Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

“I’ll have to study up on these before I can teach you much.” Not true, but hell, she was a Donovan. Lies weren’t new to the Donovan clan.
    “We’ll learn together,” Honor said.
    Jake would rather have pried the truth out of the computer without a Donovan witness. “If you’re in a hurry, you can teach yourself.”
    “How?”
    “Read the manuals that came with the equipment.”
    “I couldn’t find any.”
    “Then we’ll have to do it my way, won’t we?”
    “Hell.”
    He smiled despite himself. “Patience is a virtue.”
    “So is chastity. I don’t hear many men standing foursquare behind it.”
    “Or women.”
    “Equality. Ain’t it great?”
    Jake looked at the bright, hard teeth filling Honor’s smile and wondered if she enjoyed the sexual merry-go-round that passed for urban dating. Scorecards had never appealed to him. Neither had punchboards.
    “Yeah, great,” he said coolly. “The white button is the horn. These two levers over here are the gas feed and the shifter.”
    “Which is which?”
    “Black knob is the shifter. Red is the gas. You can turn off the blower now.”
    In order to reach the console, Honor had to lean across the aisle in front of Jake. Except for the horn, all the rocker switches looked alike. Black.
    As she edged closer to read the fine white print beneath the dark switches, she discovered that Jake’s body was a lot warmer than his voice. The living heat of him radiated through his stained denim jacket. Stained, but not dirty. The cloth was as clean as her own fingernails. She wondered if the rest of him was equally warm and well washed.
    Think nautical she told herself sharply. Think fishing. Think root canal without anesthesia.
    Her clean, unvarnished fingernail pressed on the blower switch. The noise from the back of the boat stopped.
    “I’m assuming this is like the other Volvo marine engines I’ve run,” Jake said.
    “Meaning?”
    His big hand wrapped around the lever with the red knob. He pumped the gas feed up and down several times. “They catch fire faster if they’re stroked a bit first.”
    “Is that some kind of salty saying that has double meanings?” she muttered beneath her breath, thinking Jake couldn’t hear her.
    “Like ‘broad in the beam’ or ‘any port in a storm’?” he asked, deadpan.
    Her head snapped around. He was looking at her from a distance of two inches. There were slivers of blue and green and black mixed in with the transparent silver of his eyes. His eyelashes were much too long for a man who wore a scruffy denim jacket and had calluses on his hands.
    His eyes were beautiful.
    “Don’t tell me, let me guess,” he said. “You like my eyes.”
    A hint of red stained Honor’s cheekbones.
    “Such manly modesty,” she drawled. “Do all your female clients gush over you?”
    “What do you think?”
    “I think it’s a good thing you aren’t expecting a tip. You have the interpersonal finesse of a neutron bomb.”
    He gave a crack of laughter, inserted the small ignition key, and twisted. The engine growled to life. He tapped the lever, adjusting the gas feed. The engine settled into a contented, chuckling kind of rumble.
    “We’ll let it warm up for a few minutes,” he said. “It—”
    “Don’t tell me, let me guess. Another salty homily about hot engines and smooth rides?”
    “If the oil isn’t circulating, friction is bad for the engine.”
    “No kidding. Would it interest you to know that Kyle and I used to build street racers together?”
    “Then I won’t waste any more time teaching you how to check fluid levels.”
    “Good.”
    “Yeah. Leaves more time for the interesting stuff.”
    “Electronics.”
    “Fishing.”
    Honor tried not to look like a plugged toilet running over with enthusiasm.
    “Where did your brother keep his papers?” Jake asked.
    “What kind of papers?”
    “Boat registration, proof of ownership, insurance, manufacturer’s instructions, that kind of thing.”
    “Behind you, in the second drawer.”
    He backed up and turned away. The tiny galley was just behind the driver’s seat. In addition to the small propane stove, there was a cabinet and four drawers. He checked the coffee water, saw that it wasn’t quite boiling, and settled for the papers. A quick jerk up and out released the catch on the second drawer.
    Two large waterproof envelopes lay inside. The first envelope had the documents and certification he was looking for. The second envelope had