Captain's Paradise (17 page)

A siren, her witch’s eyes sultry, her smile a Madonna’s.

Michael let her set the tempo, gritting his teeth at the shattering pleasure as she moved slowly,
her body sheathing his in tight heat, the friction almost unbearable. He could feel shivers of pleasure running up and down his spine, feel the taut ache of muscles held rigid in a kind of blissful paralysis. He could hardly breathe, his heart pounding out of control, his mind hazy, emotions tangled in wild confusion.

The pleasure built in waves of intensity, higher and higher, a slow, throbbing, aching violence, a storm trapped inside them and raging with the need to escape. Until Michael couldn’t bear it any longer, and her slow, lingering seduction stole more than his will. His hard hands guided her lips as he surged beneath her, taking over as they both plunged headlong toward release.

And when they found it at last, neither could make a sound. The eruption of that shattering storm held them in a stark, blinding silence that was eternal, that was a heartbeat, that was more than a tiny death.

Robin collapsed on his chest, dazed, limp. She couldn’t have moved to save her life, and
Michael’s reaction was the same. His arms held her, but with no strength, his heart still thudding beneath her cheek as his chest rose and fell jerkily.

Robin felt peace envelop her finally, felt herself drifting toward sleep as her consciousness slipped away. But in her last moments of awareness, she realized at last why both she and Michael had been so energized, why they had made love so passionately and long past the point that sheer physical exhaustion should have claimed them both.

Both of them could have died. So easily. A foot put wrong, a minute slip, a tiny mistake. They could have died, and hadn’t. They had survived against all odds. They had even triumphed. And though their lovemaking had been the result of simple desire and need, deeper, more primitive emotions had driven them far beyond that.

They were
alive
. A primal awareness of survival insisted on a celebration of that fact, and there was no more intimate, primitive testament
to the living spirit than the act of two people joining their bodies, minds, and souls together.

It was an affirmation of life itself.

Sunlight woke Robin, and she lifted her head to blink toward the window in faint annoyance. Then a niggling uneasiness told her the sun shouldn’t have been shining so brightly through the window, and she pondered that. West. That was it; the window faced the ocean, which was to the west.

It was afternoon. Late afternoon.

Satisfied with the conclusion, she lowered her head to rest once again on Michael’s chest and closed her eyes. A moment later, however, her head lifted again, eyes wide in startled recollection. Late afternoon. And her father had said he’d be there in the morning! She looked back over her shoulder, relieved to see the door firmly closed.

Then, looking back at her pillow, she swallowed
a giggle.
I hope nobody decided to find out if we were alive in here
, she thought giddily.

Obviously neither she nor Michael had moved an inch since sleep had claimed them sometime before dawn. She was lying comfortably next to him, and since the sheet had slipped to the floor during her explorations of his body, they were both gloriously uncovered.

Awake now, Robin looked down at Michael’s sleeping face and felt her heart turn over. Completely relaxed and unguarded, he looked years younger and almost painfully vulnerable. If she ever saw his face like that when he was awake and aware, she knew suddenly it would be because he loved her.

Pushing the thought aside, Robin moved carefully to slip from his loose embrace. He made a soft sound in his throat but didn’t move, and she was able to get off the bed without waking him. Standing beside the bed, she stretched, then winced as muscles twinged in protest. Her stiffness could have been due to the exertions of the
day before—or those of the night. She smiled as she mentally decided on the blame.

She found a change of clothes in her overnight bag, then went softly into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, still trying not to wake him. When she emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, she was dressed in shorts and a blouse, and Michael was still asleep.

She opened the bedroom door and eased from the room, closing it quietly behind her. The house was silent, and it wasn’t until she was nearly at the bottom of the stairs that she saw her father. He was standing out on the deck gazing at the ocean, but turned as she saw him and came back into the house.

“Uh—hi, Dad,” she managed.

“Hello,” he returned politely. “There’s coffee in the kitchen.”

Robin headed in that direction, wondering if she looked as though she needed it. “Where is everyone?” she asked.

Her father sat down at the breakfast bar and lifted his own coffee cup. “Gone. Dane had to
get back to Miami, and Raven headed toward Fort Myers to rejoin her friends.”

