Stormy Vows
Page 37
“Why didn't you tell me?” Jane asked indignantly. “I told you the very day that I found out.”
Jake shook his head, his mouth twisting. “For the first time in my life I decided to be noble. I knew damn well I didn't have any right to you. I'm seventeen years older and have forgotten more wickedness and deviltry than you could ever imagine. I knew I should have sent you away the minute I realized what had happened to me, but I convinced myself that I could keep you near me and at least have these two months for myself.”
His fingers slid down to rest in the hollow of her throat, stroking the sensitive pulse point sensuously. “Then everything blew up in my face. Between that damn shark and Kahlid, my good intentions flew out the window. I couldn't keep my hands off you. I rationalized my taking you to bed by telling myself that the only way to discourage you was to show you that it was a losing proposition.” His lips tightened grimly. “That was a bunch of bull. I was wild for you. I wanted you more than I'd ever wanted anything in my life, and I reached out and took what I wanted.”
Jane smiled with gentle irony. “It's no wonder you felt guilty. Anyone could see how unwilling I was.”
Dominic's eyes became even warmer as he said, “God, you're sweet. I can't get enough of you.” He shook his head ruefully. “I'd never had anyone respond to me with such open passion and affection. You had me as dizzy as a schoolboy.”
His fingers moved from the hollow of her throat to slip under the beach coat and clasp one bare shoulder. He bent to lay his lips on the soft hollow that his fingers had just abandoned. Jane could feel her pulse leap as his tongue gently, leisurely probed the silky hollow.
“Yet you would have sent me away,” she charged breathlessly, her hand moving irresistibly to caress the crispness of his thick dark hair.
“I'm a masochist,” he said mockingly as his lips moved to nibble enticingly at her earlobe. “I knew it would kill me, but I couldn't stand seeing you smeared over every yellow-journalism sheet in the world. I'd taken enough from you without that.”
“Thank God you overcame your scruples,” Jane said huskily. “I had visions of having to pursue you on every film set in Hollywood.”
He gave her ear a sharp nip that was far from loverlike. “And I had visions of having to rescue you from everything from white slavers to man-eating lions. I don't want to hear anything more about this passion for the Peace Corps.”
Jane wondered dreamily what on earth he was talking about, but as his other hand reached under the beach coat to lightly cup one eager young breast, she promptly lost track of the conversation. What had he said? Oh, yes, something about the Peace Corps. “They do very good work,” she said vaguely, while Jake's hands located the catch of the bikini top and released it.
“So do I,” he said mischievously, and proceeded to prove his claim with deft erotic hands and tongue. “And I'm never letting you venture any farther from me than the next room,” he said hoarsely after several wild, heated moments.
Suddenly he was rising and crossing the lounge with swift steps. He shot the lock on the door, and as he turned back to her, he was already starting to unbutton his cream shirt. He unbut-toned the rest while he walked slowly back to the couch. She stared at him with yearning and fascination as he stripped off the shirt and threw it on the chair.
There was a teasing smile on Jake's face despite the leaping flame in his dark eyes. He gently pushed the beach coat off Jane's shoulders, and let it drop in a white pool on the brown leather couch.
“It just occurred to me that we're missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said thickly as his thumbs stroked her nipples teasingly. “In another hour, we'll be just another old, stodgy married couple. This is our last chance to taste the forbidden fruits of living in sin. I don't think we can afford to pass it up, do you?”
Her arms slid around his neck and slowly pulled him down into her eager embrace. “It would be quite a shocking waste,” she agreed happily. “I think you're absolutely right.”
“You're damn right I am, redhead,” Jake said with mocking arrogance, and bore her back on the couch.
about the author
IRIS JOHANSEN, who has more than twenty-seven million copies of her books in print, has won many awards for her achievements in writing. The bestselling author of Stalemate, Killer Dreams, Blind Alley, Firestorm, Fatal Tide, Dead Aim, Body of Lies, and many other novels, she lives near Atlanta, Georgia, where she is currently at work on a new novel.
STORMY VOWS/TEMPEST AT SEA
A Bantam Book / August 2007
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Stormy Vows copyright © 1983 by Iris Johansen
Tempest at Sea copyright © 1983 by Iris Johansen
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-307-56829-8
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