Donovans 02 - Jade Island

expectation of screwing her among the mediocre visual aids.
    “Talk to me, Lianne. I need to know what’s going on.”
    “I didn’t want my name attached to such a one-sided trade,” she said flatly. “All of Seng’s jades put together didn’t equal one of the three Tang pieces I appraised for this trade.”
    Frowning, Kyle brought the speed down to a safer nighttime pace. “How many of these sealed-box trades have you brokered for the Tangs?”
    “With Seng?”
    “With anyone.”
    Lianne hesitated. “I’m not sure. Six, perhaps seven. The most recent ones have been with Seng, here in Seattle. A while back, there was a Taiwanese trader and a mainland Chinese collector.”
    “Do you do this for other clients, or just for the Tang family?”
    “Just for Wen, actually. I began doing it about sixmonths ago, when his eyesight failed and he wasn’t strong enough to travel anymore.”
    “Is this the first trade you’ve refused?”
    “Yes.”
    “Were the others more even?”
    Closing her eyes, Lianne tried to relax her clenched hands. “I don’t know,” she said starkly.
    But she was afraid she did. She sat with her hands gripped in her lap and her mouth a thin, tight line. Silence pooled in the cabin as thickly as night.
    Kyle started to push for more information, then decided against it. Navigating the waters of the San Juan Islands after dark was tricky enough without trying to pry information out of a reluctant suspect at the same time. He would wait until Lianne was back at his cabin.
    Then he would get some answers.
     
    “Watch your step,” Kyle said as he finished tying off the stern line of the Tomorrow. “The dock can be slippery.”
    With an easy motion, he lifted Lianne from the well of the boat to the dew-slick dock beside him. She made a startled noise and hung onto his arms until she felt the dock supporting her feet.
    “Progress,” he said. “Good.”
    “What?”
    “You made a sound. Two sounds. One of them might actually have been a word.”
    She flushed. She knew she hadn’t been much company on the ride back from Farmer Island. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful for all you’ve done. I am. Without you…” She shivered. It didn’t bear thinking about. “I was just wondering about…jade.”
    “Jade, or bad trades?”
    Lianne would have turned away, but she couldn’t. Kyle was too close.
    “Then how about an even trade?” he asked. “Better yet, a good one.”
    Suddenly his breath was warm against her lips, his mouth even warmer. Hot. Savory. Hungry.
    And there was no taxi waiting.
    She told herself that she shouldn’t, even as she reached for him, needing him in too many ways to deny herself the reckless oblivion she sensed waiting for her in this one man.
    Kyle meant to go slowly, to seduce Lianne with the kind of finesse that would have her begging for more. A few kisses on the dock with the wind blowing sea-scented and mysterious around them, a few more kisses along the path where fir trees whispered to the night, a glass of wine in front of a fire, a languid unraveling of clothes and mind…
    Then he tasted her, deep and long and hard. He made a thick sound and thought of nothing but sinking into her, dragging her against his body, drawing heat from her, the hottest kind of fire. He bit at her lips, dove into her with his tongue, fought through clothing until he found her breasts soft and hot, her nipples hard, begging to be plucked by his fingers and his mouth.
    Too late Kyle realized that Lianne was half undressed and his hands were all over her, his mouth pulling at her, devouring her. He tried to lift his head, to stop, but Lianne’s fingers were locked in his hair, holding him tight against her breast while husky, hungry sounds rippled out of her. With the last of his self-control, he managed to turn his head aside.
    “The house,” Kyle said hoarsely.
    Lianne’s only answer was the arch of her back, her hips seeking him blindly. She wanted more of him and she wanted it now, before she remembered all the reasons she shouldn’t have him at all. But she couldn’t say that, because she couldn’t think of anything except the heat twisting through her, tangling her mind, burning through logic to the elemental need beneath.
    “Now,” Lianne said raggedly. “ Now. ”
    Kyle’s last logical thought was that it was a good thinghis cabin was isolated and the dock private. Because after the next breath neither one of them would