“So about the time I started opening up my life to let you in, you were busy deciding you didn’t want to be bothered.” Gideon sounded thoroughly annoyed.
“If you hadn’t turned out to be such a persistent kind of male, we might never have seen each other again after Santa Inez.”
“You sure as hell weren’t going to come running down to Tucson, were you? As far as you were concerned you’d given me one too many chances.”
“I felt I was the one taking all the risks, and I was not at all sure I had enough stamina or power to hold my own against you.”
“Does it have to be a battle between us?” he asked softly.
“There are definitely going to be times when it will be open war,” she told him easily.
“All you have to do is to take me to bed and the battle will be over before it’s even begun.”
Hannah laughed. “If you expect me to believe that, you’re not nearly as bright as I once thought you were. No woman could control you with sex, Gideon.”
He grinned. “You could try.”
“Don’t look so hopeful.”
His grin faded. “Do you really want to be able to control me?”
“No. But I want to be strong enough so that you can’t control me, either.”
“Ah, Hannah, I only want to love you.” He sprawled on top of her, kissing her with renewed hunger. Hannah wrapped her arms around him and decided that as long as they took such comfort and pleasure in each other they could both forget about controlling each other. After a moment Gideon raised his head. “What conclusions did you arrive at down there on the island, Hannah? I’m not dumb enough to question my luck, but I’ll admit I’m curious.”
“I decided that I wasn’t willing to make the bargain. I wanted my chance with you. I wanted my chance at having it all. I wanted to write the book and I wanted to continue with my guidance counseling. I wanted a lot of things I knew I couldn’t have if I went the route my aunt took. The funny thing was that when I threw away the necklace, I knew everything was going to be all right. I could still write the book and it wouldn’t change everything the way I had come to believe it would. I could write it for different reasons.”
“Is that what you’re going to do? Write the book?”
“Any objections?”
“None. As long as you don’t kick me out of your life while you do it.”
“Never.” Her arms tightened around him. “I have always believed in maintaining a balance in life, Gideon. For a while there I thought I might try a different approach, but now I know I’ve been right all along. Interested in taking a trip?”
“Another one? I seem to be doing nothing but getting on and off planes since I met you. Where do you want to go now?”
She smiled. “I thought we might go to Revelation Island and see if we can find the spot my aunt marked on that old war map.”
“When am I supposed to find time to run Cage & Associates?”
“You’ll find a way. You have a talent for business.”
AMAZON:THELIFE OFELIZABETHNORD generated considerable interest among both academicians and laymen when it was published eighteen months later. There were several critical reviews questioning the author’s credentials for writing the book, and a few people were scandalized by the emphasis on the young Nord’s romantic relationship with Roderick Hamilton.
But the fact that Nord had deliberately misrepresented the culture of Revelation Island fascinated everyone in and out of the academic community. So many people had been forced to read The Amazons of Revelation Island in college and remembered it as a classic text that widespread interest was guaranteed from the moment Hannah’s book hit the stands. The shocking facts of the deception kept those in the academic world arguing for months. The cheerfully done passages describing Nord’s romantic life as well as the truth about the sex lives of the Revelation Islanders held the attention of everyone else. No one was disappointed. The new biography resurrected a great deal of interest in all of Nord’s books. Her name became even more of a household word. Elizabeth Nord would have found the whole thing very amusing.
Not long after the book appeared, Nick Jessett wrote his sister a letter complaining good-naturedly about having to fend off reporters. He enclosed part of a column that had been written by the book review editor of the student newspaper published on the campus where Hannah was employed as a guidance counselor. It read in part:
Hannah Jessett Cage was unavailable for comment, but it was learned from her brother that she has donated the valuable Nord Library to the university which financed Elizabeth Nord’s work on Revelation Island. Accompanying the collection was an unusual ceremonial vessel reputed to be the one described in Nord’s landmark work, The Amazons of RevelationIsland. According to Jessett, his sister and her husband recovered the vessel earlier this year with the assistance of a World War II map of the island.
The former Ms Jessett is presently vacationing in the Caribbean with her husband, Gideon Cage. Cage is the president of a newly formed management consulting firm headquartered in Seattle. The author intends to return to her position as a guidance counselor at this college after her vacation.
ISBN: 978-1-5525-4849-3
TWIST OF FATE
Copyright © 1986 by Jayne Ann Krentz
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