Pearl Cove (12 page)

Thats right, she said defiantly. Wrong answer. Try again.

Archer Her voice broke. She had thought his eyes were like gray-green stone, hard and
cold. Now she was close enough to see flashes of blue, gemlike shards buried in the smoky
crystal iris. You

have blue in your eyes.

Thats because the bathroom is blue. Stand me up in a greenhouse and my eyes are green.
Make me mad enough, and Im told they go steel gray. About that answer, Hannah.

I hate knowing you were hurt because of me, she said in as calm a voice as she could
manage.

What do you think it does to me knowing that you could have been killed by that roof? What
do you think it does to me knowing that I should have yanked you out of here the instant
you called me in Seattle? What do you think it does to me when I see bruises on you and
know I

Her fingertips on his mouth were light, but they cut off his words like a fist.

I want Lens killer, too, she said. Whatever happens to me along the way is my
responsibility, not yours.

Archer closed his eyes for an instant, not trusting himself to look at her without kissing
her. If he kissed her, he wouldnt stop until she was naked and wet and he was buried so
deep in her heat that he would forget what it was like to be separate, cold.

Hannah.

The huskiness of his voice sent tongues of fire licking through her. It had been a long
time since she had lain under a man, but she hadnt forgot the glittery excitement, the hot
rush, the rhythmic urgency of body against body.

If you keep looking at me like that Archer began. Like what? she cut in. Like youre
wondering what it would feel like to have me inside you. Are you wondering? Ive been
wondering for ten years. Her eyes widened. Ten years. Len.

Memories broke over Hannah in a cold, endless wave, drowning her heat. She had been so
sure of herself ten years ago, so certain that Len was right for her. And now she was
standing a breath away from a man who was just as hard, just as ruthless as Len.

Len, who had been so wrong for her.

Len, who hadnt cared when their child died at birth. He literally had not cared. Though
she was so ill her baby died and she nearly did, he had dumped her in a hospital where no
one spoke English and took off. As always, he was pursuing another hot rumor about a black
pearl whose orient was all of Gods rainbows wrapped together.

Gods or the devils. She still wasnt sure which. She no longer even cared. She had learned
not to care. Just as she had learned not to risk any more unborn children to the whims of
their careless father. She would never forgive herself for that. No punishment could be
too great for such misjudgment, even the hell of living with Len McGarry.

In the instant before Hannah stepped back, Archer felt the change in her resistance where
there had been fluid ease, restraint where there had been hunger, distance where there had
been heat. He let her slip between his hands like fire, because like fire, he couldnt hold
on to her without being burned. What did Len do to you? he asked softly.

For several heartbeats Archer thought Hannah wouldnt answer.

And so did she.

Then she remembered the freedom she had discovered floating deep in the turquoise sea, and
she wondered if she would ever find the courage of that freedom on land, face-to-face with
the man she both feared and desired.

Len taught me to be careful, she said finally. Very, very careful. Her voice was
ruthlessly neutral, concealing the stark female hunger and the much more complicated
yearning that coiled just beneath. Not a bad thing to learn.

Theres such a thing as being too careful. Sure, Ill bet you know all about it. Her tone
was sardonic. Turn around so I can check the bruises

on your spine, the ones you got by being so bloody careful.

Despite Hannahs brisk words, her hands were gentle as she turned Archer around. The simple
heat of his body and the complex slide of his muscles beneath her palms made her wish that
Len hadnt taught her how necessary it was to protect her soft center beneath a harsh shell
of experience. Touching Archer made her yearn for things she couldnt name, only feel.

I was careful ten years ago, Archer said. Ive regretted it as Ive regretted nothing else
in my life.

Hannahs hands paused in their slow probing of his back. What do you mean?

He moved so that they were facing each other again. The feel of her fingers sliding on his
bare skin did nothing to cool his blood. When she lifted them, he had to bite back a
protest. The depth of his hunger for her would have shocked him, but right now he could
feel nothing except his own heat, see nothing except her eyes shadowed by a past he
couldnt change.

Too late. Too damned late for everything except pain.

Len and I had a complicated relationship, Archer said evenly. I didnt know how complicated
until it was too late.

She frowned, not understanding.

He lifted his hand, wanting to smooth the lines between her shiny brown eyebrows. Yet he
didnt trust himself to touch her in even so casual a way.

And he touched her anyway, tracing the frown lines with a fingertip that was callused and
gentle. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she didnt pull back.

I was raised, he said quietly, in a big family with love and shouting matches and laughing
and hugs, grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, parents and brothers and sisters,
dogs and cats and car pools. Len was raised by an unloving woman who began life as a
calculating piece of ass and ended up as a bitter, alcoholic whore.

Hannah listened with complete attention. She had often wondered about Lens childhood. She
had learned not to ask. She had learned so many things.

And Archer was teaching her other things now, with the gentleness of his touch despite the
blunt woman-hunger that had tightened his whole body.

