Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

screwing. No emotion required or desired.
    “How are my nieces?” Archer asked, putting his hand on Lianne’s round, tightly stretched belly.
    “Nieces,” she said, rolling her eyes, but she guided his hand to the side, where one of the twins was doing backflips. “You and Dad. What if I have boys?”
    This time Archer’s smile reached his eyes as a tiny foot or elbow drummed against his palm. “Susa will lecture you on training them young, really young, because they’re going to be big, really big trouble.”
    “Huh. Like your twin sisters never got in trouble.”
    “Of course they did. I led them down the primrose path every chance I got.”
    “Until they started wearing bras,” Lianne said dryly. “Then you turned into a conservative monster.”
    “I knew how gullible they were. Somebody had to protect them.”
    She laughed. “That’s not how they saw it.”
    “Sisters never appreciate their brothers.”
    “I appreciate you, even though you hated me on sight.”
    “I didn’t hate you.”
    “Could have fooled me.”
    Archer bent and kissed her nose. “I was worried you were taking Kyle for the kind of ride that would break his heart—and the rest of him, too.”
    She patted Archer’s hand where it lay on her restless belly. “I know. You’re very protective of the people you love.” She looked at him, measuring the changes. Tension where there had been relaxation. Ice where there had been laughter. Ruthlessness where there had been gentleness. She hadn’t seen him like this since the night they had sneaked onto an island and stolen a priceless jade burial shroud. There had been danger then, but there was no danger here and now, no reason for his fierce wariness. “I’m worried about you.”
    “I’m fine.”
    “No, you’re not.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed his bristly chin. “We love you anyway. C’mon, let’s go get our share of chocolate icing before Kyle eats it all.”
    “Icing?” said Faith from the hallway leading to the suites. “Did I hear rumors of chocolate icing?”
    “Rumors will be all that’s left unless we hurry,” Lianne muttered. “My husband can be trusted with a lot of things. Chocolate icing isn’t one of them.”
    Faith’s smile gave a gleam to her silver-blue eyes that hadn’t been there when she woke up from her nap. She had had to nerve herself up to deal with the happy marriages of her sister and brother. It wasn’t that she was jealous of her siblings. She simply ached to have that kind of partnership herself, to love a man and know that he loved her no matter what, to tickle her own baby and laugh when her baby laughed.
    Simple things. Impossible things. At least for her. It had been a bitter admission to make, but it was better than continuing to live with Tony and kidding herself that it would all turn out okay in the end.
    “When are Justin and Lawe coming in?” Faith asked.
    “Not until the end of the week,” Lianne answered. “They’re still in Brazil.”
    “What happened? I thought Walker was flying down to bring them back.”
    “He was,” Archer said. “When they went to take off, he didn’t like the feel of the plane, so he aborted. Last I heard, the three of them were up to their ears in engine parts and bad language.”
    Faith worried her lower lip with her teeth.
    “Don’t fret,” Archer said. “Walker is a careful man. They’ll be fine.” He drew Faith to his side in a one-armed hug. “You’re looking good. I like that new haircut. Short and sassy.”
    “Tony didn’t,” she said absently, still thinking about her missing twin brothers. “He had a fit when I cut it.”
    “Tony’s an anal orifice,” Archer said.
    “I know. Finally.” She put her arm around Archer’s lean waist and Lianne’s swollen one. “Tell me, bro. How could a man as big as Tony be so small?”
    “It’s the nature of assholes to be small.”
    Lianne snorted. She hadn’t liked Tony at all.
    “Yeah.” Faith tossed her head, making her short, sleek blond hair gleam. “So how could a smart woman like me be so dumb about a man?”
    “A question for the ages,” Archer said.
    Lianne gave her sister-in-law a squeeze. “You’re not the only one, Faith. A few years ago I was up to my lips in an affair with a man who didn’t want me. He just wanted a back door into the Tang family.”
    Faith looked at her petite sister-in-law. “Seriously?”
    “Seriously.”
    “How did you figure it out?”
    “I didn’t. He dumped