His eyes glittered with humor. “For the record, it was just one item, and it wasn’t hers to begin with. She has done exactly what I tried to do—taken it from someone else.”

“Oh, is that the story now?”

“It’s the truth.” He slid a look at Gabriel, who was chatting with May and Mrs. P, then suddenly grasped my wrist and left the deck, taking me with him.

“Hey!” I protested, digging in my heels when we got to the top of the stairs that led to lower decks. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“We need to have a talk. A private talk. My cabin is on the floor below us.”

“I can’t leave Mrs. P alone. The underwear models—not that I even know if I can trust them—they’re down in the cabin, and she’s all alone. Someone will try to hurt her. Or steal her jewelry.” I put a lot of emphasis on the last sentence, but he seemed to ignore it.

“Gabriel and May will stick with her.”

“That’s just what I’m worried about,” I said, snatching my hand out of his. “Someone trashed our room, and who’s to say it wasn’t them?”

“I highly doubt if it was.”

“But you don’t know for certain.”

“No,” he said slowly. “But I trust them. They may not seem like people who have our own interest at heart, but I don’t believe they will betray our trust.”

The implication was obvious—he had trust where I had none.

“Are they the ones who are blackmailing you?” I asked, wanting to comfort him, and seduce him, and yell at him, all at the same time.

“No. Not them directly. It’s really all of the dragons collectively who are forcing my hand.”

He looked miserable, utterly miserable, and my heart begged me to wrap my arms around him and keep the world from him.

“Isn’t there any other way around whatever’s going on?” I asked, fighting my need to fling myself onto him. “Some way that doesn’t involve stealing?”

“Trust me when I say that if there was any way on this earth I could avoid the situation, I would do so. But my hands are tied. And I’ve been assured that it’s a necessary act, one needed to save not just dragonkin, but mortals, as well.”

My reservations crumbled under the stark anguish in his face and voice. I threw caution to the wind, knowing I might be making the biggest mistake of my life, but believing every word Rowan spoke despite it all. I threw myself against him, kissing every bit of his face that I could reach. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I blamed you when you’re just a victim of—”

He stopped me talking then, but only because his tongue was busy persuading mine to go visiting in his mouth. It obliged, and we remained locked in a steamy kiss until a passing waiter coughed discreetly before edging past us.

“Wow,” I said, gazing up at him, my mind trying desperately to get a grip on itself.

His eyes widened, then a little smile flirted with his lips. “You’re on fire.”

“I know I am. I told you that you’re a heck of a kisser.”

“No, I meant literally.”

I looked down at where he pointed. A small ring of fire encircled my feet. “Eek! Where did that come from?”

“You.” He gave me a heated look that made me want to rip off all his clothes and cover him in something lickable, like chocolate. “You are a mate, remember?”

“Kick-ass mate,” I corrected automatically, wondering how much chocolate the ship had on board.

“That goes without saying.”

“I still can’t get over this whole making fire thing.” I gazed up at him, and wondered how I could broach the subject of sexy times in the near future.

Rowan made a face, then admitted, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to last until later.” His voice was husky in a way that made me shiver with desire just hearing it. “I don’t suppose you would like to—”

“Yes,” I said, taking his hand and starting down the stairs. “Right now. Sooner, in fact.”

He chuckled as he trotted behind me. “I’m glad to know you are just as impatient as I am. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you—oomph.”

He bumped into me when a sudden, horrible thought made me stop midway down the stairs. I turned to face him, a horrible suspicion in mind. “Just one minute. You may trust May and Gabriel, but I don’t, and I’m the one who was hired to help out Mrs. P. Although she may be a bit scatty and frustrating as sin sometimes, she’s still a pretty nice old lady, and she did let me come on this cruise when she didn’t have to, so I’m going to do my job the very best I can.”

“She’s told you more than once that she expects you—us—to protect her. I wouldn’t be assigning to her quite so many altruistic motives as you seem to be wont.”

“You’re trying to distract me—”

He lifted his hand as if he was taking an oath. “I have no ulterior motives in getting you into my bed other than licking every square inch of you. Twice.”

Goose bumps rippled down my back at both the look in his eyes and mental image of his words. But I had to think of Mrs. P, so I pushed aside my own need. I brushed past him retracing my steps to the top deck. “That doesn’t mean I trust those two stalkers up there.”

“They aren’t stalkers. Gabriel and May are here to protect Mrs. P,” Rowan argued.

“So they say, but do you know for certain?”

“I know they are not trying to harm anyone, yes.” I reached the top of the stairs and turned to go out on the open part of the deck when Rowan scooped an arm behind me, and hefted me over his shoulder, one hand holding onto my legs as he descended to the floor below.

“What the hell?” I squawked, and slapped him on the back a couple of times before I realized that my boobs were perilously close to falling out of the Xena bodice. “Eek! Put me down! This costume wasn’t meant to defy gravity in this manner.”

“We’re almost there. You’ll be fine,” he said, and when I struggled to push myself off him, grabbed my legs with his free hand.

It was as is if I’d been touched by fire. Warmth swept up my legs, pooling in secretive parts of me, parts that wanted Rowan to revisit their depths. My breasts, nearly bursting free from their upside-down confines, were sensitized and heavy, the nipples rubbing on the soft interior of the corset cups making little shivers flicker down my arms. When the thought of Rowan’s hands and mouth on my breasts flashed into my mind, it was all I could do to keep from whimpering.