Man Overboard

Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Epilogue

One

Harrison Powell leaned against the railing of the Caribbean Mermaid’s Lido Deck, perusing the stream of passengers boarding below him. His gaze stopped on a tall, slender woman with a short cap of platinum blond hair. “There she is, in the red dress,” he told the man standing beside him.

The other man, James Blair, peered at the woman through binoculars. He issued a low whistle. “That’s her, looking sharp as ever. I can’t believe she’s fifty-eight years old. I thought she was more like forty-five.”

“A face lift never hurts,” Harrison said. His investigation into Aurora Cheevers’s background had uncovered numerous interesting facts about her in addition to the cosmetic surgery. She’d been married and divorced four times; she was addicted to playing the Florida Lottery; and she had a twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Paige, who was even prettier than her mother, though in a much more subtle way.

The most fascinating fact about Aurora, however, was that her extravagant life-style far exceeded her income. Which lent credence to his theory that she was the Caribbean Mermaid’s jewel thief, the one he’d been hired to catch before any adverse publicity could get out.

“Would you stop staring at Aurora through those binoculars?” Harrison said, scowling at James, the ship’s security director. A lot of pressure had been put on James to put an end to the daring thefts, which was why he’d hired Harrison.

“She’s worth staring at, even if she is old enough to be my mother,” James replied in a distracted tone. “Nice legs. You’ll have some competition, I guarantee.”

Harrison grimaced at the reminder of the plan he and James had agreed on. Aurora had a known penchant for younger men. Harrison intended to take advantage of that fact, playing the ardent suitor in order to stay close to her. If he couldn’t catch her in the act, he intended to get inside her cabin and find conclusive evidence that she was the thief he sought.

James had wanted to simply wait for a theft to occur, then search Aurora’s cabin. The ship’s captain could authorize it. But the captain was adamant about protecting his passengers’ privacy. He would not move against Aurora until he saw compelling evidence indicating she was the culprit. It was up to Harrison to provide that evidence.

The role of suitor wasn’t one he looked forward to. His work usually involved behind-the-scenes investigation for the large security firm he worked for, not undercover jobs. But sometimes he didn’t have a choice in which jobs he accepted. This was one of those times.

A younger woman standing next to Aurora caught Harrison’s attention. He couldn’t tell much from this distance, but...no, wait a minute. She did look familiar—petite and shapely, auburn hair that hung thick and rich past her shoulders, a generous mouth.

“Give me those binoculars,” he said, nearly jerking James’s head off as he made a grab for the glasses while the strap was still around the other man’s neck. The moment he observed the magnified image of the woman, his suspicions were confirmed. “That’s Aurora’s daughter, Paige Stovall. What’s she doing here? I thought Aurora always traveled alone.”

“She does. I didn’t know she had a daughter.”

“That’s why you hired me.”

“Are you sure that’s her?”

“I’m sure,” Harrison answered grimly. He’d only seen her once, from a distance, during the two weeks he’d had Aurora under surveillance. But he’d seen enough of Paige to know she was the sort of woman who made his knees go weak, not to mention any good intentions he might have.

Green eyes, freckles and old-fashioned curves. The combination was lethal to his libido.

James reclaimed his binoculars. “She doesn’t look much like her mother, but she’s not bad, either. Damn. Do you think this will foul things up? Aurora might not want to risk stealing jewelry with her daughter around.”

“I’ll just have to keep the daughter conveniently out of the way, somehow.”

“I could distract her.”

The suggestive note in James’s voice set Harrison’s teeth on edge. He appraised the man anew. James was the sort a lot of women went for. He wasn’t a large man, but he was blond and pretty-boy handsome, clean-cut without even the shadow of a beard. He might be able to turn Paige’s head.

“No, James, forget it. Acting a role is a lot trickier than it sounds. I don’t want either woman’s suspicions to be even mildly aroused.”

“Who says I’d be acting?” James countered, again peering toward the boarding passengers. “Blondes are more my style, but this chick is tolerable. And it’s not suspicions I’d like to arouse.”

