and she liked it that way. All the same, it must be fascinating to live in Mo’ Bay, as everyone called Montego Bay, and see the people who visited the island from those grand oceangoing hotels.
With her coffee cup in her hands, she sat down on the warm sand and watched the graceful casuarina pines blow in the wind. It was heaven here. So peaceful and quiet and exquisitely unpolluted.
Her eyes drifted closed, and suddenly she envisioned herself on the beach with King, in the moonlight, making wild, passionate love, with the surf crashing around them...
Her eyes popped open, and she jumped to her feet so quickly that she almost upended her coffee all over herself. Dazed by her wayward thoughts, she stumbled back inside and went straight to work. And this time she did three designs that satisfied her creative instincts.
It was the longest day she could remember. At dusk she heard Warchief go off like an air-raid siren and wished that she could get him and bring him home, but it was misting rain and he was better off where he was for the time being. She was feeling unaccountably lonely, and she missed having him on his big T-stand perch in the living room, chattering away and begging scraps when she broke off work for a snack or a meal. She almost always ended up sharing fresh fruits and vegetables and bread, which he ate with evident enjoyment.
She sighed, turning away from the window. She missed her bird. She was going to miss King even more. After last night, she was sure he wouldn’t have anything else to do with her. She still found it amazing that he’d wanted to take her to bed. She was glad she’d had the sense to refuse, but she still flushed thinking about what she’d let him do to her by those sliding glass doors. Best to put such errant thoughts out of her mind, she chided herself.
Just after dark, she was puttering around the kitchen in shorts and a long-sleeved man’s shirt when she saw King drive up to his villa, accompanied by Bobby and Bess. She frowned. Weren’t they supposed to have left that morning?
Minutes later, her phone rang.
“I’m home,” King said in a deep, sexy tone that she knew instantly was a ruse. “Why don’t you come over and have a drink? Bess and Bobby are staying the night with me.”
She fished for excuses. “I have to feed the hermit crabs and put out lobster pots...”
“I’ll see you in five minutes,” he said, ignoring her feeble attempt at humor, and hung up.
She glared at the telephone. She wanted to call him back and tell him what he could do with his overbearing attitude, but now that she’d begun this horrible charade, she felt obliged to go through with it. Why, she didn’t know.
After changing into a strappy little black dress, hose and high heels, she tramped across to King’s house.
Warchief went into raucous ecstasies of welcome at her arrival. “Quiet, sweet thing,” Elissa scolded playfully, nodding to Bobby and a subdued Bess as she went to pet her parrot.
Evidently he’d lost his inclination to bite. He blazed his eyes, docilely bent his head for her to scratch and cooed, “Hello, pretty thing.”
“I’ve missed you, too, you horrible bird,” she murmured, nuzzling her nose against his head.
“I wouldn’t put my nose that close to him,” Bess gasped.
“Wise decision,” King remarked easily. “He’s totally unpredictable. He won’t let anyone except Elissa that close.”
“Now go to sleep,” Elissa whispered when she’d scratched his green head enough to satisfy Warchief and his eyes were nearly closed.
She busied herself covering his cage, uneasier around King than she’d ever been in the two years she’d known him. She couldn’t even manage to meet his eyes, she was so confused.
“I expected to find you already over here,” Bess remarked. Dressed in flowing yellow lounging pajamas that suited her blondness, she leaned back on the big white sofa.
“I had some designs to work on,” Elissa replied.
“She works better at her own cottage, where there are fewer distractions,” King remarked, his dark eyes narrow on her averted face.
Bobby hadn’t said a word, except to greet Elissa warmly. He was bent over financial reports spread all over the coffee table, seemingly oblivious to the world around him.
Bess gave him a weary glance before she turned back to study Elissa and King. “So what’s with you two? You barely seem to be speaking,” she observed. Her eyes openly flirted