Danet a had to hide a giggle. Jenny looked uncharacteristical y hostile, and Danet a found herself wondering just how deeply the mysterious Mr. Hunter had gotten under her skin.

  She didn't have long to wait. There was a curt knock on the door and Jenny went to open it before Danet a could.

  "Good evening," she said in the same tones a judge might use when ordering an execution.

  A tal , dark-eyed man came into the room. He was dres ed, as Cabe was, in evening clothes, but he had a face as cold and hard as ice, and his thin mouth looked as if it had never smiled. His hair was an echo of his eyes, almost black, and his skin was very dark. He had extremely high cheekbones and a nose as straight as a ruler. Danet a thought at first that he had a vaguely oriental look. Then those dark eyes met hers and she realized that he was Indian. American Indian.

  "This is Mr. Hunter," Jenny introduced him without looking at him again. "Danet a Marist," she continued, nodding toward Danet a, "and that's. ."

  "Hel o, Cabe," the newcomer said. His voice was deep and curt, without any inflection or accent.

  "Hunter," Cabe replied. "It's been a long time."

  The man cal ed Hunter turned back to Jenny. "You, I presume, are my date?"

  "You're a big, strong man," Jenny said with a venomous smile. "You ought to be able to survive an evening in my company." Everyone smiled, except the icy Mr. Hunter. He checked the watch on his wrist. "We'd bet er go."

  "Are we ready?" Cabe asked with a pointed question in the eyes that met Hunter's.

  Hunter nodded. "The reservations are confirmed," he said, and let his black eyes slide sideways toward a nearby lamp. Cabe nodded back. "Then let's go," he said, taking Danet a's arm. "I'm starved!"

  They went out together. Danet a noticed that Mr. Hunter stayed on one side of the elevator on the way down and Jenny stayed on the other. It was so obvious as to be amusing that they were going to neutral corners. She wondered what had caused the ice age to move in.

  The restaurant was crowded, but they were seated quickly.

  "Now what?" Danet a asked.

  "Now we wait," Hunter replied. He studied the menu briefly and laid it down, staring around at the glit er of crystal. His eyes made an emphatic statement about his feelings toward it.

  "What are you going to have, Jenny?" Danet a asked while she tried to decide between chicken cordon bleu and steak medal ions in cheese sauce. Jenny glanced toward Hunter. "Something raw," she muttered. "Oysters, maybe."

  Hunter lifted an eyebrow and glanced down at her. He didn't say a word, but Jenny suddenly blushed and averted her gaze to the menu. "The shrimp creole looks good," she said nervously.

  "I want a rare steak," Cabe said. He glanced at Hunter and grinned. "How about you?" He added something gutteral and total y incomprehensible to Danet a and Jenny. Hunter replied in the same rough-sounding language and a corner of his thin mouth quirked. He added, in English, "But I'l set le for beef."

  "What language was that?" Danet a asked, fascinated.

  "Apache," Cabe told her. He smiled at her expres ion. "Didn't I ever tel you that my grandmother was Apache? So was an uncle somewhere back down the line. Grandmother taught me the language. It's easy, once you get the hang of the glottal stops and the long and short sounds of the vowels."

  "And once you learn the nuances of inflection that turn an insult into a compliment," Hunter added, a twinkle in the dark eyes that glanced off Cabe's.

  "It came in handy once when Hunter and I were in a tight situation overseas," Cabe told Danet a. "We knew our hotel room was bugged, so we spoke in Apache."

  "I understand my counterpart thought it was some new American code. He spent the bet er part of a year trying to break it,"

  "Did he?" Jenny asked hesitantly, her pale eyes suddenly riveted on his dark face.

  He wouldn't look at her. "They kil ed him before he could. Failure is expensive."

  Jenny lifted her water glas and took a long sip. She didn't say another word, and Hunter didn't, either.

  Halfway through the meal, they heard a soft beeping sound. Hunter took out a communications device that no one knew he had and spoke into it.

  "They've sprung the trap." He got up. "No, stay and enjoy your meal," he said when Cabe started to rise. "This is my party now." Jenny got to her feet, too. "I as ume I'l be needed to identify the gentleman you think was after me?" she asked, but she didn't look up.

  "Yes," Hunter said shortly. "And then you can go" back to your job and leave the spy game to people who know how to play it." She glared at him and then turned away abruptly, her lower lip trembling. "Shal we go, Mr. Hunter?" she asked coldly. She managed a smile for Cabe and Danet a. "Good night. I'l see you later, Dina."

  Danet a nodded, watching them walk away, careful not to even touch each other.

  "Talk about the cold war," she mused, her eyes following them.

  "They've been enemies since they met. God knows why, they look like two halves of a whole, despite the differences in size and coloring." He reached over and took her hand.

  "Name a date."

  She stared down at his big hand. "Do you mean it?"

  He smiled. "With al my heart."

  "May the fifth," she said.

  His eyebrows lifted. "Why?"

  "Because I like to say cinco de mayoV she suggested.

  He shook his head. "Okay. Suit yourself. Tomorrow, you go and buy a wedding gown. How about a honeymoon in Jamaica?" She gasped. "Oh, could we!"

  "You bet."

  She smiled at him with her heart in her eyes. Then the smile faded. "Cabe, we can't go to Jamaica!" "Why not?" he asked. "Norman!" He pursed his lips amusedly. "Now I've got a great idea about a vacation for Norman. There's a big jungle down in South America. ."

