Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,47

I'm not screaming anymore. Now I'm pissed off."

Henry patted her shoulder. "Girl, are you sure? Your eyes still look like two pee holes in a snow bank."

He was rewarded with a tiny grin. "I'm sure." She looked at Jack carefully so there would be no mistaking her intent. "We are not due to leave until tomorrow, and I am sitting in this castle until the very last second that I'm supposed to be here. I am not leaving until then. I don't care who is doing this or why. I'm not running from anyone. Or anything."

Jack looked at her with a mingled expression of exasperation and pride. He also recognized the expression on her face and knew there was no point in arguing.

*****

The worst of the storm now over, everyone went back to their rooms for the rest of the night. Stopping Dana outside her room, Noah hugged her tightly, something he rarely did anymore. He traded a man-to-man look with Jack and then headed to his own room.

Without speaking, Jack led Dana into her bedroom and quietly undressed her. Laying her down on the bed, he removed his own clothes and lay down besides her, wrapping himself around her like a blanket. He simply had wanted to hold her through the night, but he was driven by a need to reassure himself that she was really okay.

He felt a deep remorse, a feeling he was unfamiliar with, that he had been unable to protect her, hadn't been able to keep the monsters away. He kissed every inch of her body, stroked it, and bathed her with his tongue until she trembled violently with her own need. For her part she merely clung to him, knowing instinctually that it was all he needed from her right now.

She whispered soft words in his ear, reassuring him that she wanted what he needed to give her. He drove himself into her desperately, hungrily, branding her flesh with his in a way he never thought he would. The intensity of it frightened him, but she matched him hunger for hunger until they shattered in each other's arms. Dana had never felt so loved, so cherished, so safe in her life.

A shot of moonlight lay across the bottom of the bed illuminating Dana's foot stroking up and down the back of Jack's thigh. She was discovering a fascination with his face, a face she had always thought of as ordinary. She never tired of stroking it, exploring it, tracing his features with feather-light fingers. Jack studied her, afraid that he'd hurt her, afraid that he'd scared her. But she simply smiled at him in smug satisfaction. "That was nice."

Jack laughed at what an outrageously inappropriate word 'nice' was to describe what they had just shared. God how he loved her! He sobered again when she stroked a finger along his cheekbone. He grabbed her fingers and kissed them. "I'm sorry I hit you, D."

She shrugged. "It's all right, I hit you back."

"Rose was right; I didn't know what to do. You sure didn't react the way they do in the movies."

"No, I went all postal on you."

"I should have known better, you've always had a flashpoint about someone hitting you in the face. Remember poor Lindsay Kerns?"

Dana sniffed. "Poor Lindsay Kerns! She asked for it. I've never seen such a poor loser in my life."

"And when she slapped you for blocking her shot during basketball practice, it took two of us to pull you off. The girl was never the same. Her face got this weird tick whenever you would get too close to her in the hall."

Dana pulled him closer and whispered, "Why are we talking about Lindsay Kerns?" She traced his ear with the tip of her tongue. Jack groaned deep in his chest. "Why are we talking at all?"

*****

The following morning six o'clock arrived as it always did and Grace burst from her room to welcome it with a song on her lips and tap shoes on her happy feet. She halted abruptly when she faced a ring of folded arms and disapproving faces staring back at her en masse. She smiled at them weakly then slunk meekly backwards into her room and closed the door. With a collective sigh, everyone else went back to bed.

The smell of breakfast cooking downstairs soon had them all back out of their beds and getting ready for the day. The weekend was officially over and there was packing to do before leaving. But first