"Come on, sweetheart, stay with me," he coaxed, murmuring the words against her throat as he dragged the hem of her blouse upward, stroking his fingers up her sides toward her breasts. "We're just gettin' started…"

Laurel 's sense of responsibility was too ingrained, and she wriggled out of his grasp and reached for her glasses on the steering console, settling them on her nose and settling the issue.

"If I don't get back soon, Aunt Caroline and Mama Pearl will worry," she said, brushing futilely at the wrinkles in her clothes. "You don't want them sending the sheriff out looking for us, do you?"

Jack jammed his hands at his waist, the picture of a disgruntled male who was too sexy for his own good. He wore nothing but his jeans, and they weren't quite zipped. " Kenner couldn't find his own ass in the dark, let alone us."

"He could get lucky."

"But I'm not gonna," he grumbled.

"You already have."

Instantly he grinned his wicked grin and backed her against the console. "Mais yeah, angel." He chuckled, dipping his head to nibble her neck again. "And I like my odds for another go."

Laurel ducked away before he could get his arms around her. "Go weigh anchor, sailor, before I pull my gun on you."

Purring low in his throat, he sprang toward her and stole a kiss, dancing deftly away when she would have slugged him. "I love it when you boss me around."

She snatched up a pillow from the bench and hurled it at his head. Jack darted outside and used the door for a shield, chuckling the whole time.

Giving up on the idea of seducing her again, he went about the business of pulling up the anchor, cursing under his breath as it caught on something tangled in the reeds. He hauled back on the nylon rope, damning people who used the swamp for a garbage dump. The anchor finally pulled free, and he hauled it aboard. Minutes later the motor was puttering and the pontoon eased away from the bank and headed west…

… and the body of a naked woman, brutally tortured, cruelly slain, buoyed by the dense growth beneath her, floated out of the reeds and bobbed in the wake of the boat, her sightless eyes staring after them, her arm outstretched toward them in a plea for help that was much too silent and far too late.