„Thanks,“ she said. „With my luck I’d have taken a header into the bay.“
Janna’s glance slid past Hawk to where Raven and Angel stood arm in arm. Suddenly a swim in the bay seemed preferable to walking down the dock and smiling cheerfully as she said goodbye to the man she loved.
„Rough trip?“ Hawk asked, following the direction of Janna’s glance.
„Yeah, you could say that. Lost my boat, lost my engine, lost my camping gear, my sketchbook, my…“
„Heart,“ finished Hawk too softly for anyone but Janna to hear.
Her mouth flattened into a line of pain. Those odd-colored eyes saw far too much.
„An overrated organ,“ Janna said, shrugging. „The body seems to function quite well without it.“
Hawk started to say something. Janna cut him off with an overly bright smile and a rush of words.
„I’m sure the three of you have a lot to catch up on,“ she said firmly. „Tell Raven that I’ll leave his shirt with the gas jockey.“
„Why don’t you tell me yourself?“ Raven asked, walking up in time to overhear Janna’s words.
His voice was very deep, almost harsh. He saw Angel’s swift, assessing look in his direction and realized that he wasn’t concealing his anger very well. But he hadn’t expected to look up and see Janna nestled trustingly between Hawk’s hands, to see her watching Hawk’s face as though she expected a second sunrise to take place there at any moment.
Nor had Raven expected Janna to vanish from his life without so much as a word. He had known that gratitude was a fleeting emotion, yet the idea that Janna could walk away from the past few days as though they had never happened enraged him. Before he realized what he was doing, Raven found himself pressing Janna in exactly the way that he had promised himself he wouldn’t.
„You can give me the shirt tomorrow, when I pick you up,“ he said to Janna, and his tone said that he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
„Pick me up,“ Janna repeated numbly, feeling her heart turn over as she tried desperately not to hope that Raven was reluctant to let her go.
„For a picnic on a north-facing beach. If it’s clear. Very clear. Otherwise any beach will do,“ he added.
„Very clear,“ she said, when it was anything but.
„Right. That’s the only time you can really see the illusions.“
Janna took a deep breath. „Help.“
The hard lines left Raven’s face as he smiled. His hand snaked out, wrapped around the nape of Janna’s neck and gently pulled her close, disengaging her from Hawk’s grasp in the process.
„I’m glad you remembered what I’m good for,“ Raven growled.
„Help?“
„Among other things.“
„Oh help,“ Janna breathed raggedly, feeling herself go soft in the head and everywhere else at the feel of Raven’s big, warm hand on her sensitive nape. „You’re making it very hard for me to be noble,“ she said, speaking before she thought. She winced. Not thinking before she spoke was a chronic condition for her around Raven.
„Noble?“ he asked, his black eyes searching her face.
„I… I thought you might want to get on with the, uh, reunion without any… any outsiders to get in the way.“
Raven said something succinct and harsh under his breath. „If there’s anything that gives me a tired butt, it’s nobility,“ he added, ignoring the fact that his anti-nobility statement was self-serving. Nobility required him to give up Janna right away. Suddenly he was damned if he were going to do that. She had a few more days in the Queen Charlottes before she had to go back to Seattle. There wasn’t one reason on earth they couldn’t spend those days together. A lot of reasons why they
For an instant Janna closed her eyes, unable to bear the dark clarity of Raven’s eyes looking at her, into her, seeing too much. Just as she was seeing too much. Whatever else Raven might feel for Angel, there was no deep, reckless current of desire beneath his obvious love for her. Yet Janna knew that Raven was capable of intense sensuality and white-hot, elemental desire, for she had been the focus of both. Raven didn’t love Janna, but he wanted her.
And she wanted him in the same way. If the savage, shimmering wine of sensual ecstasy was all that he could accept from Janna, then she wouldn’t withhold it. She couldn’t. She loved him too much to deny him anything.
Janna didn’t notice the two other people watching her – Hawk with compassion and Angel with growing surprise and delight. Janna saw only Raven, the man she had waited a lifetime to find.
And to lose.
But not yet. She had a few days left in this wild Eden. She would spend them with the man she loved.
„I don’t need to sketch anymore,“ she said, her tone husky. „I found everything I needed in Totem Inlet.“ The words came back to Janna, haunting her with too many meanings. „For my work,“ she added quickly, tearing her glance away from Raven’s. „Thanks to Angel.“
„Your sketchbook,“ Raven explained to Angel without looking away from Janna.
Angel blinked her beautiful sea-green eyes at him, turned toward Hawk and said, „Must be those Tlingit shaman genes shorting out the brain again.“
„Tlingit?“ Janna asked, not looking away from Raven. „I thought you were Haida.“
„Mostly. One of my grandparents was a Tlingit shaman. Angel says that’s where I get my fishing luck and streak of cruelty.“
„Carlson!“ Angel said, dismayed. „That’s not what I said and you know it!“
Janna looked at Raven’s off-center smile and wanted to cry. „You’re not cruel,“ she said.
„Oh, but I am,“ he countered softly, his eyes bleak. „Remember? Sometimes comfort just doesn’t get the job done.“
„That’s not cruelty, that’s just a very difficult way to be kind,“ Angel said, putting her hand on the thick muscle of Raven’s forearm. „If you had enjoyed my pain, then it would have been cruelty. Just because I was too selfish to see your kindness at the time doesn’t change reality. You helped me, Raven.“ She laughed suddenly, a sound that was surprisingly sad. „You did more than help me. Without you I wouldn’t have made it.“
Raven hesitated, then picked up Angel’s hand, kissed it softly and replaced it on his arm. „I’m glad you feel that way, Angel Eyes. I hated hurting you.“
„It was nothing to what I did to you. If you only knew how many times I’ve regretted what I said to you.“ Angel took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She turned toward Janna and smiled apologetically. „You must think we’re all crazy.“
„No,“ Janna said quietly. „I think that Raven is very good at saving lives, at being kind even when it hurts, at being… a man. More man than I’ve ever met.“
She clasped her hands together and hoped no one could see that her fingers were shaking from the reaction that had come when Raven had picked Angel’s hand up and kissed it so gently, so sadly. Seeing Raven with the woman he loved and couldn’t have was tearing at Janna in ways that she would never have
