He gazed down at her, and emotion swelled within him. The instinct he had trusted throughout his life now told him, regardless of circumstances, that Sabrina would never engage in anything against the law.
Sabrina stretched, a languid, luxurious indulgence. A smile of satisfaction creased her lips before her eyes fluttered open. The morning sun poured into the cabin, gilding everyday objects with a touch of gold, a hint of magic.
She sat up and glanced at the place beside her on the berth. The imprint of Nicholas’s warm, wondrous body remained, but he was gone. His absence did not alarm her. Nothing could diminish the euphoria of yesterday afternoon and last night.
The door to the cabin swung open and Nicholas filled the doorway, holding a steaming mug of coffee in each hand.
Her gaze lingered on his strong, bronzed hands, and the pit of her stomach tingled at the knowledge of the pleasure they produced.
“Good morning.” He grinned and strode into the room.
“Good morning.” Her gaze met his and fell. She clutched the bedclothes to her naked breasts, abruptly shy in his presence.
He sat on the edge of the bed and offered her a mug. “I understand you prefer coffee to tea.”
She nodded and accepted the drink. “Thank you.”
Sabrina drew a deep swallow of the bitter brew, and her gaze returned to his over the rim of the cup. Amusement glittered in the depths of his black eyes. She held the coverlet clasped to her in one hand, the mug in the other.
His gaze traveled over her, approving and seductive. Heat rose in her face. “I daresay I should dress.”
“Why? I find your attire, or lack of it, most charming.” He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. A tremor of excitement shivered through her. “Perhaps I should join you.”
She stared at the desire that replaced the humor in his eyes. Her discomfort vanished at his look. Arousal curled deep inside. She was more than ready to invite him back beneath the covers.
“So, I gather there has finally been a consummation of this so-called marriage of convenience.”
The intrusive voice rudely jerked their attention away from each other. Matt stood in the open doorway, signs of his fight with Nicholas faint but still evident on his roguish face.
“What do you want, Madison?” A growl underlaid Nicholas’s words.
“What do I want?” Madison strolled into the cabin, pulled a chair to the side of the berth and settled into it. “Well, let me see. I have always wanted Bree.”
“Matt.” Sabrina shot him an impatient glare. “You have not. You’re simply saying that to cause trouble. It will not work.”
Matt rolled his eyes heavenward in the attitude of a rejected suitor. “You wound me, Bree.”
Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “Once again, Madison, what do you want?”
Matt glanced pointedly at Sabrina. She pulled the shield of bedclothes tighter to her chest. “Obviously she has made her choice.”
“There was not a choice to be made,” she said.
Matt ignored her interruption. “But we’re still partners, aren’t we?”
Sabrina shot a quick glance at Nicholas and sighed. “Of course we are. Nothing has changed.”
“Nothing?” Matt raised a brow.
“Nothing,” Sabrina said firmly.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say nothing.” Nicholas displayed a satisfied grin.
Sabrina directed him a quelling glance. “Nothing regarding our partnership. Matt, we’re still in this together.”
“What about him? What about your husband? What part does he play in all of this?”
Nicholas’s gaze caught her own. “Yes, my dear, what about your husband?”
Sabrina looked from one man to the other and back. When she’d started this venture there had been no husband to worry about; she and Matt would share in the treasure. Now, however, there was Nicholas to consider. Somehow, she doubted he’d leap wholeheartedly into her adventure. On the other hand, she didn’t seem to have a great many options to choose from in the matter, and there was more than enough gold to go around.
She drew a deep breath. “Nicholas, naturally, will also be a partner.”
A flicker of disappointment flashed in his eyes, but Matt shrugged, as if he had anticipated her answer. Nicholas’s grin widened; he was so smug, she thought surely it would rekindle the antagonism between the two men. Perhaps a partnership would ease their distaste for each other. Or, more likely, they’d simply kill one another. And if Nicholas ever learned the truth about the nefarious past she and Matt shared...
“All right.” Matt displayed a nonchalant expression. “But if you’re going to let the damnable man be part of this, he should know it all. You’d better tell him what he’s letting himself in for.”
“Yes, my love, I’d say it’s past time you told me what this voyage is all about.”
