Dangerous Embrace

by Nora Roberts

  But as she stood, the dregs of the medication swam in her head. Reflexively, she nearly sat again before she stopped herself. Infuriated, she gripped the bedpost, breathed deeply then put her weight on her injured foot. It took the pain to clear her head.

  Pain had its uses, she thought grimly. After she’d given the hurt a moment to subside, it eased into a throb. That could be tolerated, she told herself and walked to the mirror over Ky’s dresser.

  She didn’t like what she saw. Her hair was listless, her face washed-out and her eyes dull. Swearing, she put her hands to her cheeks and rubbed as though she could force color into them. What she needed, Kate decided, was a hot shower, a shampoo and some fresh air. Regardless of what Ky thought, she was going to have them.

  Taking a deep breath, she headed for the door. Even as she reached for the knob, it opened.

  “What’re you doing up?”

  Though they were precisely the words she’d expected, Kate had expected them from Ky, not Linda. “I was just—”

  “Do you want Ky to skin me alive?” Linda demanded, backing Kate toward the bed with a tray of steaming soup in her hand. “Listen, you’re supposed to rest and eat, then eat and rest. Orders.”

  Realizing abruptly that she was retreating, Kate held her ground. “Whose?”

  “Ky’s. And,” she continued before Kate could retort. “Dr. Bailey’s.”

  “I don’t have to take orders from either of them.”

  “Maybe you don’t,” Linda agreed dryly. “But I don’t argue with a man who’s protecting his woman, or with the man who poked a needle into my bottom when I was three. Both of them can be nasty. Now lie down.”

  “Linda…” Though she knew the sigh sounded long suffering, Kate couldn’t prevent it. “I’ve a cut on my leg. I’ve been in bed for something like forty-eight hours straight. If I don’t have a shower and a breath of air soon, I’m going to go crazy.”

  A smile tugged at Linda’s mouth that she partially concealed by nibbling on her lower lip. “A bit grumpy, are we?”

  “I can be more than a bit.” This time the sigh was simply bad tempered. “Look at me!” Kate demanded, tugging on her hair. “I feel as though I’ve just crawled out from under a rock.”

  “Okay. I know how I felt after I’d delivered Hope. After I’d had my cuddle with her I wanted a shower and shampoo so bad I was close to tears.” She set the tray on the table beside the bed. “You can have ten minutes in the shower, then you can eat while I change your bandage. But Ky made me swear I’d make you eat every bite.” She put her hands on her hips. “So that’s the deal.”

  “He’s overreacting,” Kate began. “It’s absurd. I don’t need to be babied this way.”

  “Tell me that when you don’t look like I could blow you over. Now come on, I’ll give you a hand in the shower.”

  “No, dammit, I’m perfectly capable of taking a shower by myself.” Ignoring the pain in her leg, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door at her back. Linda swallowed a laugh and sat down on the bed to wait.

  Fifteen minutes later, refreshed and thoroughly ashamed of herself, Kate came back in. Wrapped in Ky’s robe, she rubbed a towel over her hair. “Linda—”

  “Don’t apologize. If I’d been stuck in bed for two days, I’d snap at the first person who gave me trouble. Besides—” Linda knew how to play her cards “—if you’re really sorry you’ll eat all your soup, so Ky won’t yell at me.”

  “All right.” Resigned, Kate sat back in the bed and took the tray on her lap. She swallowed the first bite of soup and stifled her objection as Linda began to fiddle with her bandage. “It’s wonderful.”

  “The seafood chowder’s one of our specialties. Oh, honey.” Linda’s eyes darkened with concern after she removed the gauze. “This must’ve hurt like hell. No wonder Ky’s been frantic.”

  Drumming up her courage, Kate leaned over enough to look at the wound. There was no inflammation as she’d feared, no puffiness. Though the slice was six inches in length, it was clean. Her stomach muscles unknotted. “It’s not so bad,” she murmured. “There’s no infection.”

