Kissing Santa Claus Page 19

  Marissa didn’t lower her voice in return. The husky sound boomed through the room. “I like Kauai just fine. I just want to go home and spend Christmas in the snow as it should be.”

  To Ted snow could never be considered a good thing. Christmas meant time off to surf and hang out at the beach. Maybe fit in some sailing and a short trip to Oahu to watch the fireworks over Waikiki Beach. Why anyone would want to bundle up in a thick jacket just to go outside was beyond him. He had tried it and hated it.

  “Where is home exactly?” he asked even though he knew. He’d checked on her age—twenty-nine—address, driver’s license number, and a bunch of other useless information as part of the investigation into the altercation with TSA.

  “Philadelphia.”

  “If it helps, the city got about eight inches of snow this morning,” he said.

  When both women stared at him he guessed a man couldn’t give the weather report without drawing unwanted attention.

  “This isn’t funny,” Marissa said, pointing out the obvious.

  “You’re right.” No matter how odd the situation seemed with the double robberies, the woman deserved respect. And his sister looked pissed, so Ted grew more serious. “I’ll have some of my men dust your room for prints and look into the break-in.”

  Nicki stepped up and touched the other woman’s shoulder with a gentle hand. “And I’ll move you to a suite. You’ll be more comfortable there.”

  That sounded suspiciously like Marissa was sticking around. Ted couldn’t think of a worse idea. “When is your flight home?”

  She blew out a long, slow breath. “I’ve missed both of my flights. The original and the rescheduled one.”

  A tumbling sensation took off in his stomach. For some reason he knew he had to get rid of this woman as fast as possible. “We have more than one flight a day out of Kauai. I’m sure you can find another.”

  Marissa did that head flip thing again. The way her brown hair fanned over her shoulder mesmerized him.

  “Ted.” That one word carried Nicki’s usual “are you dense?” tone.

  He guessed he was because he didn’t see the problem.

  Marissa took pity on him. “With the holidays, I’m having trouble finding an alternate flight. Right now I have a guaranteed flight out on Christmas Eve, but I might be able to fly standby before then. The airline said the twenty-third is the best bet for that.”

  “Oh.” That’s all he had. No solutions. No comeback. Just a mind racing with the possibilities of the kind of trouble this woman could get into in the two days until the standby flight. Forty-eight hours could last forever in the life of an unlucky person…or to the poor police officer assigned to keeping her breathing.

  “You don’t need to worry,” Nicki said, still patting Marissa’s shoulder in comfort.

  Marissa frowned. “I don’t?”

  “She doesn’t?” Ted asked at the same time.

  “I’m sure Ted will solve all of this long before the twenty-third.”

  2

  Marissa thought Ted looked a bit green around the mouth as he ran from the room. Okay, he didn’t run but he didn’t exactly walk either. While Nicki sang his praises, he excused himself to make a call to the office.

  The by-play between Ted and Nicki made Marissa smile. Also made her a bit envious. Despite the humiliation the day before of being dragged out of the airport terminal to a little back room for questioning then on to the police station by several government agents, she had managed to hold her emotions together. A mix of anger and frustration had bubbled up inside of her when she realized she had zero control over what was happening to her. The rest of it, including the threats of being hauled off to jail, turned her fury to terror.

  Then she saw him. About six-one with a muscular build and black hair. A square jaw and coloring that hinted at Asian heritage mixed with something else. And those grass-green eyes. She had never seen such a crystal-clear color.

  Ted Greene walked in wearing a blue uniform and a gun strapped to his side and demanded attention. He had taken control and escorted her back to the hotel she had left for good only hours before. Seeing him now, so comfortable with Nicki, supported Marissa’s first impression of Ted as a man who dominated his environment with a knowing hand.

  And then there was the fact he qualified as handsome in a “that can’t be good for you” sort of way. Marissa wanted to spend Christmas back home in Philadelphia, to take a few days off from her never-ending work schedule, but having the chance to stare at Ted Greene for a few more minutes sure wasn’t a hardship.

  “How long have you two been together?” Marissa asked Nicki.

  “What?”

  Marissa nodded toward Nicki’s wedding ring. “Married?”

  Nicki coughed until her eyes watered. After a few seconds she stood up straight again and gulped in air. “To Ted?”

  “You mean you two aren’t…?”

  “Siblings?” The hacking subsided but Nicki’s bug-eyed look of shock remained.

  Now it was Marissa’s turn to be confused. “What?”

  “Ted’s my brother.” Nicki slipped into the red leather chair behind the desk.

  Marissa stopped dwelling on her travel disasters and took a nice, long look at the other woman. The coal black hair. The perfect figure and matching perfect face. Yep, Marissa saw the resemblance now. Perfect, perfect, and perfect. Of course Ted and Marissa were siblings. Their parents probably sold their collective souls to the devil to give birth to kids who looked that good.

  In case that devil thing turned out to be true, Marissa rushed to clear up any insult. “I just figured…”

  Nicki waved her off. “No problem.”

  Actually, Marissa had a big problem. The huge wave of relief that washed through her over the sibling talk was not exactly welcome. Ted Greene was a distraction she didn’t need or want. Chalk it up to the uniform or that sweet smile, but the guy was a plan-killer and she was a woman who always had a plan.

