Raven on the Wing (16 page)

He lay heavily on her, his chest moving with the deep, ragged breaths his exhausted body demanded, his face buried in her neck. Raven held him with what strength she had left to her, stroking the powerful, glistening muscles of his back with hands that shook uncontrollably.

There was more, this time, than a simple sense
of well-being. She felt almost electrified, acutely alive, and there were no shadows within her. For the first time in her life she had given herself totally, completely, stripping away the layers guarding her inner self and exposing what she was to the searing, healing touch of his need—and her own.

She slid one hand up his spine, threading her fingers through his thick black hair, and with a new and curiously powerful sense of communication, she knew the instant he came back to himself, became aware again. “I love you,” she murmured, her breath warm against his shoulder.

Josh lifted his head, his breath catching as he looked at her. Her eyes were wide and dark and bottomless, glowing with an inner fire far too deep and strong ever to be hidden by an enigmatic surface of violet or an expert shading of makeup.

He eased up on his elbows, shaken by what he saw and by what he had so nearly done to them. If she had resisted him … Memories like primal growls in the back of his throat haunted him,
tautening a body that trembled from the strain of what he was feeling. “Raven …” His hands found her face, shaking. “I could have hurt you.” He remembered the savagery of his desire, the driven strength, and closed his eyes. “I did hurt you.”

She lifted her head from the pillow, kissing him very tenderly. “You didn’t hurt me. You could never hurt me,” she murmured. “Don’t you think I know that?”

He was still too shaken, too unnerved by his descent into a dark and savage place to be reassured. “I wanted … my God, I wanted everything. I didn’t think about hurting you, only about taking you. Making sure you belonged to me.”

Raven didn’t think now, she only responded to the anguish in his voice. Softly, her voice husky, she said, “There was something cold in me, something dark and alone. It isn’t there anymore, Josh. There was a wound so deep, the light could never reach it, never heal it. But you did.”

He looked at her, gazed deep into those bottomless, darkly flaming eyes, and saw truth. Whatever had happened between them, Raven’s need had been as great as his own, and the certainty both had required now lay deeply, warmly, within them.

“I love you,” he said, his voice a bare thread of sound. “I love you so much.”

She had promised to meet Leon Travers for lunch, and Josh, dressed, watched as she sat at the dressing table and piled her long hair atop her head and secured it expertly with a few pins. She was wearing a silk dress of deep, shimmering violet. And her eyes, even with the careful shading of makeup, were no longer cool and enigmatic.

The changes wrought in her would never again be disguised by a part she played. Her eyes were inexplicably wider, more vivid, and stirringly
alive
. No shadows lurked there, no hints of cool disinterest.

Josh got to his feet and went to stand behind
her. “If you ever allow anyone but me to watch you dress and put on makeup,” he said casually, “I will strangle you.”

Laughter shimmered instantly to life in the eyes that met his in the mirror. “Oh, really?”

“Yes.” His hands lifted to her shoulders, moving gently to feel the beloved flesh and bone, the compelling warmth of her. “I never thought about it before, but there’s something very intimate in watching a woman get ready to go out.” His hands swept over the silk and surrounded her neck warmly. “Makes a man feel possessive.”

Raven gazed at the reflection of his face, seeing an easing of the strain that had gripped it for so many days. He was curiously at peace now, something she could feel as well as see. She reached up to catch his hands, leaning her head back against him with little thought of her hairstyle. “I’m not objecting,” she whispered.

“Good, because I can’t seem to handle it rationally,” he said, bending to kiss her lightly. Then he moved away, a gleam in his eyes warning her that if they lingered, she’d certainly be late for her appointment.

Very late.

Tearing her gaze from that silent, hot promise, Raven took a last assessing look into the mirror and frowned slightly. She started to reach for the small case of eye shadow, but his comment stopped her.

“It won’t work.”

She turned on the low stool, staring up at him in puzzlement. “Why not?”

Unable to keep his hands off her, Josh brushed his knuckles lightly beneath her chin, caressing the silky flesh. “Because you’ve changed,” he said quietly, watching for her reaction. “Your eyes have come alive—really alive. You can’t disguise them with makeup any longer.”