  “Look, I’ve been caught by a stingray, a small one. I probably had a cut half an inch across and I cried like a baby. Don’t tell me it’s not so bad.”

  “Well, I slept through most of it.” She winced, then deliberately relaxed her muscles.

  Linda narrowed her eyes as she studied Kate’s face. “Ky said you should have a pill if there was any pain when you woke.”

  “If you want to do me a favor, you can dump them out.” Calmly, Kate ate another spoonful of soup. “I really hate to argue with him, or with you, but I’m not taking any more pills and losing any more time. I appreciate the fact that he wants to pamper me. It’s unexpectedly sweet, but I can only take it so far.”

  “He’s worried about you. He feels responsible.”

  “For my carelessness?” With a shake of her head, Kate concentrated on finishing the soup. “It was an accident, and if there’s blame, it’s mine. I was so wrapped up in looking for salvage I didn’t take basic precautions. I practically bumped into the ray.” With an effort, she controlled a shudder. “Ky acted much more quickly than I. He’d already started to pull me out of range. If he hadn’t, things would have been much more serious.”

  “He loves you.”

  Kate’s fingers tightened on the spoon. With exaggerated care, she set it back on the tray. “Linda, there’s a vast difference between concern, attraction, even affection and love.”

  Linda simply nodded in agreement. “Yes. I said Ky loves you.”

  She managed to smile and pick up the tea that had been cooling beside the soup. “You said,” Kate returned simply. “Ky hasn’t.”

  “Well neither did Marsh until I was ready to strangle him, but that didn’t stop me.”

  “I’m not you.” Kate lay back against the pillows, grateful that most of the weakness and the weariness had passed. “And Ky isn’t Marsh.”

  Impatient, Linda rose and swirled around the room. “People who complicate simple things make me so mad!”

  Smiling, Kate sipped her tea. “Others simplify the complicated.”

  With a sniff, Linda turned back. “I’ve known Ky Silver all my life. I watched him bounce around from one cute girl to the next, then one attractive woman to another until I lost count. Then you came along.” Stopping, she leaned against the bedpost. “It was as if someone had hit him over the head with a blunt instrument. You dazed him, Kate, almost from the first minute. You fascinated him.”

  “Dazing, fascinating.” Kate shrugged while she tried to ignore the ache in her heart. “Flattering, I suppose, but neither of those things equals love.”

  The stubborn line came and went between Linda’s brows. “I don’t believe love comes in an instant, it grows. If you could have seen the way Ky was after you left four years ago, you’d know—”

  “Don’t tell me about four years ago,” Kate interrupted. “What happened four years ago is over. Ky and I are two different people today, with different expectations. This time…” She took a deep breath. “This time when it ends, I won’t be hurt because I know the limits.”

  “You’ve just gotten back together and you’re already talking about endings and limitations!” Dragging a hand through her hair, Linda came forward to sit on the edge of the bed. “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know how to wish anymore? How to dream?”

  “I was never very good at either. Linda…” She hesitated, wanting to choose her phrasing carefully. “I don’t want to expect any more from Ky than what he can easily give. After August, I know we’ll each go back to our separate worlds—there’s no bridge between them. Maybe I was meant to come back so we could make up for whatever pain we caused each other before. This time I want to leave still being friends. He’s…” She hesitated again because this phrasing was even more important. “He’s always been a very important part of my life.”

  Linda waited a moment, then narrowed he
r eyes. “That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Despite herself, Kate laughed. “Linda—”

  Holding up her hands, she shook her head and cut Kate off. “No, I can’t talk about it anymore, I get too mad and I’m supposed to be taking care of you.” She let out her breath on a huff as she removed Kate’s tray. “I just can’t understand how anyone so smart could be so stupid, but the more I think about it the more I can see that you and Ky deserve each other.”

  “That sounds more like an insult than a compliment.”

  “It was.”

  Kate pushed her tongue against her teeth to hold back a smile. “I see.”

  “Don’t look so smug just because you’ve made me so angry I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” She drew her shoulders back. “I might just give Ky a piece of my mind when he gets home.”

