“Must we make a whole production?” Jamie grumbled. “Can’t we just get back to Mathilda? Are we going to have to bow to her if she has a title?”
Mathilda made a face at him, but inside, her heart was swelling with emotion. She would have been shocked if her parents hadn’t been supportive of Jamie, but it was still wonderful to see it play out that way.
Duncan lifted his glass. “To Jamie,” he said. “Well done.”
“To Jamie.” Everyone else followed suit and clicked their glasses together in a barrage of clinks and splashes and cheers. For the first time since she could remember, Mathilda felt like part of a family, and not some odd duck floating around the edges.
Was it because of Duncan? Maybe so. He’d brought them all together like this. He’d inspired Jamie’s confession. He was a sweet and lovely person, an amusing conversationalist, intelligent, tolerant. Pretty perfect, in fact.
Did they have chemistry?
She eyed him as he laughed with her family. He was good-looking, even though that sculpted style of haircut was not her thing. Very fit. Didn’t the British say “fit” instead of “hot?” Duncan was both. The setting sun was giving his skin and hair a very sexy golden glow.
And yet, no. They had no chemistry. They might as well be brother and sister. They even looked a little alike, both blond-ish and blue-eyed. She tried to imagine being naked in bed with him, but all she could picture was dark eyes and a sinfully sexy mouth. She blinked, hoping that image would vanish. It did, only to be replaced with the memory of Rory braced over her, the moonlight gilding his skin, his muscles rippling as he flexed his hips.
Goddamn it, Rory Baker. Honestly, why did he have to crash into her jungle at just the wrong time? If not for him, she probably would have been perfectly happy to marry Duncan. The guy even liked Hawaii. He’d probably agree to spend some time here so she could keep up with her ‘alala project.
But now Rory was the only man she could picture herself with.
She put her hand in her pocket, feeling the crystal he’d slipped to her. Why had he done that? What was she supposed to do with it now? Maybe she should just toss it in the pool and be done with it.
She noticed that her hand was getting warmer. A lot warmer. Something was happening to the crystal. She jumped to her feet.
“Be right back.”
“What’s the matter, darling?” her mother called.
The vibrations coming from the crystal were really something. She’d noticed them before, a kind of low hum, but they were even more magnified now. She needed to get a closer look at it, maybe in the last rays of daylight, without showing it to anyone else. “Nothing. Bathroom.”
29
The deep green of the jungle gave way to the starker colors of the northern Kona district. The gray-brown parched grass and the rough black lava fields were punctuated by oases of green where resorts had been built. Rory headed for the shoreline, where lines of white foam lapped against promontories and sandy beaches.
Kawaihae had no boats resembling the one that had taken Mathilda. Neither did the marina near the Kona airport, or the one on Ali’i Drive. As they searched, he kept an eye on the blazing fireball of the sun, which was inching quickly toward the horizon. If they didn’t locate the boat before dark, their chances of finding it would go down significantly. This wasn’t a police helicopter equipped with spotlights, after all.
As the sun slipped into the ocean, he swore out loud. “No point in searching after dark. Now I have to figure out where to land this thing.”
“The airport’s back that way.” Lincoln gestured behind him.
“Yeah, but I don’t even know this bird’s call sign. I was thinking about landing at that helicopter tour outfit up the coast. They’ll be closed by the time we get up there. We can just leave it there and let them sort it out.”
Lincoln chuckled. “Quite a surprise to wake up to. A stolen helicopter. What about us then?”
“We’ll be long gone. We can search the harbors on foot, ask if anyone has seen a pretty blond woman with a crystal. How many could there be in Hawaii? Hundreds, maybe thousands if you count necklaces?”
“No mentioning that crystal,” Lincoln snapped.
“It was a joke. You know me, so irreverent and all.”
Lincoln didn’t seem to think it was funny. “Just don’t forget your contract. You are still working for me.”
Rory stiffened. Was his boss really going to pull that, after everything they’d been through? Maybe tigers never did change their stripes. “I have an emergency exit clause.”
“Yes, you do. Too bad you’d have to give back your signing bonus.”
Rory’s jaw flexed. That signing bonus had paid for ten years of Ethan’s care in advance. It probably wasn’t even possible to get it back, even if he wanted to.
“But luckily, it doesn’t have to come to that,” said Lincoln mildly. “Our interests are aligned. You want to find Mathilda, I want to find the crystal.”
