Amber Beach (43 page)

“Jake, that’s not…”

He kept on talking. “Once the elephants start to play, dumb pieces of grass like me get trampled in the mud. Kyle has the Donovan family to wash him off and coo over his wounds. I don’t have anyone but me. I have to find out the truth about that amber, because nobody else cares. That means you’re going to Ellen and I’m going to sea. If that throws a kink in your plans, then that’s too damned…”

His tirade stopped abruptly. Two cold, gentle hands were
stroking his bare back.

Jake turned around so fast that he almost knocked Honor over. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“Reasoning with you.” She stroked his chest, tangling her fingers softly in the silk cord that held the amber medallion
in place.

“Reasoning?” he asked.

“Uh huh. It’s working, too. See how much more reasonable your tone is?” Honor’s fingertips traced the intertwined dragons and the male warmth beneath. “Why weren’t you wearing this the first time we made love?”

“You didn’t know who I was. The medallion would have raised too many questions. I didn’t want to answer them.”

“Amber man”, she said sadly.

He shrugged, but his breath broke when her fingers went from the medallion to his nipples. They turned to tiny stones beneath her curious fingertips.

“Nice try, but you still only have two choices”, Jake said through clenched teeth. “Ellen or me.”

“I’m thinking.”

One of Honor’s hands trailed down his chest to his navel and then on to the finger-width of black hair that led down the center of his briefs. He rose to meet her with a speed and force that sent an answering flood of arousal through her.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I was wondering how you would taste.”

Jake’s breath locked in his throat. “You’re supposed to be thinking about your choice – Ellen or the boat. No matter how much I want you or how good you give it to me, you still only have two choices.”

“Are you accusing me of trying to seduce you in order to muddle your mind?” Honor asked.

Slim, caressing fingers slid inside his briefs. Her hands were no longer cold. Or if they were, he didn’t notice it.

“Aren’t you?” he asked.

“Would it work?”

“No. Yes.” His breath hissed as she stroked the pulse beating so hotly beneath smooth skin. “Damn it, I can’t think when you do that.”

“How about when I do this?”

Her hands moved quickly and his briefs slid down to his knees, then his ankles. The heat of her mouth was every wet dream he had ever had rolled into one. Distantly he told himself that he was stronger, tougher, meaner, all he had to do was grab her by the arms and lift her to her feet and that would end her silly attempt to change his mind by offering sex.

And he would do just that – when he was certain he couldn’t take it one more instant. Until then, he would take it like a man, silently, muscles clenched, sweating from head to heels, breathing like a racehorse coming down the home stretch.

“That’s it”, he said hoarsely.

“But I was just getting the hang of it”, she protested, tracing with her tongue the pulse that beat so violently.

Jake kicked aside his briefs, lifted Honor, and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Get the hang of this.”

Her pupils dilated with pleasure as he peeled off her pants and sank into her. Her response was a rhythmic contraction and a wave of heat that almost stripped away his control. Hotter than her mouth, deeper, sweeter, she was all around him, he was flying and falling at once, spinning.

“I’m losing it”, he said raggedly.

Honor didn’t hear him. She was already lost.

When Jake came into the kitchen carrying his duffel, Honor was wrapping up salmon sandwiches to take on the boat. Other bags of food stood ready on the counter.

“Did you find enough tie-downs for your Zodiac?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe it fit beneath the
radar
arch.”

“That was the easy part. Getting the Zodiac down to the boat in this wind was a lot of fun.”

“You should have let me help you.”

Jake agreed, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “I still think you should call Ellen. You would be safe.”

“I would go crazy worrying about Kyle and you.”

“You trust me with your body but not your brother, is that it?”

“No. That’s not it.”

He looked at Honor’s stubborn profile. “I don’t believe you.”

“I can’t help that.” She stuffed sandwiches into plastic bags and ignored him.

Jake bit back a savage comment. No matter what she said now about trusting him not to hurt Kyle, she hadn’t mentioned love in all of the wild, windswept hours they had spent in bed waiting for full darkness to come… and wishing it
never would.

“What if I just bundle you up and drop you on Ellen?” he
asked roughly.

“I’d tell her where you were.”

“You won’t know.”

“Seal Rock.”

His head turned swiftly toward Honor. “When did you learn how to read the chart plotter?”

“Watching you. Seal Rock is the only route Kyle entered that we haven’t tried.”

“There’s no guarantee he’s anywhere near there.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you going?”

“I told you.”

“If you trusted me, you would stay on land.”

“Typical male logic – wrong.” Honor picked up the food bags and met Jake’s glance squarely. “You’re wasting time.”

“What if something happens to you?”

“What if it happens to you?”

His mouth flattened. He went through the arguments in his mind
again.
He had tried all of them twice, some of them three times. Honor wasn’t buying any of them. He had all but come right out and said he was looking for Kyle’s corpse and he didn’t need her for that. The heavy hints had seemed to go right over her head.

Then he had seen the fear and grief in her eyes and felt
like a murderer.

“Stay here”, Jake said gently. “Believe me, it will be easier
on you.”

“No.”

“You’re not being reasonable!”

“Takes one to know one.”

He dropped the duffel on the table and began cramming in supplies. “If you get seasick and scared, don’t come to me for sympathy.”