Harrison closed his eyes and silently counted to ten. “James, this might be our only chance to catch Aurora Cheevers. Do not, I repeat, do not, screw this up.”

He studied Paige once more. The wind molded her pistachio green skirt to her shapely legs and teased her auburn curls. Holding her hair away from her face with one hand, she laughed at something her mother said.

Harrison’s mouth went dry. Tolerable? Paige was undeniably gorgeous, yet she carried an air of innocence about her that was endlessly appealing to Harrison. Too bad his job was to entrap her mother and send her to jail.

* * *

Paige Stovall hated every square inch of the Caribbean Mermaid before the ship had even cleared the Miami dock. She couldn’t tolerate a lot of sun, she wasn’t much good at shuffleboard, and the idea of Las Vegas-style shows made her long for her own bed and a good book.

And then there was the seasickness.

“Did you take your motion sickness pills?” Aurora asked.

“Yes, Mother.”

“Paige,” Aurora huffed, “don’t call me that. I don’t want anyone to know I’m old enough to have a twenty-seven-year-old daughter. For this week I’m not a day over forty-five, and you’re my niece.”

Paige could only shake her head as she hung her new clothes in the surprisingly roomy closet of their first-class suite. She had to admit their quarters were more luxurious than she would have guessed possible aboard a ship. They even had a small veranda.

Her mother’s room was on the other side of a connecting door. She’d tried to get Aurora to share a single cabin, but Aurora had ruled that out immediately. What if one of them had a guest? she’d discreetly pointed out.

That’s just what Paige was worried about. Aurora was definitely on the prowl—husband hunting again. Every time she went on a cruise, she came home married, or nearly so. Paige was determined her mother was not going to hook up with another loser.

Aurora eyed her daughter’s simple green skirt and cotton print blouse, then pursed her lips disapprovingly. “You’re not going to the cocktail party like that, are you?”

“What’s wrong with this?” Paige asked defensively.

“Well, nothing, if you’re teaching school. But this is a cruise. Liven up, girl! Put on one of those cute outfits I bought for you. First impressions are essential. You want to make an impact during the first official cruise function, start carving out your territory.” As she spoke, she pawed through Paige’s closet.

Paige wondered what Aurora meant by carving out territory.

“Now this—this is perfect,” Aurora said, pulling from the closet a crisp, white shorts outfit trimmed in navy blue piping. “I have a little navy straw hat that’ll go perfectly. Wait right here.” She thrust the outfit at Paige and disappeared through the connecting door.

With a sigh, Paige began undressing. This was a familiar scene. Aurora was always trying to turn her daughter into a clothes horse, and it never worked out. With her short stature and curvy figure, Paige simply wasn’t the high-fashion type. Whenever she took Aurora’s advice, she ended up looking like an overdressed doll instead of a sophisticated woman. But Aurora simply refused to understand that Paige’s personal style was quite different from her mother’s.

Well, what did it matter? Maybe if Aurora spent the next seven days dressing Paige and telling her how to behave on a cruise, she would be too busy to meet and fall in love with some freeloading bum.

Aurora had a real talent for picking the most inappropriate men to marry. The only exception to that rule was Aurora’s first husband, Paige’s father. He was the one who’d convinced Paige to brave the hated cruise ship in order to keep her mother out of matrimonial trouble. Bobby Stovall had bailed Aurora out of more than one disastrous marriage and continued to support her financially, although his legal obligation to do so had ended long ago. He was still genuinely fond of her—but he’d made it clear that if she married again, he would cut her off for good.

Paige didn’t want that. Aurora needed Bobby, although she would never admit it.

Fifteen minutes later, feeling rather foolish in the hat Aurora had insisted she wear, Paige walked with her mother onto the Lido Deck, where a lavish buffet of fresh fruit, cheese and crackers awaited them. A smiling waiter thrust a glass of champagne into Paige’s hand. Since champagne always gave her a headache, she set the full glass on the first empty tray she saw.

“Come on, let’s get in line for the food,” Aurora said as she surveyed the milling crowd with a practiced eye. Then, under her breath, she added, “Gawd, is there anyone here under seventy?”

