Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

what he saw in them any better than he had liked the tone of her voice.
    “Right now you don’t ever want to see me again—” Jake began.
    “Bingo.”
    “—but we don’t always get what we want.”
    “More salty philosophy?”
    Jake took a grip on his own uncertain temper. “Too bad Archer couldn’t have waited for a few more days.”
    “Is that how long you figured it would take to finish screwing my brains out?”
    “Last night has nothing to do with the rest of this mess!”
    The smile Honor gave him could have cured sharkskin, but she didn’t say a word. She simply waited and watched him with the wide, cold eyes of a cat. He looked at the clock on the bedside table. There wasn’t much time left.
    “You want to find Kyle, right?” Jake asked.
    She nodded her head slightly.
    “I want to find your brother, right?” he continued.
    She shrugged.
    “Believe it,” he shot back. “There’s nothing I’d like better than to have a chat with my good buddy Kyle Donovan.”
    Honor nodded. If she believed nothing else about Jake, she believed he wanted to get his hands on her brother.
    “You,” he said, “need me to run the boat and keep the rest of the players off your back.”
    “I’ll hire someone else.”
    “Too dangerous. Snake Eyes has friends. Besides,” Jake said smoothly, “you want to stay close to me. Real close.”
    “Like hell I do.”
    “Think. How else will you be sure Kyle doesn’t get hurt when I get my lying, cheating, murderous hands on him?”
    The phone rang.
    Honor didn’t even flinch. Nor did she make a move to answer it.
    “You know who it is,” Jake said. “You can do what Archer says and go home like a good little girl, or you can be a big bad girl and keep on looking for Kyle with me.”
    She didn’t so much as glance toward the phone.
    “Answer it,” he said tightly. “Or do you want to spend the rest of the day talking to cops? If you think you’re embarrassed now, wait until you tell them why we spent the night in the sack instead of calling in a burglary.”
    She snatched up the phone. “Hello.”
    “Are you all right?” Archer demanded.
    “Fine,” she said distantly.
    “You don’t sound like it. Does he have a gun on you?”
    For the first time Honor remembered Jake’s gun. If he had it, it wasn’t on him. There wasn’t one inch of him she couldn’t see.
    “Honor?” Archer asked urgently.
    “No. He’s not holding a gun on me. Why would he? I trusted him. As you pointed out, I’m a little fool.”
    Jake’s eyes narrowed with barely leashed rage. Honor’s voice was so very calm, so completely reasonable. It was like dripping acid onto his raw conscience.
    He never should have touched her.
    But he had.
    There was no going back. He didn’t even want to. He wanted more of what he had found with her last night. A lot more.
    “You’re not a fool,” Jake said softly. “You’re a passionate woman with good instincts about when and who to trust.”
    Honor ignored him as though he were a stain on the sheets. She was ignoring Archer the same way, although her brother didn’t know it. She needed every shred of control she had just to think through the unholy tangle that passed for her emotions. If she could get past the humiliation and rage, then she might be able to use her brain for something besides silently screaming names at herself.
    Abruptly she realized that the line was open and silent. Archer was waiting for an answer. Unfortunately she couldn’t remember what the question had been.
    “Sorry,” she said in a clipped voice. “One way or another, it’s already been a hell of a day. What were you saying?”
    “Are you sure you’re all right?”
    “Archer, I could be standing crotch-deep in crocodiles and there isn’t a damn thing you could do about it right now except yell at me for being so stupid as to wander into a swamp!” She took a jagged breath. “Other than that, I’m fine. Peachy wonderful fabulous. Now, what haven’t you told me about Kyle and stolen amber and any other little thing that might seriously inconvenience or kill me between now and tomorrow?”
    “When I told you to go to Kyle’s cottage, I didn’t have any idea that he had returned to the States or that other people were after the amber or that the police had been alerted. If I’d known, I’d never have sent you there.”
    “Okay. It was April Fool all the way around. What else haven’t you told me?”
    There was silence, a few muttered