a clean shot glass, Dee slid it across the table. “This one’s vermouth, bourbon and bitters.”

Grace frowned as she tasted. “It’s too strong.”

“It’s usually shaken with lots of ice and a cherry on top. Makes it really tasty.”

“I hope so.” She made a face. “Is that a Manhattan?”

“Yes,” Dee said, sitting back in her chair and fluffing her long, dark hair. “You won’t get a lot of orders for that down here since it’s more of a big-city winter drink. But it’s a classic.”

“Then I should know how it tastes,” Grace said firmly, and forced herself to take another sip. After almost a week of working together, she had finally confessed to Dee that she didn’t have much experience as a cocktail waitress. Dee had wrapped an arm around Grace and revealed that everyone in the bar already knew that. Grace had begged for a few more tips about the job.

When Dee questioned her further, Grace had confessed that she rarely went out to bars and didn’t really drink. That’s when Dee had gleefully suggested they have a cocktail quiz.

“You might like this one better,” Dee said, and handed her another tiny glass filled with a bright pink liquid. “Vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice and triple sec.”

“Oh, I know this one,” Grace said as she downed the entire drink. “That’s yummy, but I can’t remember what it is.”

“Cosmopolitan.”

“Oh, yeah.” Grace nodded slowly. “I get lots of orders for those. I can see why.”

“They’re smooth, but dangerous.” Dee mixed another small cosmo and handed it to Grace, then put the caps back on all the bottles. “I think we’re done.”

“Oh.” Grace frowned in thought as she stared at the notepad, trying to discern her scribbling.

“So you don’t ever go out to bars, Gracie?”

“Not really,” she said, and pushed her notepad aside.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.” Grace grimaced. “I thought I did, but I was wrong.”

Dee nodded sagely. “He was a jerk?”

“Oh, yes. Big-time.”

“Goody,” Dee said, rubbing her hands together. “Tell me all about him.”

Grace laughed as she took a sip of her cosmo. “His name is Walter.”

“Oh, sorry. But I have a creepy uncle Walter and that name is not a good sign,” Dee said darkly. “He already sounds like a jerk, for sure. So how did you meet him?”

“You really want to know?”

“God, yes. Spill everything.”

“Okay.” She stretched her arms up for a few seconds, then pushed her hair back off her forehead, wondering where to begin. “Well, you know I work in a lab, and I’ve been so busy this past year that my boss decided to hire a new associate to help me. As soon as Walter started, we hit it off. It was nice, because we were spending long hours together. My experimentation phase was reaching a critical point.” It was odd, but her tongue felt numb.

“Sounds very exciting,” Dee said, sipping her mini-margarita.

“It was.” Grace took a moment to remember how it was in the beginning. “Walter was wonderful. We talked about so many things. He seemed to really like me and he was always telling me how much he admired my intelligence.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“It was,” Grace said. “I don’t get that a lot.”

“Well, you should,” Dee declared. She tried to rest her chin in her hand but her chin slipped twice before she was able to get comfy. “So keep going. I want to hear every last ghastly detail.”

“Oh, it’s ghastly all right,” Grace admitted. “So, anyway, I suppose it was silly to be so flattered by Walter’s attention, but he’s very nice-looking and I’ve never had much of a love life before, so what did I know?”

“He took advantage of that.”

“Yes. After two months of working together, he finally asked me out and I was over the moon. He took me out for a romantic candlelight dinner at a restaurant overlooking the lake. Then later when he took me home, he wanted to come inside. I was a little hesitant to let him in.”

“It was your first date, right?”

“Right.”

“He should’ve kissed you good-night and left.”

“That’s sort of what I thought. But he said we’d known each other long enough and he wanted to spend the night with me. Except he used a much cruder expression than that.” She frowned, remembering that night. But at the moment, Walter’s face in her memory was as fuzzy as her mind felt. She realized she liked him better that way. “Anyway, I told him I wasn’t ready to take that step and he got angry. He said he knew I wanted it, so what kind of game was I playing? He said he’d spent almost two hundred dollars on me and wanted to get his money’s worth. I ended up smacking him hard and while he was recovering, I ran inside my house and locked the door on him. He took it badly. Work became a nightmare with him around.”

“Worse than a jerk,” Dee said. “I hate him.”

“Thank you. Me, too. But at the time, I felt like an idiot.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Dee said, jumping up and grabbing two bottles of water off the dresser. “He was a toad.”

“I know.” Grace popped open one bottle and took a long sip. “But I felt like such a cliché.”

“Oh, been there, done that.”

“Anyway, he finally quit, thank goodness, but he stayed in Minnesota. He’s at a rival university and he’s trying to claim my studies as his own.”

Dee gasped. “What a total jackass.”

