Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [112]
He grinned unrepentantly. “You're lucky I can still joke after a night like this one. For a while it was a draw whether the mob would kill you before I did.”
“Oh, my God, I haven't thanked you!” she gasped, horrified. “You and Captain Benjamin probably saved my life, and I didn't even tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“You were a little busy at the time,” Jake said mockingly. “For that matter, so were Marc and I.”
“And you were hurt,” she cried remorsefully, her fingers gently touching the bruise on his cheekbone. Impulsively she reached up and pressed a fairy-light kiss on the bruised flesh. Then she drew back in a panic of shyness.
There was a curious flicker deep in Jake Dominic's eyes, but his voice was light. “Do you always kiss to make well? It's not a half-bad idea. Perhaps I'll try it.”
His hands slowly reached up and cradled her face tenderly. She forgot to breathe as she stared wide-eyed up into the dark intentness of his eyes. “Shut your eyes, brat,” he said huskily. “I'm about to conduct a medical experiment.”
She obediently closed her eyes, and was immediately rewarded with a kiss on the lips that wooed and caressed like the first gentle breath of spring. It was followed by a butterfly kiss on the closed lid of her bruised eye and then another, just as light, on the other lid.
“That eye wasn't hurt,” she protested dreamily, lifting her face like a flower to the sun.
“Stop complaining,” Jake ordered. “I threw that one in for balance.” His lips brushed the tip of her nose with infinite gentleness. “Now, is there anyplace that I've missed? I'm completely at your disposal.”
Jane slowly opened her eyes, feeling almost drugged by the honey sweetness of the moment. She felt as if he had wrapped her in a silken protective cloak of warmth and affection and irresistible tenderness.
Jake's face was close, only a breath away, his black eyes laughing into her own. Then suddenly the laughter was gone and his eyes held something else in their flickering depths. Something that charged the atmosphere with electricity and caused the blood to race in her veins as if she'd been running a marathon race. She felt radiantly alive and at the same time languidly dreamy.
“Jane,” Jake said huskily, his flickering eyes mesmerizing her with their dark flames.
“What's happening?” Jane whispered breathlessly, feeling suddenly as if she were captured in a melting pool of sensation whose nucleus was the intent face and virile body of the man before her. “What's happening to us, Jake?”
The words ripped the gossamer spell that surrounded them. Dominic drew a deep breath, and his eyes became shuttered and impenetrable. His hands dropped from her face, and his mouth twisted in familiar mockery.
“That, my innocent little nitwit, is what is known as chemistry. Or to put it more succinctly—sex. For a moment, there, you looked pretty good to me despite that black eye.”
“You looked pretty good to me, too,” she said quietly, her eyes shining serenely.
Jake shook his head wonderingly. “They shouldn't let you run around loose,” he said flatly. “Didn't anyone ever tell you that you shouldn't say things like that to a man like me? God, you'd be a pushover for a man who was really on the make.”
Jane's eyes filled with tears at the cynicism in his voice. “So I'm stupid,” she said huskily. “I'm not like you. I can't hide what I'm feeling. I wouldn't want to.”
She tried to slip off the vanity counter, but he stopped her with his hands on her shoulders. “I know,” he said resignedly. “Like I said, clear as glass. It's time you learned to put up a few defenses, Jane.”
She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then slowly shook her head. “You don't mean defenses, you mean armor,” she said quietly. “I couldn't live like that. Hiding behind a shield because I was afraid to reach out and touch someone.”
“There is a middle road, you know,” Jake observed.
“Not for me.”
Jake Dominic studied her determined face and clear, steady eyes for a long moment. He lifted her gently down from the vanity. “No, not for