  She’d be gone soon. With the way her last few days had gone, a one-night stand was out of the question. Not her thing anyway. Her relationships tended to be quick and intense, but still relationships. With her work hours, romance was delegated to the position of afterthought. That was the only explanation she had for why she was alone and three thousand miles from home right before the holidays.

  She had planned to work right up to Christmas Eve and then head to her mom’s house outside of the city for the day. Then her boss got in his head that sending two of his creative directors to the Kalihiwai Beach Resort to start working on competing advertising campaign ideas would be the perfect way to figure out which one of them should land the open Executive Creative Director job at work. That put Marissa and Hank Fischer on a plane to the tropics instead of at home in the Philadelphia snow.

  As usual, work sucked up her private life. This time, it had almost landed her in jail. That would teach her to abandon her usual “sweet talk people in power” way of life. If she hadn’t been so exhausted from her schedule, figuring out her wallet was missing and the sidelined flight wouldn’t have amounted to a big deal. Maybe she did need a real vacation, because Hank had to pull her off the TSA guy. Ted handled the rest.

  She knew she should hate the idea of being rescued by two males in the span of a day, but she sort of enjoyed it. She spent most of her time running a team of males and juggling their egos all while answering to another idiotic one who ranked above her. All that man-pleasing at work got old. Letting someone else take the lead and blowing off some steam felt right.

  So did sitting in a room with Ted Greene, which was exactly why she should stay out of any room containing this guy. With the badge and that face, she knew he could win over even the most strident woman. She didn’t need to get her groove back and wasn’t looking to test out men in the tropics, so she needed to pass on whatever non-law enforcement skills he might possess.

  It was a good plan until the man in question walked back into Nicki’s smal
l office. There was something about him. Maybe it was the confident swagger, but something appealed to her on a very fundamental, your-bed-or-mine way.

  “My officers are coming over,” Ted said.

  Marissa figured that was Ted’s way of telegraphing that he was in charge. She had bigger problems than his ego at the moment, including the fact she had stepped right into the path of a burglar not once but twice. “What’s being done for security at the hotel?”

  Ted and Nicki stared at each other. Then they took turns staring at her. The looks they were shooting at her suggested they didn’t understand public relations all that well.

  Marissa turned to Nicki. “Have you decided on a strategy to handle this?”

  The question only earned her more staring from matching sets of green eyes. Did these two really not know how to run the press on a story like this?

  To break up the dead silence, Marissa tried a different tack. “Have the other guests been warned about the robbery spree?”

  “This is hardly an epidemic,” Nicki snapped out.

  Marissa saw Nicki’s clenched jaw and figured she was appalled by the idea of an intruder loose in the hotel. Marissa didn’t blame her, but Nicki needed to be reasonable. This was the sort of incident that could kill an up-and-coming exclusive resort. They needed to come up with a marketing angle to spin the story the right way. Having a serial theft problem on the premises was not the best way to lure in rich tourists.

  “From what I can tell, this is a targeted scheme,” Ted said.

  Finally someone had a theory they could use. Marissa worked better with information. She could assess the situation and come up with the best way to handle the issue once she knew what Ted knew.

  “How does the scheme work?” she asked.

  “Basically?” He leaned against the doorjamb with one ankle crossed over the other. “It appears people see you and then try to steal your stuff.”

  Okay, maybe he didn’t get the marketing problem after all. “But who are the other victims?”

  “Well, there’s you and…” He closed one eye and stared at the ceiling as if contemplating the question. “No one else. Just you.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I already said it.”

  She was the sole target of some big theft ring? “But, that’s ridiculous.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” he said.

  The edge in his tone caught her attention. There, under all of the smooth talk and the flip remarks lurked something else. Something a little ugly that she didn’t appreciate one bit. “Are you suggesting I’m making this up?”

  “I can’t figure out why you’d do that.”

  Talk about your non-denial denial. “That’s something at least.”

  He held up a hand. “I didn’t say you weren’t concocting all of this. I just said I can’t understand why you would.”

  She wondered if she was supposed to be grateful for his halfhearted support of the theory that she wasn’t a total whackjob out there seeking attention by causing trouble.

  “I’m not involved,” Marissa said even though she couldn’t believe she had to state that obvious fact.

  Ted nodded. “If you say so, I guess that settles it.”

  He suddenly didn’t seem so cute. “Are you always this obtuse?”

  “Since I don’t know what you mean by that, I’ll say no.” He pushed away from the wall and came over to stand next to his sister. “Here’s what we’re going to do—”

  As if she wanted to deal with him now. “Is there another officer I could talk to?” Marissa asked.

  “No.” He didn’t take even a second to deal with the request. “Nicki is going to get you settled in your new room. Only the three of us are going to know what that room number is.”

  There was one little problem with that plan. Well, not so little. The problem was more like five-eight, two hundred pounds. “What about Hank?”

  Ted’s eyes narrowed until she couldn’t see their vibrant green color. “Who the hell is Hank?”

