Island Hearts (Jenny's Turn and Stray Lady) (23 page)

He took her to the edge of the world. She was mad with needing him, holding him, kissing him, sharing the motion of their two bodies become one. Then their passion climaxed in an explosive surge, and she lay trembling in his arms.

Finally, they slept, exhausted.

Once, in the night, Jenny awoke, opening her eyes and seeing the dark silhouette of Jake’s form. His arms tightened around her. She closed her eyes, relaxing against his body, wanting the night to last forever, trying not to think about what came next.

Held tightly against Jake, she slept again. She was curled against him when he woke in the early hours of the day. The northern sun was climbing in the sky, working its way into the cabin where they lay together.

She shifted, turning her face against him as the light intruded into her dream. Careful not to disturb her, he reached up and pulled the curtain down over the porthole. The cabin darkened.

He should wake her, but he didn’t know what words to say when her eyes stared into his. He was afraid to say too much, afraid that she would waken regretting giving herself to him.

Had it been too soon?

God! What if her eyes froze, shutting him out forever? He couldn’t face that.

He held her in his arms without waking her until the sun had risen high in the sky. He’d give her time to get used to the idea of him as a lover. Then, when he came back in a few days he would tell her all the words that had trembled on his lips last night.

She knew. After last night, she couldn’t help knowing how he felt about her, how necessary she was to his happiness. He brushed the short curls gently back from her face, pressed the softest of kisses onto her lips, and left her sleeping.

She was alone when she woke, lying in George’s big double berth with the blankets tumbled around her. Her eyes opened slowly as she remembered. Jake. His hands and his lips giving pleasure to every part of her body.

He had taught her more about passion than she had ever known before. Her hands had explored the hard male contours of him, touching him in ways she had never thought to touch a man, discovering the pleasure of drawing a groan of desire from him, learning how the touch of her softness against him could arouse his need – and hers – when only a moment before they had lain spent in each others arms.

The curtain was drawn, the light coming around the edges and filtering through the cabin. Jenny looked down along the length of her own body, her bare skin exposed and gleaming in the half-light.

Would there be a child from their union? She closed her eyes, feeling the fierce heat of Jake’s touch. It was possible. She’d been totally unprepared for intimacy with a man, although Jake probably assumed that she was in the habit of taking lovers.

What if she were pregnant?

A baby would be hers. Jake wouldn’t have to know. Not if she disappeared before it became obvious. She’d probably have to leave the west coast entirely to get away from Jake. How long would their affair last? A shaft of pain penetrated her as she thought about the inevitable ending. Would she have the strength to run away, leave before he tired of her?

Jake. He was gone. She felt the emptiness of the boat, listened to sounds from outside – the roar of an engine as a boat pulled away, the muted sound of voices on the wharf.

She stumbled as she got up, putting on her clothes quickly, seeing the clock and knowing when she heard the roar of a jet overhead that it was Jake – leaving her.

The note was lying on the galley counter. She saw it, her heart pounding, afraid to walk the two steps and read his black handwriting.

If he wanted to tell her that he loved her, he could have said it last night when she was in his arms, closer than two people had ever been.

Jennifer,

I couldn’t bear to wake you and say good bye. I’ll be back on Sunday.

 
Jake

Not love, just ‘Jake’. And he’d left her alone. Of course she had known it would happen, but—

The note crumpled in her hand. There were chores to do, little household – or boathold – duties that might help her to take her mind off Jake.

At least she hadn’t told him that she loved him.

He knew how badly she wanted him, but there was just a slight possibility that he didn’t know it was love. Or had she said the words, sometime in the night when his hands and his body were drawing everything she had into their union?

She must have. She couldn’t have kept the works back, not when he touched her like that, when her need was surging through her veins, making her wild and reckless, foolishly fearless.

The boat moved under her feet gently. Someone had stepped onto the deck from the wharf. Jenny’s heart pounded for a moment, then slowed with a sickening thud. Not Jake. Jake’s step was heavier.

“Jenny?”

It was George’s voice, George almost running across the deck and down the stairs. Jenny swung around to face her.

George looked slightly pale, but she was smiling, her eyes gleaming with her customary energy. She took in everything at a glance – the crumpled paper in Jenny’s hand, the tumbled bedclothes through the doorway in her own cabin. Jenny watched her eyes dart from the bed and back to Jenny’s face, watched George putting it all together.

“Where’s Jake?”

Jenny shook her head, dropped the paper into the wastebasket beside her. George glanced at it, her hand moving in a brief spasm as if she wanted to pick it up and read it.

“He’s gone,” Jenny said flatly, her voice almost normal. “He took the plane south. Did the doctor let you out of the hospital?”

“I’m here, aren’t I? As good as new, but with a healthy respect for clams!” George’s voice dropped with concern. “Are you all right, Jenny?”

Jenny turned away, said tightly, “I didn’t get any shopping done. We should go up to the store later and lay in stores, shouldn’t we?”

“Jenny? What did you and Jake—”

“Could we just get out of here, George? I don’t want to talk about it. He’ll be back, but I can’t see him. I just can’t! I know you’re still weak, but if we could just get our groceries and get the hell away from this place?”

