The Bronzed Hawk

by Iris Johansen

  He shrugged. “Not very. I always made him feel a little uncomfortable, I think. He would have been much happier with a normal run-of-the-mill son. I can’t say that he didn’t do his best for me, though. He took all the psychological advice on the care and feeding of gifted children.” His aquamarine eyes revealed a curious loneliness. “It wasn’t his fault that he found it difficult to accept what I was.”

  “I’m sure you’re wrong about him,” Kelly said gently, her throat suddenly tight. “No father could help but be proud of such a son.”

  He shook his head, his expression bleak. “No, I’m not mistaken,” he said tersely. “Don’t waste your sympathy on me, Goldilocks. My father and I came to an understanding a long time ago. I conduct my independent research and stay out of my father’s corporate and social paths. In return for that courtesy, he gives me license to take off whenever I get bored on whatever scheme takes my fancy.”

  “Such as taking a hot air balloon to Acapulco to try out a completely untested fuel formula,” Kelly said, smiling at him in perfect understanding.

  He grinned back at her and nodded. “Well, you’ve got to admit it wasn’t boring.”

  “Yes, I have to admit that. We must thank your friend, the fuel inventor, for an exceptionally interesting balloon trip.”

  “Which reminds me, one of my phone calls must be to him to tell him that he’s going to have to go back to the drawing board with that formula.” Nick picked up the silver coffeepot from the table and filled Kelly’s cup and then his own. His smile faded abruptly as he said, “I suppose you’re very eager to contact Devlin. Are you going to tell me now what the terms of your wager were? You’ve been more than a little evasive on the subject.”

  “It would serve you right if I left you to wonder,” she replied, making a face at him. “What a suspicious mind you have, Nick. Mac Devlin is old enough to be my father and very happily married as well.” She took a sip of her coffee, appreciating the delicious flavor after the thick, syrupy brew that they’d been drinking on their journey. “But I don’t mind satisfying your curiosity.” She leaned lazily back in her chair and said cheerfully, “When I got back from the Middle East almost seven weeks ago, I had to spend a few weeks in the hospital with a case of malaria. Mac’s something of a worrywart, and he refused to approve any overseas assignments for the next six months.” She grinned impishly. “I’m afraid that I was making his life hell on earth with my nagging, so he proceeded to look around for something to get me off his back.” She paused. “Enter one Nick O’Brien.”

  Her smile faded, and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw that Nick was definitely not amused. In fact, he was perfectly furious, his expression stormy and his blue eyes narrowed to slits.

  “Do you mean to tell me that you just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago?” he asked.

  “Why—yes,” she faltered uncertainly. “But I’m perfectly well now. I told you that Mac’s a bit overprotective.”

  “We’ve spent practically every moment together for the past five days,” he said, emphasizing each word. “And you didn’t see fit to tell me that even your editor considers your health below par?”

  Why was he so angry? she wondered in exasperation. “Why should I reveal my entire medical history when it wasn’t relevant? For God’s sake, Nick, it wasn’t important!”

  “Not important? I could break your neck, Kelly McKenna!” His blue eyes were glaring into hers. “I let you walk fifteen miles in the blazing heat over terrain that would be hard on a mountain goat. I let you do that for the sake of a damn camera that could have been replaced for practically nothing. And you say that it’s not important!”

  “I couldn’t have replaced that camera for any amount of money,” she defended. “You were entirely right not to take Garcia up on his offer of the horse.” She ran her hand distractedly through her hair. “I don’t know why you’re upset. I made it, didn’t I? You even complimented me on my endurance!”

  “That’s because I’m such a blind fool that I can’t see an inch in front of my face!” His angry glance raked her face and form. “Just look at you,” he said disgustedly. “A strong wind would blow you away. Yet you’ve been jumping out of balloons, sleeping on the ground, and hiking miles through the hills. Don’t you have any sense at all?”

