Separate Cabins

“No.”

When he kissed her, she almost forgot that odd feeling, but it stayed in the back of her mind throughout the evening. It lent an urgency to her lovemaking when they went to bed that night. While Gard slept, she lay awake for a long time with the heat of his body warming her skin. In the darkness the feeling came back. It seemed lik

e a premonition of some unknown trouble to come. Try as she might, Rachel couldn’t shake it off.

Stirring, Rachel struggled against the drugged feeling and forced her sleep-heavy eyes to open. A shaft of sunlight was coming through the drawn curtains and laying a narrow beam on the paneled wall. There was an instant of unfamiliarity with her surroundings until she remembered that she was in Gard’s cabin. Her head turned on the pillow, but the bed was empty. Unreasoning alarm shot through her, driving out the heavy thickness of unrestful sleep.

She bolted from the bed, dragging the sheet with her and wrapping it around her nude body, her hand clutching it together above a breast. She rushed to the sitting room door and pulled it open. Before she’d taken a full step inside, she halted at the sight of Hank Scarborough standing next to Gard.

Both men had turned to look when the door had been yanked open. Hank had been twirling his hat on the end of his finger, but he stopped when he saw Rachel in the door with the sheet swaddled around her. Self-consciously she lifted a hand to push at the sleep-tangle of her hair, knowing that Hank had a crystal-clear picture of the situation. Rachel hitched the sheet a little higher.

“Good morning.” She broke the silence.

“Being an officer and a gentleman, I should keep my mouth shut,” Hank declared with a wry shake of his head. “But if I were Gard, I’d be thinking it’s a helluva good morning. And I hope I haven’t embarrassed you by saying so.”

“You haven’t.” In fact, his frankness had relaxed her. “I shouldn’t have come barging in like this, but I didn’t know anyone was here.”

“Did you want something?” Gard asked, then slid a quick aside to his friend. “And you’re right about the kind of morning it is.”

“No, I—” She couldn’t comfortably admit that she’d been worried that something had happened when she hadn’t found Gard in bed with her—not with Hank standing there. “I just wondered what time it is.”

“It’s nearly ten o’clock,” Gard told her.

“That late?” Her eyes widened.

“You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t have the heart to wake you,” he said. “I’ll order some coffee and juice.”

“All right,” Rachel agreed, still slightly stunned that she had slept so late. Her glance darted to Hank. “Excuse me. I think I’d better get cleaned up.”

“You’ve missed breakfast, but we’re lying off the Las Hardas Hotel,” Hank informed her. “You’ll be able to get breakfast at the hotel.”

“Thank you.” She cast him a quick smile, then moved out of the doorway and closed the door.

Her clothes were draped across a chair in the room. After she had untangled herself from the length of the sheet, Rachel hurriedly dressed. For the time being she had to be satisfied with combing her hair, because all her makeup was in her own cabin, but at least she looked presentable.

Hank had left when she returned to the sitting room. Within seconds she found herself in Gard’s arms, receiving the good morning kiss he hadn’t given her earlier. His stroking hands rubbed over her body when he finally drew his mouth from her clinging lips. The premonition that had troubled her so much the night before was gone, chased away by the deep glow from his searing kiss.

“You shouldn’t have let me sleep so late,” Rachel murmured while her fingers busied themselves in a womanly gesture of straightening the collar of his shirt.

“If Hank hadn’t shown up, I planned on doing just that,” Gard replied. “Although I probably would have crawled back in bed with you to do it.”

“Now you tell me.” She laughed and eased out of his arms. “When is the coffee coming?”

“Anytime. Why?”

“I thought I’d run down to my cabin and pick up a few things—like my toothbrush,” Rachel explained, already moving toward the door.

“Don’t take too long,” Gard warned. “Or I’ll send out a search party to find you.”

Rachel had no intention of making a project of it, but even hurrying and packing only the few items she absolutely needed, plus a change of clothes, took her more than a quarter of an hour. When she returned to Gard’s cabin, she had to knock twice before he came to the door.

A puzzled frown drew her eyebrows together as he opened it and immediately walked away. She had a brief glimpse of his cold and preoccupied expression.

“How come you took so long to come to the door?” she asked curiously as she quickly followed him into the room. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m on the phone to California.” There was a harshness in his voice that chilled her.

Her steps slowed as she watched him walk to the phone and pick up the receiver he’d left lying on the table. A tray with cups and juice was sitting on the long coffee table in front of the sofa. Rachel changed her direction and walked over to it, sitting down so she could observe Gard.