Gift of Fire Read Online Free Page B

forget it. She had waited twenty-eight years for him—twenty-eight years for her first sexual experience. And she had taken to his lovemaking like a dolphin to water. Jonas didn't like the thought that she might be wondering now if she'd waited for the wrong man.

    "You sure you talked her out of going off alone to Hawaii?" Emerson asked.

                Jonas set his jaw, remembering belatedly that Verity had changed the subject last night, without giving him any promises. "She wouldn't dare. She knows there'd be hell to pay."

                "Ah, the comforts of 'brainless male machismo.' No wonder we men cultivate it so carefully. Gives us a nice, pleasant, totally false sense of security when we need it most." Emerson laughed wryly.

                Jonas took a hand off the wheel long enough to touch the golden earring he carried in his pocket. The earring belonged to Verity. He had carried it with him since the night he'd found it in a dirty Mexican alley. "Some of us get our sense of security from other things." The gentle vibrations from the gold soothed some of the uneasiness in his mind.

                "Well, since there's not much we can do about my daughter, I guess maybe we ought to talk about the plans for springing Lehigh."

    "Plans?" Jonas shot his companion a quick, amused glance. "You mean you've actually got some?"

                "Hey, I make a living at writing fiction, don't I? Of course I've got plans. Besides, you know damn well we can't just drop off the cash and expect to see Lehigh again in one piece. We'll have to go in and bring him out."

    "Let's have it, Emerson. What's involved?"

                "You and your trusty knife are involved, among other things. Fortunately for us, my boy, you're a man of many talents."

                Four days later, Verity spent the morning at the office of the one and only travel agent in Sequence Springs. That evening, the crowd at the No Bull Cafe was so light she closed earlier than usual, and trekked up the path to the pool room of the Sequence Springs Spa Resort. A stack of travel brochures was tucked under her arm.

                The European-style spa room was almost empty. Gleaming white and blue tile shone under the bright lights, and the spa pools bubbled invitingly. Verity undressed and slid naked into her favorite pool, a hot bath that smelled strongly of therapeutic minerals. Stacking the brochures on the tile rim beside her, she leaned back in the soothing water and began to study pictures of sun-kissed shores and tropical seas.

                Earlier that evening she had made a promise to herself that she would not spend another night sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. Jonas was not likely to call tonight. He certainly hadn't bothered to call during the past four days, and they had been the longest four days of Verity's life.

                Furthermore, she was sick of reading and rereading the poem she had found pinned to her pillow the morning Jonas had left.

                Wait for me, my lady, though the wind blows chill and cold, wait while all is locked in winter's icy fist.

                I will dream of you, my lady, hot dreams of fire and gold, Dreams of gemlike passion too wondrous to resist.

    And if you're on vacation when I return, my lady, I swear I will be most extremely pissed.

                Extremely pissed. Verity wrinkled her nose. If Jonas expected her to believe that little ditty was another of the Renaissance love poems he claimed to have loosely translated, he was wrong. And it certainly didn't make up for his failure to phone her.

                "Verity! Just the person I'm looking for. I rang the cafe and the cabin but there was no answer. I figured you might be here."

                Verity looked up from the enticing photo of a gleaming white resort on a private bay.