  "Iguanas don't take vacations to South America," she said.

  "In that case, suppose we let Nicky keep him?" She laughed. "That would delight both of them." And, in fact, it did. A week later, the enemy agents were In safe hands, Ben Meadows was unemployed and facing charges of conspiracy, Jenny was back to work for Eugene alter the wedding, and Cabe and Danet a were languishing on a deserted moonlit white sand beach near Montego Bay on a private estate that Cabe had rented for the occasion.

  "It's heavenly," Danet a sighed, lying against Cabe without a stitch on her body, her cheek on Cabe's bare chest.

  "So are you, honey," he smiled, bending to kis her lazily. The three days they'd been here had gone by al too rapidly. He looked down the length of her body in the moonlight, wondering at the delight of making love to her. It had been, as he promised, like the first time al over again. Now he was teaching her new things, new ways of arousal that made them both dizzy with pleasure.

  "Are you sure nobody wil see us?" she asked. They'd just been in swimming, and he'd insisted that it was the experience of a lifetime without clothing in the moonlight. It had been. Now they were stretched out on two enormous beach towels laid overlapping in the sand, and he was looking at her with an expres ion that was just a lit le cooler than the warm winds.

  "Nobody wil see us," he murmured. His lips touched her breasts, making them peak, and slowly he drew her against and then over him, so that they were touching al the way up and down.

  "How can it be so sweet every time?" she whispered when his hands slid down her hips and began to move them in sensuous pat erns against his own.

  "Because we love each other," he whispered back, smiling as he nibbled her lips. "Are you tired of hearing it, yet?"

  "Oh, no," she sighed into his mouth.

  "I love you," he murmured. His hands moved her again, and this time he shifted so that she became part of him with one smooth motion. She gasped, feeling him merge with her, biting his chest in her shocked pleasure. "Cabe," she whispered jerkily.

  "Sit up."

  "I can't!" she exclaimed, al nerves and shy fright.

  "Yes, you can. I'm your husband and I love you, and you love me. We're married. Do it."

  He coaxed her with his hands and hips until final y she did what he wanted her to do. He held her hips, watching her with a warm, wicked smile until the silky movement began to make his tension swiftly unbearable.

  "That's it," he murmured, his hands biting into her hips as he guided her. He laughed through his building anguish. Her own body was shaking, and she felt the sounds building in her throat as the pleasure grew until she bit off cry.

  "Let me hear you," he said huskily. "No one else is going to. Is it good?"

  "Yes," she cried. "Oh, yes. .!"

  He jerked her body down in an agony of need. He was shaking al over, his hands hurting her hips in their ardent need, his back arching.

  "Look at me!" he whispered roughly.

  She did, her body fluid above his. Harsh moans burst from his hips as he held her in place, his eyes holding hers in rapt fascination. She felt his completion before she saw it take him, and for the first time, she watched. It was so erotic that her own body quickly began to tauten and she sobbed helples ly, clinging to him. He barely took time to get his breath before he whipped her over onto her back with raging hunger and began al over again the hard, exquisite motions until she was shivering and crying with her own satisfaction.

  She lay in his arms drowned in sweat, overcome by the onenes . It never ceased to amaze her that two people could be so close. He stroked her hair, his lips traveling gently al over her face, tenderly calming her.

  "You watched me this time," he whispered at her ear. "It doesn't embarras you so much now, does it?"

  "Not as much as it did at the beginning," she confes ed. She nuzzled her face against his hairy chest. "Cabe, I think I may be pregnant," she whispered. He smiled at her temple. "I know."

  She searched his gentle eyes. "Do you mind?" she asked, smiling back at him.

  "Not at al ." He kis ed her tenderly. "Do you?"

  "No. I'm rather looking forward to it." She nibbled his lower lip. "What are we going to do about Norman?"

  "Let Nicky adopt him," he suggested. "Then you can visit him whenever you like."

  "Al right," she agreed final y. She was going to mis Norman. Of course an iguana wasn't quite the companion Cabe was. She'd have to think of it that way. He sensed her faint sadnes . "I'l compromise. Later, if we have a boy, we might get him a baby one to raise. Of course," he added darkly, "he wil be my son, and he may not like lizards at al ."

  "That's true," she agreed easily, averting her wicked smile. "He may just looove snakes. . oh!" He jerked her back down and kis ed her breathles .

  The winds from the sea blew softly over them. Danet a closed her eyes and sighed happily. Her own smal corner of island and the only man in the world she loved. She smiled, thinking that this wil ingly beached couple were rewriting Robinson Crusoe with a girl Friday instead of a boy. As her gaze set led on Cabe's dark face, she decided that his girl Friday was what she most wanted to be. She closed her eyes and set led into Cabe's arms to drink in the moonlight. And the world seemed a very long way away.

  SILHOUETTE

  COMING NEXT MONTH

  #529 SHILOH'S PROMISE—BJ James

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  #533 SEEING IS BELIEVING—Janet Bieber

  Optometrist Lynda Fisher was far too busy for romance—especial y

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  AVAILABLE NOW:

  #523 BRANIGAN'S TOUCH

  Leslie Davis Guccione

  #524 WITH A LITTLE SPICE

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  #525 A PACKAGE DEAL Ariel Berk

  #526 BEFORE DAWN Terry Lawrence

  #527 ADDED DELIGHT

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  #528 HIS GIRL FRIDAY

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  Diana Palmer, His Girl Friday

 

 

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