Playing the odds Read Online Free PDF Page B

her sunglasses from the top of her hat, he slid them back in front of her eyes. "Hungry?"
    "Yes." The comers of her mouth twitched, so Serena gave up and smiled. "Yes, I am."
    With his eyes on hers he slowly circled her palm with a fingertip. "How about a picnic on the beach?" It wasn't a simple matter to ignore the tingling that was now racing up her arm, but she managed a casual shrug. "If you had food, and if you had transportation, and if you had some cold island concoction to drink, I might be interested."
    "Anything else?" Justin asked as he stopped to lean on the hood of a Mercedes.
    "Not that I can think of."
    "Okay, let's go then." Pulling keys out of his pocket, Justin walked around to unlock the passenger door of the car.
    With her tote bag dangling from her fingers, Serena stared. "Do you mean this is your car?"
    "No, this is the car I rented. There's a cooler in the trunk. Do you like cold chicken?"
    When he tossed the bags into the backseat, Serena put her hands on her hips. "You were awfully damn sure of yourself, weren't you?"
    "Just playing the odds," he claimed, then cupped her chin in his hands and brushed her lips with his. "Just playing the odds."
    Serena dropped into the passenger seat not certain if she admired or detested his sheer nerve. "I'd like to know what cards he has up his sleeve," she muttered as he rounded the hood to join her.
    She noticed Justin drove as he did everything else, with the arrogant ease of control. He seemed acclimated to driving on the left side of the road as if he did so daily.
    They passed under the fat leaves of almond trees, beside thick green grapes which would be purple in another month. Branches laden with the bright orange blossoms typical of the island danced in the breeze as they drew nearer to the sea. He didn't speak, and again she noticed he had that oddly admirable capacity for silence. Yet it wasn't soothing, but exciting.
    It occurred to her as they drove by the graceful colonial homes of the wealthy toward the public beaches that true relaxation was something not often experienced around a man like Justin Blade. Then the thought came quickly—too quickly—that relaxation was something she rarely looked for.
    Turning in her seat, Serena exchanged the tropical beauty of Nassau for Justin's handsome, almost hawkish features. A gambler, she mused. A shipboard acquaintance. Serena had too much experience with the two to trust in any deep, lasting relationship. Still, she thought that if she were careful, she might enjoy his companionship for a few days.
    What harm could there be in getting to know him a bit better? In spending some of her free time with him? She wasn't like some of her co-workers in the casino who fell in and out of love with each other or lost their hearts to a passenger only to be miserable and desolated at the end of a cruise. When a woman had managed to keep her heart in one piece for twenty-six years, she wasn't about to lose it in ten days… was she?
    Justin turned to give her one of his cool, unsmiling looks. Butterflies fluttered in her throat. She'd be very careful, Serena decided, as if she were walking through a minefield.
    "What are you thinking?"
    "About bombs," she answered blandly. "Deadly, camouflaged bombs." She gave him a quick, innocent grin. "Are we going to eat soon? I'm starving."
    With a last brief look, Justin pulled off to the side of the road. "How's this?"
    Serena gazed out over the white sand to the intense blue of the ocean. "Perfect." Stepping from the car, she took a deep breath of blossoms and sea and hot sand, "I don't do this often. When the ship's in port I usually catch up on my sleep or my reading, or give another shot at getting a tan on deck. I've lost count of the number of times I've been docked at this island."
    "Didn't you take the job on the ship to travel?" He took a small cooler and a folded blanket from the trunk.
    "No, it was the people really. I wanted to find out just how many kinds of people