  “If you recall, I didn’t have much choice in the matter,” Kelly retorted angrily, her green eyes blazing. “What was I supposed to do? I guess the traditional feminine thing would have been to pull the Camille bit and lean on your big, wonderful chauvinistic strength!” She stood up, her hands clenching into fists. “Well, that’s not me, damn it! If that’s what you want, then you don’t want Kelly McKenna.” She whirled and stomped angrily toward the bedroom.

  She had gone only a few paces when Nick’s hand grasped her shoulder and turned her to face him. His thoughtful gaze took in her flushed face and quivering lips. “But I do want Kelly McKenna,” he said quietly. “I want her very much.”

  “Then why were you so angry?” she asked throatily, blinking away the tears. “You made me feel like some sort of criminal.”

  He took her in his arms and cradled her tenderly, his hand gently massaging the tension from the muscles of her back. “Because you scared the hell out of me,” he said softly. “What you went through in the last few days would have put a strain on the endurance of a marine commando, sweetheart. If I’d known you weren’t well, I could have spared you a hell of a lot more than I did.” His hands began to stroke the muscles of her neck, and she could feel her anger and tension ebbing away. “You could have ended up back in the hospital thanks to that blasted stubbornness.”

  “I told you that I’m well now,” she said wearily, resting her head on his chest. “Why won’t you believe me?”

  “Because you’re a gutsy broad with more courage than sense.” His voice was soft. “I want you to promise to let me know from now on if there’s anything—and I mean anything—wrong with you. Okay?”

  “Okay,” she said huskily, feeling a bursting happiness that he should care. “I guess I’ve just been on my own so long that it never occurred to me to discuss my problems with anyone.”

  He pushed her a little away from him to look down into her face. “I guess neither one of us is used to having our space infringed upon,” he said quietly. “And God knows our relationship to date has been so turbulent that it would be a bloody miracle if you did feel close enough to me to give me your confidence.” He frowned. “We started at the wrong end, Kelly. Our physical chemistry is so strong that I didn’t have the patience to go through the rituals that usually precede a serious affair. All I could think of was getting you into bed.”

  Kelly opened her mouth to speak, but he stopped her with a gentle hand across her mouth. “No, listen to me,” he said slowly. “I’ve been thinking about these weeks that we’ll be here, cooling our heels and waiting for the paperwork to be cleared away. I think we should use that time to go back and start over.” He grinned suddenly, the twinkle in his eyes banishing all sternness. “You’re a fantastic lover, Goldilocks,” he said. “I’m curious to test your potential as a friend.”

  Kelly could feel the delight that his words engendered in her expanding in her breast like the blossoming petals of a flower. “I’d like very much to become your friend, Nick,” she said huskily, over the lump in her throat. Then because she felt that she was going to weep if the atmosphere wasn’t lightened, she added teasingly, “Providing said friendship doesn’t preclude me from continuing as your lover. Now that I’ve learned the knack, I wouldn’t want to lose it for lack of practice.”

  He chuckled and hugged her affectionately. “No chance of that, sweetheart. Now that I’ve had you, I couldn’t do without you if I tried. It’s been less than thirty-six hours, and I’m already suffering withdrawal symptoms.”

  His lips closed tenderly on hers. But it had been too long for both of them, and they were overwhelmed with passion. Suddenly they were melting together in a fever of hu
nger. When their lips parted, they were both breathing heavily and clinging to each other with an almost desperate urgency.

  Nick buried his lips in her soft hair. “Oh, Lord, you taste good,” he said thickly. “So good.”

  “So do you,” Kelly said faintly, her lips moving caressingly along his neck and throat. “I don’t think that I could do without you now, either.”

  “Good.” He slipped an arm about her waist and turned her gently toward the master bedroom. “Because I think that you just may be ready for that demonstration on Bedouin love practices that I mentioned.”

  “That gown is definitely a success,” Nick said, cocking his head to consider Kelly objectively. “You look like a sexy wood nymph tonight.”

  Kelly looked down at the elegant empirewaisted chiffon gown she was wearing. It was lovely, she thought, and the color emphasized her eyes. “Can wood nymphs be sexy?” Kelly asked skeptically. Then, as Nick, with a distinctly wicked gleam in his eyes, opened his mouth to reply, she went on hurriedly. “Never mind. I should have known better than to give you a lead like that. I’m sure you could quote reams of erotic mythology tales to prove your point.”

