Jade Star (Star Quartet 4)

He said, not looking at her, “Why don’t you change first?”

“Actually, I’d like to get the salt water off me. There’s a fresh spring just a few hundred yards away.”

“Go ahead, then. I’ll see what I can do about feeding us.”

When Jules returned some thirty minutes later, Saint realized that he had grown concerned not ten minutes after she’d left. “Next time,” he said curtly, “I’ll go with you.”

“All right,” she said agreeably. “This looks delicious!”

They feasted on eggs, fresh papaya, and bread. “You, Michael,” Jules said, sitting back in her chair and patting her stomach, “are an incred

ible man. You can do everything.”

“Your hair is dry,” he said, disregarding her praise as he eyed the riotous curls.

She touched her fingers to her hair and sighed. “I’ll have to tie the mess down with a ribbon.”

“No, leave it the way it is. I like it.”

She looked so pleased with the meager compliment that Saint flinched. He added, “Your hair is beautiful. I’ve always thought so.”

She actually flushed with pleasure, and he rose abruptly from the table, turning away. He closed his eyes. Lord, he didn’t want the responsibility for this fairy creature. She could be too easily hurt. “What would you like to do today?” he asked. Three days and two more nights, he thought blankly. He’d slept outdoors the previous night. Thank heaven they weren’t in Massachusetts, in the winter.

“I wish we had time to go to the volcano and see the sunrise. It’s very spectacular.”

“We don’t, unfortunately. Any other ideas?”

She was silent for a long while, staring thoughtfully down at her folded hands. “Kanola and I were swimming off Makila Point when Wilkes kidnapped us. I thought I would be frightened to swim here again, but I wasn’t. Is that . . . unnatural?”

She was such a curious little thing, he thought, staring at her. “No,” he said finally. “It means that you’ve got lots of common sense.”

“That or no sensibilities,” she said. “When Mrs. Baldwin took me upstairs last evening, I told her about it—Makila Point, that is. I thought she was going to faint.”

“You didn’t tell her any of the rest of it?” he asked carefully.

“No, of course not.” She lowered her eyes. “She asked me if there was anything I wanted to know about my wedding night.”

Saint swallowed convulsively. “And?”

“I already know everything, Michael! I just asked her if men stuck that thing into . . .” She broke off, her face as red as if she’d been in the sun too long.

He smiled, unable to help himself. “I understand. What did Mrs. Baldwin say?”

“She said yes, that was true, and that it wasn’t too bad, not really, but that she was certain that you would be very careful. I told her that it sounded very strange to me.”

“Did she say anything else?”

Jules nodded. “Yes, she said that it wasn’t strange really and that you were a doctor.”

“Those two things go hand in hand? I’d never considered that before.”

She saw the amusement in his eyes, and grinned. “Now that you mention it, it doesn’t make much sense, does it?”

“Not an ounce,” he agreed. “Now, Jules, since you haven’t any ideas to speak of, I think I’ll go swimming.”

Saint decided that Jules’s idea of the male thing that was stuck into women had originated with him. At least Wilkes hadn’t paraded about in front of her naked. He suddenly remembered her few words about the sailors. She’d seen a sailor’s penis—the sailor who had raped Kanola, probably. He also wondered a few minutes later as he was stroking through the water if Jules would mind lovemaking with him. She certainly seemed interested. He hadn’t seen a patch of fear in her eyes when they’d spoken of her conversation with Mrs. Baldwin. Yes, he thought, she had all the frankness of a child, a child who had been desperately hurt. Despite the chill of the water, he felt himself harden. “Damned randy bastard,” he snarled at himself.

That evening, they strolled to the beach to watch the sunset. “I’ll miss this,” Jules said as the sun dipped finally over the horizon, casting the sky in vivid red for a few moments. “I feel a bit like Eve being tossed out of the Garden of Eden.”