  Ted had shouted the question loud enough to bring security. Of course, at this point Marissa wondered if the resort even had security. If so, where were they every time she ran into trouble? Someone stole her purse right off of the patio when she was having lunch. Someone else broke into her room during the short time she wasn’t there this morning. As far as she could tell, the security staff took off early for Christmas.

  “Hank Fischer. He’s my co-worker,” Marissa explained.

  “Does he know about the newest theft?”

  Everything Ted said offended her on some level. It was as if he thought she were the center of all trouble on the island. “No. He’s off sightseeing.”

  Ted waved off her concerns “Then we’ll keep him in the dark about the latest.”

  That was a bit cloak-and-dagger for her taste. “Don’t you think that will be a bit odd?”

  “Not unless you’re dating him.”

  She was not talking about that subject with Ted. Not when she’d spent part of the time she’d known him fighting off a fantasy about hitting the sheets and the other part thinking about strangling him with them. “Tell me the rest of this plan of yours.”

  “I want you to stay in the room and out of trouble. I’ll come up in a few hours so we can go over who might have a grudge against you.” Ted hesitated for a few beats. “And anything else you want to discuss.”

  What was that supposed to mean? “There isn’t anything else.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Sitting alone in a bedroom with Ted. Yeah, not a good idea. “Are you sure there isn’t another officer I can talk to?”

  “It’s the holidays and we’re short staffed, so you get me.”

  “I’ll go grab my bag from the main desk,” Marissa said as she stood up.

  “Go from here to the reception desk and stay there.” He barked out the orders as if talking like that was normal for him.

  As far as Marissa was concerned that bossy attitude of his sure did cut into his hotness factor. “Excuse me? And by that I mean what the hell is wrong with you?”

  He didn’t back down even an inch. “Someone on this island is determined to make your stay here miserable. So, for now, I don’t want you alone.”

  “I don’t want a bodyguard.”

  “Would you prefer to get robbed again?”

  He clearly had the easier argument here and that ticked her off. Rather than back down, she tried changing the subject “I’d rather go home.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  “Fine.” Marissa let him win this round. Besides, she hadn’t had a post-workout shower. And a day or two in a suite didn’t sound so bad. She could get a lot of work done in all that privacy. “I’ll be in the hall.”

  Ted nodded. “We’ll be out in a minute.”

  Marissa didn’t wait for him to change his mind or issue new orders. She walked out wondering if free room service came with the deal.

  Nicki waited until Marissa left to turn on her brother. “You were a little hard on her.”

  It was the only way Ted could think of to stay focused on her as a victim and a case. “Something’s wrong here.”

  Nicki eased back into her chair and crossed her legs. “Other than the fact she keeps getting robbed?”

  “Either someone is going after her, and if that’s true I want to know why and stop it.”

  “Or what?”

  He wasn’t ready to deal with the alternative. “Nothing.”

  Nicki frowned. “You think she’s crazy.”

  “I’ve seen plenty of crazy on this job. This is something else.”

  Nicki’s foot bounced around as she swung it back and forth. “Something as in you’re attracted to her?”

  Now there was a subject he refused to discuss. Pretty or not, Marissa screamed trouble. He’d had his fill of problem women to last him a lifetime. He kept the bills from his former divorce lawyer in a box under his bed to remind him whenever he was tempte
d to forget.

  “This is my job,” Ted said, hoping it would end the conversation.

  “I have eyes, you know.” Marissa pointed from her face to his to prove her point.

  He was beginning to think nothing would stop the discussion. “But yet it’s your mouth that refuses to stop.”

  “We’ll see how you feel on Christmas when it’s time for Marissa to go home.”

  “She can fly standby on the twenty-third.” Unless he could unload her before then.

  A smile lit Nicky’s face. “Something tells me she’s not going to make that flight.”

  Ted refused to back down. He knew his sister would pounce if she sensed weakness. “I’ll escort her to the plane myself to make sure she gets out of here.”

  “This should be good.”

  Yeah, that’s what he was afraid of.

  3

  Marissa spent the next two hours enjoying every inch of the two-room suite. From the king-size bed with the fluffy white comforter to the full family room and flat screen television, the place was both bigger and nicer than her condo at home. The nightly rate posted on the back of the door came close to the amount of her mortgage payment.

  Well, if she had to be stuck in paradise, at least she was stuck in style. She already set up her laptop and took care of the wireless connection. The room had a fax machine. Between her cell and the room phone, she could get a lot of work done without much interruption.

  To make the most of the scenery, she unpacked and showered then sat out on the patio and surveyed the four floors below and the impressive ocean stretching out in front of her. Turned out talking on the phone wasn’t so bad from this view. The whole eighty-five degrees in December thing didn’t make sense to her, but there was something special in listening to the boss complain about shoveling snow in Philadelphia while she sat in Hawaii getting a tan.

  Then there was the little matter of telling her boss she needed another day in Kauai to finalize the campaign. Funny how she didn’t feel bad for even one second for having lied. But with the string of bad luck she’d experienced she didn’t think she had a choice. No way would she get the promotion if her boss decided she was cursed. Since he fired one guy for refusing to play on the office softball team, she was sure being a beacon for disaster would result in a pink slip.