“How did they—”

“I called a Coast Guard cutter to ferry Dane; Raven took the one I arrived in. It’s back at the pier now; I’ll have to be going in a couple of hours.”

“Oh.” Robin sipped her coffee and tried to get a grip on herself, a bit unsettled beneath her father’s steady, amused gaze. “Sorry we—I—slept so late. Must have been more tired than I thought.”

Daniel Stuart nodded gravely. “Must have been. Raven left the key to the house, by the way; she said to tell you it’s rented through next weekend, and to make yourself at home.”

Robin leaned back against the counter and avoided his eyes. “Oh. Well, I’m not sure … that is, it was very nice of her,” she finished lamely.

“Yes, it was,” he agreed, seemingly more amused with every passing second.

She fidgeted a moment, then asked, “Have they caught Sutton yet?”

“No, but it’s just a matter of time.”

“Do you know how Lisa and the other girls are doing?” she asked him.

“I talked to the hospital this morning. They’re all doing fine, though still unconscious. How about you?” he asked quietly.

She was a little startled, until she remembered that he had to know she’d been kidnapped herself. “I’m fine. No nightmares. I guess helping the other girls exorcised my demons.”

He nodded, looking at her steadily. “That was a tough thing you did, Robin. I hope you know I’m very proud of you.”

She felt her throat close up, and heard the words emerge without thought. “I’m sorry I failed at the academy, Dad.”

Daniel was shaking his head. “You didn’t fail me, if that’s what you’ve been worried about.”

Robin hesitated, then told him, finally, about her lifelong battle against fear. And about how Michael had forced her to understand that—and
herself. The words emerged painfully but honestly, and when she finished, Daniel came around the bar and embraced her.

“You should have told me,” he said gently.

“I couldn’t. Not then. I didn’t even understand it myself, until Michael made me.”

Her father looked down at her for a moment, then said in a quiet voice, “You love him.”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

S
ITTING ON THE
couch, Robin was half turned to face her father as both sipped coffee. She had been honest with her father, as she had been with him for most of her life; only her tangled fears had ever been kept from him. “I don’t know about the future,” she was saying quietly. “Or even if there is one for Michael and me. He’s been very honest about that.”

Daniel was watching her steadily, reading the play of emotions across her expressive face. “Yes, Michael’s an honest man. And a good man. But,
Robin, he isn’t a safe man. Not a safe man to love, I mean. His life will always be dangerous.”

“I know that.” She managed a smile, and her tone was filled with wry understanding. “Don’t forget, my father’s the same kind of cop.”

That particular “cop” nodded slightly. “But is that the life you want for yourself? The kind of man you want? It’s important for you to be sure, honey, before you commit yourself. The longer you stay with him, the harder it’ll be on you both if it doesn’t work out.”

She sighed. “Everything’s happened so fast. But I haven’t had any doubts, Dad, not since I realized I loved him. And I can’t put a time limit on this, tell myself I’ll bail out if it starts to hurt too much. I don’t have a choice; I never did. I’ll stay with him as long as he wants me.”

Daniel smiled faintly, the almost bittersweet look of a man who knows his daughter is a woman grown and beyond his control. “Yeah, I thought you’d say that. In fact, I was sure you would. I saw the way you looked at him. But I had to ask. Fatherly duty, you understand.”

Robin smiled, loving him very much indeed. “You were always good at explaining whenever you said or did something for that reason. Fatherly duty. When you grounded me for a month, or took away my car keys because I’d done something wrong. Or told me I couldn’t date Andrew McKay because he was a budding juvenile delinquent, and you’d be damned if you had to get your own daughter out of jail at one in the morning. It was your fatherly duty to avoid that, you said.”

“You didn’t believe me,” he said, pained.

“Oh, I believed you. I just didn’t like it. Even cops’ daughters have to go through their rebellious teenage years. Mine were no worse than anyone else’s.” She lifted an eyebrow at her father. “Besides, four sons had spoiled you. By the time I came along, you were due to be shaken up.”

