Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [125]
She moved forward slowly, pushing through the crowd that surrounded Jake Dominic, her legs shaking with a strange fatigue but charged with the force of her fury.
The laughter died in Jake's dark eyes as he caught sight of Jane's white face and blazing gold stare. His keen glance swiftly took in the violent trembling that was causing her limbs to shake, and there was a flash of concern in his face.
She stopped a few paces from the two men, her eyes fixed desperately on Jake's face. “You enjoyed it!” she accused hoarsely. “Damn you! You enjoyed it!”
Jake moved forward impulsively. “Jane—”
“You laughed!” she cried, the tears running down her face. “You got some kind of wild kick out of it all.” Suddenly her fists started beating wildly at his bare, hair-roughened chest. “Damn you! Damn you!” The tears poured down her cheeks and great sobs shook her body, as her legs suddenly gave way and she felt herself falling.
Jake caught her and swung her up in his arms in one swift movement. She dimly heard Benjamin murmur, “Shock,” as she clung desperately to Dominic's broad shoulders and buried her head in the wiry dark hair on his chest, while the sobs continued to rack her body.
“I'll take her,” Benjamin offered quietly, and he took a step closer. Jane felt Jake's arms tighten around her, and she clung even more desperately at the threat of being separated from that vibrant strength that was now the center of her universe.
“No!” he said. “I'll take her to her cabin. Fetch her some hot tea with plenty of sugar,” he said over his shoulder. “Maybe a sedative, too.”
Jane could not seem to stop her tears as Dominic carried her swiftly to her cabin and deposited her on the narrow single bed. He would have withdrawn his arms and stepped back, but she held on to him in a stranglehold, still sobbing piteously.
“Jane!” Dominic said with exasperation, trying to pry her arms from around his neck. “Jane, damn it, let me go! I've got to get this wet suit off of you.”
She barely heard him, but he finally managed to unclamp her clinging arms. He sat down beside her on the bed and with swift, experienced hands stripped the wet bikini off her shaking body and wrapped her, like a papoose-child, in the warm gold blanket that he found at the foot of the bed. He went into the bathroom and came out with a thick white towel and proceeded to dry her hair, with more vigor than gentleness.
The sobs were subsiding now, but the tears still poured from a seemingly inexhaustible fount while she watched him with feverishly intent eyes. He cared for her as gently as if she were a beloved child. His face was set and stern, his dark mocking eyes strangely serious. When he'd finished these tasks, he threw the towel on the floor beside the bed and merely sat looking at her, his eyes filled with a helpless exasperation at the tears that wouldn't cease.
“Damn it, Jane, you'll make yourself sick,” he said huskily. “Stop it!”
“Hold me,” she whispered. “Just hold me, please.” She fought to release her arms from the strictures of the gold blanket to pull him to her, but he stopped her with a swift movement.
“No, lie still, I'll come to you.”
He stretched full length on the narrow bed beside her and pulled her blanket-wrapped body into his arms, fitting her head in the curve of his shoulder. “Now, will you stop that damn crying?” he said hoarsely, his hands running soothingly over her back through the wool blanket.
She knew a dreamy contentment as he continued to stroke and caress her while she lay curled against him. She even imagined she felt a light kiss pressed against her temple when she snuggled to get even closer to him.
“I can come back later,” Benjamin said dryly from the door.
Jake muttered an imprecation and jerked away from Jane as if he'd been burned. “She's shaking,” he said, running his hand through his hair as he swung off the bed and onto his feet. “And she can't stop crying.”
“May I suggest that a heating pad and a large handkerchief might prove to be considerably safer for the girl?” Marc offered politely, coming forward with a glass