Caribbean Cowboy: Under the Caribbean Sun, Book 4 Read online

  “What’s a thunderbird?”

  “A giant bird of our folktales. Thunder is the beating of its wings and lightning is the blinking of his eyes, which can strike anything dead, even whales.”

  “So in rock, paper, scissors, it’s the bomb?”

  He chuckled. “Pretty much.”

  “And the circles on your back?”

  “The emblems of the Hansen boats, Lady Kaya and Bragging Rights.” He tugged gently on her hair so she looked up at him. “But if you’re thinking about getting a peek at them right now, there is something you’ll need to take care of. I don’t think I can lie on my stomach like this.”

  “Oh, you poor thing.” She grinned and he rolled her on top of him. She sat up and reached for the last condom. “You’re putting me to work this early in the morning?”

  “I’m a hard-driving foreman. We’re just getting started.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Be honest,” Holly said with her hands on her hips. “Do I look pregnant?”

  “Not at all.” Nik smiled at his perfectly dressed sister getting herself dusty. She ought to know better than to wear nice clothes at the property. “You’re sure he actually knocked you up?”

  Holly relaxed her stance. “I’ve had to buy new bras twice.”

  “Whoa there.” Nik held up his hand. “Save that shit for your girlfriends.”

  “I think being tall is working in my favor. Right now, I just look thick, like I’ve put on married weight. I just don’t want to out myself at the engagement dinner tonight. Which you’re going to, by the way.”

  Nik looked out at what would be a field someday soon, God willing. “Tom and Mel just got here, and we have a lot of work to do.”

  “It’s just dinner. And you didn’t feel too terrible about ditching them last night.”

  He shrugged. “They were tired, and I wanted to make sure we hit the ground running this morning. I hired a dozen guys for the whole week. I had to be ready so that I could get Harm’s money’s worth.”

  “So you stayed out here last night?” When she tilted her head to the side and let her long hair fall over her shoulder, she looked just like their mother.

  “I haven’t had a curfew in a decade, Mom.”

  “Janny seemed awfully interested in you yesterday.”

  “You mean when she suggested seasickness is all in my head?” He’d never been much of a liar, so he hoped Holly wouldn’t push.

  “Doctors like to solve medical problems. I just wanted to make sure you’re not taking advantage of her interest.”

  He leveled his gaze at her, because silence made Holly keep talking.

  “I’ve really come to like her, and I don’t want to have to defend you when you break her.”

  He looked over his shoulder and then back at his sister. “Are you talking to me? Because what the hell?”

  “I don’t want Janny to pine over you, especially now that you’ve brought Mel here.”

  “Oh, please. Mel and I have been done for years. Hell, we were done while we were together.” He glanced toward Mel and only felt bad that she had to wear a tank in this heat while the guys could go shirtless. They’d been convenient and sexually compatible. Nothing more.

  “You think Melanie came to Anguilla to help you with the setup and expects nothing in return?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Mel looks all woman, but she’s mentally a guy. She doesn’t think the way you do. She’s here for ducks and bees. Tom is here for grass and peaches. She doesn’t want my ass any more than Tommy does.”

  “You’re so wrong, little brother. A woman doesn’t leave the country unless there’s a reason.”

  He held up two fingers. “Ducks, bees. To someone like Mel, being able to study them in a new environment is fascinating. And frankly, it’s sexist as hell that you’re questioning her motives and not Tommy’s.”

  “See, defending her already.” Holly grinned as if she had everything figured out.

  He held up his hands. There was no point in arguing when he had work to do. “Fine, Mel is here to learn about the birds and the bees. Take that however you want. I need to get back to making sure my fences are in the right place.”

  “Don’t be late tonight!” Holly yelled once he’d turned his back.

  He had far better things to do than dine with someone else’s family drama.