“Very well.” Sabrina handed her mug to Nicholas, settled back against the pillows and surveyed the men before her. She’d anticipated and dreaded this moment since they’d boarded the ship. For all his scandalous ways with women, Nicholas was well known as a high stickler. He was not one to flaunt rules and violate regulations, and definitely not the kind of man to run off willy-nilly searching for lost treasure. He never could have carved out the reputation he had in government circles otherwise.
She drew a deep breath. “Years ago, my husband, Jack—”
“Your first husband,” Nicholas said. An undefinable expression briefly shadowed his features.
Sabrina tipped her head in acknowledgment. “Yes, of course, my first husband. Jack was quite a gambler. He loved games of chance in whatever form. You knew it was a foolish wager that cost his life?”
Nicholas nodded.
“It seems that during a fairly typical card game he won a rather unusual letter. The letter detailed directions for finding gold lost in Egypt twenty years ago. The gold was supposed to go to Napoleon to finance his Egyptian campaign. Instead, the ship carrying the treasure sank and the gold was hidden.” She shrugged.
“The gold was never found. From what I’ve been told, when Jack won the letter everyone around the table took it as something of a joke. On him. The other players laughed that he had won a good story but an essentially worthless piece of paper. Jack apparently went along with the jest, but he must have taken it seriously. He hid the letter where only I could find it. Recently I did.” She paused to gauge his reaction. “And that’s why we’re here.”
Sabrina eyed Nicholas intently. Throughout her explanation, his expression had remained impassive; neither excitement nor disdain crossed his face. He could easily call off this entire escapade. As her husband, he had that right. Was she still willing to defy his wishes? She hoped he would abide by the condition of their marriage to share, or at least support, her business ventures. Still, they had already broken one term of their marriage agreement; would he hesitate to break another? She clutched the coverlet, absently twisting the bedclothes.
“Where is this letter?” Nicholas asked finally. His voice betrayed nothing. Sabrina could not read his thoughts, and apprehension thudded in her chest.
“I’ll get it.” She swung a naked leg from beneath the bedclothes.
Nicholas glared. “Sabrina!”
Matt smirked. “Bree.”
She cast them both an impatient glare, frustration with the situation sharpening her words more than was necessary. “For God’s sake, I was not about to leap out of bed naked. Nicholas, please give me some credit for intelligence. And, Matt, I have not given you a glimpse of anything up to this point and I am not about to start now. Honestly, sometimes men can be the stupidest creatures.”
She deftly wrapped herself in the coverlet without revealing so much as a flash of bare skin and rose to her feet. An appreciative grin stretched across Matt’s face. Nicholas’s dark brows pulled together in a disgruntled and possessive manner.
Sabrina dismissed the thought that she surely resembled an Egyptian mummy in her wrapping, toddled across the room and flipped open her portmanteau. She pawed through the clothes inside and found the yellowed, aged sheet of velum. Crossing to Nicholas, she silently offered him the letter.
His reserved gaze swept over her from head to foot. “Don’t you think this discussion would be best continued if you were dressed?”
She refused to allow his disapproving scowl to intimidate her and stood her ground. “Perhaps. But my attire does not seem to be entirely pertinent to the issue at hand. Does it?”
“Nevertheless—”
Matt groaned in obvious irritation. “Just read the damned letter so we can get on with this.”
Nicholas shot him a disgusted glare and accepted the page from her outstretched hand. Sabrina secured the bedclothes more tightly around her and perched on the edge of the berth.
Long moments crept by. Sabrina studied her husband. Anxiety gripped her heart and swirled in her stomach. Once again his face was expressionless, giving no sign, no hint of his thoughts, his reactions. She glanced at Matt. He cocked an eyebrow, as if mildly curious but essentially unconcerned as to Nicholas’s opinion.
She could bear the waiting no longer. Nicholas raised his gaze to hers. Her breath caught in her throat.
His voice was cool. “This is without a doubt the most ridiculous missive I have ever encountered.”
Sabrina’s heart plunged. “What?”
