Amber Beach

by Elizabeth Lowell

  Honor didn’t know she was screaming Jake’s name until he ran toward her from the direction of the dock. He was naked as a hook.

  “Honor, what’s wrong!”

  “A m-man. In the cottage. He”

  “Is he armed?” Jake interrupted.

  “All I s-saw was a flashlight.”

  “Lock yourself in the boat. Don’t open up until you see me.”

  “But”

  It was too late. Jake was already headed for the house at a run. Unlike her, he didn’t use the moonlit path. He stuck to the shadows. When he reached the house, the front door was wide open. Papers were scattered across the porch. No sounds came from inside.

  He went in low and hard through the open door. Crouching, listening, he turned swiftly in an arc that covered the whole room. The gun in his fist was a darker shade of night.

  Even in the faint moonlight, the interior of the cottage looked like it had been through a storm. The only question was whether the prowler was still hanging around or if he had run out the door when Honor started screaming. If he was smart, he was gone. But Jake knew that fairy dust had a bad effect on brain cells. It shrank them.

  Quietly he eased along the edges of the room until he was within reach of the bedroom door. It was ajar. He kicked it hard enough to make the door slam open against the wall or anyone who might be hiding there. The instant his bare heel connected with the door he spun aside and waited, listening. He heard nothing but his own careful breathing.

  Then, from somewhere well beyond the driveway, came the sound of an engine starting up. The prowler, presumably. But not certainly.

  With a silent curse, Jake grabbed a heavy book from the mess at his feet and heaved it into the bedroom. Before the book finished making a racket on the floor, he was in the bedroom, crouched as he had been in the living room, his gun a swift arc taking in every corner.

  He was alone.

  Just to be certain, he went through every space in the cottage that was big enough to hide a man. Then he started circling the exterior. He was almost finished when he heard faint footsteps behind him.

  Jake sank down into a deep patch of shadow and waited, breathing lightly. He was ninety-seven percent certain who was out there, but that last three percent could be fatal. After a few more breaths a shape went by. He attacked as silently as he had waited.

  Honor would have screamed but his hand was clamped over her mouth. She would have bitten him but his fingers were cupped so that she couldn’t reach them. She would have kicked but he was holding her so that she couldn’t reach anything vital. She would have run but her feet were dangling six inches off the ground.

  “The next time I tell you to stay put, you damn well better stay put,” Jake said roughly against her ear.

  “Mmmph!”

  “Is that an apology?” he asked, lifting his hand.

  “Listen, you arro”

  His hand descended again. “No, you listen. I wasn’t expecting anyone out here but a prowler who might or might not be armed. You should be damned grateful that I’m not the kind who empties a gun into the night just because a shadow moves. I could have killed you. Do you understand?”

  Honor went completely still. She understood all too well.

  “Good,” Jake muttered.

  He lifted his hand from her mouth and put her back on her feet. He could tell the exact moment she spotted his gun. Her breath broke and she looked up at him sharply.

  “Don’t worry, it’s on safety,” he said. It had been since he felt her breasts flattened beneath his forearm and her nice ass rubbing on his thigh. But he didn’t mention any of that. He had a feeling she wouldn’t want to hear it.

  “I’mI’m sorry,” Honor said. “I didn’t hear anything and I was worried that you were hurt.”

  “Just my feet.”

  “What?” She knelt swiftly. “Where? I don’t see any blood.”

  Jake’s breath came in hard and fast. Her hair was drifting across his skin. If she moved her head just an inch or two, she would be touching something a hell of a lot more sensitive than a bare thigh.

  His heart slammed. At this rate, she wouldn’t have to move at all. He was rising to her like a blind moth to a particularly hot flame.

  “Jake?” she asked, looking up. “Where does itoh!”

  “Don’t let it worry you.”

  “Why? Is it on safety, too?”

  He gave a crack of laughter and stepped back. “Go see if anything is missing.”

  “Doesn’t look like it from here,” she said under her breath.

  “Unless you want to be flat on your back in the dirt, go into the cottage.”

  She shot to her feet, embarrassed that he had overheard her. “Sorry. I’m a little rattled.”

  “So am I.”

  “You? Rattled?”

  He grunted. “If this keeps up, I’m going to start sleeping in shoes.”

  Honor winced in silent sympathy as he stalked down the path to the boat. Her own feet ached and stung from her barefoot run to the dock.

  Even knowing the cottage was empty, she hesitated before going inside. Adrenaline still coursed through her blood, making her shake. Or it could have been the temperature of the night air. She hadn’t noticed it until now, but the shirt she had pulled on at the boat—Jake’s shirt, in fact—let in a lot of breeze around the bottom. Beneath her usual nighttime T-shirt, her rear was frankly cold.

  Her hands were even colder. She could hardly feel the switch inside the door. When she finally managed to flip it on, she wished she hadn’t. The cozy little room looked like it had been turned on end and shaken.

  For the first time Honor really understood that the small sounds she had heard were those of an intruder ransacking the room, not the noise made by someone fumbling to get past the front door’s old lock. The knowledge that she had been asleep while a man systematically trashed the place not fifteen feet from her head made her feel sick. She crossed her arms over her stomach and swallowed hard. Then she swallowed again.

