„Nah,“ the boy muttered, jiggling the nozzle against the boat. „That agent ain’t said nothing but yessir and nosir since you told him there was plenty of white galleries that’d take Uncle’s carvings, pay him on time and kiss his Indian ass in the bargain.“
Janna saw Raven’s razor smile and realized that although he had always cherished her, even at the times of his greatest need, there was a core of cold savagery in him – and that he used it to protect those he loved.
„Glad to hear it,“ Raven said with satisfaction. „What’s the problem, then?“
„Uncle says he’s falling in love and it’s all your fault.“ Strong white teeth gleamed in the boy’s tanned face.
„Oh?“ Raven grumbled. „What have I done now?“
The boy jerked his chin in the direction of the land. „You left her in Uncle’s lap while she was waiting for you to get back from Totem Inlet.“
Janna saw Raven turn and look up the dock toward land. Suddenly his face was transformed, all darkness gone, a broad smile flashing as he held out his arms. The slender blonde who had been sneaking down the dock to surprise Raven laughed and ran toward him openly, throwing herself into his arms with the confidence of a woman who knows she will be caught and held securely. Raven’s big arms closed around her, and he whirled around and around on the dock while the woman laughed joyously and clung to him.
Feeling as though she were being spun around herself, Janna swayed and then leaned against the cabin wall, wondering where all her strength had gone. She could barely stand. Only then did she admit to herself how much she had hoped that a man as passionately and wildly aroused as Raven had been when they made love must have been at least a little bit involved with his emotions as well as his body.
Janna looked away from the slender, elegant blonde who was only now being set down on feet shod in Italian leather sandals. Glumly Janna looked at her own feet. They were covered by tennis shoes that were cracked from repeated bouts with salt water and the galley oven. The unflattering comparisons didn’t stop there, either. Instead of wearing a clingy sea-green sweater, her own body was draped in an oversize man’s shirt whose sleeves kept coming unrolled over her knuckles. Instead of smooth, scented hands, her own were chapped by seawater and covered by various nicks and welts that had come from wrestling with stubborn oyster shells.
No wonder Raven had only wanted a few days with her. Lord, the wonder was that he had wanted her at all. He must have been alone in that inlet for months to even look at her, much less to make love to her as though she were the last woman on earth – or the first.
Janna closed her eyes, rested her forehead against the cold glass and remembered all the times she had pulled up her socks and gotten on with life even when it hurt to breathe. She had no right to complain about the fact that Raven loved a woman he couldn’t have and didn’t love Janna, who loved him. Raven didn’t love her, but he had given her the gift of himself for a few days. She had known what it was like to see a man’s eyes kindle with laughter and desire as he watched her. She had known what it was like to evoke a fierce, elemental response from Raven’s powerful body, to pleasure him and to be pleasured in turn.
She should be on her knees right now thanking him rather than trying not to cry because a few days weren’t a lifetime. Nobody had promised her a lifetime. Nobody had promised her a damn thing. She could have died before she had ever known Raven.
She almost had.
„Are you all right?“
Janna’s eyes flew open. The voice was deep, but not as deep as Raven’s. The boat dipped beneath the man’s weight as he came aboard.
He was tall, but not as tall as Raven. He was strong, but he didn’t have Raven’s unusually powerful build. His hair was just as black, though, and in a lean, hard way he was as handsome as any man Janna had ever seen.
„Hawk,“ Janna said, remembering Raven’s description of the man Angel loved.
A black eyebrow arched in silent query, giving an almost satanic cast to Hawk’s face. His eyes were an odd shade of golden brown, like whiskey or the bird of prey he took his nickname from. „Have we met?“
„Only in a Raven’s mind.“
„A raven? Oh, Carlson.“ Hawk’s mouth curled up slightly beneath a black mustache as he looked at Janna wrapped so intriguingly in what was obviously not her shirt. The mismatch between the shirt’s size and her own had the effect of emphasizing how different her body was from a man’s. „Leave it to Carlson to go out fishing and come back with a stunning mermaid.“
Janna’s mouth turned down in a sad curve. She felt more stunned than stunning.
„Are you sure you’re all right?“ Hawk asked gently.
„Sure. Just pulling up my socks.“
„You aren’t wearing any.“
„Yeah. That’s where the real challenge comes in.“
Hawk smiled suddenly.
Janna blinked. She had never seen a smile quite so unexpected, like a fire burning beneath glacial ice, a promise of warmth radiating magically through the cold.
„My God,“ Janna said, shaking her head, „I’ll bet when you and Raven walk down a street together you can hear female hearts breaking like dropped crockery.“
There was an instant of startled stillness before Hawk’s smile became a warm male laugh that was every bit as unexpected and as beautiful as his smile had been.
Raven turned toward the sound, still holding Angel. „I see you’ve met Janna,“ he said, grinning. „She has the most incredible – “
„Sense of humor,“ Janna interrupted wearily. „With that and two quarters you can get a cup of coffee.“
Raven’s eyes narrowed at the flatness he heard in Janna’s voice. It reminded him painfully of the night when she had fled his heavy-handed company and locked herself in the bow to sketch. Janna didn’t see his sudden scrutiny as she pushed away from the cabin’s support.
„Do you need to get anything from the boat?“ Hawk asked, looking between Janna and Raven with barely concealed curiosity.
She drew a deep breath, grabbed the tops of her nonexistent socks and pulled. „Not a thing,“ she said with forced cheer. „That’s one of the joys of shipwreck – no excess baggage. No baggage of any kind, as a matter of fact. What you see is what you get.“
An arched black eyebrow lifted in query again but Hawk said nothing. Enviously Janna watched as he mounted the dock in a single lithe movement. The gap between boat and dock looked enormous to her. She was certain that she would stumble and go sprawling, further separating herself in Raven’s eyes from the ever-perfect, ever-unattainable Angel.
„Let me help.“
Startled, Janna looked up into compassionate golden-brown eyes. She held up her arms and was lifted onto the dock as gracefully as though she were a prima ballerina.