She looked at him for a long moment, then smiled suddenly. “You’ve ruined me for Hagen,” she said, sounding pleased. Then she laughed. “I’ll just have to keep my lashes lowered demurely, I suppose, or wear sunglasses in the restaurant.”

Josh took her hands and pulled her gently to her feet. “Travers will see,” he said, uneasy as
the import of that hit him. “He’ll know you’re different, know something’s happened.”

“I’ll think of something to tell him. Don’t worry.” She kissed his chin. “Now, I’ve got to get the bracelet, so be quiet.” She had told him earlier about the microphone in her bracelet, which had reassured him somewhat regarding Hagen’s precautions.

Instead of allowing her to move away instantly, Josh caught her chin and turned her face up, kissing her deeply and thoroughly with the new possessiveness that had marked them both.

Raven melted against him, drawing strength from him, glorying in the feeling of belonging to him. It was a special kind of belonging, she had decided, something deep and sure, with no overtones of mastery or selfishness. They belonged to each other, and both were more than they had been.

“I love you,” he murmured.

She smiled, her fingers touching his lips with a sense of wonder. “I love you.” Reluctantly, she went to get her bracelet and capture her now elusive alter ego.

Then they left, she to travel down in the elevator, her aloof expression and dark glasses hiding the glow within, he to vanish discreetly out the back way, unseen and unheard.

Rafferty looked up from the desk as Josh came into the suite, and he went still as his sharp eyes absorbed the change.
Well, now
, he thought.
Well, now
.

“You guys had lunch?” Josh asked briskly, dropping his car keys on the table near the door and coming into the room to sink down in a comfortable chair.

“No.” Zach, his printout put away, was also intent on studying changes.

Smiling quite unconsciously, Josh propped his feet on the coffee table. “Room service isn’t too bad,” he remarked idly.

After a moment, Zach looked at Rafferty. “He imports the finest chef he can get from Europe, then says the food isn’t bad. You want to remind him he’s in his own hotel, or should I?”

Rafferty’s laugh changed into a cough by the
time mildly surprised blue eyes looked his way. “It’s your hotel, Josh,” he ventured.

“I know that.” Josh looked from one to the other, coming to the conclusion, finally, that Raven hadn’t been the only one outwardly changed. Curiously enough, he wasn’t in the least embarrassed or self-conscious. “If I’ve grown another head,” he said politely, “somebody tell me. I’ll need to buy more hats.”

“You don’t wear hats,” Zach murmured.

Josh looked at him.

Rafferty cleared his throat hastily. “Room service sounds fine. Where’s the menu?”

“I’ll get it.” Zach rose from the couch with the uncanny grace that was surprising in so big a man, going over to the bar, where the menu lay.

“Where’s Lucas?” Josh asked absently.

Zach, turning from the bar and behind Josh, sent Rafferty a quick look and slightly shook his head.

After an imperceptible pause, the lawyer answered in a casual tone. “Oh, he had some errands. Probably be back before room service gets here, though.”

“We’ll order for him, then,” Josh said, accepting the menu from Zach.

Rafferty spoke slowly. “Josh, it could be today, couldn’t it?”

Some strain returned to Josh’s face, but not nearly as much as they were accustomed to seeing. “Could. But Raven says if Travers sticks to his usual method, it’ll be at night. Tomorrow night is the most likely.”

“Will she know where she’s going?” Zach asked.

“Not until she gets there.” Josh stared at the menu, and something grim, determined, tightened his face for a brief moment, then was gone.

Zach glanced at the lawyer, and Rafferty nodded with a resignation Josh didn’t see.

Both of them had known all along.

Hagen and Kelsey sat in a car a block from an elegant restaurant and ate their lunch from various paper and Styrofoam containers. Kelsey crumpled up the wrapping of his hamburger and said gloomily, “She did that deliberately, the
witch.” He gestured to the small device that was currently giving them an ear inside the restaurant. “She told us exactly what she was having for lunch,
knowing
we’d be stuck out here eating flavored paper.”

“Undoubtedly,” Hagen agreed, staring with some disfavor at his own meal.

The conversation going on inside ended for the time being as Raven excused herself, and Kelsey sent a thoughtful look at his boss. “Eight years, and this is the first time I’ve known you to get involved enough to share a stakeout.”