Matt leapt to his feet and snatched the letter from Nicholas’s hand. “I knew it. I knew this would be his reaction. Look at him, Bree—he doesn’t have an adventurous or imaginative bone in his entire stuffy, starched body. Besides, it takes a fair amount of courage to do something like this. He just doesn’t have it.”
Nicholas rose, anger coloring his face. “I do not take kindly to this type of verbal abuse from anyone, let alone a disreputable, ill-mannered American who confuses courage with stupidity.”
“Jack Winfield would have done it.” Matt’s taunting words snapped like a bolt across the room.
Nicholas clenched his teeth, the muscle in his jaw taut, and fairly spit the words at Matt. “I am not Jack Winfield and I have no desire to be.”
The two shot icy glares at each other. Sabrina stumbled to her feet and staggered to stand between the men, hindered greatly by the coverlet wrapped around her.
“Haven’t you both had enough of this bickering? You’ve nothing to show for the last time you came to blows except aches and pains suffered at the hands of the other. I will not have you at one another’s throats again.”
She turned to Matt and cast him a sharp glare. “Nicholas is my husband, whether you like the idea or not. I owe him certain loyalties and considerations. I will not allow you to bait and berate him this way.”
She swiveled to face her husband. “And as for you ...” Nicholas raised a haughty brow. “Matt has been a good, true friend to me for more years than I care to count. He helped me when I needed assistance and he is willing to help me now.
“Under the terms of our marriage you agreed to be equal partners in any business venture in which I am engaged. When we reached our agreement you asked what type of business ventures.” She drew a deep breath. “This pursuit is what I referred to.”
Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “And if I refuse to join you? Or refuse to allow you to continue this ridiculous undertaking? What then?”
Sabrina pulled her gaze from his. Emotions and consequences and fate all jumbled through her mind. She stared at a spot on the floor. A small, discolored blotch. It burned itself into her mind. How odd that, at the moment she would decide her entire life, a tiny mark on the floor should forever imprint itself on her memory.
She lifted her chin and drew up her gaze to meet his. His eyes burned with an intensity that seemed to pierce her soul. Fear, tight and aching, gripped her. Had she found the man she’d searched for her entire life only to lose him now? Could she make him understand that her search for the gold had grown beyond a mere desire to acquire funds? That it now was a quest to return to her the joy and excitement of a life she’d abandoned years ago. A quest she could not give up. Her throat tightened, and she realized she had made her choice long before now.
“I would prefer that you join us. Your participation has become quite important to me. However, if you refuse ...” She squared her shoulders and paused, gathering her courage. There would be no turning back. “I shall go on regardless. With you or without you.”
Emotion smoldered in Nicholas’s dark eyes, but his words were controlled. “Do you have any idea how dangerous Egypt is these days? The country is overrun with cutthroats and rabble seeking treasure far more ancient than yours. But to a man they would slit your lovely neck at the slightest hint of French gold.”
“I am prepared to take that risk,” she said quietly.
“Well, I am not prepared to put you at risk.” He ran an impatient hand through his dark hair. “You would continue this foolishness even if I forbid it? You realize your actions, your blatant disregard for my wishes, would destroy any future we have together?”
Tears stung the back of her eyes, but she refused to let them show. She could not keep him at the cost of her soul. “I do.”
Nicholas turned and strode toward the door. Sabrina’s heart stilled, and anguish washed over her. He stopped, one hand poised to grab the knob. “Bloody hell.”
Nicholas pivoted to face her. A resigned sigh escaped his lips. “Very well. I shall be a part of this ill-suited venture, if only to keep you alive.”
Sabrina had steeled herself to accept his refusal, and it took a moment for his agreement to register. Jubilation replaced dejection. She threw herself across the room and into his arms in a flurry of bedclothes and the accompanying musky scent of lovemaking.
“Nicholas!” She laughed with sheer joy and he favored her with a rueful grin.
“I do not believe in this treasure hunt of yours. I have every confidence it will not succeed. However...” He gazed in her eyes and she caught her breath, not daring to believe the passion revealed there.
“It seems traveling halfway around the world is not too great a price to pay to keep you by my side. And if it takes a futile and hazardous search for a treasure that very likely does not exist to make you happy, I imagine I shall simply have to equip myself with a spade, a compass and a dagger.”