of the sink. „Don’t bother to be modest,“ she said, quartering the lemon with knife strokes that were just short of vicious. „Surely you’ve noticed the women piling up around your feet like autumn leaves.“
Raven stuck his large feet out into the aisle and looked at them curiously. „Nope. Not a one.“
„Of course not,“ she shot back. „You have two.“
„More than six and a half, actually.“
Janna blinked. „Help.“
„Feet,“ he added blandly. „As in tall.“
Smiling, shaking her head, Janna gave up. The last of her anger fled as she looked at Raven’s dark face animated by inner laughter. For a tearing instant she wondered why life was so unfair as to give Raven everything she had ever wanted in a man – and then to place him beyond her reach. Sudden tears came in blinding counterpoint to laughter, threatening to choke her. She tried to speak, to explain, but all that came out were fragments of Raven’s name.
„Hey, it wasn’t that bad a pun,“ Raven said gently, coming to stand beside Janna and blot up her tears with a napkin.
Head down, leaning against his strength, Janna fought not to cry. After a minute she succeeded.
„Sorry,“ she said, drawing a deep breath. „I never cry. I don’t know what’s wrong.“ She sighed and reluctantly drew back from Raven’s body.
„You had quite a scare a few days ago,“ Raven said quietly. His hand hesitated before he permitted himself the luxury of stroking Janna’s gleaming cinnamon hair. The smooth warmth of the crown of her head made his palm feel as though it was caressing fire. „It’s not surprising you’re still feeling the emotional aftershocks.“
Janna felt Raven’s touch all the way to the soles of her feet. She wanted to turn her head and catch his hard palm against her lips. Even as the impulse came, she had given in to it. Her lips brushed over his warm hand.
„You’re very kind,“ she said huskily. „Whoever Hawk is, whatever he is, Angel took second best.“
Raven watched as Janna turned from his arms and slid into the booth seat along the table. Her honesty and vulnerability to him made him ache with tenderness. And hunger. He knew that she wanted him. He knew how much he wanted her. Silently he cursed the circumstances that had brought them together and at the same time made it impossible for him to accept what she offered. He couldn’t take a woman who came to him out of a combination of misplaced gratitude and primitive survival instincts.
And that was all Janna was feeling now – gratitude and the emotional aftershocks of almost dying. She would have been equally drawn to any man who had saved her life and then cared for her.
Too bad he wouldn’t have been equally drawn to any woman he had fished out of the sea.
Grimly Raven’s big hand closed around his wineglass. He took a quick swallow, then another, as though the beautiful Chardonnay were medicine. And, in a way, it was. If he drank enough of it he might sleep tonight instead of lying awake so frustrated and aroused that he could count his own pulse in the rigid stirrings of his sex.
With an abrupt movement Raven sat down, concealing his physical turmoil beneath the opaque barrier of the table. A hard smile tugged at his mouth as he eyed the oysters heaped on his plate. If folk tales were true, right now he needed saltpeter a hell of a lot more than he needed oysters.
Janna reached for the oyster crackers, shook out a handful and offered Raven the package. He took it without a word. She wondered what he was thinking that had etched such an odd smile onto his lips. When she realized that she was watching those same chiseled lips with breathless intensity, she looked away, flushing guiltily.
„What do you do when you aren’t fishing tourists out of Totem Inlet?“ Janna asked, seizing the first words that came into her mind.
„I used to be a commercial fisherman.“ Raven squeezed lemon onto an oyster and forked it into his mouth. „Not bad,“ he said thoughtfully, appreciating the acid tang of fresh lemon.
„The oyster?“ she asked, pausing in the act of reaching for one of her own.
„The lemon.“
Janna blinked. „Don’t you usually have it with oysters?“
„No.“
„Then why did you have all those lemons on board?“
„Angel likes fresh lemonade. We were going to cruise the east side of Moresby Island for a few days until Hawk got back from Tokyo. Hawk got in early, though.“ Raven smiled crookedly. „Married nearly four years and he still hates being away from Angel.“
„Maybe he didn’t want to tempt fate by leaving Angel alone with you,“ Janna said dryly.
Raven smiled even as he shook his head. „Not a chance. Pass some of that sauce over this way,“ he said. „I’ll try it next.“
„Haven’t you ever had this kind of sauce on your oysters?“ she asked, nudging the dish full of cocktail sauce closer to him.
„Nope,“ Raven rumbled.
„Then why did you have ketchup and horseradish on board?“
„For my roast beef sandwiches.“ He dipped an oyster in the dish, chewed the succulent flesh and cocked his head thoughtfully. „Not bad. Kind of saucy.“
Janna winced at the awful pun. „How do you usually eat your oysters? Cooked in a stew?“
„Just the way I find them. In the raw.“
„Must be kind of chilly,“ she said, reaching for her third oyster.
„What?“
„Finding oysters in the raw. Most people wear shirts and jeans and…“
Janna ducked a casual swipe from Raven’s massive hand. When she straightened again, his fingers returned to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
„We’re going to have to find you a scarf the color of your eyes.“
The gentleness of Raven’s touch made Janna’s heart stop and then beat with redoubled speed even as she told herself it was just a casual gesture that meant nothing. And even though it had made her go all shivery, it certainly hadn’t affected him. He was picking up his glass of wine as though nothing had happened.
Raven drained his glass in a single motion, cursing himself for touching Janna at every excuse – and knowing that he was just waiting for another tendril of silky hair to escape so that he could touch her again. He looked at his wineglass. Empty. Janna’s was almost empty, too. He refilled both glasses and wished that he and Janna were as naked as the oysters gleaming within their pearly half shells.
„To oysters in the raw,“ Raven said, lifting his wineglass.
His slow, very male smile sent frissons of awareness through Janna. She touched her wineglass to his and drank quickly, deeply, grateful for the excuse to look away from Raven’s midnight eyes. If he smiled like that again, she was afraid she would crawl right into his lap and beg to be kissed.
The thought shocked her. She took another quick swallow of wine and felt a different kind of warmth spread through her. Belatedly she realized that wine probably wasn’t what she should be drinking; alcohol wasn’t noted for enhancing self-control. On the other hand, the wine was absolutely delicious. Probably far too delicious.
„Do you still fish commercially?“ Janna asked, firmly trading wineglass for oyster fork.
„I own several commercial boats,“ Raven said. „My cousins have fished them for
