Elizabeth Lowell - A Woman Without Lies

“Teamwork,” murmured Angel, folding the empty sack triumphantly. “That’s all it takes.”

“Do you have time for a cup of tea?” Mrs. Carey asked hesitantly. “I don’t want to keep you if – ”

“You’re a lifesaver,” Angel interrupted gently, smiling. “I was in such a rush this morning that I didn’t have tea.”

Mrs. Carey walked slowly toward the breakfast table, shaking her head vigorously.

“Nothing is more important than a cup of tea, young lady.”

Discreetly Angel looked at the kitchen clock as she sat at the table. But her impatience faded while she sat and drank tea, listening to Mrs. Carey talk about children and grandchildren, the crabapples that were almost ready to be made into jelly, and the berries that would come in later in the summer.

Gently Angel refused a second cup of tea. She stood and carried her dishes to the sink.

“I’ll call you in a few days to see what you’re out of,” Angel said, rinsing and setting aside her cup.

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t eat much.”

“If you need anything before I get back, call Mrs. Schmidt.” Angel bent over and hugged Mrs. Carey gently. “See you in a week.”

“I don’t want to bother you – ” began Mrs. Carey.

“No bother,” Angel said honestly. “I have to shop for myself and Derry anyway.”

“I feel like a clumsy idiot.”

Angel smiled.

“Just unlucky,” Angel said, bending and giving Mrs. Carey another light hug. “You’ll be back to shopping for yourself in a few weeks.”

“Blasted cat.”

The cat in question chose that moment to meow at the back door. Mrs. Carey went slowly to let in the old tom, muttering every step of the way about the stupidity of the cat that had tripped her and caused her to break her hip.

Struggling not to smile, Angel watched. She knew that so far as Mrs. Carey was concerned, the sun rose and set on that scruffy cat.

Angel gave another glance at the kitchen clock, then let herself out the front door.

She made a concerted dash through the grocery store to get everything that she had missed that morning in her headlong rush to get back in time for the arrival of the glass. The unexpected delivery had disrupted her carefully planned morning.

It was more than worth it, though. The glass was exquisite. Already designs were forming in Angel’s head, mountains and the sea and a man’s hidden smile.

From the store it was just a short drive to the Ramsey house. Angel hurried anyway, eager to get out on the water. Although she and Hawk had taken out his big powerboat several times before, this would be their first real fishing expedition. Up until today their trips had been more sightseeing excursions than anything else.

Today, however, Angel was finally going to get to show Hawk what it was really like to go in quest of the silver salmon. Privately, she was sure that Hawk would succumb to the lure of the beautiful, powerful fish.

And, perhaps, to her.

Angel grabbed three bags of groceries from the trunk and rushed up the front walk. Juggling bags, leaning against the door, she groped for the front door handle.

The door opened suddenly, throwing Angel off balance. She grabbed at the bags desperately. Before she lost either the groceries or her balance, strong hands clamped around her arms, holding her upright until she was steady again.

Angel knew it was Hawk who held her even before she looked up. If the strength of his fingers hadn’t told her, his clean, male scent would have.

Does he taste half as wonderful as he smells?

The intensity of Angel’s curiosity disturbed her. Since Grant’s death, she hadn’t wanted to touch or be touched by men. Not like this, a sweeping hunger and a breathless heat.

Hawk had slid by Angel’s fears and defenses as easily as sunlight sliding through glass.

Yet Hawk didn’t seem to know it, or care.

“I – thanks,” Angel said, her voice strained, her thoughts chaotic.

“You wouldn’t be any good to me in a cast,” Hawk said, releasing her.

Though Hawk’s words were indifferent, almost curt, his fingers slid all the way down to Angel’s buffed nails before he let her go.

Angel’s breath caught again, caught between Hawk’s impassive exterior and the hunger she sensed beneath, a hunger like hers, a yearning toward the warmth and beauty that a man and a woman could give to each other. She had caught tantalizing glimpses of that feeling with Grant, sweet moments of passion before he pulled back and sat without touching her because he wanted to wait until they were married.

But Grant had died before they were married.

Angel wrenched her thoughts into the present as Hawk took the grocery bags from her arms. She followed him into the kitchen, admiring the silence and power of his movements.