Daniel continued to look pained, but there was laughter in his green eyes. “Well, dammit, nobody warned me daughters were different. Your mother tried, but I have to admit I didn’t
know what she was talking about. It wasn’t until you started wearing eye shadow that it really hit me. And by then it was too late to lock you in a tower; I’d already taught you how to handle guns. All I could do was bite my nails and keep the front porch light on.”

Robin laughed, remembering dates bringing her home and walking her to the door under that bright yellow glare. Then, sobering, she said, “I’ve always heard that most fathers find it difficult to accept a man in their little girl’s life. I guess I never really thought about it, though.”

“It isn’t easy,” Daniel confessed wryly. “You think about fixing ponytails and tying shoelaces and putting Band-Aids on skinned knees …” His hand reached out for hers, holding it strongly. “And then you glance up one day, and see a beautiful young woman with hair spray and high heels and the odd run in her stocking. Looking at another man the way she used to look at you, trusting and adoring.”

Robin blinked back sudden tears. “So how are you handling it?”

He smiled, his own eyes bright. “The best way I can. By reminding myself that I raised you to think for yourself, to make your own decisions. And by admitting to myself that a man in the life of a beautiful young woman is inevitable. Just like death and taxes.” He laughed a little, shaking his head, then sobered abruptly. “In all honesty, honey, I couldn’t have picked a better man for you.”

She laughed shakily. “Then cross your fingers and hope I can pull it off.”

“I have faith in you.” He squeezed her hand and then released it. “You come from a long line of fighters, and not one of them ever gave up. You’ll get what you want.”

“I hope you’re right.” Her attention distracted by sounds from upstairs, she listened intently, then added, “I hear the shower; Michael’s awake.”

“Mmm.” Daniel nodded toward the coffee table, where a sheaf of papers lay. “You’d better read and sign your statement. Your father or not, I have to do most things by the book. And
then … I need to talk to Michael alone before I go.”

“So I should take a walk on the beach?” she asked dryly, sorting her statement from the others and picking it up.

“If you wouldn’t mind. Sorry, honey, but it’s business.”

Robin was reading her typed statement, and responded absently. “It’s all right, Dad. I don’t mind.” But when she had signed the statement and moved toward the French doors leading to the deck, she hesitated and looked back at him.

He could read her expressive face easily. Quietly he said, “Your relationship with Michael is your business, honey, not mine. I won’t interfere.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she said.

A few minutes later, when Michael came down the stairs wearing only a pair of jeans, Daniel met him with a calm look. “Michael, there’s coffee in the kitchen.”

“Thanks.” He glanced around. “Robin?”

“Walking on the beach. I asked her to. I wanted to talk to you alone.”

After a slight hesitation Michael nodded and went to fix himself a cup of coffee.

On the couch Daniel gazed out at the view and waited placidly.

Robin walked a good distance up the beach, uncertain of how much time her father needed. It was almost an hour later when she neared the house again, and saw her father and Michael come out onto the deck. By the time she reached the pier, her father was waiting for her there, while out in the water and tied up across from Michael’s boat, the big Coast Guard cutter started its powerful engines.

“Come with me, Robin,” Daniel urged, his eyes intent. “We have a lot of catching up to do, you and I.”

She was a little surprised by his words, and felt
vaguely uneasy. “I’ll come see you once you’ve settled into your new office, Dad.”

“I can’t persuade you to come visit now?” he asked lightly, eyes still intent.

Robin glanced toward the house, and the man standing very still and silent on the deck, watching them. Then she looked at her father. “I can’t. You know that.”

Daniel looked at her for a long minute, then sighed and hugged her tightly. “All right, dammit. I’ve told Michael I’d like you two to stick close until we get our hands on Sutton. This is as good a place as any. The girls will be well protected, and a helicopter will ferry you up to Fort Myers to see them every afternoon, if you like.”

“Isn’t that a waste of fuel?” she asked uncertainly. “We could just as easily stay in Fort Myers—”

Her father shook his head. “I’d rather it was here.” He hesitated, then shook his head and said, “Robin, Sutton hates Michael. He’s likely to come looking for him, unless we catch up to
him very quickly and put him out of action. You’d be safer if you came with me.”