  “That’s his problem,” Kate said cheerfully. “Where’d he go?”

  “Diving.”

  Amusement faded. “Alone?”

  “There’s no use worrying about it.” Linda spoke briskly as she cursed herself for not thinking of a simple lie. “He dives alone ninety percent of the time.”

  “I know.” But Kate folded her hands, preparing to worry until he returned.

  CHAPTER 9

  “I’m going with you.”

  The sunlight was strong, the scent of the ocean pure. Through the screen the sound of gulls from a quarter of a mile away could be heard clearly. Ky turned from the stove where he poured the last cup of coffee and eyed Kate as she stood in the doorway.

  She’d pinned her hair up and had dressed in thin cotton pants and a shirt, both of which were baggy and cool. It occured to him that she looked more like a student than a college professor.

  He knew enough of women and their illusions to see that she’d added color to her cheeks. She hadn’t needed blusher the evening before when he’d returned from the wreck. Then she had been angry, and passionate. He nearly smiled as he lifted his cup.

  “You wasted your time getting dressed,” he said easily. “You’re going back to bed.”

  Kate disliked stubborn people, people who demanded their own way flatly and unreasonably. At that moment, she decided they were both stubborn. “No.” On the surface she remained as calm as he was while she walked into the kitchen. “I’m going with you.”

  Unlike Kate, Ky never minded a good argument. Preparing for one, he leaned back against the stove. “I don’t take down a diver against doctor’s orders.”

  She’d expected that. With a shrug, she opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of juice. She knew she was being bad tempered, and though it was completely out of character, she was enjoying the experience. The simple truth was that she had to do something or go mad.

  As far as she could remember, she’d never spent two more listless days. She had to move, think, feel the sun. It might have been satisfying to stomp her feet and demand, but, she thought, fruitless. If she had to compromise to get her way, then compromise she would.

  “I can rent a boat and equipment and go down on my own.” With the glass in hand, she turned, challenging. “You can’t stop me.”

  “Try me.”

  It was said simply, quietly, but she’d seen the flare of anger in his eyes. Better, she thought. Much better. “I’ve a right to do precisely as I choose. We both know it.” Perhaps her leg was uncomfortable, but as to the rest of her body, it was charged up and ready to move. Nor was there anything wrong with her mind. Kate had plotted her strategy very well. After all, she thought grimly, there’d certainly been enough time to think it through.

  “We both know you’re not in any shape to dive.” His first urge was to carry her back to bed, his second to shake her until she rattled. Ky did neither, only drank his coffee and watched her over the rim. A power struggle wasn’t something he’d expected, but he wouldn’t back away from it. “You’re not stupid Kate. You know you can’t go down yet, and you know I won’t let you.”

  “I’ve rested for two days. I feel fine.” As she walked toward him she was pleased to see him frown. He understood she had a mind of her own, and that he had to deal with it. The truth was, she was stronger than either of them had expected her to be. “As far as diving goes, I’m willing to leave that to you for the next couple of days, but…” She paused, wanting to be certain he knew she was negotiating, not conceding. “I’m going out on the Vortex with you. And I’m going out this morning.”

  He lifted a brow. She’d never intended to dive, but she’d used it as a pressure point to get what she wanted. He couldn’t blame her. Ky remembered recovering from a broken leg when he was fourteen. The pain was vague in his mind now, but the boredom was still perfectly clear. “You’ll lie down in the cabin when you’re told.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “I’ll lie down in the cabin if I need to.”

  He took her chin in his hand and squeezed. “Damn right you will. Okay, let’s go. I want an early start.”

  Once he was resigned, Ky moved quickly. She could either keep up, or be left behind. Within minutes he parked his car near his slip at Silver Lake Harbor and was boarding the Vortex. Content, Kate took a seat beside him at the helm and prepared to enjoy the sun and the wind. Already she felt the energy begin to churn.

  “I’ve done a chart of the wreck as of yesterday’s dive,” he told her as he maneuvered out of the harbor.

