A Kiss to Seal the Deal by Nikki Logan

Author:Nikki Logan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

GRANT braced his legs against the roll and toss of the fishing boat Nautilis as the captain swung her around. They’d started twenty kilometres up the coast, just past Tulloquay’s boundary line, and had chugged their way back towards Dave’s Cove bay by disappointing bay.

Kate had grown more and more despondent as she meticulously notated a coastal map and ruled out every site they’d visited: too steep. Too barren. Too rocky. One was a maybe, given two seals lazed on the sandy shore, but they were both females, so Kate wasn’t encouraged.

Grant had always had excellent sea-legs so the churning of his stomach had to be a mix of empathy for Kate’s growing distress and nerves as they drew closer to the site he knew she was looking for. Alone, she wouldn’t have been able to spot the disguised entrance from the sea. But a seadog like the captain; there was no question he’d see it. And he’d take Kate there.

Outside the bar and away from his grouchy mates, John Pickering was a pretty decent bloke and a good sailor. He chatted to Kate throughout the afternoon, sharing his experiences and listening genuinely to hers. The man wasn’t about to join the Seal Protection Society, but he was definitely open to believing seals and humans hunted different fish species.

Which meant he was open to working hard to help Kate. He was no more immune to those enormous, optimistic eyes than Grant was.

‘This is horrible.’ Kate flopped onto the gunnel of the Nautilis next to him. ‘And it’s getting us nowhere.’

‘You think a shore search would have been more effective?’ he suggested, confident that she’d never find the bay from the landward side.

‘I don’t know. What if it’s not even here? It’s unusual for the males to choose a site a long way from the female’s territory, but it’s possible.’

Temptation scraped at his conscience. She’d be busy for weeks if she started looking further up the coast—plenty of time for probate to settle, for him to put Tulloquay on the market and sell it. The bleakness in her eyes was so different from the passionate sparkle that usually inhabited her brown depths. It would be so easy to whisper demons into her ear when she was in this mood—flat, despondent. It was exactly the sort of doubt he targeted in the boardroom.

And he wasn’t called ‘the closer’ for nothing.

He could probably convince her to look elsewhere. But something about the way she ran the back of a weary hand across her eyes had him tightening his ribs against the desire to lean into her. To lend her strength.

Resignation leached through him. ‘Finish the day, Kate. At least then you’ll know, one way or the other.’

They were that close to the breeding site now it was really a question of when, not if. It would take a miracle for sharp-eyed Pickering to miss the entrance to the tiny cove. Grant had the sinking sun on his side; he knew from childhood

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