Intent to Seduce

“Please let me do this, Lucas. The spa has excellent security, and you can call the desk each day to check on me. You can even send one of your security people up here—as long as he’s willing to camp in the woods. No males are allowed on the grounds.”

For a moment Lucas said nothing as he ran the risks through his mind. A spa that was off-limits to men sounded secure, especially if he had Tracker assign one of his people to keep an eye on the place. While she was there, Sophie should be safe from any plot that Vincent Falcone might be hatching. Lucas drew in a deep breath. “As long as what you’re telling me about this Serenity Spa is the truth.”

“Check it out. I’m at the Charlotte airport now. Their van will be picking me up any minute. And whatever you do, don’t blame Mac for this. I talked her into it. I can be very persuasive when I set my mind to it.”

Lucas’s lips curved in a smile. “Tell me about it. Don’t worry, I’ll have your friend back in D.C. by midafternoon.”

“Oh, I don’t think you should do that. She has a little problem she’s depending on you to help her with, and I assured her that you were the perfect man for the job.”

“What does she want me to do?” Lucas asked, glancing toward his plane. Mac had moved to the shade cast by one of the wings and was motioning his pilot to join her. Shaking her head, Captain Roberts stayed where she was. Evidently his order to stay put hadn’t intimidated the doc. Courage had always appealed to him.

“I’m going to let Mac tell you that. But she may need a little encouragement. And I don’t suppose you were very welcoming when you saw she wasn’t me.”

No, he hadn’t been welcoming, Lucas thought as he studied Dr. MacKenzie Lloyd. Part of that had been due to the fact that for the past four days he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind.

In the linen slacks and blouse, she looked prim, innocent and untouchable. It had never been those qualities that had drawn him to a woman before. Perhaps it was that detached way she had of summing up her opponent in a tennis match and then calmly going in for the kill. It was a skill she’d probably picked up in her lab work. But wherever she’d come by that single-minded determination, he couldn’t help but admire it. Nor could he help but view it as a challenge.

“I’m depending on you to be fair, Lucas. Don’t blame her for something that’s not her fault.”

Wasn’t that exactly what he’d been doing—blaming her for that quick skip of delight he’d felt when she’d gotten off the plane?

“Mac doesn’t have anyone else to turn to for advice. Her parents always lecture rather than listen.”

“Ouch.” Lucas winced. It was an accusation Sophie had hurled at him more than once.

“Please, Lucas. I’m asking a favor here. At least take her out to the island and hear her out.”

Take her out to the island? Whatever second thoughts he might have had about the wisdom of doing that had to be dismissed. Sophie so rarely asked for favors. “All right. But at least give me a clue. What kind of problem?”

“It’s personal. And she needs help from a man. That’s all I can tell you.”

Personal? Did it have to do with a boyfriend? An ex-lover? The possibility had him frowning. “I’ll do what I can. In the meantime, I’m going to be checking in on you at that spa.”

“I can’t always promise to be available on my cell phone. They make you check them at the desk. But you can always have one of your security people pitch a tent on one of the hillsides and keep tabs on me that way.”

Lucas sighed at the trace of bitterness he heard in her voice. “I love you, Soph.”

“Ditto, bro. Enjoy.”

As soon as Sophie ended the call, Lucas took out his own cell phone and pressed the number that would get him through to Tracker.

“What’s up, boss?”

“Sophie tricked you.”

“I followed her myself until she got on your private plane.” There was a slight pause, and then he continued. “The raincoats. When she and Dr. Lloyd came out of her shop, they both had their hoods up and their umbrellas open…and I followed the blonde, just as she wanted me to. Damn! Let me check with the man I had tailing Dr. Lloyd.”

“I can tell you where Sophie says she is—the Serenity Spa in Serenity, North Carolina. They don’t allow men on the premises. She claimed she was calling me from the Charlotte airport. She says she wants some time alone, but I want you to make sure she’s there.”

“I’ll check the flight manifests right after I check with Dr. Lloyd’s tail. Am I right in assuming that the good doctor is with you?”

“Yeah. Sophie says she has a problem, so I may have another job for you.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

SOPHIE ENDED her conversation with her brother, then crossed her fingers in the hope that Lucas had bought her story. Of course, he’d check out every detail. She knew from experience just how thorough he was.

