Donovans 02 - Jade Island

fiancé, Tony Kerrigan.”
    Lianne smiled, shifted the chef’s knife to her left hand, and offered her right to Faith. Tony whistled, gripped Lianne’s hand before Faith could, and glanced at Kyle.
    “You’ve been holding out on me, buddy,” Tony said. “Where did you pick up this exotic number?”
    “Actually,” Lianne said, notching her smile up to full industrial strength, “I picked him up.” She retrieved her hand and held it out to Faith. “Hi, Faith. Glad to meet you.”
    “Same here,” Faith said, smiling with a combination of relief and natural warmth as she shook hands. “How did you pick Kyle up?”
    “With a crane.”
    The anxiety around Faith’s eyes relaxed into laughter. Her left hand relaxed. The motion sent shards of light dancing off the diamond.
    Even as Kyle told himself to get over it, that Faith had made her choice, he wondered whose credit had purchased the rock—Faith’s or Tony’s. The only way Tony could have bought it would be if he had gotten pig-lucky betting point spreads.
    Honor didn’t need a weather map to know that storm clouds were gathering. With the ease of a sister used to negotiating the unpredictable moods of older brothers, she deftly assigned Jake the job of setting up the barbecue and listening to Tony talk about his football glory days. Kyle was delegated to get charcoal from the storage area in the garage downstairs.
     
    The ringing of the phone barely penetrated the laughter as Susa told about the one time she had coaxed her husband into posing for her and had ended up with more paint on her than on the canvas.
    “That’s when Faith and Honor were conceived,” Archer said dryly, reaching for the phone. “It explains their artistic bent.”
    The Donovan just smiled, lifted Susa’s hand to his lips, and tickled her palm with his mustache. Or perhaps his tongue. Lianne couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that Susa laughed and looked at her husband with loving hazel eyes.
    “She’ll be right down,” Archer said, hanging up the phone. He glanced at Lianne. “Your taxi is here.”
    “That was fast.”
    “Twenty minutes is fast?” Archer asked.
    “Was it that long? Seemed like two or three.” She looked at Kyle, who was sitting next to her, his long legs stretched out in front, his body warm against her hip and thigh. More than warm. Burning. She had never been more physically aware of a man in her life. When he shifted to stand up, she put her hand on his thigh. “Don’t get up. Enjoy your family.”
    “They’ll be here when I get back. Since you won’t let me drive you home, the least I can do is see you safely to your taxi.”
    His thigh muscle flexed against her palm as he stood up, pulling her after him. Arm around her waist, he waited while she made her good-byes. He was the only one who noticed Archer’s eyes narrow when Honor and Faith gave Lianne the kind of hug that said come again soon.
    “You have a great family,” Lianne said as the elevator door closed behind them. “Thanks for sharing them with me.”
    “You sure? Most people would have been overwhelmed by all those Donovans at once.”
    Lianne’s laughter lit up her clear whiskey eyes. “I wish your parents had twenty kids.”
    Kyle smiled and shook his head. “The mind quails.”
    He laced his fingers slowly, deeply, with Lianne’s and tried not to notice the heightened beating of the pulse in her throat. Just like he tried not to notice the sway of her breasts beneath her business suit, the inward turn of her waist, the rich promise of her hips, and the elegant shape of her legs.
    He might as well have tried to stop his heart from beating.
    The elevator stopped and the door whisked open. Just beyond the small, luxurious foyer and beveled glass doors, a taxi waited by the curb.
    “I’ll send him away,” Kyle said, “and take you home myself.”
    Temptation snaked through Lianne, but she shook her head. She knew if Kyle took her home, she wouldn’t sleep alone that night. No matter how sexy the man, she didn’t do one-night stands. Perhaps it was because of being a bastard, perhaps it was simply pride, perhaps she just didn’t have a high sex drive.
    Whatever, she wasn’t going to bed with a man who wanted nothing more from her than any whore could give him.
    “Thanks again,” Lianne said, standing up on tiptoe to brush her lips against Kyle’s. “I can’t remember when I enjoyed an evening so much.”
    The touch of her lips was too brief. He bent to