When I found Len and told him who I was, he just stared at me, Archer said. He brought up
both hands, barely touching Hannahs cheeks, tracing her sleek eyebrows with his thumbs.
Her sudden breath brushed her breasts against his chest. He went still for an instant,
then resumed the soft not-quite-caress of her eyebrows. I told him that he was welcome in
the Donovan household, that Dad had spent years looking for him.

What did Len say?

Too late, kid. Time only goes one way. She winced. That sounds like Len.

I tried to convince him to come home, Archer said, looking at Hannahs eyebrows, her dark
chocolate eyelashes, the pink curve of her mouth. He said he was already there.

Where was he?

In a hellhole in Kowloon.

Her mouth thinned. The fever that had killed her pregnancy had begun in Kowloon. It had
ended in another country.

And now it all seemed very far away, the world shrinking to one room, one man, the gritty
depth of his voice and his eyes watching her as though he had just discovered life.

I didnt give up, he said. Id been looking for Len too long. I couldnt just let him go. He
was a blond Viking like Kyle and Justin, with the Donovan smile, his way of looking over
his shoulder, even his laugh. I couldnt believe that Len wasnt like the rest of my family.

Believe it, Hannah said huskily. He wasnt. At least, for your sake, I hope he wasnt.

Though he looked like us, Len was different. I know that now. Too late to help you.
Archers fingers trembled on Hannahs face. Way too late to change the pain. There was
something bent or broken or missing or stunted in Len. Part of it was the way he was
raised. Part of it was the sum total of all the choices he made when he was old enough to
know better. The whys dont matter anymore. What I learned too late does matter.

Hannah watched Archers eyes change, felt him retreat from her even though he didnt move an
inch physically. The emotion beneath his neutral voice made her heart twist. She knew what
it was like to bleed silently beneath the careful mask she showed the world.

Too late, he said, I learned that Len resented me as much as he liked me. Instead of
seeing us as a team, he saw us as locked in some kind of destructive competition. He was
always playing all the angles to come out on top.

He wanted to prove that he was the best man around, she said.

For an instant Archers eyes shut, veiling the shaft of guilt and pain. Is that what he
said?

Not in so many words. But he used to taunt me for choosing the wrong man in Rio. If there
was a wrong man in Rio, there must have been a right one. You.

Wearily Archer swore beneath his breath and started to step back. The bathroom was too
small for him to move. Hannah was too close, her hands over his, holding his palms against
her cheeks. Holding him close. He felt as though he was absorbing her through his palms
pressed against her skin. Her warmth and softness and strength went through him like a
double shot of whiskey, making his blood ignite and his heart speed.

That was another thing I learned too late, Archer admitted huskily. Len knew how much I
wanted you before I admitted it to myself. You were so young, so vivid, so

Stupid, she cut in.

His smile flickered and vanished. He lifted her right hand and kissed the cool center of
her palm. You were innocent.

Thats why I couldnt admit I wanted you. So I had a hell of a shouting match with Len. I
was going to send you to the Donovans. They would have taken care of you.

The feel of Archers lips against her palm made Hannah lightheaded. I was nineteen. An
adult.

You were raised with a Stone Age tribe. You werent ready for the tenth century, much less
the twenty-first.

It wasnt that bad. It was worse. Tenderly he bit the pad of flesh at the base of her
thumb. The swift breaking of her

breath went through him in a shock wave of desire. He hadnt expected her to respond so
quickly, so openly. Not after living with Len. Youd never seen a flush toilet, never seen
a sink, never seen a computer, never watched television, never flown in an airplane, never
driven a car, never

I remember better than you, Hannah interrupted, hearing the huskiness of her own voice,
knowing its sultry source, not caring. If she didnt use her newly discovered freedom, it
would become just another kind of cage, one filled with regrets and might-have-beens.
Anyway, my parents had a radio phone.

He laughed softly and bit her again with great care. For emergencies, right?

She watched his teeth close on her flesh for a third time. Warmth flashed through her with
an intensity that made her bones loosen. Yes, she whispered, though she had forgotten the
question. Somehow she was so close to Archer now that she could feel his body heat,
breathe in the salt and mystery of his scent, feel the stark reality and lure of his
erection brushing against her with each deep breath.

Ever use the radio phone? he asked.

She shook her head, watching his eyes the whole time. If fog could burn, it would look
like that, a hot silver glitter. Technologically, she said, I was innocent. But in other
ways, I wasnt innocent at all. I knew more about life, death, and sheer human endurance
than most technological types ever have to learn. I also knew about the other world, the
civilized one out there beyond the rain forest, because Mother and Father kept telling me
how evil it was, how decadent, how godless, how driven by greed and malice.

Archer turned Hannahs hand and began to taste each one of her fingers in turn. Didnt it
scare you?