  Nick leaned back in his chair and grimaced. “Pity. Properly told, mythology can be very arousing. I was trying to lure you out of this disco den and back to the hotel. Aren’t you tired of this cacophony?”

  “No, I’m not,” Kelly replied firmly, looking at the gyrating figures on the dance floor. “I’m trying to recognize some of the beautiful people that Mr. Sykes told us use this nightclub as a meeting place.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “I realize that it may not interest you, but we peasants find the jet set fascinating.”

  “You’re right,” he said slowly, his eyes traveling lingeringly over her eager face and smooth, bare shoulders. “You’re the only beautiful person that I’m interested in at the moment.” He reached out across the damask-covered table and took her hand in his.

  Kelly felt a glow of happiness flow through her as she looked down at their clasped hands. She felt beautiful tonight, she thought, but it had more to do with the look in Nick’s eyes than the gorgeous green chiffon gown that she was wearing, though the right clothes definitely did help a woman’s morale. In the two weeks they had been in Acapulco, Nick had taken her to every major sightseeing point in the resort town, from the ancient Fort San Diego that had stood over the harbor since the seventeenth century to the famous cliff divers who could be seen with horrifying clarity from the El Mirador Hotel.

  She remembered how fascinated she had been as she had watched the graceful beauty of those men as they dove from the cliffs, defying the jagged rocks below to enter the water. She hadn’t even been aware that Nick had been watching her face and not the divers until he leaned forward and spoke in her ear. “I should never have brought you here, Goldilocks. Now, if I don’t watch you like a hawk, you’ll be down here tomorrow wanting to try your luck on the cliffs.”

  Laughing, she had looked up at him, thinking that he was joking. But she had been surprised to see a curious tightness about his mouth. He really did think that she was addicted to danger if he thought that she would try to dive off those cliffs. Her eyes went back to the young Mexican diver who was readying himself for the dive. Still, it must be fantastically exhilarating, she thought wistfully. “No, I can barely swim a stroke,” she said, as the diver launched himself in a spectacular swan dive. “We moved around so much when I was a child that I never had a chance to learn properly.”

  “Thank God,” Nick said fervently, relief washing over his face. “I was planning on coming down here tomorrow and issuing a blanket bribe to all the divers to keep them from taking you on as a pupil.”

  She giggled. “You’ve got to be kidding.” Then, as she noticed the grim expression on his face, she said indignantly. “It must take years of training to learn to dive like that.”

  “Exactly.” Nick’s blue eyes were hard. “So you’re to stay away from those cliffs. Understand?”

  She had no intention of trying a dive that would be pure suicide, but Nick’s arbitrary arrogance pricked at her independence. She lowered her eyes and said thoughtfully, “I’ll have to consider it. It must be wildly thrilling to fly through the air like a bird and then experience the shock as you hit the cold sea below.”

  Nick’s eyes narrowed on her face, and he studied her demure expression and the flicker of mischief in her green eyes thoughtfully. “Okay,” he said abruptly. “But you’ll not go alone. If you’re so set on taking the dive, then we’ll both do it. I’ll see about hiring a diver tomorrow to give us instructions.” He leaned back in his chair and grinned. “Since I’m paying the tab, I’m sure that you won’t mind my taking the first dive.”

  Kelly’s eyes flew to his face in swift alarm. “You’re joking,” she said uncertainly. Nick’s hard expression gave no clue to his thoughts, and she had a sinking sensation that he meant it. “Do you know anything about diving?”

  “Not much,” Nick admitted cheerfully. “But then I didn’t know anything about hot air ballooning until I tried it.”

  “If you recall, your attempt at that couldn’t exactly be termed a success,” she said, biting her lip worriedly.

  “But you’ve made it sound so appealing, I find I can’t wait to try it. What do we care if there’s a little danger involved?”