  Janny gripped her steering wheel. The windshield framed the scene worthy of a romance-novel cover. Tall, dark, handsome and shirtless, Nick stood behind a beautiful woman. The fresh-faced country-girl kind of lovely Janny would never be. With a curvy figure not-so camouflaged in worn jeans and a white tank, and a long braid pulled over her shoulder, she would be every cowboy’s dream girl. The kind of woman to build his ranch beside him, give him a dozen cherubic babies while making sure supper made it to the table every night.

  The cowboy’s sweetheart gazed up at Nik, a wide smile lifting her features. They had a comfortable ease about them, standing far too close to be strangers. He moved behind her, slipped his arms around hers and whispered in her ear. And then they began to laugh. It was a live-action nightmare, one she’d lived through before. Janny tried to breathe, but her lungs seized. Nik’s perfect future played out before her eyes, and Janny choked on a sob.

  She’d seen this kind of matched set before, when Sebastian would bring his family to Anguilla. She’d been too young to understand much, but she’d known who he’d chosen. The wife, the children, the life she could never be part of. They say women tend to date men like their fathers, and hadn’t she nailed that one.

  Her only solace would be that no one would know how she’d been a victim to her romantic inclinations, her primal desires. Except as she tried to drag her gaze from Nik and the woman he must have brought here, she began to realize that there were other people there too. Faces she recognized, like Kristin’s brother and the son of a nurse she worked with. She didn’t wait to see any more, just put the car into reverse, hitting the gas so hard she nearly spun out.

  Her vision blurred as she took off down the unpaved road. She blinked the unfamiliar tears away, swiping at them with the back of her hand. She didn’t cry. Ever. And certainly not about a man. Before she made it back to town, she pulled off onto a side road and turned off the car. All morning she’d been thinking of Nik, of how things might be able to work with him because, well, because nothing.

  She’d seen all the sinkholes in their road together and known they’d never make it very far. She loved being a doctor, delivering babies and taking care of women and spending more time at the hospital than others deemed necessary. People admired her, respected her in a way her mother had never been able to earn. And she’d be damned if she’d let Nik Hansen come to her island and turn her into a laughingstock.

  Her mother had heard all the right things from Sebastian, and all his promises had been empty. A means to his end. She probably ought to thank Nik for showing her so clearly and quickly that vulnerability had no place in her life. No matter how she’d felt about him, how she’d thought he felt about her, they didn’t have a future. Hell, they didn’t even have an actual relationship. Nik had left her bed this morning and had another, much-better-suited woman in his arms by lunch. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing mascara everywhere.

  She turned to the passenger seat and reached for the napkins in the picnic basket she’d packed. Only the romantic notion of a picnic with Nik had the waterworks starting again. Damn it.

  An engine roared behind her, so Janny continued to study the basket, hoping the passerby wouldn’t stop. Because she had no explanation for crying into her pasta salad. She did her best to clean her face with a napkin and slow her breathing because really, there was no excuse for this kind of behavior. She knew better than anyone the disasters that came from expecting anything of a man. Kisses weren’t promises, after all.

&n
bsp; The motorcycle skidded beside her and spun to a stop in front of her car. Dust hung in the air as Nik climbed off the bike and marched toward her. She grabbed her sunglasses and shoved them on her face.

  “What the hell was that about?” Nik braced his hands on the door of her convertible.

  Finally, her brain clicked on. “There’s an emergency at work. I need to go.”

  “Sure, Princess, that’s why you’re on the side of the road. Try again. Truth this time.”

  She reached for the picnic basket and lifted it onto the door, right onto one of his hands. He didn’t move it. “I brought you lunch but didn’t know there would be an audience.”

  “Right, because you don’t want anyone to know about us.” He jerked the basket from her hands and dropped it to the ground. “Well, you might want to try a quieter exit next time. Harm was about to follow you. He doesn’t take to kindly to being told to back off.”

  Oh, hell, of all the people to witness her downfall. A warm flush heated her cheeks. She’d no doubt pay for this in so many ways. There’d been a whole crew working there, watching her drive away in her red convertible. She could positively hear the wheels creaking on the rumor mill.