There did seem to be a preponderance of silver hair and canes among the Caribbean Mermaid’s passengers, but no shortage of male hormones, if the stares Aurora drew were any indication. Even in her clever new outfit, Paige felt like a plain brown duck next to her mother.

It had always been like that.

The two women found a table and sat down with their plates of fresh fruit. Aurora nibbled at a melon wedge disinterestedly as she continued to eye the crowd. “Where are all the good-looking men?”

“What about that one over there?” Paige said, nodding toward a distinguished, sixtyish-looking man with a head of thick, silver hair and a healthy tan. He looked pretty respectable.

“Oh, that’s Doc Waller,” Aurora said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “He’s a widower. I’ve met him on several cruises. He’s quite a nice gentleman, but...too old for me. They’re all too old. I hope this cruise doesn’t turn out to be a total waste of—wait a minute!” She grew very still, and her sharp blue eyes stared intently at some point in the distance. “Would you look at that?” she whispered.

“What?” Paige asked, squinting in the same direction. Then she saw him, and she wondered how they’d missed him before. Standing a good head taller than most of the people around him, he possessed the sort of lean, hard good looks one might expect to see on a man driving a race car or climbing a mountain. His hair, a rich, dark brown with slight silvering at the temples, was longer than conservative fashion dictated, and the wind rippled it like a woman’s fingers would. His impossibly wide shoulders stretched the confines of the cotton print shirt he wore, and his legs appeared too muscular, too powerful, for his tame, white twill shorts.

He was easily the best-looking man Paige had seen in months. Years, maybe. Unfortunately, there was a comely dark-haired woman clinging to his arm.

He was talking to another man, one of comparable age—late thirties, Paige guessed—and nice looking, but not in the same league as the tall, dark-haired one.

“Not bad, eh?” Aurora commented from the side of her mouth. “And there are two of them.”

“Mother! Aside from the fact that they’re both young enough to be your—”

“Bite your tongue,” Aurora whispered. “And stop calling me Mother.”

“All right, Aurora. But you talk like those two men are a couple of ripe plums we can just pick from a tree. What makes you think either of them will have the slightest interest in us?”

“Instinct, my dear,” Aurora purred. “And besides, I don’t see much competition.”

“You don’t see the large-breasted brunette in the halter top, breathing into the taller man’s ear?” Paige asked dryly.

“Oh, her. She’s too young to hold his interest for long. Now, a man like that, he no doubt appreciates a woman with a little sophistication, one who’s been around the block.”

“How about one who’s been around the world a couple of times?” Paige murmured.

“What?”

“Nothing. Oh, Lord, they’re coming this way.” Paige quickly pretended interest in her strawberries.

“Well, of course they’re coming this way. I gave them my look.”

“What look?”

“The one that says, ‘You interest me.’ Not too bold. Just a brief holding of eye contact, between one and two seconds. Oh, nuts, that bosomy brunette waylaid them again.”

Paige looked up. Her gaze immediately caught and held with the dark-haired man’s—one second, two seconds, three, four...

“Psst! Paige, that’s long enough,” Aurora hissed.

Paige reluctantly broke eye contact. “What?” she asked, feeling a little dazed. His eyes were dark brown, just like his hair. Even from this distance she could easily lose herself in those velvety brown depths.

“The look you’re giving him is saying a lot more than you want it to, I’m afraid. Watch it.”

“Watch what?”

Aurora threw up her hands. “How in the hell did I raise such an innocent daughter?”

“Just because I don’t play games with my eyes doesn’t mean I’m innocent,” Paige pointed out. “Anyway, what’s wrong with a little innocence?”

“It’s no fun, that’s what’s wrong.”

“Well, I may not be the most worldly woman, but at least I don’t get married at the drop of a hat.” The unfortunate words were out of Paige’s mouth before she could stop them, and she immediately regretted her pettiness. For all her seeming worldly sophistication, Aurora really was the naive one. Despite her checkered past filled with less-than-honorable men, she still would believe anything a handsome man told her. She had never developed that hard edge of cynicism so common among women of her age and circumstances.