  “A little danger! Just a slight miscalculation would send you crashing into those jagged rocks instead of the sea.” She felt almost ill at the thought of Nick’s body hurtling through space with those murderous rocks waiting below. Oh, God, why hadn’t she let it alone? She knew Nick’s fondness for taking chances, and now there was every probability that she was going to have to stand and watch him risk his life on those damn cliffs.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” she said desperately. “I don’t want to do it.”

  “You’re sure?” Nick inquired, arching a dark brow quizzically. “What about the thrill of flying through the air like a bird?”

  She shrugged carelessly. “It can’t be all that exciting.” She heard Nick’s low chuckle and glanced at him suspiciously. His dark face was alight with satisfaction. “Did you set me up, Nick O’Brien?” she demanded indignantly. “Would you have been at that clifftop tomorrow?”

  “You’ll never really be sure, will you, Kelly?” he said teasingly. Then his eyes darkened, and the amusement gradually faded from his face. “The only thing that you can be certain of is that from now on before you leap from any cliff, either literally or figuratively, you’ll have to stand by and watch me do it first.”

  A wave of emotion, a bewildering mixture of happiness and panic, washed over her. How maddeningly clever of him to realize the silken bonds that his words placed on her. She knew that she’d never be able to watch Nick deliberately put himself in danger without trying to stop him. “You’re a wily devil, Nick O’Brien! But has it occurred to you that that particular sword cuts both ways?”

  “Oh, yes, I realized that. And I can’t say that I like my actions being curbed any more than you do. Keeping that pretty neck of yours in one piece is posing more problems than I ever dreamed possible.” He took her hand in his. “While we’re together I guess we’ll just have to get our thrills in the bedroom.”

  She looked away and tried to ignore the sharp pain that the transient note of that last comment had given her. “I guess we will,” she said huskily.

  She forced her thoughts back to the present. As she looked down at their clasped hands on the nightclub table and listened idly to the blaring disco music, she could not imagine an existence without Nick O’Brien at her side. The thrills hadn’t all been in the bedroom, she thought contentedly. Besides the really breathtaking sexual affinity that existed between them, they struck sparks off of each other mentally as well. Nick probably could have annihilated her in any real discussion, but there was not a hint of patronage in his manner as he listened to her opinions and arguments. She also found that they shared both a sense of the ridiculous and a
restless curiosity. Add it all together and the sum was encouraging enough to fill her with hope for the future. She had been practically walking on air for the past two weeks, and Nick had seemed as contented as she. His desire for her had seemed to grow and not diminish, and they spent a shocking amount of time in each other’s arms exploring that most fiery and primitive of pleasures. But she was almost sure that he also found the less turbulent aspects of their relationship as satisfying as she did. She couldn’t have imagined the tenderness that she sometimes detected in his face in even their most platonic moments.

  “You’re very quiet suddenly. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the hotel?” Nick asked gently. “If you’re tired, we can come back tomorrow evening to see your ‘beautiful people.’ ”

  She shook her head. “No, I’m not tired,” she said, looking around the dimly lit room disappointedly. “But I certainly don’t see anyone who looks particularly exotic here.” She pouted. “You’ve been known to run with that pack occasionally. Don’t you recognize anyone?”

  Nick shook his head. “Sorry, Kelly. Maybe nobody told them that this was supposed to be their favorite hangout. Why are you so interested in the Acapulco jet set?”

  “I thought I’d get a few photos to send to Mac to prove that I’m not just sitting on my duff while we’re waiting for our papers to come through,” she said, her gaze still searching the room. “He wasn’t too pleased about the delay when I talked to him on the phone last week. He said it was taking longer to get out of Mexico than if it was an iron curtain country.”

  “Didn’t you tell him about the marriage complication?” Nick asked casually.

  Kelly shook her head. “I would never hear the end of it. Mac is certain that I’m trouble prone anyway. There’s no sense giving him additional ammunition to play with. No, I’ll just try to get him some filler shots to pacify him. That is if I—” She suddenly broke off, her hand tightening on Nick’s. She bent forward to ask excitedly, “Nick, look at that booth in the far right corner of the room on the other side of the dance floor. Those two men are very familiar. Do you know who they are?”