“Yes, that describes him nicely.” Grace couldn’t sit still thinking about Walter, so she stood and walked over to Dee’s window. She stumbled, but caught herself, then frowned at the rug, looking for whatever had tripped her. She didn’t see anything. “I found out after he left that he’d stolen a small batch of my spores and some of my papers, and now he’s applied for new funding to allow him to work on the exact same line of research as mine.”

“Can we kill him?”

Grace blurted out a laugh. “Oh, Dee, you are the best.”

“Hey, it’s an option.”

“I wish,” she said, only half kidding. “No, all I can do is collect lots of new spores and continue my research when I get back. Thank goodness I never told him exactly where these rare spores could be found.”

“A good thing for Walter,” Dee said with a decided edge to her voice. “Because if he showed up here, he’d be very sorry.”

“I really appreciate that,” Grace said with a smile, then added, “even though you scare me a little.”

She laughed. “I’ll scare Walter a lot worse and that’s a promise. I got your back, girlfriend.”

Grace felt sudden tears prickling her eyes. Nobody had ever had her back before. Oh, she knew Phillippa would support her, if it came down to that. But somehow the way Dee had said it so simply and unconditionally, made Grace feel all warm and snuggly inside.

And even though she trusted Dee, she couldn’t bear to confess the worst part to her. Yes, her university had promised to defend her against Walter’s lies, but Grace knew that if she couldn’t get the spores and raise the level of her research and experimentation to new heights, her reputation would suffer.

She also had to prove to the foundation that her work was her own and that she was the one deserving of the funds, not Walter. Otherwise, within a month she could lose her funding, her job and, most important, her reputation.

“Forget about stupid Walter,” Dee said, interrupting her worries. “What about Mr. Hunkadelic?”

“What? Who?” Grace wondered if she’d had a few too many sips of Dee’s cocktails because the lightning-quick change of subject made her head spin.

“You know who.” Dee stared meaningfully at Grace. “The hunky man who is our boss? Mr. Big?”

“Oh, Logan.” Grace stared intently at the label on her water bottle. The letters looked wobbly. Very odd. “What about him?”

“Something happening between you two?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why aren’t you looking at me?” Dee said, chuckling. “Do you have something to hide?”

Grace whipped around. “No! I mean…okay, he kissed me, but-”

“He kissed you?”

She sighed and flopped down on the bed. “Yes, and I warned him not to do it again.”

“You…wait.” Dee moved her chair so she could rest her feet on the bed. “Okay, I’ve got to hear your explanation for this one.”

Grace stared at the ceiling as if help might be sent down from up above. But none came, so she finally met Dee’s gaze. “It was for his own good.”

“I don’t get it. Is he a bad kisser?”

“Oh, no,” Grace said, shaking her head. “He’s really good.”

“Well, then…”

“I ran away,” Grace said, and buried her face in her hands. Humiliation swept through her. She still couldn’t believe that she’d run from Logan like a teenager afraid of her own hormones.

Dee’s eyebrows shot up and her feet thumped to the floor. “You ran away? Honey, are you crazy? Nobody runs away from Logan Sutherland. We’re all running toward him.”

She had known that, deep down of course. But hearing Dee say it out loud only confirmed that once again, Grace was “not normal.” She didn’t do anything like your average woman did. Heck, she hadn’t even been able to stand her ground when a gorgeous man kissed her. It was pitiful. Just pitiful.

Still, she had to try to defend herself, pointless though it might be. “Dee, he doesn’t know me. He’s the one who would go running if he knew…”

“If he knew what?”

Grace gritted her teeth and forced herself to say it. “If he knew how smart I really am.”

Dee came over to the bed, grabbed a pillow and sat next to her, resting her back against the headboard. “Honey, I confess I’m not sure how smart you are, but what does it matter? He kissed you. He likes you. Why are you running away from that?”

Grace folded her arms across her chest, anxious to make Dee understand. “Men don’t like smart women.”

“Oh, Gracie, that’s just plain prehistoric. These days, men love smart women.”

Grace shook her head stubbornly. “Not when they’re as smart as I am.”

Dee’s mouth twisted in confusion. “Just how smart are you?”

“I have an IQ of 172,” she said, annoyed with the slight whine in her voice.

“Oh, Gracie.” Dee reached out and grabbed Grace’s hand. “You realize that means nothing to me, right?”

“Yes,” Grace said, laughing. “That’s just one reason why I like you so much.”

“I like you, too, Gracie,” Dee said, “but really, is 172 good? I mean, what’s average?”

“Well, that’s difficult to say, really, since IQ scores have been gaining three points every decade now for some time, but-”

“Ballpark figure,” Dee interrupted. “What’s average?”

