He smiled. “No jumping to conclusions for you. You really don’t realize your potential. I would have thought Nicos would have taught you.” He got to his feet and reached down to pull her to her feet. “But, as it happens, you’re right. I don’t understand you, and I’m beginning to believe I can’t do what I need to do unless I do.”
“You don’t have to understand me. You just have to let me go.”
His lips turned up. “But Cambry says that if I get to know you, it will make it harder for me to turn you over to Nicos. One thing may lead to another. Don’t you want to try?”
“No. Why do you?”
He laughed. “Maybe I have a tiny bit of conscience that’s urging me to leave the dark side? Or maybe it’s going to be a boring few days until we get to southern Mexico? I like the idea of playing Q and A with you. I thought I knew a good deal about you, but you showed me a new page last night. You intrigue me. Exploring that bizarre mind of yours would be amusing.”
“What if I don’t want it explored?”
“But then the seduction would be null and void. I wouldn’t get to know you and all that softening influence Cambry was predicting goes down the drain.”
He was still grasping her wrist and she wanted to pull away. She forced herself not to do it. Ignore that heat and magnetism. She didn’t want him to realize he had any physical effect on her. “Shouldn’t it go two ways?” she asked. “Are you going to let me ask you questions?”
“Within limits.”
“But I’m not supposed to have any limits?”
He smiled. “No, you’re the one seducing me.”
And that seemed a good time to jerk her wrist away from him. “Not fair.”
“I never said any of this was fair.” His smile faded. “Only necessary, Margaret.” He turned away. “Time to go down for breakfast. Do what you like. I’m probably better off if I don’t get to know anything more about you than I do now.”
She watched him stroll back down the deck. She might be better off, too. What he was offering had an element of intimacy that she should avoid. He was complicated and dangerous and there was a sexual magnetism that she couldn’t ignore. Add them all together and she might be biting off more than she could handle.
So she should meekly bow her head and let him send her back to Nicos?
Doing what he’d asked and spending time with him might provide an opportunity to get hold of a weapon or phone. It might be a way to persuade him that she wouldn’t be coerced into doing this.
She could handle him.
She hoped.
“Well, I’m not going to let you just interrogate me.” She ran after him. “Do you play chess?”
“Moderately well.”
“Good. Then I’ll probably beat you and that will make me feel better. While we’re playing, I’ll answer a question now and then … if I feel like it.” She mocked him. “If it amuses me.”
He nodded. “If not, I’ll try to find something else that will amuse you.” He opened the door for her. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to—”
“But I want you to answer a question or two right now to show good faith. Is John Lassiter your real name?”
“Yes.”
“Do you own this ship or are you leasing it?”
His lips curved. “Mine. Is that important?”
“It shows that you have money. I thought you probably did. I don’t like it. Money is power.”
“I thought so, too. It hasn’t proved to be very helpful lately.”
“How did you get it? Are you a criminal, like Nicos?”
“I’d rather you didn’t compare me to him on any level.”
“Are you?”
He shook his head. “Though some of my competitors claim I am. I own a computer company in Silicon Valley.” He added, “And, in the interest of total honesty, I should mention that as a boy growing up, I was far from law-abiding.” He held up his hand as she opened her mouth to speak. “You said a couple questions to show good faith. You’ve had them, Margaret. I’m going to be very sparing with those answers unless you decide to agree to what I need. I know the value of information and I believe you’re smart enough to use anything I give you as a weapon.”
“But you said that if I—”
“And I will, but it will be at my pace, not yours.” He gestured for her to precede him. “Breakfast.”
*
“You’re better than moderately good,” Margaret said as she gazed down at the chessboard. “I should have known you’d lie to me.”
“Yes, you should. When have I ever shown myself to be trustworthy in our brief acquaintance?” He looked at her with a smile. “Consider your circumstances. Not encouraging. But it was only a small lie. I’m too impatient to really be good at this game. You’re far better at it than I am.”
“Impatient.” She made a face. “Yes, I can see that you are. If you weren’t so impatient, you wouldn’t have decided that I was your only way to get Nicos. You would have taken the time to study him and not hurt innocent people.”
His smile faded. “You’re not hurt.”
“Yet.” She looked up at him. “And I won’t be hurt. But the risk is there. You shouldn’t expose me to that risk.”
“Why do all of our conversations come back to—” He shook his head. “Never mind. It’s just annoying. But you have a perfect right to voice your displeasure.”
“Yes, I do.” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “I thought that I’d get a few jabs at you to make up for your prying into my privacy. But we’ve gone all day and you haven’t asked me anything. Why not?”
“Perhaps I’m not as curious about you as I thought?”
She thought about it. “Or maybe you’re protecting yourself from me. Maybe Cambry was right and you don’t want to see anything in me but what you want to see. Why else would you back off?”
“How very perceptive.”
“It makes sense.” She leaned back against the rail. “So ask me whatever you want.” She grinned at him. “I dare you.”
“That’s a dangerous challenge.” He met her eyes. “It could get you into trouble.”
She felt suddenly breathless. Her heart was beating hard. Spending these hours with him had lulled her into a false sense of security. He had been so easygoing and amusing that she had felt totally confident and at home with him. Now that was gone and she was vividly aware of everything about him. And none of it was in the least easygoing.
He smiled as he read and deciphered that response. “Now who’s backing out?” He cleared the chessboard and started setting up the pieces again.
“Let’s talk about tigers.”
She hadn’t expected him to head in that direction. She wasn’t ready for it. “That’s right, you said you saw me with the tigers.” She tried to sound offhand. “I work with all kinds of animals at the zoo. I do everything from cleaning cages to acting as a kind of a tech assistant. The tigers are just part of the job.”
“Is it also part of your job to creep into their cages in the dead of night when no one else is around?”
“Sometimes it helps to be able to have private time with them,” she said warily. “They can be … sensitive.”
“And your superiors at the zoo approve of your crawling into tigers’ cages?”