Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [96]
After luxuriating beneath first a hot and then a cold shower, Jane felt almost human. Using some of the emerald-green shampoo she found in the holder by the shower nozzle, she washed her hair until it was squeaky clean. Wrapping the towel around her torso and another around her hair, she left the cubicle and crossed to the bed. She settled cross-legged on the bed and examined her knees. They were definitely swollen, and faintly purple. By tomorrow it would be like kneeling on knives to rest her weight on them, she thought gloomily. Why hadn't she unbent and asked Benjamin to change her duty? She instinctively shook her head at the thought. No, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her beg, no matter what the consequence.
A brisk knock sounded at the door, and she called out, “Just a minute.” She grabbed the improvised toga she'd fashioned from a bed sheet. Ripping off the towel and slipping on the toga, she padded barefoot to the door.
Simon Dominic stood on the other side, his arms piled high with various articles of clothing. He grinned as he beheld her toga-clad figure and turbaned head. “That's very exotic. I doubt if anything the boys contributed will be as alluring.”
“Oh, Simon, thank you,” she said gratefully, reaching for the clothes. “Won't you come in?”
He shook his head. “Your cabin is officially out of bounds, per Captain Benjamin,” he said. “I just brought these by. I hope some of them will do.”
“They'll have to,” Jane answered lightly. “Thank everyone who donated to the cause, will you?”
Simon nodded, his blue eyes sympathetic. “I'm afraid that I've got bad news for you.” He spoke hesitantly. “Captain Benjamin told me to give you a message when he knew that I was coming down here. You're to report to the lounge in thirty minutes for your secondary duties.”
For a moment Jane didn't realize what he meant. Then she understood. Secondary duties. Jake Dominic must have sent for her to play court jester. Well, he was not going to find her very amusing tonight, she thought tiredly. She would probably be back in her cabin in an hour.
Simon's face was grim. “There's absolutely no call for this,” he said indignantly.
“These duties will be very light,” she assured him soothingly. “Thank you for caring, but it will be all right. Honestly. I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow, Simon.”
“Right,” Simon said, turning away with a comradely wave of his hand.
When Jane appeared in the lounge some forty-five minutes later, she felt that she fully resembled the buffoon of Jake Dominic's original simile. Her khaki pants were rolled up in thick, bulky cuffs, but there was nothing she could do about the baggy seat or the looseness of the waist. The thin cream sweater that she had teamed with it came almost to her knees, and the long sleeves kept slipping down from her elbows, where she had pushed them. Her hair was still slightly damp, and curled in wild ringlets all over her head. Jane had smiled philosophically when she'd caught sight of herself in the mirror in the cabin. There was no way she could compete with the gorgeous and well-dressed women of Jake Dominic's acquaintance even when she was at her very best. What difference did it make if she looked like something out of a circus?
Jake Dominic was sprawled in an enormous brown leather easy chair, his feet propped on the matching hassock. She noted with some disgruntlement that he looked devastatingly attractive in dark fitted pants and a red crew-neck sweater.
He looked up absently from the script he'd been studying, as she came in the door. His dark eyes widened, and his lips twitched uncontrollably as he leisurely looked her over from her water-stained canvas tennis shoes to the unruly red curls. He tossed the script aside and said