48. Piña Colada Therapy
48
PI?A COLADA THERAPY
Jake
When I returned to the hotel after a fruitless attempt at finding Monica at her store, Ruby was pulling into the parking lot in a gleaming black Audi rather than her Jeep.
“Nice wheels,” I said, arching an eyebrow. “Is this a replacement rental?”
“Eli loaned it to me,” she answered in a flat voice. She seemed tired and sad.
I’d seen her happy, and I’d seen her feisty. But I’d never seen Ruby Ashley listless. Energy and passion had always unfurled from her.
Until now.
I didn’t know what had happened—if her day had continued to frustrate her the way mine had frustrated me or if it was something else. So I gripped her shoulders and dropped a quick kiss onto her lips. “You need a pina colada and you need it stat.”
* * *
A hammock beckoned us, strung between two palm trees at the edge of the hotel pool, canopied by wide fronds that shaded the spot from the afternoon sun. The waves gently painted the shore, and the teenagers splashing in the hotel pool made a cheerful background.
“I amend my earlier prescription,” I said. “You need a drink and a hammock, and this has your name written all over it,” I said, holding a matching glass in each hand. When your woman was in a funk, sometimes you had to go all in on the tropical-drink therapy, complete with red paper umbrellas and swirly straws in each cup.
Ruby flopped into the rope hammock and held out one hand. “Drink. Now. Please.”
“One fruity, over-the-top drink at your service. The best medicine for a crappy day,” I said, handing her the beverage. She took a long, thirsty gulp, and I warned, “Careful of the brain freeze.”
“I honestly wouldn’t mind my brain being frozen right now. Then I could stop thinking.”
I joined her on the hammock so we were facing each other. “Talk to me. Tell me what happened. I know you’re bummed about the nuts,” I said.
Her scoff turned into a deep, incredulous laugh. “It felt like I’d gotten a pie in my face at a carnival. But then Eli told me at lunch that he wants to do right by my mom and make up for how unfair he was in the divorce.” She sighed and sipped her drink. “I don’t know what to think.”
I nodded, taking time to process. I wanted to be supportive, but I was wary she was having second thoughts about our partnership in non-crime. So, I kept my response simple. “I get it. You feel torn.”
Stretching my arm, I set my drink on the grass under the hammock and then reached for Ruby’s leg. I rubbed her calf, enjoying the warmth of her skin before speaking again. “I know you feel pulled, and I know you’re frustrated, too, that we’re coming up empty. But we’re close, so close. The diamonds are somewhere here on this island. I know we can set things right.”
She shot me a helpless stare. “But they could be anywhere. Anywhere. We’ve turned over every stone, and all we’ve gotten was a handful of nuts.”
“I’m not ready to give up.” While she was low, I could stay upbeat for the both of us. It wasn’t just Andrew’s incentive leading me to soldier on. I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. Sure, some cases went cold, but this one felt crackable, and I didn’t want to lose my partner.
Ruby stirred her drink with the swirly straw as if sorting through her thoughts. “What if Eli didn’t take the money from his company? Is there a possibility we haven’t considered?”
“Like what?” I asked, careful not to shoot down an idea I hadn’t even heard.
She paused, like she needed to be careful with her next words. “What if it’s Andrew?” Her voice was thready with doubt.
“What makes you say that?” I asked, calmly. I had a feeling I knew the answer.
“Eli,” she admitted with a slightly guilty look, like she felt bad for even thinking it. “He said some things at lunch suggesting it might be him.”
Yup, I was right. Eli had cast blame on his former business partner, and well, in my mind, there was nothing more suspicious than that. “Did Eli have a reason for thinking Andrew might have skimmed the money?” I asked evenly.
“He told me that Andrew has been in love with my mother for years.” Ruby added a what’s the deal with that look. “What a thing to say out of nowhere.”
I frowned, thinking over past conversations with my client. “Actually, Andrew gave your mom an offhand kind of compliment yesterday. He said you take after her.”
Ruby gave a short but genuine laugh. “That’s not necessarily a compliment.”
Running my hand over her calf, I assured her, “It is if she’s as tenacious and strong as her daughter.”
Crinkling her freckled nose, she set her empty glass on the ground and pushed up onto her elbows. “Jake,” she said softly, “do you trust Andrew? How do we know for sure what he’s told you is legit?”
“Kate vetted everything beforehand. I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t believe his info was solid and checked out,” I said, feeling enough certainty for both of us. Maybe I could impart some of my own to her.
“What if Kate made a mistake though?”
I blinked at this unexpected turn. “Excuse me?”
“What if those documents and emails were doctored?”
“No. I saw them myself.” Where was she going? I thought we were past this distrust. Also, it was one thing to doubt my character when she barely knew me and another to doubt actual evidence. “Kate specializes in document analysis. She doesn’t make mistakes.”
Ruby hummed thoughtfully, like she was accepting my answer. “Maybe I’d feel differently if I weren’t so personally involved.” Her voice was threaded with frustration as much as suspicion. “I just feel like I’ve had to take people’s word for everything, and it’s led to nothing but dead ends and, oh yeah, the theft of the one thing I did have,” she said, so clearly disappointed. “I don’t want to take Eli’s word for things either. I’m just tired of being in the dark.”
I paused, soaking that in. I’d said I understood that she felt torn, but I could only imagine. It was personal for Ruby in a different way.
“Ruby,” I said softly, and running my fingertips down her arm. She tensed. Selfishly, I couldn’t risk fighting with her like this. There was too much at stake. She might tip off Eli. She might turn her back on me. She might cross me. I didn’t think she would, but she could.
But even more than that, I hated to see her hurting.
