Free SeductiveIntent by Angela Claire Page A

Related?”
    “Wouldn’t I have mentioned that if we were?”
    “We both know the answer to that.”
    He smiled at her fondly. Or as fond as he got in any case.
    She went on. “And you’ve never expressed any sexual interest
in me whatsoever. I always assumed that was because we were related somehow.”
    “I could be gay.”
    “I should know whether that’s true or not since we’ve lived
together more or less my entire life.” She looked him straight in the eyes, his
own outfitted with brown-colored contacts for the occasion, though they’d stuck
with her own true eye color. That blue-green color was so gorgeous, he couldn’t
resist the impulse. Getting sentimental, probably.
    “It’s telling that I don’t, though, Arthur.”
    “Wah, wah, wah,” he said softly. “Save the sob story for
him. Not the true one of course.”
    “Don’t worry,” she assured him again, though she didn’t have
to. Sophia was every inch the pro he’d taught her to be. Whichever way that
cut.
    “So are you? Gay, I mean.”
    “When I have to be.”
    “Which is probably literally true.”
    “Go on. Get out of here. You have a plane to catch, I’m
assuming.”
    “On our own dime, you’ll be sorry to hear.”
    “Well, clearly, I haven’t taught you well enough.”
    “You have, but maybe there are some things I’m not willing
to learn.”
    “Save it for him.”
    “Don’t worry,” she said softly, taking her leave. “I will.”
    When she opened the door, an M twin was there, startling
them both.
    “Oh, there you are,” the girl said. “Is that my bottle of wine?”
    Good thing the doors in this old place were so sturdy. Solid
oak. Hard to hear through. Though of course it might be hard to explain why the
door was closed.
    “Excuse me,” Sophia said, moving past the twin.
    “Yes, miss.” He handed the bottle over.
    Lucky for him, she didn’t even ask as Sophia disappeared.
    * * * * *
    Brendan gazed out at the ocean. The view from this
second-story balcony of the beach house was probably his favorite in the whole
world. The house had been his parents and now all six Beckett offspring owned
it equally, just as they did Bransport. But unlike the Connecticut estate, the
Cayman Islands house was too far away to get much use. In fact, he was the only
one who ever bothered to even go there on a regular basis. Virginia was always
too busy with work and their two older sisters with their families. Mindy and
Missy thought it was boring. “I mean, what is there to do but sit on the beach
and swim? That’s no fun. Nobody’s there.”
    But Brendan loved it. The peace. The serenity. The breathtaking
natural beauty of the sea and sun. He’d never even brought a woman here before,
feeling as if that would somehow spoil it.
    So what was the hot goddess sprawled out on the sand below
him right now doing here?
    Sophia spied him and waved, pulling the top of her bikini up
a little as she did so. Though the sun was blinding, she’d turned down the
beach umbrella he’d offered her after she had settled into her separate room,
as promised. He hoped for the sake of her soft skin that she had sunscreen on.
Suddenly, the image of rubbing the lotion along her body took hold.
    He waved back. “I’ll be right down,” he called. “Just let me
change into my trunks.”
    By the time he made it down, bottle of sunscreen in hand,
Sophia had donned a big floppy hat and a cover-up that—unfortunately—covered
up. The wide owl sunglasses she had on, all that luxurious hair bundled up in
her hat, completed the picture. He didn’t know what it was a picture of, but it
wasn’t the wildly sexy woman in the bikini he’d looked down on from the
balcony.
    Plopping down next to her on the jumbo towel, he fingered
the terry cloth trailing over her bent knees. “What’s this?”
    “The sun’s too hot.”
    “It’s like that in the Caribbean. That’s what sunscreen is
for.” He wagged the bottle at her.
    “Oh, thanks. I’ll put some on