by Cherry Adair
Way too close for comfort, Peri felt the heat radiating off Finn's body, and couldn’t take a breath without inhaling that intoxicating mixture of grapefruit and sea air. She concentrated on the tablet. Letting her finger hover just over the surface, she took it all in. "This is writing." Unable to resist, she ran her finger along the uneven edge of the almost perfect oblong piece.
"Possibly some sort of text?" Finn captured a strand of her hair that had come loose from her updo and wound it around his finger as he spoke. Peri's insides contracted as if he were touching her bare skin. "But none of us have been able to read it. And between me and the techs, we cover about fifteen assorted languages. Did you pull your hair up to drive me mad?"
Yes. "I put it up so it's off my neck."
"I love it this way, too. I'd prefer you only wore it down for me."
She threw him a glance filled with amusement. "You’re ridiculously Victorian, you know that?"
"I'm quite fond of your ankles as well," he teased, tugging her closer. "And everything in between." Finn's mouth hovered over hers. "Why is it you tie me into knots, Persephone?"
Every time he called her Persephone it did crazy things to her insides.
Torn between desperation for him to kiss her, and getting back to the artifact, Peri stood on her toes and pressed a chaste kiss to his mouth.
Wrapping his arm around her waist, Finn pulled her upand slanted his mouth over hers. The kiss was unlike any of his others. This one was achingly gentle, tender. No less passionate, but surprisingly restrained, all things considered. Too quickly he set her back on her feet, steadying her with a firm hand on her hip. "Rain check?"
Yes.
Every atom in her body was traveling at warp speed, colliding inside her in showers of sparks and small charges that had her heart racing. All her senses felt pumped up as if on steroids. Wordlessly, she nodded. There had never been any doubt that she'd end up in his bed tonight. She blinked him back into focus.
Amused, he said thickly, "Back to the artifact?"
"My God, this is epic.” Thrilled beyond belief, she wanted to throw herself into his arms and take him up on his offer. Instead, she returned her attention to the gold piece on the table. "Thank you for having it cleaned so quickly."
His gorgeous smile reached his eyes, revealing straight, white teeth. "Pick it up if you like."
She didn't need a second invitation. Remembering the unexpected heft of it, she reached for the tablet with both hands, then slowly turned it this way and that to see the text. Whatever was written was quite clear, just indecipherable.
Both her brother and Theo were going to be blown away when she told him they'd discovered a second tablet. On her way from Ry's ship to her house on the bluff that afternoon, Peri had called Theo to fill him in on her intriguing find on her dive with her brother. Even though her tablet had yet to be cleaned, she’d sent him pictures of it from several angles.
She couldn't wait to see them side-by-side. Maybe they needed to be together to become legible. The thought was thrilling.
"This looks festive," a male voice came from behind them. "You picked a good night to be outside. No wind."
Her heart leaped, so hard she felt the knocks against her ribcage. Very carefully, with Finn’s assistance, Peri placed the tablet back on the stand.
A Cutter.
Up close and very personal.
"Nick and Bria Cutter, Ariel Andersen." Finn drew her toward the couple and they met in the middle of the open space. Acutely aware of Finn's hand on her back, she felt the heat of each finger through the flimsy linen of her tank top. The newcomers couldn't miss Finn touching her, much less his body language which stated his claim on her. Even though he wasn't aware of it, Peri was grateful for Finn's display of emotion and physical support right then.
Nick was as tall as Finn, dark-haired and broad-shouldered in jeans and a dark t-shirt. She hadn't been able to see his eyes through her binoculars when he'd been aboard the Scorpion, when he'd been on her radar a couple of years ago. Wow. They were distinctive and gorgeous. She was struck by the penetrating ocean blue that seemed to see directly into her soul as if he knew exactly who she was and what she had been doing.
Wasn't this exactly what she'd wanted?
Yes, but now that the time had come, she wasn't as sanguine about the inevitable confrontation. She'd stolen a fortune from them. It was within their power to have her arrested for piracy and thrown in some godforsaken foreign jail where she'd spend the rest of her life futilely plotting her revenge.
