Free Iris Johansen by The Ladyand the Unicorn Page A

his heart beneath her ear and the deep, ragged breaths he took. His tone was a curious blend of exasperation and helplessness as he repeated, “Oh, hell!”
    Janna’s arms automatically encircled him as she burrowed her head deeper in his chest, conscious only of the warm comfort of his hard male strength. “And they came from Nepal,” she sobbed bitterly. “No wonder it took so long to get them. They have the largest Bengal tiger reserve in the world in Nepal. The poachers would have to be very careful in order to bag that many cats without being caught.” She rubbed her wet cheeks against his shirt, not caring that the cloth was damp with her tears. “But Harry Waterman made it worth their while, didn’t he? I wonder how many crowns
he
would have given for a great auk?”
    “I wish you’d quit crying,” Santine said huskily. His large hands, moving gently on her slim back,were strangely awkward. “God, I can’t stand this.” One hand moved up to massage the tense muscles of her nape. “And what the hell is a great auk?”
    “Nothing any more,” she said brokenly, almost to herself. “They were gentle, dignified birds that looked a little like penguins. Their skin became tremendously sought after by European collectors, and by the early eighteen hundreds millions of them had been slaughtered. Finally all the great auks left on earth were on the island of Elderly, in Scandinavia. But they couldn’t leave them alone even then. An agent for the European buyers offered fifty crowns each for their skins, and an Icelandic fisherman took a crew to Elderly to make his fortune.” Her lips curved bitterly. “He searched thoroughly but he found only two great auks on the entire island. He killed them and took their skins back to Reykjavik to collect his reward. He didn’t care that he’d just killed the last two great auks left on the face of the earth.” She drew a deep, shuddering breath. “And now there are hundreds of species that are on the point of extinction and they still don’t care. No one really cares if all that wonder and beauty disappears from our world.”
    “You care,” Santine said hoarsely, his lips buried in the soft hair at her temple. “My God, but you care!” One hand moved to close around the thick silkiness of her braid. “I’m not equipped to handle this kind of thing, damn it. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that Indians are supposed to be stoic?”
    “Did I tell you that we had two baby cheetahs born at our own reserve this year?” she murmured softly. The silent tears were falling in a seemingly endless stream. “We were over the moon with joy. Cheetahs refuse to reproduce in captivity, you know.”
    “No, I didn’t know,” he growled, with a note of desperation in his deep, gravelly voice. “But I do know that I can’t stand much more of this. What thehell can I give you to make you stop this infernal crying?”
    “Give me?” Janna asked vaguely, lifting her head to look up at him in bewilderment. Her wide-set brown eyes were glistening mistily in the moonlight, and her thin, tear-streaked face appeared heartshakingly poignant to the man gazing down at it. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
    Santine gave a rough impatient imprecation and pulled her face back into his shirtfront. “For God’s sake, don’t look at me like that! It wasn’t supposed to be like this, damn it. I’ve never felt like this in my life. What the hell are you trying to do to me?” There was outrage mixed with an odd note of pain in his voice, and he drew a long shaky breath. “Do you want me to break Waterman so that he can’t ever indulge that stupid bitch of a wife again? Would that help?”
    “What?” This time she pushed herself entirely out of his arms, to gaze up at him incredulously. “You can’t mean that.”
    His lips curved in a grim smile. “Try me,” he said tersely, his powerful hands holding her shoulders as if they were delicate as eggshells, and looking