Free To Catch a Groom by Rebecca Winters Page B

what to do will save your lives if, heaven forbid, there should be an emergency on board.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    I N THE wake of his departure, Greer realized an explanation was in order. She blurted, “What you saw was nothing more than the result of my insulting him. Rather than fight him, I decided it might be wiser to let him get it out of his system.”
    To her surprise, her sisters shut the door, then put a finger to their lips.
    “What’s wrong?” Greer whispered.
    “Just listen,” Piper whispered back. “Our pendants are gone.” Greer blinked. “We discovered them missing while we were putting everything away in the drawers of our stateroom.
    “I only opened my cosmetic bag to get out some sun-screen. That’s when I noticed the pendant wasn’t there. I asked Olivia to look in her bag thinking maybe I’d put it there by mistake last night, but hers was gone, too.”
    “Since our bags never left our sight after we packed them this morning, it means the members of the crew have to be jewel thieves who believe they’ve stolen a small fortune,” Olivia surmised. “Do you still have yours?”
    Did she?
    Galvanized into action, Greer ran to the bathroom where the first mate had put her cosmetic bag. She opened it and found the little case she kept it in. The pendant winked up at her.
    “Mine’s still here,” she said in shaky voice. “He was probably in the process of stealing it when I surprised him by accident.”
    The three of them stared at each other before Olivia saidto Greer, “We thought you were overreacting earlier, but now we know your premonitions have been right about everything.”
    Piper had a far away look in her eye. “For the stranger you met last night to show up today claiming to be the first mate, and then for us to discover him kissing you like there’s no tomorrow, it’s obvious something out of the ordinary is going on here, even if you are fatally attracted to him.”
    Fatally attracted. That’s what it felt like.
    A shiver chased across her skin. “I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. Remember my telling you how drawn he was to the pendant?”
    “Yes. If all he’d wanted was to get you into bed, he probably could have managed that last night.”
    “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Olivia,” Greer said before averting her eyes.
    “We saw you in his arms just now,” Piper pointed out. “You were hardly fighting him off. No one’s blaming you. Good grief. He looks like a god, and it’s perfectly evident he’s attracted to you, as well. But he has come on way too strong, too fast! As for the captain, you were right about him. He’s— He’s—”
    Greer groaned. “I know what you’re trying to say.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s face it. Signore Moretti has an interesting little operation going here. It might be legitimate, but he gets lots of perks when idiots like us charter his boat pretending to be something we’re not. We don’t have anyone else to blame but ourselves for our loss. If the parents knew…”
    “We can’t think about that right now.” Olivia glanced at her watch. “The first mate said five minutes. If you’re up not on deck in about twenty seconds, he’ll use that excuse to come down and find you. I suggest we hustletopside on the double, pretend nothing’s wrong, and talk about what we’re going to do later.”
    “Agreed.”
    In the next breath they hurried to the other stateroom for more life jackets, then emerged into the dazzling late-afternoon sun for which the Riviera was famous.
    A mild breeze filled the sails imprinted with a stylized pigeon in flight. It propelled the boat away from the postcard perfect coast receding farther into the distance.
    “Signorine?”
    Every time Greer heard the deep resonance of the first mate’s voice, a current of electricity traveled through her body igniting her nervous system. Except that this time she was on to him and the captain. They’d been in the cockpit, talking.