Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

wonder how long it would take to wear him out with sex. Men were strange that way. Some of the big ones were used up quick. Some of the wiry ones had amazing stamina, like Tom Nakamori, whenever she got around to allowing him in her bed. Whichever kind Archer was, he was obviously and impressively aroused.
    “Coco?” Hannah repeated, her voice sharp. Normally Coco’s effect on men was amusing, but seeing Archer standing so close made her angry.
    “The dive,” Coco said, reluctantly shifting her attention to her employer. “Was it good?”
    “It went fine,” Archer said before Hannah could answer. “We found some shell.”
    “Much?”
    “Not enough to make a difference,” Hannah said briskly. “Where’s Christian?”
    “He still bad.”
    Hannah made an impatient sound. When Christian had called and begged off giving her a report because he was feeling ill, Archer hadn’t believed him. Neither had she, but there wasn’t a great deal they could do right now.
    “We won’t be able to decide how to put Pearl Cove back together until he finishes his report,” she said curtly. “Has he seen a doctor?”
    Coco shrugged. “That one? I no think so.”
    “Bloody hell,” Hannah muttered. “I’m going to Broome to run errands. Anything you need?”
    With a lazy kind of thoroughness, Coco looked Archer over again. “Oui, but is not in Broome.”
    Hannah knew she should laugh and leave Coco to it, as she had so many other times with other men. Yet even as Hannah lectured herself, she couldn’t look at Archer. If he responded to Coco’s open invitation, Hannah didn’t know what she would do.
    Expression neutral, Archer watched Coco. Despite his body’s stubborn arousal and her lush breasts brushing against him, he didn’t want her. It was Hannah who made his blood heat, not the undoubtedly accomplished Ms. Dupres.
    “Ready, sweetheart?” Archer said, turning away from Coco.
    Coco saw the change in him when he looked at Hannah. The heightened tension, the narrowed eyes, the sheer sexuality radiating like heat boiling up from a fire. With a shrug, Coco conceded the field to Hannah. For now, anyway. Archer wasn’t the first man to sniff after Sister McGarry. When he realized that she wasn’t interested in sex, he would remember Coco.
    And she would remember that he had once turned his back on her. She would make him pay before she climbed on and rode him until he was raw. The thought made her smile and stretch like a lazy cat.
    “When will you be back?” Coco asked Hannah.
    “Tomorrow,” Archer said.
    Hannah gave him a surprised look. “I shouldn’t be gone that long.”
    “You need a break.”
    She looked at his eyes, more steel than heat now, silently commanding her to agree. “I hear the hotels along Cable Beach have Jacuzzis in the rooms,” she said after a moment.
    His smile gleamed whitely against his sleek beard. “Big enough for two?”
    Dubiously Hannah measured Archer’s length. “I don’t know.”
    “I’ll take the bottom. You take the top. Plenty of room that way.”
    The thought of having Archer in a Jacuzzi with water fizzing all around appealed to Hannah. She smiled slowly, thinking of the possibilities. It was her new smile, the one that made Archer want to strip off her shorts and take her right there.
    Coco stared at the transformation in her employer. She had the look of a woman who had just acquired a very good, very personal sex toy, and his name was Archer. Ian wasn’t going to like hearing about this.
    But she sure was going to enjoy telling him.
    Chang and Flynn sat in a private room off the Blessing Crane’s small public dining room. None of Chang’s anger at finding out that Hannah McGarry had finally taken a lover showed on his face. The least important part of his anger was personal and male. The majority of his ire was professional. The Chang family was counting on him to discover the secret of producing rainbow pearls. With that, they could increase their importance to mainland China. With more importance would come more contracts, better contracts, and a strengthening of guanxi, the all-important connections that were the basis of power in China.
    Despite his darting thoughts, Chang’s face was impassive as he ate, wielding chopsticks or knife and fork with speedy precision, depending on the dish in front of him. Flynn did the same. Cigarettes smoldered in the ashtray between the men, adding to the stale smell of the room. The fact that the food was