The Stud Read Free

behind them. From a distance came the muted tinkle of a bell buoy. Both sounds were gentle, far more so than Spencer's expression as he stared across the sound.
    "Things like this try me, " he said after a long, brooding minute.
    "Parties?"
    "They're so excessive. "
    "But they give your parents pleasure. "
    "Does that justify the waste?"
    With a sigh, Jenna faced the water. She wasn't going to argue with him.
    "You think it does?" he challenged.
    Gently she said, "Not personally, no. I lean toward moderation. But what's right for me may not be right for someone else. Your parents are like mine were. They're social creatures, and they have the money. If they want to spend it on a party, that's their choice. As long as they don't tell me how to live my life, I can let them live theirs. "
    Spencer shifted her hand from the small space between them to his thigh. He studied her fingers, which were absurdly pale and slender between his long, tanned ones.
    "I won't run away, " she said quietly.
    He shot her a solemn look that was binding, given the silver of his eyes. "I wasn't sure of that. You've been doing your best to avoid me all afternoon. "
    "All afternoon?" She tugged a strand of hair away from her mouth. "You haven't been here but half of it. "
    "Thank the good Lord for that, " he muttered. He released another button—the third—on his shirt, filled his lungs with the tangy salt air and blew it out along, it seemed to Jenna, with a bit of his tension. His voice was as deep as ever but less tight. "I have trouble enough with my parents alone. With two hundred of their friends, I'm in pain. "
    "This from a man who once stood bound to a stake waiting to be boiled for dinner by a bunch of cannibals?"
    "You've been reading too much, " he grumbled.
    "I like your books. "
    "So does Hollywood. Green Gold has been optioned for another Indiana Jones type of thing. "
    "That's great!"
    "I'm not so sure. It takes away from my credibility. Treasure hunting is serious stuff. "
    "Yes, " Jenna said with due graveness. "I can tell that from your books. "
    He looked at her.
    "I can, " she insisted.
    "Mmm. " Neither taking a breath nor looking away, he said, "Caroline told me you wanted to talk. "
    Jenna's heart fell. She hadn't wanted Caroline to say anything. She had wanted to pick the time herself, and this wasn't it. If Spencer had felt strangled at the party, this definitely wasn't it She wanted him to be feeling loose and open to suggestion when she hit him with her request.
    "It can wait, " she said lightly.
    "Caroline said it was important. Twice she told me that. "
    "She shouldn't have. "
    "It's not important?"
    "It is, but there's no urgency to it. We should probably be going back to the party, anyway. "
    "I don't want to go back to the party. "
    "But it's your parents' fiftieth anniversary. That's a precious milestone. "
    "Uh-huh, and I invited them to celebrate with me in the Keys, but they refused. "
    "Because they're party people. They wanted everyone with them. " Her curiosity got the best of her. "What are you doing in the Keys?" With his hair blowing in the breeze, his shirt agape to mid-chest and the scar slashing his jaw, she imagined him a pirate.
    "Waiting for a court to decide whether I have the exploration rights to a site where a Spanish galleon sank in the eighteenth century. "
    Her eyes widened. "You've found the galleon?"
    He nodded. "One of my divers, the first one to spot the wreck, took off and formed his own salvage crew and is claiming that the rights to explore it are his. Neither of us can touch it until the court acts, and the court is pathetically slow. Another six weeks and we'll be into the hurricane season. No one will be doing any exploring then until late fall. "
    She gathered her windblown hair in her free hand. "Is there gold on the boat?"
    "If the boat turns out to be the one I think and if my research is correct, there is. There should also be a wealth of artifacts aboard. "
    "Perfectly preserved?"