She was nervous. Not much experience with naked men, he thought. He liked that. He didn’t want to share Stephanie with anyone- from her past or present or future. “What happened to being brave?”
Her body responded with a ripple of desire, and her temper flared equally as strongly. “Is this why you dunked me in the water? So you could come in here and flaunt your naked body at me?”
He crossed the room and took a pair of sweats from Ace’s bunk. “Just for the record, one more time, I didn’t dunk you in the water. You dunked yourself in the water.” He knew he was asking for trouble, but he couldn’t resist teasing. She was terrific when she was indignant.
“And now that I think about it, I suppose I could make the same accusation. I know you’re hot for my body, but this is going to an unnecessary extreme. If you wanted to get me naked-” He turned around just in time to dodge a frying pan.
“Out!” Stephanie shouted, pointing to the hatch. “Out! Out! Out! Before I start throwing knives!”
Ivan stood at midship and watched his passengers depart. He was waiting for Stephanie, wondering if she would warm up when she said good-bye. The atmosphere between them at breakfast had been very frosty, and lunch hadn’t been much better. He straightened when he saw Stephanie emerge from the hatch with her backpack slung over one shoulder. She briskly walked past him with her nose tipped up ever so slightly. “ ’Bye,” Ivan said.
Stephanie narrowed her eyes and threw him a brief sideways glance without breaking stride.
A small smile lit his face. Maybe he’d underestimated the way she felt about him. She had to have some serious emotions to be so mad. She stormed up the hill without a second glance, and Ivan felt elated at her fury. This is just the beginning, he thought. Winters were long in Maine. It would be nice to have such a challenging project. Stephanie Lowe was doomed.
Mr. and Mrs. Pease approached him. “It was great,” Mr. Pease said. “We’ll be back next year.”
Mrs. Pease looked less enthusiastic. “Next time I’m bringing my heart medicine. That girl with the blue hair and butcher knife sure had me going for a while. And the sea captain’s wife just about took my breath away. I don’t know how you did it, but darned if it didn’t look like a real ghost. I have to tell you, I was pretty startled the first time I saw her standing there on the prow of the ship. But then I knew it was a trick. I figured you did it with movie cameras or something.”
Ivan nodded. “Yup. That’s exactly how we do it. Movie cameras.” He helped Mrs. Pease down the short gangplank and wondered who had put her up to the prank. There were several repeat customers on the voyage, not to mention Ace and Stephanie, all of whom knew about Aunt Tess. Then, of course, there was the other possibility…
Chapter 6
Lucy Pederson had a mop of platinum blond curls. She was a year younger than her cousin Stephanie and an inch shorter-if you didn’t count the hair. “No sweat,” she said to Stephanie. “I’m going to fix this toilet for you.”
“You ever fix a toilet before?”
“No. But if that dunce Stanley could do it, I can do it.”
“I still don’t see why you couldn’t have married him for a little while. Just long enough for him to repair my plumbing. You owed me that!”
Lucy made a disgusted sound and peered into the tank. “I don’t know why you’re complaining. Most women would cut off a thumb to spend a week with Ivan Rasmussen.”
“Yeah, well, if I ever have to spend another week with him, it’s not going to be my appendage that gets cut off.”
Lucy looked at her cousin. “What happened? Did he make a pass at you?”
“I don’t know. I thought he did, but then it turned out that he might not have.”
“You want to elaborate on that?”
“No.”
“You didn’t do anything stupid like fall in love with him, did you?”
Stephanie sighed. Of course she’d fallen in love with him. It was like spending four years struggling through a desert with nothing to drink, then coming upon an ice-cream soda.
“Jeez, Stephanie, he’s so slippery. Girls have been running after Ivan for as long as I can remember. And he always runs two steps ahead of them.” She jiggled something in the tank and screeched when water sprayed up at her. “Shut it off!”
Water splashed against the ceiling and ran down the walls while Stephanie lunged for the shutoff valve.
“You know what I think?” Lucy said, wiping her face on her sleeve. “I think this sucker’s broken.”
“Doesn’t look good,” Ivan said, lounging against the doorjamb.
Stephanie jumped at the sound of his voice. “What are you doing here?”
“I have something to discuss with you. Melody was playing her guitar on your widow’s walk and shouted down that I should come on in.”
Lucy and Stephanie eyed each other.
“I’ll go get her,” Lucy said.
Ivan looked into the toilet tank. “She’s really a sight up there with all that blue hair and her electric guitar. She was the first thing I saw when we sailed into the harbor Saturday.”
“She’s ruining my inn’s image. I wanted it to be dignified, historic, tranquil.” Stephanie dropped a bath towel on the floor to sop up the water. “The neighborhood kids are calling her Elvira.”
“I think she’s just going through a rebellious stage.”
“Uh-huh. So what do you think I should do?”
“Lock her up in the cellar until she’s forty.”
Stephanie squeezed the towel out in the tub and remembered she was supposed to be mad at Ivan. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, she thought. That was her-slightly scorned and pretty much humiliated by it all. She wondered how much of her conversation with Lucy he’d heard and gave an involuntary shudder, trying to remember if she’d sounded majorly disappointed at his lack of interest. She stiffened her back and tried to look aloof. “You said you wanted to talk to me?”
“I have a business deal to propose.”
A business deal. She’d been hoping for an explanation to soothe her damaged ego, and he had a business deal. Men! She pressed her lips together. “I can hardly wait to get swindled.”
Ivan stooped to examine the outside of the toilet bowl. “Last week was the last cruise of the season. The Savage won’t sail again until spring.”
She already knew that. Lucy had moved into Haben last night. She’d given her a free room in exchange for being chief cook and dishwasher. “So?”
“So, I have no place to live. I thought you might rent me a room.”
“No!”
Ivan stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. “This toilet is shot. The bowl is cracked beyond repair, and someone’s broken the float.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “You know about toilets?”
Ivan tried not to smile. “I know enough. I also know that you’re going to have a hard time making ends meet until next summer’s tourists flood back to Camden. I’d be willing to pay a nominal amount for a room, and I’d be willing to serve as handyman for the winter.”
She needed the money, and she needed a handyman. Did she need Ivan Rasmussen, that was the real question. She needed him like a hole in the head, she decided. Ivan Rasmussen, running hot and cold, underfoot day and night. She might be able to keep her virginity, but she could kiss her sanity good-bye.
“I tell you what. I can sweeten the offer,” Ivan said. “You don’t have any furniture in this house, and my furniture is sitting unused in storage. If you let me live here, I’ll let you use my furniture, free of charge, for an entire year.”
Stephanie silently groaned. Ivan had wonderful furniture. Priceless antiques, many of which predated Haben. Mantel clocks, a grandfather clock, pineapple mahogany four-posters, Oriental rugs she would die for, original paintings of all the sea captains and sea captains’ wives. The list was endless. “Why do you want to rent a room here? I’d think you’d be anxious to get a place of your own.”