  “I thought that was my shirt,” Jake said.

  She made a sound as though she had been struck. Her knees began shaking.

  “Honor? Honey?”

  She tried to talk, couldn’t, and simply held on to herself as wave after wave of adrenaline and nausea swept through her.

  “Easy, sweetheart,” he said. “Did he hurt you?”

  She shook her head.

  “Aftershocks,” he said quietly, relieved. “Don’t worry. They don’t last long. It just seems like it.” He shot the dead bolt home and turned back to her. “Breathe in through your nose and out through your clenched teeth. It will help the nausea.”

  After a few attempts Honor got it right. By the time Jake had gone from room to room, making certain that the cottage was buttoned up, she no longer felt like throwing up. She was still shaking, though. When she stopped clenching her teeth, they chattered.

  Keeping a wary eye on her, Jake knelt and made a fire in the small fireplace. “Come over here,” he said when the flames started to dance. “It will help you get warm.”

  “C-can’t.”

  He wasn’t surprised. The way Honor’s legs were trembling it was a wonder she was still standing. He dragged the old couch close to the fire, grabbed a blanket from the bedroom, and went back to her.

  “Don’t be startled,” he said in a soothing voice. “I’m going to pick you up.”

  Even with the warning, she jerked when he lifted her.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “I won’t hurt you, honey. I’m just bringing you closer to the fire.”

  Her breath came out in too many pieces to be called a sigh, but she relaxed against him. Her cheek was almost cold against the bare skin of his shoulder. When he started to put her on the couch, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on hard. After a moment of hesitation, he sat down on the couch, still holding her.

  He couldn’t fold the blanket around her unless she let go of him, and she showed no signs o
f doing that. Her skin was as white as salt. Her eyes were dry and wild. She was still shaking. He dragged the blanket over both of them as best he could and held her while she trembled.

  “Adrenaline is a funny drug,” he said. “Especially if you aren’t used to it. Knocks you over like a tidal wave.”

  She made a sound that he took as agreement.

  “When adrenaline hits some people,” he said, “they freeze and stay frozen. They couldn’t scream or run if their life depended on it. Other people holler loud enough to put your alarm clock to shame.”

  Honor’s lips tried to smile. As smiles went, it wasn’t much, but Jake felt like he had been given a gift. She was shivering less now and leaning into him more. Slowly her skin was warming against his.

  “Either way,” he said, “freeze or scream, hide or flee, the choice usually isn’t a conscious one. Your body decides and you go along for the ride. When the crisis passes, there you are, still loaded with adrenaline and no place to go. So you stand there and shake or you pace everywhere and shake or you throw up your toenails and then you shake.”

  “How” Honor’s voice cracked. Her dry tongue tried to moisten equally dry lips. “How do you know?”

  “The usual way. Been there. Done that. And yes, I have the shirt to prove it.”

  “Where is it?” she said, rubbing her cheek against his bare chest.

  “You’re wearing it.”

  Honor started laughing and kept on. She knew what Jake had said wasn’t that funny, but she couldn’t stop laughing. She tried to explain or to apologize or just to say his name. Her voice kept breaking over the laughter she couldn’t control.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “Don’t fight it. Let it out. It’s a harmless way for your body to let off steam.”

  He gathered her closer and held on to her until the laughing jag ran down to a ragged kind of breathing. Finally her breaths evened out and the waves of trembling passed. She drew air in deeply and sighed so hard that it stirred the hair on his chest.

  Jake’s body pulsed to full alert. So did his conscience. For some people, danger could act as a world-class aphrodisiac. Honor might well be one of them. He would be a selfish, insensitive, exploitive bastard if he took advantage of her.

  And he wanted to. That was the problem. He had gotten used to the effects of adrenaline, but he wasn’t making any headway getting used to his inconvenient lust for Honor Donovan.

  Subtly he changed position, trying to get more distance between their bodies. She followed him like water following gravity. Utterly natural. Completely unstoppable.

  Jake told his conscience to get stuffed. Honor was old enough to decide if and when and where and how to take a lover. If the time was here and now, he was ready, willing, and able to the point of outright pain.

  He shifted his hold on her, curving her more deeply into his body. “Better?” he asked, his voice husky.

  “Yes, but . . .” Honor sighed again. “Is it always this bad? I feel like an idiot.”

  “You get used to it after a time.”

  “Feeling like an idiot?”

  “That too.”

  She laughed softly. This time it was amusement rather than the crumbling edge of hysteria.

  “More lessons learned in rough bars?” she asked.

  “Among other places. The first few times you run slam into danger are the worst.”

  “After that it’s no big deal?”

  “After that it isn’t new anymore. You react, but not as much. Want some wine or brandy to settle your nerves?”

  “Only if neither one of us has to move. I’m just getting warmed up.”

  Jake was already warm and then some. He liked the feel of Honor’s cheek on his bare chest and her breath like a hot silk brush against his skin. He liked even better the feel of her hips snuggled into his lap. He would have liked it best of all if he were still naked, but he was smarter than that. Half smart, anyway; he had pulled jeans on before coming back to the cottage. If he asked nicely, maybe Honor would give him the shirt off her back. And the T-shirt, too.

