“We’ll discuss it tomorrow. You’re about to go to sleep on me, and I’d find that very rude.”
“I won’t go to—” She yawned. “Well, maybe I would. It’s all your fault. Everything is your fault.…”
“We’ve already established that fact.” He tucked the blanket around her shoulders. “Tomorrow we establish what we intend to do about it.”
“You can’t keep me,” she said drowsily. “And I could have made it.…”
*
“She’s asleep?” Cambry asked as Lassiter came up on deck. “I think she’ll be okay by tomorrow. She seems pretty resilient.”
“That’s an understatement,” Lassiter said drily. “She’s a combination of rubber and cast iron.”
“She came close to making it to shore. Guts. Pure guts.” Cambry smiled. “I admit I was rooting for her.” He slanted a glance at Lassiter. “I think you were, too.”
“Maybe. But then I would have made it an empty victory by capturing her again. I still need her. I still have to have her.” He looked out at sea. “You know she’s my way to Nicos. That’s not going to change.”
“But it’s going to get harder for you. You saw what she’s made of tonight. You’re getting to know her. Rubber and cast iron. Not a bad combination.”
“It can’t change, Cambry,” he repeated. “I can’t let it change.” He moved down the deck. It had been a rough night and these last hours had been filled with an incredible mixture of emotions. He’d expected the anger and frustration; he hadn’t expected the admiration … and the curious sense of pride he’d felt in that sea while swimming behind Margaret.
Forget it. He should go to bed and stop thinking of Margaret’s face in that last moment, when she was almost beyond exhaustion and pain. No surrender, even then.
I’m almost there. I can make it.…
*
When Margaret woke the next morning, she was sore in every muscle. She flinched as she struggled out of bed.
But she had slept well and deeply and she was thinking clearly, which hadn’t been the case last night. Okay, it was a new day. She might be on her way to Nicos, but she wasn’t there yet. Think positive. Shower and shampoo so that she would no longer look like a drowned rat. Then confront Lassiter and start asking questions.
She jumped out of bed and headed for the shower.
CHAPTER THREE
She was still tying her hair up in a ponytail as she climbed the stairs to the deck forty minutes later. As she passed the galley, Cambry looked up from the stove, where he was frying bacon. “Breakfast in twenty minutes.” He smiled. “You look ready for battle. I told Lassiter I thought you’d be resilient.”
“He made sure I had to be. Where is he?”
“On deck.” He tilted his head. “And I wouldn’t attack if I were you. He could have been rougher on you. You put him through a lot more than I thought he’d take last night.”
“You mean by defending myself from him? What a pity. He deserved anything that I could do to him.”
“He could have stepped in sooner if he hadn’t been wary about hurting you,” he said quietly. “Lassiter was with the Special Forces in Afghanistan and he’s one tough son of a bitch.”
“That’s what my friend Devon said.” She met his eyes. “If what you say is true, then I honor his service to his country and I think it’s sad that he’s probably turned into a mercenary who is no better than Nicos.”
“Ouch.” He shrugged. “Okay, I’m through with defending him. We don’t agree entirely on a lot of subjects anyway.”
“Really?” Her eyes studied him with sudden alertness. Cambry was likable and had none of the quiet lethality that Lassiter projected. “Am I one of them? You’re not as bad as he is. You might even be a good guy. You have to know that he shouldn’t be doing this to me.”
He chuckled. “Are you trying to seduce me into betraying my friend?”
“‘Seduce’?” She made a face. “Be real. Just look at me. I’m not equipped. But everyone has a bad side and a good side. I’m just trying to appeal to the side that will send me a thousand miles away from Nicos.”
His smile faded as he looked at her. “You may be more equipped than you think. There are more ways to seduce than the usual accepted methods. I found that out in a Pakistani prison.” He made a shooing motion. “Get out of here. I’m going to burn this bacon.”
“No, we wouldn’t want that.” Lassiter was leaning on the doorjamb at the head of the stairs, looking down at her. “By all means, Margaret, come up on deck and stop disturbing the man.”
She gazed at him, trying to read his expression. Not anger. Mockery? She had thought she was ready to face him, but now she wasn’t sure. Sure or not, she had to do it.
She ran up the rest of the steps and pushed past him. She turned to face him as she reached the deck. “How much did you hear?”
“Pretty near all of it, I think.” The smile was definitely mocking. “Don’t waste your time. You won’t be able to sway Cambry. We have our differences, but we go way back. And he’s loyal to me.”
“You never know.” She plopped down on the deck and leaned back against the rail, lifting her face to the sun. “I thought it was worth a shot that he might have a conscience. He seemed kind of … nice,” she said, then added, “for an accomplice of a criminal who doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”
“So you decided to make a try at bringing him over to the dark side.” He dropped down beside her and crossed his jean-clad legs at the ankle. “Nothing too obvious, just a frank, girlish appeal that might stir memories of home and family.” He leaned back against the rail. “Clever. Cambry’s right: There are more ways than one to seduce.” His gaze studied her face. “You look clean and glowing, as if you’re drawing in that sun and making it yours. It arouses a certain emotional … response. I’m beginning to understand why Nicos is so determined to get you back.”
“No, you don’t,” she said jerkily. “You don’t understand anything about me. And I’m not the dark side. I could be, but I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t let anyone do that to me.” She moistened her lips. “Evidently, you decided to go the other way.”
“I just decided that there are some things that are worth embracing the dark side for. Sometimes it’s the only way to go.”
“Bullshit.”
He was silent, and then he chuckled. “That’s Cambry’s response, too. I’d better keep the two of you apart. I want no united front.”
“Because we’re right.”
He shrugged. “I disagree. But we won’t argue. Instead, I’ll let you try to seduce me.”
She inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. “How do you mean that?”