I skimmed my fingers down her bare skin once more. This time, she softened. “I know it’s hard. I want to solve this too. I get that it’s tough for you because it’s personal,” I whispered.
“Thanks for understanding. I almost wish I’d left it alone. I feel helpless,” she said in a broken whisper, devoid of anger now, laced only with sadness. “I feel like we’re being set up. Everywhere we turn, we hit a snag.”
“That’s the nature of a case like this. Three steps forward. Two steps back.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the diamonds were with the charity. Or with Nigel. He made the strangest comment when I left today that made me think he knew the combo to my safe. Or maybe Tristan has them. He’s trying to make a deal with my stepdad to carry some new drink.”
“Or with the sex-toy diamond saleswoman,” I said, thinking it was more likely Monica had lifted the diamond from Ruby’s room the other night. She knew the value, after all. She knew Ruby too. “It’s entirely possible that she wanted that diamond of yours from the second I showed it to her at the store. She could have followed us to figure out where you were staying.”
“See? This is my point. I’m being followed. People are stealing from me. My stepdad’s manager makes odd comments. I just want to do my job. But there’s still this one big, fat issue for me,” she said, stopping to take a beat and meeting my gaze. “What if Eli is telling me the truth?”
I didn’t trust the guy, but he didn’t raise me, so I carefully asked, “Do you believe him?”
She frowned. “I don’t know what to believe. It’s not even about the jewels anymore, Jake. Or who they should or shouldn’t belong to,” she said, dragging a hand through her hair. “I don’t know what to believe about him.”
I didn’t know how to reassure her or if I even could. I didn’t have to grapple with the same issues she did. Eli had helped raise her, he’d lived with her, he’d taken her to kiss stingrays. That bond wasn’t easily dismissed, despite his sins and omissions on other fronts.
But to me, Eli was simply the target. I didn’t have to divorce my emotions; there were none.
I ran my hands down her legs, reaching for her foot. Her eyes drifted closed, and she moaned softly as I pressed my thumbs against the ball of her foot. A contented sigh fell from her lips as I massaged her heels, her arch, her toes, all the way to her little pinkie. I wiggled it, and she laughed, a sweet sound, like bells.
I rubbed my way up, digging my fingers into the strong muscles of her legs. Her legs had hooked me that first night. I still loved them of course, but that instant attraction had shifted into the kind of something where I wanted her to be happy, where I wanted to bring that sparkle back to her eyes.
I reached her thighs, and she let one knee fall to the side.
Oh, hell. I wasn’t strong enough. I didn’t possess enough restraint to rub her legs in a hammock in public. I wanted her too much.
“Let me take you to our room and make you feel better,” I offered.
A soft, sensual smile was her yes.
Inside the room, I lifted her dress over her shoulders, then slid off her panties. She took off my clothes, with neither one of us saying anything. Only sighs. Only murmurs. Only touches. Words weren’t needed. I wanted to comfort her with touch.
After walking backward to the bed, I pulled her on top of me, cupped her cheeks, and brushed her hair from her face. I stopped to look at her, to memorize her. Her lips parted, and there it was. That hazy, sexy, vulnerable look that I adored. It was a look of longing that matched my own.
She whispered my name, then said, “Take me. I want you to take me.”
“All I want is to have you,” I said, desperate for her, but even in my desperation I heard the promise in my own words, and felt it too, as I reached for a condom on the nightstand, covered my length, then pulled her on top of me. Lust and desire stormed in me as she lowered herself, then rolled her hips.
It felt so damn good. This closeness. This connection. This moment with her. All the moments with her. “This,” she murmured. “This is my favorite part.”
I knew what she meant. She didn’t mean the position or this particular second. She meant the two of us and all we’d shared.
“You,” she added. “You’re my favorite part.”
I grabbed her waist, held her gaze as she rode me. “I swear you’re mine too.”
Her throaty, sexy moan made me crave her even more. I wanted to do this again and again, over and over, every goddamn night. The heat spread, turning to wildfire. I was dangerously close, and her shuddery sighs told me she was too.
I grasped her hips and flipped her to her back. “Need to have you. Need to take you hard now,” I rasped out, parting her legs wider, hooking them up on my shoulders. Then I drove into her. She threw her head back, her long neck exposed, her hair spread across the pillow. “Don’t wait,” she moaned. “Don’t wait this time. Just come with me.”
So much for my promise to give her three before I took one. I couldn’t hold back if I tried. In seconds, she was trembling in bliss as shudders racked through me.
Shaking with lust and surging emotions, I collapsed on her, folding her in my arms, not wanting to let go. I breathed in the coconut scent of her hair and sighed in pleasure as she snuggled up against me, taking everything I had to give.
I was so tempted to ask what would happen when the trip was over. Neither one of us had voiced it. We hadn’t acknowledged that we didn’t live that far from each other. Maybe now was the time to do that. A relationship was a scary beast, but maybe we could find a way to try.
“Ruby,” I said tentatively.
“Yes?” Her voice sounded hopeful.
I felt all that hope too. “We don’t live that far apart,” I said, broaching the topic at last—whether we could be more than an island tryst.
“I know,” she said, softly, sounding happy, like she’d wanted me to say this too. “I like that we’re close.”
“Same here,” I said.
She sighed contentedly. I kissed her neck. She’d had a helluva day, so I wasn’t going to press for more or for plans. This was enough for now.
We’d opened the door.
The problem was when she wriggled against me, she murmured. “I kind of don’t care about the diamonds anymore.”
I tensed. I didn’t have that same luxury. I couldn’t walk away. The more I got lost in her, the more I risked what I loved most—even if I was dangerously close to feeling something I hadn’t dared experience in ages.