  “Jake?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thatthat creature. He was here while I was asleep. He could have”

  “Try not to think about it,” Jake interrupted.

  “Try not breathing,” she retorted.

  “Okay.”

  With that he lowered his mouth to hers. He meant to be gentle and polite and patient and all those things a man is supposed to be the first time he kisses a woman he wants to seduce, but adrenaline was still lighting up his blood. Even if it hadn’t been, he would have been in over his head with a single taste of her. His body had been on a sexual red alert since the first time he saw Honor.

  The kiss went from simple contact to raw passion with the speed of a burning fuse. Honor didn’t fight it or the man who was holding her. She was discovering that she had never needed anything as much as she needed the heat of Jake’s body against hers, the hunger of his tongue thrusting into her mouth, the friction of his big hands rubbing over her from shoulders to hips and back, rocking her against him.

  She responded without hesitation or thought, matching him hunger for hunger, thrust for thrust, her hands kneading his body with a liberty that would have shocked her if she were thinking at all. But she wasn’t. She was just feeling, and what she was feeling made her melt and run in his hands like liquid silk.

  When he finally tore his mouth free of hers, she was on her back, her thighs were wrapped around the rough fabric of his jeans, and she was making husky noises in her throat. Hot, sexy, reckless, she rubbed against him until the satin fire of her heat sank through his jeans and into him.

  Even as Jake raked his fingers through his pocket, seeking a condom, he knew he should slow down, give Honor a chance to change her mind. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t even know if he could. He needed her too much.

  Just when he was on the point of finding out how much self-control he had left, she arched, dragging herself over his erection. He stopped thinking at all. He barely managed to slow down long enough to put on the condom before he sank into the heat between her thighs. She fit him better than the high-tech condom, hotter, sleeker. He groaned and pushed into her until she could take no more of him.

  But he wanted to go even deeper. She was tight and wet and he would go crazy if he couldn’t bury himself completely in her.

  Honor made a low sound and tried to ease the stretching feeling of having Jake inside her body. Sex had never been particularly comfortable for her. It was one of the reasons she had tried it only a few times.

  “Jake?”

  “Easy, honey. Take a deep breath and let it out.”

  “I can’t. You haven’t left me any room!”

  “Sure there is.” He bit her lower lip tenderly. Her breath jerked in, then unraveled in a broken sigh when he ran his tongue over her lip like a cat licking cream. “See?” he asked.

  She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to see. She knew only that he filled her in a way that made her restless. But it wasn’t really uncomfortable. Not anymore. Nothing like her memories, where discomfort and disappointment in sex finally became boredom and impatience to get the whole thing over with.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “It’s okay now.”

  “Okay isn’t nearly good enough.”

  Jake shifted just enough to get his hand between their bodies. He circled around the tight, sensitive lips holding him until she shivered and sultry heat licked over his fingers. He captured the sleek love knot and rubbed until her breath broke again and passion welled up slick and hot between them.

  “Lock your legs around me again,” he said, his voice almost rough.

  “But”

  Honor’s voice broke as his fingers plucked, sending the most incredible sensations splintering through her. Her hips jerked and jerked again, seeking him hungrily, sliding over him, taking all of him and wanting every bit of it.

  He fought against losing control as he sank deepl
y into her. He told himself to slow down, to take her with him over the edge, but it was already too late. His whole body corded as he came with a violence that made him shout through his clenched teeth.

  Arms tight around Jake’s back, Honor held him close, his body locked to hers. The shudders that racked him set off silvery shivers deep inside her, like light stirring before dawn. The feeling was as new as her pleasure in holding a man buried deep inside her. She found that she liked Jake’s weight, his powerful body completely relaxed against hers, his broken breathing gradually evening out, his skin sleek and sweaty beneath her hands.

  Without understanding why, she turned her head, tasted his salty shoulder, and bit him not quite gently. She felt the ripple of response that went through him. Relaxation changed into tension. He burrowed against her neck and returned the love bite with slow deliberation.

  The odd, glittery feelings swirled through Honor again. She shifted restlessly. He bit her again, harder. Heat splintered through her. With a soft cry she arched, giving herself to the startling pleasure of his mouth against her neck. He sucked on her hot skin and rocked slowly between her legs. With every motion he made, the quicksilver sensations increased in her until she couldn’t breathe.

  “Jake?” she whispered, not even realizing that she spoke.

  “I know. I’ll take care of it.”

  Before she could ask what he meant, he lifted himself off her and reached for his jeans again.

  “No,” she said, grabbing hold of his arm, afraid that he thought she wanted him to stop.

  “You want to put it on me this time, is that it?”

  Honor didn’t know what she wanted. It took her a few moments even to understand what Jake was talking about. Then she grabbed the small packet, tore it open, and looked from the condom to him. Curious in a way she never had been before about a man, she ran her fingertip from the blunt base of his erection all the way to the broad tip. Smooth but not soft, not cool to the touch

  “Amber man,” she said. “Stone that burns.”