Iris Johansen Read Online Free Page A

Cannon.” There was a shocked exclamation from a stunned Pat Dawson, and Santine turned to give him a mocking smile. “It’s not all that insane, Pat,” he drawled. “Remember, it will be tax-deductible. In my income bracket, I need all the deductions and shelters I can arrange, according to my accountants.” Then, as Dawson continued to stare at him with his mouth agape, he ordered briskly, “Why don’t you run along to your office and give this Professor Sandler a call? Tell him that Miss Cannon and I are discussing the terms of my contribution.”
    Dawson rose swiftly to his feet, his face wiped clear of all expression. “Yes, sir. I’ll take care of it right away, Mr. Santine.” He turned to Janna. “If you’ll furnish me with the phone number, Miss Cannon?”
    She obediently fumbled in the pocket of her khaki slacks for the paper with David’s number on it and put it into Dawson’s outstretched hand, her dazed eyes still fixed in wonderment on Santine’s expressionless face. “It’s room 26B,” she said automatically.
    After all the heartrending anxiety they’d had about their problems, was the solution going to be as easy as this? Rafe Santine waved his magic scepter and suddenly everything was resolved. She was vaguely conscious of Dawson’s swift withdrawal, as the library door closed softly behind him. “You’re going to give it to us,” she whispered, feeling almost ill with relief. “You’re actually going to do it?”
    “I didn’t say that,” he replied coolly. “I said that I’d consider it.” He took his feet off the ottoman and pushed it away from him with one foot. “Now, come here and sit down and tell me why I should give you a gift worth more than two million dollars.”
    Janna felt her hopes deflate as rapidly as they’d risen. Of course it wasn’t going to be that simple. No hardheaded businessman of Santine’s stamp was going to release that much money without considerably more discussion and probing than he’d done as yet. She moved slowly across the room and dropped gracefully down on the ottoman in front of him.
    “I don’t know what else to say to you,” she admitted hesitantly, her brown eyes wide and solemn in a face that was suddenly a shade paler. “I can only appeal to your kindness and generosity. Besides the essential issue of saving the endangered species, without your help these animals will lose their freedom and have to go back to a life behind bars.” Her face was shadowed with pain at the thought.
    He was studying her with cool calculation. “I thinkthat matters to you even more than the other,” he observed impersonally. “You detest the idea of your precious four-footed friends in cages, don’t you?”
    She nodded, her gaze dropping. “I hate to see anything caged,” she admitted softly, her voice passionately intense. “I couldn’t stand to see them go back to that after living free.”
    “I see,” Santine said slowly, his dark gaze running over her with a curiously searching glance. “I’d wager you’re a great deal like your charges in that love for freedom. You’re rather like a young wild thing yourself, Miss Cannon.”
    Janna’s eyes flew up to meet his, and she felt her heart give a queer flutter as they encountered their dark intensity. “I don’t think it’s really important what I am or how I feel,” she said huskily, moistening her lips nervously. “It’s the wildlife reserve we should be discussing.”
    “But I don’t want to discuss the wildlife reserve at the moment,” he said arrogantly. “If I know Dawson, he’ll be stripping your brilliant professor of every scrap of information he possesses, on the chance that I might want it.” His lips curved cynically. “A very ambitious young man, Dawson.”
    “He seems very pleasant,” Janna said noncommitally, trying to inch away unobtrusively from his overpowering nearness. It was strange that though they weren’t even touching she should feel this