The reality of her first meeting with them wasn't nearly as explosive as the fantasy had been.
One of Ry's favorite cautions was- Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
"Nice to meet you, Ariel." Nick's smile reached his eyes. He looked genuinely happy to see her, which meant, despite the distinctive color and length of her hair, he didn't recognize her. Peri had not taken that into account.
Maybe he was biding his time? Waiting for his brothers to arrive so they could unmask her together? When she shivered, Finn rubbed her back with his warm hand. She took comfort in his touch.
"Finn's talked about you," Nick said easily. "We're looking forward to your visits to our ship, Scorpion, in the coming weeks."
She shot a quick glance at Finn. What had he said about her, and at which stage of their short relationship had he spoken of her?
"Yes." Bria's Italian accent was charming. Her blue-black hair shone in the light. Svelte, sophisticated and stunningly beautiful in a red, halter neck dress that bared her shoulders and long legs, and accented her body to perfection. Gold earrings, a dozen gold bracelets and a massive rock of a diamond wedding ring, made her look impossibly put together. Like Addison, Bria looked like a model in a glossy magazine.
Enveloping Peri in a soft, fragrant cloud of ripe peaches, she placed a kiss on each cheek. Very European. Bria was the Crown Princess of Merrezo, a small, Italian principality in the Mediterranean, but no one introduced her as such. "We look forward to getting to know you.”
Peri very much doubted she'd say that if she knew who she was.
"And you, you charming man," Bria addressed Finn as she curled her hand into her husband's elbow. "This was a lovely idea to get the family together before the real work begins."
"Soon we'll be too busy to socialize."
Peri turned slowly as three men strolled through the solarium to emerge out on deck. The other Cutter brothers.
Even though she'd been waiting for this moment, the impact of their larger than life presence was like a blow to the chest. Heart galloping, palms slick with sweat she waited for them to join their group.
No one would mistake them for anything other than brothers. They all had a similar look. Tall, athletic, and dark haired. Having four pairs of identical, piercing blue eyes focused on her was the most terrifying experience of Peri's life.
"Ariel, my brothers Logan, Jonah and Zane." Nick pointed to each.
Since death or dismemberment was highly unlikely with this many witnesses, Peri held her hand out to Logan and tried to steady her breathing. Of course, croaking from anticipation was still a strong possibility.
“Nice to put faces to the names.” Logan’s hand was large, dry and strong. Peri extricated her hand as soon as was polite. She shoved it into the front pocket of her slacks, and surreptitiously wiped her damp palm. “I’m looking forward to an extraordinary salvage.” This was a man who'd scuttled his own ship to defeat terrorists from getting their hands on millions of dollars worth of diamonds. Clearly, he had no problem doing whatever was necessary to win.
Zane gave her a charming smile. The similarity between the brothers stopped at the youngest Cutter’s piece of crap ship, the aptly named Decrepit. The decrepit look of his salvage boat indicated to Peri that Zane gave more weight to how he looked than the appearance of the ship he used to extricate millions of dollars worth of artifacts from the sea. “If the past few days are any indication I think your antici
pation is well-founded.”
Jonah was the dark horse. Peri knew absolutely nothing about him. He was the only brother she'd not stolen from only because she hadn't known of his existence until a few weeks ago. Why had they kept him a secret?
Did she care enough to find out now? Nope.
Braced for the moment they realized who she was, Peri's heart stopped and started like a malfunctioning outboard motor. The nasty oily swirl in her stomach returned. She hadn't expected them to be nice to her. Far from it.
She'd been braced for instant recognition, followed by hurled accusations, questions and drama. She'd been prepared with answers and accusations of her own. But so far no one had treated her as anything other than a representative of the Argentinian government. Which was damn disconcerting, not to mention weird.
This wasn't just waiting for the other shoe to drop, it was actually seeing its downward trajectory, only to find it halted an inch over her head.