“Where’s Derry?” she asked as Hawk set the sacks on the counter and began unloading items.

“Studying.”

“Organic chemistry?”

Hawk shrugged. “All I saw was a formula as long as my leg.”

“Organic chemistry,” confirmed Angel.

She began putting away food as fast as Hawk unloaded the bags.

“That’s the course that separates the ones who will be from those who might have been,” Angel said.

“Derry’s intelligent and disciplined. If he wants to be a doctor badly enough, he’ll be one.”

Only if you buy Eagle Head.

But the words went no further than Angel’s mind.

She looked toward the kitchen clock, wondering if they were going to miss the evening tide at Indian Head, which was just below Needle Bay. Even when she stood on her tiptoes, Hawk’s shoulders blocked her view of the clock.

Without thinking, Angel grabbed Hawk’s wrist and looked at his watch. She leaned around his arm to see the face of his watch.

“We’re going to miss the tide unless we run,” Angel said.

Hawk said nothing.

When Angel glanced up to see if Hawk understood, his clear, dark eyes were watching her with unusual intensity.

Suddenly she felt the heat of him reaching through his clothing, through her clothing, spreading through her in waves that made her dizzy. Her heart beat raggedly. Her breath caught in the back of her throat and stayed there.

She was incredibly aware of her breast brushing against Hawk’s arm, her nipple tightening until it ached. Her eyes darkened as her pupils expanded, all but eclipsing the blue-green iris.

Angel was too inexperienced to recognize the symptoms of sudden, passionate arousal. Hawk wasn’t. Every one of his senses was fully alert, quivering with the signals that radiated from Angel.

He wanted to put his hands on her, all of her, and then take her completely, finishing what her touch on his wrist had started. But Derry could come into the kitchen at any moment. Or in the next breath Angel could remember where she was, and draw back.

Hawk had waited this long for the right moment, for the last sudden turn, the cry, the capture. He could wait longer. He could wait until Angel walked into the open, all pretense of innocence and retreat gone.

Slowly Hawk turned back to the counter. As he moved, his arm brushed slowly over Angel’s breast.

Her breath came in swiftly, brokenly. She stared at Hawk for an instant, wondering if he felt even a small part of what she was feeling.

No expression showed beneath his dark features. For all that Angel could see, Hawk hadn’t noticed her reaction to his closeness. Nor had he reacted to being close to her.

The realization should have comforted Angel, but it didn’t. It made her feel lost, lonely, almost afraid. Sadness and passion ached in her.

Is Hawk so used to being alone that he can’t respond to me?

Or is it simply that I survived Grant’s death only to find myself wanting a man who neither needs nor wants me?

Angel stood motionless in the kitchen, seeing nothing, not even Hawk. The thoughts turning in her mind consumed her.

She realized that it was not merely eagerness to go fishing that had made her blood race when she had awakened today. It was the knowledge that she was going to have Hawk to herself.

No Derry. No phone calls from New York and Texas and Tokyo to delay sightseeing trips and picnics. Nothing but Hawk and Angel and the restless, island-studded sea. Five days alone. Perhaps more.

Anything could happen in that time.

Even love.

The thought shocked Angel for an instant. Then she accepted it the same way she had finally accepted the automobile accident that had so brutally changed her life.

Running from the truth doesn’t change anything, certainly not reality, Angel reminded herself. Running just weakens you.

And I will have to be very strong with Hawk.

Quietly, standing in the kitchen not an arm’s length from Hawk, Angel admitted to herself that if she spent much more time with him, she ran the risk of caring for him too much. She was powerfully drawn to the lonely reaches of his mind, the intelligence and power of him, the rare gentleness that spoke so movingly of the emotions hidden beneath his harshness.

Hawk was like a stained glass window in a black night, mystery and brooding hints of color. So much darkness, so little life. Yet when bathed in sunlight, the beauty inherent in the glass would leap into silent, overwhelming life, all the colors of love pouring forth where only darkness had been before.

Angel didn’t know if she was strong enough to be the sunlight to Hawk’s stained glass.

She only knew she had to try.

Angel looked at the clock on the boat’s control panel and swore silently. Everything seemed to conspire against getting Hawk out on the water at the best time for some decent fishing.

It was five o’clock, and they had barely cleared Campbell River.