“Big fish,” Hagen said dryly. “And this is one I intend to catch.”

“Thanks.”

Hagen chuckled. “No offense intended, my boy. You’re a good operative, possibly one of my best. So is Raven. You know, of course, that this will be her final assignment?”

Kelsey sighed. “Yeah, I guessed. Long. Well, I grudge him the best partner I’ve ever had, but I’m glad he can make her happy.”

There was silence for a few moments, until
Raven returned to the table inside the restaurant. Kelsey, listening, cocked his head to one side intently.

“What?” Hagen asked.

“He sounds a little tense, don’t you think?”

Hagen listened to the conversation, which was a casual one. “I don’t hear it.”

Kelsey shook his head, still vaguely bothered. “Must be getting punchy from all this flavored paper,” he muttered. “Additives and numbered dyes and … whatever. Affecting what I fondly call my mind.”

Hagen looked at him for a moment, then returned his attention to the conversation. “Could be,” he said almost to himself.

In the garage level of the soaring hotel, Lucas Kendrick paused in the shadows to gaze around intently. Convinced he was alone in the echoing place, he moved forward silently until he stood beside a rental car.

Ever since a crazed ex-employee in Miami had traced Josh through his rental car and taken a
wild shot at him some years before, they had learned to take no chances. Rental cars were always logged as being serviced while they were in his possession. Even when Josh drove one of his own cars, the plates were switched erratically.

Lucas was in and out of the car quickly and silently, and left nothing behind him except a small device hidden securely under the dashboard.

J
OSH WAS AGITATED
during the early part of the afternoon, relaxing somewhat only after Raven called him from a pay phone in the ladies’ rest room of the restaurant to report that Leon had canceled their dinner date for the evening. It seemed to indicate clearly that it was not yet “arranged” for Raven to see the girls she proposed to acquire for the international interests she was supposed to represent.

“So it’s not tonight?”

Josh looked at Rafferty as he hung up the phone and shrugged—as much to ease tense
shoulders as anything else. “Looks that way. With any luck, it’ll be tomorrow night.” To himself, he added, “Then it’ll be over.”

Rafferty said nothing, but watched as Josh rose and moved around the room absently. He remained silent when his friend and employer suddenly returned to his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a shoulder harness containing a rather deadly looking automatic. Josh removed the clip from the gun and checked it, his expression still abstracted, then replaced it and shrugged into the harness.

Lucas entered the room just then, and unlike Rafferty, he chose not to keep silent. “Is it tonight?” he asked quickly.

“No.”

“Then why—?” Lucas gestured toward the gun Josh now wore comfortably, as if it were a part of him.

Josh frowned a little. Still frowning, he shrugged. “I don’t know. Just a feeling.” When the phone rang, he made no move to answer, but stood staring out the window.

Rafferty got up and answered it, then held out the receiver to Josh. “Serena.”

His expression lightening, Josh took the receiver and spoke into it with mock severity. “You can’t have it.”

“Have what, Josh?” His half sister’s voice held its usual soft, serene, deceptively unthreatening tone.

“Whatever it is you want. Money, probably. Why don’t you con your husband into handing over large sums for your various projects? I happen to know Brian isn’t exactly poor.”

“Josh, have you been drinking?”

He could hardly help but grin at the gentle question. “No, Rena, I haven’t been drinking. Did you call for a reason, or just to brighten my day?”

“Curiosity. Daddy said you called to ask him about Hagen. What’re you up to, Josh?”

“You
know
Hagen?”

“Well, I know of him, of course. Daddy says he’s absolutely brilliant, totally devoted to law and order, and as twisty as snakes in a barrel.”

Josh reflected that he really shouldn’t be
surprised at Serena’s knowledge. She had, after all, grown up much nearer than himself to the secretive world Stuart Jameson inhabited; she would certainly be aware of all the players in that particular game.

“Josh?”

He stirred. “Yes, he told me the same thing.”

Patiently, she said, “I know that. What I
want
to know is why you asked about him.”

Somewhat belatedly, Josh wondered if his phone might be tapped. He knew that Zach took precautions wherever they stayed, but wasn’t certain if that included more than a daily check on the phone. He looked up to ask Rafferty or Lucas, but found that both men had silently left the room to give him privacy.