However, she’d been thorough too. She glanced at her watch. The first thing Lucas would do would be to check out the flight manifests and see if an S. Wainright had indeed flown from National Airport to Charleston that day. He would find that she had. Hopefully, he wouldn’t find it too suspicious that an M. Lloyd had also made the same flight. She was banking on the fact that he would relax once he found that Sophie Wainright had checked into the Serenity Spa. Hannah Parker, the out-of-work actress she’d hired to do just that should be arriving at the spa any minute, and once that final crucial step had been taken and Lucas had verified it, she should be free.

For the next week, she wasn’t going to be Sophie Wainright. Instead, she would be MacKenzie Lloyd, a burned-out research biologist who was taking a little break from her lab.

She’d begun to formulate the plan when she and Mac had talked in the tree house on Sunday, but the details hadn’t all fallen into place until Mac had finally agreed to trade places with her. Of course, she hadn’t told Mac everything.

She knew her best friend too well to believe that she could lie to Lucas for an entire week. So she hadn’t admitted to her that she’d switched purses on purpose. Nor had she confided to Mac that she never intended to go to the Serenity Spa.

Stifling the impulse to get up and pace, Sophie leaned back in her chair and scanned the occupants of the airport lounge. At nearly two in the afternoon, the lunch crowd had thinned to a few businessmen at the bar who were nursing beers as they talked nonstop into their cell phones. They’d been there when she’d entered, so she didn’t think they were following her. And she doubted that the couple with four kids at a nearby table were being paid to keep tabs on her.

For a second, her gaze locked with one of the men at the bar. She was quick to glance away, then let out the breath she was holding when she saw him slide off his stool and leave in the direction of the departing flights.

Paranoia—that’s what it was, pure and simple. If she wasn’t careful, she’d turn into Lucas, forever afraid that everyone he met was trying to threaten Wainright Enterprises.

She couldn’t, she wouldn’t live her life that way.

Forcing herself to relax, Sophie took a sip of bottled water. Not that she hadn’t borrowed a page from her brother’s paranoia handbook. In making her plans for switching identities with Mac, she’d followed Lucas’s number-one rule: Never underestimate the enemy.

Even after they’d each hailed their separate taxis in front of her shop, she’d made herself assume that she still had a tail. Though she couldn’t think of a single reason why Lucas would be having Mac followed, she wasn’t ever going to underestimate him again. That was why she’d waited to switch identities with Hannah Parker until they’d both entered the first available ladies’ room at the airport in Charlotte.

It had been almost too simple to walk into adjoining stalls and then pass her poncho and a bag containing her identification, sunglasses and a duplicate of the red wig she was wearing to Hannah. Just in case Lucas had assigned someone to follow Mac, Hannah couldn’t turn into the blond Sophie Wainright until she was safely in the van to the Serenity Spa.

For the space of about fifteen minutes, there had been two fake MacKenzie Lloyds in the Charlotte airport.

Sophie took another quick look around the lounge. No one was paying her the least bit of attention. She drummed her fingers on the table, then jumped when her cell phone rang. Grabbing it, she put it to her ear. “Yes?”

“It’s Hannah. I just wanted to let you know. I’m all checked into the spa. You should see the room.”

“Did everything go all right?”

“Like clockwork. The woman behind the desk told me that my brother had called. She was going to call him back and let him know I’d arrived safely.”

“Have a great week,” Sophie said as she ended the call. Then she lifted her bottled water in a toast to herself. “I’m free at last.”

MAC GRIPPED the windshield of the boat tightly as Lucas let out the throttle and the Adventurer raced over the choppy water. She’d felt a certain kinship with the boat the moment she’d spotted the name. Together, they were racing off into the unknown.

With the wind whipping against her face, she concentrated on enjoying the feel of bright afternoon sun and the occasional salty spray against her cheeks. It wasn’t hard. She would have enjoyed it even more though, if it hadn’t been for the man standing only a few feet away at the helm of the boat.

Even when he wasn’t looking at her or speaking to her, Lucas was a hard man to ignore. He projected…something that went beyond simple good looks. And it was mesmerizing. She’d barely taken her eyes off him as he’d gone about the task of casting off the boat, then steering it quickly and surely away from the marina toward the open sea.

She risked a sideways glance at him. Perhaps it was the mixture of competence and control that had her gawking like a teenager. No, she thought, it was more than that. There was also that hint of danger about Lucas that lurked just below the very civilized surface. She’d seen it in his eyes when he’d first realized that Sophie wasn’t on board the plane—something hot, dangerous and lethal. It fascinated her.