  “Harm will get used to it, Janny. He’s not pleased right now, but he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on. He knocked up my sister and forced her into a shotgun wedding.”

  She twisted the napkin in her hands. Sure, this could be about Harm. Not that she’d noticed he was there. She hadn’t looked past how perfect Nik’s future had appeared through her windshield.

  “I told you I’m done sneaking around.”

  She swallowed the boulder lodged in her throat and turned to face him, hoping a shrug gave her a nonchalant air. “Then we’re done.”

  He leaned closer, folding his forearms on her door. “You know what I don’t understand, Princess? You hate being your father’s secret, yet you want me to be yours. I think you two share more than DNA.”

  Fire burned in her chest as she sat up taller in her seat. She was nothing like Sebastian.

  “What happened to the woman I was with this morning?”

  “You traded her in for a new model this afternoon.” She tossed the napkin onto the empty seat.

  “What are you talking about?” He stood and pushed a hand over his hair. “I’m missing a piece to this puzzle.”

  “I don’t know, Nik. It seems you have a piece back at the ranch.”

  He choked out a laugh. “Are you kidding me? All of this drama because there’s a woman here to help with setting up the ranch? Mel has a master’s degree in agriculture development. She’s here as a favor, and she’s nobody’s piece.”

  Janny looked up at him, grateful for the oversized sunglasses. She’d seen an intimacy in their connection and it had rocked her to the core. “So you’ve never slept with her?”

  His hard features froze, dark eyes narrowing.

  She threw the car in drive, knocking over the bike in the process. But she couldn’t bring herself to care. Caring was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. She would not let herself be buried under an avalanche of emotion, not when she could outrun it.

  Harm and Holly’s rooftop terrace was the last place Janny wanted to be, especially since Nik had decided to join the family engagement dinner. But she wouldn’t be the one to leave, be the one to hide away and lick her wounds. She wouldn’t let anyone know she had any, even if it meant bleeding to death. This was her island. And Kristin and Saskia were her friends. No one was taking that away—not hot-pants Nik or DNA-donor Sebastian.

  She leaned close to Kristin. “We should have a girls’ night. Maybe a slumber party like we did when we were kids?”

  “I’d love that. Maybe tomorrow? You can fill me in on what happened today at the ranch because—”

  Sebastian Prinsen tapped his knife against his wine glass and the ringing grabbed the attention of the table. Conversation hushed, and she watched as everyone turned to look at him. Except for Nik, he kept his gaze on her.

  The older man stood, his white hair shining in the lights. “Thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate Tonnis and Kristin. I can’t tell you what it means to have my family together, united once more.”

  Tonnis clapped his father on the back, ever present at his right hand. “Proost!” Sebastian offered in toast.

  She clinked glasses with everyone except the two men she wished would spontaneously combust. The water she drank did nothing to chill her annoyance.

  Sebastian remained standing. “With all my children in one place, I think it’s time I joined them on Anguilla. All of them.”

  He turned his gaze toward Janny, and she clutched the edge of the table. Surely the fool wouldn’t do anything here, with so much to celebrate. It was like her day had turned into a bad joke, one without a punch line.

  “There is a part of my life I’ve allowed to be kept from you.” Sebastian kept speaking as if he weren’t twisting a knife in her back. “But no more. We are family, and that is to be celebrated, not hidden.”

  “Don’t do this. Tonight is about Kristin and Antonnis, not you” Janny whispered. She schooled her features into what she hoped was a mask of calm. She’d betrayed enough emotion for one day.

  “I must, Jannis. I want my sons to know you as their sister.” Gasps and questions rose around the table as her eyes drifted shut in defeat.

  “What are you saying? This makes no sense.” Joe leaned forward, as did his younger brother. “You had an affair before our mother died? My God, while she was sick?”

  “No, not an affair.” Sebastian shook his head.

  “Stop. For once, tell the truth.” Janny pushed up from the table. Her life had been completely filleted open, exposed and vulnerable for everyone to see. She wanted to scream and cry and stomp and throw things.