“I may be divorced four times, but I’ve fallen in love and married four times, too,” Aurora said quietly. “And I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. There is nothing more glorious than falling in love, even if you know it’s not going to last. And you, my dear, are going to be a dried-up prune by the time you’re thirty if you don’t find yourself a man.” She downed the last of her champagne in one gulp and banged her glass on the table so hard that Paige jumped.

“I’m sorry, Moth—I mean, Aurora. That was an ugly and hurtful thing I said, and I didn’t mean it.”

Aurora wiped her mouth delicately with her napkin. “And you’re a long way from being a prune,” she conceded gracefully. “If only you’d loosen up a little...”

“I’ll try. I promise.” And maybe she really would. That man with the brown eyes could certainly inspire her to try. Of course, that was probably just her neglected hormones talking. Her love life could definitely use some shoring up. It wasn’t that she didn’t want a man in her life. She just didn’t seem to communicate well with the opposite sex, at least not on a romantic wavelength. Most men tended to treat her like someone’s kid sister.

“Mind if we sit down?” a voice beside her asked.

Paige almost swallowed whole the strawberry she’d just popped into her mouth. He was here, Mr. Gorgeous, sans the brunette. He stared at her with those warm brown eyes, his gaze checking her out in a most unbrotherly way, roaming from the top of her head to her waist and back up, lingering on her full breasts. Her nipples tightened reflexively, and she could only hope they didn’t show.

Her face grew warm as she struggled for something clever and sophisticated to say.

“Please, join us,” Aurora said, easing over the awkward moment. “I just love meeting new people on these cruises. I’m Aurora Cheevers, and this is my niece, Paige Stovall.”

Both men nodded and sat down, offering their names, as well. The tall one was Harrison Powell, a name that seemed to fit perfectly; the shorter, blond man was James something. Paige didn’t like the way James looked at her, although his gaze certainly wasn’t as bold as Harrison’s had been.

“Is this your first cruise?” Aurora asked both men, but her eyes focused on Harrison. She tapped a cigarette out of a pack she’d pulled from her purse and inserted it into a holder. Harrison took her lighter and flicked it, cupping his hand around the flame to protect it from the wind.

Aurora touched his hand briefly to steady it, then smiled, a sly, cat’s-in-the-cream smile Paige had seen a hundred times.

Inwardly Paige sighed. Her mother sure didn’t waste much time.

“Actually, this is my first cruise,” Harrison said. “And you?”

Aurora gave a throaty laugh. “Oh, my goodness, I’ve lost track of the number of cruises I’ve been on. I’m positively addicted to the Caribbean. But this is Paige’s first, isn’t it, dear?”

“Yes. Mmm-hmm.” Brilliant. Her mind felt like it was on novocaine.

“And what about you, James?” Aurora asked. “I do believe you look familiar to me.”

“I work for Mermaid Cruise Line, in administration,” he said with a charming smile. “I’m usually holed up in the offices down in the bowels of the ship, and I don’t often get to socialize with the passengers. My loss.” He looked at Paige as he said this.

Oh, brother, she thought. This James obviously believed he was a real smooth operator. Well, he could just operate on someone else. She wasn’t interested.

Now, Harrison was another story.

“What made you decide to come on a cruise?” Aurora asked Harrison.

“Actually, I’m thinking of investing in the Mermaid Line. But I never put my money into something without thoroughly investigating it first.” He shrugged. “This is part of the investigation.”

“And do you like what you see so far?” Aurora asked.

“Very much.”

Aurora’s and Harrison’s gazes locked for a brief interlude. But not so brief that Paige didn’t see what was going on. Her mother was in the process of making another conquest.

The realization hit Paige in the stomach. It shouldn’t bother her, really. Men were always attracted to Aurora. Men fell in love with Aurora. They flocked around her in crowds, vying for her attention. She was so sweet and easy to be with, they said. Instinctively she knew just how to make them feel handsome and desirable and utterly masculine.

Paige had witnessed it dozens of times. Why, then, did it suddenly bother her so much? Was it because the object of Aurora’s attention just happened to be the one man on this whole godforsaken ship that interested Paige?

