“I’ve tried so hard not to let it matter.” Tam’s voice broke and Kip wanted in the worst way to hold her. “It was all a long time ago. It’s almost a dream. It’s not about who I am.”

Tam drew herself up and though tears shimmered at the corners of her eyes, they didn’t spill over. “You’re right, the women in my family must have been strong.”

“I’m sorry I asked about it, and pushed.”

“I know why you did. Those holes weren’t supposed to be there for you to see.”

The silence stretched long enough to be awkward. Kip sensed that if she offered to hold Tam, Tam would agree. But her rigid posture and faraway look weren’t asking for comfort. Kip could almost hear her thinking that she had gotten through life on her own and wasn’t about to start getting weepy on someone now.

Kip slid back down into the bed and adjusted her pillow. “Do you think you can sleep?”

214


“Even if I can’t, it’s fine.” Tam quickly turned off the light.

“The dark is restful. It’ll be okay.”

Oddly reassured by the rocking motion of the ship, Kip was glad to find herself drowsy. She was aware of Tam but she didn’t ache the way she had earlier. She felt inside Tam’s life in a way she hadn’t expected or believed in. For the first time in days, sex was not simmering right below the surface. She felt...trusted.

She woke once in the night to feel Tam snuggled against her back. She burrowed until she could hear Tam’s steady, slow breathing and went back to sleep.

215


Chapter SIXteeN

Kip stirred in the wee morning hours to find herself still in the circle of Tam’s arms. The heat of Tam’s body was not bringing out feelings of safety and comfort, however, and Kip slipped away to visit the bathroom and school herself into a professional frame of mind. Today they hoped to finally have a concrete piece of evidence in their possession that proved someone other than Tam was involved in the embezzlement. She needed her instincts at their sharpest.

She also couldn’t forget why she was here. And who she was.

The dim display of her watch said they would be docking in two hours. She knew Tam wanted to be among the first to leave.

When this was all over, when the FBI was satisfied, and any rumors quashed by the truth, SFI still wouldn’t allow for relationships between employees. Tam couldn’t enforce a rule she didn’t follow herself. So whether she was part of Tam’s life, 216


what she could have, according to the rules, was something she couldn’t live with. She didn’t want to be a mere friend. She didn’t want Christmas cards and birthday gifts and “how have you been”

a couple of times a year because they didn’t dare see each other more often.

Her image in the bathroom mirror shimmered as her eyes filled with tears. Yippee, Meena would think it hilarious. Kip Barrett had finally lost her distance and over someone she couldn’t have.

Finally feeling a little more calm, she went back to bed, not sure if she should wake Tam yet. It was moot, however. Tam stirred and pulled her close again, but it wasn’t to sleep. She trembled as they fell into a long, slow kiss, the first of several.

She should have said stop, should have rolled away, should have gone in search of an early breakfast.

She didn’t do any of those things. Instead, she let Tam pull her on top for more kisses, for caresses. She felt like a candle, her edges soft and melting and a flame burning inside. She wanted to feel Tam’s naked skin. Nothing had changed, but her heart and body were taking charge.

She was breathless and dizzy with desire when Tam finally pulled her close, hands no longer stroking her thighs and back.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was hoarse. “One bed, bad idea.”

“We start disembarkation in about ninety minutes,” Kip whispered. She desperately cast about for a reason to make her heart and body obey her.

Well, there was the truth—at least part of it.

“We have something really very extremely important to do and I would like a shower and breakfast before we disembark.”

“Know what? You’re always hungry.”

Kip wasn’t about to admit that being in lust was very tiring.

She ran her hand along the wall above the head of the bed until she found the light switch.

Tam flung a hand over her eyes. “Warning next time?”

“Sorry.” Kip had thought that Tam’s revelations would show, but she still looked like Tam. A little puffy around her eyes, but 217


the same face, same brow, same mouth...

Tam peered at her through her fingers. “You have no right to look like that.”

“Like what?”

“Edible.”

“Oh.” Kip flushed.

Tam moved her hand from her eyes, blinking at Kip. “And I know that was a good line and I ought to go back to kissing you, but...”

“But you know it’s not a good idea.”