  “This is my truth.” She stared at him, wishing he understood just how much he hurt the people around him with his lies.

  “You know, Prinsen.” Nik stood, his expression dark and angry. “Where I come from, when a woman says stop, you stop.”

  “This is none of your concern.” Sebastian whipped his gaze toward Nik.

  Janny pressed her fingernails into the palms of her hands, wanting to pitch the entire scene off the deck and into the ocean. Kristin was too concerned with Antonnis to look her in the eye, and everyone else seemed focused on Sebastian. Except Nik. He was the one standing, the only one standing up for her.

  “The lady asked you to stop, twice now. I’m not going to sit by and let you ignore that.”

  “Then you should leave. It’s time for everything to finally be out in the open.”

  Janny stepped away from the table. “Your one-sided explanation, which has nothing to do with the reality I lived. I’m not going to stay here and listen to your rewrite of history and paint my mother as something she isn’t.”

  “As you wish.” Sebastian gave a regal nod, as if dismissing her.

  Nik’s blood boiled in his veins as Janny walked away. Why did this man want to claim her as a daughter if he didn’t respect her enough to have a voice? He turned to Harm.

  “This is your house, isn’t it? You let him decide who stays and who leaves? Classy.”

  Harm shot him a glare, but he wasn’t done. ”Kristin, you’re going to sit here while he treats your best friend like this?” She dropped her gaze and Nik shook his head. “Wow. You’re her friends? Her family?”

  Tonnis shook his head. “We’re just trying to get answers here, Nik. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

  “Except this fun house is what my sister married into.”

  Holly touched his arm. “This isn’t about me.”

  “Really? Your husband knew, has always known. Did he tell you?”

  From the way her shoulders straightened, he had his answer. “Remember how long Se
bastian has lied to all of you when you hear his side of things.”

  “That’s enough!” the old man shouted.

  Nik pushed his chair aside and started toward the door. “That’s probably the first and last time we agree on anything.”

  Janny shook her hands, trying to get them to stop trembling. She wanted to drive, get away, but the cars were all parked so close around her in Harm’s drive that she didn’t dare back out in a rage. She’d already hit one thing today, she didn’t need to add more to that list.

  But then Nik was stalking toward her and she really needed to move. She tried to get her keys in the ignition and missed.

  “Move over.” Nik pulled open her door. When she didn’t move, he lifted her up and dropped her in the passenger seat. He climbed in and grabbed the keys from her hand. “Breathe.”

  She scrambled to right herself, fastening her seatbelt as he spun the car in reverse. A lifetime of foreboding anticipation hadn’t prepared her for Sebastian’s ambush. What she’d dreaded had come to pass, and left her as outcast and alone as she’d feared. Except for Nik.

  She’d never imagined a dark knight to defend her or spirit her away from the scene. She rested her head on the back of the seat while he maneuvered past the opulent villas of the ultra-rich and the resorts that had corrupted the pristine shoreline, to the side of the island less spoiled. The side she belonged to.

  Stars gleamed brighter the farther they drove, her cluttered thoughts clearing as her mind calmed. There was no hiding Sebastian’s secret any longer. His sons might have questions or disdain, but they’d likely keep all of that to themselves. There would be a fresh wave of gossip, but this time her mother wouldn’t have to pretend not to hear it because she was safe at her nursing job in the Australian outback. Out of cell range and beyond the need for internet. By the time she called home, everything would have blown over.

  Nik slowed to steer around a family of goats sleeping beneath a flowering frangipani tree. Darkness dulled the bright colors of the clapboard houses they passed, this part of the island hushed in the sleep of those that had to work for a living. He turned down a street more path than road, lowering them from atop a limestone bluff to scrub grass that faded into the ocean. He stopped the car and turned it off. Quiet stillness surrounded them, darkness shrouding them when he flipped off the headlights. Down the coast, the lights of the city twinkled as tourists made their vacation last long into the night. The sea hushed against the sand below, whispering in the shadows.