George dropped her sweater on the dinette table. “I’ll have a coffee. We’ve got some artificial sweetener, don’t we? There wasn’t any in the hospital. Coffee tasted terrible!”

“You could have taken sugar in it.” Jenny managed a smile. “You’re such a little thing. I can’t imagine a spoonful of sugar making you fat!”

“It won’t if I don’t have it.” George clicked a pill into her cup. “Are you sure you want to go? Where?”

“I don’t know. Anywhere. Just away from here.“

Jenny almost wondered if George wasn’t deliberately dragging her heels. First they had to get groceries, then fuel, although
Lady Harriet
’s tanks were almost full. Then George wanted to wait another day because the stores were out of milk until the ferry arrived the next day..

The following day they left, but only after George made yet another trip up to the town for some last minute groceries she’d forgotten.

“We should have said goodbye to Violet,” George said as they sailed past the town. “She visited me in the hospital several times. Did you see the sweater I was wearing when I came back from the hospital? She gave it to me. She couldn’t have knit it in the last few days. I suppose it was something she’d done for someone else, but it’s beautiful.”

Jenny looked up at the house where Violet and Nat lived. She would have liked to say goodbye, but somehow she couldn’t. Violet would look at her and see too much. And then she might phone Jake.

If he came back now—

She needed time before she could face him again.

They sailed
Lady Harriet
out around the sand bar. The winds were from the south, not inviting for a passage south to Vancouver island. They worked their way slowly south along the east coast of Moresby Island. So many of the anchorages they stopped at were places she had visited with Jake in the seaplane.

What a strange contrast travel was in this wilderness! By boat they moved so slowly from place to place. With the seaplane, she and Jake had hopped over the islands. Roads were the normal method of travel to her mind, but here there were only occasional, twisted logging roads leading inland to stands of timber.

She would feel better when she got away from these islands. They were too deeply steeped with memories of Jake.

“Not tomorrow,” protested George when Jenny suggested they cross to the mainland as soon as possible. “We’ve been rushing down this coast. I’m tired, and I’m not ready to cross the Hecate Strait yet.”

Jenny was startled. “You’re not afraid, are you, George? I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”

“Just a bit tired. Let’s go back to the hot spring tomorrow.”

Jenny shrugged, knowing she was only fooling herself in thinking it would make a difference to get away from these islands.

Jake accused her of always running away, hiding herself. And she was doing it again, wasn’t she? She loved him, yet making love with him had her running, terrified.

No matter how many miles and days separated her from Jake, he would still be the owner of her heart. She’d spent enough days on this lonely sea to know that life held no excitement to match the times when he was near. She had hoped to find herself pregnant with his child, and that was still a possibility, but she knew now that it wasn’t enough. Her life would be empty if she couldn’t share it with Jake.

The thought terrified her, but she knew she had to go back to Vancouver, back to Jake. First she had to get control of herself, then she would go back and make herself so indispensable to him in every way that it would be Jenny – forever.

None of his other women had been the one he would choose to have working at his side every day. That gave her an edge, and she had to try to fight for him. This wasn’t anything at all like the love she had felt for Lance. When she closed her eyes, she couldn’t even see Lance’s face. Jake’s would be engraved in her mind forever.

Crossing to Hotspring Island, Jenny stood on deck, the wind made by their motion lifting her hair and causing her to button her jacket tightly.

A large sailboat passed, heading out into the strait. From the boats they had seen passing in the last two days, it seemed this was a popular place for departing on the long crossing to the mainland.

A seaplane flew past overhead, dropping down low. It wasn’t unusual for passing float planes to come down for a closer look – from curiosity, Jenny supposed.

The plane gained altitude after it passed them. Jenny looked back, watching the silver body reflect sunlight.

Was it turning? Coming back this way? It had flown east, as if towards the mainland, but now it seemed closer. With the wind of their motion in her ears, Jenny couldn’t hear any other sounds. She stared, her heart thundering loud as
Lady Harriet
’s engines seemed to fall silent.

The plane swept down, low and fast, then skimmed the water and settled back in its own wake in mid-channel.

If the plane was going to Hotspring Island, it had stopped a mile short of its destination.

George had cut the engine right back. The boat was slipping along slowly. “George, what have you—”

“I left a message for him,” confessed George, not meeting Jenny’s eyes.

“Oh, lord!” She felt her flaming cheeks with her hands. She wasn’t ready, not yet. “I’m going to make a terrible fool of myself.”

The plane’s engine roared. Jenny swung around to see it taxiing slowly towards them, then turning to move parallel with
Lady Harriet
, matching their speed.

The passenger door opened and Jake stepped out onto the pontoon.

“What do you want me to do?” George shouted across to Jake.

His eyes on Jenny, Jake called back, “Just cut the engine. We’ll come up to you!”

With
Lady Harriet
’s engine silent, there was only the muted sound of the idling seaplane engine. Jake, standing only feet away on the pontoon of the plane, was hanging onto a strut with one hand.

She wasn’t ready for this!
It was too soon! She wanted to run into his arms, swim to him if she had to, but she was too frightened to move. She’d planned to come back on her own terms, make herself indispensable to him, but she knew with sick conviction that it wouldn’t work. He wanted her now. Lance had wanted her too, but only as a lover.