Burn

Suddenly she got it. He wanted to be seen. Specifically, he wanted to be seen with her. He was cementing the idea of them as a couple, and she had promised to cooperate fully.

"Let’s go for a walk," she said, standing and holding out her hand to him. "I could use the exercise after being so tied up this morning."

That blue gaze lashed her as he took her hand and stood, then slid his other hand around her waist and turned her toward the railing. "You’re living dangerously, Redwine," he murmured, just loud enough for her to hear.

She smiled, turning her face up to him as if he was flirting with her. "Relax, big boy." She kept her voice as low as his. "You still hold all the cards, except for one. We’ll go for a simple walk, and you can use the opportunity to show everyone how nuts we are for each other."

His arm remained around her waist as they strolled along the railing. Jenner lifted her face to the sun, trying to will herself to turn her mind off and relax for a moment. This is the first full day of a two-week cruise; she would be with Cael, under his control, for another thirteen days, and if she didn’t find some way of dealing with the stress she’d crack under the strain. She would talk to Syd every day and that way they would both be reassured that the other was still alive, but she also needed some respite from constantly worrying at the situation like a dog going at a bone.

She forced herself to look around at the ship. From the moment she’d first set foot onboard yesterday afternoon, she’d been too preoccupied to pay much attention to her surroundings. The Silver Mist was supposed to be something special, as far as ships go, and she wanted to take a look at her.

As Bridget had said, the Lido deck was the fun deck. People clustered around and in the pools, and teak deck chairs seemed to cover every square inch. Some sort of game was going on by one of the pools, and the sound system boosted the emcee’s voice to an almost painful volume. Cael winced and turned Jenner in the opposite direction, and for once she was glad to follow his unspoken instructions.

If it hadn’t been for Cael’s presence, she thought, Syd would have been right: She’d have enjoyed the cruise. She did love the ocean. She’d become accustomed to its presence over the past seven years, but the gray-green Atlantic was nothing like the vibrant colors of the Pacific. The deep water was a gorgeous navy blue, but every so often the light would change and she’d catch a glimpse of aqua and turquoise. With no land in sight, the sensation was of being alone in the world – if being with about a thousand other people could be called "alone" – on a bright and pristine floating city.

She could smell the newness of the ship, she realized. It was everything: the paint, the carpet, the upholstery, even the wood of the deck. Everything was new and fresh, and under different circumstances she’d have loved it.

Cael’s arm remained around her waist, the heavy weight a constant reminder to behave. To anyone watching, of course, they would look like new lovers, enthralled with exploring this strange and exciting connection they’d found. Only Jenner knew that his grip was a bit too tight, and she blew out a small sigh of frustration. Where the hell did he think she was going to go if she ran? They were on a ship, for God’s sake. It wasn’t as if she could jack a car and escape. Besides, as he so often reminded her, there was Syd.

He probably heard the sigh, because he snuggled her closer and bent his head to kiss her temple, then settled his mouth close to her ear. "Make it look good."

She turned her head, dipped her chin. "I’m too scared," she said, putting a little whine in her voice and managing not to snort. She had been terrified … but she wasn’t now. Odd. Maybe the body and mind could handle terror for only so long, then some sort of coping mechanism kicked in and held the terror at a distance.

He did snort. "Bullshit. You don’t scare worth a damn. So act as if you love me, honey, because otherwise there’s no point in having you out here and I’ll drag you back to the suite. Do you want to spend the rest of the cruise handcuffed to a chair?"

She definitely didn’t, so she angled her shoulder toward him and smiled up at him. Only he could see, so she fluttered her eyelashes at him like some nitwit overwhelmed by his testosterone. He needed her out here, she thought. Maybe he could explain away her absence from the many shipboard activities that most of the passengers were already taking advantage of, and maybe no one would think anything of it if she didn’t attend any of the formal dinners or auctions, the events that were the whole purpose of this Cruise for Charity. Maybe he could make these people believe that she’d throw all sense to the wind to take up with him, even though she wasn’t known for mindless, reckless affairs.

Most of the people onboard ship didn’t know her, but enough of them did that he couldn’t make her all but disappear for two weeks without questions being raised. He had to let her out of the stateroom, he had to allow people to see her, talk to her. She had to attend the scheduled events.

Too bad she couldn’t think of a way to use the exposure to her advantage. She was surrounded by people, but if she screamed for help … then what? She’d look as if she’d gone insane, because Cael hadn’t done anything in front of anyone that would make anyone look at him with doubt. He’d been charming to Linda and Nyna, attentive to her, and from the way he was looking down at her the casual observer would think he was downright besotted.

And if she screamed for help, what would happen to Syd?

Because she couldn’t see any way out of the situation, she turned her thoughts instead to why. He’d gone to a lot of trouble for a peek and a listen into someone’s stateroom. She didn’t know the name of the man in the next suite, but if he was a co-owner of the ship then he was very wealthy, because ships like this had to cost billions and billions of dollars to build and outfit. So, in the real world, wealth equaled influence. Who was he? What were they trying to find out about him? Maybe he had a kinky lifestyle and they were trying to get pictures for some sort of blackmail scheme. That scenario kind of worked for her, except for the way they were going about it. Having an entire team of people aboard a cruise ship like this had to have cost a small fortune, then add in the expenses of the team that had snatched Syd.