Sea of Love: A Bayberry Island Novel by Susan Donovan Read Free Book Online Page A

instantly, the big kitchen began filling with the heavenly scent of rich, dark coffee. She turned around to find Imelda back to her chopping, her head bent, eyes down. The silence pouring off of her small body was plenty loud, however.
    “Uh-oh.” Rowan returned to the butcher block and placed a hand on Imelda’s shoulder. “What?”
    She shook her head but didn’t say anything.
    “Mellie, what? Seriously. I can tell you’re upset.”
    Imelda’s knife stilled and she gazed up at Rowan, her expression shadowed with worry. “I don’t know, honey. It just seems too good to be true that a man appears out of nowhere and gives you all that money. And he’s not even from Publisher’s Clearing House!”
    Rowan giggled, then gave Imelda another kiss on the cheek. “Maybe it’s karma. Aren’t we overdue for some good luck?”
    *   *   *
     
    Ash nodded courteously to his fellow sunroom occupants and took a seat in a retro rattan chair set apart from the others. It was beginning to look quite ugly outside, and the oak, pine, and beech trees that lined the edges of the lawn were taking a beating. It was no wonder the trees here grew short and squat—anything tall and slender would be reduced to splinters in this kind of wind.
    He appreciated that the other guests didn’t expect him to chitchat and angled his chair so that it faced directly toward the wall of windows. Truth be told, he needed a few minutes to settle his nerves. He felt off balance, and though he couldn’t put his finger on what his problem was, he knew it had to do with his bizarre reaction to Rowan Flynn.
    She’d surprised the hell out of him. She was much prettier in person than in the photos or videos he’d been studying for the last month. Her eyes seemed to be a mysterious green-gray in the dim light. Her hair was fashionably cut to shoulder length, straight, and a shiny, soft brown color, details he hadn’t noticed in his research. Her mouth was adorable, too, all pink and full and kissable.
    Plus she was sweeter than he’d anticipated. Ash hadn’t assumed Rowan Flynn would be a screaming harpy, but she’d sounded plenty bitter in interviews after the trial and at sentencing. For good reason, he supposed. Rowan had been screwed by Frederick Theissen. That put her in good company, since Theissen had screwed eighty-seven people out of millions of dollars. The difference was that he’d asked Rowan to marry him before he’d stolen from her and her family. The guy was a real prince. Yet only a year after his sentencing, here Rowan was—sweet, friendly, and trusting.
    She was a whole lot sexier than he’d expected, too. Sure, it hadn’t escaped Ash that she was easy on the eyes and looked great in a pencil skirt standing on the courtroom steps, but on Bayberry Island her demeanor was different. She seemed looser than in Manhattan, more suited to her surroundings. When she’d marched into the foyer, her perfectly lovely body looked at ease in a pair of worn jeans, a simple V-necked T-shirt, and Teva sandals.
    She happened to be funny, as well. And charming. Polite. And Ash hadn’t expected to find that she was any of those things, let alone all of them, and it bothered him. He hadn’t come to Bayberry to be smitten by the Flynns’ only daughter. He’d come there to seduce her, twist her mind, and get her to do what he needed her to do, which was convince her family to sell. And though an argument could be made that it was more enjoyable for a man to seduce a lovely and charming woman than a homely and annoying one, Ash wasn’t there to find a date. He was there to make Jessop-Riley, and himself, a boatload of money. This was just business.
    Looking out at the choppy sea and menacing sky, he made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t lose sight of that this week—no matter how much Rowan Flynn appealed to him.
    After a blessed ten minutes of silence, an older woman to Ash’s right cleared her throat, and he knew that was his