Page 54 of Colton's Last Resort

I am the envy of every man in this room...

What the hell are you doing with me, Pearl?

He held out her chair for her. When she settled, smoothing the pleat of the sunshine-yellow linen slacks she wore, he draped her jacket on the chair behind her. And, because this was L Bar—because he could feel every Tom, Dick, Harry and Valerie watching—he took her shoulders.

She turned her head slightly, and he felt her spine straighten.

He told himself it was all for show as he dropped his mouth to her ear. “I’d’ve waited,” he murmured for her. “I’d’ve waited all goddamn night for you, Colton.” Even as he chastised himself for being a moonstruck moron, he closed his lips over the perfumed place beneath her lobe.

She tilted her head. Not to shy away. He knew it when she released an infinitesimal sigh, when her pulse fluttered against the brush of his mouth as he lingered, sipping her skin like a hummingbird. He cupped the other side of her face as she presented him with the regal column of her throat.

Her shiver pulled him back. It roped him to the present, to what was real and what wasn’t. He wrenched himself away, watching his hands slide from her skin. “You’re better at this game than I am,” he muttered before slinking off to his chair where he belonged.

She watched him as he set the martini in front of her and tipped the beer up. It took her several minutes to taste her drink, sipping in a ladylike fashion that drove him to distraction.

“What kept you?” he wondered aloud.

She set the glass down without a sound. “My stepmother arrived unexpectedly this afternoon and was disgruntled when she didn’t receive the VIP treatment she thought she deserved.”

“It fell to you to unruffle her feathers?” he asked. “Don’t you have enough to handle?”

“Glenna’s family,” she said cautiously. “At first, I thought their marriage was more business than anything. Her and Clive’s courtship happened swiftly. Before we knew it, they were married. But I know Glenna takes care of him. He’s getting older. When they married, I won’t lie and say I wasn’t relieved.”

“Because that meant he was no longer your responsibility.”

She winced. “Does that make me callous?”

“Not if the rumors about Clive Colton are true,” he said. “Not if he only comes to you and your brothers for money.”

Her gaze riveted to his. “How do you know about that?”

“I’ve spoken to over half your staff over the last few days,” he reminded her. “While they respect you, Adam and Joshua, they talk.”

She looked away, noting those at the surrounding tables. In a self-conscious move, she ran her fingers through her straight-line bob.

He wanted to tell her how surprised he’d been by the loyalty of her employees—how the ones who knew about Clive’s recent visit to Mariposa had sided with the siblings, bar none. Not one disparaging word had been spoken about Adam, Laura or Joshua. Noah knew that had nothing to do with the nondisclosure documents everyone had signed and everything to do with how Mariposa was run, how staff were treated, and how devoted the Coltons were to the resort and the people who worked for them.

She wasn’t the princess of Mariposa; she was the queen, and her subjects loved her dearly.

She sighed. “I just want to know why she showed up without warning. Why she came alone. Her behavior is outside the realm of anything I’ve seen.”

“Breaks in patterns of behavior are tells,” he advised. “Dig deeper and you’ll find a motive.”

“Have you made any headway in the investigation?”

“I have a short list of people with no alibis.”

“Who?”

He tried dousing the question with a warning look.

She braced one elbow on the table’s edge, rested her chin on her hand and leaned in. From the outside, it looked intimate. Especially when her eyes roved the seam of his mouth. “Are we still in this together, Noah?” she murmured.

He, too, leaned in, setting both arms on the table. He hunched his shoulders toward the point of hers. Wanting to rattle her chain as much as she was rattling him tonight, he dipped his gaze first over her smooth throat. Then lower to the straight line of her bodice. For a split second, he wondered what was keeping it in place. The curves of her breasts were visible, and she wore no necklaces to detract from the display. The effect made him lightheaded, slightly giddy. Did L Bar have an antigravity switch?

His gaze roamed back to hers and latched on. He was half-wild with need. The effort to steer his mind back to the investigation and Allison felt arduous.

Frustration flooded him, anger nipping at its heels.Damn it.It shouldn’t be this easy to make him forget why he was there. “Why didn’t you tell me Allison was giving private lessons to guests in their bungalows?”

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