“Let’s drink to that.” Finn went to the bar. "Wine? Beer?"
"I'd love a glass of red- Dios mio might be correct!" Bria whispered, hand to her throat as she caught sight of the artifact on the nearby table. Letting go of Nick's arm, she walked to it as if in a trance. "How does this come to be here?"
"We brought it to the surface this morning."
"Here?" Glancing at Finn, she pointed to the deck beneath their feet. "From Nuestra Señora del Marco?"
"Yes, this morning. We think those horizontal markings could possibly be text. Can you read it?"
"No, non posso-"
Walking up beside her, Nick put his arm around his wife's slender shoulders. His brothers crowded behind them to see what had snagged her attention. "English, love."
Peri pressed a hand to her stomach where nervous butterflies swarmed. The relic was suddenly out of sight behind a wall of males and she was on the outside looking in.
Selfishly, she wished Finn hadn’t drawn attention to the artifact. She’d wanted time alone with it, and the one she’d discovered this morning, to see if she could crack the meaning of the text.
With a slight frown, Bria nodded to her husband, then turned large dark eyes to Finn. "We have one such as this. It looks the same as la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo in our little museum. In fact, I think identico. May I hold it?"
"Sure. It's heavy. . ." Finn cautioned, taking it from the stand. He placed it in Bria's hands, then, as he'd done for Peri that afternoon, braced it on the bottom edge when Bria's arms dipped with the weight.
"I'm aware." Bria smiled. "It is far heavier than it looks. It's just like ours. Same size and shape. Thickness. This exact shade of gold. A gold unlike any I’ve ever seen before."
"We've ascertained it's Peruvian gold," Finn told her. "Tests show the thin layer of sheet gold covers a chiseled marble tablet."
"If it is indeed the same as ours, it does," Bria indicated Finn take the tablet from her. "One corner of La tavoletta d'oro Merrezo is broken. Gold layered over marble." She looked around, face glowing, dark eyes bright with excitement. "It is the same."
“Identical?” Zane asked as their circle opened to include Peri.
Bria gave a very Italian shrug. “It certainly looks to be. You all know of our Gold Tablet of Merrezo, yes? How could this be here, off the coast of Patagonia, and its twin thousands of miles away on a small Italian island?"
Peri could barely contain her excitement. Holy crap.
Not a twin.
A triplet.
What were the odds?
Three tablets, worlds apart.
SEVEN
I think almost everyone interested in archeology knows of the Gold Tablet of Merrezo." Peri's excitement rose. "It's almost as famous as the Shroud of Turin. I don't know much about it, other than the name and that every now and then there’s new speculation when some expert or another attempts to read the text."
"They can't read it," Bria told her. "Still, Christians claim it, Jews claim it- Even various, off-the-wall, "religious" groups assert it to be theirs. None can provide provenance as Merrezo can, and so it remains with us."
Peri had never seen the famous and mysterious Merrezo tablet in person, nor had she researched it in any great depth, which was why it hadn’t come immediately to mind when she’d first seen the artifacts from Finn’s and her own sites. But as far as she knew, no one had ever claimed the Italian tablet had been salvaged from the ocean.
But now. . .
Damn it, if only Finn hadn't caught her this morning. She'd have photographs to compare this one with the one she'd found that morning. Then she'd do some research on the one in Italy. This was a thrilling turn of events, and she couldn't wait to see where her research led her. She was eager to get started.
And damn it, this freaking waiting on pins and needles for the Cutters to jump up and say, "Got you!” had her stomach churning. Foreboding was ruining her excitement about the tablets. Now she just wanted someone to say something. Anything.
Let’s get it over with, people!
She'd watched them through binoculars- often. Had they not done the same when she was stealing right from under their freaking noses?
How many women salvagers did they know with long red hair? Admittedly when she dove to help herself to some of their choice artifacts, she wore a wet or dry suit, so her distinctive hair didn't always show. But when she was on her boat she left it loose. Intentionally.
