To Catch a Groom

Greer kneaded her hands convulsively. “That’s when everything went wrong.”

“What did he do? Come on,” Olivia prodded. “Let’s hear it all, no matter how embarrassing it might be. Otherwise we won’t know how much trouble you’re really in.”

“It’s bad,” she whispered. “Trust me.”

That wiped the smiles off their lovely faces. “He didn’t—”

“No—” Greer blurted. “But he could have done anything. My dress was floating around my waist and he was so powerful and so…so—” Heat suffused her face.

Piper slid off the bed. “And you think that if you’d been alone with him, he would have taken advantage of you whether you told him no or not?”

She drew in a sharp breath. “What I think is, that man goes where he wants, when he wants, and does whatever he wants. Period. The pendant seemed to have particular significance for him.”

In the next breath she told them about the conversation in the pool, leaving out the parts about both kisses which were too personal. They’d shaken her so badly she couldn’t discuss it, not even with her sisters.

“What’s his name?”

“I have no idea.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Greer—”

“I know,” she muttered in self-deprecation, rubbing her arms nervously. “It gets worse. I tried to outbluff him by pretending that I wasn’t in the most compromising position of my life. I flirted a little before telling him I wouldn’t be in Genoa after tomorrow because we were going to Vernazza.”

“You told him we were going there?”

“I’m a fool, Piper, and I know it, b-but that was before I realized how dangerous he was. And after what he said about a secret grotto and the sun and the sand and me rising au naturel from a seashell, my gut instinct says he’ll follow me there with the excuse he wanted to give me back my shoes.”

After his words to her at the door, Greer just knew he was the type of man that would turn up again.

“It sounds thrilling to me,” Piper murmured.

Olivia nodded. “Me, too.”

“Guys—” Greer cried in sheer panic, “this man invented the double-entendre. He’s…dangerous.”

“You’re saying that because you’ve never met anyone so gorgeous in your life, and you don’t know how to handle your attraction to him.”

“I’m not attracted, Piper!”

“Yes, you are,” Olivia contradicted her.

“All right. But even if I am, he’s the kind of man who’s off-limits!” her voice shook. “When we decided to spend the Husband Fund, we should have stuck to the movie version we saw in Mr. Carlson’s office and targeted sensible men. It would have been a lot safer than making ourselves the targets to wealthy playboys.”

Olivia frowned. “Our plan worked in theory. You’re just not used to Italian men. It’s perfectly natural for him to have been forward with you. It’s the way they’re made.”

“Olivia’s right,” Piper backed her sister up. “After all, you are very beautiful, Greer. Don can’t ever take his eyes off you, but he’s American, and American males aren’t as obvious. Look how long it took him to make his first move toward you.”

“Try six months,” Olivia drawled. “Greer—maybe this stranger is totally unscrupulous. Then again, maybe he isn’t. You haven’t given him enough of a chance yet to find out.”

“You had to be there, Olivia!” Greer snapped.

“Not necessarily. You said he has black hair. With you being so blond, and having the most unusual violet eyes, it’s no surprise he was drawn to you. I noticed a ton of men staring at you all day today. He couldn’t help himself any more than they could. You did say he restrained himself.”

Heat crept over Greer’s body. “Not completely,” she finally admitted. “He kissed me in the pool, a-and at the door.”

“I thought so,” Olivia murmured.

“Did you kiss him back?” Piper prodded.

“Of course not! H-he didn’t kiss my lips.”

Her sisters eyed each other before Piper said, “That explains everything.”

“What do you mean?” Greer fired back.

“You’re a take-charge kind of woman. He knew that and found his way around you. Sounds like you’ll be getting a marriage proposal out of him before long.”

“I don’t want a marriage proposal. I just want to get away from him. Maybe we should just go home.”

“We will, after our vacation is over,” Olivia placated her. “Since we’ve already paid the money for the boat and can’t get it back, I say we put the pendants away, drop the Duchess act and enjoy the rest of our trip like any normal tourists.”

“I second the motion,” Piper concurred.

“But I already told the stranger I was related to the Duchess of Colorno.”

“It’s too late to worry about the fact that we made reservations for the boat in the name of the Duchess of Kingston,” Olivia advised. “We just won’t pull it on anyone else we meet.”

“You’re overreacting. However if or when Signore Mysterioso does show up,” she mimicked Greer’s pronunciation, “and you still want protection, he’ll have to deal with all three of us.”

“That’s right,” Piper chimed in. “Should he come around, we won’t let you out of our sight for a single second. How does that sound?”

“In theory, it sounds fine.”

“Good. Now that we’ve got everything settled, let’s go to bed and sleep in until they throw us out. Okay?”

“Okay…” Greer’s voice trailed, not nearly as confident.

Within a few minutes the lights had been extinguished and everyone had crawled under their covers. Soon Greer could tell her sisters were dead to the world.

It took a lot longer for her to succumb to the fatigue draining her body. That was because neither Olivia nor Piper had ever been stalked by a shark.

She kept feeling the spots where his mouth had scorched her throat and neck, imagining he’d actually taken little bites out of her.

“Nic? It’s Max. I’ve got Luc on the line with me so we can have a three-way conference call.”

“Luc?”

“I’m here, Nic. Good to hear your voice.”