Free Private Passions by Jami Alden Page B

her entourage Deck was very familiar
with the Sea Shack since he'd accompanied Jane to the property
several times and personally installed the security system.
    The challenge was getting to the private
island itself without tipping off any interested locals who might
in turn tip off the press. The only way out to the island was by
boat, and if Deck chartered a ride out to one of the area's private
island residences without prior approval from the owner there would
be all kinds of logistical snags.
    That was where Sam came in. By giving Deck a
lift on one of the boats in Holley Cay's private fleet, he enabled
Deck to cut out the middleman and keep his arrival on the
downlow.
    As Sam idled the engine and pulled up to the
beach on the leeward side of the island, about a hundred yards from
the main compound, Deck felt another twist of doubt. What did he
think he was doing, barging in on Jane like this when she clearly
wanted to be alone? If she did tell him to hit the bricks—and let's
face it, that was the most likely outcome, regardless of what she'd
written—this could cost him not just his pride, but the
professional reputation he'd worked so hard to build.
    One phone call to Malcolm about how one of
his employees had turned creepy stalker would mean not only the end
of his job, but it would put a serious black mark on the company as
a whole. That bullshit about unprofessional behavior he'd cited
earlier when he gave Jane his reasons for quitting was nothing
compared to this.
    "So are you going or what?" Sam said
impatiently. "I have a two o'clock meeting with Julie and Chris,
and I sure as hell can't tell them I'm running late because I'm
giving you a ride to see Jane when she made it crystal clear she
didn't want anyone coming or going from this place without her
approval."
    Deck hefted his duffel bag onto his shoulder,
all of the reasons why this had disaster written all over it making
him hesitate to step out onto the sand. Sensing he was getting cold
feet, Sam huffed out an impatient sigh. "Look man, from what you've
told me, there's definitely something there. She might not be ready
to admit it at first, but you'll never know unless you try."
    Deck nodded. For all that his logical brain
tried to tell him this was a huge mistake, there was something in
his gut that drowned it out, drowned out all the second guessing
he'd been doing since he boarded his first flight nearly twelve
hours ago. Ever since he'd read what Jane wrote—about him—he'd felt
the overwhelming need to go to her. To find out if she really meant
the things she wrote.
    To see if he was right in seeing the real
emotion in her words, the subtext that went beyond sex and spoke of
a real connection.
    Unfortunately his job dictated that he had
three more days of training on the set before he could go. Only his
years in the army and the sense of duty it had drilled into him had
kept him from walking off the set that first morning.
    By the time he could go to her, she was
already gone. Her "people," namely Hal, refused to comment on her
whereabouts, saying only that Jane was suspending any future
engagements for the foreseeble future and had gone to "an
undisclosed location" to relax out of the public eye for a few
days.
    Deck knew immediately where she'd fled to.
While the press speculated that she was at this spa or that
retreat, and had even staked themselves outside her mother's house
back in Colorado, Deck knew there was one and only one place Jane
went when she really wanted to escape the all-seeing eye of the
paparazzi.
    It couldn't have worked out better, he'd told
himself at the time. And he reminded himself of that now as he
forced his foot to take that first step out on the sand. "You're
right," he said to Sam. "This is the only chance I've got, and I'm
damn well going to take it."
    And if Jane responded to his surprise visit
by kicking his ass out and getting him fired... he'd jump off that
bridge when he came to it.
    This was his only shot. He