The outside world? she managed, despite the vise of desire squeezing her throat. The
velvet rasp and gentle suction of his tongue were a sensual revelation. The contrast
between his neutral conversation and elemental sexuality made her dizzy. His control was
utterly unexpected. Len would have had her on her back by now, driving toward his own
satisfaction.

Scare me? Hannah repeated, her voice as raspy-sweet as Archers tongue. No. The world
beyond the rain forest fascinated me. A place where you could go thousands of miles in a
few hours instead of a few miles in days. A place where every book ever written could be
conjured up on a screen and read. A place where people looked like me, yearned like me,
needed like me.

He tasted her little finger, decided that he liked it best, and tasted it again, deeply,
before slowly letting it slide free of his mouth. What did you need? he asked finally,
looking at her, focusing only on her.

I... Her breathing frayed as a shiver trembled through her body. She had never been looked
at like that, as if she was the very center of life. I dont know. But I knew I wouldnt
find it in the rain forest.

Did you find it beyond the rain forest? She closed her eyes. I grew up. Thats not the same
thing. It has the same result. Which is?

You stop looking.

When Archer would have asked another question, Hannah put her fingers against his mouth.
He kissed them and waited. Turn around, she said in a low voice. One of those bruises
looked deep enough to need attention.

Slowly he turned his back to her. Again he felt her cool, light fingers smoothing over his
skin, probing gently, testing the bruises. He tried not to think how good it would feel to
have her hands all over him. Not soothing him. Measuring him. Teasing and arousing,
enjoying and demanding.

A decade of remembering her voice, her laughter, and her grace had been bad enough, but
this was the most exquisite kind of torture he could imagine. Standing nearly naked,
breathing in her cinnamon-and-sun scent, feeling her delicate touch on his skin, thinking
what it would be like to pull her arms around him and kiss her until neither one of them
could stand up...

He could barely breathe, barely think, only drown in a combination of lust and tenderness
that was like nothing he had ever felt for a woman. Eyelids half lowered, aching and oddly
at peace, he steeped himself in the moment. When her breath washed warmly down his spine,
he couldnt prevent a shiver of pure sensual pleasure. She was a dream he had never allowed
himself to have, a warmth he had always needed and never known, the essence of everything
he yearned for that had no name.

Does that hurt? she asked when he shivered again.

Yes.

Without stopping to think, she bent and brushed her lips over the bruised skin. Im sorry.
When I asked you to come here and help me, I didnt think you would be hurt. I thought you
were too hard to ever be hurt.

Slowly Archer turned around. Dont be sorry. He eased his ringers into her wet, dark hair
and tilted her face up. Its the best hurt Ive ever felt.

Hannah started to ask a question, but the words never formed. His mouth was brushing hers,
his tongue was tracing her lips, and all she could think of was getting closer to him.
Whispering his name, she stood on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her
mouth in his.

With a thick sound of pleasure, Archer pulled Hannah hard against him and returned the
kiss as deeply as she gave it. His teeth nipped at her tongue before his own tangled with
it, teasing and tasting her until she had no thought but to get more of him, get it
deeper, get it now. What she needed, a kiss couldnt provide, no matter how hot and greedy
the mating of mouths. Whimpering, demanding, she moved against him in a haze of hunger.

The bathing suits that seemed so minimal were suddenly intolerable. He stripped her bikini
top off, caressed her breasts, and tugged at the nipples. Helplessly she arched, pinning
her hips against him, moving hungrily until the scent of her arousal infused the air. He
breathed it in even as he pushed his hand beneath the bikini cloth that barely covered her
soft, moist center. When his finger penetrated her, she cried out and silky heat spilled
into his hand.

Hannahs reckless response made Archer fight for breath and the self-control that he
usually took for granted, the same control that was sliding away even as he reached for
it, like her bikini bottom falling to the floor. She was so close, nearly his, caressing
him with every glide and clench of her response to him. Unable to stop himself, he probed
more deeply, pushing into the tight, slick satin of her body. Hidden muscles gripped,
begged, demanded.

She was more than ready for him. He could take her now, right now, filling her, ending the
agony of always wanting what he couldnt have. Yet he knew that she was off balance,
frightened despite her courage, emotionally exhausted beneath her sexual hunger.
Vulnerable.

And he had come to Australia to protect her.

With the last of his control, Archer pulled his mouth away from Hannahs until there was
just enough space to speak. If you dont want to finish this, tell me now.

It took a moment for the words to get past her sensual daze.

I want you.

Youve got me. But I dont run around with a pocket full of condoms, because Im too old to
look at sex as a game. Unless youre protected, were real close to making a baby right now.

The thought of his own child teething and drooling on his knuckles aroused Archer as much
as Hannah s sultry feminine core rubbing against him. His hands contracted on her hips,
lifting her against the erection that had outgrown his swimsuit. He fought against the
climax pulsing at the base of his spine. He wanted to be inside her when he came. Naked.
All the way naked. Naked as his tongue. He had never been like that with a woman in his
entire life. He could only guess at how good it would feel.