“I didn’t know you then,” she said a little weakly.
“You do not know me now,” he said tightly.
A shaft of fear stabbed through her. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, if you are so determined to reveal your presence, I see no reason to risk my freedom, and perhaps my life, to preserve yours. I could turn you in now and claim that I found you hiding in the ship.”
He was angry and, she thought with a touch of surprise, it was as much because he was hurt as from sheer sexual frustration. He’d said that he wanted her—that was why he’d taken the risk of protecting her—but all that she’d done from the moment they’d met was to throw his origins in his face.
She couldn’t reason with him, though. She’d done a hell of a good job convincing him that she held him in contempt, couldn’t see him as anything but a cyborg. He wasn’t going to listen to any attempt to explain that she really didn’t feel that way, probably never had.
She couldn’t resist the temptation to try, though.
“I wasn’t trying to get caught and I wasn’t trying to seduce you to hurt you. I … wanted you.”
Something flickered in his eyes, but vanished so quickly she might only have imagined it. “Unfortunately, as much as I would like to accommodate your needs, I do not trust you.”
Amaryllis was still staring at him in shocked dismay when he left the cabin, locking the door behind him.
When he’d gone, she moved to the bunk and sank down on it weakly, too distressed, at first, to think about much beyond her humiliating rejection.
He didn’t come back. Days passed with no sign of him at all.
She finally realized that Dante had taken a page from her book. He returned to the cabin when he knew she would be sleeping to get the things he needed.
She spent the first few days jumping at every sound, expecting a contingent of guards to arrive and seize her. She couldn’t maintain that sort of fear, however, and finally decided that the threat had been an idle one.
Maybe, if she did as she’d been told, he wouldn’t turn her in.
Or maybe it was some sort of punishment he’d devised? Maybe he just wanted her to agonize over when she’d be taken?
Chapter Eight
Amaryllis had combed every square inch of the cabin she shared with Dante and even ventured into the other cabins that adjoined his in search of a weapon or anything that could be used as a weapon. She’d come up empty handed. Either the cyborgs simply weren’t taking any chances of a weapon falling into the hands of the hunters, their leader didn’t altogether trust his men, or the ship had been a prisoner hauler when they’d taken it and had already been stripped of anything even resembling a weapon.
With no weapon, she wasn’t going to be able to put up much resistance when/if they came for her. In truth, just how much difference would it make?
She wanted to live, but what were the chances of it?
Would it be best to fight to the death and take as many with her as she could, comforting herself with the thought that her life had cost them? Or would that only insure her death when they might have no intention of taking her life otherwise?
She still hadn’t decided what she would do when she heard the sound she’d been dreading; footsteps in the corridor that halted outside Dante’s cabin door; the musical notes that signaled the code being keyed into the lock.
She never consciously decided what she would do. Her training simply kicked in and she acted.
She realized even as she launched herself at him that it was Dante. Doubt went through her like an electric current, distracting her, but he was on duty. He’d never come to the cabin during his watch and he should not be here now … unless, as he’d threatened, he meant to turn her in.
The moment of doubt, the slight hesitancy, cost her.
He blocked the flying kick aimed at his head, sending her spinning out of control. Her momentum slammed her against the bulkhead. Before she could thrust herself away and launch another attack, he slammed against her, pinning her against the cold steel.
“’Ware! Else all will know you are here!” he growled next to her ear.
Gritting her teeth, Amaryllis struggled to push herself away from the wall. He caught her shoulders, turning her to face him and pinning her back to the wall.
“It is I, Dante!”
Amaryllis stared up at him warily. “Why are you here … now, if you didn’t come to turn me in?”