  “A chart?” Automatically she pushed at her hair as she turned toward him. “You didn’t show me.”

  “Because you were asleep when I finished it.”

  “I’ve been asleep ninety percent of the time,” she mumbled.

  As he headed out to sea, Ky laid a hand on her shoulder. “You look better, Kate, no shadows. No strain. That’s more important.”

  For a moment, just a moment, she pressed her cheek against his hand. Few women could resist such soft concern, and yet…she didn’t want his concern to cloud their reason for being together. Concern could turn to pity. She needed him to see her as a partner, as equal. As long as she was his lover, it was vital that they meet on the same ground. Then when she left… When she left there’d be no regrets.

  “I don’t need to be pampered anymore, Ky.”

  His shoulders moved as he glanced at the compass. “I enjoyed it.”

  She was resisting being cared for. He understood it, appreciated it and regretted it. There had been something appealing about seeing to her needs, about having her depend on him. He didn’t know how to tell her he wanted her to be well and strong just as much as he wanted her to turn to him in times of need.

  Somehow, he felt their time together had been too short for him to speak. He didn’t deal well with caution. As a diver, he knew its importance, but as a man… As a man he fretted to go with his instincts, with his impulses.

  His fingers brushed her neck briefly before he turned to the wheel. He’d already decided he’d have to approach his relationship with Kate as he’d approach a very deep, very dangerous dive—with an eye on currents, pressure and the unexpected.

  “That chart’s in the cabin,” he told her as he cut the engine. “You might want to look it over while I’m down.”

  She agreed with a nod, but the restlessness was already on her as Ky began to don his equipment. She didn’t want to make an issue of his diving alone. He wouldn’t listen to her in any case; if anything came of it, it would only be an argument. In silence she watched him check his tanks. He’d be down for an hour. Kate was already marking time.

  “There are cold drinks in the galley.” He adjusted the strap of his mask before climbing over the side. “Don’t sit in the sun too long.”

  “Be careful,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

  Ky grinned, then was gone with a quiet splash.

  Though she ran over to the side, Kate was too late to watch him dive. For a long time after, she simply leaned over the boat, staring at the water’s surface. She imagined Ky going deeper, deeper, adjusting his p
ressure, moving out with power until he’d reached the bottom and the wreck.

  He’d brought back the bowl and ladle the evening before. They sat on the dresser in his bedroom while the broken rigging and pieces of crockery were stored downstairs. Thus far he’d done no more than gather what they’d already found together, but today, Kate thought with a twinge of impatience, he’d extend the search. Whatever he found, he’d find alone.

  She turned away from the water, frustrated that she was excluded. It occurred to her that all her life she’d been an onlooker, someone who analyzed and explained the action rather than causing it. This search had been her first opportunity to change that, and now she was back to square one.

  Stuffing her hands in her pockets, Kate looked up at the sky. There were clouds to the west, but they were thin and white. Harmless. She felt too much like that herself at the moment—something unsubstantial. Sighing, she went below deck. There was nothing to do now but wait.

  Ky found two more cannons and sent up buoys to mark their position. It would be possible, if he didn’t find something more concrete, to salvage the cannons and have them dated by an expert. Though he swam from end to end, searching carefully, he knew it was unlikely he’d find a date stamp through the layers of corrosion. But in time… Satisfied, he swam north.

  If he accomplished nothing else on this dive, he wanted to establish the size of the site. With luck it would be fairly small, perhaps no bigger than a football field. However, there was always the chance that the wreckage could be scattered over several square miles. Before they brought in a salvage ship, he wanted to take a great deal of care with the preliminary work.

  They would need tools. A metal detector would be invaluable. Thus far, they’d done no more than find a wreck, no matter how certain Kate was that it was the Liberty. For the moment he had no way to determine the origin of the ship, he had to find cargo. Once he’d found that, perhaps treasure would follow.

  Once he’d found the treasure… Would she leave? Would she take her share of the gold and the artifacts and drive home?