Risky Business

her.”
    “Horribly,” Liz murmured. “She’ll be home in a few weeks, and we’ll spend the summer together. September always comes too soon.” Her gaze drifted off as she spoke, almost to herself. “It’s for the best. My parents take wonderful care of her and she’s getting an excellent education—taking piano lessons and ballet. They sent me pictures from a recital, and…” Her eyes filled with tears so quickly that she hadn’t any warning. She shifted into the wind and fought them back, but he’d seen them. He sat smoking silently to give her time to recover.
    “Ever get back to the States?”
    “No.” Liz swallowed and called herself a fool. It had been the pictures, she told herself, the pictures that had come in yesterday’s mail of her little girl wearing a pink dress.
    “Hiding from something?”
    She whirled back, tears replaced with fury. Her body was arched like a bow ready to launch. Jonas held up a hand.
    “Sorry. I have a habit of poking into secrets.”
    She forced herself to relax, to strap back passion as she’d taught herself so long ago. “It’s a good way to lose your fingers, Mr. Sharpe.”
    He chuckled. “That’s a possibility. I’ve always considered it worth the risk. They call you Liz, don’t they?”
    Her brow lifted under the fringe that blew around her brow. “My friends do.”
    “It suits you, except when you try to be aloof. Then it should be Elizabeth.”
    She sent him a smoldering look, certain he was trying to annoy her. “No one calls me Elizabeth.”
    He merely grinned at her. “Why weren’t you sleeping with Jerry?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Yes, definitely Elizabeth. You’re a beautiful woman in an odd sort of way.” He tossed out the compliment as casually as he tossed the cigarette into the water. “Jerry had a…fondness for beautiful women. I can’t figure out why you weren’t lovers.”
    For a moment, only a moment, it occurred to her that no one had called her beautiful in a very long time. She’d needed words like that once. Then she leaned back on the rail, planted her hands and aimed a killing look. She didn’t need them now.
    “I didn’t choose to sleep with him. It might be difficult for you to accept, as you share the same face, but I didn’t find Jerry irresistible.”
    “No?” As relaxed as she was tensed, Jonas reached into the cooler, offering her a beer. When she shook her head, he popped the top on one for himself. “What did you find him?”
    “He was a drifter, and he happened to drift into my life. I gave him a job because he had a quick mind and a strong back. The truth was, I never expected him to last over a month. Men like him don’t.”
    Though he hadn’t moved a muscle, Jonas had come to attention. “Men like him?”
    “Men who look for the quickest way to easy street. Heworked because he liked to eat, but he was always looking for the big strike—one he wouldn’t have to sweat for.”
    “So you did know him,” Jonas murmured. “What was he looking for here?”
    “I tell you I don’t know! For all I know he was looking for a good time and a little sun.” Frustration poured out of her as she tossed a hand in the air. “I let him have a room because he seemed harmless and I could use the money. I wasn’t intimate with him on any level. The closest he came to talking about what he was up to was bragging about diving for big bucks.”
    “Diving? Where?”
    Fighting for control, she dragged a hand through her hair. “I wish you’d leave me alone.”
    “You’re a realistic woman, aren’t you, Elizabeth?”
    Her chin was set when she looked back at him. “Yes.”
    “Then you know I won’t. Where was he going to dive?”
    “I don’t know. I barely listened to him when he got started on how rich he was going to be.”
    “What did he say?” This time Jonas’s voice was quiet, persuading. “Just try to think back and remember what he told you.”
    “He said something about making a fortune diving, and I joked about sunken treasure. And he said…” She strained to remember the conversation. It had been late in the evening, and she’d been busy, preoccupied. “I was working at home,” Liz remembered. “I always seem to handle the books better at night. He’d been out, partying I thought, because he was a little unsteady when he came in. He pulled me out of the chair. I remember I started to swear at him but he looked so damn happy, I let it go. Really, I hardly listened because