“About 100,” Grace admitted with a sigh.

“Whoa.” Dee blinked. “And what’s genius?”

Grace groaned as she said, “One forty and above.”

“Damn.” Dee grinned at her. “So, you’re like, what? Übergenius?”

Stunned to discover that Dee’s opinion of her hadn’t changed, Grace relaxed and for the first time in her life, actually giggled. “Übergenius? I like that.”

“You could be a superhero or something,” Dee continued. “You could be Smartgirl!”

Relief and gratitude rushed through Grace as she returned Dee’s smile. She had been so worried that once Dee knew the truth about Grace, she wouldn’t want to be anywhere near her. After all, her own parents had run the other way from her, and that was a memory she really didn’t want to dwell on just now. No, right now she wanted to concentrate on the amazing sensation of having her fears dissolve. For the first time, she was being accepted and liked, completely, for exactly who she was, not how smart she was-although Dee seemed to think that was pretty cool, too.

“Smartgirl? Sometimes I wonder,” she muttered, then brightened. “But I do have four doctorate degrees.”

“Wow! Four?” Dee laughed. “I lasted about six weeks in college. I was so bored, I ran screaming.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. So how long did it take you to get four degrees, cuz you look really young.”

“I did all four of them concurrently.”

“Wow.” Dee shook her head, then took a sip of her drink. “Your classes must’ve been intense. But now you’re like a PhD?”

“Yes, times four.”

“Holy moley.”

“I know,” Grace whispered, then said, “Do you think we could have another mini-margarita?”

“I think I need one, too.” Dee bounced off the bed and returned to the table to mix the drink. “So you work in your lab every day. But what do you do in your spare time?”

“I don’t have much spare time,” Grace said as she joined her at the table and squeezed a lime into the shot glass. “My work in the lab is very important, so-” she shrugged “-that’s mostly what I do.”

“Okay, I know you don’t go out to bars,” Dee said. “Do you like to shop or go to movies?”

“I’ve never really had much time to do either,” Grace said, feeling more inadequate by the second.

“So you’ve only ever gone to school and worked in a lab?”

“That’s pretty much it.” She smiled cheerfully. “But I love my work.”

“Oh, I like my job, too,” Dee said, as she mixed another mini-margarita for herself. “But I like shopping, too, and, well, lots of things. But especially shopping.”

“School and work are all I’ve ever known,” Grace said, sipping her drink. “I started college when I was eight years old.”

Dee’s gaze was awash in sympathy. “That’s terrible. College is hard enough on grown-ups, let alone a kid.”

Grace blinked. She’d never shared that part of her background with anyone besides Phillippa. But that didn’t mean there had ever been a moment when she’d considered herself unfortunate. Far from it. “I was lucky. I got to live at school and study and learn.”

“Your parents let you live at school? When you were eight?”

“Well, I wasn’t alone. I lived with the head of the Science Department and his wife.”

“But your own parents sent you away?” Dee said.

“Oh, they were happy to do it,” Grace said lightly. “I belonged in college. And it worked out well for them because the university paid them for me to go to school.”

Dee stopped in midpour. “Your parents got money for you?”

“They didn’t have a lot of money,” Grace explained, “so I was glad to help them get by.”

“But it sort of sounds like they sold you.”

“Oh, no.” Grace laughed. “I wanted to go.”

“Gotta say, Gracie…I think somebody needs to go back in time and give your folks a swift kick or two.”

“No, no,” Grace said, pleased that her new friend would defend her, but knowing her parents had done the best they could. Maybe she hadn’t quite understood it at the time, but now she knew that her mom and dad were nice, simple, hardworking people who had never understood her at all. “I appreciate it, but everything worked out.”

“Wow,” Dee said, taking an experimental sip, then another. “When I was eight, my big excitement was cutting all the hair off of my Barbie dolls. Guess we come from two different worlds.”

“But we can still be friends,” Grace said, hating to sound so tentative.

“Most indubitably,” Dee said, giggling as she held her glass out in a toast. “We are friends, Gracie. Never doubt it. To my friend, Gracie.”

“To my friend, Dee.” Grace wiped away a happy tear as they clinked their glasses together.

Grace wasn’t sleepy at all. So after leaving Dee dozing in her room, she walked out to the terrace and down to the beach. She couldn’t get over how beautiful it was here, even at night. The moon was as big and clear in the sky as Grace had ever seen. The water was as smooth and shiny as the heavy-gauge stainless steel table in the lab’s radiation room.

“You’re hopeless,” she muttered, shaking her head at that comparison. Would her head always be stuck in the laboratory? She hoped not. She wanted to think carefree thoughts, dream frivolous dreams, like drinking champagne and kissing a handsome man under the Caribbean moon.

