“Thank you,” said Angel, her voice tight as she took the cap from Hawk’s lean fingers.
“Have you lived with Derry long?” he asked.
“Three years,” Angel said.
She shook a pill out into her palm.
“During summers and holidays,” Hawk said, his tone almost neutral.
Something in the tone of Hawk’s voice brought up Angel’s head sharply. Drifts of pale, soft hair curled around her breasts in sensual contrast to black silk.
“Didn’t Derry tell you?” Angel asked. “We were all but raised together.”
“Yes, he told me. Very convenient.”
Angel shrugged. “Our families lived next door to each other during the summers, and our fathers were brothers in all but blood.”
“Yet you live in Seattle most of the time?”
“I’m a U.S. citizen.”
“When you marry him, that will change.”
“Marry who?” asked Angel, startled.
“Derry,” said Hawk, watching her with cold brown eyes.
Angel’s response was just what Hawk had expected, a denial of involvement with Derry.
As Angel moved her head in a reflexive, negative gesture, a subtle fragrance drifted up from her hair to Hawk’s nostrils. They flared, drinking her scent. Desire ripped through him, but Hawk did not show it. A man who showed need to a woman was a fool.
Hawk hadn’t been a fool since his eighteenth birthday.
“I’m like a sister to Derry,” said Angel.
“In all but blood,” Hawk added blandly, repeating Angel’s previous words, not believing her.
“Exactly,” agreed Angel. “Derry and I are family.”
She turned away and set the pain pill next to the glass of water on the counter. Uneasily, she turned and glanced up the hallway.
“He’s all right,” Hawk said. “Besides, how much trouble can he get into in the bathroom?”
“You’d be surprised.”
Angel smiled wryly at the memory of her own clumsiness three years ago, when she had first asserted her independence and hobbled into the bathroom on crutches. In the end, Derry had to come in and untangle her.
She had always been grateful that it was concern rather than laughter that showed on Derry’s face when he had found her and her crutches wrapped around the toilet and wash-basin. Fortunately nothing had been hurt but her pride, and Derry had salved even that by his matter-of-fact help.
Hawk saw Angel’s small, private smile and wondered how many times she and Derry had played in the shower or the bathtub.
But thinking about it would make his desire obvious, so Hawk turned his thoughts elsewhere with the same discipline that had once made him a top race car driver and now made him a ruthless businessman.
“Want me to check on Derry?” asked Hawk, his voice casual, his eyes so dark they were almost black.
Angel hesitated.
“Would you mind?” she asked softly. “Crutches can be the very devil to use the first few times out.”
Hawk turned and went down the hall, silently agreeing with Angel about crutches. He’d been forced to use them twice, after each major racing crash. Once it had been only for a few days. The second time, though, it had been nineteen weeks.
Except for the months following his eighteenth birthday, Hawk couldn’t think of a more unpleasant period in his life than the time he had spent on crutches.
Hawk met Derry coming up the hall. The younger man looked surprised, then resigned.
“Did I take that long?” Derry asked.
“Not for me. Angel was a bit nervous, though.”
“Angel? Oh, Angie.” Derry looked uncertain, then said quietly, “She doesn’t like being called Angel.”
“I know.”
“Then why – ”
“She’ll get used to it,” Hawk said, turning his back on Derry, “just like I got used to Hawk.”
Chapter 4
In silence Hawk and Derry went back to the kitchen where Angel waited. When Derry appeared, relief was clear on Angel’s face. She held out the pill and the glass of water.
“Bottoms up,” she said.
Derry grimaced but took the pill.
“Have you eaten?” asked Angel.
“Sure. I’m not exactly helpless, you know.” She put her slim fingers against Derry’s cheek. As fair as her skin was, it was darker than Derry’s right now.
“You’re so pale,” she whispered.
Derry pressed his cheek lightly against Angel’s hand.
“I’m fine, Angie. Really.”
“You’ll do better lying down,” Hawk said in a curt voice.
It was more an order than a suggestion.
Hawk followed Derry back to the lounge and waited while the younger man lowered himself down. Other than taking the crutches, Hawk didn’t help in any way. When Angel reached to help, Hawk restrained her.
“He isn’t an invalid,” Hawk said coolly.
“But – ” Angel began.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those frustrated mother types,” interrupted Hawk, his voice teasing and his eyes hard as cut crystal. “Fussing and fidgeting around men, trying to reduce them to the status of babies. Or does Derry like being babied?”
Anger thinned Angel’s mouth, but before she could tell Hawk what she thought of his sharp tongue and lack of feeling, she heard Derry laughing.
“Mr. Hawkins,” said Derry, struggling to straighten a pillow behind his head, “you don’t know – ”
“Call me Hawk. I’m told the name suits me.”
As Hawk spoke he moved over and shifted the pillow so that it would be centered beneath Derry’s head. The gesture was so swift that it almost passed unnoticed.
“It does, you know,” Derry said, sighing. “Suit you, that is. Except I’ve never known a hawk with a sense of humor.”
Derry smiled and settled back onto the pillow.
“But you’ll never meet anyone less likely to fuss and fidget than Angie,” Derry added. “She’s the most serene person I know.”
Hawk lifted one black eyebrow and looked at Angel as though he’d never seen her before.
“Really?” Hawk asked softly.
“Really,” Derry said. “She should be the one studying to be a surgeon, not me. Nothing, but nothing, flaps Angie anymore.”
Angel tried to look serene under Hawk’s skeptical regard. It was hard. She knew that he was remembering her