“I figured that out already.”

Jake didn’t doubt it. With a muttered word he hit the light switch, throwing the kitchen into the same darkness that filled every room but the bedroom. He stood impatiently, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the moonless night.

“What about the bedroom light?” Honor asked after a few moments.

“Leave it on.”

“Why?”

“If the spy thinks we’re wrestling in the sheets, he won’t wonder why the rest of the place stays dark.”

“Don’t people turn out the lights to make love?”

“Did we?”

“I didn’t notice. Did we?”

Despite his irritation, Jake couldn’t help smiling as he thought of Honor all flushed and passionate, then sated and sleepy, then her curious mouth arousing him all over again while he watched and wondered how he had gotten so lucky and unlucky at once: Honor was a lover who matched his own hungry sexuality; she was a woman who didn’t really trust him.

He had a bad feeling that she was planning on ending their affair after he found Kyle.

“Any darkness that came was due to sunset creeping up on us”, Jake said. “I was enjoying every bit of the view. Especially the look on your face when you came that last time.”

“Jake!”

“What? Don’t tell me you didn’t like it.”

Honor hated the blush she knew was staining her cheeks right then. It made her feel like a schoolgirl. Jake’s slow smile
gleaming in reflected light told her that he liked teasing her. He also liked satisfying her.

“You’re trying to get my mind off going out on the water, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Is that what I’m doing?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it working?” he asked.

“Sometimes.”

But there was a catch in her voice that told Jake this wasn’t one of the times. He put an arm around her and pulled her close, comforting her even though he had sworn he
wouldn’t.

“Last chance”, he said softly. “Stay with Ellen.”

“No.”

For an instant his lips brushed Honor’s hair. Then he released her and headed out the back door. Together they hurried down the path and into the strong wind. For part of the way, forest screened them from any watchers. For the rest of the path, they would have to depend on darkness and luck.

“The dock will be slippery”, Jake warned her in a low voice. “So will the boat.”

Honor didn’t doubt it. She could almost taste the salt spray in the air. She definitely could feel it in the sting of wind-driven dampness against her skin.

Though the moon hadn’t risen yet, there was enough starlight to see that the water was white as much as it was black. Even in the sheltered cove, wind waves more than
a
foot high broke against pilings and threw water onto the floating walkway. The only good news was that the tide wasn’t particularly low – the ramp leading down to the dock wasn’t as steep as it would be in a few hours, or as slippery.

Holding the supplies, Honor cautiously crept down the ramp and onto the dock. Before she reached the boat, Jake had unloaded his stuff and was taking hers. He stepped back
down into the boat, set the supplies in the cabin, and returned to the dock just as she was lowering herself into the boat.

Jake was right. It was slippery. If she hadn’t been wearing deck shoes, she would have been on her hands and knees.

He lifted her aside, opened the engine hatch, and squatted on his heels. He took a deep breath, then another. No smell of gasoline. He would risk it.

But first he removed a small flashlight from his jacket pocket and aimed a pinpoint of light into the compartment. Everything looked the way he had left it – shipshape and ready to go. He stood and lowered the heavy cover into place.

“I’ll turn on the blower”, Honor said quietly.

“No. Sit in the pilot seat and don’t touch anything.”

“But…”

“No blower”, he said over her protest. “No lights. Nothing.”

“But…”

“Do what I say or get off the boat.”

The low, flat order told Honor that she wouldn’t win this argument. Besides, he was the expert, not her. If he didn’t want to use the blower, who was she to argue?

She ducked into the cabin, tossed her backpack into the V berth, and climbed into the pilot seat.

Jake was right behind her. He leaned across the helm seat and started the engine. Even the wind couldn’t completely muffle the sound. Very soon someone would figure out that the throaty growl belonged to a boat. Then Ellen would get a call. He doubted that she was sleeping on the Bayliner. It would take her a few minutes to get to her boat. Not much of a head start for him, but it would have to be enough.

Instead of giving the engine time to warm up as usual, Jake went right back onto the dock and started casting off lines. Carrying the stern line in his hand, he leaped aboard and took up the controls.

As soon as his hands wrapped around the wheel, Honor
let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Very quickly th
e Tomorrow
was free of the dock and heading out into choppy, wind-tossed water. Away from the shelter of the headlands at either end of Amber Beach, the waves doubled
in size.

Honor reminded herself that it didn’t matter, a boat could float on waves of any size. She wished she believed it in her gut as well as her head. It seemed that her instincts and her mind had been in a state of war ever since Jake Mallory walked into her life.

Instantly she told herself that she wasn’t being fair to Jake. Kyle was the one who had turned her life upside down. All Jake did was turn the whole mess inside out – and her with it.

But it was too late for regrets. She had made her choices and now she was at the mercy of the wind, the ocean, and a man she trusted more than she should.

In troubled silence Honor watched while Jake bent over the chart plotter, called up the menu, and punched in his choice. A dotted line appeared on the radar screen. He turned the helm until they were on course and nudged the throttle
up.

For a time she took the tension and the pitching waves in silence. Then she started asking questions. “Do you think we got away without anyone noticing?”

“Doubt it. But by the time they can do anything about it, we should be off their scope.”

“What about the Coast Guard?”