Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [124]
“Oh, God, please,” she prayed, her eyes on that swimming figure that suddenly, wonderfully, seemed closer. “Please let him live. Please let him be all right.”
Then the life preserver was over Jake's head and under his armpits. With a motion from the captain, he was jerked out of the water in the same graceless fashion that Jane had been. A cheer went up from the men as, hand over hand, they pulled him aboard like a fresh-caught marlin. They crowded around him, ridding him of the life preserver and slapping him on the back in congratulations, laughing and jesting in the sudden relief from tension.
Jane sank down on the deck, her legs suddenly too weak to hold her. She leaned against the rail, forgotten for the moment while the crew gathered around Jake. She was content to have it so. She only wanted to sit there and run her eyes over the vibrant aliveness that was Jake Dominic. It seemed a miracle that he should be there, sitting on the deck, the white towel draped over his bronze shoulders, his eyes gleaming with that familiar mocking deviltry that she had thought might be extinguished forever.
Jane felt that she was opening up like a flower as she sat looking at that dark face. The petals of her soul were blossoming and reaching forth to a sudden maturity that was as irreversible as it was beautiful. She knew with almost painful clarity that she loved Jake Dominic and would until the day she died. It was a fact so simple and undeniable that she had no defense against it. How many times had she pushed that knowledge away, afraid to admit to herself that no one else could cause her the joy and pain that he could with a word or a twitch of that crooked eyebrow? Not until that terrible moment when she thought she might lose him had the truth burst on her with the force of an exploding nova. She didn't want to live in a world without Jake Dominic. She'd want to die also if that vibrant, complex man was taken from her.
She closed her eyes. Oh, God, for once, couldn't she have done something with less than her usual all-or-nothing style? He filled her whole life, making everything else seem unimportant in comparison.
She opened her eyes as she heard Benjamin's teasing voice across the deck. “Jake, you looked like a bloody bullfighter, cutting across in front of Jane like that. I was wishing I had a cape to throw you.”
Jake Dominic pulled a face, then stood up and began to dry his hair with the towel that had been draped around his shoulders. “I would have appreciated a speargun more,” he said dryly, his black eyes dancing.
Suddenly the captain reached back and touched a red stain on the white towel. “This is blood!” he said sharply. “Where are you hurt, Jake?”
Jane sat up as alert as if she'd been galvanized. Oh, no, let him not be hurt, she thought feverishly, not now!
Jake grinned lazily. “It's just a graze on my back—the shark caught me with a tooth as I swam past.”
Benjamin was behind him looking at the wound with critical eyes. “It's not too bad,” he decided. “But I'd better put something on it. It's a good thing it didn't bleed more; it would have driven the shark into a frenzy.”
Jane could feel the blood draining from her face at the casual remark, and she pulled herself to her feet, clinging desperately to the rail. Jake had been so close to death, down there in the water. If the cut had been deeper… if the shark hadn't been confused… So close.
She saw with unbelieving eyes that both Jake and Marc were chuckling as if nothing had happened. Then she suddenly remembered Jake Dominic's expression as he pulled her along behind him—that flicker of excitement deep in the mocking eyes. He had even laughed, she thought incredulously. He had gotten some sort of queer kick out of playing with death. He had almost died, his life had almost ended, and he had laughed! She felt a burning anger start deep inside her. It was her life too that he was risking so carelessly—she wouldn't have wanted to live without