Body Guard by Unknown Page B

her eyes slowly to the Hawaiian dawn and found herself lying half-trapped under Jake's bare leg. They were both still lying on the wide chaise tongue but sometime during the night Jake had apparently retrieved a blanket from the bed. It covered them now, a light veil of protection against the cool morning air.
    For a few tense seconds Sabrina lay utterly stilt, staring out over the ocean, which in the odd morning light seemed the same shade of unfathomable gray as Jake's eyes.
    The second morning in a row. Sabrina closed her lashes briefly in dismay. She could hardly believe what had occurred This was the second morning in a row that "die had awakened in Jake's arms. But unlike yesterday morning, when explanations and excuses could be made and when nothing terribly final had happened anyway, this morning was dawning with the feel of disaster about it My God! How had she let herself wind up like this? How had she let herself lower all the carefully constructed barriers? And with a man she had known for only two days?
    Her mind reeled at the realization of what she had done. Memories of the compassion and concern which had led her out onto the balcony the previous evening came crowding in as if eager to provide her with some faint excuse for what she had allowed to happen. But none of those excuses was going to give her solace.
    Sabrina knew that much in the depths of her soul.
    Because in the end she had stayed with Jake, not out of compassion, but out of passion.
    The restless unease swept over her in a violent fashion as that fact registered, and Sabrina found herself sliding carefully out from under Jake's weight. When she was on her feet she hurried away from the balcony, vividly conscious of her nudity. She turned, once inside the room, to cast a stricken, terribly vulnerable glance back at Jake's sleeping form. He was lying sprawled on the lounge, the blanket draped at his waist The smoothly muscled contours of his chest and shoulders were a solid, bluntly masculine note against the flower-splashed mattress pad.
    His lashes were closed and he didn't stir as Sabrina turned and hurried from his room into her own. Jake was asleep, she thought fleetingly as she pulled on a pair of jeans and found a bateau-necked top in vivid stripes of purple and red and yellow.
    He was asleep! Because of her?
    Oh, hell! What did that matter? Disgustedly Sabrina slid her feet into a pair of sandals, grabbed her hotel-room key and hurried out into the hall. Without pausing to think about it, she went along the silent corridor until she found the stairs down to the beach.
    Her hair was already in disarray, so when a faint breeze off the ocean caught it and played with the tawny tendrils, it didn't make much difference. Sabrina lifted her face to the miracle of an island morning and plunged ahead at a brisk run, heading for the water's edge. There she came to a halt, drew in several deep breaths and then turned to pace furiously on the hard-packed sand.
    Hands thrust into the back pockets of her jeans, she walked toward the far end of the beach. Her brows were drawn together in a disgusted scowl and her whole body radiated the tension she was feeling.
    What in hell was she going to do now? God only knew what Jake would be thinking when he awoke this morning. No, that wasn't strictly true. Sabrina could make a damn good guess about what he would be thinking!
    He would assume that a full-scale affair had been begun out on that balcony last night. He would assume that he was going to have the benefit of a sleeping companion for the duration of his job as bodyguard.
    Some bodyguard! She had been right when she had caustically wondered who was going to protect her from the man assigned to protect her. Just look at what had happened! Sabrina's teeth sank into her lower lip as she recalled the events of the evening. How could she have been so incredibly stupid?
    "If you stay out here on this balcony a moment longer, I'm going to take you," he'd told