Feelings Paige thought she had long ago dealt with rushed to the surface. The incident with Curtis Rittenour hadn’t been Aurora’s fault, she reminded herself. Aurora had just been her usual bubbly, charming self.

Curtis had been an older man—all of thirty-four to Paige’s star-struck twenty-three—and a sophisticated, wealthy doctor. Paige had been convinced he was her destiny. The man had showered her with attention. He’d seemed very pleased when Paige had nervously invited him to travel to Ft. Lauderdale with her from Miami, where she was in graduate school, and meet her mother.

Poor Curtis. He hadn’t even had a chance. The moment he’d set eyes on Aurora, he’d fallen in love with the swiftness of a diver leaping from the high board—although without the grace.

To her credit, Aurora had not encouraged him in any way. But Aurora didn’t have to encourage. Smitten, Curtis had pursued her relentlessly to the point of buying her a diamond ring. Never mind that Aurora had made it clear she did not reciprocate his feelings. It had taken Bobby’s intervention to get rid of the guy.

All that was ancient history, Paige reminded herself. But the remembered pain brought on by Curtis’s betrayal still could give her a twinge now and then.

Like now. Only this was more than a twinge.

Harrison laughed at something Aurora said. It was a low, full-bodied laugh that skittered pleasurably up and down Paige’s nerve endings, bringing goosebumps to her arms. His lips were full and sensual, his teeth even and white.

The man Aurora had identified as Doc Waller wandered up and joined their party. Within moments he was hanging on Aurora’s every word. Even James, who earlier had been looking at Paige with something akin to interest, seemed to have forgotten her existence. She felt utterly invisible.

This was ridiculous, she told herself. There was no reason in the world she should begrudge her mother’s enjoyment. If anything, she should be overjoyed that the object of Aurora’s attentions appeared to be a wealthy and stable man, not some penniless fortune hunter.

Of course, appearances could be deceiving.

Paige stood abruptly. “I hope you’ll all excuse me, but this afternoon sun is so strong, it’s given me a headache. I think I’ll go lie down for a while.”

She tried to stand and make a graceful exit, but her purse got hung up on her chair. A gusty breeze nearly unseated her hat. The last thing she saw before she managed to disentangle herself and make her ungainly escape was Harrison, watching her, obviously amused.

Two

Harrison turned his attention back to Aurora, but his thoughts were with Paige. What was troubling her? he wondered. He’d gotten the distinct impression that she wasn’t ill so much as irritated.

Aurora’s gaze was locked on the retreating form of her daughter. “Now I wonder what’s eating her?” she asked with a worried frown, echoing Harrison’s thoughts. “Maybe I should go check on her. She’s prone to seasickness.”

James stood up. “I’ll see that she gets back to her cabin all right.”

“And I’ve got plenty of seasick pills with me,” Doc Waller added, starting to rise also.

“Oh, please, don’t bother,” Aurora argued amiably. “Besides, James, I have a million questions I want to ask you about running a big cruise ship like this one. It must be fascinating work. And you, Doc—the last thing you need is to be taking care of sick people on your vacation. But maybe...” She batted her eyelashes at Harrison. “Would you mind, Harrison, seeing that my niece makes it safely back to her cabin? We’re on the Marlin Deck.”

“Sure, I’d be happy to.” Happier than he’d like to admit. He was supposed to be romancing Aurora, but that was a damned impossible task with her daughter sitting across the table. Now that Paige was out of the way he should lay it on thick. But all he could think about was running after her to find out what the problem was.

Well, Aurora had asked him to do it, he reasoned. And he wanted to please her, right?

“I’ll be back.” He gave her what he hoped was a charming smile as he stood and turned to make his escape.

Harrison had no trouble catching up to Paige. She had paused at the buffet table to sample some Brie cheese on a cracker.

“Must be some headache,” he said from behind her.

She made a startled little noise and whirled around, her face turning pink. “Oh, it’s you. I thought maybe some cheese and crackers would help the headache,” she said, crossing her arms defensively. “Protein and carbohydrate to increase the blood sugar, you know. Besides, Aurora signed us up for the late dinner seating, and I haven’t eaten all day except for those few strawberries.”