“No,” Tam said seriously. “You’re on my bladder.”

Kip found herself tumbled unceremoniously to one side and she was left laughing into the pillows. When Tam emerged, she said, “Keep your distance.”

“You wound me.” Tam gave her a slow, open smile that dazzled Kip’s eyes. Clearly, some care had washed away.

“That’s what I mean. Stop that.” Kip pulled her knees up to her chest, hoping to look a little less edible even though just about all of her was tingling at the compliment. “We do need to see to that really very extremely important something, and now isn’t the time to forget all that.”

“I know,” Tam said. She leaned against the tiny vanity, her legs crossed at the ankles.

Kip was deciding how long it would take to kiss her way up those legs when Tam coughed. She felt herself blush again.

“Breakfast.”

“And showers.” Tam didn’t move.

“Don’t make me be the one who has to find all the willpower.”

She shifted into action at that. “You’re right. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.”

“Nothing’s wrong. Why don’t I shower?” Kip scrabbled under the bed for her suitcase, not sure what the professional woman wore in Nassau. Whatever it was, she didn’t have it. The suit she’d been wearing when they’d left Seattle was a wool blend.

She’d last two minutes.

Obsessing about her clothes was better than thinking how 218


she’d measure Tam’s inner thigh with her tongue. She discovered, too, that a cold shower was the biggest old wives’ tale ever. It made not one bit of difference.

Tam had never arrived in Nassau by ship, and she found it far more pleasant than by air. The cruise lines had taken great care to make the dock area welcoming, and the moment they stepped from the gangplank to the shore the smell of the island filled her head. Music from the not-too-distant straw market drifted on the wind toward them. The sun was hot and it felt wonderful on her face. Buildings and awnings in sharp white stood out against the blue skies and green, mounded hills.

Kip in dark glasses, a crisp short sleeve button-up shirt and cargo shorts was easy on the eyes. Tam also recognized Kip’s natural tendency to draw herself up to an almost regal stance when she was working. In spite of her height, her bearing and the impenetrable sunglasses were more than a little intimidating.

“We walk through the market and then we’ll find Robert Manna. If he hasn’t changed his habits, he’s having coffee at a local place near his bank. There won’t really be any place for him to hole up and call security. If he’s uncooperative, we can bring in the higher-ups at the bank, hopefully before he has a chance to get to the paperwork first.”

“Got it.”

She was so adorable, so... Tam made herself stop thinking about Kip that way. Not right now, she told herself. Right now she had to think of Kip as the kick-ass investigator she’d hired to get to the bottom of theft at SFI.

She led the way through the cacophonous, crowded pier market and onto Bay Street. They passed kitschy T-shirt shops and then more refined jewelry emporiums, interspersed with banks from all over the world. Like the rest, the Bank of Zurich’s doors were still shuttered. After several blocks of ducking around shoppers, they turned onto a quieter, less traveled side street.

The Balcony House Cafe was a few steps up uneven rock stairs. The entry was crowded with bougainvillea which had 219


attracted its share of bees, and Tam guided Kip around them. In the U.S. the stairs would have been leveled, the plants trimmed back and the bees exterminated. But here such things were regarded as part of the atmosphere, and anyone who couldn’t cope was welcome to leave paradise for a sanitized city any time they liked.

There were times, like now, when island life definitely appealed to her.

The cafe’s dining room had a distinct tilt, and she spotted Robert Manna almost immediately, ensconced in a sunny corner, tea brewing in front of him as he scanned the morning paper. At first glance, he was the picture of a European expatriate, snow white hair, a thin mustache, meticulous white tailored slacks and shirt. His figure was more trim than most. She knew that he was well over six feet, though the last time she’d seen him he’d adopted a silver-tipped cane to give him “a spot of steadiness for the old knees.” She called up what she could remember about him. Had served in the Swiss Army, was married with children and grandchildren. Had served the bank all over Europe until settling here, where he had declared he intended to end his days, even if he was frustrated by the illegalities that were commonplace. That he had helped their embezzler didn’t fit his profile, but given the temptations that crossed his desk every week, maybe it wasn’t a surprise that he had finally succumbed.