Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

teaching you how good sex can be.” His voice softened. “Don’t be mad, honey. I learned the same thing. Or is it just that I didn’t say I love you right on cue?”
    “At least you don’t tell lies in bed,” she said thinly.
    “Keep it in mind. Now take your pick—put on a good act or get out of the game.”
    “It isn’t a game. It’s Kyle’s life.”
    “It’s mine, too, a fact that you didn’t bother to tell me when I hired on as your ‘fishing guide.’ ”
    “I didn’t know!”
    “You didn’t want to know. You live in a fantasy world where money means nothing. In the real world people will kill you for a handful of shit, much less for a million dollars.”
    “You knew that before I hired you as a fishing guide. I didn’t have to tell you.”
    “I didn’t know it was going to turn into an international mud-wrestling match over the Amber Room.”
    “Then you shouldn’t have hidden a piece of it in with ordinary amber!”
    Jake’s eyes narrowed. “Is that what Archer said I did?”
    “It’s what he said happened. Either you did it or Kyle did it.”
    “And Kyle, being a Donovan, couldn’t have done it,” Jake said icily. “That leaves me, the world-class chump who thought Kyle was his friend.”
    “He was. He likes you!”
    Jake looked at Honor’s face and saw all the outrage, hurt, and confusion she felt. And love. She would go to her grave believing that Kyle had done no wrong.
    “Kyle likes me, huh? Thank God he didn’t love me. I wouldn’t have survived.” Suddenly Jake removed his arm. “In or out, Honor. Your choice. It’s more choice than I was given.”
    The weary edge of bitterness in his voice slid past Honor’s defenses. He was no happier than she was. It shouldn’t have made a difference, but it did. She didn’t know what the difference was; she only knew that something had changed.
    “In,” she whispered.
    Jake got out, pulled a battered overnighter suitcase from behind the seat, and shut the door of the truck. Without looking to see if she was coming, he headed for the Chowder Keg.
    Honor barely caught up with him before he reached the front door. He opened it and ushered her into the smoky room. One glance told her it was more bar than café and hadn’t been cleaned since she was in diapers. Several men who were drinking lunch glanced up from their beers. They looked Honor up and down. Twice.
    Jake’s hand pressed lightly low on her back. She stiffened at his touch. In the next breath she realized there was no need for her to worry. No matter how intimate his touch might look to an outsider, she knew in her gut that it was impersonal.
    I want you to act like I’m an all-day sucker you can’t wait to lick. I’ll do the same with you.
    A tall, athletic-looking blond man with wide cheekbones and an equally wide mouth stood and walked toward them. He skirted the few locals without appearing to notice their sullen dislike of having an outsider in their territory. His clothes were informal, expensive, and neither Russian nor American. Smiling, he held out his hand to Jake as though greeting him at a private home for a cup of tea.
    “So good of you to come,” Resnikov said, shaking Jake’s hand firmly. “This is the charming Honor Donovan, yes?”
    Honor shaped her mouth into a social smile, nodded, and allowed her hand to be gently taken between both of the Russian’s. His accent teased her. It was similar to Snake Eyes’s, but less coarse. She felt she had heard it before . . . but as Jake said, there were a lot of Russian immigrants around.
    “Those marvelous eyes,” Resnikov said. “Does every Donovan have them?”
    “Two each,” she said. “Standard issue.”
    He laughed as though she had said something amusing. “You have wit as well as beauty. Surely you are the smaller sister of Kyle.”
    Jake removed Honor’s fingers from the lingering trap of Resnikov’s hands. “Quit drooling, Pete. She’s spoken for.”
    Resnikov looked from Honor to Jake and sighed. “I am devastate.”
    “Desolate,” Jake corrected dryly, “or devastated. Your choice.”
    Behind them the Keg’s door opened. Jake turned just enough to see who was coming in. A man and woman walked through the door with a confidence that visibly irritated the locals.
    Jake turned his back on the couple. At this point in the game, Ellen and her pinstriped escort weren’t going to stick a knife in him.
    “Let’s get out of the doorway,” he said.
    Honor spotted the