„Know any place to buy a used boat?“ Janna asked, then added hastily, „Cheap.“
„I’ll take care of it,“ Raven said. „Old Nadine has gouged her last tourist.“
„That isn’t necessary. I can – “
„Care to flip me for it?“ Raven interrupted smoothly.
Janna started to argue, took one look at the suddenly hard lines on Raven’s face and decided that now wasn’t the time to object. She had discovered that every time she mentioned Nadine’s boat, Raven lost his sense of humor. Janna knew why. He kept thinking that if he had slept harder or started out to help later or never been at the inlet at all, Janna would have drowned.
The same thought had occurred to Janna more than once, usually in the small hours of the night, bringing her awake with her heart pounding. It had been very reassuring to feel Raven’s warm presence by her side at those moments, to curl against his body as he gathered her close, to fall asleep knowing that she was safe.
„No, I don’t care to flip you for it,“ Janna admitted, smiling slightly. „You use the damnedest coins.“
Raven smiled in return, remembering both Janna’s startled look and the creamy curves of her bottom as he had stroked it. „That leaves dinner to settle.“ He turned toward Hawk. „You two staying with Uncle?“
„He wouldn’t hear of anything else.“
„I’ll bet. Uncle has an eye for beauty. Better keep Angel on a short leash. Uncle’s quite the lady’s man.“
Hawk’s mouth curved in a small smile. „Handsome devil, too. It’s not hard to see where you got your pretty face.“
Angel burst out laughing. „Hawk, you ought to be ashamed. Uncle is as homely as a muddy clam and you know it. Raven definitely is not.“
„He’s too small for my taste,“ Hawk said blandly.
Raven chuckled as he stepped forward and enveloped Hawk in the kind of hard hug that men reserve for brothers or the rare unrelated male whose friendship is uniquely valued. „I’ve missed you, Hawk. I’m glad you could get away for a few days.“
„So am I. We don’t see much of you in Vancouver anymore.“
„I’ve been – restless.“
„Yes,“ Hawk said softly. „I was restless, too. Once.“ He looked at Angel. „But no more.“
Angel looked up at Hawk and smiled.
If Janna had had any lingering question about Raven’s status in Angel’s life, that doubt vanished. Angel’s smile said silently that Hawk was as deeply rooted in her as her own soul. It was the same for Hawk. The single caressing touch of his fingertip on Angel’s cheek proclaimed that she was a radiance that illuminated every darkness he had ever known.
Janna looked at Raven and saw his gentle smile as he watched the almost tangible currents of love flowing between his friends. Abruptly a feeling of sadness swept over Janna, a strange, almost overwhelming compassion for Raven. Angel and Hawk were two halves of a very beautiful, very powerful whole. Raven not only accepted that, he celebrated it, loving both of them equally, enjoying the visible evidence of their love for one another.
I’m not that generous, Janna realized bleakly. Idon’t begrudge what Angel and Hawk have with each other – but I can’t help wanting that kind of love for myself, too. Wanting it until I feel as though I’ve been turned inside out, every torn nerve exposed to salt air. Wanting it until I can’t trust myself to look at Raven and not cry for me, for us.
For him.
Because I want it for him, too. Even if it doesn’t happen with me, I want him to have that kind of love, too. I want it even more than I want it for myself. And I can’t help him any more than I can help myself.
„Janna? What’s wrong?“ Raven whispered.
Slowly Janna realized that she was leaning against Raven’s hard, warm chest and his arm was unobtrusively supporting her.
„Nothing new,“ she said, looking up, giving him the best smile she had at the moment. It must not have been very good. His eyes narrowed and he looked at her closely. „I guess it’s all catching up with me,“ she said, waving her hand around vaguely. „Coping with civilization and all that. Eden was… addictive.“
Raven’s eyes kindled. His arms tightened around Janna. „It doesn’t have to end,“ he whispered. He took a harsh breath as he heard his own words. He was doing what he had promised he wouldn’t, pressing her, using her gratitude for his own ends. „You have a few more days, don’t you? If you want?“
„I want,“ Janna whispered, giving in to the need within her soul and holding on to Raven suddenly. „I want that very much.“
Both of Raven’s arms went around Janna. He straightened slowly, lifting her feet off the dock, loving the feel of her completely supported within his arms. When he finally set her down again, he was aware of Angel’s amused, approving smile.
„It’s settled,“ Raven said. „We’ll meet for dinner at Janna’s place at five. I’ll bring the food, Angel will cook and Hawk will clean up afterward.“
„That doesn’t leave anything for me to do,“ Janna pointed out.
„You,“ Raven said, touching her nose with his big finger, „are sentenced to a long, hot bath. Then you will sit in my lap and whisper to me about the lives and lusts of frumious bandersnatches.“
„I don’t think you’re old enough to hear stuff like this,“ Hawk said, covering Angel’s ears with his hands.
„Dream on,“ she retorted, covering Hawk’s ears with her own small hands and then tugging gently, bring his face down to hers. She whispered something that made his eyebrows climb and then he laughed out loud.
„You’re on,“ he said, smiling down at her with sensual promise.
Janna had just finished undergoing the first part of her „sentence“ when she heard a knock on the front door.
„Is that you, Raven?“ she called out, reaching for a towel.
„In the flesh,“ he said, walking in the front door and shutting it behind him. „How about you? What are you in?“
„The same. Period. Are you early or am I late?“ she asked, peeking around the barely opened bathroom door.
Raven smiled as he nudged the door fully open. „I’d say I was just in time.“
The breath caught in Janna’s throat when she saw Raven’s slow, sensual appraisal of her body.
„God,“ he said thickly, „you’re too beautiful to be real.“
The visible shivers that coursed over Janna’s skin were the result of more than the cooler air coming into the steamy bathroom.
„Raven,“ she said huskily, but could say no more.
„Again,“ he murmured.
„What?“
„My name.“
Raven’s voice was so deep that Janna almost couldn’t understand the words. He bent over her, tasting her flushed skin with slow, sensual movements of his tongue.
„Raven,“ Janna said. She tried to say his name again, but his mouth was teasing her breast into a hard ruby peak. The contrast of his hair against her skin was like black satin against pearl. „Raven,“ she said, trembling and threading her fingers into his hair as he knelt before her.
„Yes,“ he growled softly against the taut curve of her belly. „Like that. Say it like that. Say it as though it were the only word in the only language that mattered.“
Janna felt the firm caress of Raven’s hands as he stroked her body from her high-arched feet to her rounded hips, memorizing her. His tongue traced a hot, sensuous line from her knee to the nest of dark hair at the apex of her thighs, drawing tiny gasps and cries from her, making heat swirl through her in a glittering diamond mist.