Had she always harbored a secret wish to be so frivolous? No, she was absolutely sure this was something new for her. But it felt good.

She hadn’t drunk any champagne yet, but she’d had plenty of mini-margaritas. And as far as kissing a handsome man? Well, she’d done that, too, except for the moonlight part.

“And the part where you went scurrying away like a mouse,” she reminded herself. Other than that, the kiss had been pretty darn dreamy.

The mild breeze whispered across her shoulders, ruffling her hair. Nudging her sandals off, she walked in bare feet through the cool sand. Oh, yes, she’d definitely had one too many mini-drinks, but she felt wonderful. At the water’s edge she stopped, then had the strongest urge to keep on going. Touching the water with her toes, she discovered it was tepid. Not too cold, not too warm. Just right. And wouldn’t it be delightful to swim in the moonlight?

“It’s not safe to swim alone at night.”

She whirled around. Logan stood behind her. “Oh, hello. I didn’t hear you coming.”

Logan came closer. “The sand swallows the sound of footsteps.”

She smiled at his poetic words. “Are you taking a walk in the moonlight?”

“It appears I am.”

“Isn’t it beautiful?” she said, and spun around to take it all in.

Logan grabbed her before she stumbled straight into the shallow water.

“Oops,” she said, and giggled.

“Have you had a few drinks tonight, Grace?” he asked as he pulled her closer to him. She wished he would smile again. He had such a nice smile. She couldn’t seem to get it out of her mind.

Had he asked her a question? Oh, yes.

“I have,” she said, resting her head on his chest because it seemed so inviting. “But it was strictly for business purposes. I was taking a test.”

“A test?” he said, rubbing her back in a slow circle. “Which test was that?”

She could hear in the tone of his voice that he was smiling. She liked that tone, too, and gazed up at him. “Dee calls it the cocktail quiz.”

“Ah. And how did you do?”

“I passed with flying colors because I’m very smart. Do you know how smart I am?”

“You’ve mentioned several times that you’re very smart indeed,” he said.

“But you don’t know how smart I really am,” she said, pointing her finger at his face, which was slightly blurry around the edges. “If you knew, you’d run for the hills.”

“You said that before, too,” he murmured, wrapping his hand around her finger. “But you’re wrong.”

“I think you’re very handsome,” she said, staring at him keenly.

He chuckled. “And I think you’re toasted.”

She thought about it, then nodded. “I think you’re right. And I’m okay with that.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said, his arms wrapped securely around her waist. “Shall I walk you to your room now?”

She looked up at the night sky, then at him. “Aren’t you going to kiss me again?”

“Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Yes, please,” she whispered. “Under the moonlight, if you don’t mind.”

“Well, since you ask so politely…” He touched his lips to hers in a kiss so gentle, so sweet, so warm, Grace wanted to melt in his arms.

“Just like a dream,” she uttered, feeling as if she were floating on air. Was she melting for real? She felt as light as a feather. Then she felt nothing at all.

Logan caught her as she slid downward, boneless and out cold. Lifting her effortlessly into his arms, he was thankful he’d decided to take a walk out to the beach to catch a few minutes of fresh air before heading to his suite for the night. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had a chance to rescue Grace from a night spent sleeping on the sand.

As he carried her across the terrace, he hoped like hell she wouldn’t wake up with too bad a hangover in the morning. He had a feeling she didn’t indulge very often, so she was probably going to pay for taking the cocktail quiz.

He reached her room and used his own master-key card to open it. Stepping inside, he let the door close behind him and carried her over to her bed to lay her down. Once she was settled, he glanced around her room and saw the elaborate setup she’d arranged on her table and across the top of her dresser. It was a portable laboratory complete with a serious-looking microscope, state-of-the-art laptop and some contraption with a toggle switch and digital readout screen that measured something or other. There was a small scale next to a plastic thing that held glass cylinders suspended in a row, several of which had tubes attached that wound around and emptied into nearby beakers.

If he didn’t know her better, he might’ve thought she’d set up a still to make whiskey.

He glanced back at Grace, who was snoring softly. She would probably freak out when she woke up in the morning and realized that her boss had been the one who’d carried her to bed.

She wore cropped pants and a thin blouse and he pondered the idea of taking her clothes off. She would sleep better wearing just her underwear, right?

He enjoyed the image of her waking up and seeing herself in panties and a bra. How quickly would she grasp that it had been Logan who’d undressed her?

Ah, well, it was a nice fantasy. One he wouldn’t be carrying out tonight.

But soon. Very soon.

This time, though, he would allow her to keep her clothes on because that’s the kind of guy he was. Pulling the lightweight comforter over her, he turned off the lights and left her alone to sleep off the cocktail quiz.