It had never occurred to her that they wouldn't recognize her the second they saw it. Maybe they were waiting until dinner was over to rain Armageddon on her head? Maybe this was a clever trap to lull her into a false sense of security while they waited for the police to show up to drag her away in chains?
That would be embarrassing.
Was the tablet the bait? Had Finn told them about this morning? Did they believe she’d steal it from under their noses as she’d done hundreds of other artifacts? Then revel in catching her red-handed?
Shit. So many damned questions and no one answering. Maybe they all had that disorder where they couldn’t recognize people’s faces? What was it called? Ah. Prosopagnosia. Long nights alone at sea gave her plenty of time to read anything and everything, and bits and pieces of weird, random information stuck.
For instance; Finn’s space race was public knowledge, but a little-known fact was that he quietly helped fund under-resourced students, college track, and nonprofit colleges’ completion programs to the tune of fifty freaking million dollars. Peri bet that had a lot to do with him growing up in the Irish foster system. The dollar amount was either because he had money to spare, or because he'd not been given the same chances. She bet the latter.
When did the man sleep?
She’d love to watch him when he was oblivious to observation. Would the strength in his face soften in sleep? On their insane weekend together, she hadn’t caught him sleeping. Not once. Probably because she’d been so exhausted by their sweaty calisthenics she’d dropped into the deep end of sleep herself whenever she couldn’t keep going any longer.
She palmed her phone in her pants pocket, fumbled without looking at it, and allowed it to poke out so she could discreetly take a picture of the tablet. Either she’d get some decent pictures from pocket level- or she’d have everyone’s butts to show for her subterfuge.
“This is absolutely fascinating.” She didn’t have to fake excitement. Angling to better face Bria, who had her back to the display, Peri clicked off another few photographs from her phone. She was pretty sure she wasn’t going to have anything to show for the endeavor, but a girl had to try. “How did the museum come by it, do you know?"
Damn it. She wanted to enjoy this exchange. She was interested. Invested. The whole damned Cutter thing was distracting. Why were they dicking around? Waiting to see if she’d break first? For a nanosecond, Peri debated saying something herself. Surgical strike. Get it over with. After all, she had her own claim to work on. No matter what the Cutters decided to do, or not do, their actions wouldn’t have any impact on h
er staked claim, or frankly, the rest of her life.
Maybe she should just jump up on the dinner table and yell, “Hey! Recognize me?” But no. Let them come to her. She’d delivered herself to their door. It was up to them to come the rest of the way.
"In 1484, our profeta - our seer, Foscari, was as famous in his time as France's Nostradamus became many years later," Bria told everyone as she accepted a glass of red wine from her husband. His hand lingered on hers, and Bria’s gaze heated as she met Nick’s eyes for an intimate, wordless exchange.
Finn’s palm brushed the small of Peri’s back, indicating he, too, had witnessed the heated glance. His touch accelerated her heartbeat, causing her to feel an intense yearning for something she couldn’t name. Sex she could name. This wasn't that.
"According to legend,” Bria continued after a sip of her drink, “La tavoletta d'oro Merrezo was sent to Signore Foscari as a gift 'from across the sea.' He died before it arrived, causing much speculation as to who, and why, he’d been gifted with such a thing. They asked; 'Is it important? What does it mean?'"
She took another sip of wine. “It has been in our small country since. Believers claim it to be some sort of religious text. Even though only our curator, Dr. Vadini, a linguist of some renown, has been able to read parts of the text after many, many years of study.
Scholars claim the script to be as profound as the ten commandments and hold the secret for true believers. Disciples. But no one knows who these believers are. Noted archaeologists, theologians and the curious flock to see it every year. Experts from all over the world have argued its meaning and tried to use other criteria to decipher the text.
No one else has, so far. All we know for sure about it is that its provenance is secure for over five hundred years."
"Across the sea?" Finn picked up the conversation as he indicated everyone to be seated as two stewards arrived with the main course. The smoky-perfumed, mouth-watering smell of Cordero al Palo filled the air. Peri had missed lunch and was starving.
