Carolina Isle by Jude Deveraux

reacted to him, but she wanted none of it. She looked at David with a plea for help, but he was head-to-head with Ariel and they were whispering.
    R.J. still had his eyes on Sara when he shouted for his assistant. “Sara,” he called over his shoulder and she almost answered. Luckily, Ariel answered first.
    â€œYes, sir?” Ariel said, and Sara winced. Never had she called R.J. “sir.”
    â€œDid you get my briefcase and my schedule?”
    â€œI …”
    Sara looked over R.J.’s shoulder to her cousin, who was looking wild-eyed and asking for help. Sara slid away from R.J. and went to Ariel. “I haven’t seen my cousin in so long that I think I’ll go with her,” she said, then led Ariel back into the B and B before R.J. could protest.
    â€œHow was it?” Sara asked as soon as they were inside the pretty room.
    Ariel collapsed onto the sofa at the foot of the bed, while Sara scurried around and got all the things she knew R.J. would want—which was pretty much everything he’d brought with him except for his clothes.
    â€œHe sleeps naked,” Ariel said.
    â€œDid I forget to tell you that?”
    â€œYes, you did. You forgot to tell me a lot of things, like that his computer gets a funny screen on it and he expected
me
to fix it.”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œTurned it off, then back on. What I know about computers you could put on the head of a pin. Does he walk around naked in front of
you?”
    Sara was putting R.J.’s recharged camera batteries in his case. “Why are you so interested in his naked body?”
    â€œI’m not. It’s just that …”
    Sara looked out the window and saw David and R.J. standing close together. Too close. Rather like dogs circling each other. “We haveto get out there,” she said. “Here, take this.” She thrust a briefcase and camera bag onto Ariel’s lap.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œNothing. It’s just that R.J. won’t like David.”
    â€œWhy not?” There was disbelief in Ariel’s voice. “David is so boring that everyone likes him.”
    â€œBoring?” Sara said, looking at Ariel sharply. A man with the ambition to be president is boring? Not quite. “R.J. had to work his way up from the bottom and David’s had everything handed to him. David is the kind of man R.J. despises.”
    â€œDoes that mean that if R.J. knew who
I
was he’d despise me too?”
    â€œYou’re too pretty for R.J. to dislike,” Sara said.
    â€œToday you’re the pretty one. I need about three more hours of sleep and a hairdresser. You, on the other hand, look great. You have on Prada and I’m in … what is this?” Ariel asked.
    â€œLiz Claiborne, I think, but I don’t memorize the labels in my clothes. Whatever it is, it looksgreat on you. Really. And the shorter hair suits you. Come on, he’ll be blowing the horn in another minute.”
    â€œNot really?” Ariel said, and her voice sounded a bit breathless. “He’s really an exciting man, isn’t he?”
    â€œYou’re going to find out how exciting he is if you don’t get out there immediately.”
    â€œWhat will he do?” Ariel asked.
    â€œNot whatever it is that you seem to think he’ll do,” Sara said as she piled Ariel’s arms full and pushed her out the door. They’d be back by night fall and, if she was lucky, Sara would have a few days alone with David. She smiled at him from behind Ariel and thought about being in the backseat with him on the three-hour drive to King’s Isle.
    But R.J. thwarted her. “You’ll have to sit in front with me since you’re to be my navigator, my co-captain,” he said. Since this made sense, there was nothing Sara could think of to protest, so she took the seat next to him, while David and Ariel got into the back. They headed east toward